Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"Woah!" Yan Zaizen enthusiastically exclaimed. His eyes were suffused with child-like astonishment and curiosity as he entered the true borders of the Deluge Realm.

It wasn’t just him, Bai Lufeng and Tao had similar looks of amazement. The moment they entered the realm, it was like diving into the ocean. There was a faint blue layer that separated the Deluge Realm and Border Expanse. As they entered, their originally dim and dark lighting turned exceptionally bright and blue.

Yan Zaizen waved his hand in the air and felt a slight resistance. The moisture in the air was really, really dense. It was like the outer space of this realm was frozen rain. Instantly, Yan Zaizen and the others were wet from head to toe as if they were underwater.

"...That’s?!" Yan Zaizen’s amazement led him to look towards the sun of this world. It was big. Very big. And blue. Very blue.

The flames that were originally orange-red in the Xiantu Realm was blue-green. It looked like an oceanic world on fire. Looking closely, he felt like he could see through the sun itself.

"Aqua Solar Fire?!" Tao had read about it but seeing it left him breathless. Aqua Solar Fire was similar to Yang Solar Fire, or the fire that originated from the sun. This fire could even be comprehended and was exceptionally powerful amongst fire concepts.

Similar to the Yang Solar Fire, Aqua Solar Fire originates from a sun and emits light, warmth, and radiates profound energy levels. However, unlike Yang Solar Fire, it emits aquamarine light that colors the entire realm and releases dense moisture. Not just heat, but it actually radiates moisture throughout the realm.

The feeling of being instantly wet and being drenched in water almost immediately was similar to how, if a normal sun was present, a person would instantly feel heat and warmth.

Yan Zaizen truly felt that the world was filled with infinite possibilities.

"Look!" Bai Lufeng dashed towards the railings and pointed at the six planets that orbited the sun. Their orbit was odd and it had one peculiarity that made it even more abnormal. There was a large, very large singular moon within the realm. This moon rotated around each planet in a cycle, as if it didn’t have a set orbit.

The planets themselves were water. Simply water. They were all bluer than the bluest of blues. The realm had water worlds as planets. From what he could see, there wasn’t a single trace of land on their surfaces.

"The Deluge Realm is known for their planets and vicious floods that add layers upon layers of additional water to their planets each year. It’s said, at a specific cycle, the moon and sun correlates in a way that it gathers moisture in a Lunar Eclipse. After the cycle passes, the world is washed anew with a grand flood of the entire realm. If a solar eclipse happens, the flood gets so bad that the nearby Border Expanse floods as well for millions of li." Tao said in wonder. The Deluge Realm was truly a piece of excellently crafted work beneath the heavens.

Yan Zaizen recalled the Gunyu Race. From what he understood, the Xiantu Realm’s human race was called Lycah. They were rather weak, ordinary, and didn’t have any special features at birth. They had odd bloodlines intermixed with a vast quantity of other races. In truth, Lycah was a derogatory term which meant ’basic’. At least in the universal language, it sounded similar.

Despite this, they were known as a humanoid race with vast potential in terms of adding other bloodlines and developing. They were also the most common humanoid race in the Rebirth Era. Supposedly, the ruler of this era was a Lycah.

Gunyu, however, were a race of people with gills that weren’t gills and lungs that weren’t lungs. They could breathe air, water, and essence. As for Lycah, if they didn’t have a high cultivation base or water-based art, they can drown and suffocate. Despite their adaptability, they still can’t live in the Border Expanse without their essence. Like all other races, they’ll die.

"From what I read, Lycah, Gunyu, and beasts suitable for water are the main population of the world," Tao informed, playing around with the dense water in the air to form characters. Bai Lufeng and Yan Zaizen were doing the same. It seemed they were even having a competition as to who can write their names more quickly.

Yan Zaizen won.

"Lycah? Could they even survive in this environment?" Yan Zaizen commented. Currently, his physique allowed him to exist even in chaotic space without air so living here wouldn’t be an issue, but that’s because his body was no longer a Lycah but a Herculean.

"It seems there’s a qi-art that’s pretty common that allows even Qi Foundation cultivators to extract air from the water." Tao didn’t need air to breathe. The moment he underwent Qi Unification evolution, his body could survive in any environment with simply qi-essence alone.

"Six planets..." Bai Lufeng muttered, they had different sizes but looked the same blue color. If it wasn’t for the fact they had different sizes, he wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. "Where do we go?"

Yan Zaizen’s ears perked when he heard that. A smile crossed his face. "When I soul searched that Gunyu Heavenly Genesis pirate, I gained some information. The Deluge is holding an auction!" His voice contained some excitement. Mostly because he can sell the heavenly altar.

"Hm?" Yan Zaizen placed his hand in front of his face and his eyes flickered. As if in a trance, he muttered, "...To contain light, warmth, moisture, and energy. Bestow this to the world, echo out a living breath."

Suddenly, his hand shone with an aquamarine. Tao and Bai Lufeng were shocked, their gazes focused in on Yan Zaizen’s glowing palm.

Boom!

The water in the surroundings gathered, merged with his true-essence, and formulated a mini-sized Aqua Solar Sphere. Emanating warmth, moisture, blue light, and bursting energy, it stayed perfectly formed in his palm.

"!"

"!"

They both were shocked as they eyed the miniaturized sun. As if to compare, they looked at the blue sun in the distance and back. With each time they did, the shock in their eyes grew.

Yan Zaizen exited his daze and saw the sun. He felt a little bitter. Not because he just comprehended a water-based concept, but he did so unwillingly. There wasn’t even a Heavenly Domain where he could investigate the laws. It was...

"Sudden Inspiration?" Tao said with wonder. Typically, the event would happen from time to time. One moment, you are walking down the street, the next, you conceive an idea worth billions. However, in the cultivation world, it generally indicated an advance in understanding arts or laws.

"Yeah. Haha." Yan Zaizen awkwardly chuckled. He waved his palm, dispersing the miniature aqua sun. He could feel his understanding of the concept Aqua Solar Sphere increase with each passing second in the Deluge Realm. However, he was shocked that he didn’t comprehend Aqua Solar Fire. If he did, it could burn energy to produce moisture and water like the Unyielding Flame of Life.

"The gifts of a Non-Entity..." Pinaka softly commented. She felt bad for all others in the world. Yan Zaizen will likely have many, many more of those moments while others could only dream of them.

Ignoring Pinaka, Yan Zaizen picked out the planet the auction will be held in and drove down. Tao and Bai Lufeng were lamenting over how talented Yan Zaizen was in comparison to themselves.

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[Author’s Update]: Apologies for the two-day no releases. Something urgent suddenly came up, so there will be changes for this week. Firstly, the eight chapters unreleased from two days will be released as bonuses in the latter portion of July. I won’t let these chapters owed float away in the ether.

Chapter Release Rate will undergo a TEMPORARY change. This week will be a 7/week(1/day), instead of 16/week. I’ll release an update regarding this schedule change on Sunday(15th) of this week. I’m hoping to return back to 16/week at the earliest, if possible, even before next week. However, I won’t make any hasty promises.

Patreon will be updated, in full, from 5, 15, and 18 Chapters(Depending on Tier) today at or around 1 PM PST. I made a promise to you guys, and I won’t, under any circumstance, fail you for wanting to support me in life and this novel beyond comments, reviews, and power stones. For those who can’t, don’t be disheartened, I love you guys as well!

Thank you all for participating in the contest giveaway, for all those who did participate, you made me laugh, smile, sometimes frown a little. I enjoyed many, a few a little odd, but all creative, nevertheless. I’ll announce winners tomorrow and send rewards later today. To the winners, enjoy your Spirit Stones!

In the past three months since we started, this has been the first incident of missed releases, non-releases, and the second abrupt change in schedule rate. I do not, I repeat, I do not intend to make this a habit and I wish I didn’t have to take such action. I love you guys, I love writing, and I love this novel as much as all of you, maybe even more! (Don’t hang me for that). So, this feels horrible and even heartbreaking, but be assured! Unless I make my way to an early grave, this novel will be completed.