Escaping Kiana's grasp took a lot of strength… mentally. Every time I declared our dual cultivation session to be over, she would come up with something seductive—something that would drag me back to the bed. My stay got extended to seven more days because of that.
Fortunately, Kiana knows when things get serious. She didn't hold me back by then. Upon leaving her residence, the first thing I did was to conduct a divination. I am fully aware of the Sea of Suffering's effects. My future projection subjected everyone to it purely to raise our Tao Hearts to the eighth-level.
Because of Kiana's imaginary barrier, we did not have to face as much danger. There are no threats of Aeons' full strength descending onto the real world. The best they could do is send THEIR gaze down, leaving behind a fraction of their strength. The realm difference means nothing to us Void Refinement Realm cultivators. We could briefly call forth the power of the Dao Integration Realm through forbidden techniques. THEIR winning conditions could not be met at all.
The lack of 'challenges' led to a 'peaceful' era. Compared to those who fought against the honkai more than 500 years ago, the people now placed their full attention to raising their cultivation realm.
Cultivating is an inherent process that defies the heavens, and in turn, one's destiny. They must race against time to attain breakthroughs one after another… and most didn't want to die without struggling.
In the end, this trend resulted in more people forsaking combat arts in exchange for life arts—talismans, alchemy, divination, forging, and so on. Despite our generation having the experience of fighting the Honkai, it is inevitable it would affect us one way or another. The slow and gradual build-up led to greater difficulties in breaking through to the eighth-level.
Just like the prior realms, having one's Tao Heart a major realm above oneself clears most of the danger in the breakthrough. In our case, it is the Heart Demon Tribulation we need to face at the Dao Integration Realm breakthrough. Aside from it, only extremely rare medicinal pills could negate its influence. So far as now, the set of materials needed to concoct it isn't completed yet.
My future projection's extreme measures yielded results, and at the same time, troubles.
Those who could pass it through would receive sweet fruits; those who don't would be left to swallow the bitter fruit core.
I don't want anyone to suffer such an experience.
Divination came into play. Using the principles of I-ching, I determined the people who are plagued by heart demons—
Fu Hua, Rita, Durandal, Vita, and Leylah.
The five of them suffered the most out of it. The rest had broken through to the eighth-level. However, some of them possessed an unstable Tao Heart. They barely made it through. They need to consolidate it immediately, lest they face the backlash and have their Tao Heart regress to the seventh-level. Not only that, they would suffer a lot of injuries as well.
Worst of all…
Their plights are related to me.
I could only sigh helplessly at my future projection. The emotions he conveyed through the Sea of Suffering hasn't left my mind at all. I understood what they felt the most… for he is also me. I understood his thought process very well.
If I had truly lost everyone, I would go crazy too. My future projection clearly hasn't fallen into madness completely. It is the aspect I admired the most.
He is stronger than I thought.
What comes next is to help others in their problems—especially when it is all centered to me. Another divination revealed that the most problematic of them all was Leylah. I didn't think twice and flew straight to Mars… until I felt that tinge of danger.
A round of divination revealed the hidden danger buried at the depths of Mars, bringing me to the chilling discovery now. All sorts of possibilities flashed in my mind. For once, why haven't I noticed it? I prided myself in my keen sense of danger. Even when I had forgotten IX's influence on me, my subconscious kept telling me it was dangerous. More so now that I am at the Void Refinement Realm. Star Lords are notoriously difficult to kill as their statuses attach them onto the Daos they have comprehended. They could utilize a certain concept along with their "existence" in this world to stage a resurrection. Only a higher-leveled status could directly deal with them. Otherwise, one needs to whittle down their opponents, erasing their "existence" as time passes by.
This is yet another disadvantage with choosing the path of severance to become a karma-less entity. One loses the anchor that firmly binds them. They reduce the possibility of being attacked through their relatives, but it removes the greatest advantage Void Refinement Realm possesses.
At this point, I am confident not to get killed off. It is difficult to make me suffer a loss. Only an Aeon could do such a thing—and their full power, at that.
Yet…
Mars gave me the feeling of extreme danger.
Recalling the readings from earlier, I began to delve deeper into it. Abysmal Water meant being drowned by the flow of water. Going against something would overwhelm oneself, in turn placing them in grave danger. The other was Oppression. Something is being kept behind bars. Doing so harms one greatly.
I could understand where the latter came from.
Leylah.
From the moment we met up to now, she didn't interact much with others. Wendy is already an extreme case, yet Leylah topped her. Nothing much is known about Leylah up to now, save for the bits of in-game knowledge I gleaned in the past. Part 2 isn't exactly something that interested me. I didn't play much of it.
The only thing I knew was that Senadina took on the role of Kiana on Mars… and she failed. As a last resort, the new Goddess of Mars, Leylah, executed the final protocol and turned everyone into data lifeforms. They are then placed inside the Mars Supercomputer, living on as another entity. It is the equivalent of Kevin successfully pulling off Project STIGMA.
Mars…
The more I thought about it, the greater the sense of danger grew. This thing remained hidden up to now, fooling our senses. Compared to the hidden dangers we pulled out earlier—the Aeons—it felt more dangerous. It felt as if it was targeting us… or rather, me.
Unfortunately for it, I refuse to dance in its rhythm.
Why come alone when I can ask others for help?