Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

What shocked him further was that an old man pulsated an aura at the peak-True Essence Realm. This old man, as well as the rest, were hidden underground. The other group brought themselves to an empty field with an incapacitated young woman in tow. They brought out an odd stone that emanated dense earth energy.

Suddenly, the earth opened up, and they fell inside. A few seconds later, the ground snapped shut and returned to normal. It was a very odd scene, as if time was reversed.

Yan Zaizen arrived soundlessly after them. He stood on the once disturbed ground, his eyes lit with intrigue. "This formation has an essence of heavenly law, true law of earth. Minor-Manifestation?" His eyes became even brighter. It seems that the creator of this formation had the qualification to build their heavenly shrine’s first floor.

"The old man?" As he inspected further, he nodded in confirmation. The old man was currently cultivating earth-based arts, and they contained true law of earth from the heavens.

"A world law...this formation seems to also hinder, no, confuse sense?" As he continued his examination, he couldn’t help but feel praise. His heavenly sense was powered by his sixth-floor Heavenly Shrine, so it was utterly incapable of affecting his sense. However, to someone like the Realmlord, it was more than sufficient.

Taking a step, he entered the earth. With his prowess, how could this formation hinder him? It only took a second before he hovered beside the leader of the group of men. His body was covered by spatial camouflage. He truly was like a ghost just silently observing.

The leader had a bedraggled appearance. There was even a line of blood flowing from his lips. Every time he wiped it away, he’d cough a few times, and it would appear again. Burning one’s qi-essence was like setting off bombs in the body, it was devastating.

However, the middle-aged man’s eyes were filled with excitement. Ever so often, he would glance at the young woman, and his eyes would become further excited.

"To be this excited...what is she?" He inspected her body, but besides a somewhat solid foundation, there was nothing else. He even peeked into her spatial possessions and found nothing of particular interest.

"I guess I’ll just observe and wait." For some reason, Yan Zaizen felt somewhat excited. It was as if he would find gold at the end of this path. However...

After a few days, Yan Zaizen’s expression was indifferent. "To use the girl as a bargaining chip to obtain a few drops of Heavenly Law Liquid? Haaa..."

The young girl had a good background. She was the only daughter to a late-True Essence expert and this expert doted on her dearly. It seems this expert had been hoarding heavenly drops to prepare for her ascension to the heavenly path, so they were blackmailing her.

"This world doesn’t lack heavenly materials of the earth-attribute, so it wouldn’t be hard to gather those...however...only special tools, special locations, and heavenly experts can condense heavenly law liquid...it makes sense." He felt somewhat foolish for believing gold was at the end of the road, but the situation was still interesting.

The group of men was a part of a long-standing organization that stemmed for tens of thousands of years. They were slowly preparing for the ascension of a male heavenly expert to end the oppression.

This reminded him of how in Grux, despite the rebellion having worked and ended in failure - the rebellious side still resorting to slavery - there were still those who wished to change the status quo. It was admirable and oddly inspiring.

Unlike Grux, this situation was much more logical. After all, Grux’s situation with the Deep Mines and resources meant it was either peaceful slavery or constant war and death. There was no good alternative.

"However...this person’s ideology is quite extreme." Yan Zaizen furrowed his brows slightly. The old man had an extreme idea of rebellion, and that was essentially enslaving women for their long-standing oppression of men. This frustrated Yan Zaizen even further, his first thought was to eliminate all parties, but he decided against it.

Even if he did interfere, kill both parties to the last, that wasn’t his way nor would it solve the underlying issue at hand. It would just become a race of which gender can create an absolute expert first.

If he did nothing, then men would either lose this battle and maintain their unequal status or women will be subjected to even harsher conditions than men currently.

"Haaa..." he softly sighed, the myriad realms were vastly different and many situations are birthed from circumstance and individual belief, but sometimes...they caused headaches.

"From their reserves and his comprehension, his ascension will occur in the next ten or twenty years, if he can gather the rest of the heavenly law liquid." He calculated the time left, then turned towards a direction. This direction was where the Realmlord was located. She was currently in the midst of constructing her second-floor.

He took notice that, unlike him, others required quite a bit of time to construct their shrines. He recalled Lang Xue taking several years...It likely had to do with the refinement of heavenly material to heavenly source energy. As for Yan Zaizen, all heavenly materials were instantly converted to mimicry-attributed heavenly source energy, so he avoided a very time-consuming step.

"Mhhmm..." A soft moan resounded in his soul. He sent his sense into his soul to find Pinaka moaning while moving a little. It seems her odd sleep within the Vast Expanse was wearing off, but it seemed to be rather slow.

He didn’t try to force her to wake. Instead, he thought quietly as he looked at her. "What...if...could....maybe If...." mutterings and incomplete sentences were said constantly. Every second caused his eyes to grow more and more brilliant until it was as if he had found the answer to a long-sought-after question.

"Haha! I just need to find the right person." With those words, he left the headquarters of the rebel male forces.

As he padded in the sky, his eyes drifted from place to place. "Male or Female? Maybe both?" As he said this, his eyes brightened further. He couldn’t help but feel deeply excited. "Is this how it feels to be a story writer? Haha!" As he recalled all the stories he had read in his youth, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

"This is going to be fun!"

-----

In a city called Sun Cross City, there was a young boy. This boy was around eleven or twelve years of age, his body was quite slim, his eyes were radiant, but his expression was exhausted. There were bruises over his body and even scars on his hands.

He held a shear and was pruning bushes of a wealthy family. For years, his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather had taken the occupation of gardening. They had even served this specific family for a while. His technique was clearly well-honed, and his eyes were focused and akin to a master performing his craft.

Nearby were female guards watching him, their eyes were calm, but there was a distinct pride and superiority between their brows.

The young boy continued to work. Several minutes later, he triumphantly wiped the sweat off his brow. With a slight smile of pride, he appraised his work and nodded. In all respects, it was truly superb.

However, just as he was about to leave, a woman walked out of the door. Her eyes sharp and effusing a high sense of self-worth. As she waltzed over to the young man, she didn’t even glance at the boy. She looked only at the bush. With a wave of her hand, a surge of qi destroyed the bush.

"I don’t like it. You’re fired." The young woman indifferently spat.

The young boy’s eyes widened. The leaves from the bush slapped him in the face, and those words slapped him in the mind.

The young woman was the recent wife of the family leader. The family leader had a powerful mother and thus had a powerful enough backing to marry a noble lady. However, she was incredibly prejudiced towards male workers, replacing them all with female counterparts. It was only because he left no reason for the family to remove him and his family’s long-term service that he was the only male worker on the property.

It seemed that today was the day that the woman had convinced the family head to do so.

"Also, you can forget finding work in this town." She added, her eyes that were indifferent was also suffused with a little hatred. If it wasn’t for this young boy, would she have to beg a man to get what she wished? The act of needing permission from the family head left her angered and entirely willing to push it all on this young boy.

"I...I..." Over a hundred years of service ended on the biased words of a single woman. However, before he could sift through his thoughts so he can feel enraged or plead if need be, the guards seemed prepared, they directly grabbed him and escorted him out.

Before he knew it, he was thrown on his back outside the family’s grounds.

Only after several dozen minutes did he pick up his cutting shears and walk home. He entered the ghetto. Here, there were quite a few ugly women and dirty men who lingered about. He arrived at an old wooden hut and arrived within.

In this hut was only two beds. On one of these beds was a pale, sickly man who coughed every so often. The young man arrived next to the bed, grabbing the rag nearby and dabbing it in a pot of water. He carefully wiped the accumulated sweat from the man’s forehead.

"Da-Damian..." the man opened his eyes and weakly said. Seeing this young man of his, he couldn’t help but be proud. However, he could see the boy’s eyes were calmer than usual.

"Son, what happened? Why are you not working at this time?" Checking the time, he knew it was too early for Damian

"Nothing, Father. I just got off work earlier, with permission. I’ll be working early tomorrow as a result." The young boy smiled, his eyes or his smile betrayed the pain in his heart. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, so be sure to rest."

The man felt something off, but trusted this reliable son of his and rested.

Later that day, in his bed, the young man couldn’t sleep. His thoughts were in disarray, but his will was firm like steel. "I’ll find work somehow father...For you."