6 months later.
The massive flying treasure had trekked through tens of star systems and witnessed many amazing sights, varying from desolate worlds that were plagued with death to worlds made entirely of a single element.
Stars like the sun were essentially massive balls of fire, but there were even some worlds that were wholly made of water or even lightning.
Rose and Elena had their horizons broadened by a maddening degree. Both had only seen two worlds in their entire lifetimes, which could already be considered more than any normal person, but now they had been enlightened to the vastness of the universe.
Currently, they were sitting together at a table in the recreational hall of the ship, trying to relieve their boredom in any way they could.
They quarreled often, they trained often, and they even lived lavishly like empresses for a bit, but their journey was too long for them to find any constant sources of entertainment.
By now, the two weren't as opposed to each other as they were when they first met. Even fighting as they used to do could get boring nowadays.
While space travel was fun in concept, it was always a prolonged endeavor. And the loneliness would have quickly become maddening if they didn't have each other to talk to.
"He still hasn't returned yet?" Elena asked with a sigh.
"Nope," Rose responded, "he used to visit every week or so to chat with us, but for the last 4 months, he hadn't left his position."
"Are we sure he didn't get stranded somewhere on the way?"
"How could that be possible? If it really happened, wouldn't Zara be going crazy right now?" Rose said as she pet the silky fur of the wolf by her side.
"Hmph! I would be fine without him! He is just my best friend, that's all!" Zara complained defiantly, causing both girls to laugh.
They both knew that she could only talk like this if she felt his presence clearly.
"He hasn't said anything to me for a while, but I can still feel him in the same place he was last time."
The girls sighed as they attempted to peer through the ceiling of the ship.
'I wonder what he's up to.'
Meanwhile, the person in question sat like an ancient monk training his patience. As the girls said, he hadn't moved from his spot in many months.
Of the two currents of mana that surrounded his body, one had become a raging torrent while the other had barely changed, in no hurry to make itself known.
Its presence was negligible to the point where even when Damien paused or reentered his meditation; he never felt its existence.
Opening his eyes once more, Damien let out a deep sigh.
'Dimensional magic is…insane.'
It had been 7 whole months since he immersed himself in his training, but he had barely made progress. Well, that wasn't quite true, but it's how he felt.
On the small scale, he had made immense progress. His existing abilities were further developed and he was able to create the next form of his sword art.
This was the new second form he had been thinking about for a long time. Its main concept was 'distance' and now to influence it through space. Its profundity was much higher than his previous iterations, but since it was a single target attack, he placed it as the new 2nd form of his sword art.
Since he was creating the art from scratch, this kind of thing was easy. His art focused on fluidity, but not in a sense where the order of moves mattered. Switching from any step to another step needed fluidity, ignoring any barriers.
The problem was, even with his improvements his dimensional magic skill was stuck at level 1. Even what he would have previously considered as major improvement turned out to not even scratch the surface of this new ability.
Wondering the true extent of his power, Damien slowly stood up from his position. In the distance, he could see a massive planet that was slightly larger than even Apeiron. And judging from the direction of the ship, it was their destination.
They had finally reached the Cloud Plane.
Damien left his spot on the hull of the ship and joined the others inside. It wasn't just the girls, but Xiao Zhen and Yin Jian had also gathered.
"You've finally arrived. I take it your training was a success?"
Damien nodded with a slight smile as he joined the group.
"Now that we're here, I have one more detail I need to confirm," Damien said. "Do we need to use fake names, or will we be fine as is?"
Xiao Zhen pondered for a bit but shook his head in the end. "It should be unnecessary. Although our names tend to bear similarities to the ones you call Chinese in your homeworld, it isn't uncommon for others to exist.
"There are a plethora of cultures in our world, some even sharing similarities with your own. And, since you will be headed for the central continent, you will find a largely mixed population. It's the largest and most advanced of the 5 continents, and it's a place where many cultures converge."
Damien nodded, hiding the slightly disappointed look in his eyes. 'It would have been fun to become Tian Long or Yang Lintian or something.'
Cultivation was one of Damien's favorite genres back in the day, so he held a decent amount of excitement to act as they did in those novels, but he shook away these thoughts.
'If my name is normal in this world, I can still do all of those things. First on the bucket list, offend a young master. Second on the bucket list, procure a jade beauty!'
As he thought nonsensical things, the flying ship entered the atmosphere of the Cloud Plane.
Surprisingly, the mana density was a bit lower than that of Apeiron, but not by a noticeable amount. Damien could only tell since he was already connected to a world core. This connection made him more sensitive toward ambient mana.
'This must be due to cultivation. With a large amount of the populace spending prolonged periods simply absorbing ambient mana in place of the usual method for gaining experience, the planet is bound to encounter setbacks.'
Damien glanced at Xiao Zhen. 'Well, with conditions like this, I can understand the need to usurp mana from other planets. Luckily, this world has a strong divide between the righteous and wicked path, with the righteous sects being in control.'
The righteous and wicked path were terms Damien had learned of not too long ago. While both paths were viable to gain strength, their difference lay mainly in morality.
Wicked path cultivators weren't averse to committing genocide and mass slaughters for their own gains. They also practiced what was called 'vile techniques and manuals'. These cultivation manuals would use various means to quickly increase strength, sacrificing foundation in the process.
Some of these manuals even allowed people to steal experience from others, though they were rarely effective. The ones that could do this efficiently would most likely be considered as Divine Grade manuals, but the ones most people used obviously didn't reach this level.
As such, they needed more victims to proceed in their path to strength, leading to the aforementioned vile acts.
Damien didn't want to imagine what would have happened to earth if wicked path cultivators were more prevalent in this world.
The righteous path could be considered as people with even the slightest bit of morality. Though, Damien didn't believe this. From what he had read and experienced, the righteous path was usually just filled with people who schemed in the shadows rather than in the open.
Well, he didn't want to generalize, as he was aware that there would be plenty of truly righteous people within this classification, while most of them would fall in the grey area like him. He also didn't mind people scheming in the dark. If anything, they'd help him grow his political sense and logical thinking.
At the peak of these people stood the Jade Heavenly Palace. Its name was grandiose enough, but its status was even bigger. If the Jade Heavenly Palace told people to go right, there were very few who would dare to go left.
'Should I aim to join them?'
He definitely considered it, but he had just arrived in the world. It would be stupid to make a decision purely based on hearsay.
While he tried to think logically, the ship finally landed on the ground outside of a massive city. The city itself was surrounded by a large wall, presumably to keep out beasts, and its whole aesthetic screamed flames.
"Welcome to our Burning Sun Sect." Xiao Zhen said as the door to the flying treasure opened. Smiling lightly as the varied scenes of the area were revealed, he continued.
"And more importantly, welcome to our Cloud Plane."
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