Walker Of The Worlds

~CLACK~CLACK~CLACK~

All the keys were inserted and turned, filling the holes. Once that was done, only one circle was left empty at the very center.

This circle only had five holes and was the exact number of keys that were missing.

"Five keys for the innermost circle… The Trial indeed was giving the keys in a specific order." Lin Mu spoke, seeing the glowing circle.

He didn't think it was a coincidence, since it would have had to be an exact number for it to be like this. Plus, considering everyone had gotten a different number of keys, even though the trial was supposed to be the second trial, they were sure this was designed by the creator.

"It's almost as if they want us to have patience…" Lady Kang muttered, seeing this.

"It does seem like it," Monk Hushu agreed.

"If so, we may as well have patience and wait. Now that we know that there is a differential time difference, we might just be making a mistake if we hurry. Best we wait for Crown Prince and Qiao De to arrive." Lin Mu decided.

The others agreed too, and the wait began again.

The original deadline they had decided was two months, of which 35 days had passed. But now they reckoned they should wait as long as needed for the Crown Prince and Qiao De to arrive. They never knew if the next trial they entered would be in a different time flow, too. The days passed rather quickly as everyone engrossed themselves in their work. Some cultivated, some studied while some talked.

Lady Kang and Min Ju both cultivated with Elder Ho standing on guard beside them. With the full armor covering his body, his face could not be seen, and one might think that he was cultivating too. But in reality, his eyes were open, and he was observing everything.

His duty was to protect Lady Kang and guard her with his life and there was no way he would take that lightly. In not for the fact that he was forced to be separated from her in the trials, he would have chosen to stick with her the entire time.

Though he did feel a bit better that Lin Mu was with her out of everyone. Since he knew that Lin Mu was a formation master and also had Spatial Skills, his ability to escape danger should be the best among all of them. And from what he had observed, he didn't think Lin Mu would be dishonorable either, and would definitely try to protect Lady Kang if needed.

Which was correct, as Lin Mu had already planned that out. He was also thankful that Lady Kang had a method to guide them out of the space too since it would take him a lot of trial and error to do the same. If it was just himself, he would be fine, but bringing along others with him would reduce the amount of time they would be safe in a spatial rift.

The void was unpredictable, and no one could tell where danger could come from.

Lin Mu could defend himself from stray Spatial Disturbances, but others would not be able to do the same. Thus, escaping the void as soon as possible would be necessary.

Daoist Chu and Ziran seemed to have struck up a conversation from the earlier topics and were exchanging ideas with each other. The man was interested in the explorations of the half-elf and the worlds he had seen, especially the outer territories of the Immortal Courts.

Those were areas that most cultivators did not go to if they were from the main territories of the Immortal court. This was mostly due to the fact that they were very far and the Teleportation arrays needed to reach them did not always exist. Even from the closest teleportation array, one might need to travel for years, decades or even centuries to reach some of the parts. As such, it was rare for people to go there other than those that were born there in the first place.

The news from the outer territories was slow to reach, and the exchange of people was minuscule, too. Daoist Chu was especially interested in this, since he had heard that his own sect had originated from an outer territory too. It wasn't until they had grown strong enough to move themselves to the main territories of the Immortal Court did they truly gain a standing in the Immortal realm.

With the limited amount of information that traveled to those parts, the outer territories often lagged behind in terms of cultivation knowledge; whether this be in terms of cultivation techniques, skills, or just general knowledge about things.

There were even some worlds in the outer territories that didn't know about the existence of the Immortal Court.

But this was nothing compared to the Farlands.

These were the uncharted areas where the influence of the Immortal Court did not reach. The four guardian beasts did not have any temples there and their powers would not work there either. Though it was one of their main goals to spread their reach as far as possible.

One of the major expenses of the Immortal court was actually to spread the reach of the Four Guardian beasts. They would regularly send members to establish new temples of the guardian beasts as well as spread the awareness of the immortal court.

This was something that was often welcomed by those uncharted worlds if they had human life, since it benefited them greatly, but there were always some worlds that did not like outside influence extending into their sphere. Such worlds could belong to other races, or humans that simply did not like others being there.

There were even many conflicts that happened and wars that were fought. It was even said that at any given time, there were hundreds of wars that the Immoral Court was fighting in the Farlands.

This was another major expense that the Immortal Court had, but also where they made a lot of their fortune.

While the worlds in the Farlands and outer territories might lack in terms of cultivation knowledge, they didn't lack resources. After all, they were still in the Immortal realm and Immoral Qi was present there, too. As such, natural cultivation resources would appear there too.

Rare and unseen herbs, mystical metals and magical fruits could all be found in the Farlands, since they were often left untouched. There were explorers that went to the Farlands to find these rare resources for themselves as well as to sell them. It was quite a profitable venture, even with the risk that came with it. So much so that Ziran had taken on a couple of such expeditions to the Farlands too. He had spent over a thousand years in those and had found quite a lot before contributing his knowledge to many books in the Immortal court which earned him a lot of credits.

As such, the man was quite wealthy. Plus, it helped that he was basically the king consort of a demon world.

Daoist Chu also learned that Farlands were one of the best places for unorthodox cultivators to hide. Since the reach of the Immortal court was limited there, it gave them the best place to gain power and grow stronger.

It was also said that many evil powers that had entered into conflict with the Immortal Court had all come from the Farlands. Many cultivators often had a major misunderstanding that the Immortal Court was the 'center' of the Immortal realm. But in reality, it was not. The Central Immortal Court was merely called that because that is where they established the first Immortal Court before the four Cardinal courts were created. Even the directional names were only given due to the guardian beasts that took control there.

No one knew how big the Immortal realm was and as such, it was entirely possible that the Immortal Court could be located in some corner of it, while the Farlands was the true region of the Immortal realm. Even after billions of years, no cultivator had managed to explore the entirety of the Immortal realm.

Even the best spatial masters were unable to figure out the true extent of the Immortal realm with all their power and skills. Hence, all that the Immortal Court could do was to steadily expand and grow its power, like a tree expanding its roots through the ground silently.

Lin Mu listened to their words too, finding them quite interesting. He himself had heard quite a bit from senior Xukong before and could correlate and confirm many of the facts. In some factors, Lin Mu knew even more than them as he himself was originally from the Farlands too.

The Xiaofan World was located in the Farlands of the Mortal Realm. Similar to the Immortal realm, the Mortal realm had Farlands too. Though unlike the immortal realm, there wasn't an exact central power like the immortal court, as the limitations of the cultivation base did not allow it. Immortals could still travel through space with a few minor issues, but for spirit realm cultivators to do so was a huge hindrance. They might be able to do that for a short period, but they would eventually succumb to it. Not to mention, they also couldn't travel for literal centuries or millenniums like the Immortals due to their limited lifespan.

As such, they could not explore as much and it was often left to a few Immortals that could descend to the Mortal realm with their cultivation bases sealed to do this.