A dry wind swept across the Southern Wastelands.
Ash-colored sand rolled endlessly beneath a crimson sky. Jagged black mountains stretched toward the horizon like broken teeth, while rivers of hardened glass reflected the fading sunlight. The land held almost no life.
Yangxuan walked calmly across the barren plains, his hands resting behind his back as though he were taking an afternoon stroll.
A few steps behind him, the newly transformed boy struggled to keep pace.
Every movement felt... strange. He glanced down at his hands—longer fingers, broader shoulders.
His body no longer belonged to the child who had wandered these wastelands only hours before.
He still wasn't used to it. "This feels... weird," he muttered as he examined his new body.
Yangxuan didn't look back. As he walked, he continued applying enhancements to the boy's body.
The boy flexed his fingers. "My legs are longer, and my arms feel full of this strange and tingly feeling that is going up and down at a fast pace. At first it burned. But now, it feels like that large floating ball in the sky is hugging me."
Yangxuan chuckled.
A moment later, the boy stumbled over a weathered stone poking upright from the sand. Yangxuan caught him by the shoulder before he hit the ground.
Then, as he learned to pace himself and adjust to his transformation, the two continued deeper into the wasteland.
-----
Unlike the bustling settlements of the Huayin Galaxy, the Southern Wastelands felt ancient and forgotten.
From afar, ruined pillars emerged from the sand every few kilometers. Collapsed temples rested half-buried beneath dunes. Each engraved with symbols long since lost their meaning.
Yet the wasteland was not entirely empty.
Across its vast expanse, pockets of life had endured. Some regions, shielded from the worst of the land's corruption, had grown into thriving settlements—cities carved from resilience, where countless people lived and struggled beneath the same crimson sky.
Others had not been so fortunate.
Entire regions had crumbled eons ago, swallowed by contamination or abandoned when survival became impossible.
Their people had either perished or fled, seeking refuge in more stable lands and distant, livable cities beyond the wasteland's reach.
What remained were scattered remnants—surrounded by endless ruin and silent stretches where only the wind remembered what once stood.
The boy looked around, unease creeping into his chest. The silence here wasn't natural. It pressed against his ears, heavy and suffocating.
"Why is it so quiet?"
Yangxuan didn't slow his pace; instead, he responded as he moved.
"That's a bit difficult to explain."
The boy blinked.
"...why?"
A sudden gust of wind swept across the wasteland. The sand shifted, and for a brief moment, something beneath the surface was revealed—a fragment of bone.
Then it was gone again. The boy froze.
"...Did you see that?" he shouted, panic rising in his voice as he pointed at it.
"I did."
"What was it?"
Yangxuan's voice remained calm. "The {????}, usually it would have avoided revealing itself." Then his gaze swept across the endless expanse of ash-colored sand. At first, it had seemed empty.
Now... it felt as though something was buried beneath every step.
'Even then, with my innate divinity-a creature of evil such as itself should have avoided me. The fact that it so confidently revealed itself... it seems the source of the evil is much more powerful than I assumed.'
Feeling the corrupted essence, the boy instinctively moved closer to Yangxuan.
"...What happened here?"
Yangxuan finally stopped. He looked out across the wasteland, his expression unreadable. Unlike the previous locations, the density of the corrupted qi in this area was 10x higher.
It wouldn't be strange if countless bloodworms, Gu devils, Hell Demons, or other countless 10th-tier [divine spirit soul stage] disasters were roaming around.
[Though most of them were at the 10th tier, due to the uniqueness of the soul ladder, they could only be at that tier physically. But they could never meet the qualifications for soul ascension.
Based on Ji Chen's intention, it forced beings who originated from outside the [???] into a state of {akarma}.
Stripping them of all intelligence, comprehension, understanding of self, and the desire to be. Leaving only a primal and chaotic desire to consume.]
---
After briefly passing through the [land of forgotten dreams] {*a name given by yangxuan in remembrance}, it was time to continue moving forward.
Out of the 2 places they had just left, their next destination, the southern lands of Abihane, was located just south of the great wastelands.
At its core lay a small region called Abihane, roughly the size of a mid-sized nation.
Although small in scale compared to the other great powers within the wastelands, it was one of the three guardian nations responsible for monitoring and reporting any abnormalities in that region.
Over time, as the darkness's movements slowly lessened, the leaders of the south felt it was no longer necessary to remain in the barren area. And so countless lords and their followers soon left for the capital.
Leaving only 3 families who chose to continue protecting the south, just in case one day-the darkness awakens once more.
---
Along the way, I taught the boy to read his race's inherited language. Through it, he began to learn and understand how to interact and express himself.
Even more so, as we stopped by small traveling tribes who frequently passed through on trade.
Once he had mastered the form of using words to comprehend thought, I soon began his sword training.
By creating a separate mental field. Whether he ate, slept, or ran, he would constantly undergo mental forging and sword training.
At first, he complained, but after a few weeks of training. He began to understand the gap between the strength he possessed and the ability to use it.
As he fought the more complete and skilled clones of himself, he began to learn and comprehend each move he encountered. But it wasn't easy, as he adapted- so did the clones.
To counter this, he came to me, asking questions and proposing theories to deepen his understanding of his combat techniques and how to apply them skillfully in battle.
Lucky for him, the 10,000-year seal would automatically search and locate information for him. Through the accumulation of a high god, the seal contained all knowledge within the Huayin galaxy.
But at that stage, the information he could access was limited. So, to reward him for his progress, I decided to take a small break atop a mountain peak I had sensed while flying towards our destination.
This peak seemed relatively normal to the eyes of those below the divine tier.
But as a high god, I could notice its unique energy and innate talent. From its size alone, the peak extended beyond the heights of most clouds and stood in its own realm.
A location so rare and unique, most deities would fight to own one. Its talent allowed it to consistently absorb and expel true and immortal essence throughout its domain.
Making it a pure miniature universe. On par with an ancient treasure that ranked second in the support-type divine treasure list.
Once I had scoped it out, I then tried to seize it. As expected, its divine consciousness had awakened and began attempting to expel me.
Just by its frequency grade, I could tell it was in the early phase of the Celestial Spirit Soul stage, barely within the domains of the 9th tier. A being that could be considered a god by the mortals.
To me, it was but an infant barely grasping the laws. As I needed it with its consciousness intact, I chose to lower my grade from the 17th tier to the peak of the 10th.
!!!!boom!!!
!!chkk!!!!
!!!BOOOM!!!
After a while of battling, it realized it couldn't win and attempted to destroy its core.
Anticipating it, I sealed its core by removing its ability to expel the essence it contained.
Panicking, it rationalized that there was no chance of escape while being constrained under this mysterious power. So as a last attempt, it gathered everything it had into its core and violently compressed it.
Even from afar, one could feel the immense surge of essence gathering. Such energy was comparable to that of a peak 10th-tier god who had just shed the chains of the heavens.
As seconds passed, the nearby peaks trembled violently as their entire domain surged upward, compressing into waves of essence that slammed toward me in layers.
It was Heavy and Unrefined, yet dense enough to shake the surrounding space. 'Its desire and ability to utilize its innate skills at a chance for survival is commendable; maybe it reaching this stage was by no mere fluke.'
To further observe its abilities, I endured its attack. From its expression, it realized it was facing a being beyond the realms of its existence and desperately hoped this attack would work.
ZZzzing!!! ZZzzing!!!!
!!!WOOSH-WOOSH
!!!BAm!!!
The pressure passed through me like wind.
Thinking it needed to launch consecutive attacks, it didn't stop. It even added a dense sheath of divine qi, allowing it to draw in more essence from the heavenly realm.
Giving its wave of attacks an enhanced destructive force that pulled both divine and immortal qi and essence from one's body.
Greatly reducing the opponent's ability to heal.
Curious about its ability to defend, I raised my hand slightly.
Then—brought it down. Violently, the space above the peak distorted. A large and massive whirlpool of mixed energies appeared, and the attacks reversed. Everything it sent out— came back.
The mountain shook violently as its spirit shrieked in pain; fissures spread across the bedrock as it desperately fought to reverse the anti-healing effects of its own onslaught.
With its reserves depleted and the domain collapsing, the mountain's consciousness began to flicker, signaling its imminent destruction.
Stepping forward, I placed my hand firmly against the ground, channeling a technique of profound harmony to mend its broken vitality.
Slowly, the fractured land folded inward, compressing until the massive peak was reduced to a stable, glowing core resting in my palm.
I turned and tossed the miniature universe to the boy. "Take it."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Order of Satya]
Common Name: Church of Truth
Amahime Name: Order of Satya
Founder: Seer Azuna {??? tier}
Title: Divine Seer
Origin: Homura-Kamiyoku Tribe
Alignment: Radical Divine Supremacy
Territory: Ten Major Planetary Worlds
Primary Doctrine:"Only the Truth Shall set you free"
The Order of Satya, more commonly known as the Church of Truth, was founded by the corrupted Seer Azuna after he claimed to have received an oracle directly from the heavens.
According to Azuna, only certain Amahime were capable of truly hearing the words of the Divine. Those who possessed this gift were believed to stand closer to the gods and, therefore, held greater authority to interpret their will.
-------
[Deva Ashraya]
Common Name: Refuge Beneath the Divine
Amahime Name: Deva Ashraya
Founder: The First Saint {??? tier}
Title: Saint
Origin: Outer Amahime Tribes
Alignment: Divine Salvation / Ascension Faith
Territory: Outer Star Regions and numerous lesser tribal worlds
Primary Doctrine:"All who walk beneath the Divine may receive its favor."
The Deva Ashraya, commonly translated as Refuge Beneath the Divine, emerged in opposition to the growing influence of the Order of Satya.
Its founder was originally a nameless beggar who claimed that he, too, could hear the voice of the gods. However, unlike Seer Azuna, he rejected the belief that divine truth belonged only to a chosen people.
He taught that every living soul existed beneath the same heavens, and therefore every Amahime possessed the right to seek the Divine.
This belief quickly spread among the weaker tribes, especially those the Order of Satya had declared inferior or spiritually impure.
To the followers of Deva Ashraya, cultivation itself became a sacred act. Every advancement along the Soul Ladder brought a mortal closer to the Divine, while ascension was considered the greatest proof that the heavens had acknowledged one's path.