Sovereign of the Karmic System

After closing the sacred grounds of hiel academy, Dan had begun to make some improvements to it. Like a furnace that needed the constant shoveling of coal to keep going, Daniel kept cultivating the Mindhive's artifact with his power, sacrificing bits and pieces of his planet which would recover with time, and improving its natural essence.

Daniel really had to thank his lucky star for finding an artifact with the power of the Door to the Dream State. Most other artifacts would have simply allowed him to gain an increase in battle prowess, but when combined with his own, no other artifact was as useful to him as that one was. An artifact that would allow him to recycle his own power, and turn it into ownerless true immortal essence which could be used to cultivate not only by him, but his friends and followers.

Separately, these artifacts could be considered extremely convenient objects to possess, but merged together, they had without a doubt become the most precious artifact in the whole universe. The only other possession that could compete with it, was the spiritual plain, from which the spiritual essence used by any cultivator who nurtured his spirit come from, and that was used by the members of the spiritual factions to cultivate under the rule of their mysterious Emperor.

The most important difference between these two sources of power was the fact that, while the sacred ground of hiel academy could be slowly improved by feeding it large amounts of its selected kind of power, the main connection between the spiritual plain and the universe, worked as a tap. This sort of connection would only allow a certain amount of spiritual essence in, and that was the reason why despite having an infinite stream of power, the members of the spiritual faction were unable to cultivate past the level of the high immortals of the universal government as a group.

However, now that the universe had become aware of the multiverse, the spiritual faction started to receive visits from the champions of the low-tier aspect of existence called Emotion, and since the spirit was the human aspect which controlled human emotions, to come were different entities of spiritual nature. What these entities taught to the spiritual cultivators, was how to gradually widen the connection between their universe and the spiritual plain, so that they could increase the presence of spiritual essence in their dimension, and be able to cultivate at a higher level.

Similarly, and yet on a smaller scale, Daniel constantly increased the cultivation of the artifact so that he could use it to increase his own power, and after more than three months spent dumping chunks of his planet of his planet into it, he entered it, and instructed Xargy with closing the entrance behind him.

-----

For the following six months, the chaos that had taken over the modern era had done nothing but worsen.

Rumors about the disappearance of what, before, were considered powerful factions to the hands of lower level groups, powerful merchant families and groups drained of their wealth by the factions they belonged, and daily wars of a scale that only took place once every few thousand years, reached the ears of the inhabitants of Daniel's planet.

Amongst them, were the families of the young cultivators that attended Hiel academy, and that had only avoided finding themselves in the middle of an intergalactic war, by accepting Daniel's invitation to evacuate their planets, and move into his. Less glad about it were those who had friends and family members who had refused to leave their ancestral homes, and had now joined their ancestors under the pile of rocks that buried them.

These rumors were not only spread by the few people who were in charge of dealing with external merchants, but by Daniel's group as well. The reason for that, was that Daniel did not want the cultivators who lived on his planet to lose themselves in the protection it provided. Just knowing that death lay in wait everywhere outside of the planet's atmosphere, gave a reason to the families to increase their power, and for the young cultivators to prepare for their chaotic future.

Left with only the cultivation resources in their pockets, these families began to explore Daniel's planets to find territories in which they could settle in. Unfortunately, the nature of the planet was obscure to these cultivators who, oblivious to the fact that the whole planet was part of Daniel's body, had started to contend over its rich resources, and livable territories.

These disputes would go beyond the head of Daniel's group, since only he was able to see everything that was happening on his planet. Whenever someone would report this behaviour, these families would pretend that it was nothing worth mentioning, and that it was all a misunderstanding.

That was not to say that if Daniel had been present he would have stopped them. After all, to stop all forms of conflict was not in his interests. It was within people's nature to fight over things. The only form of conflict he would stop would be those who would involve a weaker party suppressed with the use of violence, in which case, he would simply kick the perpetrators out of his planet.

The same was for the academy, inside which rivalries and non deadly fights over petty reasons and different points of view were not encouraged, but not prohibited either.

Outside of the atmosphere, where the spatial formation had been placed, the last few months had gone by almost uneventfully. The planet was constantly on the move, headed for the direction where Daniel's system had told him he would find Alesia, and its path had only been disturbed by the occasional group of cultivators headed for their own battleground, or a curious chosen of Iewah interested in facing Daniel, however, all of these people would usually not even realize they were there, or in the case of Iewah's children, leave with disappointment.

To control the formation that had allowed them to avoid any conflict was Nova, the spatial elemental that along with Daniel, possessed a perfect comprehension of this universe's space. He was sitting over an imaginary chair right in front of the formation's control panel, right like a navigator would at the helm of a spaceship. Next to him was an old woman with snow white hair, dressed in light green robes.

"This young lord sounds like an amazing individual.." said the old woman with a voice that seemed to disappear in the wind, but that did not escape from Nova's reach.

"I am the wrong person to ask. I don't even belong to this dimension." Responded Nova while looking at the depth of space, almost as if on constant alert. After a few moments, he turned to look back at the old woman, and added, "But yes. He is the most incredible human I have met until now."

The old woman to which Nova was talking to had just moved into Daniel's planet along with her entire family. However, she was not a human cultivator. What she was, was a wind elemental, which after learning about Daniel's extremely strict rules about not bothering the elementals that lived peacefully on his planet, had gladly chosen to move in. The fact that to Daniel's academy had been donated the perfect treasures of wind and lightning by one of the most powerful immigrant families, was also part of the reason why this clan of wind elementals had decided to join, and now lived free from the worry of being exterminated by low level mercenaries in search of a quick payday.

Wind elementals were a nomad form of elementals that most of the time, would roam the skies of most planets without being noticed, looking down at the lives of common humans. However, this was no common planet, and ever since they had arrived, right above them, they had noticed the presence of a type of elemental they had never encountered before.

Right after arriving, the leader of the clan of wind elementals had interacted with Nova, and whenever she could, she would ask questions about the mysterious host that had given them a place to stay.

Nova did not mind the company, as most of the times, the other members of Daniel's group would spend their time taking care of the planet and everything that was in it, while the other kinds of elementals would spend their time in their natural element, that were separated from him by around five hundred kilometers of air.

Amongst the few people who would visit him daily, were Edmund, and now, the chief and oldest member of the wind elementals. "In the air.. I feel a different form of power. This is not a simple planet, is it?" Asked the old woman with curiosity. She had noticed the presence of Daniel's true immortal essence ever since she had arrived, and had been extremely curious about it.

Nova was fully aware of what that power was, but before he could even restrain himself from revealing one of Daniel's secrets, he stood up, and leaned over the control panel.

In the space that was in the planet's trajectory, just a few hundred thousand kilometers ahead, seven figures had appeared. Four of which were women, while the remaining three, were men.

The clothes worn by six of these seven individuals were very similar, with identical embroidery and colors. The only difference between their induments, were the personal choices which happened to reflect these people's observable behaviour. Starting from the sleeveless shirt that left the arms of the more muscular man amongst them uncovered, followed by the formal attire of the more serious one, up to the skimpy clothes of the younger amongst the women, who behaved as if millions of people were doing nothing but observe every movement she made. On their mainly white clothes, violent images of seemingly religious nature were embroidered with golden and red threads, and pinned above their hearts, was a sun made out of what appeared like a blood-red metal.

These six cultivators were clearly strangers to Daniel's group, but unfortunately, that was not the same for the seventh, who stood behind them with anticipation and nervousness in her eyes. With her fur clothes, and unique features, Nova immediately recognized the fourth woman as one of the people whom Daniel had made sure they would look out for. Someone who had the means, the motive, and the will to bring their enemies straight to him. The Viewfinder.

This group seemed to be unable to see Daniel's planet, but it was clear by their behaviour that they were expecting it to appear at any moment. Another detail that Nova could discern from their behaviour, was the fact that these six people were not allied, and that instead, they behaved more like competitors on a temporary truce.

Like he would do whenever a foreign group would appear in front of them, Nova immediately activated the ability that, until now, had allowed them to redirect anything that come close enough to Daniel's planet, gently forcing it in another direction.

"What is going on?" Asked the old wind elemental with a hint of worry. She could feel the terrifying power emanated by each of these cultivators, as well as see the malicious intentions they possessed.

"Nothing worth talking about." Said Xargy, who had quietly appeared behind the couple of elementals along with Aeron, Sewah, Jerigh, and Edmund.

The more time passed without being able to spot Daniel's planet, the more restless these cultivators became, until finally, the more composed and well dressed of the six turned to look at the Viewfinder, and with an unbothered expression, took his glasses off to clean them, and said, "I thought he was bound to appear here ten seconds ago."

The Viewfinder was extremely nervous while in the presence of these six cultivators, but the relaxed tone of the elegant man caught her by surprise. She once again controlled her mission, and after a few moments, she opened her eyes, and said, "They must be in the vi-"

Her words were quickly interrupted by the bloody net that shot out of the elegant man's brown eyes, and passed through her at a speed which she had failed to even notice. Before the nervous smile could disappear from her face, her body fell apart, and floated away into a bunch of meat cubes. "You have already said that.." muttered the elegant young man while putting his glasses back on.