Chapter 2: Reaching the East Sea Coast! Goldie Became Top-Tier Combat Power?

Five days later. In the Eastern Wilderness, within the Vastyr Empire, the East Sea lay another sixty miles to the east. Byron Cutmore stared at the vast stretch of empty land before him, and the unease that had been gnawing at him finally dissolved. "Use the Sect Construction Card!" [Please name your sect, host!] "Skysoar!" [Success! Skysoar Sect is under construction!] The very next instant- "Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!" A muffled, thunderlike roar surged up from deep within the earth veins. The ground beneath Byron's feet split open, and milky-white mist poured from the cracks! Then the land heaved. Mountains rose as if lifted by unseen hands, several peaks spearing up through the soil and punching straight into the clouds! Behind the peaks, a Spirit Spring blasted through layers of rock and glittered under the sunlight! In only a few breaths, a grand sect complex stood before the two men and one dog, as if it had always been there. "Holy shit!" "Ma-Mas… Mas…" Nathaniel Urwin tried to get the word "master" out, but he stuttered himself into a dead end. Goldie's eyes went wide. All four legs trembled like they might give out. "Woof?" Byron had seen bigger scenes than this. He forced his heartbeat down and explained, "This is something your grandmaster prepared for me. Don't make a fuss." The moment they stepped into the sect, a figure appeared out of thin air. "Skysoar Sect's Adelynn Cougle greets the Sovereign Lord!" The woman's crimson hair blazed like living fire. Her skin was smooth as polished jade, delicate enough to seem unreal. A scarlet outfit wrapped her slender figure, every curve impossibly perfect. Barefoot, she floated quietly in midair, immaculate and untouched by dust. The instant she appeared, Byron's heart steadied. So this was the system's Grand Elder. An Emperor Rank powerhouse. The system's rules had already made one thing clear: NPCs could not leave the sect's territory. "Grand Elder, you've worked hard guarding the sect," Byron said aloud. Inside, he hurriedly asked, "Hey, System. Is there any chance the Grand Elder kicks me out one day?" [Host may rest assured. System products are premium products! NPCs are absolutely, unwaveringly loyal to the host!] [Host has entered sect territory. System tasks activated.] [Main Quest activated: Recruit ten disciples for the sect.] [Progress: 1/10] [Reward: Host cultivation advances to Spirit Spring Realm peak.] [Side Quest activated: Each time a sect disciple breaks through a realm, the host gains one lottery chance.] [Current lottery chances: 0] Byron understood this world's cultivation hierarchy well. There were four tiers and ten realms: Mortal Tier: Energy Condensation, Veinflow Realm, Spirit Spring Realm Mystic Tier: Profound Core, Divine Sea, Dao Inquiry Saint Rank: Unity Path Realm, Lesser Saint, Great Saint Emperor Rank: Great Emperor Back then, Byron had reached the Unity Path Realm. People had even called him a "Little Sage." In the Vastyr Empire, a Unity Path Realm expert was an untouchable, invincible existence. As for the Spirit Spring Realm peak promised by the quest reward, it was more than enough to keep him alive in the empire's eastern region. After getting a rough grasp of the system's functions, Byron had Adelynn lead the way as the three of them and the dog headed toward Skysoar Sect's main peak. "Holy shit! Goldie, have you ever seen grapes with blue flames?" "Woof?" Adelynn explained at the right moment, "Ice Flame Crystal Grapes. Sacred Medicine. Eat one, and a cultivator will generate a wisp of sacred flame within their body." Byron's pupils tightened. Back then, just to help Cloudpeak Sect's Pill Saint seize a single wisp of sacred flame, Byron had wiped out fifty-eight sects. And here, it was as simple as eating a grape? It was absurd to the point of insanity. "Hey! Goldie! You son of a bitch! That's Sacred Medicine! You-" Nathaniel's shouting snapped Byron's attention over. Blue flames puffed from Goldie's mouth in a few thin streams. Then, "Gulp." Goldie swallowed the entire bunch in one go. Nathaniel panicked. He yanked Goldie into his arms and hammered his fist into the dog's belly like a storm. "Bang, bang, bang!" "Goldie! You, you, you…" "This is Sacred Medicine! You're just a mutt! You'll explode!" "Spit it out!" "Boom!" Goldie's body erupted with a flood of blue fire. Byron reacted in a flash and hauled Nathaniel back. A heartbeat later and the blue flames would have swallowed him whole. Byron pressed a hand to his forehead and waved at Adelynn, helpless. Adelynn understood immediately. She lifted a slender hand. A ribbon of rosy light slipped into Goldie's body. Then the three of them watched as a yellow dog was reborn within blue flames. Yellow fur, blue fire. The contrast looked jarring, almost comical. But the pressure rolling off Goldie was anything but. "WOOF!!!" One bark forced Byron and Nathaniel to stagger back again and again. "What the hell are you barking for?" Nathaniel roared. Even as an Energy Condensation fifth-layer cultivator, he was crushed by Goldie's aura so hard he couldn't fight back. "I said, what the hell are you barking for!" He snatched up a rock from the ground and hurled it at Goldie. "Thud!" "Whiiine… whiiine…" Goldie finally accepted reality. Tail tucked, he scampered off to the side. Byron saw far more than Nathaniel did. "Goldie actually gained cultivation. He looks like Veinflow Realm fifth layer, at least." "One bunch of Sacred Medicine, and a normal street mutt jumped straight into becoming a spirit beast." "And he even skipped Energy Condensation entirely, leaping straight into the Veinflow Realm…" "This is getting more ridiculous by the minute." Byron's gaze slid to Adelynn, and a deep, inexhaustible sense of security rose in his chest. So this was an Emperor Rank. With a casual gesture, she rewrote a creature's fate. At this point, aside from Adelynn as an NPC, Goldie had become Skysoar Sect's top-tier combat power. As they moved deeper into the sect, the Spiritual Power in the air grew thicker and thicker. "Master… why do I feel like the Spiritual Power here is even denser than at Cloudpeak Sanctuary?" Nathaniel asked. Byron had lost all his cultivation and couldn't sense Spiritual Power at all. Nathaniel noticed first. "Master! I'm breaking through!" The moment the words left his mouth, Nathaniel dropped into a cross-legged seat and focused on the breakthrough. A few breaths later, a dull thump sounded from within his body. Nathaniel rose slowly, exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, and grinned from ear to ear. "Master! I'm Energy Condensation sixth layer!" Byron nodded, smiling. "Good. Not bad." On the system panel, Byron's lottery chances quietly ticked up by one. In the end, the three men and the dog reached Skysoar Sect's main peak. While Adelynn led Nathaniel off to choose a residence, Byron opened the system inventory. [Items: Supreme Celestial Body Activation Card x1, Great Immortal Technique x1] "Use Supreme Celestial Body Activation Card!" [Select target: Nathaniel Urwin (currently the only available option)] [Confirm using Supreme Celestial Body Activation Card on Nathaniel Urwin?] Byron didn't hesitate. "Confirm!" [Supreme Celestial Body is activating…] Behind Adelynn, Nathaniel's body began to flash with golden light. His robes whipped wildly in the sudden surge. The next moment, the radiance burst outward. Runes flowed across his skin as if he were merging with heaven and earth itself. That blinding gold looked ready to tear open the sky. Each pulse of Spiritual Power made the very air tremble. Nathaniel seemed to be reborn in fire. "Ahhh!" The pain ripped out of him in a hoarse, broken scream. Agony like a thousand blades carved through his body, and Nathaniel passed out on the spot.