Chapter 1796 Chapter 1789: Mystics: Royale (1)

The bright sky above had two stars. They hung in glorious harmony, cycling about, not only creating hotter summers, but their lack of presence as they sunk together gave birth to colder nights. When night inevitably arrived, the sky had a single dull moon, emanating a silvery-white luster across the vast landscape, reflected on the surface of the oceanic edges and serpentine rivers. The dance of grass, flowers, and trees was halted. The flow of water, the waves caused by the winds and trembling of the earth, the innumerable ripples originating from droplets, and the cascading fall of rivers atop cliffs, were all paused. Whether there was the despair in the eyes of a thief who was about to get executed before a crowd, the hunger of a starving orphan as they hid in the shadows observing a smiling child with loving parents, or the intimate passion of two lovers, there was nothing that escaped from the cessation of time. The entire continent was frozen in a state of static time flow. All life was subjected to this restriction. The only exceptions were foreign streams of Spiritual Sense, originating from beyond the sky, as if they were divinities unseen yet ever-present. There were three forms of Spiritual Senses present. The first and strongest of the three, the one presiding over things with an irrefutable authority belonged to none other than the Mystical Judges sworn to impartiality and to uphold all rules.

The second and weakest of the three were divided into nine different streams, the amalgamation of hundreds of billions of wills, constantly changing as the streams were intimately interconnected with abundant and non-disruptive freedom, with individual wills leaping from one to the other sporadically. Some particularly powerful ones linked two or more of the nine streams at once, spreading themselves thin, yet observing more. They were the furthest out, controlled by the Commentator Duo. The third and most pervasive belonged to six Spiritual Streams, all unconnected, and their observations were concealed from the others, and unless they were within three miles of each other, isolated from noticing anything. The six players of this game and these Spiritual Senses scoured the world at an incredible speed. The Defiant Dragon Continent was the stage of a game with lethal implications. By an extraordinary twist of events, what should have become a minor lesson to harm a single arrogant foreigner that had flipped the entire board against all warnings, had turned into a desperate fight and hunt for their lives. The Zenith Refinement Tower hadn't just lost many allies, but their Mystic-Heaven grade tower that possessed profound powers had been thoroughly exhausted of its powers, deprived of its ability to link with the heavens, and turned into an ordinary tower. A gargantuan loss. Meanwhile, one of their Dao Enforcers, a Supreme Sage of unfathomable might and prestige, suffered significant damage and nearly lost their life. None wished to follow in their footsteps. None of them intended to.

From the onset, they all had some degree of confidence in winning this game, even against a suspected Resonant Soul Realm expert from beyond their galaxy. This confidence existed in many forms, either due to certain skills or schemes, perhaps due to trust in another. Regardless, none of them thought their chances of victory were low. This was a genuine game. In a way, the game of Mystics was genuinely equal. Regardless of one's cultivation base, all players started on the same field. What differentiated them was not their cultivation bases, but their individualistic skills, their decision-making ability, and their ability to adapt. Su Yi would dare to challenge gods, devils, and ghosts. In his past life, he had never lost a single game of Mystics. Not a single one. Regardless of the variation. The frozen state of time of the stage globe was a crucial phase for any variation of Mystics. Since they all originated from the original game, where the purpose was to decipher clues and make accurate guesses on the state of affairs, they all required adequate skill and understanding in this particular phase. Su Yi was methodical. He learned about the 3,000 years of progressed history through observation and contextual clues of the frozen inhabitants and landscape. Unfortunately, the usage of the Temporal Eye to acquire in-depth information and details of the world was a Dao Card he hadn't drawn. This would have given him a great advantage. Only after doing this, after gaining an understanding that the Defiant Dragon Continent was a human-centric continent with diverse Daos was he able to relax. A human-centric continent was far better than a bestial world, emulating the Sky Heart Galaxy, and this was largely due to the flexible habits of humans while beasts thrived on innate instincts and had bloodline hierarchies that were difficult to change without extensive effort. This bestial setting might seem easy in a Mystic: Royale game, where the goal is to cause the death of your opponents' Chosen, but that made choosing Chosen a headache. This type of setting made it easier to direct the flow, nurture an astounding Chosen, and prematurely kill off Chosen of your enemies. Within the Defiant Dragon Continent, he discovered three archetypes of core civilization dynamics. The first was the Imperial-aligned civilization, and this almost always existed in human-centric settings. There were six established kingdoms, and three developing ones, all either in states of ruin or prosperity, if not that, there were indications of these kingdoms verging into one of the other.

The woman in the shack wasn't his mother. He was an orphan at the tender age of three, and this woman was a former lady of the night who was forcefully retired after contracting, rather publicly, a sexually transmitted disease. The two only had each other. She loved to read.

And he loved not starving. While the dog was a rescue that had been bitten by a snake, abandoned by her former owner, and left to die. After stumbling upon her, he used some of the tricks he picked up from his father at the age of two to save her life. Since then, the dog has refused to leave his side. Su Yi calculated a few things and nodded. The boy had a good foundation of fighting spirit and will. Additionally, his innate talent for cultivation wasn't too horrible, and he was born within one of the Imperial Societies—the Suxi Kingdom. But as someone who's experienced a myriad of things, Su Yi knew that the best talent for cultivation was a person's Heart of Cultivation.

This was something no Resonant Soul Realm expert would deny as a paramount requirement. He made his choice.

Simultaneously, the three Mystic Judges' Spiritual Sense descended here. They waited for Su Yi's instructions on the one-time request he could give. "Immediate acquisition of an Inherited Legacy—the Horizon Sword Cultivation Method, via will imprint or treasure. No initial struggle. Staggered bestowal." "..." the three Mystic Judges all deliberated briefly, and then they nodded. This request didn't necessarily require specifics, and the finer details were left for the Mystical Judges to decide. For this one, Shang Liu created a tiny black sword no larger than a pinky, and embedded it within the soft soil near some medicinal plants. It glinted brightly from the solar light, directly in the young boy's visual range. The tiny sword had no spirit automaton within, yet it had a Spiritual Space that was divided by four gates. The first gate would expose the Foundation Establishment Realm portion of the legacy, allowing him to cultivate to the Qi Condensation Realm, unlocking the next gate, allowing the lower-stage Qi Condensation Realm methods—Qi Creation, External Flow, and Elemental Birth, to be explained and revealed. This would continue until the last gate, which contained the upper-stages—Sublime Qi, Infused Spirituality, and Qi Essence, and lastly, the way to ascend to the Astral Core Realm. This was what 'staggered bestowal' meant. It was a minor challenge and allowed Chosen to take one step at a time. Unless they discard the method sometime later. But that was hard to predict. Su Yi didn't ask for a Spirit Automaton like the one Wang Yutian had masqueraded as all those years ago in the Myriad War Dao Palaces, which may or may not have been accepted, but this meant there was no guidance given. After deciding this, Su Yi felt comforted by his choice and scoured for another.

MC things.

KevinAscending@@@@