The wondersky realm was filled to the brim with countless caeli.
“Lin Feng!”
“It’s him!”
“He looks quite similar to Ye Chen.”
“Are you blind? Ye Chen’s far more natural and radiant, while Lin Feng is cold and mysterious.”
“You say that, but they behave the exact opposite. Lin Feng’s the one who sacrificed many things for a normal friend of his, Liu Wanwan, whereas Ye Chen’s path is covered in blood after the many people he’s decisively killed. They tread completely different paths.”
Tianming was rather interested in the discussions. He hadn’t personally met Ye Chen yet, but comparisons between the two of them were already being made across the entire star.
“Similar, yet different, eh….”
It was just like eggs and bananas. Eggs had whites on the outside and yellow yolks within, while bananas had yellow skin and white flesh within. They were opposites, in a symmetrical sense. Tianming’s aura made him seem like a raging lord of chaos that people didn’t dare to approach, while Ye Chen was bright and young and famous for being youthful, childish yet ruthless. There was a stark contrast between their outer appearances and inner personalities, and it somehow caused them to be perceived as polar enemies. The two of them were each miraculous existences. The question was: who would be more miraculous? No doubt, the denizens of the Violetglory Star couldn’t wait to find out.
……
Tianming arrived at Old Master Shengui’s beach using the wondersky fairy’s teleport feature. He felt the warm ocean breeze brushing across his face. The clear seawater rushed to his feet, causing fine white sand to give way to his weight. There were even some crabs around the area, menacingly waving their claws at him.
“What a beautiful sight. It’s a shame it’s not real.” The wondersky realm itself was no different from a dream, being situated within the xenomemory space. The only part of Tianming that was actually in it was his caelum.
“What makes what’s real, real, and what makes what’s fake, fake? There’s falsity in everything that’s real, and reality in everything that’s fake. Young man, don’t be too quick to judge,” said the old man from behind.
Tianming turned around and saw the old man in colorful shorts and a singlet. He held a delicious-looking coconut in his hand. “You’re just trying to sound cool using sophistry.”
“As long as I can fake it convincingly enough, it might as well be real.”
“Is that coconut real too?”
“Of course. Imagine you dreamed of a girl… and you did the deed with her, only to wake up and notice signs of it having happened. Who’s to say that experience wasn’t real? The wondersky realm is where dreams come to life.”
“I can’t be bothered to argue in circles with you. Why’d you ask me to come?”
“I have some advice for you, that’s all.”
“Let’s hear it, then.”
“I’ve heard of how Ye Chen has managed to easily defeat tenth-level constelliers at the Astraldome, ‘easily’ being the operative word. On the Violetglory Star, he’s able to defeat enemies three levels above him, so he obviously has many tricks up his sleeve. Now, his true level is the seventh. While that might not be higher than you, he’s a few leagues above even the eighth-level princess you defeated last time. In other words, he’s reached heights nobody of your age ever has. If he continues growing, he’ll probably peak at a level above the two leaders of the top factions of the Violetglory Star.”
The old man sighed as he suddenly felt that the coconut he was holding didn’t smell as good anymore. So he tossed it away and it turned into a red dudou undergarment. In the wondersky realm, nothing was out of the ordinary. “If that day ever comes, he’ll reach heights nobody on the Violetglory Star has reached in the past millions of years. The Divineglory Dynasty will definitely start suppressing the Violetcloud Imperium, and that would be troublesome.”
“You don’t need to tell me all that. It’s still too early to worry about it right now. Still, I’m thankful for the information,” Tianming said. How could a seventh-level constellier easily defeat tenth-level constelliers, the best of the best that fought in the Astraldome no less, who were top rankers on their own worlds? At the very least, they were sure to be much stronger than Li Haochen. The news caused Tianming to evaluate Ye Chen more highly, though he still didn’t really care too much about it. It was just going to be a fight with no stakes, merely a part of cultivating and growing. He just had to try his best and didn’t even have to worry about dying.
“Senior, would you believe me if I told you I was a fourth-level constellier?” Tianming asked.
“What was that? Tenth-level? Impressive. You stand a chance against him then,” Shengui said. (TL Note: Ten and four have similar pronunciations in Mandarin.)
“Fourth, not tenth! Don’t get it wrong!”
“Yeah, tenth, right? What part of that is wrong?”
There was no way to communicate it at all. Here, people couldn’t really tell what his specific level was, though that might be different if he reached the Solar stage. Solarians had different qualities that showed which level they were at, unlike constelliers.
……
After he left the beach, Yin Chen reported a minor change to him so he left the wondersky realm. “Where is she?”
“Outside there.”
“Lead the way.”
Tianming left the Azuresoul Sword Mountain. Right after he emerged from the Azuresky Myriadsword Formation, he saw a girl that he easily recognized. She wore a light-green dress and held a paper umbrella. Her long hair flowed and fluttered and she looked just like a beautiful fairy. She was none other than Weisheng Moran, but Tianming couldn’t be sure which Weisheng Moran he was dealing with now. Even so, the fish in his left eye looked a little excited and energetically swam around in his golden iris.
She stood near a small stream in the forest, her dress not failing to highlight her figure. When Tianming arrived, she was still intently looking at the stream.
“Hey, why’re you here?” Tianming asked from a distance at the border of the formation. He didn’t dare to approach before he could be sure she wasn’t a danger to him.
She turned back, slightly surprised. One of her eyes was empty while the other was ink-black and deep like jade, looking like a precious gemstone.
“Your little fish has come to find you,” she said, hesitantly lowering her head.
“Bro, why’d you look for me?” Tianming asked.
Her expression was a little odd at being called ‘bro’. She seemed a little angered and exasperated. “I’m a woman. You can check if you don’t believe me,” she said as she began stripping off her top and working downward, revealing her fair skin.
“Hey, stop!” Tianming felt himself going insane. “Fine, I believe you’re a woman!” Not only that, he believed that she was the original Weisheng Moran and not the one he had fought. Their behaviors were far too different.
“Big Brother, I managed to escape… but I don’t know where I should go. So, I came to you. I broke something, so he won’t be able to find me for now. Can you take me in?” she asked, biting her lip and looking at him like a pitiful little puppy.
“No way in hell! Goodbye!” Tianming immediately backed off.
