Nei Lo, The Judicar, Justice Herself.

  The low Heavens were located above Lynoria and the numerous other realms beyond it. Among the central realms, the realms between Lynoria and the low Heavens were considered one of the safest to join. Avalon, Camalot, Atlantis, and many other celestial realms could be found here. They were known as the Golden Lands by some, and that was due to the amount of freedom they offered relative to the amount of protection they gave.

  Living in the celestial realm generally came with some form of submission. In Lynoria, you couldn’t kill, back in the Grove of Life, you’d probably be smitten down by Aftol if you started cutting down too many of her trees. But these were all relatively loose restrictions. If you wanted to walk through any part of the heavens, you couldn’t be a person of the demonic path, though that definition varied based on where you lived. There were other celestial realms between Lynoria and the low Heavens and while they too were numerous, they failed to be included in the Golden Lands category for one reason or another.

  Certain celestial realms could only be entered by joining a certain sect or pledging yourself to a certain cause. To enter the hells, you couldn’t have a righteous dao and would often need to fight your way into power and privilege before you could get anything done.

  But the Golden Lands were called that because they were a cluster of celestial realms that allowed loose and free passage among them, holding up general civility and law. They didn’t enforce the no-violence rule like Lynoria had, but they did enforce civil law within their confines.

  Because of this, the Golden Lands had some of the most influential celestial realms among all of the central realms. God-Kings came to them for both their freedom and protection and celestial sects settled themselves within their territory. Many God-Kings reveled in their freedom here, not having to pledge themselves to any God-Imperium while still settling under the protection of one.

  And since God-Imperiums couldn’t use their official forces to interfere with one another, not unless they wanted to insult their peers, having a whole host of God-Kings settle under your rule was the next best thing. God-Imperiums could set up commands, and service God-Kings to do their bidding.

  And seeing as God-Kings could eventually become God-Imperiums, the potential to create future allies and gather nonaffiliated cultivators made the Golden Lands extremely influential.

  But I wouldn’t be entering any of them today. They were relatively free and relatively safe, even for me. God-Imperiums within the Golden Lands supposedly didn’t monitor the realm, much like Aftol and other residents of the Cosmic Forest. But I didn’t need to enter so I didn’t bother to. Instead, I just passed by their outskirts, still avoiding some realms entirely for various reasons, but sticking to the populated paths.

  The reason I felt okay walking down these roads was because of where I was heading. The closer one got to the Heavens, the more heavenly everything became. Your chances of meeting with death or combat lowered significantly, at least when you came closer to the heavens within the central realms.

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  The central realms were a collection of realms that were considered to be the oldest and brightest out of any realms. They were the closest connections between the Heavens, Hells, Law Lands, and the Chaos Realms, hence the term, the central realms meaning these lands lay closest to the center of all existence.

  Navigating through them was tiring. They were close, but still, they were all so far away. For a thirteenth-rank like me, it was a bit of a risky journey, if not on the way there then on the way back. I would need to sit down and recuperate my qi after this whole stupid ordeal.

  The Tome had said nothing, and in my mind that was a good thing. It would only speak if I were getting near a God-Imperium and while it might use this as a chance to yap it up with Nei Lo, it hopefully wouldn’t have anything to do with me.

  I looked at the small realm in my hand, dying due to time and weariness. It was worth it.

  The Holy Grove within the Cosmic Forest collected all human life-bearing Yggdrasils to the best of their ability. That was because they believed that humans didn’t deserve pain and suffering. The Court of Imperium, Nei Lo’s realm did the same. It was sort of like bringing a stray dog to a no-kill shelter. These people would be forced to live under Nei Lo’s rules and their lives would change entirely, but they wouldn’t die.

  I assumed they would accept them, seeing as they took in almost all of the lesser realms they could find. But I didn’t truly know. Dane generally avoided celestial realms as a whole and steered clear of the central realms entirely unless he had a job and guarteed protection.

  Protection was fairly reliable, if a sect let an array master die on their watch, much less the Array King, it would be an insult to their name. And pride was one of the things sects would almost die to protect. And that was also why Dane had competed for the Array King title. The more known he was, the more the sects would do to protect him when he worked a job with them.

  His skill meant prestige and prestige meant pride, though from what I remember it brought nearly as much suffering as it did success. A lot of celestial sects would only allow the Array King to build an array for them and that meant numerous calls and multiple celestial sects constantly trying to hire him. Even though they didn’t need his service, no one above the fifteenth rank needed his service.

  Eventually, he gathered enough wealth and just hid. He was now pronounced dead by The Eternal Tome, and that meant someone else was able to inherit the title, though Dane had left behind a large enough shadow, that I doubt anyone could live up to.

  No, that wasn’t right. I sold all of Dane’s work to the Tome and that meant that someone could have gone and bought it and built upon it. Multiple someone’s probably. I wonder when the procession would happen and when the Array Masters would get together and choose the best of them.

  Soon probably.

  I passed many people, but we all kept our distance leaving a good stream of void to separate us. But I saw quite a few guards and right-path cultivators all around me and while that lowered the possibility of violence, it also increased it in some cases.

  Merchant caravans were always here, certain holy beast species as well, even a few insects. It was strange to see but there were always creatures who pushed against their archetype, making themselves a new archetype others could follow.

  I kept my head down and walked forward.

  Eventually, I reached the Gate to the Court of Imperium. It was the first celestial realm of the lower Heavens and its reach extended deep into the high Heavens as well. It was one of the most active heavenly celestial sects and had the highest number of visitors.

  Its gates reached deep into the realm and made even a God-King feel small. All bowed before they entered, even God-Kings. The guards themselves were God-Kings, tall and still.

  And then one of them turned their head towards me.