There were matters to be attended to before he could descend into a lower realm. Chief amongst them was, of course, ensuring he could— his weapons, his spatial ring… even his clothes had been crafted by him to an exacting standard for a realm so inconceivably higher than where he wanted to go that bringing them with him would have been like throwing a planet into a small pond. In other words… slightly inadvisable.

  Crafting some mortal garments wasn’t difficult, all things considered, given his mastery of the crafts. Rather, it was actually more difficult to find sufficiently mortal materials in the first place— and to prevent them from absorbing enough qi whenever he stepped into the Chaos Sea for them to advance immediately, too.

  Making a mortal-rank spatial ring was much the same— though it was an enjoyable challenge to see how far he could push things with his long-honed practice. What might’ve once been able to hold a small bag’s worth of material, he’d managed to make hold a whole large house’s worth at the far end of his ability. Unfortunately, preservation and access and security formations were needed too, meaning his final iteration only had a medium-sized room’s worth of space. Still an achievement, though.

  He didn’t even bother trying to take his needles with him. Loathe as he was to part with them for even a moment, they were weapons made by an Immortal Sovereign for an Immortal Sovereign— himself both times— which meant the whole planet-in-a-puddle problem again. After that, he had to chose what to take with him.

  That wasn’t to mean the choice wasn’t difficult. Oh, it was difficult. At first he’d wanted to take a bunch of divine treasures so he could keep advancing while on vacation— except, that was a terrible idea, and stupid, and the whole planet-in-a-pond thing all over again. From there he’d largely shifted to things that he could bring out in a mortal realm without them instantly ascending, which… even with that criteria, it’d been a struggle to fit everything into the size of a single small room.

  His codex token, a few trivial treasures, decorative items, a bed made with phoenix-feather down his sister had gotten him a few eons back as a gag gift… he sorted, and resorted, and then resorted again a few more times for good measure— but he was done, and he knew it.

  All that was left was to leave.

  He flicked everything around for a fraction of a moment, his main ring flying onto his left hand and the mortal ring onto his right before he quickly switched out his mortal clothes for his immortal raiments. Then, with a wave of his hand, he cut his way into the Chaos Sea and set course unerringly for the Lighthouse.

  It wasn’t the greatest of the Celestial Realm’s powers— not even close— but it was his favorite. It took a short while to even get there— even as an Immortal Sovereign, the sheer distances in the Celestial Realm were daunting— but eventually he saw it— its blinding glow piercing through to the Chaos Sea and illuminating its ever-shifting, ever maddening currents with its brilliant light. The shadow of it hung half into that ever-seething realm, and to think— it was the least of the great works. It was always humbling, to see any of the superstructures.

  Still, he was there for a reason. Cutting his way out of the Chaos Sea, he emerged unto an ordered system— a single star burning white-hot, its solar system long since blasted away, atop of which rested the lighthouse itself— a planet sized shard of crystals carved with innumerable arrays whose complexity even he could appreciate as he walked through the void towards it.

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  It was a beautiful thing, light blue and all ashimmer with a million colors as the star’s light refracted through its innumerable facets and inset runes. And more, so much more than that or even the star itself, it burned in his qi sense, an immeasurably vast beacon of brilliant light.

  “Stop!” One second— nothing. The next, another Immortal Sovereign stood in front of him, space bending and condensing around him— a corona of titanic might, formed by the sheer weight of their domain. Bad form, but given how on edge people were when it came to defending the few structures that were truly irreplaceable, Mingtian could understand. “State your business and approach no further!”

  “Fellow Daoist Void Dragon.” He inclined his head respectfully, then clasped his hands in front of himself in a gesture of peace, weak as it was when it came to the whims of Immortal Sovereigns. “Just the person I was coming to see.”

  Xulong blinked in surprise, his slitted eyes for a moment seeming to drink in all the light of the world— that momentary relaxing of his domain the true mark of his slight shock. “Daoist Bright Sky? I had thought you were going to be in seclusion for the next few centuries? Did you already make all the divine starsteel you need?”

  Mingtian grimaced. “Not as such. My sister took offense to me being so productive.”

  “How much of the galaxy did she destroy this time?”

  “Just the nebula, but the only thing of importance in that universe was the starforge anyways.” He fought back the urge to sigh. It was just a starforge, and he had plenty of others scattered around if he’d actually wanted to continue, and no, he wasn’t bitter at all. “I’ve decided to pursue a different project, though. Here.” He waved his left hand, a small moon’s worth of unrefined starsteel popped into existence beside them.” I know you wanted some, and it's practically junk unrefined anyways.” It wasn’t, and by the way Xulong’s fingers twitched in greed, he knew that.

  Still, it was a mark to his character that despite his draconic instincts, he didn’t immediately reach out and grab it all. “Are you sure? I know how excited you were to work on the next upgrade for your needles.”

  “My next project won’t need my needles.” That was all the confirmation Xulong needed to nab the entire moon of glowing steel, gone as quickly as it’d come. “Besides, I wanted to ask you for a small favor. I know you have a stable station here at the Lighthouse and was wondering if you could do me a small favor.”

  “In exchange for the starsteel? That will help with my projects immensely. I would do a lot.”

  Mingtian shook his head. “No, just… It’s not even that much, but you’re one of the few I trust to do it.” He pulled his main spatial ring off his finger, the silvery band shimmering and refracting— like a beam of sunlight bound. Xulong’s eyes widened in appropriately gobsmacked shock as he threw the artefact— everything he owned, his most valuable possession by dint of being all his possessions— over to him. “Hold onto this for me for a while, would you?”

  “A-are you certain? This is… no, this is…” it was incredibly amusing to see the dragon at a loss for words. After a moment, he simply bowed low. “I’m honored by your trust. I swear to protect your treasured possession until the very stars die to cinders.” A figure of speech, of course. A star’s lifespan was far, far too short for that sort of promise. “But… if I may ask, what are you doing?”

  He couldn’t stop the smile that flitted across his face, for a moment, as radiant as his domain— as he cut into the Chaos Sea, and let himself fall backwards into that jagged gash in the world, excitedly— he spoke, simply— “I’m going on an adventure.”

  Not me worldbuilding the entire Celestial Realm only to immediately banish it to the backstory realm T-T

  If you enjoyed this story, consider supporting me on! Patreons get access to 3 chapters for every 2 published on royal road.

  Discord.