Death... and me

Chapter 3544: Such Things

"There is still a problem, isn’t there?" Kentucky suddenly spoke, seeing that Elsie had come back.

"Not just a problem, there are thousands of problems," Rean shrugged. "But it is all about the risk and reward. Go ahead, what problem is it you want to talk about?"

"Well..." Kentucky continued. "We are talking about a place where Divinity Realm Experts will gather to try to find the way to break through into the Celestial Realm. Elsie is the only Space-Time Realm expert within our group. Yet, against Divinity Realm Experts, she isn’t exactly very reassuring. Are we really going to enter such a place?"

Indeed, the problem wasn’t really the exploration, but the enemies they would find there. Now that Rean, Roan, Kentucky, and Celis had entered the Elemental Space Realm, they were confident they could match any Space-Time Realm expert. Yet, Divinity Realm was in a completely different category.

"That wasn’t all," Roan commented, "if you want to reach the Celestial Realm, you need to be in the Peak Stage of the Divinity Realm first. That said, although we will have many Divinity Realm Experts in different stages, there is no doubt that most of them will be at least in the Late and Peak Stages. The others below this level are entering just to try their luck, or so I think."

"Regardless, we are going in," Rean added on the side. "We have our reasons to take the risk."

"You do?" Elsie narrowed her eyes. "That’s something I was curious about. Since you know what kind of experts are going there, even though I’m giving you the slots, why are you taking this risk?"

"As I said, we have our reasons," Rean didn’t answer, though. "Also, the same could be said about you. Why would you enter such a dangerous place with your Space-Time Realm cultivation?"

Elsie looked away. "Ahem... I have my reasons..." Since she didn’t want to talk about it, she had no right to ask the twins’ group to speak about their reasons either.

"Enough with the reasons," Kentucky complained. "What I want to know is what we will do about this situation. Chances are, the moment we are found in this Celestial Supreme Palace, we will be killed. After all, why let the competition roam free if you can eliminate it easily?"

"And that’s why we need a Divinity Realm expert on our side," Roan added.

Everyone looked at him, including Elsie. "And how exactly would you find such an expert to give us support? I will warn you. The space inside the place is completely locked down. That means you can’t run into your Pocket Dimensional Realm. You also can’t bring anything from inside your Pocket Dimensional Realm to the outside, so forget about bringing a lot of your friends inside your Pocket Dimensional Realm while using just one slot. That won’t work."

"We have ten slots in the portrait, don’t we?" Rean asked back in response. "Elsie, I, and the others are using a total of six slots. We have four remaining. We can use the last four slots in exchange for protection."

Elsie didn’t like that idea at all. "Stop a moment and think about it. First, whoever we call will most likely try to steal the portrait and not let us enter the Celestial Supreme Palace. You saw my state when you first met me, remember? But okay, let’s pretend that doesn’t happen. Once we get into the Celestial Supreme Palace, what will guarantee that the Divinity Realm guy we found won’t turn on us instead? Or better, these guys wouldn’t need to turn on us at all. He or she would just need to fly away and ignore our existence. After all, they already managed to enter the palace."

"Isn’t there Soul Binding Contracts that can be used?" Roan asked Elsie and Rifindio. Those two would know better about that.

Let’s not forget that the Divine Snow World experts who reach the Divinity Realm always fall under the Supreme Palace’s Control when they leave. Since that’s the case, there had to be a way to force a Divinity Expert to keep be loyal. That was pretty common with the Inquisition Hall back in the Mortal Planet.

It’s just that back then, the highest level of experts you would find were Transition Realm ones. They were nothing compared to Divinity Realm experts. Even that Soul Binding Contract of Second Stratum would be pretty meaningless in the face of a Divinity Realm Expert’s soul. (Check the Auxiliary Chapter "Zero" to see all the cultivation realms.)

There were also the contracts they saw back in the Divine Snow Mountain Sect. The Snow Mountain had taken some contracts from the Inquisition Hall, and based on them, they created their own versions. But then again, the highest level of experts in the Divine Snow World was only the Space-Time Realm. Their contracts would still be useless against Divinity Realm experts.

Rifindio narrowed his eyes. "I’m not very sure about it, but the Supreme Palace does have a lot of Divinity Realm subordinates that aren’t Camazotz Bats under control. This is no secret to anyone in this Universe."

Elsie knew that as well, although she didn’t know Rifindio was talking from experience since he was a Camazotz Bat himself. "I’m not entirely sure how the Supreme Palace keeps its Divinity Realm subordinates from other races under control, though.

"But there is one thing that bothers me," Elsie continued. "When the time comes to enter the Celestial Supreme Palace, Divinity Realm experts are abundant, sure. However, the real majority are actually Space-Time Realm ones. Or, at least that’s what I found out when I researched the Palace. So many experts enter it at once that a lot of information becomes available every single time."

Roan found it strange. Sure, the Divinity Realm ones wouldn’t allow these Space-Time Realm experts to enter instead of themselves. Thinking about it, only then did he understand why, looking at Elsie. "The Materialization of the Portraits. It’s random, all around the Universe, isn’t it?"

Elsie nodded. "They are random, why?"

"Then that’s simple," Roan shrugged. "It’s just because those who stumbled on these portraits by chance hid them and never showed them outside. You yourself only got in all that trouble because you tried to sell your slots. Otherwise, I reckon you would have been able to keep it under wraps until the time comes."

Elsie had to admit Roan was right. There were huge phenomenons in the areas where those portraits appeared, but it wasn’t like these phenomenons could be felt all over the Universe. Only those close enough would see them. That was Elsie’s case. She was only passing by the area where it appeared by pure luck, and no one fought her over it. Such things probably happened all over the Universe with the other portraits.