When the Spring and Autumn Sage told me I had failed the trial, my heart skipped a beat. However he immediately followed it up by saying I had still managed to exceed his expectations, at which point I let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed the situation was similar to the previous trial, where I hadn't actually accomplished what he wanted from the cultivator attempting the trial but had impressed him with my methods nonetheless.

"I would know your name," he finished, staring expectantly at me.

My gaze however, couldn't help but dart towards the black dragon hovering at his side. The way it was looking at me unsettled me, but I didn't feel any negative intentions, rather it was the opposite.

Doing my best to ignore its gaze, I turned to look at the sage and answer his question. It was a simple one, after all.

"This one doesn't deserve your praise, honoured sage. My name is Zhao Dan," I replied.

It wasn't often I leaned on the memories of cultivator etiquette I possessed, but this was one of those rare times it felt appropriate. Offending him now would risk losing my reward, or so I suspected.

"Zhao Dan. A strong name. I will remember it well, though I suspect in a few decades it will ring out across the Celestial Jade Empire, if not the world," he said with a warm smile.

I wondered what he meant by that but I wasn't about to question him now. For now it seemed as if he was impressed by me, so that made me look forward to my reward.

"Your techniques are unique and powerful and I look forward to seeing how you develop them even further in future. Even though you have no affinity for my techniques, which I am rather disappointed by given your talent, you did technically pass the trials of the Spring and Autumn Gate. Thus, you deserve an appropriate reward," the sage continued, sighing deeply as he spoke of my lacking affinity for his seasonal techniques.

"Senior is most generous," I replied with a shallow bow.

"First, this belongs to you. You had Little- ahem, the Great Garden Sage's token with you, thus his inheritance belongs to you. Use it well." As he finished, the sage tossed over a plain metal ring.

I caught it in both hands, realising at once that it was a spatial artifact. Unlike that troublesome ring I'd obtained from the shadowy cultivator which I was still yet to crack, it was unbound. I could send a strand of qi inside to imprint it right away, so I did.

A brief glance made me stagger in shock. There was more wealth stored inside that ring than my entire gold spirit stone mine. It came in the form of manuals, cultivation resources, and other spirit stones, instantly making me the richest cultivator for miles and miles around Million Flowers Celestial Peak.

However, not wanting to offend the sage I left a closer inspection for when I had left the Gate of Spring and Autumn. "I will ensure I use this inheritance appropriately, senior."

He nodded in approval. "To be honest, I doubt you have much affinity with his techniques either, but clearly there was a reason he gave you his token. Who am I to argue with his will? Now, as for your reward for passing the trials, we came up with an idea that should suit you well."

My curiosity was piqued now. That meant he wasn't going to be giving me the usual reward for passing the trials. I had expected that, given his constant repetition about my lacking affinity with his techniques.

"It might not seem like much, but this manual was something my disciple here brought back from ancient ruins the likes of which had never been seen before in this world. Even during my lifetime, I nor any of my disciples and acquaintances were able to figure out much about the techniques and secrets contained within," the sage explained as he took out a rather plain looking, worn out cultivation manual.

"I wouldn't dare doubt the decisions of the sage. I am sure that the manual is a reward of exceptional value and utility," I answered as I took the book from his hands.

I almost dropped it. The manual was far heavier than I'd expected for a book of its size, roughly three inches thick.

Not only that, but when I inspected it with my spiritual senses I felt a sense of great unease. It had absolutely no spiritual presence.

Now, one might think that was normal for an ordinary object without sentience, but that wasn't the case. Everything in existence, at least that I'd encountered, had some level of spiritual presence.

In the case of ordinary things, such as a blade of grass or a table, the presence was so miniscule as to not really show up to my spiritual senses without a close inspection. This manual, however, was almost a void to them.

That was unsettling in more ways than one. However, given that it was a reward from a Nascent Soul Sage, it had to be something incredible. Rather than offend my benefactor by ignoring him and inspecting the manual now, I put it in my spatial bag for safekeeping.

Or at least, I attempted to do so.

As I tried to send it inside the spatial artifact, nothing happened. The manual remained stubbornly in my hands.

Typically, to store an object inside a spatial artifact required a brief pulse of qi with the intent to do so. It was so simple that it had become effortless for me after a few tries.

This was the first time I had experienced it failing. I quickly tried again, this time checking to see what had gone wrong.

As I sent the pulse of qi out, it seemed to twist and then simply vanish as it approached the manual. "What in the heavens' name is going on?" I muttered out loud.

The sage burst into a round of booming laughter. "Yes, we were all quite surprised when we tried to store it in our spatial rings. For some reason, it won't allow itself to be stored in a spatial artifact, no matter the form it takes. You'll have to conceal it on your person for safekeeping. Thankfully, its lack of presence should mean no one notices it on you," he explained once he finished laughing.

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"I see, thank you for the advice, elder." With that said, I tucked it inside a deep pocket of my robes. I had ensured all of my new sets had a relatively secret space to store things inside.

There were situations where accessing my spatial bag would be impossible or blocked, so being prepared for those was important. Perhaps that was paranoid, but it was better to be prepared than caught off guard. I only had one life.

Well, two if you counted the fact I'd transmigrated, but that was a technicality. With my rewards stored, I was at a loss about what to do.

I had more questions to ask the sage, but I wasn't sure which were appropriate. In the end, my curiosity beat out my apprehension and I spoke the first thing on my mind.

"Honoured sage, I was wondering if you would clear up a few of my doubts regarding this secret realm and your palace."

"Go ahead, I don't see why not. We have some time before the final trial of the Blossoming Heavens begins," the Spring and Autumn Sage responded, moving to a cross legged sitting position in the air.

"How is it that I entered this place, yet I never saw the woman I entered with or any of the other participants?"

"That has to do with my disciple here," the sage replied. "He watches over the three trial gates I left behind in the palace's secluded sanctum. If he senses an appropriate candidate entering the palace, he brings them directly there via the illusion trial. Usually passing the palace walls brings you to the outer courtyard, as it did for that girl and most of the other youths."

"I see, that makes sense. Was it only the token that gave me this chance, or did I possess any potential of my own in regards to your trial?" I wasn't upset if that was the case, but it would dampen my pride a little.

Rather than the sage it was the black dragon who answered this time. "In regards to this Gate of Spring and Autumn, you would not have earned this opportunity without Brother Great Garden's token. However, you may have been able to give the Gate of Spring a go."

That wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Basically they were saying that while I lacked true affinity to the sage's techniques, I met the threshold for a smaller portion of his inheritance. Perhaps things left by his disciples or less closely-guarded secrets.

"You said I gave you great hope for the future, what did you mean by that, honoured sage?" I asked next. I had been burning with curiosity ever since he'd said those words. He might have simply meant it as motivation for a cultivator of the younger generations, but it felt more personal.

"An astute question. You are quite observant," he said, pausing and looking out over the realm of the Gate of Spring and Autumn. "What you have done here is… unprecedented. Even I was not able to repair the damage those upper real– that person did to my pocket dimension's spirit. It has festered with its binding chains for thousands of years until you came along and eradicated them while still being a foundation building brat. I cannot tell you the reasons for it, given that you are still too weak, but you give me hope that this world is not eternally doomed to its fate."

That… was not the answer I had expected. It gave me more questions than answers to be honest, but I was in no place to push further. Suddenly the sage's apparition shot forwards until it was right in front of me.

He bent down and lifted the hand that the shadowy cultivator's ring was on and stared directly at it. "I see. You have already encountered one of them. Not only that, but you somehow managed to loot their treasures. How wonderfully poetic. I suppose I can tell you a little then, as well as break the seal on this ring. Whatever is inside might help you in the future," the sage said as a pulse of qi travelled from his finger to the ring.

I immediately noticed the qi I'd been using to crack the ring seeped inside it and bound it to me. A cursory glance told me it was the largest spatial dimension I'd ever encountered, even larger than the ring from the Great Garden Sage.

Not just that, but every square metre was packed with treasures of various kinds. I'd made a killing. Yet becoming richer than most could ever dream of rang hollow in the face of his revelation.

That shadowy cultivator had shouted about lower realms and other topics I didn't understand. The sage just now had talked about an upper realm, before cutting himself off. Was I about to learn more of those secrets?

"Now, do you know what ascension is?" the Spring and Autumn Sage asked.

I nodded. I wondered whether to reveal the events with Grandpa Guan, but something told me it was best kept to myself. "It's something that peak Nascent Soul Sages can do, I believe," was what I replied instead.

"Yes, that's right. At least it should be," he said with a deep sigh as a frown crossed his face. "For the past sixty eras, not a single sage from this realm has been able to claim the seed of ascension and break past the limits of this world. It isn't right. It isn't the natural order of things, but there's nothing any of us were able to do. Even now I can feel the chains that bind my apparition, preventing me from peering beyond the veil of the heavens when I should by all rights be able to.

"I've said too much, but know this. The people of this world fight against one another in order to advance, but the true enemy resides beyond this world. They have turned it into a prison. No, a farm," he corrected himself, spitting on the ground.

I didn't have time to wonder how an apparition was able to spit before he continued. At this point he was incensed, almost ranting.

"Three factions formed among the sages in those times. I assume the situation is the same even now. One group bowed their heads subserviently to those bastards, receiving gifts in exchange for servitude. Black bellied cowards, all of them. Another group rose directly in rebellion, fighting against the invaders. However, most of them were slaughtered in that great battle, a loss the likes of which this world hadn't seen in a dozen eras.

"Then there was the third and final faction, the one to which I belonged. We knew that we had to remove our new overlords, but we also accepted our limitations. Defeating them was impossible, so we decided to bide our time and cultivate the younger generations in the hope that a promising youth might emerge with the potential to fix this broken world.

"That brings us to you. An unprecedented talent for manipulating a type of qi I have never seen. A physique that isn't recorded anywhere I know of. Self created techniques which mirror the emperor's yet are radically different. More potent. I believe you are that cultivator we have been waiting for," he finished, allowing all the bombs he'd dropped to sink in.

It was far too much to take in at once. Even the simple revelation about this world being a prison or a farm or whatever he'd said was enough to make a regular cultivator faint from shock. To also learn about the fact cultivators from… another world had invaded this one and imprisoned us?

The fact that other worlds existed wasn't that shocking to me. After all, I had originally come from one. It was more the fact that those cultivators were supposedly even more powerful than peak Nascent Soul Sages.

I knew it had to be a possibility after Grandpa Guan's ascension, but I couldn't truly comprehend the level of power involved. I was still only in two-star Foundation Building Realm, far from the level of those powerhouses.

Yet the Spring and Autumn Sage, one of history's most illustrious figures, was telling me that I was the one to fix all these gigantic problems. It was too much pressure for one man.

"I understand it might take a while to understand everything I've just told you, but unfortunately there's no more time. I said too much and now I can feel their approach. I will need to send you directly out of the Blossoming Heavens. I apologise, but you will miss out on the final trial. However… it shouldn't be an issue with your talents. You won't be losing much. Remember this, Zhao Dan—only by breaking the limits of this world can it be saved," the sage finished, his expression turning worried as well as the dragon's.

I wanted to ask him more, but before I could open my mouth to speak I found the world around me blurring as I was tossed backwards at great speed. The last thing I saw of the Spring and Autumn Sage was the most powerful qi I'd ever felt bursting out of him in great waves as he withdrew a dozen objects from his spatial rings.

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