Chapter 289 - Utter Elation

When Cain was engrossed into a trance, Kali and Amber assimilated into a cultivation state near him, expecting this to take a bit of time. 

Grasping the Law essence of any cultivation manual takes plenty of effort, even for geniuses like Cain.

However, after only several minutes passed, Cain, flung his eyes back open. 

Without waiting, he revolved his soul energy in accordance to the Dragon enslavement art. 

Moments later, traces of faint Dao Marks appeared within Cain's mental psyche and Soul's Core. 

At this stage, Cain could now more clearly perceive these faint Dao Marks.

These Dao Marks weren't explicit to God Galaxies realms either. Even mortals in the lower realms would experience Dao Marks when cultivating any cultivation manuals.

All cultivation manuals are forged by previous powerful cultivators' martial comprehension. And this, of course, means the Source Laws they had grasped in their lifetime. 

Using their abilities, these cultivators would create cultivation manuals from purely their own Source Law essence. The Source Law essence forms into threads that then form into the words on a jade scroll.

When the cultivation manual takes the appropriate amount of time to perfectly fuse all of the Source Law essence threads, the words would finally become Dao or Law marks!

From then on, all Martial Cultivators comprehending cultivation manuals would comprehend these Dao Marks, engraving them into their mind and soul to perfectly utilize their powers.

For the Dragon enslavement art, Cain comprehended that these were enslavement Dao Marks. 

Cain never would have expected that the art of enslavement could actually be a Dao pathway, but there were many more mystical things in their world.

Cain's soul energy perfectly fused into these faint enslavement Dao Marks. 

The enslavement Dao Marks were stimulated, slowly stirring until streams of enslavement Dragon essence poured from it.

Cain willed the Dragon essence to pour into the Chaotic Emerald and immediately drill into Nightmare Lord's soul body. 

There wasn't any obstruction. 

The enslavement Dragon essence perfectly fused into Nightmare Lord. 

From there, Cain felt a massive change within his mind. 

Previously, the connection between him and the Dao Crystal Staff was noticeable but not completely firm. It felt as if, with a big enough mistake, the link could have been shattered. 

But now, there was no weak connection link. 

Cain felt as if the Dao Crystal Staff was an extension of his arm. Furthermore, the whole Nightmare realm itself exuded a warm sensation like the feeling of coming home. 

Surges of excitement bubbled within Cain, his lips broadening to a maddening level.

Wanting to test this new connection, Cain sent out a simple command of flowing Heavenly energy around him. 

It was an instant success. 

Heavenly energy swirled right above Cain's group, appearing like a massive black vortex.

"Hm?" The disturbance caused Kali and Amber to stir out of their cultivation state. 

Their gazes naturally looked up, and shock promptly erupted out of them. 

"Eh?? Hasn't it only been a few minutes? Have you really grasped a 1st Grade Heavenly manual so quickly?!" 

Kali snapped to her feet, amazement flashing within her eyes as she observed Heavenly energy swirling like a whirlwind.

Out of all colors, Heavenly energy was a profound black one. Its movements flowed incredibly rhythmically as if it was perfect streams of flowing water. 

Even Kali and Amber, who were used to magical sights, were genuinely enthralled. 

As Amber gazed upon the Heavenly energy, her lips slightly curled. "I can only say as expected of him. The quicker, the better for us anyway. So, does this mean we control the entirety of a Heavenly Venerate's quasi mystic realm?"

At this, Cain, Kali, and Amber's emotions sky-rocketed. 

This may be the most defining moments in their lives! 

Each of them has been taught to keep their egos and pride in check. After all, too much of both can only lead to disastrous results. 

But at this time, the trio honestly felt as if they were on top of the world. 

Cain just slightly reigned in his excitement, telling the girls, "First, shall we ask our new servant just what we can do here? Then, we'll go from there." 

Kali and Amber eagerly nodded. 

Clenching down on his Chaotic Emerald, Cain revolve the Dragon enslavement art. 

Dragon enslavement essence poured into the Chaotic Emerald, stimulating Nightmare Lord's Soul body. 

Everything went perfectly; Nightmare Lord's soul body was completely engraved with enslavement Dao Marks.

Nightmare Lord responded to Cain's call, slithering out of the Chaotic Emerald through a stream of Chaos energy. 

The Chaos energy rapidly formed into Nightmare Lord's whole soul body.

Nightmare Lord's soul body didn't have incredibly distinct features. The most notable look on him was his detailed face. 

Specifically, his eyes were continually flickering with green Chaos lights.

Seeing a legendary Heavenly Venerate Lord so up close, Cain, Kali, and Amber were a bit taken aback. 

None of them spoke for a moment, basking in this great revelation of power. 

While Nightmare Lord himself obediently waited for his master's following orders. 

Moments later, Cain, Kali, and Amber quickly calmed themselves, dawning serious expressions. 

Cain then asked, "Nightmare Lord, just what is the overall spoils here? For this realm to constantly open up for years, the accumulation should be massive, no?"

Nightmare Lord dutifully nodded. "Before the death of my main body, I had used 5,000 years of accumulated Heaven and Earth Divine Essence and Principal Source Laws to fuel the Dao Diagrams. Afterward, the quasi-mystic realm accumulated the highest natural resources for 7,000 years. There are quite possibly hundreds of millions of divine quality Sun Crystal beads and Crystal Law Cores. Furthermore, my miasma mist absorbed the spoils of thousands of God Galaxies inhabits, be it Martial Cultivators or World Spirit Masters. When I previously said you will be able to achieve Sacred Sovereign in merely two months here, master, it wasn't an exaggeration in the slightest. However, there is a catch."

Expecting that not everything would go so perfectly, Cain's group wasn't disappointed and attentively listened in. 

Nightmare Lord continued to explain, "For your cultivation to advance perfectly while also greatly improving your current and future foundation, I will need to expand a small portion of Heavenly energy. Doing so will cause the Dao Diagrams supporting the mystic realm to rapidly weaken. Once at a certain threshold of their reserves capacity, the Dao Diagrams will forcefully shut down all operations to recuperate, meaning master will similarly be forced to leave. This is simply unavoidable. If I didn't have this in place, my mystic realm would collapse because of the loss of the Dao Diagrams."

"I see…" Cain thoughtfully nodded. "So, just how long do we have now?" 

"Thankfully, because of your help master, I was able to massively fuel the Dao Diagrams thanks to formation. Previously, expending Heavenly energy would see the realm closing in two weeks. But now, you have at least two months' worth of Heavenly energy to make use of."

"And just what is this Heavenly energy exactly? I'm assuming it is the essence from those Dao Diagrams?" Kali suddenly asked. 

Nightmare Lord paused, his Soul Sense inspecting his master and the girls.

Moments later, he explained, "Indeed. Master, you, your lover and sister, should at least be aware of this. Dao Diagrams can only be created by Divine Ruler experts and above. From the Divine Ruler realm, one's understanding of the Heaven and Earth and Source Laws reaches a qualitative threshold. It will be possible to fuse Dao Marks and Divine Essence with only some restrictions. As one progresses through Martial cultivation, the restrictions become less, and the effects become hundreds to thousands of times more powerful. At the Heavenly Venerate Realm, my Dao Diagram is one of the highest quality of Heavenly Energy. It surpasses environments by hundreds of times in even peak Heavenly Great Worlds. Even more terrifying is the fact my Dao Diagrams had gradually weakened throughout these long years. If it was at its full potential, master alone would have the possibility to reach the Divine Star Realm in shot. Still, what we have is more than enough to reach the peak of the Mortal Realm easily."

Cain, Kali, and Amber stayed silent as they seriously absorbed all of this new information. 

The longer they pondered over their options, the trio gradually realized they practically have a cultivation haven!

Out of the wide and expansive God Galaxies, Cain believed the Nightmare Realm could rank as a top-tier cultivation ground. 

And through a lucky series of an event, it was all for Cain's use.

Amber, who's been silent throughout this whole moment, suddenly knitted her brows. 

Her smile slightly faded as she said, "This really is perfect, but it will be impossible to keep this a secret. Especially not after the recent massive killings. Furthermore, the Phoenixes will definitely find trouble with Cain because he killed that trio. However, if we expertly use this realm, our position can become even more protected."

Kali folded her arms, slightly sighing as she relented, "True. Honestly, I couldn't really give a damn about helping the family. I would only care about grandmother getting a huge piece of this goldmine. But as of now, we don't have a choice to just ignore the outside world, right?"

Cain nodded while taking out Shi Wei's contact ring. "Mn. Before we do anything, I will contact grandmother now. She would have the best way how to appropriately handle this. Nightmare Lord, can you use Heavenly energy to instantly connect with her?"

"For a simple task like this, it is a breeze, master."

Nightmare Lord waved his hand, causing a small surge of Heavenly energy to flow into Cain's spatial ring. 

The spatial ring instantly ignited.

Cain felt his consciousness link right into Shi Wei's contact ring. 

Stimulating his soul, he quickly said, "Grandmother? Are you free?" 

"Little Cain?" Shi Wei's soothing voice echoed in Cain's mind.

"I wasn't particularly doing anything important. Is something wrong?" Her tone was instantly serious and concerning. 

Hearing this always filled Cain with warmth. It was great to have an unfathomable expert to rely on.

He calmly explained, "Grandmother, the Nightmare situation is complicated. It would be better if you were to come so I can explain it in full. But in essence, I had gained a way to enslave Nightmare Lord's remnant soul and control the entirety of the Nightmare Realm. I can make it so even you can come in here."

As Cain finished, he suddenly heard Nightmare Lord's voice quickly say in his mind, 'Master. Do note that more powerful people in the Divine Ruler realm will put a slightly bigger burden on the Dao Diagram as they need to restrain their Divine aura from disrupting the realm's balance. It won't disturb our plans, but you should keep this in mind.'

The split moment after he spoke, Shi Wei's shock voice blasted from the contact ring. 

"Wh-what?! You enslaved a remnant soul? How did you-no, not now. Just stay where you are. I'm coming now."

The constant ring immediately fizzled out. 

Cain looked back over to the girls, saying, "Well, you heard her. Grandmother should be arriving shortly. Until then, let's cultivate. Just being in the atmosphere of Heavenly energy already feels faintly superior to the atmosphere of the Dragon Celestial pool."

The girls silently nodded, promptly assimilating into a cultivation state. 

Cain began cultivating as well and within seconds more clearly felt the special differences here.

His dantian and mental psyche stirred, seamlessly absorbing the origin essence sparsely infused into the atmosphere. 

Before long, Cain, Kali, and Amber fell into a trance.