Gol D. Ace In Coiling Dragon

Ace and the others had just arrived in the Celestial Realm, and although already being warned, they were still instantly taken aback by the purity of the elemental essence in the air around them. It was several times more pure than even the top floor of the Necropolis of the Gods.

Still, the one most pleased by the discovery was Julius. As it stood, thanks to being able to watch the creation of the Divine Planes, he had comprehended five of the six profound mysteries of the laws of fire and even managed to fuse four, showing everyone why it was that in terms of perception, he ranked just under Ace, and now Amira.

Unfortunately, because none of the Sovereigns of their Yulan Plane were of the Edict of Fate, and the fact that the four Edicts were particularly rare, his insights into the Edict of Fate had fallen behind. Whilst his Fire Divine Clone was at the Full God Realm and was able to rival some more powerful High Gods in terms of power, his Divine Clone of Fate was merely a Demi-God.

But now that he had entered the Celestial Realm – the Divine Realm supposedly created by the Overgod of Fate – he was overwhelmed by an incredible amount of Fate Essence. Unable to control himself, Julius entered a deep meditative state guided by a sudden epiphany.

Ace and the others could only sigh helplessly at "Fatty's" incredible perception. Still, they didn't say anything, not wanting to do anything that could disturb him. Unfortunately, they weren't alone.

There were only two ways to leave a material plane and enter another plane. One was to create a tear in space and enter chaotic space, and travel between planes that way. Unfortunately, the pressure put on the body whilst in the void was too much to bear for the vast majority. Generally, one had to be at least a paragon to withstand it, and even then, their speed would be reduced to a virtual crawl, which was why it tended to be only sovereigns who entered chaotic space to travel.

The other and by far more popular choice was the use of teleportation stations. Just about every plane in existence had its own teleportation station connecting it to the other stations spread throughout the universe.

It went without saying that this was how Ace and his group chose to enter the Celestial Realm. Whilst most teleportation stations in the trillions of material planes – like their Yulan Plane – were watched over by the various planar overseers, there were still many that weren't, but without question, all seven of the elemental Planes, as well as the four Edict-based Planes were guarded by squads of deities who worked for the various sovereigns.

The teleportation Ace and the others had entered via was one protected by a team of three – two Full Gods and one High God. All three had watched indifferently as the group arrived, but it was only when Julius entered his enlightened state that the Full God opened his mouth, pretending not to have noticed Fatty's state.

Ace could sense the jealousy that the guard was emitting, and not willing to allow anything or anyone to ruin his friend's opportunity, he spread his Godrealm over the guards and used a basic spiritual attack to knock the guard who was about to try and ruin fatty's enlightenment out before "asking" the other two guards to wait patiently till Julius had finished.

Although, with the current power of his soul, he was more than capable of preventing them from sensing his Godrealm, he decided against it to try and show them that, at least in terms of spiritual essence, he had far surpassed both of them.

And it worked; both guards could sense that for some reason, although Ace was clearly just a Full God, his soul was superior to most High Gods. Unfortunately, whilst it deterred the other conscious Full God, it only seemed to anger the High God.

Seeing that he intended to speak, Ace tried to use a spiritual attack to knock him out, but that was when he noticed that the guard's necklace was actually a soul-protecting artefact.

Still, before the head guard could feel pleased, he suddenly felt a vice-like grip around his neck. He didn't even see Ace move, but as he met Ace's eyes, he heard Ace's ice-cold voice enter his mind, warning him that if he did anything to interrupt his friend, he would kill them all.

The head guard was tempted to spread his Godrealm and request help from the other guards who were stationed nearby, but when he looked at the decisive look in Ace's eyes, any thoughts of resistance were instantly doused. 

Amira, Killian and the others looked at Ace helplessly. They hadn't been in the Celestial Realm five minutes, and yet he was already making enemies. Still, they knew ultimately it wasn't Ace's fault; they were just as ready to protect Julius as Ace was, but Ace was just faster to the punch.

Julius' enlightenment lasted a full 72 hours, and in that time, the teleportation station went off almost a dozen times for new arrivals, but each new arrival was asked to wait patiently, and whilst there were a few who had no interest in listening to Ace's request, they were quickly put in their place.

Three days after their arrival, the natural laws descended as Fatty's Divine Clone of Fate rose into the skies, allowing it to make a breakthrough into the Full God realm.

When Julius awoke, he noticed the conflicted gazes of those around them and looking at Ace and the others, he could guess what had happened.

Unfortunately, before he could even apologise, a tyrannical voice rang in the ears of all those present, shouting at the head guard, asking why they hadn't reported back in three days.

The head guard's eyes shined like he'd found his saviour. He rushed to the skies, hurrying towards the source of the voice, screaming for help as if he were scared Ace would kill him.

Ace and the others watched the man with an amused light in their eyes but ultimately did nothing to stop him. Instead, they simply picked a direction and flew off in the most casual of manners.

The man who shouted had just been informed what happened whilst communicating with the other guards telepathically and was instantly enraged. Whilst the other guard was a head guard, he was only actually head of his team; it was this man who was truly in charge of the teleportation site.

And never in all his years as site commander had his teleportation site suffered such disrespect. He had heard that Ace's soul was extremely powerful for his realm, but not only was his soul stronger than that of his subordinates, but he was also wearing a soul-protecting artefact; as such, he didn't hesitate to chase Ace's group down.

The moment his eyes caught sight of Ace and his group flying away, he unhesitantly attacked with all of his power. A giant bolt of lightning swept out the tip of the commander's sword, aiming to cleave the whole group in two.

In response, Ace merely sighed. Not even bothering to turn his head, Ace raised his index finger, pointing backwards, causing an extremely thin crimson beam to tear through the air and, by extension, the bolt of lightning charging towards them.

The guard commander watched in horror as Ace's beam dissipated his attack before piercing his shoulder and incinerating his arm.

Everyone present watched in horror as Ace and his team continued on their way, seemingly without a care in the world.

Thankfully, as a deity with a divine body, to heal, the guard commander merely had to expend a bit more of his energy. Still, as he looked at the disappearing figures of Ace and the others, he couldn't help but shudder as he replayed the scene of Ace's attack over and over again.

It was only when his subordinate approached and asked if he should relay it to the higher-ups that the commander shook his head and said not to say a word of what happened to anyone as they couldn't afford to offend such a powerhouse.

Others didn't understand, but as a High God with over a million years of life experience, after replaying Ace's last attack in his head over and over again, he was sure that Ace was one of those legendary figures who was focused on fusing as many mysteries as he could at lower levels.

Contrary to what those in the Yulan Plane believed, the Qingya Clan weren't the only ones who came to that conclusion; in fact, they weren't even the first. They just happened to be the only ones from their material plane.

Still, although many knew about it, those who truly chose to follow said path to completion were beyond rare. It was simply too hard and too strenuous, and unless you were really a genius among geniuses, it was a pointless endeavour.

Because of that, although it wasn't exactly a secret, it wasn't widely known either. On the whole, only those elites with incredibly powerful masters or genius descendants of particularly powerful clans would choose to follow this path. Either way, in the commander's eyes, Ace wasn't someone he could afford to offend.

In fact, he should be counting his lucky stars that Ace wasn't particularly bloodthirsty or the loss of the arm that had just finished healing would've been the least of his concerns.

Over the next few days, Ace and the others had been casually travelling whilst looking for a place to temporarily call home, at least until they were able to come up with a plan of action.

During that time, they had suffered bandit ambushes. Thankfully, each group of bandits had only been led by a single High God, and even then, they happened to be the most ordinary of High Gods.

Each time, they would take turns dealing with it whilst preventing Ace, Mira, Leona, and Killian – the monsters of the group – from helping out.

It had to be remembered that, although not quite as monstrous as their four monsters, even the weakest among them had completely fused two mysteries and had started fusing the third. As a result, they were all capable of challenging those average High Gods who hadn't begun fusing any mysteries.

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