Dancing on the golden ashes-Chapter 200: The Path to the Next Beast

What’s my plan now, you might wonder? Well, even though I had some idea of what I was supposed to do, I had no clue where to even start. Time passed slowly, and whenever I had a moment, I would stop to cultivate, to study the laws of life and death. With each passing day, my power grew, but life itself remained too hard to comprehend. It was as though it was so profound that it would take years—perhaps even centuries—to grasp fully. No matter how close I felt myself to be to the next realm in cultivation, I couldn’t quite touch it.

I remembered, from the time we’d been trapped in the mysterious world of cultivation, that the next realm above Soul Lord was supposed to be the Soul Fuse stage. But that left me with even more questions. Did it mean that all the souls I had now, those scattered across different entities, would have to fuse together? How was I supposed to do that? How could I control all those energies at once? Was it connected to the laws I had been struggling to understand?

For now, all I could do was harvest energy from the air around me to cast attacks, grasping at the loose laws and fusing them together to create power. It wasn’t much, but it was something. If only I had a teacher, someone who could guide me, I believed I would be able to grow stronger faster. But that wasn’t possible in this world. The original cultivators were all gone, and only a few original beasts remained—beasts that were now my enemies.

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I could feel the Soul Fuse stage tantalizingly close, yet still so far away. It was a frustrating sensation, a gnawing feeling of inadequacy that I couldn’t shake. Five more years had passed since I started, and still, the goal remained just out of reach. I stared at my reflection one day, and for the thousandth time, I saw the same youthful face staring back at me—no wrinkles, no signs of aging. I had stayed the same while time moved forward. Was this the power of longevity? Staying young for eternity? Part of me found it comforting, though it left a bitter edge to my thoughts.

After all, what woman wouldn’t want to stay young, to keep her beauty, to never have to battle against the inevitable march of time? The thought of losing my youth had always terrified me, and now I had been granted the kind of immortality most people could only dream of. It felt heaven-shattering in a way, but there was something unsettling about it too. Was this how the immortals felt—never changing, never aging? Perhaps they were more cursed than blessed. Still, I could hardly complain. There was no rush to face the passing years.

In these five years, I had accomplished some things, though not all of them were as exciting as I hoped. I had tracked down another demi-god level beast. The hunt had been long and tiring, and the beast lived in the ocean. Searching for a monster in the vast ocean was no small feat, even for someone like me. The odds of finding it were slim, but that only pushed me further.

Now, I stood on a tall cliff, gazing out at the endless blue ocean before me. The wind swept gently across my skin, and the scent of the saltwater filled the air. My feet were far from where I had first started this journey, and in this new land, I found there were many more like me—people from my world who had been brought here. Some spoke in tongues I didn’t fully understand, but I recognized one language, Arabic. The faces were different, but there was familiarity in the way they looked at me, and in my eyes, I could see the same confusion that had once overwhelmed me.

This continent was called Qamaris. I didn’t know what the name meant exactly, but something about it felt connected to the moon. It seemed fitting—this new world felt so alien to me. It was a place full of secrets, of hidden power, and yet, none of it seemed to matter right now. What mattered most to me was finding Khalid.

Khalid, a human who had managed to reach level 179 and was ranked second in the world, just below me. His Role, [Immortal Emperor], made him a formidable opponent. This was a world where strength mattered, and no matter how much I tried to distance myself from it, I knew I would have to face him eventually. That day would come sooner than I expected.

The past five years had sharpened my focus. I had fought, hunted, and grown stronger with each encounter, but the weight of it all was starting to take its toll on me. Mentally, I was exhausted. Time was pressing, and the looming thought of Khalid’s strength only pushed me further, making me realize just how little I had time to waste.

What a pain in the ass, I thought bitterly. But there was no turning back now. The next step in this journey was closer than ever, and I would stop at nothing to face whatever came my way.

At least my level had risen to 195, just enough to give me a slight edge over the others, but not enough to put me far ahead. Of course, that meant I wasn’t exactly in the clear. Rumors swirled that the next demi-god level beast was a beastly 301... typical, right? Why couldn’t they just be at my level for once? But the challenge was real, and I wasn’t about to back down.

In order to find this beast, though, I had to get past a certain someone. It wasn’t just about tracking the monster. No, this time I had to deal with an entirely different issue—him. The self-proclaimed "Emperor of the World" who’d made it his mission to impress me. What a joke. His arrogance matched the title he gave himself, and his delusions were only rivaled by his utter confidence. Ever since the first time he laid eyes on me, he’d been trying to woo me with his ridiculous offers. Marry him? Pfft. It was laughable. Yet, here I was, forced to deal with him, because of his supposed connections that could help me lure the beast to the shore.

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He knew I could easily end him if I wanted to, but for some reason, he thought he stood a chance. I wondered if he really did think I’d take him up on his absurd proposition, or if he simply enjoyed watching me toy with him. Either way, I wasn’t in the mood for his antics today. I had more pressing matters to attend to, so I’d leave him for tomorrow. The Al-Qamarim Empire’s capital city, Dawhar, was my destination, and I needed to focus.

With a sigh, I prepared myself for what awaited me there. Another power-hungry man with a huge ego to knock down. At least it wouldn’t be boring.