Chapter 559: Ranger? No, Rider!

Upon returning, Jinshu stayed silent and returned to his abode on one of the floating mountains in Nine Heavens Peak. Tianyi wanted to comfort his disciple, but he didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t every day that you learned that the murderer of your father was the former leading disciple of the force you joined.

Tianyi held his chin inside the main hall of the Nine Heavens Palace. Although he didn’t think Jinshu would betray the Immortal Court, he didn’t want his disciple to be distant from the Immortal Court and himself. Although the Immortal Court executed Xia Yushan for his crimes, it was not for killing Jinshu’s father, and that wouldn’t erase the fact that Xia Yushan had killed him.

So, Tianyi wanted to try making up for it. As for the price, he would naturally bear it himself.

Inside Nine Heavens Palace of the Nine Heavens Universe, Tianyi’s conduit waved his hand and countless spheres of light materialized inside the throne hall. In each of these spheres, wondrous raw materials shifted and distorted, transforming into belts.

They were all soldier morphers that Tianyi promised to create for the Immortal Halls in the lower realms. The four he created before were given to Grand Elder Xia. Well, not given, but lent to him. The Darklight Morphers can be given, but Tianyi wanted to keep the Spacetime Morphers. As the morphers created from his primary law, he didn’t want to casually give them away, but he also didn’t want them to remain as collections, unused. Morphers were only good if they were used.

‘Speaking of which, should I make some mecha to pair with the morphers?’ Each morpher came built with war formations. By constructing the war formations with rangers from the same set of morphers, they could materialize a giant war formation with only a small number of people, but it had a critical flaw: the increase in energy drainage.

If they could have compatible mechas, that would fix the problem. Storage wasn’t a problem. Even mortal cultivators could store large objects in their spatial ring, much less mecha. Tianyi only needed to create a specific storage space inside the morphers themselves for the mecha.

Tianyi shook his head. For now, he had no such plans. It would severely hinder creation speed. Not to mention that mechas were big boosts in ranger shows, but in the cultivation world, unless the size reached an absurd degree, it wouldn’t matter much. Much less for conflicts within a realm.

In addition, Tianyi didn’t have that large of a confidence to forge mecha that would suit his expectations. True, he could refine some puppets and golems, but they were far from the required level for the mechas in his mind.

But back to the main topic. Contrary to Tianyi’s expectations, Grand Elder Xia did not immediately distribute the four morphers he received. Tianyi made them so any true immortal could use them, but Grand Elder Xia wanted to hand them to the most suitable immortals with the best potential to become monarchs.

The true immortals who learned about this chance all became excited. They had seen how powerful the Five Elemental Rangers were. More importantly, they saw how two of the five members became immortal monarchs after using them for a few thousand years. Becoming a ranger might not guarantee them to become monarchs, but it definitely increased their chances.

There were many candidates for the Darklight Morphers. Although most members of the Immortal Court practiced the Five Element Book, there were still many that chose to comprehend the Law of Light or the Law of Darkness. The Law of Light and the Law of Darkness were related to the Law of Yin and the Law of Yang, but they were much easier to comprehend.

The problem came from their compatibility. Although the dominant one would take control of the merged form of the Darklight Morphers, the greater the compatibility, the greater the power they could exert even if they could not reach equilibrium.

Twins or dao companions were the best candidate, but it wasn’t that simple. Twins often had similar talents, and Dao companions also often formed because of compatible personalities and the law they comprehended. For twins or dao companions to comprehend diametrically different laws like the Law of Light and the Law of Darkness was rare. Perhaps it was because of the law they comprehended or the nature of their talents, but such pairings often did not have a harmonious relationship.

The Spacetime Morphers candidate selection was not going well either. There were many true immortals that embarked on comprehending the Law of Space, many of which sprouted up after comprehending spatial concepts in Tianyi’s Cultivation Online. However, the number of true immortals that comprehended the Law of Time was pitifully small. Many of whom comprehended parts of it were only doing it because they had a chance and not because they majored in it.

The most recent one was Hu Landie, but she was already a monarch, so it didn’t make sense to have her use the Silver Phoenix Morpher. So, for now, only the Golden Dragon Ranger was selected.

Tianyi rid himself of the thought. It didn’t really matter to him who Grand Elder Xia chose as the new rangers. Right now, he was focused on creating soldier morphers.

After creating five sets of exactly the same morphers and armor, Tianyi halted. If this kept going on, it would just be an army of similar rangers and they would lose their individuality, the best thing about them. So, Tianyi no longer based the soldier morphers on the Five Element Morphers and based them on certain themes for each set.

At first, it was easy to think of themes. The first set Tianyi made was based on weapons. The leader was naturally the Red Sword Ranger, the second-in-command was the Blue Spear Ranger. There was also the Yellow Staff Ranger, the White Bow Ranger, and the Black Shield Ranger.

The next set was based on jewels: The Red Ruby Ranger, the White Pearl Ranger, the Blue Sapphire Ranger, the Green Emerald Ranger, and the Yellow Topaz Ranger.

The next set was based on ordinary felines: Red Tiger Ranger, Yellow Leopard Ranger, Blue Cheetah Ranger, White Cougar Ranger, and Black Jaguar Ranger.

Following the animal theme, Tianyi designed another set based on birds. They were the Red Falcon Ranger, the Blue Owl Ranger, the Yellow Eagle Ranger, the White Swan Ranger, and the Black Penguin Ranger.

Soon, Tianyi could no longer think of any new animal groups to model each set after. The only animals that were left were weak and cute critters like chicken, pig, bunny, etc. He didn’t feel like making rangers based on the zodiac because he felt that he would need to create twelve morphers, a whole five plus seven extra.

Tianyi created more, but his imagination soon reached the limit. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, but many motifs he wanted to base a set of morphers on did not exist in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System, like knights, ninjas, cars, etc.

“Screw it,” Tianyi said and created morphers based on knights, ninjas, cars, pirates, etc. What did it matter if the people did not know about them? As for whether people would recognize him as a reincarnator? What did it matter? The people important to him and the Immortal Court already knew. It wouldn’t matter if other reincarnators figured out his identity as a reincarnator.

After creating twenty sets, Tianyi stopped and looked at all the morphers he created. “Did I go overboard and create too many?”

Logically speaking, the power of a single true immortal should be more than enough for any realm below the immortal rank. Having five in one was enough power to destroy even a higher rank realm.

“Perhaps I should have made them in sets of three,” Tianyi muttered. It would have freed up a lot of slots. Using motifs in sets of three was far easier than five. The unused motif could be used on a second set, too. “Should I remake them?”

After a moment, Tianyi shook his head. Since he already made them, he was too lazy to change them.

‘Speaking of sets, why not create just one morpher per realm?’ Tianyi thought. However, a morpher alone did not conjure the idea of rangers, but rather a different type of heroes intricately linked to rangers. Or rather, they could be said to be the predecessors of rangers, masked riders.

Compared to rangers, Tianyi actually preferred the armor of the classic riders. They didn’t wear spandex and had armor. He couldn’t see himself becoming a ranger, but a rider was fine.

Right before Tianyi went on another refining spree, he stopped himself. He could do that later. For now, he needed to speak to Grand Elder Xia.

“Grand Elder Nine Heavens, do you have a new set ready for me?” Grand Elder Xia asked.

Tianyi nodded and waved his sets, revealing the twenty sets of morphers he created.

The sheer amount caused Grand Elder Xia to freeze. “This? Why are there so many?”

“What? I thought the Immortal Court had a lot of forces in the lower realms. Compared to them, isn’t this too little?” Tianyi asked.

“No, I meant you created so many in just a few months. I was only expecting a set at most,” Grand Elder Xia clarified.

“The morphers aren’t that hard to build, especially the soldier morphers. It took longer for me to think of the motifs to base each set on. Strictly speaking, I feel regretful about making so many sets of five. I should have made more sets based on three. Maybe four would even work based on the Laws of Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind,” Tianyi said, before trailing off as more ideas came to him.

Grand Elder Xia coughed into his fist. “No, that’s enough for now. If you make any more, I’m afraid that Immortal Court won’t be able to afford the rental fees.”

Tianyi glanced at Grand Elder Xia with suspicious eyes. The Immortal Court, running low on resources? Who did Grand Elder Xia think he was lying to?

“I’m not lying to you,” Grand Elder Xia said. “The creation of the Primordial Realm and establishment of the Immortal Court used up a lot of  resources . Right now, we’re stocking them up again, and it will take a while to fill the treasury to its former level.”

“What about the divine artifacts or fragments?”

“Those can’t be given out casually. Even though the morphers are useful, they aren’t worth a divine artifact or even their fragment,” Grand Elder Xia said.

Tianyi nodded. He agreed with Grand Elder Xia’s words. “Actually, I can lower the rent, but I need a little help.”

“Oh?” Grand Elder Xia became interested. It was very rare for Tianyi to ask for something, but soon, his interest disappeared and he sighed. “What a sin, what a sin. I should not have indulged Yushan back then.”

Grand Elder Xia learned from Tianyi the connection between Jinshu and Xia Yushan, and he couldn’t help but become regretful, especially since Jinshu was obviously a talented young man.

“What did you need help with?” He asked. From the clues, Grand Elder Xia had already pieced together that Tianyi wanted to eliminate the resentment in Jinshu’s heart.

“I want you to use the Book of Life and Death to find Lushu’s reincarnation,” Tianyi said.

Grand Elder Xia nodded. “That idea is feasible. Although it’s against the rules, I think the Immortal Court will give face to the great Grand Elder Nine Heavens.”

Tianyi rolled his eyes and turned around. He didn’t want to say anymore. “Message me when you find out.”

“Just a warning, it might be possible that Lushu’s soul was destroyed in one of his many lives,” Grand Elder Xia quickly said before Tianyi completely disappeared.

A few weeks later, Tianyi appeared in front of Jinshu’s manor.

“Master, what’s wrong?” Jinshu asked, stepping out.

“Follow me. I want to show you something,” Tianyi said. Without waiting for Jinshu to answer, the two of them disappeared.

When they reappeared, they were standing at a cliff. Below them, a group of people wearing similar uniforms surrounded a teen, also wearing the same uniform as them. The teen was struggling on the ground, having taken a beating.

“If you know what’s good for you, you should leave the Augur Gale Sect and never appear in front of me again,” the obvious leader of the group said. With an arrogant turn, he walked away. The other people followed him while laughing at the downed teen.

Jinshu watched this with a frown. He was aware of worldly matters. Where there are humans, there are conflicts. What made him frown was that he felt the teen on the ground was inexplicably familiar.

“How is it?” Tianyi asked.

“How is what?”

“Does he feel familiar?” Tianyi asked, pointing at the downed teen.

Jinshu looked back at the downed teen and furrowed his brows. “Who is he? I don’t think I met him before. But I feel like I should know him.”

Tianyi smiled. “Good. I was afraid that you wouldn’t be able to sense any connection to him, but it seems I was worrying about nothing. That boy is the reincarnation of your father, Lushu.”

“My father?” Jinshu repeated, and he looked at the beaten teen again. Right now, he didn’t know how to feel. Although he hated Xia Yushan for killing his father, he had actually never met the man or remembered him. It was more anger because of his mother.

He watched as the teen stood back up and limped away. Although he was limping, it was nothing more than bruises. None of the teen’s internal organs or bones were broken. Just as the teen reached his straw hut, he noticed something flashing in the corner of his eyes. When he walked closer, he saw something poking out of the ground.

The teen kneeled down and dug it out to see a strange beetle made out of an unknown metal. The beetle flew to his wrist and latched around it without warning. When the teen reacted, the beetle had already sunk under his skin.

Jinshu looked up from the scene and at Tianyi. “Master wants to make him a ranger?”

Tianyi shook his head. “Ranger? No, rider!”