Lowly Ascent

Following the gray path, Cain reached the edge of the colorful tower.

"Wow....impressive." Before him, a colorful door with a strange symbol cracked open slightly.

As his hand went to press the door open, a loud bang shook his eardrums.

Crack! Crack!

A massive hole appeared in the sky with a figure emerging from it.

"Imperial Demon! You must die today!"

The clouds dispersed and the sun became dimmer, as soon as this person appeared, the isolated world became obedient.

He had many names: Old Monster, Immortal Sect's Sect Leader, Sage of a Thousand Paths. But the two most outstanding titles were Oldest Prophet and, Living Immortal. The first title was a well-known one, the second was only whispered by the higher-ups of the Immortal Sect.

This was because the Sect Leader was also the Founder of the Sect! There was only one Sect Leader, and that was its Founder! The Sect Leader was a Living Immortal! He existed before the Seven Provinces and knew uncountable secrets!

Lady Moon's knees buckled, the Sect Leader was mysterious and his image was so vast not even Heaven could suppress it.

"The Sect Leader's powers are boundless, he always ages and then makes a new identity, lifetime after lifetime he becomes the sect leader under the Grand Elders' help. He is secretly the most powerful person in the world. If he goes after the Imperial Demon, then the Imperial Demon will die! But why....why is he acting now?" Moon whispered to herself, confused. 

Even as the most powerful, the Sect Leader hardly ever acted, making his figure obscure in many minds. His actions were few but the few times he did act left people in bewilderment.

The Old Prophet yelled again, "Imperial Demon, come here! don't think my methods won't find you!"

'Shit!' Cain quickly recalled his Mist Ghosts.

"I don't think so!" The Sage of a Thousand Paths stomped his foot.

Thousands of different energies assaulted the Mist Ghosts. The ones without considerable strength sacrificed their lives for the more powerful ghosts to survive. Cain recovered the majority of his army of bloody souls before the attacks reached him.

"Imperial Demon!" The Sage screamed again, this time homing onto Cain's location.

'Time to go!'

Without a second though, Cain entered the Control Tower, leaving the city and going into a new space cut off from everything else.

...

"It should be here somewhere..." Chambers looked around, trying to find a way past the Twentieth floor.

He passed many floors but none of them had anything he needed or held any information he didn't already know. He was from the golden age, after all, many of the practices and secrets were known to him. He was a Grand Fusion Stage Cultivator, he completed his Dao and was a Lord who oversaw all other living beings, only the rumored forbidden floors held things he didn't know.

In another part of the control tower, Cain was dumped into a dark space filled with piles of books.

"What the... what's with all these books?" He picked one up and opened its contents.

"Forceful Fidelity" Cain read the title before coming to understand the contents were about a cultivation technique of the mind and picking Mystical creatures proficient in creating loyal meat shields.

"This is similar to the Enchanting arts, perhaps an earlier version?" He picked up another book and read it, "Earth Control."

He read a bit more and exclaimed, "This is the Earth Tyrant Technique! It must be, the processes are the same, all the information is just outdated."

'Are all these books, techniques?' Cain stood up and dropped the technique, everything in his sight was engulfed in darkness.

Suddenly, lights turned on one by one, hovering orbs entered through the ceiling and illuminated the vast space, floating around.

All Cain saw was mountains made of dust-covered books. Some of them were taller than any mountain he'd ever seen. 

...

"What do you mean Sect Leader?! We must kill the Imperial Demon to overcome the tribulation?!"

"Not to overcome the tribulation but survive it! If the Imperial Demon lives then the Tribulation will become too hard for us to survive, everything I have built will be gone!" The Sect Leader sat behind a screen, his features hidden.

Even when he burst into the sealed realm of the Ancient City, his face was blurred by the dimmed sun.

Because of his appearance and the actions of the Grand Elders, rumors spread. These rumors detailed the new Sect Leader of the Immortal Sect, the Last Sect Leader was said to have fallen ill 200 years ago and now with such a healthy and powerful person appearing out of nowhere, there must have been a new Sect Leader in place. Even in the Immortal Sect, everyone thought this was true since he first appeared.

In most Generations, the Immortal Sect Leader didn't do much, but there were a few where the Sect Leader was called the most powerful. The Titles the Founder had were spread throughout his many identities.

The Old Monster title came from a time when the Sect Leader appeared out of nowhere during a period he was supposed to be weak, and on the verge of dying of old age. Sage of a Thousand Paths was one of his earlier titles in which he helped teach many of the countless Dao's. All of his titles were like this.

In the marble structure where only the Eight Grand Elders were allowed entrance, Lady Moon asked, "Lord Founder, what do you need us to do?"

"Enter the Control Tower, I cannot due to some secrets I shall not say. The Imperial Demon must die if we are to regain the path to Immortality!" He solemnly announced.

The eyes of everyone present gleamed, the Path of Ascension, to Immortality!

In his heart, the Living Immortal felt dark, 'Hah, we lost everything so long ago, I've used the secret art I luckily found and was able to hide, but it didn't stop me from being dragged into this place. For the first hundred years, I was confused, but over time I found hope in the so-called core and artificially made the Heavenly Spirit. I'm close to recovering that golden age, once more the Universe will be ruled by Cultivators and I can get revenge on that strange being that slumbered in the center of the universe!'

But his thoughts could only make him sigh again, 'My cultivation has regressed too much over the years to sustain my lifespan-extending technique, I'm only slightly more powerful than 10 Fusion Stage cultivators. This Imperial Demon seems to be one of those who take in multiple cores. I've killed a few over the years, but he is by far the most tricky to deal with. Even I failed to notice him at first...'

Similar to Rulers, Gatherers become arrogant, they are overbearing and if they cannot control these emotions that come from their status, they tend to die. The arrogance of status is a second barrier one must pass before becoming a true powerhouse. This was true for anyone with power. 

Every single Gatherer that came to the Spirit Lands in the past caused chaos, looking for the core and killing many. They were all dealt with quickly, their loftiness becoming the thing that killed them.

Even Gatherers were not all-powerful, against the Living Immortal, they were grass.

'To think, if I do succeed, will I be able to reach that height again? back then I wasn't at the top, only above the mortals. But even we Immortals were used as cannon fodder against that thing, even the Great Immortals who reached Transcendence died without a peep. Even the Core world died out....'

In Three Thousand Worlds, the Living Immortal was only on one of them, fending off the invasion with the rest. The Core world was where Cultivation began, it was the Land of Beginning that unified with Heaven. 

It was the place where the Great Immortals became symbols of the Dao, turning into living gods. Yet, they died too in the end.

...

"Is this the next area?" Cain wandered out of a hall into a library of immense size, books floating up to an infinite height.

He was on the second floor, where more history and techniques were. The room Cain left was where everything deemed subpar was sent. With so many books down there, someone would think this library would be smaller, but it was not.

Ruminating over which book to read first, Cain took out one book from a pile, the cover was emerald green with golden lettering, titled "Biography of the Architect."

It read:

"Since the beginning of her appearance, no one knew her name. She had many when she first started. But now, we simply call her the Architect.

"Born in a mortal village, the Architect was brought into the world to a poor mortal family of Half-Bloods. With the ongoing War of Lineage, they were looked down upon and put into a state of near death. Neither father nor mother could support their daughter. Luckily, she was found by the current Sect Leader of the Immortal Sect, Guan De.

"Taking the Architect in as a Disciple, she received the best education and training a cultivator could wish for, quickly advancing to the Growth Stage before taking action. Joining the War of Lineage herself."