The First Cultivator - Changing Existence

With thousands of beings present, it was a while before the first monster stepped forward. He had taken the form of an octopus, as that was somewhat similar to his true form.

"My name is Nie Shanzi."

It was as simple as that. A few hundred more beings went, the first beast among them, before gates opened above them.

"Come. This is not a simple test. Gaining citizenship will change the lives of you and a group of beings you can bring with you."

The lizard stepped into the gate above, and the thousand or so beings followed.

The entire scenery changed as they entered the gate. Trees and peaceful fields were aplenty in the distance, and a large, advanced city was close by. All sorts of creatures roamed around, and though many were in humanoid form as it was easiest to move around in such a way, they all had obvious indications on their bodies that they were not human.

The lizard walked towards the city as everyone followed.

"Although we hate humans, we must admit that their form is good at moving around in smaller spaces. As such, we can conserve space by having most beings live in a humanoid form. Of course, you won't see this in the greater cities. Only these lesser ones are like that."

"Why do you hate humans so much?" A being in a bull-like form asked.

"That goes deep into history even I am not sure of. But I can tell you with certainty that the sovereigns themselves hate humans more than any other, so if you were to support humanity in the slightest, death would await." The lizard said.

"So why not kill them?" A bird-like being asked.

"Once again, I cannot peer into the sovereign's intentions, but from what I've seen, humans are useful. Besides, there is actually a clan of humans who live as one of the peak factions within the Sovereign Tree, so we can't just start massacring humans without a sovereign's direct orders."

Almost all of the beings following the lizard, including the first monster, were shocked. After everything they had seen, there were still humans who were highly regarded within this place called the sovereign tree?

The lizard continued. "Information about these humans is not kept secret. They live at the top of the Sovereign Tree along with a few other peak groups just below the sovereigns themselves. Their founder, being second only to the sovereigns, betrayed humanity for the sovereigns and thus is a valued member of our society."

This made a bit more sense. And since the respected human was a traitor, he would only care about his clan, not other humans. It was more out of respect than worry of offending the human clan that they didn't massacre humans.

Regardless, this was just a minor detail to everyone.

The lizard led them to the city. Most of the bigger beings such as the first monster in his large octopus form and the first beast in his true form, a towering deer-like creature, changed into humanoid forms. The first beast turned into an average looking human with antlers sticking out of his head, while the first monster turned into a different human form than Nie Shanzi since the first beast was around, and had tentacles coming out of his back.

The group of beings walked through the city, garnering a fair amount of attention. There were no Immortals in this city, but there were plenty of powerful beings at the Peak of the Great Dao realm.

They did not stop once as they made their way to a building near the center of the city. There was a platform containing hundreds of teleportation arrays set up in this building. Nobody dared stop them as they stepped on a teleportation array and disappeared.

When they reappeared, they were in a completely different world. Gray mountains rose up from the ground in the thousands, but the grey was not the grey of stone. It was the gray of the power of Karma. In the distance, after looking past endless amounts of space, tree bark could be faintly seen. It was like a distant mirage, but the first monster understood that the Sovereign Tree was not simply the name of a place, but a true tree.

It was a tree countless times bigger than an average Universe. The group moved fast in this new realm, flying at speeds nobody below the False Immortal realm could hope to achieve. Despite this, it took a few hours to reach a large mountain in the distance.

The amount of power coming off of that mountain made the first monster believe they were going to meet a sovereign, and by the looks of this realm, it would be the Karma Sovereign.

They climbed up the mountain and saw a wolf sitting near a pond. The first monster could instantly tell that this was not the Karma Sovereign.

The lizard fell down and kneeled to the wolf. Everyone else followed suit. Nobody dared disrespect such a powerhouse. They would be erased without knowing how.

"Are these the new batch?" The wolf asked.

"Yes, Young Lord."

The wolf stood up. "Everyone accepted as a citizen of the Sovereign Tree must be branded with a Karma Seal to ensure loyalty. Does anyone object?"

The wolf's words had a hint of killing intent to them. Nobody dared object.

A Karma Spiral began to rotate around the wolf's head. It slowly split into more than a thousand spirals that shot at each of the beings brought by the lizard.

The first monster felt it invade his body and settle near his heart.

The wolf opened its eyes and sat back down. The lizard did not bother it any further and headed back down the mountain.

As they began to fly back to the teleportation array, the lizard explained. "That is the daughter of the Karma Sovereign, the only direct descendant of a sovereign within the Sovereign Tree. If another exists, I don't know about it."