The draconic ruins realm harboured many mysteries within it. Treasures, ruins aging back eons, mysterious clans and many heaven and earth phenomena that are limited only to that realm. But a majority of this had never been discovered because they are hidden in the vast expanse of the endless wilderness.
The endless wilderness occupies majority of the land in the draconic realms, covering about ninety percent of the entire realm. And because of it's vastness, this also provided sanctuary to clans shunned and rejected from the society.
Mainly the sky origin divine clan and half beast clan. Sky origin divine clan was supposedly the clan of decendents of a powerful expert who dared to go against a supreme being and were punished to being reduced to mere slaves. They willingly entered a slave contract that stripped them of any human right. Because if they didn't, they would face a painful death from the lack of heavenly energy. This was common knowledge through out the realm.
On the other hand, the half demon clan was a dirty secret that both human and demon beast clans tried to supress. Though the relationship between the demon beasts and humans was like the one between fire and ice, sometimes humans and demon beasts , willing or unwilling, mingle together resulting in half beast half human abominations.
Just like Ying Yueru, who was ostracised within the divine feathers sect for having demon beast blood, people born from these unions are despised from both fractions equally. And are often disposed of at birth. But some, especially the ones born from willing unions would seek shelter in the endless wilderness due to social rejection. Thus forming the half beast clan.
There were a few minor clans taking residence near the outskirts of the endless wilderness, but in the end, they were all part of the same clan. Hoping to find more of their own kind. Their had little to no presence in the great game between humans and demon beasts. They barely had any combat power either, with their leader being only at the level of dao of the dragon. Mostly attributing to the lack of spirit stones and a high quality deity lake. They had a few deity lakes they frequently visited, but they barely yielded any harvest.
They usually makes rounds on their deity lakes twice a year, hoping to collect at least a few dozen spirit stones. Unfortunately they were only able to find only twenty spirit stones from all the deity lakes. But they found something more valuable to them in the deity lake. A new member.
Hong, too was also pleasantly suprised when he was found out by the group . After reaching to his version of spiritual god realm, he made quick tour to subsidary realms, exploring them for his own enjoyment. Then he searched for Ye Han, finding him and the ice spiritual god Zu Long plotting on attacking the human settlements.
Hong was able to make a short work of Ye Han, Killing him with a single burst of power. But Zu Long proved to be a tricky opponent to battle against. Along with the law of Ice, he had obtained several other divine sparks from fallen spiritual gods. And added to the fact that his existence was tied to the very laws of the divine continent as a spiritual god made using normal methods against him useless.
But Hong was not deterred. He was something of a spiritual god himself, with control over multiple law fractions. And after a few days of battling, he managed to steal each and every divine spark Zu Long possesed, and destroyed his physical body and shatter his divine spark .
Though the battle had gone on for days, it was not as challenging for Hong as he had thought. Mainly because Zhu Long had yet to finish condensing the seven lotus of his cultivation technique, making them both remain somewhere close to the peak level of earthly fate realm. And cross level fighting was something Hong excelled at.
Then Hong went back to the Glory city, hoping to give his farewells to his close friends before venturing to the draconic realms. But he was greeted with a nasty suprise when he got there.
When he first got to the city, and went to meet the patriarch of the winged dragon family, who fell from his chair in shock, the moment Hong appeared infront him. Apperently he found was dead. A preposterous notion, that every person he had ever associated and every person who had paid attention had come to firmly believe.
It took some convincing for the clan leaders to believe of his existence. Especially the Winged dragon family leader who was convinced that he was a ghost and tried to burn incense to his name, hoping to exorcise him. But it was all cleared up by the leader of the people of the battle realm.
Apperently he had told them that Hong had gone to a better place, by meaning the battle realm. But the city lord as well as the winged dragon clan leader had greatly misunderstood the meaning. And since they had effectively relocated into the edges of the city limit at their insistence, so they hadn't met with Ma Yuntao.
For the first time in his life, Hong felt the need to punch that somebody to dust. They had even arranged a funeral for him, with city lord himself addressing the crowds! And he was hailed as a hero who sacrificed himself to stop the beast horde.
And so after convincing the winged dragon family patriarch, he quickly called a meeting with all the great clans, and the people from the battle realm in the city before revealing some information about the higher realm. But once again he was greeted with a shocking news. The younger generation, more specifically Nei Li and the rest had already gone to the draconic realms, and were already under tutelage of great masters.
The draconic realms are only connected to the tiny world for a short period of time in every five years. And if the main cast were already under tutelage, then that meant the pathway was closed.
Sure enough, by the time he went to the nether realms, the entire selection was over. The nether lord was in retreat and everything was back to normal in the lands.
However, Hong had power. He had THE power. He cultivated every attribute possible only to create a perfect foundation that allowed him to feel space and time. Space bears everything while time governs them. By achieving ultimate control over materiel laws, he grasped the metaphysical laws of space and time at a bare surface level.
Then, to cut the long story short, he used his time space powers to locate the spatial coordinates to draconic ruins realm by following it's trial, and the rest was history.