"H-huh? Where am I? W-what are these memories." He looked around in confusion as his scrambled mind slowly settled down.
Qin Hong himself is an ancient Qi cultivator who could be considered an old monster. He had blended in and joined a tide of cultivators who had entered a new realm that had appeared within the cultivation realm. They had all gathered around a strange artifact that supposedly had time traveling capabilities. However, it released a bright light and suddenly exploded.
He suddenly woke up and was blasted with loads of memories that came out of nowhere. His powerful soul thankfully handled it without much of an issue.
Seeing the room he was in, he was utterly confused as he tried to calm down. He slowly sorted through his memories as surprise grew on his face. Only when they settled down and were sorted did he leave the tapes of memories.
"The body of this person is Wei Chen, an archaeologist who is about to leave tomorrow. It seems as though that time traveling artifact sent me into some timeline." He muttered as he inspected his body.
"What the?! It seems as though this body is quite healthy, and burly..."
"But I didn't even get to say goodbye to my sect." He thought with sorrow.
As an old existence that had been alive for thousands of years, he naturally had established his own sect that had dominated the outer regions of the cultivation realm. Although the region he established it in had poor spiritual energy, his talent was not in spiritual energy, but Qi cultivation.
He had reached a high realm in Qi cultivation and was not inferior to a peak golden archduke expert. While this is most certainly not the top, it was enough for the outer regions, where the strongest sect masters were golden archduke cultivators.
Hong had established himself a great sect at the peak of his life which managed to dominate the outer regions without fear of retaliation. It is unfortunate that his cyan ranked talent could only take him so far, and his peak life was the peak of divine Qi archduke. He left behind the sect and traversed the outer regions for a chance to ascend higher, and a realm appeared 500 years later, which he entered.
Then came the time machine, and then this current moment.
Shaking his head, he went back into Chen's memories and looked over them. The amazement on his face grew.
"A-amazing! To think mortals have reached this far without using the spiritual energies of heaven and earth in 2.5 million years! I didn't even know that all these things existed!"
The cultivation realm is ruthless, and mortals have always been suppressed and ruled by cultivators. Technology never had the chance to develop, so the medieval settings never changed at all even for billions of years. Even if he was a mortal at one point, he never thought of stuff like inventions and making mortals overthrow the cultivators.
"But based on these memories, there are no cultivators, alien cultivators, powerful beings, or demonic beasts. Where the heck are they? Are they in hiding? Also, what's with these strange texts of the supernatural before 2.5 million years ago?" He could only scratch his head in confusion.
"Anyway, I need to build up sufficient levels of Qi in my blood before absorbing it into my meridians." He sat down and carefully inspected this new body of his. With his powerful soul intact, it was not difficult to scan the interior of his body.
"What?! This body has no Qi?! Impossible!" He exclaimed in shock and terror.
Based on his memories, every mortal has some Qi in their blood as a result of devouring food that contains spiritual energy. Almost every plant has some trace of spiritual energy in it, which allows a mortal to have it and be generally healthy.
Yet, not only does this body have none, but the body is extremely healthy!
Using the memories, he got up and went into the kitchen before opening the refrigerator. Looking at all the stored foods, he inspected their interior before shaking his head in shock.
"None! None of these foods have spiritual energy! What the heck is going on?!"
Hong sat down on the couch and seriously thought for a while.
"I guess I have no choice but to try a spiritual cultivation technique for the time being. I can convert the spiritual energy to Qi in order to get some in my blood." He gloomily thought.
Hong inspected his meridians and were surprised to find that they were opened.
The memories of Chen revealed that humanity had long knew about meridians and the dantian. Aside from great health benefits when fully opening them, there was no particular use for them. Since it is cheap, they just opened the meridians of each newborn for free.
Following a cultivation technique, he went into meditative position and adjusted his breathing to a special rhythm before closing his eyes. The body was not used to this, but it gradually adapted to it. After several minutes, his eyebrows scrunched as he opened his eyes gloomily. Inspecting the air, his face turned into shock and terror once more.
"I-impossible! There's no spiritual energy?! Where has it all gone?! Where's the heavenly suppression?!"
Standing up, he walked around the room as he seriously pondered. Looking at the memories of Chen, he began to find some suspicious points.
"What are these Great Barriers? Why are they always spherical, and why does it form 108 in a circle? Isn't that the number of meridians in a human body? I've never encountered something like this before..."
Looking back at Chen's memories, he noted the historic parts before 2.5 million years ago, in the BDE - Before Destruction Era. Across humanity's home galaxy, there was plenty of ancient, abandoned temples and relics. There was also texts of a glorious era where humanity combated aliens despite being in the medieval era. Huge mythological beasts were seemingly everywhere as well as weird plants.
Something weird stuck his mind, as dots gradually connected to each other.
"Wait a minute. Could it be I time traveled into the future, where there is no heavens and spiritual energy?" He thought as this frightening conjuncture glowed in his mind.
"Thinking back to it, the cultivation realm was also circular. Except, beyond the outer regions are mountain walls as tall as the heavens. Nobody could ever go past them, including me. Could that empty space between the 108 spheres be the cultivation realm?"
"I do not have proof if this is true, and I have no real way to confirm it currently. It would somewhat explain these stars, galaxies, and other terrifying objects that I have never seen before. I have no proof, but the heavens and spiritual energy could have existed 2.5 million years ago, before suddenly vanishing." He tiredly thought as possible scenarios played in his head.
For one, this is just a mere conjecture based on his current information and Chen's memories. But a lot of things do match up, along with some other things that do not. Like the reason why spiritual energy disappeared, or why humanity exists past the cultivation realm.
Shaking his head, he could only sigh in despair and frustration.
Spiritual energy aside from yin and yang is the basis of everything, including Qi. Without it, there is naturally none of what humans call the "supernatural". Most herbs are reliant on spiritual energy, including heaven and earth materials. Without the heavens to judge, it becomes difficult to ascend without tribulation assistance.
Without it, one cannot ascend past the limits of a mortal. Without it, he can only stay a mortal for eternity regardless of how much cultivation knowledge he has.
"At least mortals can live forever." He muttered before slouching tiredly down onto the couch.