Life continued marching onward toward eternity, one small step at a time. Days passed like falling leaves in autumn, and before Laude knew it, a brand new day had arrived.
When the first warm rays of sunlight hit Laude's face, he awoke and let out a lazy yawn. He stretched his stiff body and slowly got himself out of bed. It had been a little bit over four months since he had begun his stay in White Dew Society's mountain sanctuary.
Spring and summer had come and gone, making way for the beginning of fall. And in that breadth of time, many interesting developments had transpired. For one, Laude had not aged a single day since his transformation into a being caught between the realm of life and death.
He had observed and learned many things about the nature of cultivation under the generous tutelage of Alnus. To better understand his own ailment, Laude had accepted that the only way back to the life he desired was to move forward — to become a cultivator himself.
If his mysterious condition was a product of the Heavens interfering in his life, then the only way to resolve his condition would be to seek out the source of his problem.
It did not get any simpler than that. After all, what else was he supposed to do? Spend the rest of unnatural existence in White Dew Society like a coward? Do nothing at all, hoping for a solution to get handed to him one day? Surely not. Laude would rather... well, die than do that, but then again, he wasn't sure he could even die anymore.
That was beside the point, though. He was determined to find a way to become mortal again and return to his family. Nothing else mattered.
...And so, Laude had begun walking the path of cultivation. A seemingly contradictory decision given his end goal, but to be fair, there was nothing normal about his current predicament.
Much to his surprise, he learned that was not an easy nor fast path that one could take. No, being a cultivator was a commitment that lasted for the entirety of one's life... and beyond.
Unlike the savage brutes that Laude had encountered during his days as an Imperial delegate, the cultivators of White Dew Society were akin to enlightened sages. The life of a cultivator was one of continuous self-reflection, learning, and "Consolidation."
In fact, most cultivators did not learn anything mystical or even remotely exciting, such as Immortal Arts, until they completed a finely-tuned course of education. They first were taught how to read, write, and speak properly before they moved onto the brunt of their education — world history, herbology, mystic arts, and finally, the mystical practice of Consolidation.
Consolidation was the method that allowed cultivators to transcend the eternal cycle of reincarnation, better known by the masses as Samsara, the eternally spinning wheel of life and death.
By nurturing one's soul with Spiritual Qi and harmonizing with the Heavens themselves via self-reflection, spiritual debate, and tests administered by the Will of Heaven — heavenly tribulations — it was possible to finally escape the eternal cycle once and for all.
But it was not an easy feat, for at the very end of every cultivator's journey, they would have to find their answer to the "Great Question," imposed on them by the Heavens.
The Great Question was the latest obstacle for all cultivators who had reached the end of the path. It was an important, secret question that the Heavens tasked a cultivator to answer before it would allow them to transcend the Eternal Wheel.
Every cultivator received their own question from the Will of Heaven, and no two questions were alike, preventing would-be cheaters from escaping the eternal cycle. ...As if the threat of complete and absolute annihilation for lying to the Will of Heaven wasn't enough to deter people from trying to cheat.
The Great Question was also tied profoundly to the destiny of a cultivator in more ways than one could imagine. It was an important clue about their fate, the actions they would perform in life, and the consequences of those actions would have...
Laude was horrified when he first learned about the nature of the Great Question. The thought that such a thing existed violated the concept of free will and infringed on the privacy of everything that existed. It felt like an invasion of his being, and he told Alnus that it was "A fundamentally disgusting and perverse idea" that only a madman could have invented.
Alnus, of course, wondered why Laude felt so strongly about it and said, "Is it truly that reprehensible? The Will of Heaven is ultimately impartial when it comes to our decisions. It cares not about the individual but rather the world as a whole. We're all nothing more than grains of sand trapped in an hourglass to it — dying and being reborn without end. It understands that the mortal world is full of suffering and impurity; therefore, it does not judge us for sins..."
"It doesn't matter what the Will of Heaven thinks or doesn't think about us, "said Laude, unconvinced. "It's about the fact that I don't feel comfortable with the idea of something spying on me from the moment I was born until the day that I die. Not only that, but I refuse to believe that my life is predetermined, that my future has already been written in stone. I make my own choices."
The old man laughed and said, "But you do have your own free will. Our world is not deterministic; otherwise, there would be no point in trying to cultivate. Why bother cultivating if we knew that one day, perhaps in another lifetime, we would escape the Eternal Wheel? Me? I spend this lifetime chasing cute girls across the world if I knew that I was fated to not succeed in this life."
Alnus shook his head and popped a strawberry in his mouth.
"You're penning your own story as we speak, Laude. Whether you succeed or not in transcending the mortal coil in life is entirely dependant on your actions, enlightenment, and karma. And for the record, the Great Question is not a judgment call on the deeds in your life, but an inquiry of your understanding of everything."
"Everything?"
"Yes. Everything. You. Your actions. Your past, present, and future. Your view of this world and your role in this lifetime. The essence of your complete being. The consequences you have brought upon the world and the integrity of your karma. But this all a subject for much, much later. For now, focus on just your studies, Laude, as there is still much for you to learn..."
It took almost half a decade for the average apprentice to finish all of their studies. Thankfully, Laude had a bit of an advantage when it came to this situation. As an ex-Imperial delegate — and a learned student — he already grasped the basics: how to read and write, elementary mathematics, general history, and the like.
But when it came to advanced subjects, like in-depth world history, Immortal history, and arcane knowledge about Immortal medicine, Laude was forced to learn from the beginning. There was no way around it, but Laude didn't mind. He loved to read and learn as a hobby, after all.
And that was exactly what he had done for the last four months; aside from practically living in White Dew Society's musky library, he also attended lectures on Immortal subjects.
Every Head Elder of White Dew Society specialized in a different field of the fundamental skills every cultivator needed to learn.
The four major Immortal skills that every cultivator needed to learn were: the art of Exorcism, the art of Consolidation, the art of Self-Defense, and the art of Mending.
As a cultivator, one had a duty to exorcise demons, foul spirits, and other supernatural entities that threatened the mortal world. Aside from that, they also were duty-bound to heal the sick who could not afford the help of doctors. Or to cure wounds and strange afflictions of a supernatural nature that could not be fixed with mortal medicine.
And on the rarest of all occasions, cultivators needed to know how to protect themselves against mortal threats. Inverted cultivators did not take kindly to the presence of normal cultivators. Whenever a righteous cultivator and an inverted one crossed paths, some form of conflict was guaranteed to occur.
Be it a cold, tense standoff to a deadly fight to the death; it never ended well when two members of either party met each other...
But the worst fact of all was that these days, dreading inverted cultivators was not enough. Nowadays, even normal cultivators were a problem one had to deal with. With the slow decline of Spiritual Qi worldwide, it became a source of great conflict and tension.
Cultivation societies that had once existed in harmony for hundreds of years suddenly had a major problem on their hands. They all had disciples who needed Spiritual Qi to perform Consolidation, but there was not enough for everyone to use. What had once been an abundant and free resource was now being fought for by all cultivators, even to the point of bloodshed...
Spirit Stone mines that had Spiritual Qi condensed into physical form, and Spiritual ley-lines — natural sites where Spiritual Qi still converged in abundance — had now become the only way for cultivators to practice Consolidation. Long gone were the old days when a cultivator could draw in the plentiful Spiritual Qi of their surroundings.
The age of cultivators was coming to an end, whether the Immortal community wished to admit it or not. Three hundred years ago, tens of thousands of cultivators existed across the world. A grand alliance of powerful Immortal Societies once defended the world from foes that lived beyond the realm of the living.
But now, it was all coming to an end. There roughly fifteen thousand practicing cultivators across the world. The ancient Immortal Societies had all but disappeared in the wake of the closing of the Gates of Heaven. The Immortal Societies of today were akin to fragmented, isolated islands in a foggy sea that stretched on without end.
The world of Oseo had entered a dwindling era of twilight. A somber calmness before the storm, so to speak.
Because once the last mote of Spiritual Qi disappeared from Oseo and the last twinkling stars in the sky finally vanished, a brand-new age would arise.
An eternal age of darkness. A long night that Oseo would not survive...
And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it from happening.