The great cultivation world was a huge universe. Countless cultivators originating from billions of planets fought for their own path towards immortality. At least it should have been like this.
Bai Jingshen had always been an outstanding talent. Being the son of the White Illusion Sect's sect master Bai Wang, who controls a whole star region in the Great Cultivation World, he also had access to nearly unlimited resources. After growing up with stories about legendary cultivators and feeling his father's yearning for the immortal realm, he also began to dream about ascension.
When Bai Jingshen found an ancient sword immortal's legacy in a secret realm, all his wishes seamed close to being fulfilled. After finally reaching and surpassing his father's cultivation level, Bai Jingshen was at the top of the world. Now only one question was left to be answered: How to achieve ascension?
As the strongest cultivator of his era, he began to travel the universe in search for a chance. For a long time, he looked for secret realms, read ancient texts and conversed with great scholars. However, after realizing that the last ascension was over a hundred thousand years ago, he was slowly left in confusion. Only after going into seclusion for thousands of years and vaguely touching the laws of the Great Cultivation World, Bai Jingshen came to a sad conclusion.
His world was already declining, and ascension wasn't possible anymore.
Realizing this truth, Bai Jingshen didn't know how to proceed from this point on. He stopped cultivating and found joy in learning all kinds of things. He slowly became knowledgeable in alchemy, array formations, forging, as well as singing, playing all kinds of instrument and art. One day after a conversation with his mother Bai Xiannu about array formations, Bai Jingshen finally had the idea of combining all his knowledge into an array formation to break the barriers of his world and finally ascend.
His own strength wouldn't be enough for such a feat, so Bai Jingshen had to call all cultivators for help – willingly or unwillingly. This led to the birth of the White Illusion Empire under emperor Bai Jingshen. Chaos ensued in the Great Cultivation World as Bai Jingshen, the White Illusion Sect and more allied sects began to fight for resources and support to build the biggest array formation in history.
For the goal of ascension Bai Jingshen caused the rivers to run red as seas of blood formed everywhere. But after thousands of won battles, some big faction's destruction and new faction's rise, the majority of the universe supported Bai Jingshen with resources and manpower for his plan.
Today was finally the big day. Bai Jingshen was standing in space, looking down on an enormous planet. This whole planet was the headquarter of the White Illusion Sect and also the core of his big array formation. In his eyes countless glowing lines reached out to multiple planets and stars in this vast space. All of those were filled with cultivators, whose job it was to inject their spirit qi into the formation. A middle-aged looking man traveled through space and came to a stop a short distance behind Bai Jingshen. With a deep bow he spoke out: "Overlord."
Bai Jingshen turned around. Today he was perfectly dressed in white long robes and countless dazzling golden lines could be seen on his clothes, giving his handsome appearance a holy aura. The middle-aged man's vision blurred from looking on these lines, which where part of the arranged array formation. He could only look down. Bai Jingshen noticed this and covered his robes with his own spirit qi to weaken their impact, bevor he spoke:
"Is everything going as planned, General Mao?"
"Yes, my lord. Your White Illusion army is keeping order, so who would dare to not fall in line. Furthermore, we have our genuine allies in core positions. A lot of people still hope for your successful ascension. They hope you can pave a new path for everyone."
Bai Jingshen smiled while looking at his loyal general: "I assume you are one of these people?"
"Of course, my lord. Although we all still need to work hard to gain a chance at ascensoin ourself, keeping our hope alive is the greatest gift now."
"I will do my best. This array formation is my last hope too. We must succeed for this world, my family and friends and obviously myself. Too bad our undertaking this time is simply too big. There is no way to test our formation. Until now everything only works in theory."
General Mao had no answer to this problem. Everyone participating this time knew that their plan might not work. However, did they have any other options? Other than stopping to cultivate there probably was none. But wouldn't this be synonymous with giving up?
"Alright. We should be more optimistic. After all this array was derived by the most brilliant geniuses over hundreds of years. Our chances of success shouldn't be too bad."
Bai Jingshen took another look at the surrounding planets, before taking out a jade plate from his storage ring and giving it to general Mao. Noticing the latters puzzled look, he added:
"This jade plate is connected to our array formation. While I'm gone, you can use it to drive this formation and activate it's protective properties. Only me and mother worked on those functions. Even though the array formation will lose most of its strength after this one activation, it will still be strong enough to protect the White Illusion Sect for a long time. I have already seen the dissatisfied looks in the eyes of a lot of our rather forcefully convinced helpers."
Suddenly a white light began to blossom in the White Illusion Sect's main square. This was the long-awaited signal for Bai Jingshen. General Mao bowed again to Bai Jingshen's back, while watching him descend on the White Illusion planet. Afterwards he turned around to oversee the White Illusion army. Nothing could go wrong from now on!
The white signal began to shine brightly and started a chain reaction of white lights on all planets in this star region. Cultivators everywhere began to inject their spirit qi in the grand formation. Several cultivators stood in the main square of the White Illusion Sect, looking at a white ball of light. This ball illuminated the whole planet but weirdly wasn't blinding anyone's eyes.
Closest to this ball were seven older looking man and three women. All of them wore solemn expressions, but a complicated mix of hope and caution could be seen in their eyes. These people were the upper echelons of the White Illusion Sect. Each of them was strong enough to dominate a star region and have been fighting for this very moment for years now.
Suddenly they all looked up. Bai Jingshen slowly descended towards the White Illusion Sect. His flight looked effortless and elegant, but on his face was an incomparably determined expression. Activating the array formation would definitely become the most difficult fight of his life so far.
Bai Jingshen came to a stop in front of the ball of light. He solemnly bowed to the leftmost man and woman while calling out: "Father, Mother!"
While the other eight elders bowed to Bai Jingshen, his parents stepped forward to gently hug him. After this hug Bai Jingshen nodded one last time to his father before turning around, taking his place in the array formation's core underneath the ball of light. He could already feel the incredible amount of spirit qi gathering around him.
He closed his eyes and took one last breath before taking out a jade plate. If one would take a look at this jade plate, one would see hundreds of thousands small runes engraved on it. This jade plate represented the absolute pinnacle of array formations in the Great Cultivation World. After hundreds of years of research and the sweat and effort of countless formation masters, the time to reap the fruit of their work has finally come.
On a signal from Bai Wang, the White Illusion Sect elders began to inject their spirit qi directly into the formation's core. Bai Jingshen opened his eyes and began to activate the jade plate in his hand with all his might. The ball of light above his head suddenly began to tremble and moved towards Bai Jingshen. Countless startled cries could be heard all over the star region, as the ball of lights movement suddenly brought a backlash to every cultivator in the formation. Luckily the White Illusion Set suspected this to happen and the White Illusion Army urged everyone to hold on.
The strongest backlash though naturally occurred at the formation's core. The elders had blood dripping from their eyes, while Bai Jingshen began to tremble more and more. His skin slowly started to evaporate and even his soul got badly damaged. When the ball of light was only inches away form Bai Jingshens head, which resembled a skeleton by now, he suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Bai Jingshens voice was heard throughout the star region, followed by a blinding white light. A gigantic hole suddenly appeared above White Illusion Planet. It was pitch black inside with a white corona. An enormous suction force appeared, threatening to tear the whole universe apart. At the same moment Bai Jingshen fused with the white light's power. Under the impression that his body would explode from power, Bai Jingshen had no other option than bundling this power on his fist and taking the initiative to fly towards the large hole.
Every cultivator could see a white streak flying through space, towards the hole. It gave everyone the impression of a moth flying towards the flame. At this point everything happened so fast, no one was able to process the proceedings. They only saw the white light colliding with the black hole. Under a terrible boom, which echoed through the universe and teared weaker cultivators apart, the black hole suddenly shattered. Moments later the white light was gone, and the hole folded in onto itself before vanishing. Afterwards it was deathly silent.