Upon the Seven-World Continent, thousands of nations, kingdoms and empires thrived.
Countless clans filled them, made up of far more villages than the average person could count. The entire continent was abuzz with life, yet it never seemed crowded.
There were various tranquil lakes, isolated islands, peaceful swamps and serene grassland meadows.
Life here was an amalgamation of excitement, peace, satisfaction and unending prosperity.
Except for when it wasn't.
Wars were waged as ambitions collided and passions erupted. Kings against Kings, Emperors against Emperors, Man against Man.
Villages were decimated, Clans faced extinction, entire nations suffered an upheaval that left billions homeless, wandering the land in search of refuge.
Those refugees would systematically divide themselves among other countries and kingdoms, and the cycle continued.
Long peace was followed by large scale wars, but there were also no shortage of small-scale conflicts.
The occassional uprising, the lone vigilante searching for justice, change and equality.
Such petty revolutions were often quelled by powerful forces in service of a King or Clan Lord.
However, powerful cultivators were everywhere on this continent. Sometimes, a rouge warrior would arise, and destroy any who opposed them.
In rare cases, those people fought for and ruthlessly claimed land that was not theirs, becoming Village Chiefs, Clan Lords or Kings.
There was only one instance where an Emperor had come about through such means.
. . .
Dorian's body soared through the air, a whole six feet above ground, before he slammed into the trunk of a tree, knocking a few leaves loose.
"Damnit! Watch its head!"
A furious command echoed, and the forest came alive with movement as five villagers rushed out of the bushes, spears at the ready.
A party of six had snuck up on a giant boar, but one of them had decided to run up on it without waiting for the others.
That person was the hot-headed Dorian.
He wheezed as he tried to catch his breath, but managed to keep a firm hold on his spear. As leaves fell in front of his face, he eyed the boar with indignance, a desire to do battle arising within him.
The creamy beige color of his eyes lit up, and he struggled to his feet as fast as he could.
His five party members had surrounded the boar, and it exhaled thick puffs of heated mist as it prepared to charge at one of them.
"Focus up! This is a Sagebeast, its power is equivalent to someone at the Peak of Qi Condensation!"
"Right!"
"Understood, Master Reave!"
Aside from four other young men, a middle-aged man with long black hair stepped forward, his spear glowing in the scattered sunlight.
"With me! Silver-Flame Thrust!"
The tip of his spear sparked, and a flame of silver engulfed it before covering the entire blade. With a roar, Master Reeve and the others pressed forward.
They, too, activated the very same technique.
Dorian had just been headbutted by the boar, so its face was still turned toward him. Though it spared some of its attention for the others, it did not disregard him.
Seeing Dorian standing up, the boar's head also snapped back to him. Expertly, he straightened his spear and galvanized his qi.
Silver flames surged at the end of his spear, and he rushed forward at the same time that the others moved.
The boar's fur suddenly attained a bronze, metallic sheen, and it spun itself at the spears attempted to pierce it.
Instead, as the spears slightly dug into its fur, the boar's rapid rotation pulled them away from their wielders.
Only Dorian managed to keep hold of his spear, since he was the last to attack. Even so, he was swung by the boar and flung into the air again, just over the boar's body.
Seeing his chance as the fur's bronze hue slowly faded, Dorian pulled back and thrust forward with a resolved shout, silver fire blazing upon his spear's tip.
The boar twisted itself as it tried to deflect the spear with its tusks, but it was too late. The spear stabbed into its side, and pierced a lung.
SQUEAL!!!
The boar jerked its body, trying to pull sway but instead taking the entire spear with it. Sti holding it, Dorian was pulled away as his companions looked on in shock and excitement.
Master Reave raised his fist as he spectated, shouting, "That's it Dorian! Hold fast!"
He ran to grab a spear that was tossed from the boar's fur, and the other youngsters followed suit.
Dorian held on as the boar thrashed and jumped around, trying to shake him while also hardening its body with qi.
Sadly, this just kept the spear lodged in its body, forcing it to suffer extensively.
Dorian saw through blurred glimpses that his party members were preparing to attack, and a sense of urgency filled him.
Grabbing firmly onto the spear, Dorian began to pull himself further and further down the shaft, inching nearer to its body.
Before long, the others and Master Reave struck at the crazed boar; Dorian attacked at the same time.
He twisted his spear as the Pinnacle power of the Qi Condensation realm filled him, and pushed it even further.
Although his companions' attacks did some damage, the boar's defence had yet to falter. Dorian's action caused it further internal damage, and it reared its body before letting out a dying squeal.
As its massive body fell and life left it, the bronze armor vanished. With Dorian's body weight, the spear was pulled out with a wet squelch and he fell backward on the hard floor.
Bang!
Master Reave and the others ran over to him, each of them eying the boar with excitement.
"Nice one, Dorian!" A young boy said, extending a hand to pull Dorian up.
Dorian's hair tie had come undone, and his shoulder-length brown hair fell as he was raised.
"If I was thrown like that, I would have freaked, but you were level-headed enough to time your attack with such precision!" Another young lad praised fervently.
Master Reave inspected the boar's body first, then made his way over to Dorian with a complicated expression.
Dorian flashed a grin that evoked a scoff from the older man, but he reached out and tapped Dorian on the shoulder.
"Good job, just stay with the group next time. Got it?"
Dorian gave him a weak smile before the others started pulling him away, "Sure thing, Reave."
"That's 'Master' Reave, to you!"
Dorian snorted playfully, but the others had dragged him off by then.
Master Reave shook his head, and proceeded to pick the massive boar up before he started walking with it.
Dorian and the others soon left the forest behind, stepping onto a beaten path leading into further grasslands and patches of trees dotting the wide landscape.
They stepped out under the light of a marvellous morning sky, filled with multiple infinity's worth of twinkling stars.
Among those stars, giant clusters of enormous Books hovered, some smitting blistering sunlight and giving off sweltering heat, while others seemed to consume the light and negate it, creating temperatures far below freezing.
The entirety of this boundless sky was a mass of Book collections, each of them housing worlds of Scripture far larger than any of the Books of Existence.
To be frank, just one of these Book collections could house an infinite number of 'Infinite Emptinesses' or Books of Existence.
This was the sky you would see anywhere in the Library. A sky of Books- the essence of The Scripture- each of them Omniverses of their own.
As for the unending world below, it was a flat floating rock, acting as the foundation for all beings. All anyone on this starting ground could do was look up, and hope to one day be strong enough to venture further into the Beginningless Library.
Dorian and his friends eyed the sky with fervor and passion, but also with a strong sense of familiarith. This was a normal sight for them. It was just another day in their world.
"We're all fifteen now," a young boy with fiery hair lamented, "-well, except you, Ezra."
"My birthday's in two days, so, technically, I am fifteen."
They laughed.
Dorian sighed. His were the last eyes to look away from the sky. "In about three months, I'll ask the Old Wizard to allow me entry into the Clan's Trial Ground. If I'm ever to make it past Qi Condensation and into the Awakening Realm, I need a powerful nature of true energy."
The others were taken aback by his words, and suddenly felt their own passion begin to flare up.
They all knew what Dorian wanted more than anything.
To leave this starting ground of a world behind. To see everything the Library had to offer.
To become strong!
"I'm gonna enter the Trial Ground too!"
"So am I!"
"Count me in!"
"...well I guess if everyone's doing it..."
They chimed in with him, but their resolve could never match Dorian's. He smiled, and his fawn eyes brightened.
'I want to experience... everything!'
His thoughts went wild, taking him to grander heights in his mind.
Eventually, they traversed the paths and returned to their clan, totally and completely unaware of a horrendous miracle taking place in their world.
Somewhere far away, yet still within the starting ground, a young man with golden hair, pale and smooth, glistening skin opened his lifeless crimson eyes.