"The end of everything? That certainly sounds terrible," Wu Jian thought to herself as she set aside her mounting worries. No matter how grave the situation, there was nothing she could do at her current level to alter its course. Accepting this bitter truth, she turned away from her troubling thoughts, made her way to the sect's meditation room, and settled into deep meditation.
Meditation has purposes beyond cultivation. It serves as a means to calm the mind, sharpen focus, and relieve worries. Even many mortals practice meditation, not to attain spiritual breakthroughs, but to enhance their mental clarity and concentration. For them, meditation becomes a discipline—training the mind to resist distractions and maintain composure in the face of intrusive thoughts. Each session, as countless thoughts arise to disrupt their inner stillness, mortals learn to confront and overcome them, gradually strengthening their mental resilience.
For Wu Jian, however, such training was unnecessary. She had long surpassed the point where her mind could be shaken by fleeting distractions. Her meditation had a different purpose altogether. It was a space for reflection, a moment to deliberate on her path forward.
Sitting cross-legged in the sect's meditation room, Wu Jian let her mind wander—not to escape reality but to face it head-on. The world's future hung in the balance. What could she do to increase her chances of survival? How could she prepare for the challenges ahead in this rapidly unraveling universe?
Though her cultivation level left her powerless to influence the grand schemes unfolding around her, she refused to surrender to despair.
...
When the infinities begin to merge, the consequences ripple across all realms of existence. The most severely affected are cultivators at the Eternal Ascendant Realm and Primordial Sovereign Realm, equivalent to rank 12 and rank 13, respectively. Their powerful connections to universal laws render them highly susceptible to such cataclysmic changes. In comparison, cultivators of True Immortality and Cosmic Entity realms—ranks 10 and 11—experience only minor disruptions.
Even with the onset of the merger, Primordial Sovereign cultivators (rank 13 mages) remain the strongest beings in existence. This is because the power disparity between rank 12 and ranks 10 or 11 is so vast that even if a rank 12 being were to lose an unfathomable 99.999999999999999% of their power, they would still remain infinitely superior to ranks 11 and below. Numbers alone cannot capture the sheer difference in their strength, a gap that defies quantification.
As a result, the top forces of the cultivation world—sect leaders, ancient ancestors, and emperors—retained their dominance and authority. No significant power struggles emerged among these elites despite the looming crisis. However, chaos engulfed the mortal kingdoms, weaker sects, and lower dynasties as the unprecedented events shook their foundations. While the lower realms scrambled in disarray, the leading powers remained calm, channeling their efforts toward devising a solution.
Yet, despite the unity and combined efforts of the most brilliant minds in cultivation, no viable solution could be found. The world's greatest cultivators gathered to tackle the problem in just a few days. But even they were helpless in the face of such cosmic inevitability.
...
The codes of the world of cultivation are a well-guarded secret, known only to a select few. In ordinary times, only the highest-ranking Eternal Ascendants and Primordial Sovereigns are privy to these codes. The codes dictate the underlying laws of the universe, governing every aspect of existence, including the world's will, the forces of karma, heavenly tribulations, the progression of cultivation realms, the flow of spiritual energy, and the physical vastness of the world itself. Nearly every facet of reality is shaped by these codes, and any modifications to them can trigger wide-reaching and unpredictable consequences.
Typically, changes to the world's codes require a rigorous process. First, the Supreme Cultivation Council—comprised of all Primordial Sovereign cultivators and a select few Eternal Ascendants—must deliberate and approve the modifications by a two-thirds majority vote. A handful of non-voting members, chosen from the most powerful Cosmic Entities, also serve as advisors to the council. Once approved, the council members appoint experts tasked with implementing the plan. This meticulous process ensures stability and prevents rash decisions that could destabilize the world.
But these procedures belonged to a time of peace and order. Now, amidst the chaos of the universal merger, there was no time to follow such protocols.
...
When the abnormalities began a week ago, the Supreme Cultivation Council immediately recognized the magnitude of the crisis. Their collective wisdom told them that this was no mere disruption; it was a universe-shaking event with the potential to rewrite existence itself. Acting swiftly, the council voted to make the world's codes accessible to all cultivators at the Cosmic Entity realm and above. Although codes had been made more accessible, any changes still required the approval of at least a majority of the Supreme Cultivation Council.
Under normal circumstances, this decision would have been considered reckless—unthinkable, even. Giving so many individuals access to the codes risked untold havoc. But in the face of impending catastrophe, even the most cautious voices in the council agreed it was necessary. With time slipping away, they abandoned the usual safeguards, hoping that the increased access might yield a breakthrough before it was too late.
Still, as the days passed and no long-term solutions emerged, a shadow of despair began to fall over the world of cultivation. The strongest cultivators in existence stood at the precipice of annihilation, their unparalleled might rendered insignificant in the face of a universal inevitability.
Under normal circumstances, the codes of the world were among the most closely guarded secrets. Knowledge of these codes could grant a malicious actor the ability to exploit bugs or manipulate the laws of reality to their own advantage, with catastrophic consequences. However, the universal merger posed a disaster so unprecedented and destructive that conventional caution had to be abandoned. The best way to resist and blunt its devastating impact was to make the codes public, allowing collective wisdom and collaboration to address the crisis.
In the days that followed, countless suggestions poured in from cultivators across the world. Ideas for modifying the codes varied greatly, reflecting the ingenuity—and sometimes desperation—of their proponents. These included proposals to:
Freeze the flow of time in the world and wait for the disaster to pass. Isolate the world's temporal flow from the universal time. Slow down the passage of time within the world to give its inhabitants more time to prepare. Reset the world entirely, starting afresh. Shut down all minor immortal and lower-grade worlds, concentrating all remaining power on the Golden Immortal World. Alternatively, shut down the Golden Immortal World to preserve lower-grade worlds.
Every solution, no matter how unconventional, was considered. The Supreme Cultivation Council reviewed and implemented the most promising ideas, managing to delay the disaster's full impact by several days. Without these interventions, the world would have faced far graver consequences. Thanks to these efforts, the most significant threat—the reflections—was neutralized, leaving much of the world intact.
This accomplishment highlighted the expertise and resourcefulness of the cultivation world. In comparison, other rank 13 worlds—equally powerful in their own right—had already succumbed to the destructive consequences following the merger's initial stages. While those worlds were on the brink of destruction, the cultivation world remained relatively stable, a testament to its resilience and collective strength.
...
One of the council's early actions was to further restrict the power of illusions and dream worlds. Without this measure, the world would have been overrun with chaotic manifestations of illusory and dream worlds, causing untold havoc. However, these interventions merely suppressed the symptoms of the crisis; they did not address the root cause.
The fundamental issue lay in the rapid and profound changes occurring to the universal laws themselves. These laws, the immutable principles governing the fabric of the universe, were shifting at an alarming rate. Modifying the codes could only slow the effects, but solving the underlying problem seemed nearly impossible. If the universal laws continued to change unchecked, the codes might eventually lose their effectiveness entirely.
Should that happen, the world would collapse. The codes are the foundation of the world's functionality, maintaining the integrity of land, time, space, and matter. Without them, everything would disintegrate into nothingness. Only the strongest immortals—those at rank 12 and above—might survive the collapse.
But the situation could deteriorate even further. If the changes to the universal laws continued, even rank 12 and 13 cultivators would begin to unravel. These beings, who relied on their mastery of universal laws to maintain their power and existence, would find themselves unable to adapt. Their disintegration would be inevitable.
Faced with this grim reality, the higher echelons of the cultivation world were fully immersed in researching the world's universal laws. Their goal was to understand the transformations taking place and to identify any way to survive.
...
The world of cultivation was made of many universal laws, each representing a fundamental truth of the universe. Universal laws are not exclusive; a single law can be utilized by multiple worlds simultaneously. In the case of the cultivation world, many of its universal laws were either purchased or discovered by its cultivators. This meant that other worlds likely shared these same laws, making collaboration not just logical, but essential.
Recognizing this, the leaders of the cultivation world reached out to other worlds that utilized the same universal laws. By pooling their knowledge and sharing insights, they hoped to increase their collective chances of survival. This inter-world collaboration, though unprecedented in its scope, was a testament to the shared struggle against the existential threat of the universal merger.
.