In the middle of the divine tree forests, a giant purple willow existed.
It was almost 120 meters tall with giant roots, it looked ancient, magical and ethereal.
It was incredibely beautiful and carried a mystical feeling as well as powerful spiritual energy.
It felt as if this purple willow tree was a supreme existence that ruled over life itself.
Its willows were stunningly purplish and swayed on their own at times.
At its giant trunk, a weird sight was present, a body stood and some of the smaller willows were penetrating its spine.
These willows looked special almost like small tentacles or puple ethereal tubes, they seemed to penetrate the spine at nine points feeding purple energy to the body.
The body's eyes though closed shined with purple light from underneath the closed eyelids.
This scene had gone for months until for the first time, a change happened.
The body moved.
The body started walking yet the purple ethereal tubes in its spine were still attached to it hindering it from moving forward.
The body exerted more and more power until the tubes on its spine detached one by one.
The body then stopped and its eyes opened.
Nameless opened his eyes which slowly turned from purple to blue.
Nameless had survived!
"I'm still alive?"
Nameless couldn't understand why he was still alive and especially back in this world.
He was thoroughly confused.
He turned to look behind him at the purple willow tree, it carried a mystical feeling which reminded him of that purple world.
It didn't take long before a purplish figure appeared in front of him.
"Sigh, to think you would actually come out."
It was the woman he had met in his last moments.
Nameless was still as a statue, he didn't speak, only looking at her.
"I guess I owe you an explanation."
Purple fog began to spread around the tree.
Nameless immediately tensed but he knew he couldn't escape even if he wanted.
"Don't worry, I am simply showing you what happened."
The purple fog spread in front of Nameless in the form of what looked like a giant screen made of purple smoke before images began to flash.
The images were in such a high quality that he could almost feel as if it was happening in front of him.
The video began with a man floating through the clouds in the vast sky.
Nameless was surprised, he now knew humans existed in this world, they could even fly in the sky.
The man flew at high speed before descending and activating the formation in front of the giant divine trees forest.
It was also shown that this formation also affected the purple willow tree.
The formation began to absorb energy from the environment and the divine trees before a giant formation lit up drawing intricate symbols on the ground.
Nameless was shocked seeing the magical powers of this world. He had seen the alienoid beings of the forest before and even those were mind-blowing, let alone this scene that seemed straight from a fictional world.
The video kept playing.
Nameless was glued to the show, he could see the cultivator using what looked like electrical energy to activate the formation.
It didn't take long before he saw black clouds gathering in the sky before thunder hit the formation yet to his surprise the formation didn't break but even absorbed the lightning.
The video then zoomed in on the demonic cultivator
"Hahaha, this is what cultivation is for! I told you Master, Lightning path is superior!"
Nameless could only look bewildered as he saw the demonic cultivator focusing and controlling the formation.
It didn't take long for another cultivator to join the scenery, it was a young woman wearing a yellow golden robe with brilliant yellow eyes moving at an even higher speed, she looked breathtaking yet it seemed it only inspired fear in the other cultivator.
A fight inevitably broke out.
Nameless was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of their power. The exchanges of their attacks nearly shook the heavens!
All that could be seen was two energies clashing with each other.
Half the sky was filled with blueish energy in the form of lightning while the other half was filled with golden light that glittered and sparkled all over the sky.
Nameless could not only watch but also feel what was happening, it seemed the purple fog could not only let him see but also experience it as if it was happening in front of him.
Nameless continued watching dumbfounded yet within his eyes a small spark lit up and within it was a deep desire to experience and hold such power.
He had never thought such overwhelming power was even possible.
In his previous world, human beings were fragile, dying of sickness or small accidents was common, no matter how much bodily power one could hold, just one bullet would be enough to end their existence. Thus a society was necessary for survival, but this same society bound their freedom back.
Yet Nameless for the first time stumbled on a solution; to hold such overwhelming power that no one would even dare to think of blocking your path!
a Power so immense that one could live freely all over the world, acting as one wished and living freely under the heavens.
Nameless didn't even dare to imagine what his life would be like if he had such power, such supreme freedom was beyond what he could imagine now.
Just using his new body made him feel freedom he couldn't imagine having in his previous world, let alone flying freely under the skies living as he wished.
Nameless felt as if he had finally found something worth pursuing. he couldn't help but feel excitement, true excitement towards what the future had in store for him.
As if the world was answering his call, he felt his mind expanding before breaking through a barrier.
Nameless had reached the 3rd rank of the sea of consciousness.
His consciousness was previously outside his body but the moment it had come out of the illusory world, he already had a 3rd rank mind but he had just truly adjusted it with his body at this moment.
Nameless turned his attention to his mind where he felt his sea of consciousness.
The ocean of his consciousness was still and clear. Floating on top it, he felt his mind become sharper, resilient and more stable.
The brainfog that he had after leaving the illusory world faded, his mind was crystal clear now. He could think faster as well as be more rational.
He turned his attention outward, he could analyse and see what was happening in the purple fog even more clearly.
In the middle of the fight, he noticed that the lightning path cultivator would turn time after time to send attacks to the middle of the forest. He instinctively realised that something in the forest was influencing the formation thus such a response.
He also thought back to the dark clouds in the sky, for them to appear at such a crucial moment, the thought that they were just random thunderclouds was soon dismissed.
As Nameless paid even more attention, he noticed the injury filled with golden light in the back of the cultivator as well as the behaviour of both cultivators yet he couldn't draw any other conclusions.
He lacked too many elements as well as having limited knowledge of this world.
The show continued, at some point, after carelessly turning around, the female cultivator sent a golden beam from her eyes directly to the other cultivator's eye making him wail in pain before she stabbed his chest killing him instantly.
Nameless felt chills running down his spine.
Although that attack was not aimed at him, he could feel its power.
"It's probably a mental attack that hits one's mind, probably is related to that place I was just in a few minutes ago and to think it had such power."
Because it was a mental attack, the purple fog could show its power with even more precision making Nameless estimate how powerful it was.
The female cultivator did a movement with her hand before the cultivator's body disappeared, she then gazed at the forest before finally leaving.
Nameless didn't know why he was shown such events that had no relation to him but he didn't mind at all.
He had received such valuable knowledge from just an hour of footage.
As he thought it was about to end, the scenery changed to a random place in the forest that looked randomly familiar to him.
The scene changed again and again as whirpools turned into a formless force before gathering from all over the forest. An almost torrential wind rose enveloping everything in that area before merging everything into the size of a ball.
Nameless was dumbstruck!
"Don't tell me..."
He didn't know yet but he remembered the place of his birth. He was born there after all.
Special types of energies enveloped this ball before a hint of red appeared inside. The red colour spread and a pinkish worm appeared within it.
It was a fetus!
Many changes occurred, they were unimaginable.
Eventually, after countless changes, the fetus inside turned into its largest.
At once the ball finally stabilised, the ball that surrounded him cracked, the baby was born!
"Is that me?!"
He couldn't believe it. He didn't know how he had arrived in this world previously, he just remembered waking up in his body but now he knew!
He did feel he was enveloped by some force as well as feeling tight as if compressed before he was finally free yet he didn't think it was like this.
However at this moment, giant black clouds gathered all over the sky before lightning striked!
He watched as a powerful energy emerged from the baby to stop the lightning strikes.
Nameless couldn't believe it.
Why did lightning gather randomly right when he was about to be born? the strikes weren't weak at all and were focused on him.
This including his previous suspicions on the lightning appearing and disappearing randomly made it clear to him that there were some foreign conscious force that could direct this energy and at that, it was probably trying to kill him.
Strikes eventually ended but the formless force that surrounded the baby had lost most of its energy while the baby seemed to have been severely weakened by the strikes.
The baby took time to stabilise before it gradually landed on the ground. During this process, he grew rapidly going from a baby to a sixteen-year-old.
Nameless couldn't believe he was born in such a chaotic situation, he didn't witness these events after all.
This made him even more aware of the ruthlessness of this world.
But there was still one thing Nameless didn't understand from the beginning.
"Why am I still alive?"
The scene changed and the journey of Nameless was shown.
His exploration of the forest, his fight with the fire foxes, laying down and watching the stars in the night sky before finally reaching the part where he woke up in the middle of the night and was chased by the dark alienoid beasts as the beast tide began...
The scene eventually reached the moment where he had lost his limb.
The beast was not visible to him back then but now he could see it clearly, it was 3 meters in length and 1 meter tall, its body looked like an alienoid panther or wolf while its head looked straight from an alien horror movie with a ferocious jaw that could extend.
It was jet black, hairless with smooth black skin, it emitted faint hyena-like sounds as it moved.
It had six legs and sensory quills near its ears that could sense vibrations in the air, it could also blend with the darkness as well as see clearly in it.
The scene continued as Nameless kept shapeshifting and hysterically escaping, losing limb by limb.
It eventually reached the moment where he had leaped upwards using the giant trunk to propel himself to escape towards the purple world before having both his limbs devoured and ruthlessly hit by the beast's charge sending him flying.
Nameless still didn't know how he had survived.
The scene continued, his limbless body flew and entered the purple world going for a few hundred meters before it began to descend due to its momentum.
However, it was at this moment that a change happened!
A few purple willows extended like rubber and soared in the sky before catching Nameless's body!
They then safely carried his body to the trunk of the tree before they penetrated his spine at nine points.
His body didn't even hit the ground!
The scene then changed to the black alienoid beast, it looked towards the purple world but it didn't dare to enter.
He was dumbstruck!
Didn't he crash on the ground before being devoured whole by the beast?
The events didn't make any sense!
The scene unfolded with purple energy entering his body and healing his wounds.
His limbs even regrew one by one!
As he was thinking the fog dispersed and the show ended.
Nameless looked at the purple ethereal women in front of him.
"Why am I still alive?"
The women smiled before she uttered a small laugh.
"Didn't you just see what happened? What do you think happened?"
As she said that, her purple eyes shone, she looked beautiful and her ethereal and magical look made her all the more mystifying.
"I remember crashing on the ground before I was eaten by that black beast."
"Don't you think that crashing at such a speed would be a death sentence? you also think that that black beast dares to intrude here?" the woman said with a small laugh.
"But I remember it clearly!" He spoke.
"The purple gas surrounding here is a psychic gas that induces hallucinations. You weren't killed, we saved you." she spoke as her eyes shone.
Nameless took a minute to think, her words felt true, being still alive didn't make any sense afterall and her explanation was reasonable but she couldn't be trusted!
He also only now realised that she knew his whole life story, including the fact that he was from another world!
Nameless tensed, those dark clouds, the fight between cultivators and that formation, he was too weak to even begin to comprehend them, let alone face them!
"I know what you're thinking, it's true I know that you are from another world."
"But..."
"How do you know that world is real to begin with?"
"Have you ever thought of that?" she smiled as she said.
Nameless was startled and dumbstruck!
"What do you mean by that?!"
"You saw it just now, it is possible to create illusory worlds. It is indeed possible that your world really existed but there is also a possibility that the immortal fetus created itself memories to be able to survive in such a world." She spoke.
Nameless was still startled but he calmed down. It didn't matter wheter that previous world was real or not, there was already no way back.
But a question nonetheless surfaced in his mind before he spoke it.
"How do you know this world is real?"
The woman couldn't help but laugh :
"Hahaha, maybe it's real, maybe it's not."
"Real, Unreal, is there really such a big difference?"
Nameless was surprised again, he didn't even understand her fully.
The woman saw his inability to understand so she explained: "When you were in the illusory world, it was unreal yet you thought it was real. Now that you are here, the world is real yet you question that it is unreal."
"Flip it around, say you were in the illusory world and you knew it was unreal, you'd be true but would it matter? you'd still exist in it. Although you might question its reality, you will have no choice other than to live in it or die."
She smiled before she deeply sighed :
"Does it matter in the end? You are always free to think whatever you want, free to live the way you want regardless of the reality or unreality of the world."
"Isn't that what you realised in the end?"
It was only now then that memories violently resurfaced in his mind, his entire life in the illusory world flashed before him.
His memories with his mom, his career and friends as well as his love for Eve and the memories they shared and cherished together before her death all arose in him before they reached the part of his heartbreak and eventual collapse into homelessness and a perpetual black hole of suffering.
The suffering in those last years was so vivid that he felt as if his mind would crack at any moment. The rest of his memories continued emerging, his most vivid memory was him persevering in those long years till his death in the end.
Nameless felt a giant scar within his very being when he thought about that life, not only was it tragic but all those emotions were too much for his current mind to process. He felt as if cracks were about to occur in his mind.
The purple woman sighed before she stretched her finger.
Purple runes flew from her finger and entered his mind stabilising it as well as sealing parts of his memories.
"I have sealed parts of your memories for now especially the most painful ones regarding heartbreak, instead of immediately going through all those memories and emotions at once, little by little, they will arise and you will able to process and digest them."
She sighed and continued "I know you might feel that it was all pointless but this experience will help your mind expand as well as make it stronger, stable and more resilient as long as you digest those memories and integrate them making them a part of yourself instead of succumbing to them."
Nameless could feel that he had forgotten some of his memories yet he had experienced them, lived through them, he could also vividly remember the last moments of his previous life in the illusory world, it seemed even the runes couldn't remove those deep emotions, only mask them.
At this moment, he simply felt all sorts of complex emotions he didn't know how to process nor just brush off.
He could only deeply sigh.
The look in his eye slightly changed, he looked as if he had aged a few years and experienced some of the vicissitudes of life.
He looked more mature as well as slightly pitiful.
The woman only stared expressionlessly at him.
Nameless couldn't help but speak : "Why did my life in the illusory world have to go in that fashion?"
The woman could only sigh : "Don't blame us please, you were born of the immortal fetus set up by a legendary demonic cultivator and not just anyone. Mother had to test you as well as to take revenge on what had happened before."
"The fact that you can still get to live now is itself proof of her mercy."
a big frown couldn't help but appear on her face in the part where she mentioned the demonic cultivator.
Nameless however frowned and became angry before he spoke the most pressing question in his mind : "Did you manipulate my emotions when I was in that world?!"