A blinding flash filled John's consciousness. His mind drifted in an abyss of light. No sound, no breath, nothing but this infinite white void. Where was he? Dead, perhaps. Or… was this nothingness? His thoughts floated, desperately searching for meaning in this unreal environment. He tried to move, and against all odds, his body responded. Slowly, he looked down and saw something that froze him.
His body was translucent, almost ethereal, like an immaterial mist. His skin, or what was left of it, let the light pass through. His missing arm, his fatal wounds, everything was there, but without pain. He felt nothing.
"Where am I?" he thought.
The memory of the Blue Star came back in waves. The impassive face of Long Jian, the casual gesture that had annihilated his world, his sect, his friends. A flash of rage crossed his mind, but it was so weak, almost imperceptible in this space where everything seemed suspended.
John walked, without any precise direction. The ground, if it really existed, had no texture, no resistance under his feet. It was as if he were wandering on an infinite sea of white light, unable to discern one up from another, one horizon from another.
"Is this the afterlife? Am I dead?" He shook his head, as if to chase away the thought. Death, he had brushed against it many times as a farmer, but this sensation… it was different. No pain, no fear. Just an infinite, white void, suffocating in its perfection.
Time no longer meant anything here. John could not tell if he had walked for hours, days, or years. An incalculable amount of time had passed and he wandered aimlessly, looking for a sign, a clue to what he should do or where he was. No landmarks, no marks of his surroundings. Was he the only being in this infinite space?
Suddenly, something changed. A figure loomed in the distance. Blurry, indistinct at first, it took shape as John got closer. A structure. No, a staircase.
The staircase seemed to emerge from nothing, its steps stretching upwards, leading somewhere beyond his vision. Without knowing why, John began to climb the stairs. Each step was light, as if it no longer weighed anything, but still, he had the impression of moving forward, of approaching a truth he had not yet discovered. The white around him continued to expand, but the staircase was very real. It was the only tangible thing in that ocean of emptiness.
"What is it?" he wondered, his gaze searching for an explanation in this mysterious ascent. Each step took him higher, and yet the summit still seemed out of reach. The feeling of eternity brushed against him again.
Then, after climbing this endless staircase for a long time, without warning, a voice resonated, deep and imposing, filling the entire space. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, as if the void itself was speaking.
— "Little soul…"
John stopped short. His senses, although blurred in this place, woke up, alerted. He scanned the space around him, looking for a presence, but found nothing.
— "You have wandered in this space for a time you cannot even conceive," the voice continued. "Why are you still looking for a way out? Why do you hope?"
The question hit John like an invisible slap. Why? Because he had to understand, because he couldn't accept what he had seen and experienced.
— "Who are you?!" he shouted, his voice trembling, echoing in the infinite white. "Show yourself!"
A long silence followed, but John knew he was no longer alone. An immense presence manifested itself, invisible to his eyes, but palpable, invading every inch of this space.
— "You are in a place where few souls can come. A space between worlds, between time and existence," the voice echoed, imperturbable. "You are neither alive nor dead, little soul."
— "If I am not dead…" he murmured, "then… what am I doing here?"
The voice answered with a hint of amusement.
— "You are here because your will surpasses that of many. You refuse to disappear despite the evidence of your death. Which is, in my opinion, very strange. However, it intrigues me. Your quest for truth, your desire to understand, has led you here, little soul. But you have not yet understood the true nature of this place."
John remained silent, trying to grasp the meaning of the invisible being's words. His will? Was that all he had left?
— "Why me? Why leave me here? What must I learn?" he asked, his fists clenched, although they were now only translucent echoes of his true flesh.
The voice seemed to smile, if such a being could manifest such emotion.
— "There is no 'destiny' here, little soul. I did not choose you or bring you here, you decided that. This place is one of many that exist in the vastness of the cosmos. It is an intersection of forces that you cannot understand. I am one of the Universal Wills that exist to maintain the balance of the worlds."
John frowned, trying to assimilate this revelation.
— "Universal Will? But why am I here? My world has been destroyed. Long Jian… he…"
The voice cut him off, its tone cold and severe.
— "Your world is but one of the countless specks of dust floating in the vast cosmos. But you, little soul, have aroused my interest. Your refusal to submit to destruction, your will to continue despite the overwhelming force that confronted you… it is rare. Few are those who make it here."
John remained perplexed. Her will, her rage to live, had brought her here? But for what?
— "So what am I supposed to do now?" he asked, feeling a frustration rising. "Wander for eternity in this void?"
A silence greeted his question, but only for a moment.
— "No, little soul. I will give you one chance. Just one. To understand and transcend. The universe is vast, far more than you ever imagined. What you saw with that farmer was only a tiny part of the greater whole. There are forces, beings beyond anything you have ever known."
John remained silent. The prospect of continuing to live, or rather to exist, haunted him. But the prospect of discovering something beyond what he knew, beyond everything he had thought he knew, awakened a new flame within him.
— "I persist," he said, his voice filled with a new determination.
The voice seemed to smile once more.
— "Then prepare yourself, little soul, for what you are about to face is far greater than anything you have seen so far. Before I let you go, I will give you a little glimpse of what the cosmos is. You have to be informed to entertain me. Unfortunately for you, you lived in one of the worlds of the mortal realm. Know that you were one of the only planets that had access to cultivation. It also surprised me that you reached the stage of pseudo-dominator, I would never have thought that someone in the mortal realm would reach this stage."
John listened, his mind in turmoil. The words of the being echoed in this infinite void, each sentence crushing him a little more under the weight of a truth that he had never imagined.
— "The cosmos…?" he murmured, his haunted gaze falling on this being whose face he could not distinguish. "What does that mean?"
The invisible being seemed to smile, even if John could not see it.
— "Yes, little soul, the cosmos. What you call the universe is only a tiny part of a much larger whole. Imagine an infinite sea, made up of billions of islands. Each island is a universe, and each of these universes is itself divided into galaxies, systems, and worlds. What you thought was the universe was just a single island, isolated from everything."
John felt his mind waver. He had spent his entire life believing that the Blue Star, and perhaps a few distant stars, were the expanse of reality. Yet now he was faced with a truth beyond his comprehension.
— "But… what does this mean to me?" John asked, his voice both trembling and filled with a thirst to understand. "If my world is so insignificant… why did I have access to Qi? Why was cultivation possible there?"
The invisible being burst into a light, almost mocking laugh.
— "Your old world wasn't even in one of the 20 universes. You lived in what we call the Mortal Realm. A place where cultivation is, in principle, not possible. However, a cosmic accident poured Qi onto your world. An anomaly that allowed your planet to deviate from the rules of the mortal realm, offering weak mortals a chance to access power."
John remembered the legends, of that crack in the sky that had changed the Earth, or rather the Blue Star. He realized how much this anomaly had shaped not only his existence, but that of his entire world. An accident. It had all been an accident?
"And we, we built our lives around this accident… so it all makes no sense…" John murmured, struggling to accept this reality.
The being continued, in a softer, almost soothing voice.
"Oh, on the contrary. Everything has a meaning, but this meaning is simply not the one you thought. The cosmos is a place of laws, of immense forces that escape you and yours. Even in the 20 universes of the cosmos, where cultivation is common, the law of the strongest governs these 20 universes, and powers far beyond what you have ever seen."
John remained silent, absorbing each word.
— "These 20 universes," the being continued, "form the core of the cosmos. Each universe contains ten or twenty galaxies, each galaxy hundreds of star systems, and each system houses countless worlds, all these worlds, systems and galaxies are governed by cultivation and martial arts. There are countless races as mysterious as they are surprising. But you, your world, you come from the realm of mortals, below all that. Far, very far from the immensity of the cosmos."
John clenched his fists, his ghostly body trembling. How could he accept this? That his entire life, everything he had accomplished, was nothing more than a mistake in an insignificant realm?
— "So..." John began, trying to understand, "if the realm of mortals is below the 20 universes, why did you bring me here? Why... me?"
The being seemed to think for a moment, then answered.
— "As I told you long before, I did not choose to send you here, destiny does not exist in every sense of the word. The choices and actions of each individual forge destiny. There is no predetermined destiny. So be proud of having come this far, even if you are an ant who has lived at the bottom of a well for your hundreds of short years. You still have the merit of having caused this event thanks to your actions.
John felt the weight of this revelation.
The being leaned slightly towards him, although John could not distinguish any face.
— "Now, little soul, I have decided to grant your wish, I will make you reborn in one of the countless worlds of the 20 universes of the spiritual realm. The place where you will be born will depend on your luck. This will be your last chance to take the path to immortality. Give it your all, as you say."
John clenched his fists, a fierce glint in his eyes. All his life, he had fought. Against the limits of his body, against the powers that sought to destroy his world, and finally, against reality itself. Now, he faced the greatest test of all: surviving in the vastness of the cosmos, a place where he was nothing but a speck of dust. But instead of buckling under the pressure, something inside him ignited.
His gaze lifted, piercing the emptiness around him.
— "I will no longer let circumstances dictate my life," he whispered, his voice full of fervor. "I will fight, until my last breath. No matter where I am reborn, I will find a way to achieve immortality. Nothing will stop me."
The invisible being seemed to smile at this answer, as if it had expected this spark of determination. John felt that destiny had just granted him a new chance. He knew that this time, he would not make the same mistakes. He had reached the edge of the mortal realm. Now, the spiritual realm offered itself to him. A territory without limits, but where competition would be relentless.
— "That's what I wanted to hear," the being replied in a voice as soft as it was terrifying.
With a simple gesture of the hand, as light as the beating of a wing, the being made John disappear. A thin sliver of light enveloped his body before dissipating into the black vastness of the cosmos. There was no sound, no burst of power. Just a silent disappearance, as if John had never been there.
And so, John's soul was thrown through the layers of the cosmos, carried by forces that even the greatest cultivators could not understand. He was swallowed up by the unknown, ready to face his destiny, in a new world, where every decision could lead him to immortality... or destruction.