Chapter 1909 - 1908 - The World Beyond Heaven and Earth

Lind had wondered what it would feel like. The cultivation system was all about growing stronger and refining existence into something higher in his mind but after learning the truth, he realized it was more.

The original universe had found a way to let everyone live forever. They had found energies no one could normally tap into and forced it together. They had not fully considered what would happen after that and reached a dead end.

They had not understood the forces and when confronted with the collapse they could not escape, they had to start over. Some hoped to be reborn, maybe they had cracked that too, but the truth was they were dead either way.

So where did cultivation come from? Where did Heaven and Earth come from? The system was not rigid entirely, it was more natural than any pre-conceived system could ever hope to be.

Lind realized someone or maybe the very group that chose the fate of all life, learned something critical.

It was not that people could not tap into the energy but that the bridge to that energy had been broken from the start. They were in a world without Heaven and Earth so they created a world that would have one.

They opened the door to let the system function.

Lind stood as a human inside a cold metal room. Computers hummed along without any sign of wear or tear while a giant sphere slowly spun above him. He had emerged as a Full Tier Eternal Realm and was a complete existence unto himself.

The power he now had made him shiver to wonder what would happen if mortals grasped what they could be. He understood!

It was possible to bypass the entire path of cultivation! The issue, however, was that while they would gain eternal life, they would have nowhere to go. The vibrant worlds of war, tears, and joy he had lived in did not exist where he stood.

There were no stars, planets, or anything natural inside the massive range of his aura. If he was not a cultivator, he would be dead as there was no air to breathe or pressure to keep him safe.

The machines were designed far beyond any technology old Earth could give. The sphere was the cultivation worlds, all of them. He saw readouts in languages he had never even heard of but his mind was able to piece it together.

Essentially, the First was the administrator of the system and once the technology hit the containment limit, the Harvest was triggered. The entire room was all there was in the void he stood in.

A very thin line of power he recognized connected it to something far in the distance and he was unable to reach that far with his aura. Yet, he knew he could follow it if he wished.

Heaven and Earth were not there. He was in the original universe that had been detonated and consumed to create the sphere before him.

Still, there was something still out there. Lind knew that as it was where he had lived before.

The connection was life. The very fabric of the spark that gave all lives that quality that was so vibrant and glorious. They could contain the matter and energy, but even as unending beings, they still could not create souls.

They had to leave a piece behind and let nature take its course as the First bridged everything. Heaven and Earth was missing in the original world but now it existed in the new one.

He did not think it was crafted like a tool. It was likely they had forced it into existence knowing what they lacked.

Lind tried calling out to anyone in range but nothing came back as expected. There were no records he could access but his experiences and vast knowledge allowed him to analyze the sphere.

Eternal Qi. It was made entirely of dense Eternal Qi. It was also slowly depleting.

"So, the ascended Eternal Realm cultivators were turned into energy or they were unable to resist being turned into it." It seemed heartless to deny those that had come so far their reward of Eternal life but Lind felt it.

Power thrummed through his body and he was afraid he would shatter the machines if he did not focus intently on controlling himself.

He had not seen that kind of power in the past vision he was given by the First. He was the first true Eternal Realm cultivator. There were no more steps, no more tribulations. He just was.

He also understood he was a broken existence. The universe was not meant to contain him at all. He could break it with a thought! He was not in a hold or other comparable world where his power was simply the peak in a place it was meant to be, he was an anomaly.

"So that's what Heaven and Earth did. It is why everything came to a dead end without it." The universe may have been meant to be more interesting later down the line but sentient life broke the rules and thus it never came to be.

The vision flashed in his mind again. He saw the beings engineering the birth of cultivation to regulate the energies they would unleash on the cosmos.

He knew the Liar had tried to trick everyone and likely he had done more. Lind quickly moved through the large room until he found what he was looking for. He was a craftsman, one of the best, and he knew a fake panel when he saw it.

A few gentle touches and a click was heard. It swung open to reveal a chamber nestled between power lines and circuits. It could comfortably fit one person but was empty.

No one had found it or had time to get to it.

He also noted several medical devices prepped but silent save one. He examined it and saw it was siphoning Eternal Qi to be probably fed into the patient.

"So you were not just going to survive but reap the benefits of cultivation as well. Hope you enjoyed oblivion." Lind had no idea how much of the spirits remembered the original world. He did know he was looking at one of several machines planned.

He quickly engraved a sigil into the space nearby. It worked perfectly and he flew away. It was stable and acted as a reference as he tore through the dark void.

He felt the flow of energies in the world around him and it was so damn fragile. All of the Eternal Qi was clearly siphoned away to somewhere else.

He flew in the dark along the beam of souls until a familiar image appeared ahead of him. Stars!

Stars in the night sky! He laughed as he saw more and more with galaxies and other places he knew to be in the universe.

He had no orientation but he was currently looking for something else and he found it.

More lines of souls flared like a hub in a handful of directions. Now that he knew what they were, he was able to move far more quickly to mark each one.

Some led to identical chambers but not all had spheres. Only 2 others had similar spheres. One was dead. He was unsure why but it was not done by the machines. The other was still alive but barely.

Compared to his own vibrant sphere, he saw that the plan had other flaws in it. The First had to be the only one of its kind. Others might have been planned but were either not completed or some other issue cropped up.

The dead one was just ash inside. It had nothing to give him as it had been trillions of years at least since it happened. The others were more like regulators for the universe.

The ancestors had chosen to regulate the original world to keep things as smooth as possible.

Too much life lost on either end of the equation would make the whole thing collapse. So life was not flowing just one way along those beams of light.

Lind flew to the crossroads of all the beams and frowned. It was not a machine but it was something he recognized. It was a palatial structure from the world he had seen. It was not quite in phase with the universe so anything that happened around it would not affect it.

The issue he had was he could sense life. Not just any life, but the life of someone with Eternal Qi. They felt odd to him.

He flew forward and very gently pierced the veil around it. Not even a ripple was felt as he stepped inside. The refined stone still struck him as high quality work. He carefully followed the feeling of power until he froze once more.

A being stood before him. Not a living being at all but a humanoid blue silver automaton. It was being run by Eternal Qi! It ignored him entirely as it came to a slight crack in the wall and energy flowed to repair the damage.

Of course! They had to leave behind some way to maintain the equipment!

Nothing living was going to survive but artificial life was an entirely different thing. The sense of life he was feeling came from the fact they were artifacts imbued with purpose. After so much time passed in proximity to the highest quality Qi, they had gained spirits!

Still, they had interaction to go by so they just kept going.

He let them be as he wanted to see all he could unimpeded. None of them stopped him as he quietly reached the heart of the structure. He found a corpse there.

It was perfectly intact and looked like she was just asleep but he knew she was dead. There was no Qi or any energy at all inside her to indicate life. The only reason the body was still there was because the automaton repaired her from time to time.

All the souls had been ripped out by the collapse. Their bodies were ground away and without the energy inside to keep them alive, they faded too.

Hers was the only body likely remaining. He finally found something else too. A computer interface he could use. It was also blinking on the right side. He took a moment before carefully pushing the button.

The screen flickered to life and the golden dragon woman appeared.

{If someone is seeing this, then we succeeded. The universe has a second chance. The records here will tell you why we failed and what to avoid. I wish you luck.}