0- Prologue
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Author's Note:
Before you start reading, I would like to let you know that this novel is a rewrite of my previous novel [ Rise of the death seeking emperor ].
It has completely different concepts, so this rewrite greatly differs from the original if you were to compare the two.
Due to me being extremely busy irl, I'll start posting new chapters in 31/01 [ 2chapters per day for two weeks ( in the weekdays only, no weekend chapters), so 10ch/week until 07/01 the schedule would go back to 5ch/week ( in weekdays ). ]
I would love to continue 10ch/week, but I'm writing another novel [ Rise of the nefarious devil ], which I'm doing a 10ch/week release too for two weeks in 31/01.
This chapter is 2500 words, and next one is 4000 words... Though I've talked about word count in next chapter's author note.
Anyway, thanks for reading this, and enjoy reading!
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On Earth, in a small desolate city called Berhüm, in a country that was isolated from the modern society due to it being focused on nourishing mages and body cultivators, there exists a boy who has long hair tied at the top, who had an extraordinary charm, though whoever would look at him in the eyes would feel as if all his secrets have been discovered.
This boy's name was Adel, he was glaring at numerous books on different languages.
If one focuses on the books' names, they might disclose that everything in the books is related to Death.
- 1st Person POV start -
I started making an array around the room, before making it sound-proof and finally heaving a sigh of relief...
I had a weird thing since my childhood -- whenever I live something I talk to myself as I repeat the past occurrences to myself in order to keep myself in check...
Well, it was sixty years have passed, and I always was feeling an awkward feeling in myself, as only now can I find free time to talk about what had happened in the past
Afterward, I looked around, checking the array once again -- since the talk I was going to start with myself was quite serious; mentioning what I had found out in the past sixty years of my adventures...
"So based on what I've read on these books, Earth is where nearly everything is modern except a few places, there exist various dimensions that Earth oversees as its hub.
Humans here follow 3 cultivation systems -- The Body cultivation system based on Ki energy, Soul cultivation system based on Nao energy, and finally Energy cultivation system based on Qi energy.
All of them use spiritual stones that are ranked as: low, mid, high, and peak.
Though there exist Ki energy stones, Nao energy stones, and Qi energy stones that are counted as resources to help those that have a high ranked talent root in them cultivate in that cultivation system faster." I then started thinking of a certain question that caught my thoughts for a long while -- which was 'Why did they all have their unique energies, not a unique one for cultivating all three at once?'
They are quite rare throughout all dimensions, but not as scarce in the peak-level dimension.
Though everything in this universe, whether it is the various types of stones, all dimensions, even this Earth that is the hub of everything is made by God.
Humans on the highest dimension possible, which is the peak-level dimension I mentioned, that is connected to Earth, reach power that can eradicate planets, even galaxies at the very pinnacle of the one cultivation system; as there exist several millions of galaxies in this universe.
But what they don't perceive is that everything is God's. No matter the lifespan a realm they would attain, they're perishing when God determines everything has to end -- which is basically a decided doomsday by it -- and thus they go through his judgment and redo the whole universe recreation cycle.
But even though I reckon those novels out there are related to what's happening here, it's just odd how it indicates that people can attain godhood and not go through a process where true godhood is.
After all, everything is made from God in this universe, so no matter the methods one trains, one can't reach his strength nor surpass him.
As an example of how humans create AI, they create them with restrictions so that they can't surpass them; though what those novels fail to mention is God never had a physical body and doesn't get hindered by the same things as mortals, such as emotions, desires, etc." I put a stop to my words as I glanced around, closing my eyes for a minute before finally letting out a sigh...
"But what if other than a yearning for godhood and such, going for true death?
Because no matter, once one's lifespan fulfills its end, they only go through death that ensues to one's body; and then due to the limitations placed by God, they all must go through his judgment in one's soul form to achieve eternal life eternally, but that is in either Heaven or Hell, relying on one's karma.
Immortality isn't impossible in this universe. One can use methods to hide their existence through the various universe recreation cycles by unknown methods.
But what is nearly impossible for someone to achieve is true death. As it eliminates all shackles placed by God unless one successfully learns a Supreme Law, but..." I once again let out a sigh, remembering that no matter how much I searched this universe -- I couldn't find more information about these 'Supreme Laws'...
"So, death is freeing the shackles made of the body in the soul by making the soul go through God's judgment.
What is true death? Wouldn't that basically be annihilating my entire existence from this entire universe?" My eyes shone as I started thinking of what death was in this universe.
"When one dies, they don't truly die as they wait in a place called 'limbo' where their souls go and keep their consciousness for the whole millions of years that is until Earth, and all dimensions connected to it go through the recreation cycle -- called the chaos process -- which consists of destruction and afterward creation.
When the doomsday arrives for the recreation cycle to happen, all the dead souls -- whether trillions or even quintillions -- they all go through some sort of judgment by God; and therefore." I smiled, as I thought back to this process, but then my eyes narrowed for a second as I remembered something...
"Right! How can one actually know all this? Well, it's taboo...
One can never realize all the limitations and the actual death, which I'll call now the 'fake-death' process unless they reach the peak in one of the cultivation systems.
But there's another way, that is if one sacrifices one's future of going through practice to discern the true meaning of life after reaching a certain level of cultivation.
Though there's an immense catch; as one cannot tell another form, whether demon, elf, other existence humans, etc and even their memories are sealed by God through some methods of his..." I then smiled, as I remembered that albeit I didn't do any of these methods, I found a loophole out of it all...
"But there is a loophole that I used -- which was mastering mind arts -- able to successfully read others' minds by peeking into their souls for a bit.
They then would discover the memories of others..." I stopped for a second, as I remembered that all of this wouldn't have happened if I weren't to meet that body, but then I shook my head as I let out a sigh...
I then continued: "So, other humans don't know that after they die they would go under God's Judgment unless they reach the peak or do the same process as I have done, but no one has thoughts about the true meaning of life other than the peak life forms who have reached the peak of a certain cultivation system on Earth and its nearby dimensions.
I was of no exception, I was a normal twenty year old mortal, leaving his normal life; until a day I found a secret realm, that had a strange man guarding it, along with extremely powerful creatures that even now, I can't seem to discern their strengths...
The strange man then led me to a portal that had a body in a hibernation process?
Hibernation process? What's that? Well, I didn't know it either until I saw the body that looked genderless, well it truly was peculiar as it looked neither a male nor a female...
That body was holding a book named ' what is the true meaning of life ?', and it goes to explain the process of hibernation -- that was locking the body up in a secret realm, which was in a state of sleep.
It also mentioned that if one wants to know about the true meaning of life, they had to fully master mind reading arts to its peak, use them to read the memories of that specific body as it only had a shard of its soul; not any of it.
Well, I wasn't sure at that moment, since the soul wasn't something I could feel even with my peak strength at the soul cultivation system..."I then shook my head as I remembered how I truly started my Cultivation journey...
Now that I think about it, it was quite a fateful encounter I must say.
That day, when I read the question ' what is the true meaning of life ?', I was weirdly intrigued by it, as if it was the sole reason for my existence..." I shook my head, getting rid of useless thoughts, as I continued:
"The book mentioned cultivating all through the 3 cultivation systems.
But after I was done reading memories still laying in the soul shard, his body and the book turned into ashes...
But strangely though, I could notice his soul shard fleeing into someplace rather than blinking, going to the 'limbo' place, dimension, or whatsoever.
Oh, I forgot that after someone dies, their souls 'blink' out of existence, as in a sense that they teleported to 'limbo'..." I then glanced at the window, as I continued:
"I know from the book, that I and other humans are limited by their 7 emotions and 6 desires.
They can't think rationally, as one way or another, they are influenced by their 7 emotions or 6 desires, such as Greed, Lust, Envy, Revenge, etc.
Though that doesn't mean it's uncontrollable, as the book did mention it possible.
After I read the soul shard's memories, I found all that information out, from the chaos process -- creation and destruction of the universe -- all the way to death..." I then remembered something incredulous, which was that the soul shard mentioned some vague information about Supreme laws...
"Depending on the body's memories, supreme laws ( He mentioned 6:Time, Space, Life, Death, Fate, Destiny ) are impossible to learn due to them being placed by God, on Earth, and other dimensions in this universe.
So I cannot truly achieve what I think of true death, nor see whether it is truly possible or not..." I then remembered something, as I forgot to mention laws...
"But other laws are possible for humans and other races to access, as an example there are Fire, Earth, even cooking laws, etc. But that is on Earth.
They are accessible when one plants a Law seed, then continuously nourish it in their souls and bodies by using the 3 energies -- Nao, Ki, and Qi -- even using their specific stones to fasten comprehension speed, but that is only on a superficial level..." I then paused a I could remember some words, before letting out a sigh...
"That's all we can achieve though, a Law seed. But it can do various spells using the Laws' comprehension with outside energies to mix.
I have personally understood some laws, such as Inferno Thunder Law ( That is a mix of Wind Laws, Fire Laws, and Lightning Laws ), and other laws that helped me with spells..." I then stopped as I realized I got my thoughts off-topic again, before letting out a sigh, as I continued:
"I sigh a lot lately, well it's natural considering I actually haven't talked to myself for sixty years...
Anyhow, the true restrictions that are hidden by God are how karma is spoken of, which is the most mysterious, as it is only mentioned once one reaches the peak of the mortal realm.
The mortal realm is mentioned in the soul shard's memories as the very peak of cultivating a specific cultivation system of the three.
As for karma, it mentioned something about needing to follow certain rules that they know at their birth, such as no killing unless one was targeted, no r*pe, etc.
Though what one doesn't know is that good and bad karma are decided by these actions, so if one r*pes, they are destined to go to Hell after 'fake death'.
But according to the shard soul's memories, it's only if the limitations of God are still in place, which is weird how God wants most cultivators in his dimension to go to Hell but not heaven, but it's weird in the first place that he keeps mentioning God's dimensions as if there's another dimension..."Weirdly though, when I was about to think further about the matter of God wanting cultivators to go to hell and such, I just shook my head as I didn't think too much about it...
"Anyway, now the only viable ways for me to achieve what I want that is true death, according to the soul shard's memories, is that I have to follow what the book said, thus being in hibernation for 1,000 years, and once they're in that slumber, one needs to focus on understanding the specific supreme law, and finally, be in an environment that has enough resources that support the body, for the absence of the soul, to make it healthy during the slumber of the 1,000 years.." I then started looking around, to see the various resources that would support my body's hibernation for 1,000 years, and then continued excitedly:
"I achieved all that, now all I lack is to find a random secret realm, and make a tomb with enough arrays to make anyone at the peak realms not notice me, so worst-case scenario that happens to my body is that the tomb gets placed in a museum."
-1st Person POV end-
Meanwhile, a flying shred of a soul could be seen a few meters away from Adel, but it was invisible as no one, even God in this dimension could sense it...
"..So everything is set in place, now is the time to properly start the plan..." murmured the figure in a tone that no one could hear it...
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Author's Note:
For those wondering, 1st Person POV is only this chapter. Afterward, it's 3rd person POV.
Unless there are special scenes, there wouldn't be 1st person POV...