《Re: Universe》


 Chapter 01

    Nothingness.


    It has been quite some time now since Param had been floating into the Nothingness.


    He had just bought a cheap good looking flute from a local market on a whim. The flute was made of bamboo, grass green in color and full of intricate patterns. When he held it, it felt cool to touch just like a jade. The shopkeeper kept boasting about it with his spit flying, and Param eventually found himself owning the flute, even though he had no idea how to play it.


    After entering his home he was eager to test out his newest purchase. He blew into it, and that was the last thing he could remember.


    Now he was floating in this vast Nothingness, and he had no idea why he hadn¡¯t died yet, nor how much time had passed.


    Once in a while he¡¯d feel as if he¡¯s hearing something, only for everything to return to silence once more, making him doubt himself whether he was hallucinating.


    Param guessed that perhaps he¡¯d also become a member of the ¡°Transmigrator¡¯s Club¡±. What would happen next? Would he meet an old man who¡¯d apologize to him for killing him before his time had come and reincarnate him into a fantasy world of hot elves and cute cat-girls? Or what about a cultivation world with a system?


    Alas, even after waiting for a long time, neither any old man nor any system greeted him.


    With nothing else to do, Param closely observed the flute in his hand. The only thing that he had with him in this vast Nothingness was this mysterious flute he was holding. Even his underwear had not persisted this sudden transmigration. Thus, he was currently floating stark naked in the Nothingness, with his meat sword randomly pointing in different directions. Unfortunately, there was nobody around to appreciate the young man.


    The flute was extremely exquisite, with various diagrams all over it. The diagrams would also subtly change over time, giving the illusion that it was alive. As the diagrams shifted, moved and changed, the flute would give off a low melodious hum.


    ¡°This flute is indeed marvelous!¡± Param said.


    Hoping for something to happen, Param blew the flute. However, he didn¡¯t hear any sound from the instrument. Instead, insights filled his mind, showing him the Truth.


    Param felt as if he¡¯d entered a new world of knowledge. This was unlike anything he¡¯d known in his previous world. The rules of Nothingness, while producing similar results, worked quite differently on a fundamental level.


    And so time passed, with a naked man playing the flute while floating in the Nothingness.


    Surprisingly, it seemed he didn¡¯t need to eat or sleep. This made him think whether he was just a digital character in a digital world, but there was nothing he could do to verify.


    As time passed Param came to realize the intricacies of Nothingness through the Truth. Strictly speaking, the Truth was similar to physics of his previous world. The fundamental rules had been set, and one just needed to understand them. Param felt that there was more to it, but he¡¯d not grasped it yet.


    Over the course of his floating journey he also saw numerous things. The Nothingness was quite vast, with many shattered and dead worlds inside. From the way they¡¯d been created he could tell that they were once governed by similar people like himself, who had a reasonable understanding of the Truth.


    Those worlds also once held numerous sentient creatures, vast civilizations, life and death systems, multiple realms, celestial bodies, etc. Param couldn¡¯t help but wonder what was the reason behind this destruction. It was as if¡­


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    Entire universes were at war.


    Once in a while he¡¯d see some thriving universe, but he didn¡¯t approach them since he was not sure if the owner was a friendly guy.


    There was once when he approached a similar universe, and was instantly detected by its owner, who began attacking him with a spoon shaped artifact similar to his flute. Param had a hard time shaking off that guy, and this event created quite a frightening memory.


    Fortunately his study of the Truth was of use, and he was able to create some clothes. While it was easy for him to do some things using the Truth, a difficult task could only be done using the Truth Artifact.


    The flute, which Param named the Green Melody Bamboo Flute, was a Truth Artifact. These Truth Artifacts were owned by people who were the owners of the universes in the Nothingness. In fact, they were able to create their universe only because of the help of their Truth Artifacts.


    But creating a universe was not easy. There were many things to consider. A universe needed to be self-sustaining for infinity. It also needed to be capable of repairing and protecting itself from the external threat. It needed a hint of chaos and uncertainty, yet it also needed to be orderly, stable and predictable. A shoddy universe was sure to eventually deteriorate and collapse onto itself.


    Furthermore, size and age also mattered. The more a universe grew, the more realms it had, and the more beings it contained, it would eventually begin to accumulate errors. Eventually these errors would grow in size and, in the absence of any self-correcting mechanism, would lead to the universe¡¯s demise.


    But the most important thing was to have absolute mastery over your Truth Artifact. The Truth Artifact was the only tool to manipulate and use the Truth, and the level of mastery over it determined the power one could get out of it.


    For this purpose, Param specifically created a special manual, or in this world¡¯s terminology, a ¡®Scripture¡¯.


    The ¡®Melody Scripture¡¯ was created specifically to create a new universe, and consisted of seven pieces. The first three pieces related to creation, the fourth related to manipulation, while the last three to destruction.


    Param calmed his mind and glanced through the Nothingness. The Nothingness was void of light, but it contained luminous floating debris. This debris was once part of a universe which was destroyed for some reason. Param didn¡¯t have a clear idea as to who destroyed these large universes, but he knew that the Nothingness was not a safe place. If he wanted to survive, he needed to create a large eggshell - a mighty universe!


    Param focused as he played the first piece- ¡°Creating Heaven and Earth¡±.


    The Green Melody Bamboo Flute trembled as the melody seemed to fill the empty Nothingness. The Truth seemed to come materialize, and a vast material space came into being.


    It needs to be mentioned that while it seems like all of this happened within the time it takes for a spark to fly off a flint, it actually took a great deal of time. After all, creating a universe is not easy!


    Time passed, and the new material space seemed to stabilize. Param huffed as he felt weakened. It seemed using the Truth Artifact took some kind of energy from within.


    He rested for a bit while observing his universe.


    The universe seemed to be filled with a type of phenomenon. It has the same characteristics as the Truth, but since Param couldn''t capture every aspect of it, the result was quite inferior to the real Truth.


    In order to inflate his own ego and to hide the shortcomings of his own inferior product, Param decided to name this phenomenon the "Grand Dao".


    The Grand Dao, while shoddy compared to the Truth, was actually quite impressive within the universe. It was very permeable, and thus had permeated to every corner of the space. If one had complete mastery over the Grand Dao, they could know almost everything that''s happening in the universe.


    Before he could develop his world further, Param decided to create a place for himself. He tore apart a piece of space and folded it into itself, creating a small Secret Realm. After he develops the universe further, his secret realm would perhaps be the only place where the Grand Dao would be in its primitive form.


    A bit more work, and soon enough his secret realm soon hosted a small palace. The palace looked ordinary, however each of its bricks was made by manifesting the Grand Dao. Param was sure that his small palace would be the hottest piece of real estate in his universe in the future.


    Param played around for a bit more until felt he had recovered his strength, then came out of his secret realm to continue his creation process.


    While the Grand Dao was quite powerful, it was also quite useless on its own. Param knew that the Grand Dao wouldn''t be able to spawn complex creatures.


    He played the flute again and the second piece emerged- "Splitting the Yin and Yang"!


    The Grand Dao, which was once one, began to separate.


    The lighter elements floated upwards, creating Yang. The newly created Yang was light, bright, righteous and hot.


    On the other hand, the elements that were heavier began to sink, creating Yin. The newly created Yin was heavy, dark, wicked and cold.


    But things didn''t stop here.


    Many elements didn''t sink or float, and instead revolved around each other in a pattern. It seemed as if between the Yang above and the Yin below, there was a large spiral galaxy. This was a new element, containing both the Yin and Yang in equal amounts. They repelled and attracted each other, thus pushing and pulling periodically, forming the Balance.


    Finally, the elements at the end of the space accumulated. They seemed similar to Balance since they both contained characteristics of both the Yin and Yang. However, instead of pushing and pulling each other periodically, they seemed to follow a set of patterns. These patterns seemed quite more complex than just the interactions of the Yin and Yang, and there was a trace of the Grand Dao within. This element was Harmony.


    Thus, the Grand Dao split into four forms- Yin, Yang, Balance and Harmony!

 Chapter 02

    The Grand Dao split into four forms- Yin, Yang, Balance and Harmony.


    Param looked at his creation in anticipation. The creation of the elements would be followed by the birth of Numinous Treasures.


    In the blueprint he''d made for his universe, the Numinous Treasures were going to be the foundations of the universe. With their help, his universe would be able to maintain, repair and protect itself.


    As time passed, the Yang within the universe seemed to gather towards a single point. The accumulation seemed to trigger a phenomenon where it formed something akin to a black hole and began to collapse upon itself. The collapse caused the Yang element at the focus point to refine itself even further.


    The focal point grew brighter and brighter, until it seemed to have reached a threshold. The extremely pure Yang at the focal point darkened, and formed what seemed to be extremely pure Yin!


    The newly formed Yin interacted with the surrounding pure Yang as if in preset patterns, and slowly began taking the shape of a bright star with a dark core.


    The moment the star was born it began to refine the Yang elements around it, while in return spewing out a new form of energy, which would later be known as Spiritual Qi.


    Param was impressed with the Numinous Treasure, and decided to name it the "Grand Yang Spiritual Star".


    Why the grand at the beginning you ask? Because Param thought that four letter names were cool, plus it also helped increase the word count.


    According to his plan, the Grand Yang Spiritual Star was similar to an air purifier in a house. Except that the thing that it was going to refine and purify was going to be Spiritual Qi, which was going to be the base power of this world.


    Similar things were occurring in other places.


    The purest Yin elements gathered to form a sliver of pure Yang, which interacted with the pure Yin surrounding it and took the shape of an extremely large, silver colored mirror.


    The mirror reflected another empty space, as if it was the entrance to another world. The mirror seemed to be extremely terrifying, as the impurities within the surrounding Yin elements began to freeze and separate.


    This mirror, which Param named the Silver Yin Reincarnation Mirror, was created to manage matters related to soul and reincarnation.


    However, between the Yin and Yang, things were quite different. At the center of Balance which was shaped in the form of a spiral galaxy, the impurity of the elementa didn''t allow it to purify beyond a certain extent. Instead, the elements seemed to form a vast network with each other, spreading throughout the spiral galaxy.


    This new creation seemed almost immaterial, and once in a while shone with multicolored lights. As they shined, lightning flashed throughout and refined the remaining Balance elements.


    This was the Grand Dao Heaven''s Will, which would oversee the universe and maintain order. In short, it was kind of a surveillance system. If your social points hit zero, you''re dead!


    Finally there was Harmony, which simply took the shape of a large black sword. On one side were the words "Dao Protection" while on the other side were the words "Martial Extermination".


    As the words implied, its name was the Dao Protecting Martial Extermination Sword. Maybe Param really thought that the longer the name, the cooler it sounded.


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    The sword was extremely sharp, just its sharpness was enough to refine the surrounding Harmony elements.


    Param looked at his creation with satisfaction. Everything was going according to plan. Just a step more and he''d be done.


    Currently, while the universe had been created, it was, in simple words, a dead universe. The Numinous Treasures that had been born hardly had any spirituality, and they would take a long time to develop once. What Param planned to do was to upload info by himself.


    He rested for a while and played his third piece- "Awakening Wisdom".


    The melody seemed to have a great effect on the universe. The Numinous Treasures seemed to ''awaken'', as if a toddler''s mind had immediately matured into a grown-up person.


    The first task of the Numinous Treasures was to refine the remaining elements to create the first beings. The first creatures born from the elements would have an innate advantage over others.


    The Numinous Treasures went to work, and began to refine the remaining elements.


    The Grand Yang Spiritual Star refined the surrounding pure Yang and refined it into a blob. Under the melody of the third piece, the blob underwent a change, turning it into a person.


    Born from the purest of Yang, she was fair with equally fair hair. Even her pupils were white. Her chest held an ample bosom, a delight to watch as it shook with a movement. Her thin waist and perky butt was well proportioned, like a sculpture. Her hair was long and thick, seemingly like clouds, and floated behind her with grace. She was beautiful, but the aura surrounding her was explosive and righteous.


    Since she was born with Wisdom, she knew about the universe and herself. Her name was Bai.


    The Silver Yin Reincarnation Mirror wouldn''t allow itself to be left behind, and similarly refined the Yin elements surrounding it into a blob, which slowly transformed into another figure.


    This woman was born from Yin, was dark skinned with beautiful black eyes and hair dark as night.


    While similarly blessed with similar beauty as Bai, she was different. Her every move seemed to be full of seduction, and each glance a hint of mischief. It wasn''t purposeful, it was her innate aura, an ability to make others reveal their desires.


    She too was born of Wisdom, her name being Yue.


    Meanwhile in the center of the spiral galaxy formed by the Balance elements, the Grand Dao Heaven''s Will used its frightening lightning to refine the elements into a blob, which similarly transformed into Yun.


    Yun looked like a next door mature beauty, with a bosom threatening to spill. Her long blonde hair was like golden threads, yet her rainbow pupils could not hide the imperial aura within her.


    The last was Daxia. Born from the refinement from the Dao Protecting Martial Extermination Sword¡¯s sword intent, like her name she was heroic, with slightly curly deep red hair. While her beautiful figure could make anybody drool, not many would be able to meet her fierce red pupils.


    The four sisters, born from different sources, took their time exploring their surroundings. At the moment the universe was mostly devoid of life, with a few creatures beginning to take birth and mountains and seas being formed.


    As the first born, they could sense Param, but his aura was too unbearable for them to handle. Param too realized this problem and shook his head.


    As the owner of the Green Melody Bamboo Flute, his aura was too strong for the natives of this world since it came directly from the Truth. On the other hand, the natives hadn¡¯t even mastered the shoddy Grand Dao yet.


    Feeling a bit disappointed, he retreated into his secret realm while waiting for them to shoulder the Numinous Treasures.


    ¡®Shouldering the Numinous Treasure¡¯ was a process through which a native of this universe would be able to gain control over a Numinous Treasure, enabling the native to borrow some of its power.


    Param made it this way since while the Numinous Treasures were sentient, they weren¡¯t as highly sentient as intelligent living beings. After all, the Numinous Treasures were supposed to be the foundations of the universe. If they gained a high level of sentience, who knows what kind of trouble they would cause. They were supposed to be like a microwave; doing their job and then quietly sitting in a corner until the next job arrives.


    As time went by, the universe gradually began to take shape. The Numinous Treasures worked on ¡®auto¡¯ mode and refined the remaining elements into more physical forms.


    Mountains rose from the ground, oceans touched the horizon, and clouds traveled the vast skies. In many places space twisted and turned, forming Secret Realms. Natural treasures began to form, and ingenious creatures filled the universe.


    At the same time, the first four races appeared in the universe. These races lived within their own realms and initially didn¡¯t interact with those in the other realms.


    The refining by the Grand Yang Spiritual Star gave birth to the Celestial Race. They were born with an innate talent for refining Spiritual Qi within their bodies, and were full of righteousness. They lived within the Celestial Realm, which was previously filled with Yang elements.


    The refining by the Silver Yin Reincarnation Mirror gave birth to the Yama Race. They had an innate talent for utilizing illusions, dreams, and soul techniques. They emphasized on manipulating reality, turning the immaterial into material and vice versa. The Yama Race resided within the Reincarnation Realm, which was both inside and outside the mirror.


    The refining by the Grand Dao Heaven¡¯s Will gave birth to the Immortal Race, who lived in the now Immortal Realm. Their innate talent was their firm will and mind cultivation. But more than that, their true expertise lied in prophecy. As children of the Heaven''s Will, they could calculate the various possibilities and predict the best outcome for themselves.


    Lastly, the refining by the Dao Protecting Martial Extermination Sword gave birth to the Martial Race. They didn¡¯t have much talent in Spiritual Qi, soul techniques, nor in predicting the future. However, the only thing that made them special was their unshakable Dao Heart. With their Dao Heart, their every movement was the Dao, and their every speech was the Dao. Their sword techniques were especially famous, which even led to the birth of the proverb: ¡°One sword breaks all!¡±. The Martial Race resided within the Martial Realm in peace while protecting the inhabitants of the universe within.

 Chapter 03

    The universe had just been born. Every place was full of energy and prosperity. Since the creatures were young and ignorant, they were not perfect. In more accurate words, between the creatures there was a lack of civility.


    To put it in short, everyone was a hooligan.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that the horn of the Heaven Devouring Boar? That¡¯s a nice treasure you have there! Let me borrow it for a while.¡±


    ¡°I saw this Seven Purple Striped Ginseng first so it¡¯s mine! What? You bought it three days ago. So what?¡±


    ¡°Hey handsome! Do you want to be my Dao partner? ¡­How dare you reject me? Die!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good to be young.¡± Param chuckled as he used his powers to sense the ongoings of his universe.


    He changed his focus to the four sisters, to see what they were up to.


    After checking out a bit, it seemed like in the time that had passed, they had developed splendidly. They as leaders of their race had successfully created their own cultivation technique and were gaining a foothold of their own.


    Param suddenly frowned a bit. For some reason it felt as if there was something missing. He checked each of their development stages one by one and realized something. Their development process happened too easily! The beasts they encountered didn¡¯t have as great strength as they needed to be.


    He realized his mistake. The Numinous Treasures didn¡¯t produce any beasts, and just used all the pure elements to create the first borns. Because of this, the beasts born later were born from a much impure source, and thus, much weaker than the first borns.


    Param rubbed his forehead. He¡¯d messed up!


    Should he Alt + F4? Nope, it would be too much trouble to recreate the universe. Neither could he just make a few individual changes, since the universe was kind of a black box. Plus, he always felt a hidden danger in the Nothingness, since other than the spoon guy, he hadn¡¯t seen a single universe creator who dared to step out of their creation.


    Thinking about the problem, Param began jotting his idea on the wall in front of him.


    He decided to create a patch update for the universe, which would contain a few template creatures and plants. While he couldn¡¯t make any direct changes, he could change some values to guide the universe towards the change he wanted.


    With the patch in place, a subtle change occurred within the Numinous Treasures.


    From the dark core of the Grand Yang Spiritual Star, a bird came into being. It was majestic, with white-gold feathers formed from Spiritual Qi. The Spiritual Qi contained traces of Yang, thus the feathers appeared to be on fire. It was fierce, and a single flap of its wings seemed to cause the sky and the earth to burn. Its most defining feature were its three sharp legs, giving it the name Three Legged Spirit Flame Crow. Similar to other creatures, it was born with Wisdom, and just after some time it was born it began bullying¡­ I mean, uniting the other beasts for a common cause.


    On the other hand, the Nine Tailed Silver Jade Fox born from the Silver Yin Reincarnation Mirror was similarly a troublemaker. Its name came from its appearance, which consisted of Nine Long Tails and a silver coat as beautiful as jade. It was a master at illusions and soul techniques, and had no problems in making the other beasts submit to it. Even the beings from Yama Race would lose their minds the moment it transformed into a humanoid form, such was its ability. Many women in the Reincarnation Realm were vexed since all the men kept talking about was how beautiful the Nine Tailed Silver Jade Fox was.


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    ¡°Nine long beautiful tails,


    With a silver coat as shiny as jade.¡±


    Eventually within the Reincarnation Realm the word ¡®vixen¡¯ was born.


    In the Immortal Realm, the Grand Dao Heaven¡¯s Will refined the mountains, oceans, treasures, and forests to create the Five Element Heaven Eye Dragon. It had the body like a snake, the claws like those of an eagle, the head like that of a lion, and horns similar to that of a deer. Like its name implied, it had an innate control over the five elements, namely fire, earth, metal, water and wood. But the most eye-catching thing was its third eye which rested above its two eyes. The pupil of the third eye was unlike any other pupil seen. It was spiral shaped and multi-colored, as if the eye contained a galaxy. It was said that using its third eye, the Five Element Heaven Eye Dragon could calculate the myriad changes within the world and predict the future. Unfortunately, it seemed to have a reclusive nature, and quickly disappeared. Spotting the dragon became a thing to boast within the circles of the Immortal Race.


    Within the Martial Realm, the Dao Protecting Martial Extermination Sword condensed its sword intent to create a body, and exposed it to the desires of the world to create its Dao Heart, which eventually gave birth to the Dao Protecting Martial Sage Monkey. Soon after it was born it became obsessed with the pursuit of the Grand Dao, and defeated many strong beasts and members of the Martial Race. It was absolutely domineering, and considered itself number one under heaven. This lasted until it saw a casual sword stroke made by Daxia, the leader of the Martial Race. From that day it developed imposter syndrome, and thought that it had no talent in martial arts. It hid the techniques he¡¯d developed in different places thinking they were just too embarrassing, and eventually faded away from the world. Once in a while one would hear gossip about how a kid fell into a cliff, only to find a powerful inheritance and take revenge on those who wronged them.


    With the appearance of the four Sacred Beasts, a change took over the realms. Now the beasts had a leader who could guide them with their cultivation and even protect them when needed. Many beasts transformed into humanoid forms, and under the Sacred Beasts they formed their own rule.


    While this was good for the beasts, the natives of the realms now could no longer take the beasts for granted. Although both the natives and the beasts were born with some innate abilities, the beasts¡¯ innate strength had no match. The realms turned into a chess board, with both the natives and the beasts vying for resources. The natives of the realms hated the direct and savage lifestyle of the beasts, while the beasts could not stand the hypocritic and hooliganistic behavior of the natives.


    All of this made for a good source of entertainment for Param, who was now feeling some burnout. At the back of his mind, he kept feeling as if he was missing something, but just couldn¡¯t remember what it was. Even after patching things up, he kept feeling as if he¡¯d messed up something.


    Suddenly, he thought of visiting his universe in first person. While it was true that as the creator of the universe he had the ability to know almost everything about it, in the end, it was just watching. Param wanted to experience for himself what the realms had turned out into, even though he knew the answer to that.


    Unfortunately neither the creatures nor the realms themselves would be able to handle his presence. Just the traces of Truth surrounding his body would rupture the laws of the shoddy Grand Dao nearby him.


    Thus, he created an avatar from the Grand Dao. Even though he wanted to create an avatar from the elements currently present in the universe, it seemed like the Grand Dao was the limit. After all, it was not easy for the infinite to take form to become a finite.


    The avatar was formed and Param transferred a copy of his consciousness into it. The avatar would have no previous memory but would have all essential Wisdom, and act independently in the realms. When its journey came to an end Param would download its memories.


    Thus on a particular day, the sky tore apart, followed by a person falling. A bear the size of a small hill nearby was licking its front fangs as it saw this and was stunned. Following that it wasted no time and opened its mouth to chomp on him. After all, who would receive a snack that came to you?


    The avatar was instantly swallowed, and there was silence once again. Unfortunately the bear failed to predict that this tiny person had the power to tear apart its stomach and walk out with ease. With its body ripped apart inside out, the bear quickly passed away to reincarnate.


    The avatar, who henceforth would be referred to as ¡®Avatar¡¯, was disgusted by the blood and entrails sticking to his body. The clothes he¡¯d worn were completely soiled.


    While Avatar was thinking about how to clean himself of the dirt, he heard a voice behind him.


    ¡°Hey! Isn¡¯t that the Two Fanged Bear? Nice treasure you have there!¡±