《Cultivation throughout the void》


 Introductions

    "One-hundred thousand years of cultivation, fifty-thousand years wandering space starlight guiding the way, visiting thousands of galaxies and millions of worlds seeing the wonders of life and terror of death, yet reaching the edge of the universe is still beyond my grasp, now it is ending"


    -Unknown human cultivator ~ Heavenly rebirth stage


    The [Vast tree universe], a realm of spirits beyond the physical plane above what one would call reality, a place that gives rise to innumerable life forms and the unknown is coming to an end. The realm barrier separating the metaphysical universe from beyond has been torn to the critical point. Soon all efforts of restoring the barrier will cease and the end will be set in stone.


    What has brought upon this end? Did the physical world break the taboo of never interacting with that of beyond the physical plane? No. If it was simply so the physical world would be the one facing the end.


    The end for this spiritual universe comes from an adversary that is inescapable for beings made of that which is but is not.


    The calamity of corruption, it needs not care about the physical or metaphysical It exists simply because it does, it does not care for thought nor might. Corruption can come come in many forms, sometimes visible through ones actions while other times the very thought of corruption is enough to bring fear to one''s mind.


    Corruption of one''s mind, corruption of one''s body, corruption of one''s soul, it may be simply a word to describe dishonest behavior in the physical world but here it is death. For beings born in a spiritual realm where a single smile can make the sun shine or a single frown make the mountains cry, corruption can make that smile burn the world asunder and that frown twist the very minds of those that witness it leaving nothing but broken beings behind.


    In essence corruption in an abstract world leads to an outcome very much not desired.


    When a spirit becomes corrupt their mind is no longer right, their body becomes a twisted wretched husk, and as for their spirit or soul as one might call it, it ceases to be pure as can be.


    From outside the [Vast tree universe] this corruption arrived, it did not have a form one could call real or fake. Just like debating the existence of a soul in the physical realm no one can really say what form corruption took when it first arrived but soon enough only nightmares remained.


    The casualties have surpassed trillions if only counting those defending the realm as billions of spirit galaxies have been silenced. Armies with weapons only found in nightmares traversed the universe giving aid to spirits of all kinds and fending of the corruption as best as they could, but it was not to be.


    A red-pink light beam flared in the void releasing such a horrid screaming sound it affected galaxies a billion light years away irregardless of the laws of space.


    The beam obliterated everything along its path, be it in the spiritual or physical realm before seemingly hitting its target, the explosion caused the surrounding space to flash and burn orange then white until it left a blotch in space that would therefore never host life ever again. As for any galaxies in the vicinity, if they weren''t already dead galaxies then now as billions of stars simply disappeared they are surely no more.


    No mortal beings could have seen it coming, the beam of light broke all understanding of reality, while the sound it gave off disappeared the moment the light vanished having never truly existed.


    This scene took place a thousand times across a great scar in the void of space, all in an effort to slow down the incoming calamity.


    Mortals in the physical realm would never know of why they died, they would never know that from beyond their plane of existence beings beyond their comprehension had written them off as necessary casualties of war without so much as a say, while all the spirits in the vicinity could once curse at the origin of that beam it would be meaningless now.


    Weapons that would never be used in even the most dire of circumstances lest they incur the wrath of others were now being fired without regard, it wasn''t to obliterate the enemy but to slow it down.


    Those inhabitants of nearby galaxies had long started to evacuate those among their people as far as possible from this madness.


    Spirits escaping the various nearby planets boarded space ships of all type and sizes leaving their home planets on journeys only wishing to avoid their imminent demise. Depending on the advancement of each spiritual race some had reached the capability of faster then light travel while others had advanced to the point of inventing stellar teleportation.


    These forms of travel differed from their physical counterparts faster then light travel and teleportation, a spirit was far more versatile then a being limited by earthly confines after all.


    The physical realm had all but been abandoned, few tried to save those they hailed from seeing it as a blessing to die without knowledge of the cause.


    "Lord Ophenion, the 51st and 232nd armies have completed their missions and have successfully retreated, they will soon be dismissed as per your order. The 187th, 195th and 314th armies report increased activity in the central corridor, while the..."


    "Send some more messengers to the nearby lower realms, tell them prioritize those that have escaped the confines of their home planets on their own first. If you can take them do it, otherwise let them fend for themselves"


    "...yes lord, continuing the status report, 12-"


    "Forget it, dismiss everyone. Let them go back for their families before it is to late"


    "As you say lord Ophenion" the voice replied not understanding what was just said.


    The surrounding attendants became silent, dismissing everyone? Would that not hasten the universe''s destruction? Would that not send a wave of panic across the spiritual universe?


    What about the those who live furthest from the conflict, wouldn''t they be unable to see their families even if they go back now? Had the lord of the four void seas gone mad?


    The attendants of lord Ophenion knew this was the case, how many of them knew how to teleport?


    Mortals could build energy generators covering planets to entire stars, weapons to blow up said planets and stars and even participate in galactic wars involving even the cultivation world at the lowest level but in the end once a spirit reached the realm of body reformation they would no longer be bound by the laws of mortal life.


    Yet this did not mean they were beyond grasp, so what if they could escape death via mortal disease when they still couldn''t simply teleport to the edge of the universe on a whim.


    If someone from the physical realm bends the laws of space to allow for teleportation, they may be able to traverse from galaxy to galaxy in what can amount to mere moments at the cost of a gargantuan amount of energy, of course with the limitation of only being able to teleport around locations where you can gather such energy and the distance traveled being limited to the stability of the energy that can be gathered.


    Likewise a spirit can teleport with a much higher energy efficiency from galaxy to galaxy as long as they have the ability and energy to do so. But just like the physical realm energy isn''t unlimited to them, they would need time to recover after teleporting.


    Spiritual Qi, the energy used by spirits to rule the spiritual universe could only form in places filled with life in the physical realm.


    This energy could not be used by mortals in life, it could not be harnessed by any machines created by them and it couldn''t even be observed by them, to a mortal spiritual Qi was considered a fictitious fabrication used by spirits to lie about the real source of their power.


    As such this power which only that of the spiritual world could use was the lifeline of the spiritual realm and the binding keeping them in check.


    "Lord Ophenion please reconsider, if you must dismiss the united army it cannot be done in haste!"


    "SILENCE! I HAVE GIVEN MY ORDERS!" Lord Ophenion spat out unable to controll himself.


    The surrounding attendants spoke amongst themselves creating some distance between themselves and their lord.


    "Did the lord fall to corruption?"


    "It must be! How else can you explain this?"


    "What should we do? We are no match even united"


    "We must send for aid, we cannot deal with this ourselves"


    Lord Ophenion saw this hesitation becoming further enraged "It seems you mistake my realization for madness, so be it. Let me show you why I was named lord of the four seas!"


    "NO! Please my lor-"


    Lord Ophenion - Lord of the four seas, traitor of the spiritual realm.


    <+==    Intermission    ==+>


    An exploding star? It may be apocalyptic to some in the physical realm and may even hurt or even kill someone at the deity transformation stage but to one beyond that point it was no different then a hot shower, even tearing space would result in nothing more then a paper cut.


    While mortals may consider planets as indispensable resources, a cultivator at body reformation stage or above can simply create planets on a whim.


    This did not mean no value could be gained for such beings, simply the things such beings valued are not the same.


    <+==  Intermission end  ==+>


    Within the Vast tree universe innumerable spirit continents vast in size held trillions of mortal souls, mortals could not see or step foot inside of these spirit continents, only after death would one be eligible to be reborn to such a place. These mortal souls without body were fragile and at the mercy of fate, among those trillions less then three in every one hundred was eligible to become a spirit cultivator.


    Being reborn on a spiritual continent was not a lottery, those who lived life in a way that the scales of life couldn''t determine good or evil were sent to spirit continents for final judgement. The lives of mortals on such continents could only be said to be simple.


    Technological advancement of any kind was not allowed for mortals, this wasn''t a rule set by cultivators but a rule of the afterlife.


    Mortal souls are there to be judged one last time free from all the desires of the mortal world, if one fails to live a humble life then their soul will be judged as ''evil'' turned into spiritual Qi and sent back to the planet they hailed from.


    That was oblivion, true death.


    Mortals did not know the universe as they knew it was coming to an end, living their lives in ignorance as they seek their final judgement.


    Many spiritual continents on the forefront had been destroyed with all spiritual life extinguished, even the land had been grounded down to nothing more than dust. These continents were the most unfortunate of all being the first to meet the calamity, few species undergoing the trial of the soul escaped the carnage.


    The mortal souls within those continents are said to be fortunate by spirit cultivators for they will not have to watch as their protectors abandon them, they will not have to know that every passing day is counted down, the died unknowingly before they could even perceive that their life has ended once more, this time forever.


    That is not to say that only mortals couldn''t get away, for even spirit cultivators the so called ''immortals'' had been incapable of escaping even if they used every means available to them.


    The only way for one to survive the current calamity was to already be far from the calamity, one such a continent was know as the [Emerald pine spirit] continent.


    It was a vast continent of over 4.7 billion Kms of spiritual land with a plethora of different environments, ecosystems and with many species entering a soul state after death heading here for their final test.


    This continent was primarily ruled by a race known as humans, a race/species that was neither small nor large in the grand scheme of things but held just enough power to be considered this continents rulers.


    Currently all spirit beings whom could cultivate scoured the lands for absolutely every resource they could, for every ounce of information that could give them the edge over others, for every capable hand they could rope to their side.


    One could see entire spiritual ecosystems being razed to the ground, mountains and rivers collapsing even before the great calamity reached them.


    This could be said to be wanton greed or it could be said to be desperation. To the mortals that lived in or near the zones beings razed to the ground, it was Armageddon. What could once be considered sacred land or purgatory to those undergoing final judgement was now no different then hell.


    Peak mortal technologies can compare only up to the level of deity transformation in terms of fire power, for reference someone at the deity transformation stage can control an entire planets fate at the lowest scale while those at the peak can blow up a star and thereby affect entire star system''s using all their might. From the weather on the seas to the land below, all the energies of the world could be used at will as if were a part of their body.


    To witness a mountain 30 kms(18.6 miles- about 3.5¡Á mount everest) tall disappear in the blink of an eye, to feel the rumbling of the land below and to hear thunder all around you as you struggle to fight against the winds, a soul crushing moment all in fractions of a second. What was this if not the end?


    To a mortal soul what was a spirit cultivator if not a god of the afterlife? If these beings weren''t gods then who was?


    All across the continent spiritual cultivation sects, family''s, clans, empires, kingdoms, and individual races prepared everything they could for one last shot at survival, one last attempt to reach true immortality.


    -Salvations Arks- the last attempt at survival that was ''gifted'' to the countless spirit races across the spiritual universe littered the skies in all major cities and towns. These arks were designed to act as a sort of living tomb, a place to call home while exploring the unknown beyond the border of the known spiritual universe.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The arks could encompass vast areas from as small as 1 Km to 250 Kms(155 miles) leaving it up to the individual to fill these arks with as much possible variety as they possibly could. Of course not everyone could afford to craft arks of such gargantuan sizes so most arks are limited to 5~50 kms in size, some with double or even triple layers to make the most use of available space as possible.


    The vast majority of arks across the universe could only be on the smaller scale in the short run due to most high ranking cultivators falling in battle, going missing after the collapse of the united army''s final campaign or simply running away, greatly hindering the evacuation efforts of the vast majority of different powers within the Vast tree universe realm.


    This did not stop people for pushing for much as they could, if they could not build the larger more intricate arks then they will build many smaller ones. After all bending space wasn''t such a big deal right? Why not expand the space inside the arks even further by expanding space, that way 1 km can equal 2kms or 3 or even more!


    If the ark was too small then fill it with space formations, if it was of decent size then do the same on a larger scale either way. If you couldn''t afford to do so, then rob your neighbor or go raze the mountains.


    Survival was all that mattered now.


    Within the Emerald pine continent was a territory known as the Five family union, which was as said - Five families ruling over their own respective zones as to not cause unnecessary conflict. If we ignored the hundreds of lower families under them then these families acted as five kingdoms that had all but the right to rule as kings.


    These five families while united in name rarely ever cooperated yet at this moment no one fought the other, while it was not so rare for them to be united as one to fight a foreign threat, it was not often that they looked so serious.


    At this moment every member within their respective families loaded every resource that they had acquired into arks as they prepared to set off from their homelands into an unknown future with more peril around every corner then they could imagine.


    The Five family union was not a small place, there lived 430 million mortal inhabitants roaming the cities among which over 10 million are spiritual cultivators from a wide variety of ranges from local cultivators to foreign cultivators passing through rushing to their respective homelands or making a bid for a spot on the Arks within the Five family unions control.


    With so many spirits living within the borders of the Union and given the limited space on the Arks, no mortal souls will be allowed to roam the arks unless they are sealed in stasis chambers, which may sound like its very space consuming but souls can inhabit a chamber the size of a marble without trouble. Luckily mortal souls very rarely required much upkeep, should one batch be lost all will be well as long as enough remain to reincarnate.


    As for the living mortals in the physical realm, the arks can be large but not large enough to keep mortals alive long term, the artificial environments could not sustain such numbers while traveling in the void.


    Many mortal planets had been taken from the lower realm and sent into pocket dimensions as a result, these planets would serve are zones of reincarnation for mortals in the future, but as of now most had been forced into a sudo-hibernation state. While they couldn''t sustain much life, a few million depending on the size and stability of the planet, they would be able to supply a steady flow of spirit Qi in times of need.


    The arks themselves would act like spirit continents, allowing for those in need of additional judgement to properly be judged, at least in theory. Everything was so rushed that many forgot to test whether this actually worked as intended or if they had mistakenly implemented the systems required for reincarnation improperly.


    Each family had to make a choice of how many mortals to take and how many to leave behind, this could be just a few million or tens of millions it will all depend on how much one is willing to lose.


    While spirit cultivators stay awake and manage the facilities of the arks, they would be the ones undergoing the risks of traveling in the endless void and should they fail to protect the arks while its not certain that they the cultivator will die, all mortals within the arks will certainly perish. Of course they weren''t simply taking the mortals with them for free, the price of saving their lives would be the loss a little of their spiritual energy produced in life.


    A cultivator who fails to protect the life of one they are in charge of, it will lead to ill karma from the heavens. In general cultivators used mortal souls undergoing judgement as servants in the afterlife and such a thing wasn''t considered a punishment due to it being considered a trial of the soul by the rules of the afterlife itself.


    This helped to serve both as punishment from the heavens to the mortal and a chain to bind a spirit cultivator to the mortal realm.


    Why? Because any mortal that successfully reincarnates will gift positive karma to cultivators, helping to raise the luck of a cultivator attempting to breakthrough to higher ranks.


    While those that fail to reincarnation will turn into negative karma and Qi, so while the cultivator might lower their luck they will gain a portion of the spiritual Qi created in return.


    It is a wildly effective strategy of heaven that hindered the vast majority of cultivators from ever ascending beyond the heavens. After all the only way to create spiritual Qi was for the living to die and enter the cycle of reincarnation, but one cannot obtain any Qi if the soul successfully reincarnates.


    That is to say, many cultivators would tempt mortal souls into a frivolous life to quickly gain a bust of Qi in the future regardless of the negative karma gained.


    While those that needed to boost their luck would treat them well but likewise not rise in power.


    While not everyone used such methods, it had become the number one strategy for the heavens to control the fate of cultivators.


    In total these arks from the Five family union will collectively hold over seven million awake cultivators traversing in-between each ark for their daily needs, most cultivators being of low rank will for a period of time need to consume spirit foods albeit at a manageable rate unlike if they were mortal.


    Fasting pills that lower hunger and provide nutrition could be produced for fairly cheap in the spirit realm being easy to refine in batches with alchemy. The downside of this being that all pills are non renewable resources as many raw materials will become unobtainable in large batches from here on out. One may say the fasting pill should not be difficult to produce, but others will say that even a fasting pill still requires spiritual plants to be created.


    Eventually even those would run out aswell, leaving the weak to fend for themselves and at that point all bets are off.


    This was done half intentionally as there are no records within the union itself of such vessels going on voyages through the void outside the Vast tree universe on such a scale, small vessels may traverse the void on occasion but these behemoths were a whole new beast to them.


    Those that adapt to the situation fastest will be given benefits to preserve their lives, while those that intend to keep the statue quo will only suffer.


    No one was allowed a free ride, paying quite the price to be allowed in or provide services required amongst cultivators that could possibly be required at some point into the Unknown.


    Of course these are arks owned by Five families and not some benevolent organisation, in the end the five family''s will be the biggest benefactors from a successful launch and arrival at whatever the destination might be. All of it banked on the idea that they would arrive at the unknown destination after an unknown amount of time. It was truly just a big leap of faith they had to take.


    One of the biggest problems to be faced in the future would be all the spirit cultivators with less then reputable pasts and criminals which may have snuck in under disguise, after all it was not possible for everything to go perfect when you are tryin to escape as quickly as possible.


    Many problems would arise in the future some of which may be due to ill preparations while other things that should have been left behind hitched a ride or were unintentionally brought along.


    Sigils on the side of the vessels flared as they activated partially as a pre-launch test to make sure they actually did what they are supposed to. While things may be rushed the most important parts of working engines and defense had to be done right.


    To the mortal souls this frenzy of construction that happened over a period of a hundred years was an economic boom like no other.


    The past hundred years had been enough time for a few generations to strike it rich, although this wealth wouldn''t follow them into reincarnation it would make them pacified in this ''life'' and as such many would fail to reincarnate following this event.


    "Sir Rubio our vessels are ready, the passengers have boarded and all equipment and goods have been accounted for, we await your order"


    A man with dark golden hair in his late thirties looked toward the sky.


    Vessels littered the sky from top to bottom as each family finished their preparations.


    "...We will wait a few more days, do not allow anyone to leave the arks from this point on let them get accustomed to their new home, in silence. In the meantime I will hold the celebrations for the successful completion of the arks, the mortals we will have to leave behind now... They were our foundation. It is only right we host a celebration for them to partake"


    The man looked defeated.


    He ruled over the current generation of the five families for over a century.


    Ever since his elders had been conscripted into the united army, he had taken charge over his respective family.


    As the years passed he kept on rising both in political power and military might, eventually being elected as the representative for the five family union yet at this moment all of it seemed so fleeting.


    As time passed ships were loaded to the brim with spiritual artifacts, plants, animals, materials, and other needs cultivators may have throughout the journey.


    More arks and flying ships arrived in the horizon from all across the five family union joining into an armada that would being terror to any who saw it.


    Such a force had never before been gathered within the territories of the union, has such a force existed before all of this would they have conquered the entire continent?


    ''If we could build such a force given our limited space, what could the other countries and empires gather?'' the man sighed bitterly


    ''From the east the Wood family; 14 arks 87 warships over a thousands general flying ships, from the west the Bell family; 5 arks 95 warship and several thousand general flying ships, from the north the Nordaine family; 7 arks 44 warships a thousand or so general flying ships, from the southwest comes the Song family; 13 arks 50 warships and a thousand general flying ships... Thats rather surprising. Compared to my 13 arks 60 warships and three thousand general flying ships it may seem lackluster but they''ve only recently became a great house, from where did they get such funds?''


    As mortals celebrated the completion of the arks, the last of the passengers walked onto the ships and without any further ceremony the Arks took to the sky, speeding up seemingly without looking back at all those left behind in their homeland where they grew up and lived for the better part of their lives.


    Dead bodies lay at the launch platforms of the many arks, whether they are mercy killings or simply in order to defend the ark is up to ones judgement.


    Those inside the arks stayed silent.


    For three days none were allowed to speak, none were allowed to mourn, none had the right to a voice.


    Should they speak let them join the dead.


    This scene was happened in every spirit continent or large planet of every alien species, some on a small scale of less then five Arks, others with entire fleets of over one-hundred Arks to even thousands of ships for the major races within the Vast Tree realm.


    No one knew the destination, no one could claim to have even seen the entire universe or even knew just how great of a calamity they faced, they had no choice but to leave.


    Only the top brass of each race knew the true details all others had simply been given the choice of believing the warning of what was to come or not.


    Should they ignore the warnings they would simply be left behind but under the collective panic even the most ignorant person would eventually understand that they should do something.


    With the hope of finding a safe area to call home once more, with the hope of further progressing on the path toward immortality few would dare think to mock those left behind.


    As for the mortals and unlucky cultivators who watched the vessels leave one after the other each had their methods of grieving, the suffering of mortals had only just began.


    <+==  Echo''s of past  ==+>


    "Here lies the tomb of the annihilation emperor of the [Red forest continent], heed my words if you covet my land of death. 10 spirits entered my resting place and only one came out, 1000 spirits entered my resting place and only one came out, 10,000 spirits entered my resting place and only one came out. To enter is to die. To enter means betrayal. To enter means- ah the word cut out, someone slashed the rest of the passage out"


    "Not that it matters, we''re going to enter anyway no matter how many warning they try to scare us with"


    "Plus 10,000 spirits? This place is lucky if it can fit 500!"


    "Hahaha! Your belly alone requires the space of 50!"


    "Tch this is why you get buried in a small tomb without grandiose claims, just leave your wealth to your future decedent''s, once you die as a spirit do you even get reborn?"


    "Heh all the better for us! Now we get to keep the loot for ourselves! Truly a selfless act from a past benefactor"


    "Sheesh remind me not to tell you guys where I''m going to be buried, let''s just be careful. We never know what kind of traps may be laying in wait" the group of five gathered themselves, entering deeper into the tomb.


    Within the hour they reached a central corridor that split into four directions.


    "Well what now, should we send a scout or backtrack? I''m seeing plenty of signs of fighting on the way in but not a single skeleton, not to be a jinx but our chances aren''t looking great anymore"


    "...Well lets just go a little further. Looking at these corridors I think we can guess which one leads to the main chamber" the man pointed at the noticably more beat up path to the left.


    "If anything I think we are too late to grave rob this place. If what is written is true, 10,000 others have already done it before us"


    "Oi this guy"


    The group kept moving forward without any intention, at this point they were either going into the final fight of their lives or simply leaving empty handed. Not fifteen minutes later they arrived at the central chamber where a coffin of sorts floated in the air.


    "Ah, I think we''re in for a fight"


    "Yeah, otherwise the coffin woulda been looted by now aswell"


    Arming themselves the group of five prepared for the worst. An hour later one man walked outside.


    "Haaa, This will be the fifth and final me. If I cannot succeed with five of me, then I may aswell die! But these guys really weren''t that strong. Or maybe I''m just too strong haha!" After a quick laugh the man flew into the sky.


    "The first revived eight thousand years ago and died 500 years after, the second revived seven thousand years ago and died 700 years after, the third revived five thousand years ago and that one lived for two thousand years, as for the fourth he revived one thousands years ago but I cannot say how he died... But if I''m here then he can''t be alive" he looked to the southwest.


    ''What is that? No! This is dangerous I must get away!'' without hesitation the fifth clone ran.


    From afar nothing could be seen chasing, the trees covering the area prevented all but those with exceptional sight from witnessing what the man saw.


    ''Run! Just run!''


    Ahead of him an endless forest with no end in sight, behind him something unknown that felt dangerous.


    ''Something is wrong, the forest is too silent! My last clone did not revive too long ago it wasn''t this silent back then!''


    A thousand year time gap, it may seem implausible that nothing would change given that such things rarely happen in the physical realm, but in the spirit realm a tree can go untouched for 10 thousand years in an open field.


    The fifth clone opened his eyes and searched wide.


    ''Not a single insect, not a single bird, no it''s worse then that even the air is stagnant''


    Behind him far far away from the tomb he ran from a corpse of a large boar like creature with a sword stabbed though its chest lay. Its decomposing body was yellowed, its bones piercing its rotting flesh had started to deform into odd angles not of natural origin.


    ''Think think! When these guys entered my tomb everything was fine, so why did things suddenly turn this way in a matter of hours?''


    The body of the creature which should logically hold no life started to twitch. The sky turned yellow, the sound of even the mans running footsteps faded.


    ''!''


    ''!...!!!''


    ''!''


    The fifth clone couldn''t hear his own steps.


    The fifth clone couldn''t hear his own thoughts.


    The fifth clone couldn''t be.


    The creature began to rise, the sword logged in its chest shone brightly discharging large amounts of smoke from where it pierced the creatures vertebrae.


    Flash*


    All light disappeared, forcing the fifth clone to slow.


    Flash*


    Light returned, but the fifth clone had disappeared.


    The forest stayed silent. The sky seemed to melt yellow. The creature stood still, no movements had been made.


    "Oh well this is not good, just what is that thing?" An old man with a pony tail looked at the creature from such a distance away he would be in space should he be in the physical realm.


    "Thank you for saving me senior!" The fifth clone having escaped the forest showed his gratitude.


    "Don''t thank me, not yet at least" the old man drew a spear from thin air.


    Looking towards the forest that seemed to expand forever the man felt the air get heavier.


    "Senior I think it''s best if we run away instead"


    "Maybe, take this" the old man replied firmly while handing the 5th clone a protection treasure and a tablet.


    "It''s got its sights locked in on me, use the tablet to ask for assistance from the overseer''s" the old man pushed the 5th clone launching him away at hypersonic speeds into a portal.


    ''The overseers! Who is this old guy?'' the fifth clone had that final thought before he vanished.


    The old man now alone with the creature spoke.


    "That sword stuck to your chest, I''ve seen it once before. What was it around four thousand years ago now? The heavenly Maya wielded it, but I don''t see her around and I doubt she would leave a sword to act as a seal had she not encountered misfortune. So knowing this will be my final fight, I ask for your name creature"


    The creature looked toward the old man and the old man heard a thought enter his mind.


    ''Corruption''


    This was the first recorded encounter with the calamity of corruption, as recounted by the spear saint Hajl and the fifth clone.


    The heavenly Maya was assumed to have encountered the creature plagued by ''Corruption'' before hand but her whereabouts remain unknown to this day.


    The origins of the creature still remains unknown but it is believed to be from extracosmic origin.


    To date the creature remains elusive having escaped the destruction of the [Red forest continent] and the pursuit of an extermination squad. Spear saint Hajl survived with grievous injuries but states ''I will fight the beast one day, but until then my new disciple will take precedence. The dread that thing gives me to this day, I fear it''s only going to get worse''.


    Later records from the Phoenix palace upon receiving the report _which_they_claim_was_received_too_late_ clarifies that the creature calling itself corruption should have been chased down and exterminated at _ALL_ cost.


    Future events would prove this to be true.

 Introductions II

    "In my delusions I thought of myself as an elite, as someone high and mighty that no other can compare to, crafting vessels to ferry the stars I traveled the universe beyond any other before me, only to find out how small my view really was"


    -Unknown human mortal


    South - western most point of the Vast tree universe, location of the great rift where the calamity of corruption has been temporarily isolated.


    Here what remained of united army held firm while most had abandoned the fight. Even after the traitor of the spiritual realm Lord Ophenion launched a relentless assault from behind these spirit cultivators fought to defend the spiritual realm to the bitter end.


    The nearby galaxies had scattered like dust in the wind, stars had been blown away and planets shattered yet these spirit cultivators did not abandon the fight. The scale of this war was simply beyond a single being''s imagination, the dead alone could create several galaxies made of nothing but the corpse''s of the fallen.


    "Are we ready?" A slender figure with many wood-like horns spoke.


    "Almost" a being with four arms replied.


    From the south came beasts on a scale no lesser then a planet hauling stars connected by chains 17 million kms long. Every single one of these gargantuan creatures was armoured by layers of stone and steal, while the space surrounding them was covered by a thick layer of ice and dust stopping the heat of the stars from reaching them.


    "Now we are ready" the four armed being picked up a green helmet.


    "Let''s send these monstrosities to oblivion!" Another voice from afar said.


    Ahead of them the void of space burned orange-yellow with what seemed like dust clouds covering space in all directions, the group of spirits traversed space at speeds that would be seen as no less then teleportation.


    Only the best of each spiritual race/species had been sent to fight this war, if one could not traverse the stars like walking on land then they were less then useless. More so if one did not have some sort of teleportation skill or device at this level it would be the joke of the millennia.


    To fight in this war one had to be no less then a god-like being in all but name.


    "Send in the fire beacons!"


    "Get ready for the shockwave, the moment it hits activate the barrier"


    Hidden in the dust of far of space shadows flickered, the group of invaders was being surrounded from all sides.


    The beacons resembling lanterns pulsed releasing a shockwave that atomized all nearby objects causing a white flash to follow the path of the shockwave. The shadows hidden in the dust recoiled becoming blurry as if taking damage.


    "Now ignite the stars!"


    The beasts pulling the stars roared as the sudden stop launched the stars in eight directions.


    "The moment the stars burst, strike them down!"


    The shockwave from the beacons finally reached the location of the beasts and almost instantaneously a bubble like barrier surrounded them protecting them from the shockwave.


    Almost immediately after the barrier went up a shadow covered one of the beasts, the barrier reacted strongly pushing the shadow away successfully protecting those inside.


    From the silence of space the sound of a million birds chirping reached the ears of all, the stars launched into the distance deformed, compressed, expanded into a thin tower, then an explosion that made light no different then a sharp lance pierced all the surroundings.


    ''The light will provide us will approximately three minutes, if we cannot kill them by then we must at least drive them back''


    The four armed being started to glow like moonlight, with a step he teleported outside the barriers protection. A lance pierced a struggling shadow impaling it without force.


    ''Just like swinging at open air, let''s hope no bodies come''


    The surrounding space had turned into a hell-scape with little to no visibility, space had caught fire even if only for a moment.


    "Retreat! Seal off this passageway"


    The beacons magically returned to their owners side no longer pulsing as they once were. Those attacking the shadows under the cover of dying stars ceased their actions and returned under to the cover provided by the beasts.


    A group of cloaked cultivators far away from the fighting prepared for their return, the moment the last soldier entered the barrier the beasts ran for the exit.


    "Once the sealing is done we have been given orders to retreat. You''ve all done an excellent job! From here on out your fate is your own"


    "If we retreat now how long do we have? As in the universe mean"


    "...Less then 100 years. No. It''s more accurate to say that''s the hope anyway. You''ve all experienced fighting the calamity, nothing ever goes as planned"


    Just as it was said a massive skeletal figure dashed out from the fire and dust launching itself towards one of the beasts furthest back quickly tearing into the barrier with little effort. Those inside had no time to react as the skeleton shattered into a thousand pieces that shredded those inside.


    The beast being thousands of time larger then the skeleton figure suffered minimal damage but the shattered bone fragments wriggled like worms towards any exposed flesh threatening to consume it from the inside out.


    The others watching from afar did not try to intervene simply hastening their retreat.


    "Five seconds, three, two, one Now!"


    A pink flash, a burst of light, the space nearby turned white closing of the last remaining entrance of the great rift. It wouldn''t stop the expansion of the the rift but it bought time.


    <+==     Educational Lore     ==+>


    The physical realm cannot survive without the spiritual realm(metaphysical) for it the home of the soul and the path to reincarnation, the spiritual realm on the other hand can. However the spiritual realm cannot grow without the physical realm, for only through living life does the soul expand.


    Spirits may accumulate spiritual energy to grow stronger but the energy is finite. Much like the sun seems to produce limitless amount of light it will eventually burn out. While the current universe may seem to have an infinite amount of spiritual qi, that is only due to the vast amount of time the Vast tree universe has existed.


    When a being dies its soul leaves the confines of the body and as such is no longer bound to a limited size. As the soul expands outwards it leaves some of itself behind, this residue no longer a part of the soul goes back to the earth as life force to once again rejuvenate the land. The soul however continues to expand greedily without restraint, it is then that a limit is reached. When the soul can no longer expand it will deflate much like a balloon leaving nothing but an empty soul without memory of the past.


    As for the memories lost, they are the true prize. For here the universe treats information like energy(food) it will treat each piece as equally as the last, no matter how mundane or epic it may be, it will be nothing more then a new vector of information to help ''grow'' the universe.


    As such new energy is created for every soul lost, while it may not amount to much at first given enough time and enough lives a single spark will eventually come together as one.


    <+== Educational lore end ==+>


    The Beast continent of [Sun reach] deep inside the southern direction of the Vast tree universe, was one of eight primordial wild lands that birthed the demonic beasts of the vast tree realm.


    It was one of eight primordial wild lands and one of only three that still remained. Having gone through innumerable wars over it''s control and changing hands countless times the current rulers of this continent had turned it into a pseudo holy land for only the demonic beasts.


    Tens of billions now marched from one end of this continent to the other, from the largest titan size behemoths covering mountain ranges with a single stride to those as small as a mouse. Without counting those too small and numerous to account for, all life headed in one direction. The western most point of the continent! Here a chance to get a spot on the - Heavenly beast ark - a gargantuan ship of over 2.5 million Kms was underway.


    Its scale was beyond belief, from afar it looked no different then a miniature version of the Sun Reach spirit continent itself. The spiritual continent being 25 billion kms in just length made this singular ship a thousandth of the size of the true continent, an achievement that would make history under normal circumstances.


    Above this colossal ship two similar sized vessels lay in waiting, each of these mega arks had a minimum of three layers with the flag ship having five layers, the Sun reach continent had been razed for everything of worth to the point that even the spiritual nature of the continent was on the brink of total collapse.


    Floating all around these gargantuan arks beasts that could only be described as living moons protected each ark from any threat that may near. Below, titans carrying planets on their backs surrounded the arks ready to use their bodies as living shields should anything near.


    Each ark equiped with the finest of weaponry with no expenses spared, a single volley from these vessels capable of rendering entire galactic clusters uninhabitable if not outright annihilated. For most such firepower would be enough, but for those god-like beings it was simply considered a warning shot.


    Even if such beings approached the vessels, did they not have such beings of their own? Of course they did.


    Demonic beasts were tougher then normal beings, they did not have a cycle of reincarnation like that of other beings, they had one chance at life, as such they were given greater gifts at birth then all others.


    From strength, speed, longer life spans, to natural instincts unmatched by other beings, they were favored by the heavens as the true inheritors of spiritual Qi. It was only through the intervention of beings known as the ancestral gods that other races gained the ability to use spiritual Qi.


    For a period of time demonic beasts ruled the universe and fought using only their heaven given might but as time passed and the weaponry of these other spiritual races became more lethal they had to adapt.


    The demonic beasts not proficient in crafting treasures learned what they needed to overcame the gap in knowledge that they had overlooked for billions of years, demonic beasts once brought down by sword and spear no longer had weaknesses from lack of treasures even being some of the most proficient in crafting treasures.


    Now in the time of most dire need their efforts paid off.


    Billions of species, each with different environmental requirements needed territories of certain sizes with various temperature zones to mimic reality. Without such environments to call home even if these beasts escaped the destruction of the universe they would go mad if all they saw was a an empty chamber with no hope of ever seeing the outside world again.


    Since every ark had to accommodate tens of thousand of environments they had be the most advanced arks they could possibly craft, from the most obscure of detail, to the most complex geographical terrain, to even adding space formations that could increase the total landmass, these arks were prefect.


    Yet even with such methods at best they will only encompass one third of the original environments of the Sun Reach continent as even if space was available it would not be stable beyond a certain limit. To sustain a spiritual continent was no easy feat after all, let alone an artificial one.


    In the end only one method could alleviate the worries of the demonic beasts, a battle royal.


    One battle, one chance at life, one loser at the mercy of the victor!


    The winners would get to enter the ark and claim a territory for themselves, as long as no one has claimed it first of course.


    These winners would then bring demonic beasts of their own territories to inhabit the area thereby giving hundreds to thousands of weaker species a spot on the Arks by default albeit with less rights.


    A natural food chain would be made this way allowing for a continuously replenishing environment for those at the top to feast on.


    Of course several flaws presented themselves with this method, the first being that no two winners of the same species was guaranteed which could cause problems down the descendant line, the second problem was extreme ageism.


    Demonic beasts did not cultivate the same way other spirits did, they naturally absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy without much thought and given enough time they got old and strong while the younger generations would be suppressed and culled thereby cementing the rule of the old generations for extended periods of time but because of this when an old ruler can''t grow further or dies in battle it often times leads to one''s own species getting culled with no one to defend them.


    Normally not a real problem since as long as another territory lord of the same species exists somewhere a new lord can be born, but if there is only one winner? Do the descendants keep the territory or can it be taken away after the previous ruler dies? What if there are no decedent''s?


    Certain rules had to be made that split the territory between a male and female pairs, they didn''t have to be paired together but multiple pairs of the same species is a must. two of each NOT including the winner, the winner would get the majority of the earned territory as was their right.


    If a species reproduced through any other means outside of a male female pair, adequate changes will be made.


    These smaller territories granted to the winners ''kin'' would be made in mirror realms, small pockets of space that are self contained in objects or environments that allowed for reflections to form. This would allow for greater chances of a species survival as two winners of the same species are not guaranteed.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Should an old territory lord die, a tribunal will be held to determine if those of the same species are worthy or not of retaining the territory, upon which the outcome will be honored by the surrounding demonic beast lords.


    The battles for entry become intense and desperate but no one backed down, eventually all spots would be filled and the loading of materials and picking of environments would begin, with any incomplete environments would be stored away for the future.


    Demonic worlds were generally more massive then many spirit worlds and continents, such that the amount of rare heaven and earth treasures were plentiful and never lacking.


    Demonic beasts which did not settle down or ran solo due to their nature also participated with different goals in mind, these demonic beast would be granted access to an ark upon rendering their service for a specified time, any children born before or after entering the ark were expected to be grandfathered in to servitude all the same.


    No different then mercenaries for hire, they were given little and expected to give their all.


    Should one not like it, well they can just die, no one gets a free ride.


    A wandering demonic beast was currently taking upon himself a challenge set upon by one of the five Ark lords on the flag ship - Wandering beast - this demon beast was not large only 6m long and 3m tall, looking like a leopard with a red coat of fur.


    This demonic beast was truly fast avoiding every obstacle sent towards it and as the test progressed the difficulty kept increasing but the demonic creature did not slow down increasing its speed to match the difficulty of the test, the demonic lord overseeing the test was impressed by what he saw and gave it a passing mark.


    "He will be useful as a scout given some more time to grow, given his young age we can use him for an experimental void adaptation method in the future" the demonic lord spoke to his subordinate''s.


    This demonic beast was one of many who would succeed in a bid for survival. Although it would lose the majority of its freedom along with their children and children''s children, it was still better then simply giving up.


    Following this period of time every demon beast entering the Arks would be guaranteed to be the most elite members of the sun reach continent and the hope of their species.


    Many alien races throughout the vast tree realm held their own trial grounds large or small but while many had already left their respective continents, others had only just started.


    Regardless of the outcome the most elite members of each race would be leaving the Vast tree universe seeking more time for cultivation, and hopefully a new home.


    As for the sun reach continent itself, well even its barren remains can be used for something.


    <+==   The overseer''s   ==+>


    Golden phoenix palace - above heaven and earth, one of the three unparalleled holy lands of the Vast tree universe.


    This was the homeland of records, everything from historical records, formations, pill recipes, panacea of all kinds, locations of rare materials, locations of all spirit races, cultivation practices along with the location of all major or rising powers within the vast tree realm could be found here. With several thousand branches spread throughout the universe know simply as phoenix palaces to better serve a wider populace, the amount of information gathered from around the universe on a daily basis was astronomical.


    While not everything in the universe was able to be recorded as not everyone wanted to share their secrets with others the golden Phoenix palace still held absurd amounts of information, enough so that they could piece together seemingly obscure information into individuals actions/events that few to none would have heard off.


    For the past seven billion years the palaces prestige had not fallen, many incompetent palace lords have graced its halls yet its reputation preceded them and any force in the Vast tree universe with connections to the Golden Phoenix palace was almost guaranteed to be a major power of their region.


    Currently a group of spirit cultivators of the highest caliber held a meeting, the discussion was rowdy and seemingly lively but a heavy air could be felt in the air.


    "Lord Debian! Do your words hold truth?! Are there really less then 25 years before we must leave? Didn''t we confirm to at least have 60 years before the corruption could affect the majority of the vast tree realm?"


    A woman''s voice sounded with concern.


    A rough sounding mans voice sounded out to answer her.


    "We have been constantly monitoring the spread of the corruption, we can say for certain that as the corruption keeps expanding it does not keep to a constant speed. Instead it seems to increase speed as it further devours our realm, it no longer has anything impeding its advance and is only gaining energy cutting our time down significantly"


    "What of the army? Last I heard they held firm even if they eventually got pushed back" an old man questioned.


    "The army is too far spread, originally the battle took place in a small gap created in the realm barrier but after the line broke, any and all containment options simply... aren''t possible, not in a timely manner at least. The current strategy is to deny any resources that may strengthen its advance" A woman answered calmly.


    Another ancient sounding voice sounded "So what losses are we expecting now?"


    Another man sounded out "fuuh! Losses?! I doubt we can lose much more. How many heaven breaking lords have been lost so far? By the time they revive we will all be dead, and even then they had already lost once what difference does it make it they try again?!"


    A mocking mans voice responded "we can still expect to lose the rest of the realm :)"


    The first woman spoke once more "silence! We can''t waste time, send word out immediately to the remaining spirit continents and worlds to speed up their respective evacuations"


    The message would naturally not arrive on time for the vast majority as the vast tree universe was simply gargantuan, fortunately the golden Phoenix palace was not the only major cultivation holy land.


    While it may be one of the current pinnacle''s of all holy lands, it didn''t always hold the title nor could it always hold the peak, it was not until Heaven breaking Tamra roamed the universe did this palace rise in prestige.


    Across the universe major powers were already sending out warnings to their allies which continued to be passed down the grape vine until it would eventually reach the ears of even lone cultivators.


    For smaller powers that lived on spiritual planets away from major spirit continents, they could only count on word-of-mouth to reach them on time to leave the leave this universe behind.


    Through even if the golden phoenix palaces message never reached its destination, major powers that had the ability to foresee future event would already have evacuated those they deemed to have value or importance to them.


    "Sigh..." A sigh loud enough to be heard across the room entered everyone''s ears..


    All 8 people within the chamber turned around, they noticed a man in his late thirties appear from the shadows "The corruption was not something that we alone could have stopped, we can at least try and save more then half of the Arks heading out from the south-western quadrants. Send out the remaining forces of the united army not already in combat, delay the inevitable for one additional year minimum!"


    The man commanded and no one refuted.


    "Make sure to resend the message multiple times, we never know what kind of trickery can happen in these dire times"


    "As you command"


    <+==   The overseer''s end   ==+>


    Within the lower western quadrant of the vast tree universe the calamity known as corruption spread quickly, countless creatures perished while the land tore apart, one could try to fight one last time for one last chance but in the end it was to no avail.


    Empires fell in the blink of an eye, while leaders of a millennia disappeared before they knew what hit them. The only respite for these lost souls was the fact that they died so quickly not a single scream was heard.


    Qi convergence, Foundation establishment, Core formation and even Nascent soul cultivators died while eating, sleeping, training or even traveling straight into the calamities direction not knowing it was ahead.


    The few powerful enough to notice fought for their lives only to be taken down in seconds without even a scream.


    Deity transformation cultivators exploded in the thousands every second leaving nothing but destruction behind, yet these bright events that should have attracted the attention of all nearby got swallowed up by the yellow light and earthy dust kicked up by the calamity .


    Even light struggled to escape this calamity as it was consumed alongside everything else never to be seen again.


    But life never stops its struggle for survival, even while a continent was being devoured by the corruption a group of rouge cultivators was taking off on a flying ship less then two kms away from the advancing corruption speeding up as quickly as it could.


    "Speed up!!! Speed uppp!!! Were still not fast enough!"


    "We''re already going as fast as we can, if we go any faster the flying ship will not last!" the man feared overloading the vessels energy core causing burnout, that would simply be the end of them.


    This was a group of over a thousand spirit cultivators using the fastest flying ship that could be found among the 6 states of the - Middle lands spirit - continent residing in the lower western quadrant.


    Traveling at speeds of over 350,000 kms a second they could only just keep a step away from disaster.


    At such speeds even light became as sharp as a blade, if not for the fact cultivators could ignore the laws of physics with spiritual Qi, each person would long have died.


    Spiritual energy/Qi was this sort of miracle, it was beyond any rational understanding at best of times while other times it simply made no sense.


    The laws governing spiritual Qi while seemingly lax could also be rather more rigid then one might initially think.


    It all depended on the user of Qi themselves, if they had free flowing thoughts that aligned with their path then spiritual energy would naturally flow freely, and if one was rigid in their approach to controlling spiritual Qi then likewise spiritual Qi would be as rigid as they are. This of course doesn''t take into account outside factors or events that could influence the spiritual energy in the surroundings or even that inside of oneself.


    As the corruption calamity spread the spiritual energy of the continent folded onto itself slowing the corruption down just enough for the vessel to keep a distance away.


    "The corruption is sucking in and scattering the spiritual energy behind us! it''s difficult to propel ourselves away from its influence!"


    "Then make a false connection! All we need is a moment with an intact dragon vein to speed away to a relatively safe distance!"


    This group was relatively experienced amongst cultivators of the same level, they had all gone through trials and tribulations with successful ventures though mired in failure.


    "My guest! Passengers on this fateful day please help us! Wind spirit elemental users, anchor yourselves to the aft of the ship hurry!"


    "!??"


    "Go to the rear! the- the back! The back of the ship!!!" The captain of this vessel had enlisted the help of even the passengers to escape this predicament, giving orders to the best of his ability.


    "Jackson! Fire the forward canons, we need enough spiritual energy around the ship to establish the false connection with a dragon vein!" He screamed his order so that allay hear, should this jackson fail another will know to take his place.


    "Everyone else prepare to infuse energy into the ships core!"


    No one on this ship spared energy to talk in a low voice, the sound coming from behind them was so loud that it could deafen the ears if heard for too long.


    The spiritual energy around them had entered a frenzy blocking all forms of communication outside of direct speech.


    "Fire!"


    Muffled explosions sounded, a smoky mist formed up ahead quickly covering the flying ship.


    The explosions distance couldn''t be considered far, in less then one fiftieth of a second the flying ship had arrived at the same location they fired on.


    The canon fire continued for several seconds not stopping for a moment, this caused the ship to be pushed back a little bringing each person to question their lives.


    "Now! Infuse energy into the ships core! Wind spiritualist propel us forward! Activate the ships dragon riding formation, connect to the dragon veins ahead forcefully!"


    Quickly all orders were carried out, the flying ship successfully speed away giving it fifty kms of safety before it activated the Dragon riding formation on the sides of the ship and as if on an invisible railroad lay below it sped up almost three times as fast.


    "Hahaha! We did it! ride the dragon vein for 90 million kms more and then break into the void! Gain speed go! Go!" The captain bellowed with all his might in joy.


    This group of cultivators became some of the few - who while caught off guard by the rapid advancement of the calamity, had managed to escape the destruction of a continent while speeding off into the void.


    The calamity seemed to advance far too slow to cover the entirely of the vast tree realm within twenty-five years but in truth had this spiritual continents energy not been in the way, the flying ships passengers wouldn''t even have noticed they had died.


    The calamity had only sent a small tendril to surround the continent, the true might of the calamity had yet to reach this location as the actions of the united army had successfully delayed it within the rift for just a while longer.


    The continent from which this group had just successfully escaped from, had helped this small group of cultivators get away but their journey had just begun.


    As for the continent, it would like all the rest die unable to do anything.


    From the flying ship one could see nations disappear in the blink of an eye with the occasional *POP* flashing in and out of view.


    Cultivators at and above body reformation (those above deity transformation) fought for a while before choosing to run away, no amount of effort could save this continent now. Many of them had fought at one point or another alongside the united army, they knew just how devastating the calamity truly was.


    While flying ships are good for inner universe space travel, meaning they can for the most part travel anywhere there is space inside the vast tree universe it did not mean safety.


    To travel the vast tree realm one required more then just technology or luck, one needed law defying power that would enable one to even reach other galaxies with a single step to make travel reasonable.


    This flying ship and many other like it would need to get lucky and find a better form of transportation.


    Mortals would generally die never getting the chance to see other galaxies, cultivators for the most part had the option to travel to these foreign galaxies they simply needed to survive the journey.


    The vessel this group trusted in could at best travel between galaxies in around 10 years given the space in-between is relatively clear of obstacles that allowed for it to truly devote all its energy simply to movement. 10 years for the flying ship to reach another galaxy, 25 years for the calamity to encompass the vast majority of the galaxy... The odds were against them.


    Looking into the yellowed storm that is known as the calamity of Corruption one could see gargantuan silhouettes rushing forward followed by thousands of shadows, it seems that the trouble are not yet over for this flying ship and its passengers.


    "Look! Who do you think is fighting down there?!"


    The crew of the ship and passengers looked over the sides.


    Below flashes of sword light cut the sky, as the mountains crumbled the silhouettes hidden in the dust charged without regard but everytime they emerged sword light would knock them back once more.


    "The size of that sword light! It''s enough to destroy nation with a single slash let alone this barrage!"


    "Yet still... Whatever is attacking hasn''t died"


    "Ah he escaped! So even a swordmaster of such a level flee''s"


    "Does anyone know what is happening? Does this have anything to do with the calamity?"


    "Watch out!"


    Sword light flashed by the flying ship cutting a hole into the barrier protection those inside.


    "Sorry for intruding but I require a ride" an older man carrying several people landed on the flying ship.


    "Ah! ah of course please please come come" the captain of the flying ship welcomed the new addition.


    "Is this the max speed?" The older man asked.


    "Yes, unfortunately we cannot go faster. Ah but you were behind us and caught up with ease sire, could you not escape faster on your own?" The captain knew the answer but asked anyway so the rest may know.


    "Yes, but I am not on my own. How much does it cost for you to get us to Huhil void port?" The older man checked the condition of those he brought with him carefully inspecting for even the smallest abnormality.


    "Huhil void port? I am sorry but I''m not familiar" the captain had ferried to many locations in his lifetime but he was not well versed in space travel nor did he claim to know.


    "Ah my mistake, here use this to guide you. I forget those in lower realm don''t normally use such means of travel. As for the speed of this vessel let me handle that" handing over a small gemstone to the captain the older man stretched his hand out before retracting it.


    "Ah wait, before that let me assist some of my fellow cultivators to escape this calamity, feel free to break into space I will follow shortly" with that the man disappeared.


    The captain of the ship was stuck following behind the man, unable to keep up he simply followed the mans directions and steered into space.


    <+==     Echos of past     ==+>


    < The report handed in by the extermination squad seems to lack many details as to the events that happened on the day the calamity was first encountered.


    What happened to the sword of heavenly maya? Did the spear saint Hajl fail to retrieve it or did he leave it on purpose?


    How did the spear saint Hajl manage to survive when heavenly maya did not?


    Yes it''s great that he lived but the entire fight was simply skipped over and to this day not a single visual record has been provided to show as to the truth of what happened.


    Worse off the spear saint spoke to the calamity and it replied ''corruption''? To date we have no accounts of anyone being able to communicate with any of the creatures tainted by the calamity. Now the beast he fought could have been different but why?


    When the extermination squad arrived at the scene they were immediately attacked by the creature leaving a seasoned group of fighters scrambling for even the smallest advantage, yet the spear saint Hajl hardly stronger then the average individual member of the extermination squad held his own for eight hours?


    Was this creature testing the spear saint?


    It had the power to assumedly defeat heavenly maya but it still chose to test the spear saint and extermination squad?


    The spear saint was reportedly heavily injured yet not weeks after he returned to base it was said that he had fully recovered while the extermination squad was still gravely injured. This is very odd as even the smallest of wounds caused by the calamity of corruption have been shown to fester for years regardless of treatment.


    Worse off I seem to be the only one who noticed these discrepancies while everyone else seems to merely take them as fact, even if I explain it clearly its like they forget instantly.


    I need assistance of a higher level but at this point everyone has already left to fight or has mysteriously disappeared...


    It seems I will have to take matter into my own hands, I will find spear saint Hajl and ask him to provide a soul memory. I know it is drastic but I can''t shake off this feeling that things are much worse then they seem. > Date written 122 78 by Eria loo


    "... Why am I receiving a report over 50 years old only now?"


    "Madam? That only arrived today.


    "Then why has it only arrived now? Who is this Eria loo?"


    "I will find out, as for Eria loo she went missing a year before this report was written..."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Well she was part of the missing personnel list and subsequent investigation we launched back then, the investigation yielded no results and... And... I.. I can''t remember"


    "Send a group to apprehend spear saint Hajl immediately make sure to send at least one heavenly rebirth lord. If you cannot capture him, eliminate him"


    "Yes Ma''am!"

 Introductions III

    "We sent the best of our kind to fight for us, no one came back. Reaching beyond the space we knew and beyond the stars we of our night skies we went into the unknown to find our kin but all we found was more like us, those seeking their lost kin. Had we been lied to? Was the universe truly in need of our meager strength? From galaxy to galaxy everywhere is the same, endless warnings of the end times yet no evidence to show for it. Now only we are left"


    -Unknown spirit cultivator ~ Deity transformation ~ Seeker of the truth.


    The south-eastern region of the vast tree universe - Sea of broken isle''s.


    Clusters of small spirit continents littered the surrounding space like an asteroid field, covered by several galactic nebula the continents seemed like islands in a turbulent sea. Each of these small spirit continents had once been part of a larger whole at one point in time that due to various factors split into thousands of smaller pieces leaving a chain of dust clouds littered across trillions of light years of space.


    If one was born in such a place deep within the dusk cloud sea they would never see the night sky shining with stars. To them the universe was a place filled with matter in all directions, one could not even envision how the concept of open space was truly like.


    When each fragment of the shattered spirit continent was like a world onto itself the desire to explore what seemed to be an empty space outside of your known universe devoid of matter for billions of years wasn''t very appealing.


    "Uncle yi is it true that there is nothing outside the sea of clouds? I heard if we jump up above the sea that we would be sucked off into a black void never to return, also they say that you can see small dots that glitter everywhere but if you try to reach for one you will never come back" a young man asked.


    "It''s not like that. Beyond the sea it may seem empty but it''s simply that things are very far apart, making it seem empty. As for those small dots that glitter, they are like the sun''s we have here in the sea of clouds just very very far away. Oh but you can get sucked into the void so make sure you never get off this ship ok?" The young mans uncle replied with a tone that carried gentleness yet worries hidden within.


    "So there are things out there? Then why do people say it''s empty?"


    "You will see soon"


    From the boys perspective the world he lived in was always covered by dust, at night he did not see star light, during the day the sun was blurry while the occasional meteor storm would cover the skies for days on end. Should the weather be clear he wouldn''t need to wear heavy eye protection, should it be a bad day he wouldn''t see the light of the sun for days.


    A world without anything to cover the sky. What would that be like?


    The young man looked outside the window, outside the sea of clouds looked calm without the slightest of turbulence. The boy and his uncle had left the small spirit continent of [lesser stone isle], it had been the only place the boy had known since he was born.


    Now on this flying ship they headed off on a trip they would never return from.


    "Already feeling homesick?" The boys uncle asked.


    "No. I''m just getting a final look at it"


    Tens of thousands of arks and tens of millions of flying ships could be seen gathering in the dust filled skies making many mortal souls wonder what was happening, they had never seen so much activity in the sky before, not from the spirits at the very least.


    From isle to isle these vessels travelled in one direction gathering every resource available along the way and increasing their numbers.


    It was notable that things like flying ships weren''t rare to those living on spirit continents but most of the time cultivators would use illusion formations to hide the ships as they flew in the sky only to reveal themselves when they reached their destination. This helped to avoid the attention of other spirit cultivators while also helping to hide the exact amount of ships one had in case of an emergency, unless one had a reason it was best not to stand out.


    This group wouldn''t have any problems for the foreseeable future just based on scale, if anyone actually attacked they would truly be a hero.


    While mortal engines used stars to power propulsion or most did at least, spirit cultivators used spiritual Qi for basically everything they did. Likewise flying ships required a power source, this power source had to be available in large quantities and stable, but most of all it had to be replenishable.


    For spirit cultivators spiritual Qi was like water, unless one was a god like being it wasn''t really viable for long term use as a fuel for propulsion, it was too valuable.


    This was where spiritual stones came in, it was still spiritual Qi in essence just a more raw form of it that could be found everywhere in the spiritual universe. The biggest benefit of spiritual stones was it''s stability, as long as the energy inside was not activated and the stone was unblemished it would contain the Qi forever without any degradation or energy loss, It was the perfect natural energy storage. The only problem was it could only be mined from spiritual veins, which couldn''t really be found in the middle of open space.


    Hiding flying ships by using formations to cast illusions or mask ones true location used spiritual Qi in large quantities, while most flying ships carried enough spiritual stones to cover shorts trips from planet to planet the voyage they were undertaking now had an undetermined location with no time limit to reach said location.


    Basically no amount of spiritual stones would ever be enough to power the flying ships 24/7.


    Qi gathering formations may help alleviate this problem but the amount of energy that could be gathered in open space far away from planets or spirit continent was not enough to power entire ships let alone an armada.


    Due to this, most ship captains and fleet commanders chose not to use concealment formations near spirit continents as this part of their journey could conserve power for any future problems that may arise. Likewise they used spirit gathering formations for this part of their journey rather then their spiritual stone reserves.


    Practice makes perfect after all, it was best to start regulating energy usage as early as possible.


    The _salvation arks_ on the other hand are one of few flying ships created in the vast tree universe to travel the void of space for extended periods of time, although their original purpose was not to travel the inner universe''s space it still held up when compared to conventional flying ships.


    The outer frame was created to be durable, easy to fix and most importantly to isolate the chaotic energies of the endless void from those inside of the ship. A good vessel must be well sealed, a vessel that can travel outside the universe boundary had to be so air tight that not even atoms can escape.


    It was one of the best ship designs to ever be created and if not for the vast tree universe''s impending collapse it would never have made its way to the common populace and be kept a secret of its creator.


    As more arks took to the sky joining the armada on the looting journey from continent to continent, devilish cultivators took this time to do what they generally couldn''t do without being chased down and killed - loot, murder, rape and mass genocide.


    All over the vast tree realm soul sacrifices, blood sacrifices, the creation of undead soldiers or refinement of devilish treasures took place causing a calamity to descend upon the spiritual realm even before the calamity of corruption arrived, mortal souls and unlucky cultivators who had lost the greater protection of the cultivation world could only flee in desperation.


    No other place in the Vast tree realm experienced such a large problem with devilish cultivators as the south eastern region did, the southern region had the most lax ''laws'' amongst the 8 main directions of the realm as well as the most opportunities for those seeking to make a name for themselves. This created a zone of freedom that allowed for both the good and the bad to flourish alongside each other.


    The south - east of the Vast tree realm can simply be known as the adventurer''s dream land for it is considered by most as a wild area with few footholds for any not considered a demonic beast.


    Although this area has seen its calamities, wars and even occupations from several other powers not even 1/10th of the south-east had been conquered at any point in time allowing for a perpetual no mans land to exist.


    While many have visited and gained immeasurable wealth in the depths of the south it has remained as free as it ever was, which is likely why it will never have a chance to rise either as it''s simply too chaotic.


    Currently the largest devilish faction had mobilized the entirely of its power to construct the largest sacrificial ceremony in it''s history, while many of the previous powers that controlled the area were able to gleam what was going on they did not try and stop it and simply looked away.


    At this point in time it was too late to stop a gathering of devil''s on such a scale. Boarding the flying ships and arks they left everything that was once theirs behind.


    Mortals of all spiritual species were slaughtered in droves to set up a single formation corner stone, devilish cultivators as a whole took this chance to rise in power across the universe but the south was seeing a golden era like never before.


    Devilish cultivators were not immune to the affects of the calamity but having lost more then half of their peak fighters in recent years fighting both the calamity and other cultivators they all together abandoned the wider universe instead choosing to hide for this very moment.


    Had devilish cultivators not been outnumbered in a ten to one ratio they wouldn''t have hidden themselves till now to try and take control over vast portions of the universe in this time of need.


    Thats not to say that all of them were simply wicked beings, many nobel spirit cultivators had deserted the front lines during the many battles for the universe''s defense being deemed devils as a result, gaining such a title made them unable to go back to their homes in shame. The calamity was simply a different level of existence, even the bravest of souls bowed their head in shame upon their failure to repel the calamity.


    Such cultivators had no choice but to barter for safe passage or even join devilish factions as a result of being deemed devils, today most of these cultivators would truly be deemed forevermore as devils.


    As devilish cultivators gained power, some took this time to conceal themselves among the devils in order to cause mass genocide upon enemy races they once had conflicts with.


    It was clear to see that these beings were far more cruel then the devilish cultivators themselves for the devils had unfortunately become very efficient with the mass slaughter they caused quickly killing for what they needed but these ''other beings'' taking revenge did not kill quick, choosing to prolong the suffering of those they encountered.


    The devils did not try and stop these actions, after all to them the universe had already abandoned them long ago and likewise they abandoned it in return.


    Massive explosions and rituals reaped the lives of millions every second while leaving the survivors to see the aftermath and curse the ones who caused this.


    Cities destroyed, fortresses leveled and countless civilizations fell overnight it was as if hell had descended and madness had taken over.


    Unlucky flying ships that failed to join the greater armada were besieged with all passengers onboard being killed, the ships then dawned new flags under the devils banner.


    Very few stood their ground and protected their people till the very end, in hopes of buying either buying time to evacuate as much of their people as possible, or simply to take down the devils in one last valiant act.


    "¡ãMy my if it isn''t the great khan of kron, I heard you ran away like all the rest of the so called ''nobel spirits'' but then again you were never very nobel were you?"¡ã


    "Batu... So the shame of kron finally shows himself. Tired of living like a rat? Step forward for once in your life and fight me!"


    "¡ãAh, my dear khan. You bless me with your words, sadly I cannot play with you today. However you are free to watch me with those eyes filled with desire for me as I burn your people to ash"¡ã


    "You bastard! My son should have killed you the day you were born!"


    "¡ãHahahahaha he was always sentimental"¡ã with a great laugh the devil Batu spread his wings as fire rained down covering the sky.


    The khan of kron chased after the devil Batu but the devil avoided a direct confrontation always keeping his eyes on the khan as he spread fire and ash across the world.


    From the sides other devils took the opportunity to invade the cities left undefended by the khan, each suffering horrendous losses as the devils rampaged unhindered.


    When the khan returned to defend the cities the devils would retreat to attack another area, should they be caught they simply fought back for a bit before retreating. There was no point on fighting the khan head on, he was too pre-occupied defending the indefensible.


    As time passed the khan grew weak, his speed dropped, his spiritual Qi diminished, the devils only got stronger and their attacks more ferocious.


    "¡ãI wonder khan, are your wives still around? Or did you send them away? What about your daughters? I''ve always had a liking for them!"¡ã


    The devil Batu neared the final city yet to fall, here the legacy of the khans great empire was recorded on the walls of the city themselves. The barriers protecting the city had long fallen but those remaining loyal soldiers kept struggling to hold whatever remained of the city intact.


    As the devil Batu scanned the city he noted the khans great house was gone.


    "¡ãAh but I didn''t think so, shame. I always wanted that girl you cared for so much. Maybe I''ll find her later"¡ã


    "YOU! I''ll kill you!" The khan was beaten down but not out. With every attack he intended to kill the devils assailing his empire but it was simply too much.


    He had sent the best of his people away on a long journey, he knew that those that remained weren''t strong enough to aid him in combat yet he fought for them regardless. He wasn''t a saint, he had pillaged, murdered and raped as he expanded the empire he built, but he valued peace still. After all what is an empire without its people?


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "EVEN IF I SHALL FALL YOU WILL NOT BE GIVEN SATISFACTION DEMON!!!" The khan exploded with rage, arriving just a step away from demon Bath sword in hand.


    "¡ãOh but I''m already satisfied >:)"¡ã


    <+==   Intermission   ==+>


    Whats the difference between a devil and spirit cultivator if they both use spiritual Qi?


    Devil cultivators do not care from where the spiritual Qi comes from. As such they tend to gather even the most polluted of Qi from the surroundings, this pollution is not because the Qi is unrefined(many mixed elements) but because not every soul is a good soul.


    When one dies they are judged to be good or evil.


    Most normal cultivators only ever interact with souls whose sin''s are unclear, yet none of those souls were deemed evil, at least not evil enough to deserve damnation. The spirit cultivators will cleanse the souls they encounter of their sins to gain good karma, but devils do not.


    Devil cultivators do not care for the souls origin. They will not assist a soul to help them reincarnate, they will simply consume the soul altogether.


    An unwashed soul, a soul still filled with impurity and sin will pollute the soul.


    Ill gotten gains one might say.


    While this action may empower the devils far more then a spirit cultivator it also weakens their mind and soul. A soul is an individual after all, taking more then one soul into a single body is a dangerous act.


    The more the soul deforms the worse one''s mind becomes.


    <+==    Intermission end    ==+>


    While the south-eastern area of the vast tree universe''s southern sector had taken the warning given to them to heart, the rest of the south had turned ignorant to this incoming ''Calamity''.


    Those that left were considered cowards by the vast populace, while many joined bandit groups simply to not miss out on all the looting going on.


    "Can you believe it?! Those beasts in the deep south have started to believe these rumors about the end of the universe, they just up and left everything behind!"


    "Cowards! I didn''t think the enemies we''ve been fighting all these years to simply leave because some so called big shots of the vast tree realm told them too, if it was me I would have shown them what my canon''s can do" the being pumped his hips.


    "Heck yeah! Screw this so called central coalition, what have they ever done for us!"


    "Well since they left all that open land with no one to defend it, why don''t we uh, go sightseeing?"


    The southern region had yet to experience the full weight of the oncoming calamity, having experienced countless ''World ending calamities'' they no longer held the same fear to the word ''Calamity''.


    This was truly not fully their fault, when every event is considered some major disaster of a scale never before seen, people tend to start ignoring warnings.


    The south had always been a free land, a place with little contact beyond their borders.


    Even if the vast majority of the south held the same beliefs, they had always entered conflicts over even the slightest of missteps.


    With the vast amount of wealth gained from the vast resources of the south, the leadership could simply wave some money at the problem and it will simply disappear for a while.


    If that didn''t work, they always had the option of threatening to call someone a devil should they not align themselves with the rest.


    Even if one wanted to change the south for the better, the fragmentation of power had already seeped so deep into the south that no one force could ever dream of achieving unity.


    Those in charge wanted to keep the status quo and they will promise to do absolutely everything required to improve life in the south but never actually do it, claiming ''Heaven has willed it to be, we cannot fix this''.


    The southerners had become so accustomed to these lies or ''fibs'' that they started to believe the heavens were truly punishing them for doing nothing wrong.


    The central coalition or the overseer''s, it didn''t matter who tried to impose some sort of rule on the south, they didn''t care for it if it didn''t benefit them immediately.


    Any outsiders coming to benefit from what should be theirs will be seen as invaders no matter which side they are on.


    Sadly for the south, perpetually doing the same thing and expecting different results does not cure ignorance.


    Should they keep to their ways till the very end and choose to stay unchanging then the calamity will arrive without mercy.


    As for the leadership of the south, they have mostly already finished their preparations to leave the universe behind. They already got what they wanted from those ignorant enough to listen to them. By the time anyone wise enough appears to fix the situation it will be too late.


    In the space of the Vast tree universe one-hundred thousand flying ships headed towards the west, they were one of a thousand squadrons sent out to delay the calamity.


    These squadrons would cover less then 0.0001% of the western point of the universe, being just a small part of the remaining survivors of the United army that did not die or flee during the final battle.


    The commander of this army was considered to be among the top 100 strongest beings in the vast tree universe,  with the death of so many higher tier cultivators he could now be considered one of the top 30 cultivators in the Vast tree realm.


    This did not mean he was weak in comparison to those that came before him, he was still one of the strongest beings to ever exist in the universe of the current era.


    Even if he fought with someone deemed his superior he wouldn''t be guaranteed to lose, the chances of defeat or victory were always a 50/50 once you reach his level. The one thing he lacked was accomplishments built up over a vast amount of time, meaning he was rather young in comparison to others of a similar rank.


    "How are the preparations going? Are we ready to once more face off against those corrupted fiends? And is the mind destroying formation ready?" A man''s calm voice spoke almost seeming disinterested.


    "We have finished all preparations, all thats left is... Well the enemy" a confident woman''s voice sounded out.


    The calm man was Abner, he was one of 147 surviving void realm lords left in the vast tree realm. For beings like him a million years was a blink in the past, the universe had even started to fell small for such beings.


    From a peak of 1,107 void realm lords during the first encounter with the calamity, only he and 147 others had survived.


    The woman was Ritika a heavenly rebirth stage arch lord who had participated in most campaigns against the corruption a strategist known throughout the realm, it was thanks to her plus the sacrifices of hundreds of quadrillions that the Vast tree realm could even survive as long as it did given its current crisis.


    One might think the loss of life would have sent the universe into a panic, but in truth these numbers were expected for universal scale warfare. Even galactic warfare could result in the deaths of trillions over the course of a few years let alone a battle for the entire universe.


    Currently the flying ships that made up part of the fleet had around ten thousand spirit cultivators at or above the soul integration stage, all veterans of cultivation and all renowned heros amongst their race. The death of a single one of these beings could be the difference between the rise of an entire species or its extinction, to date 10 trillion had died.


    In total about ten million high grade cultivators had been sent out to face the calamity as the vanguard of 4 waves of attack, with another thirty million to assist them.


    These numbers were considered as nothing more then a small militia compared to the numbers the united army held at the peak of the war.


    The flying vessels these beings rode atop had equally enough importance as the spirits themselves, any single ship would be strong enough on its own to conquer entire galactic clusters with relative ease, these ships are the current pinnacle of spirit artifacts available to the more affluent of the populace.


    Any spirit artifact stronger then these ships was not obtainable by just anyone irregardless of wealth.


    The goal they had was simple, to slow down the advancing calamity with minimal casualties over the next half year to buy time to set up a ''God realm formation'' across the entire western quadrants furthest point which would buy at minimum 4 months time for all nearly continents to evacuate towards the north passage.


    Considering it could take a normal flying ship several weeks to simply reach another galaxy it was a pointless waste of time. While the ships the army rode could travel 10 galactic clusters in a matter of days, most couldn''t afford to buy such ships.


    The only ships fast enough to traverse trillions of light years in mere weeks are the _salvation arks_. Few other vessels would be expected to successfully arrive at the northern passage in time to escape the incoming calamity.


    This was not told to the wider populace, it was better to keep some things secret.


    Luckily many other options besides the arks and ultra expensive warships were available to speed up travel times.


    If anyone was still in the western zone by that time they will be left for dead for no one is going to risk their lives for them.


    The universe as a whole had 25 years left before destruction but the areas closest to the calamity had only five, granting them one extra year was already considered merciful.


    "Huh? There seems to be a ship nearby, seems they are being chased by some corrupted fiends" the man said with a slight smile.


    "Thats odd, we are still several weeks away from the furthest continent in the west continent and its not supposed to be encroached by the corruption yet! After all we planned to use it as a rest stop" the woman was a bit perplexed but not overly concerned.


    Space was vast and full of mystery, to even encounter a stray rock would be a miracle big enough to pray to the heavens let alone another ship. Maybe this corrupted fiends had entered some sort of fold in space? Either way it needed to be investigated.


    "Ok. Lets get the information we can first" said Abner as a trace of boredom left his face, standing up he simply phased through the hull of his flying vessel entering space unprotected.


    Heading towards the fleeing vessel with extra vigor, his aura grew allowing one to see a sun like ball of pure spiritual energy shining white light surround his body.


    On the flying ship that was being pursued, many cultivators launched ferocious attacks behind them.


    "Captain! The teleportation formation is almost ready, 5 more minutes!"


    "Good!" The captain responded with joy while in his mind ''dammit we probably won''t make it out alive from this, 5 minutes is too long!''.


    The vessel they rode was not in good shape and seems to have lost many of its parts already but the people on board did not seem overly panicked, clearly speaking for their experience or possibly loss of hope.


    This flying ship was circular and seemed to carry mostly low grade cultivators and mortals, other then them was the crew which seemed to be made up of a captain in the body reformation stage and a crew consisting of mainly core formation and nascent soul cultivators with a handful of deity transformation stage experts.


    It was clear as day that this was a hired ship payed for by the low grade cultivators collectively to ferry them away, a sizable sum must have been paid to move such high ranking cultivators hearts to become their taxi.


    This was not however the same group that had escaped the destruction of the spiritual continent on the lower-western quadrant, this group was notably further away from the front lines and was a different ship altogether.


    The pursuers behind and around their vessel seemed to fly in the void of space with no wings or propulsion to be seen, numbering in the tens of thousands at first sight, some clung to the sides of the flying ship in an effort to break it open while others simply tried to use their size to crush the Ship from the outside.


    The ships crew and the few stronger passengers were fighting back keeping them at bay striving for time and trying not to die in the process.


    The ''creatures'' had horns on their heads, beady eyes, sharp teeth with no lips, earth yellow skin with thinly spread hair which seemed to stick extremely closely to their bones.


    All their skeletal figures differed in shape and size some looked like animalistic, others like insects and a few humanoid figures could be seen.


    The low grade cultivators were not much help here but they could at least provide power to the ships defensive arrays taking pressure away from the ships core, those fighting head on against the enemy struck with a their might yet for every creature they killed the others would consume their fallen comrade to make themselves stronger.


    This current stalemate was not in the favor of the defenders, eventually the fiends would overcome the defenders or the ship will run out of fuel and canon fire, no other option was available when facing the calamities ghoul''s.


    Monks chanted, nuns prayed, visions of rivers and mountains attempted to seal the fiends or break them, all to no avail.


    "Be cleansed you foul beast! Return the the depths of hell where you came from" the monk screamed at the top of his lungs  emitting holy light able to cleanse evil spirits and foul beasts of evil thought.


    The skeletal fiends held no fear for the light charging recklessly regardless of injury.


    As the fiend neared another man bald of head wearing red and yellow garments clapped his hands together.


    "Rejoice o lost one! For I shall lead you to repent!" The bald monk in red and yellow struck at the ghoul with a fist covered in light.


    The ghoul beaten back, the bald monk looked at the other monk "Would it not be better to spare your energy to power the ship instead?"


    Both monks stared at each other in silence.


    All of the sudden one of the crew members in charge of navigation noticed a change in the spiritual radar.


    "Incoming! We got more incoming from the front!"


    The captain looked to the forward direction the ship traveled.


    Just as it was said space seemed to shake, compress and crack all at once followed by a deafening sound, as massive suns crashed down all at once twisting space as they dragged the ghouls into a fiery hell.


    The ship was miniscule among these falling suns, fire tendrils spread from the suns grabbing any fiend latched onto the ship and ripping them off with minimal damage to the flying vessel.


    Unbearable heat spread out from every nearby sun threatening to incinerate the flying vessel but as soon as the suns appeared they vanished. The next thing anyone knew, all of the attackers were gone and only silence remained.


    Everyone was stunned and only after a few breaths did they realize they had been saved.


    "Who''s in charge here?" Abner asked emitting a crushing pressure upon the vessel.


    The difference in cultivation being too great, his voice sounded and several low tier cultivators popped like blood bags.


    Captain Fulson quickly used his own spirit to cover his crew and passengers from harm but he had fallen to his knees unable to stand.


    Everyone else on the ship passed out besides for the captain himself.


    The captain could not withstand the force long enough shortly passing out much to Abner''s annoyance.


    Four minutes later the flying warships lead by Ritika arrived and encircled the comparatively small flying vessel.


    "Why did you kill them?" Ritika asked.


    "I didn''t mean to, I thought I was far enough away that they wouldn''t die. Oh but not all of them are dead" Abner shamelessly said.


    "Ha this is why I wanted someone else in the void realm to come, you can''t control your power still" Ritika criticized.


    Abner did not retort, he moved further away into the confines of a warship were his power could be restrained.


    Ritika neared the fallen captain of the ship and those still breathing, with a wave of her hand the most noticable of wounds vanished.


    ''I''ll just soul search them real quick, can''t be helped''


    Like lightning information flashed from the minds of the unconscious into Ritika''s mind, everything about their voyage was revealed.


    ''The fiends did not come from the south-west? This group simply encountered them by chance and didn''t even know from where they came'' with a frown Ritika returned to her warship.


    "Give them some provisions and send them off, lets quickly set of double the speed"


    "Is something wrong?" Abner asked her.


    "Its just a hunch but I believe the entirety of the western quadrant may already be compromised" Ritika said without care.


    "What!? Then why are we going to the far west still?" Abner questioned.


    "Because that''s what it expects us to do"


    "!?"


    "If it expects us to arrive at the west and we aren''t there what do you think will happen?" Ritika questioned him.


    "We go back and regroup no? Or formulate a new plan to somehow isolate then entire western quadrant" Abner answered without much thought.


    "Yes and by doing so we leave the entirety of the western quadrant completely defenseless and the corruption will be free to act without fear of reprisal. No we can''t retreat. By going to the western point the calamity will need to to keep sending ghouls to try and throw us off, it will commit to a battle simply to keep up the act. If we retreat now the west will fall in less then a year" Ritika became serious.


    "Then what of the other quadrants? Do you believe they have already been infiltrated aswell?"


    "The south undoubtedly, the north seems unlikely but we will send word to have it checked out, as for the east it should be the safest area still" thoughts flashed in Ritika''s mind.


    "So we just need to put on a good show huh. So be it" Abner seemed to be happy with the outcome of events.


    With that the warships left with haste, leaving a small group to investigate the western quadrant in secret.


    <+==    Echos of past    ==+>


    Memory corruption, generally one only tends to think of it on a mortal scale. Say you have some information written on some sort of device that for some reason doesn''t work the way it should stopping you from seeing what is written or maybe you know someone with Alzheimer''s and have personally seen the self destruction of a living being in real time.


    Spirit cultivators do not suffer these afflictions so they do not think of them.


    A cultivator mainly uses the spirit for basically everything and at some point their head can simply be discarded.


    When a cultivator reaches a certain point of cultivation their mind tends to become one with the soul and such even should one''s body be destroyed as long as the soul has kept the memories of that cultivator, they can simply make a new body without hassle.


    Here is where the problem begins.


    Souls you see, happen to be particularly easy to corrupt, devil cultivators being the prime example that most should know as corrupted souls.


    Spiritual Qi is commanded through the soul, without the souls guidance spiritual Qi is as useless as a fart. Do you know what this means?


    Everytime you use a spiritual artifact, or when you cast a spell, when you gather spiritual Qi from the surroundings, when you so much as move the spiritual Qi in your body it requires the soul to interact with the outside world.


    This is when corruption gets you.


    It doesn''t need to injure you physically to infect you, it just needs to be let in through the simplest of actions in the spiritual realm.


    When I fought the corruption for the first time I realized the problem right away but I couldn''t do anything about it, it was too late.


    The moment that beast entered our universe it was already over. What we need to do now is not simply fight, but prepare to run away. It will not save us, but maybe we can save those yet to be infected, those yet to be born.


    I do not have much longer.


    The fifth clone, you are my inheritor. To you I will give my purest Qi which I have refined to a level I could only achieve from my failure.


    May my spear and Qi lead you on the path to salvation, good luck number five.


    "...dam old man. Where did you go?" The fifth clone looked ahead towards the mountains and rivers cleaved at the tip of a spears blade.


    "So the corruption had altered the memories of the universe when it arrived? Then why is it taking its time to destroy us? For false hope? Does it want us to escape this universe? Is that it? Does it want us to spread the corruption without knowing...I see. We aren''t escaping it''s grasp. Only becoming a vector to its spread" the fifth clone held his spear firmly.


    "I will not fail you old man, I will find the uncorrupted souls and guide them to salvation!"

 Void ports

    "In life I sought only the pleasures in life. Treasures of luster, power to rule above others, wealth to enrich my life further, woman of all types to warm my bed. Now I look at the world with melancholy now I only seek survival"


    -Unknown human cultivator ~ Nascent soul stage


    Northern Quadrant of the vast tree realm.


    Glory year port, one of many space ports in the north able to house thousands of flying ships from across the universe allowing them to rest and resupply along their journey.


    With the main use of these ports to act as a gateway to allow access into the void river, a series of passages which enabled extremely quick travel across the Vast tree universe, without these passages it could take normal flying ships hundreds of millions to billions of years to travel from one end of universe to the other.


    These passages had spread across the entire vast tree universe like cracks on a mirror being the quickest way to travel large distances where precision isn''t required.


    Sadly not all passages connected with each other, multiple void rivers leading to different zones exist independent of one another and not all passages were considered safe to traverse.


    Those that are traversable were controlled by various factions in order to profit off of their use, of course access to these void rivers was not a matter of simply waltzing in, certain things had to be built in order to force open a path after which only those granted access by the owners would be allowed entry.


    Those whom choose to build a space port have to spend countless resources to even track one down as void rivers are not always stationary, shifting or fold onto itself causing major damage or delays in travel times but luckily it can take thousands of years for this to happen normally.


    Once a path has been opened they must also clear away any potential hazards that may be inside the void river and more often then not several hundreds years had to be spent as a general estimate before it could be considered ''passable'' so it was quite an investment to build.


    Once one built the void port invitations could be sent out for certain guests to use the ports and spread word of its location.


    As void rivers are constantly shifting one must always be informed as to the new location of entry.


    Generally such information never reaches the ears of the lower realms keeping the existence of void ports and void rivers unknown to the general public but as things progressively got worse in the universe the information was spreading like wildfire.


    Currently thousands of flying ships were arriving from all over the the northern quadrant using this chance to rest or trade for rare materials of the north not widely available in other parts of the universe.


    One such new arrival was a fleet of fifty-two Arks which belonged to a coalition of families known as the Five family union.


    It was once known as the four family coalition but with the rise of a new powerful family the four major families decided that it was time for a change amongst their ranks, which was greatly welcomed by many of the lower families while the opponents of that particular family were not so happy.


    "Ed! Ed! Lets go, hurry up! Lets go!" A child spoke excitedly


    "Im going im going" another young voice sounded


    These children no older then five or six accompanied a group of elders on a trip towards one of the many markets inside the glory year port which currently had a massive boom to business.


    "Look at this Ed! Doesn''t this look similar to that hover board you always wanted?"


    "Yeah, but it is way pricier" the childs eyes glowed with want, he turned to one of the elders he accompanied as a signal for his attention.


    The elder avoided the childs gaze he did not want to spend needlessly, the boy knew he wouldn''t get what he wanted this time but he had other options.


    Shops had become packed with alien spirit species from across the universe, so much so that they had to take small steps in order not to push one another.


    For many it had become a first interaction with an alien species while for others just another day.


    Void ports almost never catered to novice cultivators like these simply because void ports are in space, most creatures spirit or not cannot survive in space without special gear or after becoming a godly existence.


    Alien spirit species of all kinds looked at the wares in the markets or traded with others seeking all kinds of ingredients, buying pills and materials of all sorts, even hiring various professional crafters to make something for them in haste.


    Most beings attempted to buy goods they needed with materials they had no use for but those things wouldn''t appeal to everyone so the sellers wouldn''t trade for anything besides what they needed or double the cost in spiritual stones, this formed a hostile environment where even the slightest show of force could spark a fight.


    Some people even attempted to buy their way onto other larger vessels or fleets in order to increase their chances at survival. Not everyone had built arks after all, most had to rely on flying ships they owned long before or were hitching a ride for a price.


    Such modes of transportation may work well on planets and spiritual continents but not for space travel.


    "Eddy, Erica don''t run off, we don''t want you to cause trouble" one of the older people spoke in a low reprimanding tone.


    The children only looked back with a mischievous smile.


    A middle aged man wryly smiled and simply hoped these kids didn''t cause trouble.


    The five family unions home was no stranger to inhumane beings gracing their doorstep but most inhabitants are primarily human.


    Their home continent and even the surrounding spirit continents in their local area all had a predominantly human population, alien species like these in such high numbers was simply unheard of to them.


    These children may be part of the direct family line of one of the Five family unions families holding just enough influence to keep themselves afloat but that influence was only applicable within the five family union and its surroundings, this however was far outside of that area.


    As a whole the five family union could not be considered powerful among the human race, but they could at least ensure the survival of their own. A singular family like this would truly be better off not causing any trouble otherwise they may not be able to avoid a loss.


    The current situation of the port could only be said to be chaotic, races of all kinds traveling across the realm was nothing new but so many of them at once was truly a spectacle, especially witnessing so many cultivators at the doorstep of godliness being treated like commoners.


    One in three cultivators walking shoulder to shoulder had achieved deity transformation, the rank right below a godly being.


    As the title implies one has entered the final stages of transforming into a god-like being that can travel space without worry.


    The other two thirds being mostly nascent soul cultivators whom would be considered big shots in most planets, while anyone else was irrelevant.


    For cases where one was unsure as to the power of another, it was often best to act with caution.


    In the five family union few could ever claim to have seen such a sight before them and even less could claim to be able to compete with the higher ranked cultivators.


    From the seven million inhabitants onboard the flying ships of the five family union at best 1,350 nascent soul cultivators inhabited the Five family union (FFU), with 260 of them being deity transformation stage cultivators and a miniscule 49 Body reformation stage cultivators (rank above deity transformation) spread across the fifty-two arks they collectively owned.


    There are three soul integration stage cultivators (rank above body reformation) onboard but they could not be counted as part of the union itself.


    If any conflict broke out one would think no one would dare mess with them, but this time the odds were against them.


    Any one of the fleets docked in the port at this particular moment could lead to outright annihilation for either party, none wanted to tempt such a result.


    While inside the port and its vicinity, no one was allowed to be over 15 feet tall(4.57 meters/457cm), this allowed for it to be easier to cater to the wider populace and for no one to become an eyesore or hindrance of sorts.


    So if you didn''t know any shrinking spells all you could do was watch from afar as others frolicked about.


    Flying was an option as long as you keep to designated fly zones but certain speed limits are in order, many shops being only accessable via flight required careful maneuvers so the children would have to be carried by their elders in these instances.


    Many guards attempted to keep the peace in the port even if it was too crowded making it difficult to keep track of everything going on, but non the less they tried to keep the peace.


    The average strength of these guards was the peak of deity transformation, more then enough to handle most guests. Normally the strength of the guards would be above deity transformation but the calamity war had left few other choices.


    The port was a space city, from restaurants to hotels, from luxury shops to raw materials shops, it catered to godly beings on a daily basis and as such most of the things found here was beyond the grasp of normal spirit people.


    The floating city with the docks included was only 5 kms across, miniscule by comparison to all the vessels surrounding it.


    This did not mean they didn''t carry goods for those in lower realms after all godly beings often brought clansmen or disciples along their journey or maybe they wanted souvenir, a moment of rest and thrill was often needed after long voyages.


    Moving out towards the docks one could see ships as small as 20 feet long to over 400 kms in size floating in space making for a truly staggering scene.


    Like moons in the sky these arks covered the nearby space creating a gravitational force equivalent to several planets, the surroundings started to become a little crushing to those in the center.


    Any arks or flying ship larger then 500 kms in size would not be able to use this portion of the void river in general, the current passage was only considered safe for ships of a little over 200 kms in size but should one be willing to risk it then larger ships could enter the passage.


    This would normally be a bad idea as parts of the void river had major obstacles tens of kilometers large that would certainly smash into the vessels attempting to cross.


    While the owner of the port may be in charge of clearing the void river of obstacles the cost of doing so was simply astronomical, so most simply cleared what was needed for general use.


    Luckily this passage already had many brave captains that steered their ships over 300 kms large into the void river clearing the way for future travelers, should even one fail however it could create kilometers long minefields for future travelers.


    One had to be absolutely confident that their choice of action was the right one otherwise everyone suffered.


    Spirit cultivators able to own flying ships of that size must all be extremely powerful just to build it let alone defend it, otherwise wouldn''t it simply be inviting trouble?


    The expansion of the void rivers would generally be a cause for joy for the owner of the void port as this would keep the void river more stable in the long run allowing for more traffic to flow but with the collapse of the vast tree universe at hand it would be a short lived joy.


    The dock workers tirelessly moved from the city to the port crossing the nearby void to set up teleportation platforms for the larger ships to use since they could not anchor at the port itself due to their size, while smaller vessels were directed to other parts of the dock.


    Many of the larger arks and flying ships also carried smaller flying vessels used for this occasion while they waited for their own turn to use the void river.


    The void river which was currently at max capacity with no less then fifty ships entering in at any given time was dangerously packed such that even the smallest mishap could lead to catastrophe.


    The gateway was all but invisible to the naked eye, the ships entering simply disappeared like one sinking below water.


    The void river was not a one way path however, one could enter or exit from any of the millions of void ports across the universe. Should any vessel try and exit via this void port at the current time it could lead to a major disaster.


    It could take around seven hours for a one way trip in the void river to the closest exit from this location, to travel further it could take weeks to even months of travel inside the void river, with every moment increasing the chances of something going horribly wrong.


    For now this void port would send messages through the void river to other docks about the situation hoping that all goes well but nothing was guaranteed should you take any longer then required to exit.


    This particular port operated one way lanes for 200 hours straight with an extra 10 hours in-between each switch of receiving and sending as to give any stragglers some extra time to traverse the void river or in case problems arose along the way.


    <+==     Intermission     ==+>


    Lower-western quadrant, Huhil void port.


    A group of flying ships traveling without signs of slowing down looked ahead with apprehension.


    "Sir Gregory is that the void port you speak off?" The captain of the flying ship looked ahead to a hardly noticable speck of dust far in the distance.


    "Yes, we are in luck that it hasn''t moved" sitting on the rails of the flying ship the swordsman named Ian Gregory sighed in relief. To his side several others exuding powerful auras had gathered.


    Having just escaped the destruction of his home spiritual continent with this group of spirit cultivators, Sir Gregory had taken it upon himself to act as their guide and protector for the foreseeable future.


    As for the others they simply followed him to repay a debt.


    "From here we will take the void river across the entire lower-western quadrant all the way to the west-central quadrant, the trip should be around 3 months long. At least that''s the plan" Sir Gregory explained.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "From this place? I am sorry if I sound rude Sir but that place can''t be more then one or two kilometers in size, where will they get the power for such lengthy travel?" The captain asked.


    "They won''t. The only thing the void port does is open up the passageway, the void river is a natural phenomena of heaven that they have no control over"


    "And it''s only accessable from here? Or can you enter from anywhere? Will they just let us use it?"


    "No, there are many void ports and it''s not for free"


    "This is, I just don''t understand. Why hasn''t the existence of such passageways been spread far and wide? Such passageways are revolutionary!" The captain knew far too well what such passageways meant, such a thing could revolutionize trade, travel and the dynamic of power everywhere! He had never left the vicinity of his home continent simply due to the difficulty of traveling in space, it was simply too vast.


    "Because it would cause chaos. If anyone can use the passageways what would stop foreign army''s from causing havoc across the universe? Those yet to cross the threshold from mortal spirit to godlike spirits desire too much, it may be difficult to understand now but soon you will see" Sir Gregory knew the explanation was lax but he didn''t want to explain the history of the vast tree realm.


    <+==      Intermission end      ==+>


    "Is this news true?" A woman spoke while looking over documents.


    "We have yet to confirm this and we are unlikely to be able to do so on time. From what we know the port will only be allowing one way travel from now on and will no longer be receiving vessels, so it is likely to be the truth" a elderly man answered


    "Then it''s probably true, less then twenty-five years left until the vast tree universe''s destruction... it Seems our plan of arriving early in the north to make connections was for naught. Have the other families heard of this yet?" said the woman.


    She was the matriarch of one of the Five family unions major families, the Nordaine house.


    Her name is Dara but most call her Madam Nordaine for she is the current head of the Nordaine family.


    "Not yet madam, Should we inform them?" The elder responded, he was also the only elder of direct relation to the Nordaine name.


    "No, they will find out before we can tell them" such information was to difficult to hide she knew this.


    The current generation of Nordaine''s including the matriarch only amounted to eight direct family members, none among them surpassed the rank of deity transformation.


    The Nordaine''s direct line of descent had always been in low number never having more then 25 people in the family in history but at least back then the Nordaine''s were considerably stronger individuals.


    Now the current generation struggled to have full control over the lower families under their management, mere servant and guard subordinate families started to consider joining other families while the more cunning ones sought to usurp power for themselves.


    With the presumed death of her husband whom was at the early stages of body reformation and her 2 uncles at late and mid body reformation, the Nordaine''s were in a difficult situation as of late.


    Her husband and uncles had been part of the united armies conscripts having participated in many campaigns, however even upon the disbandment of the united army none of them came back.


    She didn''t really feel anything toward her husbands death, it was simply a political marriage after all but his existence was at the time something she could rely on.


    As for her two uncles, the loss was heavy on the family.


    Madame Nordaine was the only remaining direct family member at deity transformation(early) - if you don''t include the servants.


    While the family had seen darker days in the past, times had changed, the five family union had grown beyond the scope where a single deity transformation individual could hold the family together.


    Plus adding on the fact that she had reached deity transformation only recently - less than 6 years ago - the family was in a rut.


    "Have we acquired any of the materials we need uncle?" She looked at the last remaining pillar of sanity in her life.


    Her last remaining uncle had failed to breakthrough into deity transformation twice, with both attempts forcing him back several stages.


    While he may have failed to ascended to a new rank he was still the most experienced when it came to the daily politics of the five family union, if he died she wouldn''t know what to do.


    "Not all of them, but given we spend another week or so searching the likelihood of someone having what we need will increase" the elder had no emotions of his face, to him the ups and down of the family were all too common.


    He knew his current status within the family as an elder was ill deserved, he was the only one left his niece could trust.


    As for her sister and cousins they were growing at a good pace given their age but they simply couldn''t keep up, while she had entered deity transformation stage most of them had only entered golden core stage just recently.


    None showed interest to help the madame lead the family much to the elders disappointment.


    "We are about to enter the void river, a holy land of the space path unc- elder. We cannot miss this opportunity to grow!" Madame Nordaine resolutely said.


    "I will double, no triple! The effort. We will find what we need" the elder noticed his niece break character so to give her a little piece of mind he put more effort into the tone of his words.


    One had to know that to be considered one of the Leading families of the FFU (five family Union) they either had to have a few Body reformation stage or higher cultivators in the family plus fifteen deity transformation stage direct family members minimum, this did not include nascent soul experts as they did not matter in the long run.


    If they can''t meet those requirements something else of equivalent power must be in place, be it spiritual weapons capable of killing life on planetary and galactic scales or enough backing from other families.


    Currently the Nordaine''s held both weaponry and the support of other families but only because the current situation did not allow for large political swings that would dethrone them.


    Should thing stabilize for the better for the five family union as a whole it was likely that the Nordaine''s will be thrown aside.


    The closest person to achieving deity transformation stage in the Nordaine family was still her uncle a Mid Nascent soul elder whose age only brought forth questions of future viability.


    If not for the fact that the Nordaine house contracted 20+ Deity transformation stage hired servants and guards plus the various lower families backing they would not even be able to protect their lives.


    This was without mentioning that the loyalty of such bought guards all relied on being able to continually pay them, the coffers of the Nordaine''s felt rather light nowadays.


    The Nordaine family''s line had been unbroken since the founding of the Five family union, which at the time only consisted of three families the Bell family, the Nordaine family and one more family no longer in the history books.


    If either of these families ever encountered a bad situation that endangered the family legacy as a whole the other would step in regardless of losses, this could not be said about the rest of the families in the FFU which truly spoke to the trust the Bells, Nordaine''s and the other family held in one another.


    At least until one of them was wiped out. The Nordaine''s and Bells had a strained relationship for a few generations now, while they had mended the relations partially things weren''t the same anymore.


    Many lower families had thoughts about the Nordaine family''s weak position but luckily the Nordaine''s were not the only leading family facing a difficult problem in the Five family Union.


    All 5 leading families currently lacked high grade cultivators due to the mandatory call to action, slightly alleviating the pressure.


    For now the Nordaine''s were protected by the collective whole, none of the internal turmoil could be shown to outsiders lest they attract the attention of unsavory individuals, that was simply a fact.


    Among the fleet there are 49 Body reformation stage cultivators three of which came from subservient families of the Nordaine''s allowing them to on the surface look strong but their loyalties were being tested with the change of an era.


    As for the three Soul integration stage cultivators who were not part of any family from the FFU none of them held any actual power to influence the politics of the FFU since they simply hitched a ride for the journey thus far.


    It was not expected that any of them should choose to stay with the FFU and would be leaving upon reaching their desired location, at least in the best case scenario.


    After all no one in the FFU had comparable power to a soul integration godly one, if they had to fight it would cost them dearly.


    This wouldn''t stop many families from approaching these individuals with offers for permanent stay after all desperate times often required desperate measure''s.


    While madam Nordaine contemplated doing the same her available finances said otherwise, building the arks was a financial blow like no other.


    Just as madam Nordaine was conversing with the elder about such prospects, she received a message.


    The elder sitting in front of her read the message after she tossed over the communication jade "It seems that the other families have received the news, they are calling for a emergency meeting. It seems they are more worried then we are to react so quick" the madame tossed her head back in annoyment.


    "Meeting after meeting after meeting, in the end I will just be sitting there waiting to be called upon only to agree to whatever decisions they make, how long will it be before they start asking for our foundation?" She vented.


    Saying so she stood up and bade farewell to the elder before heading away from the Nordaine family''s area of control not even bothering to take a guard with her.


    The elder could see her hardship, if only he had been more talented early in life maybe then he could have helped.


    His own son and daughter held more talent then he did but they only entered the golden core stage thus far, the same could be said of his nieces and nephews.


    Most of them were even older the the madam his youngest niece yet she had surpassed them all in half the time, a monstrous talent.


    "If we must make a deal with a devil to survive, then so be it" the elders eye had conviction beaming out of them.


    Just as the elder was experiencing a self high an explosion in the distance caused the void to ripple and shake, a huge ark of over 110 kms in size had been split in two several thousand miles away.


    The elder stood shocked before remembering the madam had just exited the protection of their own arc.


    "Dara!" He rushed towards the exit only to be stopped by a pair of deity transformation guards.


    "Let me go! The madame is outside!" He shouted.


    "We know but we can''t let you risk your life aswell, the madame should be strong enough to survive this" one of the guards said.


    "Damned it!" The elder cursed.


    The guards felt the shockwaves spreading through space, for such a thing to be possible in the void the one''s causing trouble had to be insanely powerful.


    The explosion burned brightly attracting the attention of all the ports inhabitants.


    "What happened?"


    "Wow now that is a scene you don''t want to see every day"


    "Looks like someone got in a fight they couldn''t talk themselves out off"


    "You''d think people would be more level headed considering our situation"


    "Sometimes people forget they may be immortal in name but not reality"


    "Hey you never know some heaven breaking lord could have been sleeping inside"


    "Hah yeah right, if there was would they let such a thing happen?"


    The next moment a spear made of fire launched out of one half of the burning ark, the spear was aimed at a large alien figure standing in the nearby space.


    The spear hit its mark repelling the alien figure several miles back.


    "I''LL KILL YOU!" The being that launched the spear ran fourth in space attacking the alien figure with the momentum of a dying star going supernova.


    "Oh shit, two soul integration seniors are fighting! Whoever gets caught in the crossfire will regret it!"


    "Fuck are they crazy!?"


    "If they cause more damage it will simply drag everyone into it, someone stop them!"


    The guards looked on in dismay, how could they stop such people? The strongest among them was an early body reformation godly being, an entire rank below those monsters.


    Even the caretaker of this port being a soul integration expert wouldn''t dare intervene without preparations, let alone them being two entire ranks below at deity transformation.


    "Huh isn''t something odd?"


    "It''s a one sided beating!"


    "What? How did someone so weak manage to break a ship like that?"


    "Weak? Soul integration seniors can destroy entire galaxies let alone a small ark"


    This was not an exaggeration, galaxies on mortal scales could not be considered worthy opponents for such beings.


    Spirit continents existed exactly to contain such beings.


    An attack that would otherwise destroy planets on the mortal realm would only create valleys and mountain ranges in spirit continents.


    A cultivator was ranked based on how far they advanced in their spiritual cultivation, the further they delved onto the path of immortality the further ones power would reach.


    Qi gathering, foundation establishment, core formation and nascent soul were considered the lower realms of cultivation and the weakest.


    The power they can exhibit was still considered in the mortal realm.


    Deity transformation was considered a transitional rank, both weak enough to be considered mortal yet strong enough to roam the skies freely.


    After that the levels of power reached were beyond human comprehension, such beings also couldn''t interact with the mortal world without causing a commotion.


    Body reformation experts could spit and a planet will shatter, soul integration elites could scream at the top of their lungs and all life in a galaxy will perish, golden cocoon saints can simply create their own galaxies out of boredom.


    After that the heavenly rebirth and void realms are considered so out of the realm of logic that no one truly knew how to accurately define their feats.


    "But that ark was protected by another of the same rank, how did it get pierced so easily? Heck even my small ark can take a hit or two"


    "Must have been asleep, even my flying ship can take a few hits"


    "You guys overestimate the durability of these arks, they are made for void travel not combat, even a normal flying ship can take a hit or two given it''s crafted of good heavenly materials"


    "Right, the arks are made for speed and Qi retention not defense they are basically glass houses"


    "Not quite, the arks outer shell gets stronger over time, given sufficient time they should be able to take a hit from either of them no problem"


    "Sufficient time? It would take a million years to even get to that point"


    "Yeah that''s why it''s recommend that you cover the arks in billions of defense formations, otherwise it will fall apart under it''s own weight"


    As the onlookers discussed the properties of the arks, the alien creature being beaten down broke away from his attacker escaping into the entrance of the void river.


    The enraged being wanted to chase but his ark needed to be repaired urgently. The fire was quickly put out simply from the lack of oxygen, the only places aflame seemed to be storage facilities.


    "Well that''s one way to end things"


    "This really opened my eyes as to the perilous future we are headed into"


    Many had thoughts of upgrading the defense formations of their respective arks, such a scene made them feel exposed.


    The kids Ed(dy) and Erica had gone pale, they couldn''t stand properly from the release of vast quantities of Qi, being picked up by their caretakers for protection.


    The shockwaves of Qi had spread out crashing into the ports barrier, the barrier had been designed to deal with greater threats than this and had held but the residual Qi lingered in the air affecting anyone below a certain cultivation rank.


    The kids had only just started to cultivate the attacks if not blocked by the barrier would have turned them to ash with a simple touch, the lingering fire Qi now caused them to experience Qi deviation.


    Quickly their caretakers wanted to rush them back to the families arks for treatment.


    "Stop you fools, going outside now would be make things worse, lets find a place to treat them here instead" one of the elders said.


    Everyone in the surroundings outside the ports barrier had to rely on themselves to resist the shockwave of the attacks, if one was below nascent soul regardless of the world shaking talent they possessed they would have died instantly.


    Even peak nascent soul cultivators had taken near lethal damage, while the weakest of them had died with the rest.


    As for those is deity transformation, cracked barriers and broken treasures littered space as they retreated to recover.


    Even surrounding arks had slight damage done to their exteriors, such damage would repair itself in most case however several arks had taken greater damage.


    "Even if he was avenging his kin, the damage he caused to everyone else will have to be paid back"


    "From one problem to the next, truly it makes no sense to fight like this"


    Madame Nordaine rushed into flag ship of the five family union, she had used several treasures to resist the shockwaves escaping with minor injuries.


    The guard at the gates of the flagship _Bells of hope_ assisted her inside, quickly closing the gates.


    "Are you injured madame?" The guard inquired.


    "Its just a scratch, I''ll be fine" she looked at her broken defensive treasures, ''Another loss''.


    <+==    Echo''s of past    ==+>


    South-western point, outpost at the edge of the universe.


    From here the entirety of the Vast tree unverse seemed to be nothing more then a hazy spark in the distance, here space reached the point of absolute zero.


    While not quite at the boarder of the universe this outpost was the furthest object and habitat in the south-western point.


    Looking outside towards the unknown beyond the universe towards the darkness of unknown space one would think nothing was there.


    After all it was difficult to even find a photon of light all the way out here.


    But that wasn''t the truth.


    Light may too spread out - out here but it did reach, only it did not move in a straight line for much further beyond here, it scattered.


    An unfathomable amount of light glittered and scattered itself off of the unseen at all moments but it was simply too far apart to ever be seen.


    Light of course shouldn''t scatter where there is nothing, an astute observer(reader) would have noticed the abnormality of such a thing upon the mention of it.


    Was there an invisible wall ahead?


    No. It is open space.


    Did space ''bend'' here like near a black hole?


    No. Light would not scatter like glitter if light had simply been redirected.


    Then why?


    The answer was simple, the surrounding space had ''frozen''.


    That is to say that all motion beyond the edge of the universe had ceased.


    While the light may strike at the frozen space full speed ahead it does not pierce said space, only slams into it like a train without breaks hitting a mountain.


    Light does not escape, it does not reflect, it does not keep going.


    It breaks.


    Through this breaking action the frozen space slowly but surely gets chipped away one imperceptible piece at a time, expanding and retaining the universe''s boundaries.


    While the photons that make up light scatter into the void they create a spark that glitters one last time.


    These chips are not uniform the spacial boundary isn''t smooth, its jagged and sharp.


    As such, nothing should ever exists outside of this universal boundary frozen or not.


    At least not nearby.


    But today, or on this day one might say things are different.


    From outside the universe a beast came passing the frozen blades of space untouched.


    As for the watchman overseeing the outpost at the edge of the universe, heavenly Maya.


    Quite quickly did she note the change.


    Her job was simple, defend the universe from outside threats.


    This wouldn''t be the first time something from the outside entered uninvited after all, it was already a known fact that other universe''s do exist far beyond ones perception.


    No help would come, no form of communication would ever be fast enough to ask for help.


    All that could be done was to fight till the bitter end.


    "Log number 122 56, unknown being has entered zone 1887. Yet to intercept, energy fluctuations can be felt from zone 328 clearly" heavenly Maya did not waste time instantly teleporting from one location to the next.


    The beast from beyond looked like a boar in form but it''s fur glittered with light, it did not have hooves instead it had four finger like appendages on the tips of each of its legs spread like a star, it did not seem to have eyes, it was approximately eight meters tall and twelve meters long, at a glance it had a tail then it did not.


    Heavenly Maya had fought many extra-cosmic beings so such a sight wasn''t particular weird, it was rather tame if anything.


    "Log attempt to communicate: Who are you? Why are you here? Are you from |||||||? Please go back"


    No answer.


    Heavenly Maya used her spirit Qi to probe at the creature, if she could connect with it''s mind they could communicate regardless of words.


    Attempt failed.


    "Log attempt to communicate failed. Unknown if creature is intelligent, has high mental resistance. Creature is examining my actions, I will attempt to chase the creature away with non lethal action"

 Denial

    Introductions (5)


    Word - 4100+


    "Salvation arks, the miracle given to all who inhabit the Vast tree realm, its speed is unquestionably superior to anything I''ve ever seen its defense impenetrable under a combined fire, while its attack better than any sects secret foundation, yet the vast universe considers it a fragile, and lackluster vessel. Have I lived my life in vain?"


    -Thousand willow sect ancestor ~ Deity transformation


    "Has everyone finished their preparations? Yes? Then it''s time. Let us depart" A man in his thirties with dark golden hair announced.


    He was Rubio Rivera current leader of the five family union and head of the Rubio family.


    Yes, his family name was Rubio while his first name was Rivera, the Rubio family had an odd tradition of placing one''s family name ahead of their given name.


    When asked about why they do this they simply answered ''Family comes first right?''


    This response irked many of the FFUs families, yes family was important but to strip away a spirit cultivators sense of individuality was akin to placing a chain on their dao hearts.


    Most spirit cultivators saw family names as something that could be changed depending on the season. When the life expectancy of an individual can range anywhere from 1 year to a million years many changes are bound to happen.


    From marriage, divorce, spousal death, remarriage, family disownment, familial name change, family name eradication, family splitting into multiple separate families, to the very basic end of an era, the amount of problems that one name can cause in the future are countless.


    As ironic as it was, the five family union did not place family first.


    They placed the needs of the union as a whole ahead of the individual family, a single family couldn''t rule the union after all. If one even tried to do so, a civil war would break out.


    The five great families may represent the union, but they didn''t make up 1% of the entire unions population.


    From the perspective of lower families the Rubio''s acted more like a royal line rather then equals.


    From the Rubio''s perspective this was also true, they didn''t believe themselves to be equal to the lower families.


    The five great families were royals in all but name.


    "Sir the Nordaine''s have asked that the fleet be positioned at the edges of the passageway, they believe it will be beneficial to the union"


    ''Beneficial to the union'' Rubio Rivera inwardly mocked, he knew the Nordaine''s simply wanted to gather void path materials.


    "Let us do that" the Nordaine''s had already been weakened enough, it was better to give them this opportunity to calm the worries of the lesser houses under them.


    ''The Nordaine''s may be weak on the surface but they still have a fleet of warships and countless spiritual artifacts that can aid us in the future, no reason to deny them this opportunity. Besides it is far better to have a predictable force under me then an unpredictable one''


    The fleet of ships approached the entrance to the void river no bigger then the funnel of a mortal well, by now the ships had disappeared from outside view and upon approaching less then 1 km in distance from the void river entry the fleet of ships seemingly shrunk to sizes no larger then a mouse.


    There was no discomfort upon entering the passageway and it was only until they fully entered into the void river that any sort of force was placed on them.


    True to its name the river had a current that pulled the entering fleet by force, even if they wanted to change direction it would take more effort then it was worth.


    From here on a new form of steering would be used, it would not be sails like those over water, it would be fins like the fish of the sea.


    The void river was less of a river and more of a water tunnel in reality, whomever named them a river must have lived a different life.


    "Madam the union leader has agreed to place the fleet at the edge of the river" the elder reported.


    "Good. We only have six months, make sure not to waste them" Madame Nordaine sighed.


    "I will make sure my children learn well during this time, my nieces and nephews aswell of course" the elder replied.


    The void river was as named a void, a void devoid of any light far as one could see.


    The only sort of guidance to be seen was the rivers current that glowed ever so subtlety, but this glow wasn''t natural.


    Outside of the rivers current one could only guess what went on.


    "Lets make sure we don''t get too close to the edge, the Nordaine''s may be void path experts but we are not" Rubio Rivera marveled at the emptiness surrounding them.


    "Its incredible, had we not been located safely inside our ships we wouldn''t be able to see even a micron ahead" one of the secretaries said.


    "On that note tell the Nordaine''s to take the front of the pack, we don''t want to run into something we notice to late"


    <+== Void path inquiry ==+>


    What is the void path?


    Well that depends.


    Some say it is the study of space, not as in outer space but space in particular.


    Others say it''s to understand nothingness.


    The really fanatical will tell you it is the path of denial.


    Whatever it may be, the void river, the edge of space, the hollow, the missing realm these are the holy lands of the void path.


    If you believe void to mean space, then here in the void river you will learn the meaning of space for there is nothing but space here.


    If you want to learn the void path of emptiness then the missing realm is for you, should you find it.


    For those fanatics however, the hollow is more fitting.


    To follow the void path of space is to control both distance and scale. Most will follow this path, unlike the other paths it is far more fitting for the common spirit.


    Should one seek only destruction the void path of emptiness is most fitting.


    To seek the void path of denial is to seek insanity, one should never enter this path.


    <+== Void path inquiry end ==+>


    Six Months passed, news of the calamity''s acceleration spread across the vast tree realm reaching even the furthest corners of the universe.


    Spiritual continent lay barren stripped of all their surfaces leaving vast deserts behind, planets on the lower realm burned as wars raged like never before.


    Spirits that lived on spirit continents had easy access to advanced cultivation resources, from medical herbs, spiritual ores, spiritual goods and most importantly advanced crafting techniques.


    However spirits that lived on planets had far more limited options as the resources are limited and often of worse quality then those found on spirit continents, even the spiritual Qi on the planets they inhabited was of lower quality.


    While these planets may be located in the spiritual universe, the spiritual energy of the universe was not evenly distributed across the universe causing many areas to be spiritual ''deserts''.


    For them gathering even 1/10th of the materials need to craft an ark was near impossible, the only option available to them was flying ships.


    To obtain the resources one needed to craft flying ships when everyone is trying to hoard as much resources for themselves as possible one can only pillage the resources of another.


    Those that had already left their home planet a sigh of relief briefly escaped them followed by a quickened pace while those yet to leave rushed the final preparations for departure.


    Any whom still had hope for the vast tree realms resurgence began to doubt themselves.


    Planet - Ju, empire of Solstice.


    "Brother please listen to me, we can''t stay here!" A young woman grabbed the collar of a young man sitting down.


    "The Hikpo family left last night and the day before the Upo family also chose to leave, there are even rumors that the imperial family has already left the planet! Why are you so insistent on staying?! Please join me and Jerrol, we have paid a mer-"


    "Shut up! You can''t keep doing this Jia! The Hikpo family only went to visit their relatives in the neighboring city, I spoke to their manors caretaker myself this morning! The Upo family had been summoned to the imperial city since last month it is only natural they went away. And how dare you slander the imperial families name! If they heard of this you would be executed!" The young man pushed the girl away, he did believe in the rumors going around.


    "Brother it is not a lie! The Nara family heir told me himself that they along with all the major families of the empire plan to leave not just the empire or even the continent but the planet itself! The imperial family has fled befo-" a hand struck her face.


    "SILENCE! Is this how you repay me after I raised you! Had our parents not died young they would be ashamed to hear such words! Stay away from the Nara family and if I see you with that son of a bitch Jerrol I will have him flogged to death!" The young man stood enraged.


    On another part of the planet a grand event was taking place in the sect _Unbeatable spirit_, the event was a selection process where the grand master would choose the new leader of the sect among the many candidates.


    "Who do you think it will be?"


    "It has to be the peak master of the blackstone mountain, he is the strongest"


    "What no way, the peak master of the silver hand is far stronger"


    Above them a group of five old men stood on a stage, the aura of a nascent soul cultivator spread from each of them.


    Each was a hero among their generation at some point in time, each of them standing tall and proud even in old age.


    The youngest among them no less then eight hundred years old and a prodigy among prodigies, the oldest nearly two thousand years old held the respect of countless eyes.


    Above them a group of elders carefully assessed even the slightest change in the air, one of the men standing on the stage would become the future leader of the sect so they had to choose correctly.


    Above even these elders a single ancient looking old men sat on a basic wooden chair overseeing the events. He is the grand elder of the unbeatable spirit sect and a deity transformation cultivator of the middle stage, Rol varu age 8,251 years old.


    The unbeatable spirit sect was on the verge of a civil war.


    One faction believes the universe will soon come to an end and wish to leave with the best disciples of the sect, the other does not believe the universe will end and wishes to stay where they have always been since the sect''s founding.


    The grand elder did not care, he had lived long enough now that he no longer sought immortality.


    To him the universe was already over, not a single person of the sect knew his true name, not a single person on the continent even remembered how long he had lived with every spirit being he ever cared for having died long before.


    Today would be the day he ascends beyond the planets boundaries regardless of the outcome, he may not be able to travel space unassisted but a flying ship was enough.


    After paying respect the elders competing for the sect leaders seat flew to the air and started to fight.


    The fight was intense, with the elders splitting into three factions against each other.


    Two elder fought to leave, two elders to stay and one still deciding whom to join.


    A massive golden fist narrowly missed it''s target, a sword strike countered narrowly missing the neck of one elder.


    Wisps appeared to cover the sky as they exploded the surroundings blocking the visions of those below.


    A scream echoed in the air, followed by a large bang as the wind blew and shards of glass rained down.


    The disciples below spectating this event ran for cover as they marveled at the sky.


    "Truly calling the rain!"


    "The sky is thundering from their fists, one day I want to do the same!"


    "The legends are true, cultivation is the way!"


    The elders watching from below raised their palms in unison creating a barrier to block the incoming attacks.


    "Grand elder please put a stop to this! At this rate the foundation of the sect will be shaken beyond repair!" One of the elders pleaded.


    The grand elder did not move, the outcome he sought to bring about had yet to manifest.


    Above the battle kept going as treasures and spells flew increasingly getting stronger, the mountains quaked the trees swayed and fell the rivers split.


    In the end the outcome was clear.


    "Elder Hon, you have proven today that all your years of life have not been in waste. After today there will be no doubt as to who is to lead the _Unbeatable Spirit sect_ from here until the day you should choose to" the grand elder began his congratulatory speech.


    Elder Hon, a nascent soul cultivator aged nearly two thousand years had won.


    Below the elder stood blood staining his brow, he had fought for two hours against what he deemed to be a lie.


    The sect would not abandon it''s history all based on the words of foreign beings.


    A calm returned to the sect, the new sect leader celebrated his victory that he and his supporters had fought so hard to achieve.


    The defeated elders knelt on the ground unable to accept the outcome.


    "Elder Rook, elder Solus, you both have gone against the will of the sect. For that you would normally be executed but instead I will offer you a choice. You will either be banished along with your disciples to the outer edges of the sect to regain your honor through combat" the grand elder continued to speak.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "Or... You can join me on my final journey into the stars" the crowd below went silent.


    "Grand elder what do you mean?" Elder Hon was taken aback, did the grand elder also believe in the lies? Had he truly lost it in old age?


    "I''ve lived for a very long time, my cultivation has been stagnant for four thousand years, my lifespan is nearing the end. I must now do what many others before me have done, I will ascend to the heavens!" The grand elder slowly spoke.


    The crowd gasped.


    "I thought one only ascended when they broke beyond deity transformation?"


    "Does this mean that not all the heroes in legend ascended into immortals?"


    "This is, this can''t be..."


    "What of the sects ancestors, two of them ascended to the heavens. One of them even came back during our time of need"


    "Thats right ancestor Luun appeared five thousand years ago!"


    "But thats only in the stories we hear, the records of the sect aren''t so clear. The only person alive who knows the truth is..."


    "The grand elder..."


    With the crowd falling into a clamor the grand elder quelled their thoughts.


    "Do not worry young ones, ancestor Luun truly did descend back then. His might is something I will never forget, even now three thousand years after the fact"


    With this the crowd calmed down a little.


    "I am not as talented as the ancestors, I cannot ascended the heavens reborn as a god. But my yearning to see the beyond has never died. Now as my end nears I will see heaven for what it truly is" The grand elder said calmly.


    Complex feelings pervaded the now sect leader Hon, should he be happy for the grand master? Sad? Disappointed? Or angry?


    The two defeated sect elders looked at each other, they had no intention of staying in sect if banished to the outer zones.


    "I WILL FOLLOW THE GRAND MASTER!" the first said.


    "I will follow" the second considered for an moment but did not see another option.


    While they both wanted to leave the planet but their reasons for doing so were different.


    "Then in one month we will meet here again, we will set off into the heavens!" The grand elder left on this note.


    <+== Intermission ==+>


    An individual is singular, they only have to care for themselves and likewise have little to rely on.


    A group, team or party is a collective of individuals working together. When the group cannot work as one it can lead to a devastating outcome.


    A family is one who shares bonds or blood, they will care more for each other then those not deemed family, legacy will often be their downfall.


    A clan can be a group of families working as one, they care for each other but often times the collective tends to be deemed more important then the individual leaving no room for growth.


    A kingdom or empire is a place that many organizations can take root in and grow, but it will bind and stifle you. A country may seem different without kings but the end result is the same.


    A sect is a place where many individuals regardless of affiliation gather under a new banner away from the ties that bind them but it has many forms and never lasts.


    These are many paths in life, what you choose to do can either define you as an individual or as a whole.


    <+== Intermission End ==+>


    ~ West-most eastern quadrant - Fall fatu/To?ki Ra spiritual continent - humanities furthest outpost.


    A spiritual land inhabited primarily by human spirits but it''s ownership was still contested among the nearby spirit species, it was also the furthest point where humans are still considered the dominant species in some form.


    Beyond this spiritual continent humanities actions held little to no impact on the rest of the universe where encountering one of your own kind could become one''s life long dream.


    As humanities furthest most outpost the inhabitants of this particular spiritual continent are more then experienced enough to listen to the warnings coming from the core of the human realm to evacuate as soon as humanly possible.


    From the east the many sects and clans of a thousand nations stopped all feuds and in less then a week a hundred-thousand vessel''s took to space, the south''s endless warzone went quite overnight as hoards of alien races retreated not caring to advance any further leaving even the most veteran of fighters in shock, to the north the empires, kingdoms and nations of man and alien flooded the skies with vessels of such magnitude that the skies shook, while the barren lands in the west filled with sand suddenly became an oasis of light that blazed toward the sky.


    It was a total abandonment of the spiritual continent, by now every being knew of the impending doom the Vast tree universe faced whether they believed it or not.


    Most that could undergo the journey into the stars did so with few chosing to remain ignorant of what was to come.


    The war of calamity had raged for over 100 years, the amount of godly beings to fall in battle never to return had shocked the vast majority of the universe.


    At least those that sent their best to fight, the rest never noted the difference.


    "Father are you certain we are making the right decision? With the void martial sects departure we have taken vast swaths of land, but the more we take over the less confident I become as I see nothing remain of what once was" looking over a vast cratered desert a young man asked his father.


    "Do not fear, the void martial sect is truly gone. Even if some of their sect members remain what can they hope to achieve" the young mans father comforted him.


    "Father that is not what I''m saying, the void martial sect had been warning us for ages now of some impending calamity, even neighboring sects have disappeared without a trace leaving nothing but wandering cultivators and mortals left behind" the younger man paused here unsure of how to say the next words.


    "What if... They are truly right? What if it will all end soon? What if we-"


    "Enough. The void martial sect simply faced it''s own calamity bringing everyone that followed down with them. The land will eventually recover, we will not falter. Not now" the father was not willing to entertain such thoughts, how can the universe simply end over night? It was unacceptable, no. It was impossible! Did people really believe all of this?


    He had lived for 317 years travelling across the vast deserts of the west and seen the vastness of it all, he had travelled to the northern empires advanced nations and seen the star''s through giant mirrors that made him feel so very small, even now he had yet to see the thousand nations to the south with their multitude of renowned sects.


    One day he even wished to partake in the war for humanities right to rule over all in the fall fatu continent! The southern war must be won for humanity!


    "Now let''s go, we still have many places to take control of" pushing any doubts aside the father took his son on another conquest.


    The young man wanted to speak his mind but felt his voice go unheard, he followed his father filled with doubts.


    Above the lands far beyond the sky among the glittering stars of space a giant hand beyond imagination closed around the spiritual continent of fall fatu/To?ki Ra.


    The passengers onboard the many vessels that had already taken flight looked on in horror as the hand crushed the spiritual continent that had been their homeland.


    ''This should make a nice gift for my niece, she needs a consistent source of energy to continue cultivating from now on''


    The hand closed tightly releasing vast amounts of spiritual light comparable to a stars final moment only to open a second later holding a pendant carved with images of flowing clouds and stone mountains piercing the sky.


    ''The most precious treasure''s on the land have already been taken away, but the most valuable of all was left behind. In the end this small spiritual continent striped of it''s surface was seen as nothing more then waste, such a shame, such short sighted creatures'' the massive hand retracted and just as quickly disappeared.


    Natural light couldn''t keep up with the hand movements let alone the massive being it was attached to, from the perspective of onlookers the hand simply vanished as any light that landed upon it was simply too slow to keep track of it making it seem like the hand existed for only a brief moment before disappearing.


    "Sir the sensors indicated something was there at some point, but we couldn''t... We don''t know what it was" the navigator of one of the flying vessel''s reported.


    "What is there to wonder about? Someone very powerful came and went. Thats all" the vessel''s captain remarked.


    ''Had that hand not been within a few hundred-thousand kms of us, we wouldn''t have ever known it was there! I thought it would be fine to just rely on the light sensors of the mortal world to get by for now but to think we almost died without knowing it''


    "Activate the spiritual guidance systems, scan for any irregularities in the surrounding space in intervals of 5 seconds. Oh and bring any seer''s we might have on board to the bridge, we must not take any chances on this trip"


    "Yes captain!"


    ''This ship is about five kms long, 1.93 kms wide, its light sensors can detect any light movement for fifty thousand kms within a margin of error of 3 cms, yet that hand that appeared briefly only appeared because it had to slow down to grab an entire continent on the go! This is... This is...''


    "Captain? Captain!?"


    Unable to cope with his sudden realization the captain of the space vessel shattered spiritually, his mind wandered for a moment before his eyes lost their light.


    <+== Spirit half-breeds ==+>


    Are spirit cultivators and cultivators from the physical realm the same?


    One could say that they are the same.


    One was born as a spirit in the spiritual realm, the other only became a spirit after dying in the physical realm.


    While their origins may differ the end result is the same.


    There is no distinction to be made from a spirit born in the physical realm to that of the spiritual realm, their chances at being able to cultivate or reincarnate are the same.


    Even if a spirit dies in the spiritual realm it can be reborn in the physical realm just the same.


    The only time there is a distinction between a spirit and cultivator from the physical realm is the the case of half-breeds.


    As mentioned before only the dead can become spirits and therefore only the ''dead'' can cultivate.


    However it is not impossible for a living being to be stuck in-between both worlds.


    When a spirit and mortal intermingle the possibility of a half-breed being born isn''t zero.


    These half-breeds while rare have a soul of no lesser scale then that of a spirit that has been released of its mortal bindings, this causes their soul to be too big for the physical body that contains them.


    A spirit does not have this problem, it has a body and soul of equal proportions.


    A spirit cultivator is naturally able to gather the spiritual Qi surrounding it like breathing air, a half-breed on the other hand must actively pull the surrounding Qi towards oneself.


    This distinction is rather minor in the long run as both are capable of similar displays of power, height would be the only real difference.


    The average height of a spirit cultivator of human origin was 226cms (7''5) irregardless of gender with no real limit to height, while the height of a half-breed will never be bigger then 280cms (9ft) cms with the average height being 177cms (5''10).


    While they can at times be taller then spirits their bodies suffer because of it.


    The bodies of the living weren''t designed to be perfect fits for their souls and as such no matter how tall or short a half-breed was their soul would never have a perfect vessel, at least until one undergoes body reformation.


    This is also why not all cultivation techniques worked the same for everyone, they weren''t designed as a one size fits all kind of deal.


    Every soul is meant to be unique.


    <+== Spirit half-breeds end ==+>


    ~Eastern quadrant, Heaven shifting sector~


    A man in his thirties appeared to be walking in the void he did not seem to be moving at first yet every single step he took the stars shifted locations, each step a new sky, each step a new galaxy.


    This man was the last remaining God of the vast tree universe, his name was - Haven - 80 billion years he had travelled the vast tree universe seeing the changes of time and the wonders of life.


    From the innumerable objects to exists during the vast tree universe''s existence he was behind it all. While he may not have designed every aspect of life and creation he most certainly provided the most fundamental force, motion.


    It was not correct to claim that only he was responsible for creation, for there were other universe''s beyond the borders of this one with a God if their own no less then he was and a role no less important.


    He was currently on the way to meet the last of the heaven defying ascended that resided in the vast tree realm and the last of the great protectors currently active.


    As he traveled through the stars sightseeing lesser beings flee he arrived at a small planet, the planet was vibrant and full of life but no cities would be found here only small villages and simple homes.


    This planet had no cultivators residing within, which was certainly unusual as this planet was filled with a terrifying amount of spiritual Qi so much so that the entire planets sky was covered in a thick mist ocean that gave off spiritual light like that of a flaming sun.


    "Young child Lerim, i''ve come to pay a visit" God haven spoke.


    His voice resounded throughout the void seemingly ethereal, yet no one but the intended target could hear him.


    The planet opened up a small part of the cloud covered sky and made a path into the planet, God haven saw and proceeded into the planet.


    "I am already several million years old, and powerful enough to be your equal and yet you still call me a child... You truly are an irritating God" A voice sounded from the planet.


    The voice that spoke came from another man sitting down by the name of Lerim, he was the last heaven defying cultivator and de-facto leader of the vast tree realm after all others had fallen.


    "I''ve watched you since you were born, and its been less then 2 million years since you ascended to my ''level'' what are you if not a child before my eyes?" God Haven spoke


    "A bird old enough to leave the nest" Lerim said jokingly.


    God Haven only gave a slight smile, he had indeed watched Sir Lerim throughout his entire life but the same could be said for all living beings in the vast tree universe regardless if they were beast or man but of course this did not mean he liked everyone equally, if that was true cultivators reaching the final stage would not be called heaven defying cultivators, devils would not be considered evil upon commiting murder, and the mind of many a scholar would not have been driven mad trying to find the meaning of life.


    Only by breaking away from the Dao will one be allowed to call themselves free from the cycle of reincarnation and truly grasp their own fate.


    It was also notable to say that those who reached the heaven defying stage had once fought with the gods of old to the point of nearly causing the realm to collapse both angering and scaring the gods, but those days had long passed and gods were considered a thing of legends as most saw cultivators as gods in todays world. Were the gods of old dead? No. But as long as they had no body to inhabit their actions had become severely limited.


    Lerim was born in a time of ''peace'', in a time where gods were no more, and cultivators reign supreme but this only made his path to ascension so much more muddy as he had to find his own reason to go beyond heavens reach.


    In his case it wasn''t oppression from a god that caused his misery but one of the ascended that broke free from heaven.


    To him, people like him were the most terrifying beings of them all, for a god was predictable as they acted in tune with their nature but one free of all retrains had nothing to lose or gain.


    If they acted against you it was always in malice, if they helped you in some way an ulterior motive was always at play and if you just happen to meet one by accident they call it ''fate'' even when they have freed themselves of it.


    Lerim looked at God Haven "You seem to be getting stronger, it seems that the destruction of the universe may not be a bad thing for you lord Haven. I fear soon I will be unable to entertain you"


    "It may or might not be a good thing, it won''t only be me getting stronger from the fall of our realm. Certain sleeping old ones might awake soon and other beings born from the destruction of our realm which won''t be inferior to you in power will suddenly appear. Now we are even receiving inter realm visitors many of which are waiting for us to leave the realms protection" God haven spoke without remorse over the loss of the universe, as long as it lasted it wasn''t eternal.


    "So in the chaos of defeat all those past losers are taking this time to make a comeback while the bottom feeders pay us a visit haha!" Lerim only casually remarked


    "Come sit down Lord haven, I prepared one of my favorite wines and found some interesting foods on this planet for us to eat" Lerim invited God haven


    "This planet used to be inhabited by that child Hamel, you sure didn''t waste time collecting the treasures of your fallen kin" God haven finally had a bit of emotion in his voice


    "If I don''t who will? The barriers protecting all the various heaven born treasures aren''t breachable by the vast majority of forces across the realm, that''s not even mentioning how many treasures will be lost because of how hidden they are, just the amount I collected cant even acount for 5% of the vast treasures left by the others" Lerim defended his case.


    "That will not a problem, you are underestimating those of the younger generations. Many of the older kids have left inheritances for their race and kin while others have left their wealth in hard to see places at first sight but most of the time they lay in plain sight. Most if not all of these treasures have been loaded onto those ''Salvation Arks'' you designed actively sneeking into various Arks and vessels on their own" God Haven retorted.


    Lerim did not talk back, he knew that compared to this God he did not have enough experience as old as he was. He was also the youngest of the heaven defying to rise to power and couldn''t be compared to those that had fallen and indeed the treasures he had obtained were only from those that did not have connections to the outside world.


    Even the planet he stood on was fighting him to be set free as it seemed to have already chosen its next owner, possibly even seeking the reborn Hamel wherever he may be.


    God haven smiled "Do not underestimate the spirituality of our realm child we have not survived by luck but by the ceaseless preparations set up by those who live in it. If we had not encountered one of the 10 great calamities of existence we would not be in such dire straights, all past troubles in the realm have built our great Vast tree realm into one of the most powerful forces in this current period of time, our power is comparable to any great realm out there. After all not even a fifth of you heaven defying cultivators born to our realm were present to defend it and every God had mostly been dormant. It will be no problem for us to establish a new realm elsewhere given some time"


    Lerim did not say anything but he knew that this God was overly optimistic about their plight, while most heaven defying cultivators were indeed not in the vast tree universe this did not mean that they would come to defend it or even give assistance in the future. .


    It would be much more likely for them to assail them out of pure boredom rather then helping them.


    When a being that has nothing to do for 10 billion years suddenly see''s new entertainment before them, will they offer to help for no reason? Unlikely.


    After all the older generations of heaven defying cultivators fought the heavens to break free from the universe''s control while newer generations like Lerim that reaped the rewards from their fight saw it as their home not a prison.


    Lerim just kept silent about this fact, it was better to have an optimistic God then a pessimistic one.


    <+== Echo''s of past ==+>


    Heavenly Maya fought valiantly against the foreign beast, launching attack after attack the beast bled blue as rain-like projectiles spawned from the darkness of space.


    With every passing hour heavenly Maya became weaker, slower and more deranged.


    The less control she had over her mind the more difficult it became to plan attacks and defend, every passing moment she lost some control over her own Qi.


    <Twisting paradise, blade of everlasting light>


    A skill she practiced for a thousand years millions of times became dull with only a fraction of its original might.


    Losing sight of the target she could only increase the radius of her attacks indiscriminately.


    Cubes of unknown make slammed into her armor launching her side to side as she struggled to pinpoint their exact location.


    "This is irritating"


    <Shimmer, ten steps to paradise>


    In a flash she accurately struck at each cube with the final attacks landing in the void.


    From afar the beast drowned in its own blood as the sword light cut through the gullet of the beast, it roared once as it''s flesh mended itself anew.


    "...This is going to be a bad day"


    With the beasts seemingly instant recovery skill heavenly Maya was pressed to deal some real damage.


    Her attacks should not be so easy to heal, each swing of her blade held the power of heavens laws themselves, for such wounds to heal instantly was tantamount to spitting on heaven.


    She wasn''t at the edge of her rope yet but given she can''t find a way to deal with the beast before the days end the mental attacks she has received could be life threatening.


    ''Should I find a way to stop it''s mental attacks first?''


    The beast changed size growing into a titanic creature that slammed it leg down on heavenly Maya and just as quickly returning to it''s original size.


    ''Body manipulation too?'' narrowly dodging the blow heavenly Maya stopped the chase taking a few leaps as space bent giving her some time to recover.


    ''Extremity Qi pill, it should provide me with just enough Qi for that skill'' she took a pill from her storage ring eating it directly.


    Heavenly Maya concentrated her mind.


    <Closing the heavens, dusk!>


    Space expanded and contracted.


    An energy wave of Qi struck the edge of the universe creating a hole that expanded space beyond the universe''s borders tens of billions of light years across.


    The beast couldn''t escape on time getting hit dead center melting the thick hide and flesh on the left side completely, it tried to heal but this time the wound was there to stay.


    Heavenly Maya coughed up blood as the skill she just used overwhelmed her spirit body.


    ''It can''t get hurt by the universe barrier and recovers from most damage, but it can be injured with dao attacks huh''


    "The worst kind of battles"