Oddness of Void-Space

Bi Xue sighed. The anticipation left her both excited and worried, even though she did not know what to expect. After stepping through the Moonlight Mirror, she closed her eyes and felt the spatial tempests around her. In a matter of instants, she arrived at her destination: Aether's Courtyard.

The courtyard itself was detached from any other structure. It appeared to be placed within a desolate forest, seeming incredibly out of place. She stood on a landing, to which there was a wide semi-circular staircase. It was overrun with moss, grass and saplings that sprouted here and there, but as Bi Xue looked around more she saw that there were also giant trees that had grown and decimated the surrounding stone floor.

There was a mist about the place that was probably due to the altitude; Bi Xue felt she was high up, in some grand mountain. She could not see the sun, nor could she get a clear view of the sky, as the trees obstructed her view.

With no other option, she called out, "Greetings, Great Aether. I am Bi Xue, Disciple of Logean Wuji."

With pride in her voice and in her steps, Bi Xue started to walk, prepared to peruse the courtyard. However, once she identified herself, the courtyard underwent a massive shift. It felt like the entire place had woken up, and was only now responding to her arrival.

The mist became heavy and thick, gathering in the courtyard until it had reached the height of her waist. She could no longer see the floor, but that was not the end of it. The trees above bent every which way, creating a covering for the courtyard and blocking out any traces of light. To top it off, it had suddenly become dangerously cold.

Fortunately for Bi Xue, even without her cultivation, she was a daughter of Tethys and such temperatures could not bother her.

"Disciple of the Young Master ...and Daughter of Tethys... I welcome you to my courtyard."

In the pitch black, someone had arrived just as suddenly as the cold, speaking with deference, yet undisguised coldness. Bi Xue assumed that they were hostile due to their tone of voice, and so she was instantly on guard.

"Worried? Are you not a Disciple of the Young Master? What need is there for worry?"

Bi Xue nodded, and stood up a bit straighter. "I have come here in search of my own Dao; my spirit directed me to you."

There was no response for a while, but then the temperature in the courtyard fell even further, to a point where even Bi Xue began to feel the bite of it. The mist rose even further, almost covering her entire body, making it even more impossible for her to see.

"Seeking Dao? Your spirit led you to me?" With greater volume, the voice that Bi Xue had assumed was Aether's filled the courtyard. Vibrations scattered the mist, and the ground beneath her feet tremored. All the while, the temperature never ceased to rise.

"What nonsense." Sinking further and further into an abysmal depth, the temperature had long passed any sensical level. It was beyond what the word cold could describe, and Bi Xue was already beginning to see traces of frost on her skin.

Yet, it was still within the range of what she could bear, and so she huffed and retorted, "Do you doubt my words? Do you doubt a student of Logean Wuji?"

Aether scoffed, and the trees above shook violently, losing some leaves. Those leaves fell into the courtyard and instantly froze into icy replicas of themselves, shattering once they hit the floor. The atmosphere was evolving from transient to apocalyptic, and angry energy, intent on freezing Bi Xue, ran rampant throughout the courtyard.

"There is no place for Dao here, Daughter of Tethys," Aether spat, stressing those final words with indignance and disgust. Bi Xue almost lost her footing as she was pushed back by a stream of subzero mist, the layer of frost on her becoming thickening as a result. Any moisture her body could produce was instantly frozen, leaving her far colder than ever before.

Even still, she straightened up and stared into the abysmal darkness.

"The Grand Dao is all-encompassing. You may say that there is no place for Dao here, but my master has taught me differently."

Bi Xue shut her eyes, as the cold had begun to affect them. Calming the rising nerves, she focused on the part of her that was still able to actively resist the temperature. This was that half of her that came from being Tethys' daughter.

She did not know much about her mother, just what Yan Longxi had told her. She did not know whether her bloodline was strong enough to enable her to stand up to the likes of Aether, but as of that moment she did not care. With a firm conviction, she poured every ounce of strength into staving off the cold.

Despite her lack of cultivation, she revolved the 'Ruling Water, Murderous Frost' and allowed the scant traces of energy it produced to fuel her defense. Within her body, the 'Ruling Water, Murderous Frost' law, that was inherent to her soul, began to produce a ridiculous amount of energy. Only, this wasn't qi, but a form of dao-energy that Bi Xue had only ever felt once in her life.

That was during her fight with Yan Yinshao, when she had overdrawn her energy again and again. Though doing so had severely damaged her soul and body, it had provided her with more energy than she should have had. It allowed her to ruthlessly and mercilessly end Yan Yinshao's life, enabling her to put one of many matters to rest.

Dwelling on that feeling, the 'Ruling Water, Murderous Frost' law seemed to come alive. Its actions no longer relied on Bi Xue's direction, instead doing its own thing within her. Bi Xue was taken aback, wondering what was happening while also worrying about her fate.

"The Grand Dao is all-encompassing? If that is so, then I am all-encompassing!"

Bi Xue was feeling the burden on her body lessen thanks to the self-activation of 'Ruling Water, Murderous Frost' so she was able to straighten up. Hearing Aether's words, she frowned, "Blasphemy? Do you blaspheme the Grand Dao?"

Aether scoffed, as if realizing that he was no longer able to affect Bi Xue the way he had been. Instead, he caused the mist to slowly subside, but the darkness remained.

"Enough talk of Dao; you are not here in search of Dao. You are here in search of me and only me."

In the still dark, cosmic lights were brought to life, swirling and assuming differing forms, like tiny galaxies in the void. Before Bi Xue's eyes, millions of singularities awakened in the darkness in addition to those tiny galaxies, filling the void with stars. It was a breathtaking scene, and she felt as if she was overlooking an entire universe. No matter where she looked, some form of cosmic structure was present, bursting with life and energy.

"I was like you once. I, too, searched far and wide for my elusive Dao. Instead, as I wandered the Voids, I was led beyond this multiverse- beyond all multiverses. I forsook my life for this search, and was deconstructed to nothing because of it."

Bi Xue noticed a slight change in the image before her. The void began to whir past her eyes, as if she was flitting through it at lightspeed. She did not know it, but Aether was showing her a map of his travels, and as the endless void flew past her she was following his path.

The void, which was once full of stars and galaxies, was now a mess of giant singularities, all of them self-sufficient monstrosities, much larger than anything Bi Xue could ever imagine. In them were an almost endless amount of galaxies and stars, which made Bi Xue realize that they were, in fact, universes. She was seeing all of Mythos Mysterium, which was the multiverse the Qin Realm used to exist in.

She did not yet know that Logean Wuji had created an all new reality for the Qin Realm, and had named that reality Akna-Logea. No one did, save for those that had souls formidable enough to hear his decree when he had invoked the Omni-Law in the Qin Realm.

That meant that no one in the United Realm had heard it, not even Aether.

"Beyond the 33 Heavens, beyond the Immortal Lands. I arrived at the very precipice of the Infinite Expanses. I stared the Primal Chaos Wall in its face, knowing it was something I could never go past."

Bi Xue could now see all of the Infinite Expanses, which from her view looked like a massive web of glowing lines that separated each multiverse. Those lines were the demarcations, but for some reason it also seemed like they were holding each of those multiverses in place. If anyone else could see the Infinite Expanses in the way the Bi Xue was, they would think the same thing.

It looked like an intricate spider web, and the multiverses were the flies that were caught in it. As for those lines, they were the Primal Chaos Walls. Not only did those walls separate multiverses, they also encompassed the entirety of the Infinite Expanses, which was easier said than done.

"I was ready to abandon my search."

The image began to go dark, making Bi Xue think that the courtyard was about to return to its pitch black state. "However, I was called to something beyond even that."

Aether caused the image to change, and Bi Xue was shown something that she could not describe. It was a formless, shapeless and did not exist, while simultaneously possessing form, possessing shape, and existing. It threatened to break her mind, but only pushed it to the brink of failure. It suppressed every ounce of her soul, and made her forget who she was the instant she looked upon it.

Saying it was out of this world would be a gross understatement, but there were no words that would not be a gross understatement. It was something unidentifiable to her- incomprehensible to her mind and soul.

She still had far to go.

When she regained her sense of self, after almost half a minute, she could feel that her body was still filling itself up with energy, but she did not know where it was being stored. After all, she was no longer a cultivator; she was a cripple with a useless dantian. However, it did not seem to be negatively affecting her. In fact, she had never felt better.

"The Void-Space that I was aligned to was never a Dao; it was an extension of this. My spirit had been led by this thing that resides in the Omniverse. It had been guiding me, testing me, and proving me worthy."

Bi Xue dared not stare at the image any longer. Even though it was just an image, replicated from Aether's memories, it was enough to eradicate her consciousness. "Worthy of what," Bi Xue asked, taking a breather.

"Worthy of it."

"What is ...it?"

Aether chuckled, and the image finally vanished from sight. Bi Xue looked once again into the dark courtyard, but there was no one to be seen. She thought in that moment that, perhaps, Aether had never been in the courtyard in the first place.

"Your mind would collapse if I tried to explain it to you, but I can inform you in simpler terms."

The trees shifted again, no longer covering the courtyard. As light filled it once again, Aether's presence was slowly leaving it and Bi Xue could tell. She stepped forward, confused for a moment but then he spoke his departing words.

"It is my True Source, and the Essence of Void-Space; one of The Principles that govern the Omniverse. It is Chaos, and your spirit was led to it because it beckoned you to it. As such, I will not stand in your way. I will leave you with The Way of Chaos for now; what you decipher depends on how deep your connection to Chaos is."