Chapter 1: Pureness, void, nothing
Chen Mu lay's there in his hospital bed breathing his last breath, as his loved one's, family and friends surround him. Chen Mu in his last seconds on Earth see's his life flash before his eyes as he has a multitude of thoughts and feelings to his situation.
The thoughts on how his life was good one and he forged himself all the way to where he his today. Him starting from nothing as an orphan to building his way up through hard work, bleeding effort, his brilliance and insight, and a tinge of luck. He was finally able to create a self sufficient business that would last for generations and continue to be a hegemony in the world.
Then he has the feelings of helplessness and discontent at dying due to old age and sickness. He wished he didn't have to die and could continue to live to experience more to life and the world, even though he's already experienced more in his life than 10 people combined. He understood that human's all have limits to themselves and when one is born they have to die, but maybe because of his continuous success in his life he might've grown a bit arrogant and thought he should be above being controlled by nature.
He thought that if he could have one wish to be granted to him it would be to go beyond limits and have no limits to restrict him. It was his only wish and he didn't care if it was granted in him having to cultivate qi, be granted immortality, or transmigrated.
Chen Mu's thoughts were only thoughts as he breathed his last breath and died to stage 4 cancer at 81 years old. The heart monitor had a solid straight red line on it and one continuous sound.
His family gathered round and said they're goodbye's to his body and left to prepare for his funeral and the distribution of his assets.
The funeral took place a week later on the rooftop of Chen Mu's largest skyscraper he ran his business in, which was also the tallest building in the world. Chen Mu told his family he wanted to be cremated and his ashes thrown in the wind from the rooftop.
Chen Mu wanted his funeral like this so he could show the world the height he grew to by himself and that when we all die we become ashes and disappear from this Earth to become one with the world.
Chen Mu wasn't a sentimental person but he wanted everything he did and saw to have a meaning to it, big or small; therefore, he was an inquisitive and thoughtful type of person, one who can be said to truly existed and lived.
Years pass and Chen Mu's memory still lives in the people he had a connection to.
Decades later and still the same, with his business still standing strong and growing from his successors.
A century passes and he's forgotten from the people, his business still stands but now he's just a face on a picture frame, with only people who study history or fanatics know him.
Time has the power to erode all things once it's accumulated enough, as a millennia passes and everything connected or was part of Chen Mu ceases to exist and he's forgotten from history. The meaning in this is that no matter how strong or sturdy, or invincible, even perfect a thing is it will crumble always; because this world has limits set on things that can never surpass it or break it, Chen Mu's wish was to break it and be limitless so he can build himself to to the level he believes he deserves to be at.
Chen Mu's wish might be granted as in an expansive and spacious void he floats, his soul floats in this void and burns like a spark illuminating a negligible amount of light that makes no difference to this seemingly infinite darkness.
Chen Mu's soul has been floating still in the void for an unknown amount of time, maybe an hour, a day, a week, year, decade century,… eon? The only thing you need to know is that his past is in the past and he's in the now, and all he had to worry about is what comes next.
Chen Mu woke up in the void from a sleep that felt all too long but too little as he was a bit drowsy, but it wasn't a regular sleep because all Chen Mu has at this moment is his soul and consciousness.
He woke up in a daze but soon shook it off as he was then shocked and surprised. Shocked by the vastness of this void and because he was still alive in his point of view. But also surprised because he felt weightless and unrestrained; although he had a great feeling of fatigue.
It was natural for him to feel all this since he just died so he'd also have some type of fatigue, maybe his soul was worn out by the obstacles and difficulties of life. It's also shocking for a mortal human to feel weightless and that they could 'fly' in space.
But this wasn't space but a void, a void of notnimg so Chen Mu wasn't really flying but he wasn't falling or standing either it was just floating.
Chen Mu didn't immediately understand what was going on as he was in a daze from waking up but quickly grasped onto his situation.
"I'm alive? No! I'm not dead either since I can think and see in some kind of 6th sense way. Would I maybe be in a state between life and death? Possibly, but what is death? Would death be when you see nothing? But all I see is nothing, even though I feel so alive! People also classify death as when one's soul leaves their body, so I can be said to have died then. This state is some kind of suspended animation, maybe I'm in Limbo and waiting for a higher power to take my soul? Ah yes, that seems possible as I'm definitely in a spiritual state with just being a soul from my observation!"
Chen Mu thought his situation through and after some trial and error came to a plausible conclusion that made the most sense.
"Do I just sit here for some years, or maybe even all of eternity till a higher power claims me? That seems pretty boring and daunting, just to wait forever with nothing to do while I let some being decide what happens to me. If that is going to be the case I hate it, I hate how limited my life has been because of this world and nature! I just want to keep going on in this world with my own choices forever, even if these things I dream to do are unrealistic. But it wouldn't be if I wasn't restrained by the world!"
Chen Mu wasn't willing to be fated again to be limited by the nature of things, he didn't even want to accept death as a part of the world. The only thing he wants is to not be restricted and restrained by other forces. It's not that he can't acknowledge death as a part of life, but that he doesn't want to accept death when his will to be himself and do things he wants is what he's followed most in life.
This will to do what he wants and be himself proved to be correct for himself as it helped him become a global supergiant of business when he was alive. If the facts check off why would you want to do something different, and especially do something totally different that you yourself don't want to do?
"Argh, these thoughts are meaningless, if I do get reaped in the future or not it doesn't matter. I can only live in the present and prepare for the future. All I know at this moment is that I feel tired and small, and I have nothing to do in this void. Maybe if I use that cultivation method that the taoist sages and buddhist monks in the mountain's developed together; Otherwise, known as the Pure Void Soil Reincarnation technique they secretly developed together for a thousand years later taught me."
Chen Mu's thought in doing this wasn't anything special except to enter in a mediative state and pass time as fast as possible. The cultivation method was known to help purify the soul and thoughts, essentially increase intelligence as well as the nimbleness of one's mind. As one cultivates this technique they can purify all distracting thoughts gifting mental clarity, better memory with increasing brain capacity, heightened processing speed, and the feeling that one's becoming anew like a newborn once they gain some success in their practice.
The main concept of the cultivation method is to cultivate the soul to make it stronger. The cultivation method purifies ones soul making it a void with nothing in it except the self, and then one can strengthen the self and soul through cultivation gifting many abilities and powers. Once one cultivates it for years they go through a process similar to reincarnation and return to the origin, which is becoming a newborn like soul that is pure and full of infinite potential.
With the cultivation of making the soul pure and a void they build the foundation for this newborn soul and self to be whatever it wants and acquire all things in it to the maximum.
The first part of the cultivation method is to purify the soul and make it s void gifting one's soul and self its maximum efficiency, normally one's soul and self is 10x better in all aspects.
The second part of the cultivation method is to return the soul and self to the origin through a process similar to reincarnation and become a newborn soul. The theory of the newborn soul is that you have infinite potential as a newborn, and are only limited by the impurities in oneself that they get from life. Once one gets their reincarnated soul they're soul and self get amplified by 100x, making oneself 1000x better than originally.
Chen Mu floating in the void with his tiny spark of a soul closed his 'eyes' and began cultivating the Pure Void Soul Reincarnation technique. When cultivating to purify the soul and make it a void he recited the cultivation technique and theories of it in his mind. As he's already practiced this technique before he had no problem entering the meditative state and beginning the process.
'Become pure, become the void, the void is pure and pure is void of all things. Be nothing, nothing allows you to be all things. The void is nothing and all things will come from nothing. Purify the soul and self by becoming void of all things, let the soul and self be nothing and then acquire everything. Cultivate the Pure Void Soul and reincarnate to the origin becoming your infinite self.'
Chen Mu recited this in his mind through thought, it took him awhile to recite this just once even though he had practice with it before since one needs to get full understanding for each word themselves and then a full understanding of the whole line themselves. Doing all of this will take awhile as it's just a single cycle but complicated enough in itself.
Chen Mu didn't mind it taking awhile and didn't mind it more once he messed up and had to restart again. His purpose was distract himself through however long he'll need to sit in this vast void, taking a long time just to do something didn't matter as time was all he had on him at this point.
Once Chen Mu finished one cycle of thought reciting he felt his mind become the clearest it's ever been. He felt with just that one cycle he made more progress then he ever had before with the technique. His soul increased in purity by 10% with just that one cycle, from the outside you could see Chen Mu's spark of a soul burned twice as bright.
Chen Mu was shocked by the progress he made, because it had taken him a year before just to purify is soul and self by a hundredth of a percent and that was through multiple cycles. Now in one cycle and countless times faster he doubled the pureness in his soul.
He wondered why this was the case, he thought maybe it was because he didn't have a body so his soul had less of a burden. But that didn't seem the case to him since not having a body shouldn't give so much of an increase in efficiency.
"Hmm, maybe it's because of where I am currently? This place or if it even is one is filled with infinite darkness, nothing to sense, it's just a void. Oh, is that why? Ah yes, this place is a void, it's nothing, and I'm trying to cultivate my soul to be void to be nothing. This environment around me is the ultimate pureness and what I'm at this moment trying to become. Actually the now that I'm trying to sense around me and all i sense is nothing the more I feel I resonate with this void. It could be because my soul is purer and more like a void?"
Chen Mu thought some things and came up with an idea.
"If I use the technique in my mind to cultivate but also use my 6th sense on this void I wonder if I could increase the efficiency of my technique? Before I was just focused on my thoughts and didn't pay heed to my surroundings, If I use the void as a reference and goal to make my soul I could definitely increase the speed of the cycle!"
'Become pure, become the void, the void is pure and pure is void of all things. Be nothing, nothing allows you to be all things. The void is nothing and all things will come from nothing. Purify the soul and self by becoming void of all things, let the soul and self be nothing and then acquire everything. Cultivate the Pure Void Soul and reincarnate to the origin becoming your infinite self.'
Chen Mu thought through the cultivation technique again and used this mysterious 6th sense to study the void. This time Chen Mu never made a mistake in his chant and finished his cycle even faster than before, he felt his soul purify by another 20% as well.
Chen Mu's spark of a soul burned 3x more now than originally, illuminating more light but it still made no difference in this vast void.
Chen Mu knew if he wanted to make his soul a complete void he just needed to complete the cultivation technique cycle a few more times. He understood as well that him getting more efficient and faster at cycling the technique came from the benefits of purifying his soul. His thought processing increased by 3x and his focus is 3x stronger too, everything that has to do with his self and soul has increased by 3x now. Accompanied by the suitable environment around him.
Even though Chen Mu didn't care about the amount if time it took him to cultivate, it was still nice to know that he was improving exponentially.
Chen Mu proceeded to cycle the technique again and finished it multitudes faster than before, with this his spark of a soul burned 6x brighter than originally as he had a 30% increase in pureness.
Chen Mu cycled one last time and finished the cycle in what felt like seconds, with the last cycle he reached 100% pureness and had a soul completely void. All of his impurities acquired from life and death were gone, all that was left was just his self and soul. His soul became a colorless gray that burned 10x brighter than the first time he arrived in the vast void.
Chen Mu became void finally and achieved pureness, he developed the Pure Void Soul stated in the Pure Void Soul Reincarnation technique and reached the limit of the first part of the technique. Now the next step was to reincarnate to the origin and become fully pure and have infinite potential like a newborn. The goal was to become a newborn soul that was innately pure.