Prologue [5] - Collapse of Everything

[In an unknown location]

The vast space remained the same as it had always been, completely colored with a bright and blue starry sky adorned with countless stars, old and new.

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Quietness encompassed it all, similar to a picture of a calm and quiet lake with no sound or commotion. The moonlight reflects the picture of a lovely starry night as the darkness of the night approaches.

In the distance, a deep blue luminous humanoid body could be spotted among the numerous flickering multicolored light bodies. Its appearance could be strange and unusual. It isn't exactly perfect or good, but instead, like an extremely detailed painting covered with details beyond any other.

The figure was sitting in a cross-legged position while its forehead had a little brilliant blue flame, with it stretching and encircling its entire body while gradually becoming brighter and diminishing slightly at scheduled intervals.

It was moving its hands and interlocking its fingers in what appeared to be a slew of threads of varying colors. The majority of them were green and blue, ranging from light to dark.

Tiny white needles moved in a pull and push motion on both hands, one supporting the other while scraping the threads.

These were the very sources of the laws in the surrounding area. Playing with them allowed one to see the abrupt changes that would occur in the environment and in the principles themselves, allowing one to adjust and even break down the law piece by piece.

The one doing the absurdly difficult task was none other than Liang Long!

His soul was now far stronger than before, so much so that he didn't even need to pause and meditate to recuperate; nevertheless, as his grasp of the soul and cultivation grew, he was able to fully accomplish it without having to deviate from his path. Not to mention the far faster pace of recovery.

Normally, when Liang Long is tired or injured, he can heal in less than a day, while regular individuals would need at least several months, if not years, to recuperate.

It just demonstrates how far he has progressed in his time in the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea.

According to his master's knowledge of his world, there are exactly four major realms regarding the divine soul of any living being. The Void realm, the Real realm, the Transformative realm, and the Soul Deity realm. Each has three stages: the elementary, intermediate, and advanced stages.

The Void realm is where the soul takes on a shapeless form that has no relation to the person's appearance.

The Real realm is divided into two lesser realms: the illusory realm and the corporeal realm. These two minor realms are strongly intertwined to the soul's continuous cultivation, allowing it to take on a form or shape that distinguishes the person's appearance.

At first, the soul will appear to be weakly emitting a shape, hence the term illusory, and as it grows further, it will finally become tangible or corporeal, allowing the user's senses to sharpen and obtain a completely new perspective on the world itself.

Then there is the Transformative realm. This realm is where you begin to strengthen your soul by using the insights you gained while cultivating. This is without a doubt the hardest aspect of soul development, and numerous people have been stuck in this realm because no matter how hard they cultivated, they couldn't break free from the shackles that kept them from progressing.

After many years, a few groups of cultivators have come up with a solution.

Making special rune markings all over your body can help you enhance your soul power even more, functioning as catalysts for the external to connect with the interior of their souls, absorbing the spirituality of the world itself in order to advance. The majority of the markings were found in the lungs, heart, and brain.

Those locations are all connected and extremely near to the dantian, the focal point where you store all of the energy that circulates and travels around your body. Allowing their dantian to absorb the surrounding spirituality would help them to advance far more quickly than squandering their entire lives attempting to break through to the next realm.

Unfortunately, Liang Long did not have access to the rest of the soul knowledge that Zhou Yuan had handed on to him since his master had imposed a limitation that only enabled him to access the information if he successfully broke through his current realm. But because his natural talent is continually growing, it didn't take him long to reach the Transformative realm.

As for the Soul Deity realm?

It is still a mystery. It's the only realm that has special conditions to reach. And he won't have any information unless he successfully advances.

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[In the depths of space]

Liang Long's comprehension of the kinetic powers by studying the laws had soared by leaps and bounds. He was successful in mastering the most fundamental and well-known ones he had previously heard of in his previous life.

(A/N: There are way too many kinetic abilities. I'll just select the ones that appear to be the most significant. From wikis and other sources, there's even kinesis that lets you manipulate magic. Now, it can't be any kind of magic, right? lol)

He swiftly learned telekinesis while traveling. This kinetic ability is nothing more than matter manipulation.

Telekinesis is, to some degree, the foundation of all other powers since matter is present in practically everything in this world, enabling you to control, change, fix, and destroy whatever object the user desires if one have the strength to influence it using one's mental power.

As Liang Long gained experience with telekinesis, he was able to learn the second and third kinesis, geokinesis, and atmokinesis.

He needed to go to multiple stars to experiment and hone his abilities to affect the earth and weather. By exploring, he learned hydrokinesis as well while stopping at water sources.

He also learned ferrokinesis, which is the manipulation of any metal, while he was at it. That was only conceivable because he had previously learned about geokinesis while examining asteroids in space.

Liang Long mastered electrokinesis by utilizing his hydrokinesis and ferrokinesis to separate the ions inside the metal and study it for several years, each with a different metal, while exploring the stars.

Thunderstorms were frequently employed for this purpose as well. He could now resist the chaotic stars he had previously avoided since his soul had advanced. One of the kinetic abilities he developed from witnessing the diverse environment of the stars was thermokinesis.

Liang Long also wanted to study one of the most difficult kinesis, ergokinesis, which is the manipulation of various types of energy. He wasn't sure if qi could be considered "energy" because it is largely tied to one's vital force.

Even if it was, he already had an understanding of qi from the battle years ago when he first met his master fighting the old guy. Not to mention that there are stars filled to the brim with qi and other types of energies.

So he wasn't concerned about not fully grasping the kinetic ability; it just meant Liang Long needed more time.

It was also not an issue. His talent for soul cultivation was growing each day, and the better he became, the faster he grasped the kinetic powers.

According to studies and hypotheses, the human brain has limitless potential, but only a few people are capable of unlocking its full potential.

Cultivators were precisely these types of people, not every single one, but talented individuals with good fortune and opportunities.

Liang Long literally struck gold since he did not grow weary from overexerting his mental power with his current strength and he was given an opportunity that no one else in the world had.

An overwhelmingly powerful manipulation of practically everything in existence, with no one getting in his way. His odds of meeting someone else in this place are basically non-existent.

And with his attainments in these five other kinetic abilities and slowly progressing through ergokinesis, Liang Long was soon able to practice a few more, which were pyrokinesis, aerokinesis, and cryokinesis.

The Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea is a potentially infinite world with an enormously wide variety of distinct places all around, allowing Liang Long to swiftly consolidate his comprehension of the kinetic powers by visiting the regions where there are more concentrated laws or principles connected to them.

Some stars were entirely formed of greenery and flora, while others were entirely built of minerals and other sorts of substances that did not exist on Earth, and many more were far too different from your typical perspective.

Some are fully overtaken by wild creatures and other races, many of which are hideous when compared to others. These are the kinds of sites Liang Long intended to locate in order to strengthen his power.

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After many years of practice, Liang Long has finally mastered ergokinesis. He then went on to develop kinetic abilities that are strongly linked to energy.

Among the many kinesis, Umbrakinesis was one of the most difficult for him to fathom. That was due to the numerous different applications it has. It could be employed for portals, camouflage, animating shadows, light absorption, and even self-healing.

Manipulation of light and shadows can be difficult if you do not understand the distinct sources of light and shadows. Emotions may readily interfere with it since they are capable of blocking the connection to either of the two sources.

Liang Long wasted little time in his never-ending quest for more power. The elemental kinesis he had previously gotten, fire, water, earth, and air, fused with his atmokinesis and formed atmoskinesis.

After developing and mastering ergokinesis, Liang Long was eager to attempt grasping two of the most esoteric kinesis he had been looking forward to for a long time.

Spatiokinesis and chronokinesis.

It took him hundreds, if not thousands, of years to properly comprehend the former. Both kinetic abilities are a subclass of space-time manipulation and a variant of universal force manipulation, and the two are the most fundamental and enigmatic laws that govern the whole world.

It is not one of the most insanely difficult things to learn for nothing!

Liang Long thought that chronokinesis was going to be way harder than spatiokinesis, but the final results greatly surprised him.

While spatiokinesis allows you to alter space, chronokinesis allows you to manipulate something intangible: time.

However, because "time" exists, it may also be sensed. When Liang Long traveled through locations where the space was undergoing changes and even collapsing on its own, he could feel a little alteration.

He was going through the turmoil of a space storm at his normal speed when he abruptly accelerated.

Liang Long realized that time existed within space itself. As a result, space distortion could also be induced by time principles, but it can range from extremely high to extremely low pulses. This is also why there were so many law threads with blue and green colors wherever he went.

After all, time is intrinsically tied to the three-dimensional world. Perhaps if he were a fourth-dimensional being, he could detect if the fluctuations were more concentrated in a specific location or not, lowering the time he needed to learn chronokinesis.

Then Liang Long formulated a theory. Isn't it possible to find a method to reach the fourth dimension if the third dimension can be perceived? Doesn't it imply he can finally leave this place behind?

While learning about time and space, he discovered that there was a whole other level of kinetic ability above and beyond the usual kinetic powers, which he called Cosmic Level Kinesis.

Liang Long had known and heard about the cosmos in his previous life, therefore he knew that Cosmokinesis was perhaps the way to go if one wanted to accomplish a higher level of kinetic powers.

Perhaps when he develops cosmokinesis, he will be able to detect the fourth dimension and find a way out.

This finding caused a bubbling sensation within his heart, and it was...

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Hope.

As a result, Liang Long's acquisition and mastery of kinetic abilities began to accelerate. He was venturing further into the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea, hoping to find his way out of this jail that had imprisoned him for...

.

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Over one hundred thousand years.

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[Two thousand years later]

Liang Long is nearing perfection in each and every way at this stage. His understanding of kinetic abilities is nearly complete. He even learned and comprehended cosmic energy. Unfortunately, he still couldn't perceive the fourth dimension.

He truly didn't know what to try anymore. However, he made an interesting discover over the past years.

He first assumed that the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea was some kind of star field since it had every aspect of one while comparing everything he had seen in some works of cultivation manhuas and novels he had read in his previous life.

After comprehending the cosmos to some extent, he realized that this place was not a star field, but rather an entire universe in its own right. This explains why, despite traveling for so long, it seemed endless.

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[In a random cultivation star]

In an odd-looking dark cavern, Liang Long was currently inside the core of a star that he found while taking his final steps toward comprehending the cosmos. In front of a large light bulb in front of him, his fingers formed several strange-looking runes, dazzling in multicolored light at breakneck speed.

It was the star's source, its one and only heart.

"It's almost there..." In the confined environment, Liang Long's delicate yet ghostly voice could be heard.

*Fwishh*

The hue of the light bulb faded until it was absolutely dark. Liang Long stripped it of its world force, ultimately killing it. It would only take a few decades for it to become a dead star.

He didn't care about the life of this star; his own survival was paramount.

*KABOOOM*

Lightning could be heard striking down at the surface exactly where Liang Long was underground. The wind roared tremendously, the earth started to shatter, and clouds were gathering all around the star as if calamity had struck the whole world.

The fate of the star has changed, and as a consequence, the world will change.

Liang Long left the star, sensing that it would soon be in turmoil, and kept wandering in space. Yet he did not leave empty-handed; he had finally managed to fully comprehend the mysteries of the cosmos, advancing his comprehension of cosmic energy to its pinnacle.

Now he only needed more time to integrate the cosmic power into his kinetic abilities.

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[Four thousand years later, in an unknown region in the depths of space]

"What the fuck is going on?"

Liang Long couldn't help but curse as he gazed around with a puzzled expression.

A bright blue light shone in the distance, with deep blue nebulae emanating from it and encircling the large ball of light, forming a line of circles around it. Colorful stars in the distance began to be absorbed by the nebulae, and the stars stretched out where the blue gaseous stuff did not.

It was a beautiful sight to see it being formed slowly.

When Liang Long thought things couldn't get any crazier, he noticed flawless pitch-black cubes creating a final circle around the sea of stars and nebulae at the ends of the circles.

"These are not asteroids, but rather cubes made of an unknown metal. I can sense it." Liang Long knew what it was made of because of his geokinesis.

He tried to look beyond the enormous brilliant light that radiated in the center of the numerous circles around it, but something unexpected happened as soon as his eyes met the light.

"Ugh" Liang Long grunted, shock and astonishment filling him.

He'd never experienced anything like this before. Whatever was inside the light was something he couldn't feel or comprehend. He did, however, catch a glance. It contained an item, more especially its format.

A cube.

Liang Long teleported himself immediately in front of the blue light and entered it without wasting any time. When he did, the surrounding area went from a starry sky to full blackness.

He saw nothing but darkness no matter where he looked. He couldn't see anything other than this gloomy place, even with his umbrakinesis. No, he couldn't even detect darkness.

"What exactly is going on?" Liang Long was baffled. He'd never seen anything like that before. In this place, it felt as if his abilities were non-existent.

"Is it limiting my abilities? But how exactly? I didn't feel constricted in any way." True, Liang Long didn't notice his powers abruptly vanishing.

When he was pondering his predicament, a brilliant blue light in the distance illuminated the gloomy chamber. Unlike the prior darkness, Liang Long could see well through the light this time.

He was in a white zone that wasn't truly dark. There was a dark pillar in the center, and a cube rested on top of it. It was hovering in mid-air, always glowing.

Liang Long couldn't help himself and stretched out to reach the pillar. He tried to pull it out of the pillar with a grasping motion by using space force without making contact with the pillar, as he thought it was some kind of trap.

He came to a halt when the blue cube began to wobble and fired out right at him.

"As expected, it didn't work..."

In a defensive posture, Liang Long spread his hands and grasped the area in front of him, solidifying it to form an illusory barrier.

The object was about to collide with the barrier. However, what Liang Long anticipated did not happen. The cube easily went through it and proceeded towards him as if nothing had occurred.

"What?"

When it sensed Liang Long's spatial energy fluctuations, the cube's speed accelerated and it came to a stop just in front of him.

"It didn't appear to be intending to harm me." He considered it for a while before taking it with his left hand, peering at the blue cube with surprise and wonder. It reminded him of something, as if he'd seen it before, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

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Liang Long was pulled back to reality by a shattering sound.

*Rumble*

The white space began to tremble, and fractures emerged all over the place, returning the darkness that had been dispelled by the blue light from the cube. And Liang Long knew just what that black thing was.

It is a darkness capable of negating and sealing any form of power. The more it comes into contact with something, the more likely it is to fully obscure one's awareness, leaving the person ignorant of what is going on.

Now that Liang Long had regained his vigor, he swiftly maneuvered the area surrounding him to find the exit to this room. Then he teleported out of the area before everything became completely dark.

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However, disaster strikes when one least expects it.

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*Rumble*

Liang Long could feel the entire world trembling violently. The stars and blue nebulae that surrounded him disintegrated in a spectacular burst, as if air had suddenly swept through space. It caused him to fly a great distance before another occurrence occurred.

*BOOOM*

A gigantic blue vortex formed out of nowhere, filled with nothing but darkness, and began to circle clockwise. Around the portal, tiny fissures and cracks with blue light began to emerge, giving it a menacing vibe.

Liang Long was surprised at the odd gateway as he held the blue cube in his brilliant palm.

"It has the same energy signature as this cube..."

*RUMBLE*

The vacuum began to tremble, threatening to collapse at any moment. It wasn't only in the location Liang Long was in; he felt it was happening wherever he could estimate from his senses due to the space fluctuations.

"This universe... Don't tell me it's genuinely collapsing! How is this even possible?" Liang Long was no longer tranquil, and his suppressed emotions began to surface. This sensation he was experiencing was surely one he had not experienced in a long time.

Fear.

The feeling of imminent impending doom. The chill was creeping through his veins, the cold sensation icing the heart.

In the distance, small and large stars were completely annihilated. The galaxies faded and went utterly dark as the stars around them blended with the turbulent vacuum.

Deep brownish nebulae started to amass and became thicker than clouds, expanding in every direction while shooting purple bolts of lightning at every star nearby.

Unbeknownst to him, suns began to burst and become supernovas, encompassing a wide spectrum of stars and scorching them all, changing them into molten massive rocks floating in space.

Space laws, time laws, and everything else were disassembling and becoming chaotic in an instant. The entire world was in disarray as the massive blue vortex grew in size.

Nothing made sense to Liang Long.

How could a literal universe suddenly be on the brink of being destroyed? Was it the blue cube's fault? Did removing it from that white room cause this? Or is there another reason?

His recollections of all he'd been through in this lifetime began to flash before his eyes, his face drenched in cold sweat despite his inability to create any. Liang Long had a sense about what may have occurred, but it was so ridiculous that he couldn't help but question it.

"This is impossible, it can't be true, there's no way!" he grumbled. He refused to believe it.

It was all his fault.

The blue cube, an object Liang Long obtained by dumb luck, he now knew what it was. With it, he might have a chance of finally leaving, escaping from this hell hole, and trying to go somewhere else.

It is the very source of the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea.

The reason why he managed to acquire it?

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He already knew.

*Brrr*

It suddenly vibrated and blasted out of Liang Long's palm, straight to the blue portal. Then it began to sparkle again before turning a deep crimson tone. A crimson beam emerged from the portal and linked to the cube.

In reaction to the cube's alteration, the portal began to tremble.

Liang Long didn't want to throw away his last chance to leave this place, so he intended to refine that cube and make it his own.

He dashed in the direction of the cube and arrived at the massive blue portal. When he gazed at it, it felt like a thousand needles were piercing his mind, as if it was something he couldn't fathom staring at.

*CRACK*

The blue fractures that surrounded the vortex grew in all directions, forming a spider web design that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"NO!" He had no idea what to do as he saw the world he had spent so much time in crumble in front of his eyes.

He didn't even think it through, reaching his hand to grasp the now-red cube and retreating as far as he could at full speed.

But fate had different plans for him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" Liang Long screamed like a madman. When he gripped the red cube with his own hands, he felt his entire mind being electrified and plunged.

Red lightning began to rush out of the cube and into Liang Long's soul, causing rumbling and cracking sounds all across the region, while the blue portal's core now had a tinge of red hue coming from it.

Liang Long screamed even more, his exquisite body was convulsing all over and his eyes glowing with an incredible crimson deep red light.

While all of this is going on, the vortex is expanding even further. The red light in its center began to move in a circular manner as well, glowing continuously while spreading.

Until...

*RUMBLE*

The rumbling sound became much louder, and as the world's principles began to disintegrate, the portal became unstable and began to distort in every direction. Its gravitational force intensified as it began to suck everything in its surroundings.

Asteroids from all around space altered course and streamed through the portal, never to be seen again. The nebulae from the other galaxies were likewise drawn in and did not escape.

It didn't matter; everything was being swallowed into the massive hole, and Liang Long wasn't an exception.

He was continuously fighting the tremendous amount of pain his soul was experiencing at the time, while utilizing his space principles to keep himself from being dragged, but it was futile. The laws of everywhere throughout the place were exceedingly unstable, to the point of overwhelming Liang Long's cosmic spatial abilities.

"I refuse to accept this as the end!" Liang Long screamed to the sky, angry that he had endured for so long just to die as a result of his own fault of meddling with the laws of the universe.

He was filled with remorse!

It was everything because he had destabilized the fabric of the laws governing the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea, and the universe was now approaching its demise.

When the laws are disrupted and destroyed by an external power, the world will automatically regenerate the damaged component, restoring it to its original state.

However, Liang Long had entirely dismantled the law in order to study it and uncover its mysteries.

Normally, the world could just put everything back together, but that did not happen.

Why?

Because the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea was already in a state of instability.

Liang Long's actions were equivalent to pouring gasoline on an already burning fire. Although the world eventually managed to put things back together after he tampered with the laws, it took a very long time.

Liang Long spent several years attempting to grasp a single principle. Because the world was already exceedingly unstable, it would take at least twice as long to restore the law to its "stable" state.

He broke several laws in various locations, so the world was rapidly overwhelmed by the unusual amount of issues that Liang Long had caused, and it couldn't hold back any longer, and everything began to fall apart.

This is also the main reason why its source, the blue cube, appeared before him. It was trying to make Liang Long help it stabilize the universe since he was the only one in this place who had the power to aid it.

The black substance in the white room was probably some kind of concealing mechanism that protected the universe's source from being discovered, but since the will of the universe needed Liang Long's help, it started to disperse the dark thing and revealed itself to him.

But it came to him far too late for that.

*KABOOOM*

The entire universe was trembling. The death of everything caused the bluish sky to decrease in light from time to time. Liang Long was still in excruciating agony as his soul was violently attacked by crimson lightning.

The vortex was still swallowing up every piece of debris that flew by, but Liang Long couldn't stand it any longer and shot straight to the portal while still holding the red cube.

"UGH!"

*KRRRRRRRRRR*

It wasn't clear why, but as Liang Long got closer and closer to the portal, it became increasingly unstable, to the point of producing all kinds of noises.

"I'm not going to let my efforts go to waste. I will escape this place, even if it means risking everything!" He replied clearly, determination burning behind his eyes, as he began to unleash every ounce of soul power he had accumulated over his thousands of year journey.

He had no prospect of halting the calamity unfolding before his eyes. He had only one option: to protect himself from the impact!

Liang Long surrounded himself in a thick curtain of space force while using his geokinesis to move pieces of the asteroids surrounding him to encircle and solidify their shape by shifting the metal within to the outside, establishing a protective layer.

He also established a powerful connection between them by using magnetokinesis, further preparing himself for the crash into the enormous portal. The color of the metal started to change from black to a vivid crimson red, its tiny crystals around the metal giving out a faint glow.

He was getting closer and closer at breakneck speed. At this point, Liang Long had already lost consciousness.

When he was about to crash into it with his cluster of red metal.

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. . .

Nothing happened.

He didn't come across a single hindrance. Liang Long just phased right into it.

His life and death were unknown.

Just as he vanished from the Primordial Chaos Origin Star Sea, the entire universe exploded in a quiet and unprecedented explosion, turning everything to ashes.

The vortex was the only thing that remained in space, but it has now begun to shrink, returning to its original size.

It merely stood there, but one thing was clear: the red light had long ago faded, and its blue hue had returned.

And Liang Long?

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Gone.

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[4.828 words]

The prologue finally comes to an end. I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

From now on, the chapters will have a word count of a maximum of 2k words.