Alive, But Not Living

The geography of each of the four planes differed greatly, as did the laws of nature which governed the worlds.

On the Qi Plane, there were the seven star systems, each of which hosted millions of stars and planets.

On the Blood Plane, there was the sun, the moon, and an enormous mass of land which suppressed all life upon it, divided up into 12 monstrous empires.

And the Spirit Plane…was complicated.

The Spirit Plane could not be described using a single set of world laws, because this world was split up into 19 Layers, each of which varied in size and laws of nature.

The Central Layer, which was also the largest layer, was vast, larger than the Blood Plane, but smaller than the Qi Plane. Even though this Central Layer could be thought of as a single realm, it was actually fragmented into countless separate regions, each with differing laws of nature.

Above the Central Layer were the nine Layers of Heaven. Below the Central Layer were the nine Layers of Abyss.

The environment in the nine Layers of Heaven became increasingly blessed as the layers were ascended. The highest Layer of Heaven was the most perfect cultivation environment imaginable for all manner of spiritual lifeforms. As for the nine Layers of Abyss, these functioned oppositely; the environment was harsh and cruel, and for the most part, only mindless demons resided in these layers. Any intelligent living being in Abyss was definitely a powerful entity, either cultivating an unorthodox technique…or they had been sent down to Abyss as punishment.

The Spirit Plane Lord ruled the Spirit Plane, this was absolute. On the Spirit Plane, the Spirit Plane Lord possessed absolute power. Even so, the Divine Court actually occupied a sizable portion of territory on the Central Layer, and they also had palaces set up on the first six levels of Heaven and the first six levels of Abyss!

As for why the Spirit Plane Lord allowed them to remain in this place, despite the Divine Court being her greatest enemy in this world?

Of course, it was because of mutual benefits.

In truth, the Spirit Plane Lord had helped the Divine Court to establish their base of operations back then. She didn't feel a trace of worry about inviting her enemy into her home, because on the Spirit Plane, she really was nigh omnipotent.

The Divine Court operated the cycle of reincarnation which existed between the Spirit Plane and the Qi Plane. Given that most of the people being reincarnated were those on the Qi Plane who sided with the Divine Court, it might seem like the Divine Court gained the most benefit from this arrangement. However, the Divine Court maintained the entire cycle of reincarnation themselves, and their expenditure in doing so was enormous. Meanwhile, it cost the Spirit Plane Lord basically nothing, whilst she was able to reap the continual stream of benefits brought about by the Divine Court's hard work.

The cycle of reincarnation had been maintained and controlled by the Divine Court without issue ever since it was established approximately one million years ago. Before that time, death was final for all living beings - the death of the body inevitably resulted in the death of the soul. The establishment of the cycle of reincarnation had helped both sides to prosper to such an extent that they actually made sure to continue on with their cooperation in maintaining the cycle of reincarnation, even in the midst of their countless brutal wars.

Even after that battle 2,000 years ago, the cycle was maintained, never faltering, never changing…that is, until this day.

When the being whom Yaan met in the depths of the Abyss of death sacrificed itself to grant him new, impossible life, all four realms trembled. This trembling was not a physical phenomenon, and as such, mortals were unable to notice a thing. However, every cultivator felt this trembling…

For immortals, the feeling was much stronger.

For divinities, this shaking of the world was simply terrifying.

It felt as if the world laws themselves were trembling, as if the Heavenly Dao was on the verge of collapse! Many people even feared that this was the end of the world, that everything would break down in this moment!

Fortunately, the world did not end.

The world did not end, but the lives of many souls did…

After the trembling subsided and the world seemingly returned to normal, the cycle of reincarnation simply…stopped. Immediately, the Divine Court subordinates responsible for overseeing the cycle of reincarnation became frantic. This was a completely unprecedented event; they didn't know what to do!

These people were all at least immortals, yet in this moment, they felt terrified. After all, the cycle of reincarnation which had stood strong as the Divine Court's point of pride for the past million years, had suddenly stopped working on their watch!

Some people were so scared that they wanted to keep this matter hidden, but others reported it to the Divine Court's main branch on the Qi Plane immediately. As soon as the Divine Court on the Qi Plane received news of this shocking happening, they naturally did their all to resolve the issue.

However, nobody could work out why this had happened, even though it was clearly related to the trembling of the world just now.

As the minutes passed by and the cycle of reincarnation stayed broken, the pressure on the Divine Court grew increasingly intense. This had simply caused too many problems!

The most obvious problem was that every person to die on the Qi Plane, even if they managed to keep their soul intact, was now being devoured by the world! Previously, death on the Qi Plane resulted in the soul being caught up in the cycle of reincarnation, traversing the planes and entering the cycle on the Spirit Plane. Now, however, those souls were simply being devoured by the Heavenly Dao!

Originally, the death of the physical body resulted in final death, because without a physical body to tether a person to this world, their soul became unstable and naturally broke down. This could be considered the Heavenly Dao's influence, but at the same time, the Heavenly Dao was just reabsorbing that which it had originally created…

This absorbed energy would then be used to allow new life to be born. That was the original nature of reincarnation.

Now that the Divine Court's artificial cycle of reincarnation had failed, that original nature returned to the Qi Plane!

There was another problem with this, aside from the deaths of countless mortals and cultivators; travel between the Qi Plane and Spirit Plane became countless times more difficult.

Some people actually used the cycle of reincarnation to travel between the two planes, but now, that was not possible…

So, given these calamitous repercussions, it was obvious that the majority of the Divine Court would be paying its full attention to the broken cycle of reincarnation right now. The 13 palaces which were spread across 13 Layers on the Spirit Plane were being investigated thoroughly by the Divine Court's Divine Step powerhouses who were currently on the Spirit Plane.

In this situation where all reincarnation had come to a halt, the sudden appearance of a single, red-robed child, within the Central Layer's hall of rebirth, was blindingly eye-catching. The child had long black hair that was like silk to the touch, his skin was pale, and…there were black cracks causing the endless destruction and reformation of his body, covering almost half of him at all times.

Naturally, this person was Yaan, but right now, he was unconscious.

Instantly, four shocking beings arrived in this place, terrifying the immortal subordinates of the Divine Court to such a huge degree that they all froze in place. A moment ago, they had been closing in on the red-robed child, but now, they did not dare to act!

The four beings completely ignored the immortals, instead focussing their attention on the child. After briefly examining the child, three of the four looked up, warily eyeing the fourth…

Those three were the three divinities belonging to the Divine Court who lived on the Spirit Plane with their main bodies. There were others who sent clones or other such stand-ins to monitor the cycle of reincarnation, but only these three had actual power here. Even so, they did not dare to act rashly before the fourth person. This fourth person was not a member of the Divine Court, making it absurd that she was able to suddenly arrive in the middle of their territory at the same time as them, without anyone being able to stop her. However, when they realised her identity, nobody found it strange at all…

Because she was the Spirit Plane Lord!

Seeing the Spirit Plane Lord's arrival in their territory, one of the three Divine Court divinities narrowed her eyes, staring at their enemy without averting her gaze for an instant.

"Primordial Spirit, what are you doing in our Divine Court's territory? This boy is a suspect of the Divine Court, he-"

"I am taking him away. Get in my way and I will massacre every single member and subordinate of the Divine Court in my world, you three included." The Spirit Plane Lord interrupted the woman who spoke coldly, staring at her as she started to release an unfathomable level of killing intent.

Instantly, every single immortal within the vicinity lost consciousness. Her killing intent was too powerful, even Dao Immortals could not endure for a single instant!

"What?! Do you not care about the treaty between the Divine Court and the Primordial Alliance? Are you trying to start another war?!"

"Another war?" The Spirit Plane Lord laughed darkly. "The war never ended, it was simply put on hold for the benefit of both sides…but if I am obstructed today, I would not mind being the one to rekindle the flames of war..."

"You-!"

"Silence!" Another one of the Divine Court's divinities suddenly spoke in a sharp tone. The woman by his side immediately stopped speaking. Her expression changed from confrontational to respectful in an instant.

The person who spoke, a teenage boy with fluorescent seven-coloured hair, glanced at his junior, who was one of the youngest divinities in the Divine Court and still did not properly understand many things. He then turned to face the Spirit Plane Lord and clasped his hands politely, showing a warm smile.

"We naturally won't get in your way, Spirit Plane Lord. Please forgive my junior's poor manners, she is ignorant and does not properly understand how things work."

The woman showed no change in her expression, despite being criticised. She held her senior in high regard, after all, he was the Divine Court's strongest soul cultivator! When she heard her senior address their enemy by her most esteemed title, 'Spirit Plane Lord', rather than her oldest title, 'Primordial Spirit', she seemed to realise something and became far more cautious when facing their opposition in this moment.

The Spirit Plane Lord didn't bother saying anything else. With a wave of her hand, a golden light spread out, wrapping around Yaan and pulling him towards her instantly. She covered him with a cocoon of golden power, then took a step, vanishing from this place without even bothering with the Divine Court's divinities.

After she left, the woman turned towards the teenage boy and opened her mouth. However, before she could speak, the boy said:

"She actually came here with her strongest body…and she meant what she said - she would have started a war over that child. Report this immediately, we must discern the child's identity!"

The Spirit Plane Lord did not bother herself with the Divine Court, which had been thrown into a frenzy partially due to her actions. She knew that Yaan would be investigated, but, right now, that didn't matter.

So long as she protected him, nobody would be able to harm a single hair on his head.

She left the Central Layer of the Spirit Plane, entering the 1st Layer of Heaven, then the 2nd, the 3rd…all the way up to the 9th Layer. The 9th Layer of Heaven was her main home, the place that her strongest body resided. It was also the location of the core Spirit Sect, the sect that she had created long ago. The Spirit Sect ruled over the Spirit Plane, but its main purpose was to recruit capable talents on the Spirit Plane. These talents came from those who were born onto the Spirit Plane naturally, but also those who died on the Qi Plane and were brought here via the cycle of reincarnation.

Yaan did not see any of this. He remained unconscious, missing the scene of the Spirit Plane Lord stealing him from the Divine Court, missing her shocking travel speed, wherein she travelled through ten layers of the world in ten steps. He did not see the paradise-like environment of the 9th Layer of Heaven, nor did he see how the Spirit Plane Lord gathered a vast amount of her power, just to awaken him from his slumber…

She found that he would have awoken naturally, but it would have taken many years. She was unwilling to wait that long, and so, after bringing him into the Spirit Palace, her personal abode on the 9th Layer of Heaven and the grandest palace in the entire Spirit Plane, she immediately did her all to help.

After half a day, Yaan slowly opened his eyes.

He looked at her with a dull look. There was no light in his eyes, only emptiness. This was not the same emptiness that had appeared back in Namuh Village, that emptiness had long since faded…but after seeing through that 'thing'…that Void…Yaan no longer had any light in his eyes.

His heart was dull, numb, empty.

His gaze was vacant, uncaring, without motivation.

After briefly looking around, he saw the grand palace, and he saw the Spirit Plane Lord.

"Hah…"

He sighed, then closed his eyes again, not even bothering to move.

"Brother! Brother, are you ok? Can you move? I did my best to restore your…injuries…but your condition is unlike anything I have ever seen before…please tell me, is there anything I can do to help?"

Hearing the voice in his ears which was filled with a mixture of happiness, concern, worry and pain, Yaan gradually opened his eyes once again.

The Spirit Plane Lord, the feared Primordial Spirit, the demon who could threaten the entire Divine Court, this being who had fought in multiple world-scale wars and taken countless lives…

This incredible person opened her heart before Yaan, hiding none of her feelings, showing her honest worry for his wellbeing, whilst looking like a young girl who was overjoyed to be reunited with her brother.

Unfortunately, Yaan knew that he was not her brother. Her brother was the Primordial Devil, she had simply mistaken him for someone else. If she knew the truth, she would probably capture him and send him to her real brother without a second thought.

This was a strange situation, one where he should probably be feeling many things. Perhaps he should feel anxious about the fact that he was in the hands of such a powerful divinity, given that his life would be in danger if she learned the truth. Or maybe he should feel excited, that for now, he had such an amazing being offering to help him in any way she could…

But Yaan didn't feel either of these things. He only felt tired.

Now that the illusion was no longer covering his Dao Soul, hiding his pain from his conscious self, he could feel every agonising moment of the torture that wracked his dao as he was continually broken down and forcefully repaired. When this pain continued endlessly, it became extremely exhausting.

Combined with the glimpse that Yaan had caught of that thing which he could only call 'Void', he felt like everything was too empty.

He had given up on life, embracing the comfort of death. He thought that he could finally rest when he died, but…death rejected him. Nobody in this world could possibly comprehend the level of despair that a person would feel when they finally gave up on life, only to find that they were unable to die…

Yaan had stopped caring about life after failing his immortal tribulation, and now, after finding himself living even after death, he had even stopped caring about death. Life, death, it was all the same…

He just didn't care anymore. Whether he was alive or dead, it no longer mattered. He was done. If death refused to let him stay, then he would just rest in this place called life. He was technically alive…but he refused to continue living.

And so, Yaan lay there, with his eyes half open, staring expressionlessly at the Spirit Plane Lord as she opened her heart and soul to him.

"Brother, please tell me what you need…" The Spirit Plane Lord pleaded with him again.

Yaan closed his eyes and ignored her.