Chapter 1788 Chapter 1781: The Void; A Game of Mystics (12)
Chapter 1788 Chapter 1781: The Void; A Game of Mystics (12)
The Void.
In the eyes of countless existences, it was profoundly difficult to describe and often mistaken.
There was the Void-Blank Space between celestial epicenters, the space created by the segregation of lesser gravitational orbits, yet capable of similarly constituting large empty spaces lacking the distinct warmth and pull of Solar Stars or planets. Void-Blank Space, in its simplest form, was the space between Starfields, Stellar Regions, and Galaxies. They housed abnormal creatures that required sustenance of pure chaos mana that were only located in regions lacking Solar Stars or celestial anchors. While these creatures may leave these spaces, and become hectic issues for the lifeforms inhabiting planets, starfields, stellar regions, and entire galaxies at times, these were few and far between.
This was not the Void.
Then, there were the three dimensional layers of space—Fixed, Stable, and Chaotic. They, too, were not the Void. They, however, used the Void as a necessary foundation. As did the flows of time—Past, Present, Future, Isolated, and Paradoxical. Extraordinary locations such as Void Nestling Realms and the White Abyss existed within the Void, isolated from space and often time.
The Dark Void was a vast stretch of stabilized infinity. It knew no limits, and all that could be seen within it, whether they were planets, stars, starfields, or void creatures. The Dark Void was the pinnacle of space, vast and endless. It was occupied by chaos mana, dangerous to living beings unadapted to its cold and lethal qualities. It was a vacuum, devoid of most sounds, and almost entirely empty.
The Void, however, was different.
It is a layer of the universe that serves as a foundation for space—for the Dark Void, for time—the essence of all its myriad flows, for astronomical and astrological forces—the very arrangement and existence for all things celestial, and lastly, the essence of its quintessential energy—Void Energy. It was said that the Void contained the secrets to the beginning of everything, simultaneously, it possessed the truth of the end of everything. The totality of all information.
This was the Void!
Wei Wuyin had once entered the Void by sheer coincidence. He was affected by fortune, the single past and present and future of a single molecule. If not for his True Void Dragon Bloodline that had guarded him throughout this incident, and likely his Magi Bloodline's Akashic Energy, he would have destroyed himself in mind and body.
The Void was supremely dangerous. Wei Wuyin had interacted with this location extensively, even pulling an entire continent through it with unfathomable strength. When he underwent the tribulation to ascend into the Astral Core Realm, Wei Wuyin had been pulled through time and space. He had been pulled into the Void, experiencing the 'firsts' of his lifetimes.
For him, it was incredibly difficult to describe the incident even today, and he still possessed two sets of distinct memories, not including his alternative self. Was this a different timeline or was his imagination repeating the boundless information relating to him and distorting it through interaction via Kratos' powers? The Void was simply too mysterious.
The Void Dao was even more mysterious. All of Kratos' powers, the boundless confidence that made it seem as if nothing within the world could contain it and there was no place where it could not go, even Hell itself was not unimaginable, was due to its innate powers to interact with the Void.
Given that the Void was no different than a home to entities that embody the Void Dao, whether they were strange entities of the Void or a True Void Dragon, Wei Wuyin had learned throughout his path of cultivation thus far that Kratos was no blowing empty air or possessed pointless confidence. From the moment the Void Dao had merged with it, it knew.
It knew that the Void that served as the foundation of EVERYTHING on the spectrum of space and time was its home. How could you cage something that could freely flow through all of space and time?!
During a game of Mystics, it was commonplace for Mythical Contracts sworn by all parties to be sent into the Void, forever lost in the streams of information and vast space where it could exist on any layer of space or time. It was nearly impossible to re-acquire, and the method that Sages and Worldly Saint Alchemists used to ensure that nothing—absolutely NOTHING—could break the contract.
While easier to dispel by simply shredding the Mythical Contract, if it was in the Void, there was almost no hope. It kept those supreme existences honest. Or at least, it tried to.
-----
In the vast and infinite streams of universal information, that was essentially an ocean of extreme and unpredicted chaos of endless colors and distorted vibrational waves, three black-robed figures stood side by side, tied by golden and silvery ropes by the hips.
"Have you found it?" At the center was a figure with excessively voluminous long-sleeved black robes that fluttered without wind. It was a woman. She had an aura that resembled a devil of the night. Her irises were gorgeous golden while her sclera was as pitch-black as a starless world. Her skin was as ashen white as a ghost of purgatory yet as flawless as jade with long lockets of dark hair that could blend in with the essence of darkness.
She was beautiful to an unsettling degree. She pulsed with the heavenly authority of Darkness and Yin, acting counter to the waves of chaos.
To her left and right were a grey-haired elderly man and elderly woman, identical twins, wielding scepters of gold with its centerpiece as a glass containing an onyx-like Solar Star that possessed a glossy surface. They emitted surges of Fate Power, trying to draw in the will of the heavens to scour the depths of the Void.
They were both sweating intensely. The heavy danger of being within the Void was weighing heavily on their hearts despite their cultivation bases at the True Sage Phase. The only thing that divided them from being lost in the vast streams of information, complex time, and vast space was the golden rope tied to their waists.
It wasn't an understatement that if one didn't know how to navigate the Void, just stepping two feet to your left might send you to an entirely different galaxy, and briefly into an unknown time. If you're lucky, you'll enjoy your experience for the briefest of moments before calamity strikes, eliminating the paradox that was you.
If you were extremely lucky, you'd be sent into a time where you weren't a paradoxical entity, where you didn't exist prior. Just not in the same location.
They did not want to be here. Even if they had a Void Treasure at the peak Mystic-World grade to hold them in place in their right time and space. If one looked closely at the golden rope, it extended outside the chaos, piercing through the very fabric of the Void. The other end was none other than a grand spatial and temporal array, ensuring that they remained tethered.
The woman with an unsettling beauty that was hard to extract one's attention from was a Supreme Sage. She was less concerned about the dangers. Those at her level had ways to minimize the dangers of the Void. Her earlier question, however, was met with spoken mnemonics as the two Grand Seers executed their divination arts, wielding their scepters, expending small amounts of lifeforce.
The entire world would be shocked to know that these elderly twins at the True Sage Phase, the Eighth Stage of the Mystic Ascendant Realm, possessing a lifespan of well over two hundred thousand years, seemingly in their twilight years, were not even fifty thousand years in age! The cost of conveying with the heavens was not little.
They were members of the Seers of the Night, and they were looking for the Mythical Contract.
The female Supreme Sage silently observed as she internally cursed. 'The Supreme Seer of Night has miscalculated. Why is it so difficult to discern things regarding this foreigner? While he might be favored by the heavens, his life is far too concealed. The Supreme Seer of Night refuses to elaborate but still insists on joining this game. Now, we've played ourselves into a trap that was unseen by all.'
Her thoughts echoed quite a few other Supreme Sages, especially Suo Haoran's true body. He was alone. He was using the raw method of relying on a Divination Treasure at the very pinnacle Mystic-World grade alongside his Resonant Soul Realm cultivation base to scour for the Mythical Contract.
Not a single person expected that Wei Wuyin would etch the condition of a Mythical Punishment on the level of a Resonant Soul Realm cultivator as a defeat rule. It was unsettling as games of Mystics had rules, and even Supreme Sages weren't certain to win even with their vast cultivation bases. The Mythical Contracts kept them honest, simply by virtue of a potential Mythical Punishment of that very same level.
He vehemently cursed Tianshi Zaoxuan, grossly miscalculating this foreigner's insanity! However, he did so indirectly, not mentioning his name or thinking of his image while doing so. Despite his supreme cultivation base, his caution was warranted as names had power, and to Alchemists, even thought images can have power, especially if a cultivator had refined their Alchemical Products.
Suo Haoran checked on the silver butterfly that flapped its wings around him, sending glittering dust both ahead and behind him. It was keeping him steady within his specific flow of time. He would only leave to try and find the Mythical Contract after getting a ping that could alert him if it was within a several galaxy-wide range. Not even Supreme Sages would want to initiate a paradox. They were keenly aware of the River of Time's existence and purpose.
None of them had a Fuxi to shield them from its temporal wrath.
These two weren't the only ones sent by their respective forces to find the contract. The Zenith Refinement Tower had their Dao Enforcer, a middle-aged, brown-skinned pudgy human female with a chubby face that flapped whenever she spoke or moved, her body was a little too round, but her green eyes were soul-stirringly beautiful.
She was accompanied by a handsome white-robed young man with clear signs of aggressive lines of falsity disguising his natural and withered appearance, his age even higher than Shang Liu, yet his cultivation base was shockingly at the Enlightened Sage level. He pulsed with Fate Power and was surrounded by fifteen radiant golden orbs the size of an infant's head. There were fragments of gold around him, swirling about while exuding a depleted aura, clearly they were once golden orbs that emitted great light.
"I found it!" The truly old yet young-looking Grand Seer shouted.
The chubby female Supreme Sage's green eyes glowed intensely. "Where?"
"It's about twelve thousand, three hundred and fifty-six years—THERE!" The Grand Seer shouted hastily with extreme urgency, directing the woman. The chubby female Supreme Sage pulsed with the entirety of her cultivation base as she grabbed the Grand Seer, wading through the waves of information and flow of time with startling precision.
She was, quite literally, traveling THROUGH time and space. She left her anchored position to her time and entered purposefully into a region of the Void that governed a specific time frame, capturing the entirety of that region's information.
Her entire body exuded Resonant Qi of the Heavens, tapping into the Minor Authority of Wood Law to breach through time with an aura of intense vitality that was as boundless and endless as the cycle of life, unimpeded by calamity. She pressed her palm against the vibrations.
POP!
A very, very familiar sound erupted. She BREACHED through the Void with raw power. A space opened.
The world beyond revealed a planet, on this planet was a thriving city, and finally revealed an emporium that was bustling with high mortal foot traffic. The skies above the mortals had been torn open, and when they looked up, they only saw the skies darken. There was nothing else. They went about their business after a few brief mentions of the chaotic weather.
"WHERE?!" She urgently shouted as she felt her entire body tremble violently. She could sense the encroaching will of the manifestation of time approaching. Fortunately, she should have some time. The Mythical Contract was an existence bound by the Mythical Laws, so a physical manifestation of it existed across all space and time alongside the very source of its power, unable to create a paradox.
This was why it could appear in random locations across space and time. There were times when a Mythical Contract would just be destroyed without reason as well, but very, very, very rarely as it was often protected by means that rivaled the origin of the contract signers. This contract had the power to withstand the power of Mystic Overlords, so only a sporadic Sage-level or higher danger event could cause its destruction.
"Wait! Wait!" The Grand Seer caused two orbs to explode as a burst of stored fate power that was equivalent to a hundred years of his cultivation shattered. Then, his expression turned incomparably ugly as he looked back into the Void.
"IT MOVED!"
Just as the chubby female Supreme Sage heard this, a thunderous roar erupted within the world. All mortals were halted. Her cheeks rippled as she went excessively pale. She tried to retreat.
"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! IT'S ALREADY HERE!!"
However, the temporal will had already found the inconsistency within the flow of time. It was as if it was expecting a paradoxical entity to descend.
She felt her entire True Soul was locked onto by an arresting power. She would have to face its wrath, and fighting against it was sure to cause great damage to her cultivation. However, despite her innocuous looks, she was incomparably vicious. She executed a spell. Her hand tapped onto the glabella of the Grand Seer as his eyes widened. Suddenly, the Grand Seer transformed into a green wooden form of her, pulsating with her True Soul aura.
She tossed him into the past world.
AND FLED!
Utterly baffled, the Grand Seer watched as the torn sky was closed, his True Soul felt stifled as he was locked on. None of his divination abilities could have foreseen this outcome.
"YOU BITC—"
Back in the Void, the chubby female Supreme Sage was heaving softly as she held her wide chest. Only those at her level genuinely understood the consequences of being a paradoxical entity. Unless one had the Law of Time and Law of Space on their side, death was an almost guarantee, barring exceedingly high cultivation.
And it wasn't just death.
It was a reincarnation-less death. Violating natural laws was a heavy taboo.
She sighed. "That was the second one. Will they give me a third? Tch. I was sure an Enlightened Sage could do it." Her words could cause all Grand Seers and Enlightened Sages throughout every galaxy to experience shivers that would reach their very souls. Unlike Alchemists, Seers weren't nearly as difficult of a path to embark on, or at the very least, excel in. Moreover, they were not as valued as Alchemists in the Utmost Purity Galaxy.
Just the Refinement Tower had over eighty Grand Seers and tens of thousands of Seers. And these were just the accepted ones given the right to work on behalf of the tower openly.
She hastily harnessed the power of her Void Treasure to return to her flow of time. While her cultivation was supreme, allowing her to travel through space and time via the medium that was the Void, she wasn't willing to suffer any accidents. She then sent a message back to send another Grand Seer via a stream of Resonant Qi that could transform into her Incarnation.
However, when her Incarnation arrived back in the Utmost Purity Galaxy, she felt a wave of horrifying terror stab at her heart.
"MYTHICAL PUNISHMENT!" She hurriedly rushed back with her true body! She had to! "What in the heavens did that disgusting bastard do?!"