AIR Chapter 178

Chapter 178

In all of existence, in all of the large and all consuming void, there were realms. They shone like stars in the dead of night. 

Sometimes, it felt like the realms were a copy of the night sky. They weren’t, of course. If anything, the night sky was a reflection of them and the stars were a cheap reflection. 

But still, the light and the distance, the way they seemed to be there and be seen made the stars something else of their own. 

I stared at the realms.

My technique allowed me to perceive the realms the same way I saw the stars. The larger realms shone like galaxies and the tiniest ones wouldn’t even be seen. 

Practically, it was useless. 

I wasn’t out here relaxing though. I wasn’t even out in the void. I was just outside of Ah-Marin and from here the realm looked like a marble next to my feet. It was small and shivering. A tiny bundle of qi. 

It was a star as well, another shining point amongst the infinitely large scape of the world.

From the most common view of the multiverse, and from where I was next to Ah-Marin, there was the Heavens and the Hells, or rather the gates to them. They stood opposite each other, infinite infinities in between them. Then there was the Law Lands and the Chaos Realms, seemingly perpendicular to the Heavens and the Hells' own independent lines. 

Though calling it parallel is a bit of a lie. These two things were merely the most experienced spectrum of existence and they were the most present. 

The Law Lands exuded all the basic building blocks of the universe. Laws made up realities and realms, and chaos devoured them. So it was bound to be one of the most important axes of existence. 

Then there were the Heavens and the Hells. That was the realm of man and what people cared about most of all, morality. 

In opposition there was the Cosmic Forest or the Sea of Death, which was everywhere, or almost everywhere. It was accessible from most points of existence aside from a few that weren’t. The Cosmic Forest for example, was not found in the Endless City. And Certain Realms refused the concept of death, though they had to be powerful enough to defy the Kings of Death what they rightfully sought. 

An axis was the term used for the relational path created from opposing realms. The Heavens and the Hells axis, along with the Law and Chaos one were the largest and most occupied paths, one because it was the source of all realms and the other because it was where every powerful cultivator of any worth would go to. 

To live in the world was to live amongst people and if you interacted with those people, you had inherent morality. 

Somewhere far beneath Lynoria and the Hells was Ez and near it were a stretch of realms called the Solitude’s Peak. Ez was more to Chaos and Solitude’s Peak was halfway to the Law Lands. It was a place of cultivation and empty of mortals and even other people. Anyone who entered would be given an individual realm and the realm itself seemed to have a law of solitude. 

Breaking that Law was possible, but it was proportional to your power. It was like how flight was possible, but a second rank with a flying sword still couldn’t venture out into space. In Solitude’s Peak, each realm had its own Rank and within one of those realms was said to be the Lone Imperium. A God Imperium who rejected every other being and took only to himself.

Though if a God Imperium really wanted to do that, they could just leave most of existence and persist outside of it so most doubted that legend. What people did know was that the realms within Solitude’s Peak held immense strength. The lowest were made for mortals, but the strongest realms could reach even the sixteenth rank. It was rich with qi for cultivation and the realms were often fought over by beings of the sixteenth rank. 

I leaned into my map. It was an extra-dimensional thing but it resembled a crystalline structure of shifting things. 

One of the problems with a map was its… consistency. That was perfect for land maps, continents don’t move that fast, but the multiverse moves fast. A lot of the larger stars stay where they were, but the smaller ones shifted and changed quite a bit. The Imperium Realms, realms ruled over by God-Imperiums, stayed the same. But lesser realms that could be claimed by God-Kings shifted over time. 

Realms below that could shift quickly, both in position and owner. 

They were like tiny little fireflies glistening between the stars. They weren’t nearly as bright, but they could hurt me nonetheless. 

I was here logging out a route. The plan was simple, if tedious. Once I had taken care of a few things here, I would use the reflection technique and send one of myself out to take care of things out there. 

I still had to finish the defense array in Ah-Marin, and after that I would get to work creating a cultivation technique, all things I could do here. The other me would focus on a few things, like getting a true splitting technique, one that was more efficient the one I had made and helping Wriendler face tribulation of the twelfth realm. 

I would also be searching for better methods to heal my soul.

It would be a lot of work, but I had to start somewhere and that’s where I would start. 

My eyes gleamed towards the law lands. That would be my first destination. That was where I would go to deal with both Wriendler and a bit of my soul. 

The Shrine of Man was there. Much like the laws of fire and water, and even gravity, Man itself could be seen as a law. A formation that all humanoids tended to follow was a law all its own. 

It didn’t need to be kept or cared for, but the Shrine of Man was where it was worshiped and gathered and one of the oldest churches within existence. 

And there was a good chance that they would have something to help me fix myself over there, though it was a bit of a long shot. 

The things I needed became more and more complicated as my soul’s healing process came together. It was the opposite of a physical wound in some ways. The initial steps were quick, easy even. The later steps required more and more complicated procedures. 

It was much like carving a figure out of wood or stone. First, you took out big chunks, then you had to whittle away at the problem little by little.