Reaper of the Martial World

Book 4: Chapter 74: First Betrayal

Ri silently stared at Lionel as a dark aura dripped off of her in waves.

Void will was never just about a simple upgrade in space will, it also came with it an abyssal chaos that sought to tear through everything. Nothing could escape it, nor did it want anything to escape to escape it.

It was an upgrade to space will, yes. But, it was also a step up in both destruction and darkness will. Unmatched and unfettered.

Seeing Ri’s anger, Lionel hardly reacted, simply allowing violet flames to roll off of himself as he combatted Ri’s stifling aura.

An amused expression surfaced on Chenglei’s features. It was a shame that his black jade yang technique disallowed him from having too much fun, but with such a beauty in front of him, how could he keep such thought away? Even if he couldn’t do the deed to its fullest, there were plenty of other ways to enjoy a such a perfect body.

His anger for Dyon clouded his noble air entirely. If anyone from Focus Academy saw him now, they would most likely be surprised by his sudden shift in personality. However, different people reacted differently to loss.

The Chenglei from then looked down on the world in its entirety. Although he took Akihiko as a friend, that was only to make use of him. The original plan was for Akihiko to steal Madeleine’s talent, thus giving them more leverage with the Kami family. They didn’t need this leverage for the Kami God Clan because they had long since placed the Clyte Royal God Clan in their allies – because they ruled the planet the Kami resided on, the Kami were as good as theirs.

No, the reason they needed Akihiko was to have a firm foot placed in the plan of the Storm family.

It hardly matters now, but the Daiyu didn’t like the idea of splitting their spoils with the Ragnor family, so they had planned to undermine them with the Storm family. Unfortunately, because of Dyon, that plan fell through, and they were forced to move forward with the Ragnor, which put them in a disadvantageous situation.

For one, Patriarch Ragnor was far stronger than their leader, Elder Daiyu. In addition, the Ragnor main branch was on the level of an Emperor God Clan – something the Daiyu didn’t have the power to face currently.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Elder Daiyu was by far the oldest, and thus had the most understanding of the situation, the Ragnor’s may have long since cut out the middle man.

Knowing all of this, it was clear that the Daiyu hated Dyon for more than just his celestial deer sect affiliation. He had ruined their plans for true autonomy.

But now, his wife had delivered herself to them. And, if Lionel’s words were to be taken at face value, his second wife was also hiding somewhere around here as well!

Images of Dyon’s piercing gaze flooded Chenglei’s mind.

Just a few months ago, they had been even in all aspects. And now? Dyon had the audacity to look down on him with disdain?

Even after punching him hundreds of time, the humiliation of being forced to his knees with a mere gaze still hadn’t been washed away from Chenglei’s psyche. The worst thing to him was knowing that Dyon would die still thinking he was superior to him. That filled Chenglei with an irrational rage that he wanted to unleash upon Ri!

However, when he noticed that Ri hardly cared about the threat of him, his anger could only grow.

‘You dare look down on me, too?! We’ll see how long you can keep that up! I’d like to see you maintain that gaze with all of your dignity stripped from you!’

“To think you’d betray your own Planet… Your own clan… Your own father…” Ri let a breathless laugh escape her. “Pathetic.”

Lionel’s emotions didn’t fluctuate. “My father spent all twenty plus years of my life in seclusion, training for some supposed higher purpose. And yet, he seemed perfectly content as a mediocre Royal God Clan – ruling mediocre clans – on a mediocre planet.”

Lionel remembered his talks with his father. King Belmont had asked him where Lionel thought his strength fell when compared to the other Royal God Clan heads.

At the time, Lionel had feigned ignorance – claiming that he couldn’t possibly know how to scale the power of celestials. However, the truth was that Lionel already had his own answer at the time. And from what he knew? The Belmonts had already fallen far behind whatever supposed protection his father could provide. And the potential of their universe? Was even worse.

Suddenly, another wave spread through the Daiyu.

“Someone is asking for permission to enter the barrier!”

Chenglei looked over at Lionel, only to receive a nod.

“Let them in.” Chenglei said.

Ri’s frown deepened. She knew quite well that none of her allies would be coming right now. Her father needed to tend to her mother and wasn’t even aware of the mission Ri had undertaken. That was not to mention the fact that, if it had been someone who was here to help her, they wouldn’t have been allowed in so easily.

The fiery gazes of the Daiyu males had been trained on Ri’s body this whole time. The domineering white leather and silver armor she was wearing clung to her curves perfectly. Coupled that with her bestial aura, and she gave off an irresistible vibe.

But, when the skies of the Belmont Holy Land came to be filled with endless beauties, they lost where to focus their attention. None of them were as beautiful as Ri, but they couldn’t very well all share one. The hundreds of beauties in the skies broadened their horizons and also at least doubled Ri’s enemies…

When Ri realized which sect had arrived, her eyes couldn’t help but narrow. She could only watch as a beauty with long white hair and eyes walked noiselessly to Lionel’s side, almost gliding with her every step.

She wrapped her arms around his, smiling brightly and she looked toward Ri condescendingly.

“I’m here…” She said softly, emphasizing her next word to ensure Ri understood. “Husband.”

The woman was none other than the first in line genius of the Niveus God Sect. A woman who held an endless and deep seeded hatred for Dyon…

Evelyn Niveus.

Within the world of white, Dyon remained kneeling as his master began to recount her story.

“There are many things within my memory that I’ve hidden from you. But, there are many things that I chose not to as well. One of those things is quite important to the lore of this universe… The concept you know as heat death.” The 25^th White Mother began.

Heat Death was a concept that Dyon had learned of from the mortal world, but it seemed to have a very strong place in the martial world as well.

Essentially, there were two main forms of energy. Energy that is capable of being used, and energy that has lost its use.

Over time, usable form of energy decreases, while unusable forms increase. The end result would be a world with no useful energy whatsoever… A catastrophe of a world.

Imagine no longer being able to make use of energy… Life would no longer exist because there would be nothing to power it. Even if you happened to be alive before this occurred, your death would be imminent, and there would be nothing you could do to stop it.

However, this Heat Death came with it another law of the world. With this ever-increasing useless energy, the cosmos would be constantly moving toward a more and more chaotic and lawless form. In the end, the laws that had formed the universe would cease meaning everything… There would be no life… No order… No beginning… There would only be destruction, death and ends.

 “I know that you’re aware of the story of the dark phoenixes, and how they traveled the universes, spreading their death qi. But, I want you to understand that the amount of universe the dark phoenixes destroyed pales in comparison to the number taken by heat death.

“The Cosmos is trillions upon trillions of years old. Life has existed for so long that there is no single record of everything from its beginning that I’m aware of. However, with such a long history, and with endless cycles in play… It must come to a conclusion…

“In the beginning, there was such an abundance of energy that universes sprung up spontaneously. Every day, thousands to even millions of new dimensions would spring into existence, gracing the cosmos with myriads of beautiful and unique species.

“This energy is something I’m sure you’re familiar with by now. It’s the very same energy used to temper your transplanted set of meridians. The very same set given to you by our grand teacher. Gama energy.

“It’s the origin of everything that exists. It’s the amalgamation of every law, will, intent, dao and energy in the world. Anything that has, is or will ever exist originates from this very energy. And because of that energy, a large portion of early existence was a paradise. There was no chaos energy contamination, there was no shortage, so there was a never any excessive need, and the path through life was smooth.

“However, nothing remains perfect forever…” Dyon’s master sighed.

“Eventually, the first to ever die, passed on. And then a second… And then a third…

“It eventually became very obvious that this death was inevitable…

“Suddenly, there was a need. A need that everyone sought…. A need for life… To chase after it, to extend it, to grasp hold of it…

“Life became the first commodity in existence. It suddenly became clear that satisfactory resources wasn’t enough.

“However, even as people fought for and began to split resources more and more unevenly, there was still balance in the universe. Gama energy continued to be abundant and universes continued to be created at an astounding rate.

“But, just like everything else, that changed as well.

“In all this time, Gama energy and the balance of the universe remained happy, because although the perfection of its world had been lost, the very basis of its laws had not been encroached upon…

“Until the first cultivator appeared.”

Dyon remained silently kneeling as his master continued to speak.

“No one knows who this person was. There aren’t any records on if this person was an unprecedented genius who learned to defy the universe, or if they were just a lucky individual who stumbled upon something they shouldn’t have. Although… Lucky may not be the proper way to describe this person’s life…

“The first cultivator broke mortal limits and became an emperor among living beings, ruling for hundreds of years.

“Many thought that their problems had finally been solved… That they could finally cheat death as long as they learned what this first cultivator did…

“However, it was impossible to pry secrets out of someone so powerful, and this first cultivator only shared their secrets with their closest family members, hoping that they would live forever by each other’s sides…

“This led to many futile wars that only ended in death for their opponents. After all, how could mortals hope to match up to a martial expert?

“But, as you might have guessed, this first cultivator eventually noticed that after hundreds of years of health, that their life force was declining… Much like everyone else, they began to age, albeit much slower…

“It was clear that even as a cultivator, escaping death was impossible. However, the hope provided by cultivation was something no one could forget, and that hope began to fuel something else… What if there were higher levels? Levels the first cultivator didn’t reach? Levels that would help you live even longer? Maybe if you reached a high enough level, even death wouldn’t be able to chase you anymore!

“With this new hope, the first cultivator began to spread their insights, realizing that they were too close to the end of their life to care about protecting a kingdom they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the spoils of in death…

“Eventually, with so many minds working on the problem, people began to succeed. The first stage became known as the foundation stage, and the next became the meridian formation stage… And so on and so forth…

“Many variations of cultivation became recognized in the world…

“However, what people didn’t understand was that this was not the will of the universe… The laws didn’t want people to live forever, what they wanted was for everyone to live a short and greedless life – in complete peace.

“Then, when your time came, you would pass on. But, your life wouldn’t end there! Using the seeds of karma, you would be able to reincarnate, and live another short and fulfilling life. Such was the true cycle…

“However, this was completely shattered by cultivators…

“And soon, the repercussions came to bear as the first universe collapsed into non-existence… Taking with it every soul ever tied to its existence… Never to reincarnate again…”

“This was the very first case of Heat Death. The balance of the universe had been thrown into an imbalance with Gama energy being used in a way it shouldn’t be… Because the life force of mortals were being forcefully extended, that usable energy wasn’t being recycled into the reincarnation cycle like it should. As a result, it was very quickly becoming unusable as more and more cultivators came into being…

“Once energy becomes unusable, it’s impossible to revert it back to its original form. As a result, the fate of a universe that accumulates too much of this energy is only death. It’s doomed to collapse in on itself, erasing itself from existence. historical

“However, too few have the perspective to understand this… It takes billions of years for a universe to collapse from accumulation of this energy. The number of generations that pass through in that time would be astronomical, even in cultivation families. In fact, your mortal realm is the first time I’ve ever heard of a population of people grasping this concept so quickly… Your… ‘science’… Is truly remarkable although this observation was facilitated by the circumstances your universe has been put through…” The strange light shone in the 25^th White Mother’s eyes as she seemingly struggled with something.

“By the time cultivators began to understand that they were responsible for the collapsing of their universes, the culture of seeking immortality was too firmly entrenched to root out completely..

“If a single family took it upon themselves to cease cultivating, it would only be a window for another to take advantage, reaffirming themselves as rulers for the sake of short term benefits instead of long term prosperity…

“Too many adopted this nonchalant ‘I don’t care’ philosophy… Too many believed that since their heat death was so far in the future, they shouldn’t have to care for it…

“In the end, the spread of cultivation couldn’t be stopped. Those who wanted to stop, couldn’t for fear of being unable to protect themselves and their family. And those who didn’t care from the beginning continued to push themselves to greater heights still…

“However, Heat Death was a problem we all have to face eventually. For those families successful enough to survive to the final days of their universe, this became the biggest problem imaginable…

“Would they simply resign to their fate? Allowing the legacies they had built over billions of years crumble in front of them as the last members of their families died to the collapsing of their universes?

“The answer was no, of course…” The 25^th White Mother sighed.

“These families began searching for an answer to their questions. They covered everything from researching methods to restore unusable energy to disgusting cult methods of sacrifice and suffering.

“Unfortunately, the solution that these families eventually found was a mere patch on the hull of a ship… It didn’t truly fix anything, it only delayed the problem… And that was of course conquering universes…

“At the time, the existence of universes other than your own wasn’t entirely proven. However, the moment it was, there was inflex of inter-dimensional travel and with that came universe shattering wars…

“Because this was the time before the gates, the investment necessary to attack another universe was heavy, and therefore, thankfully, rare.

“However, as cultivators became more and more efficient in their martial path, shattering inter-dimensional barriers became as easy as breathing for some, causing these wars to become more and more frequent…

“Eventually, it turned from these wars being fought merely for survival, to some of the most vile and wide spread empires…

“Unfortunately, I am not aware of the history of how the Gates came to be. Although I was aware of the Epistemic Tower, I was never lucky enough to have grand teacher speak directly to me. But, as you know, that’s because he only recently split his mind to perform this task.”

If Dyon was actively responding to his master, he would have nodded in acknowledgement.

Back in the Epistemic Tower, Dyon had asked his grand teacher why he hadn’t warned the demon sage that the Timeless Library was nothing but a trap. At the time, his grand teacher told him that he only recently found it worth it to split his mind in such a way.

What Dyon didn’t know was that this was because his grand teacher was aware that even the end of his illustrious life was coming to an end.

“Now that you understand how the martial world came to be… It’s time I explain to you how your mortal realm became involved in such a thing…

“The truth of the matter is that the most valuable universes left in existence are ones with populations of people who have yet to comprehend the martial way…

“The Gama energy is the most pure. Cultivation resources are the most abundant.

“Because the universe has yet to be slighted, things like abyssal cores, as you call them, are as plentiful as stars in the sky. The purity of the wills is on a completely other level. Even the world itself it relatively at peace…

“Your universe used to be as such… A world unblemished by martial matters. A world pure in the strictest of sense – untouched by the anger of the universe…

“But also the object of greed for every martial expert…

“To conquer a universe like yours would not only be easy beyond belief, it would also give untold benefits for billions of years… Resulting prospering clans and generations for ages to comes…”

Tears glistened in Dyon’s master’s eyes. “This was our first betrayal of your people. Before even speaking of seals and the stealing of your talent…

“The first treacherous act against your people was coming to your universe in the first place. Taking away the decision that was rightfully yours…”