The greatest thing about the void was how big it was. In theory, you could traverse its length in an instant. I could stand here and sense both the Heavens and the Hells.

  But size, or rather capacity, was a strange thing.

  In the distance for example shone Lynoria like a bright lantern in the sky. It was a dot, a speck among infinity but it was also infinite itself, containing an endless set of realms and people.

  Yet I could see it. I could know its outline and trace its edges.

  And that was reality. Realms of endless magnitude and power dotted the nothingness, their presence striking through the void.

  Some realms were close, but even distance wasn’t so simple out here.

  The Cosmic Forest was the best example of that.

  It was the Forest. It was everywhere. It was the small shadows in a grove. It was where children slipped to at times with the Fey. It was the home of Dragons and Beasts, Fairies and Elves.

  It was the Forest, every forest from the dark woods of witches and wolves to the delightful groves of druids and refuge. They could all lead to this forest and they all did.

  This was the place of wild things and contradictions. The Celestial Realm that reached both the Heavens and the Hells.

  There were multiple paths of direction out here. One was of course the first and most known, the Heavens up above and the Hells down below. But there was also Order and Chaos.

  On one side lay the outer realm of Laws. That was the home of the Second Keepers, the place where all things made sense, the home of all physical laws. And to the other side was the Chaos Realms. A place riddled with nothing but chaotic qi. Orderless, without any rules or definitions.

  Most beings didn’t go in that direction unless they had a nature tied to chaos. It was dangerous there.

  But this was only two sets of directions. One didn’t affect the other in any way. Navigation out here was all about where you were and where you wanted to go, the journey and distance could vary in infinite ways.

  But more important than any of that was your ability to traverse them.

  Powerful beings took the most direct routes.

  For example, the path from the height of the Heavens to Lynoria was a straight descent that passed through multiple Celestial Realms, each ruled by a God-Imperium. And unless you wanted to tread through the realm of these beings, you would avoid those realms and instead slowly descend down via other realms.

  It was like a highway filled with powerful cities, each of which would judge you as an individual.

  Lynoria was the best example of this ideal. It was the most popular celestial realm and only one major rule of no fatalities, but even that made it unappealing to certain groups of people.

  Most of the Heavens refused to let anyone who was not a member of their sect or shared their ideals enter. The same could be said for the hells and any of their rulers.

  If they allowed strangers to enter their domain, then it directly related to their cultivation. The Divine Beast Emporium, for example, raised, trained, and kept beasts. That was a part of how they cultivated their dao and selling those beasts only strengthened their dao.

  It was the same in most celestial realms that were ruled by God-Imperiums. There were a few free ones, ones that afforded a level of autonomy to individuals.

  But I would be avoiding those as well. I had not one but two bits of God-Imperiums on me, and bringing those into another God-Imperiums domain might doom me to a death beyond my comprehension.

  That, and my destination wasn’t too far away. The Cosmic Forest was everywhere, like the Sea of Death. There were a few Celestial Realms that it didn’t touch, like the Hive Lands and The Endless City, but aside from those few places, the Celestial Forest was everywhere.

  Any realm that had a forest tied itself to the Cosmic Forest. It was special in that way. It was rare, very rare, but people would stumble into it all the time. Even on Earth, a realm that must have had almost no qi, there were stories of fey.

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  Some said that the Cosmic Forest even touched Eden and the First Keepers. Others said it led into the backwoods of Olympus.

  A forest was an ecosystem. Less defined by the trees and animals and more defined by the connections between them, and that was what the Cosmic Forest was. It was the food cycle, it was the pattern that all of life came together to sing.

  And it was the home of the Fey, the rulers of the forest.

  It was also a celestial realm but unlike Lynoria or the Divine Beast Emporium, it was ruled by a number of God-Imperiums.

  It was a special type of celestial realm, one of a few like the Hive Lands and the Sea of Death.

  Each God-Imperium had its own domain within the realm, but they all shared some kind of dominion over it. In the Sea of Death, it was an ocean, with Death Gods claiming islands of realms that floated atop it.

  It was the same for the Hive Lands. All of these beings controlled a concept so similar to one another that it served them to be close to each other rather than apart. Their Daos were similar and their natures were similar.

  I traversed the void. Not far, but not close either.

  If other realms were cities then the Cosmic Forest was a forest. It spread and spread and spread, itself to no end. One could enter it at almost any point, but the forest had parts.

  And the part I was looking for, the Hills of Life was not found so close to Ah-Marin.

  I wandered through the void, following small qi streams set up by Array Masters before me, and a few set up by myself.

  They served as connection points for the small beings of the void, beings like me at the thirteenth rank. They had no meaning or laws in them, not inherently. It was merely a wiring of qi, going from one realm to another. Then, regardless of how far apart those realms were from each other, there would always be something to connect them. Something that touched the both of them, tying their existence closer and making the journey quick.

  I liked these pathways. To me, they were like cobblestones. Small roads built by relatively small beings, meant for others like me. And for those weaker than me.

  That was the thing Dane had loved about arrays.

  In theory, they were simple small things. The three fundamental forces of qi are push, pull, and hold, and using those basic concepts a twelfth-rank being was able to tie even realms together.

  It was nothing really, mere ants bridging a puddle. But it was still impressive, at least it was to me.

  I stood next to a small realm and looked around.

  Navigation changed based on where you were and what you looked for. Here, I was on the outskirts of a Celestial Realm, one ruled by one of the more appealing God-Imperiums.

  They won’t care if you trespass on their domain. The piece of us that are with you are minute, and observational in nature. Many disciples of God-Imperium sects carry similar pieces of their kings. You are not so important as to draw out God-Imperiums by the dozens.

  I trusted the Tome, but I also wanted to feel safe. And if that came at the cost of a longer trip, then so be it.

  The problem was that Celestial Realms just glowed. They were like stars in the sky, you could see them and aim for them. But I kept using planets and moons instead, minor realms that just couldn’t be sensed from so far away.

  “Would it be safer?” I asked. “Is there some threat hidden along my route?”

  I do not protect you or divine your troubles.

  “Then I’ll stick to my way,” I replied.

  I didn’t think I was important either, but two God-Imperiums now knew my name and had helped me. Obviously, I had done something that I myself couldn’t quite grasp, and while I trusted the Tome, I don’t think it disagreed with my actions.

  “Do you actually want me to travel directly through the celestial realms for some reason or are you just trying to manage my ego.”

  I am simply being truthful.

  God-Imperiums sucked.

  is 14 chapters ahead at the five-dollar tier(up to chapter 122) and 28 chapters ahead at the ten-dollar tier(up to chapter 137) The latest chapters are taking some time but I hope to have two to three more chapters on there by tomorrow morning.

  Volume One is finished on

  The next chapter will be Friday.

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  Thanks for reading!