"It's unclear what went wrong with that being's breakthrough," Shandal said. "The cultivation journey followed different paths back then that even They couldn't retrieve. Yet, it was clear that it lacked something and that it wasn't ready to give up on the tenth rank after just one failure."
Noah's group had long since forgotten that they were in a separate dimension inside the enemy territory and that they were speaking to the will of a divine entity. The story that they were hearing was too interesting for them to mind anything else.
After all, Shandal was speaking about the origin of Heaven and Earth!
They were the very foundation of the cultivation journey and set the rules for everything in the world. Their fairness was what forced the Mortal Lands to be in their current state, and their laws set the foundation for every living being striving for the divine ranks.
Also, Shandal had mentioned the tenth rank, which was one of the most difficult topics among the higher-ups of any organization.
"This powerful existence fused with the world upon its failure," Shandal continued. "It used its immense power to create a system that could give birth to the answer that it had missed. The Tribulations appeared, and the path to godhood became limited to personal laws that escaped what Heaven and Earth were capable of providing. All the cultivators became their guinea pigs meant to find the missing piece that would open the path to the tenth rank."
No matter how absurd Shandal's words appeared, the cultivators on the scene couldn't reject them.
Noah and the others didn't know how he knew so much, especially since they were matters that belonged to the first era of the cultivators. Yet, they fit the current system perfectly and even gave meaning to the behavior of the world toward certain events.
"Heaven and Earth created a higher plane from the pieces of multiple Mortal Lands and used it to push the gods to their limits," Shandal said. "The Tribulations, the fairness, and the ascension are just tools that the world uses to create an elite group of cultivators that has more chances to uncover the path that surpasses the divine ranks."
Shandal appeared tired after that explanation. The structure of the will didn't lose any energy, but its expression was one of helplessness.
"Fusing with the world had its drawbacks though," Shandal continued. "Heaven and Earth started to lose their individuality as they remained trapped in the system that they had created. Flaws started to appear in the world, and their control over the rules began to falter as the millennia passed. You are just one of a series of mistakes committed by Heaven and Earth as their original will dissolved."
Shandal had turned toward Noah at that last line, and the others in his group couldn't ignore that information anymore. They started to glance at Noah with curious gazes, and even June showed some confusion when she looked at him.
However, Noah's gaze didn't move. It remained fixed on the will.
"Who are They?" Noah asked, but the will shook his head and continued his story.
"The Attunement method leads to a dead-end because it imitates a copy of what once ruled the behavior of the "Breath"," Shandal said. "Still, I broke its limits as I tried to become a law of time. I would have never imagined that I would become forever bound to Heaven and Earth after overcoming the Heaven Tribulation."
The expression of the will became even sourer when his story reached that point, but he didn't stop speaking. "I became part of the system created by Heaven and Earth since I imitated their laws. This gives me access to their thoughts, plans, and actions, but prevented me from ever striving to become something more."
"I fought it at the beginning," Shandal continued while wearing a smirk. "My path couldn't be over yet. However, I soon realized that my mind was fusing with the world too and that my dantian couldn't enlarge."
"I started to play around then," The will announced without any trace of shame. "I played with the human and heroic cultivators of the Mortal Lands as I stood undisturbed at the peak of this lower plane. Eventually, someone else reached the divine ranks, and I followed them to the plane that I couldn't reach on my own. That was when I met Them, and I received a mission in a world that I had started to hate."
"The idea was simple," Shandal said. "I had to create an environment inside the system and teach what I knew to as many divine cultivators as I could. Those experts would then become proper enemies of the world and affect Heaven and Earth's plan to their core."
Of course, Noah and the others didn't need to ask how he had increased the overall number of cultivators. Even the political system of the Empire seemed meant for that task. Giving the possibility to cultivate to everyone and grooming the most talented among them gave birth to many cultivators that would be commoners in every other region.
"The priority was to send divine beings in the higher plane," Shandal said as he pointed at the chessboard. "I went after them just to remind myself of what I've lost, but the important aspect of the matter is that the newly ascended cultivators knew that they had to strive for a path outside of the system."
According to the will's words, anything related to the individualities had some traces of Heaven and Earth inside them. That would make them vulnerable to the suppression of the world once in the higher plane, which would end in their destruction.
"Why the pawns? Why Odrea nation?" Noah asked again since the previous conversation ended.
"The pawns are proof of my achievements," Shandal answered. "By creating the most powerful organization and forcing wars, I've managed to help the birth of many exceptional individuals that ultimately became gods. As for the Odrea nation, what you learnt on the surface has happened, just more than fifty thousand years ago."
"What is its purpose?" Noah asked.
"I need them to have a proof of human resilience," Shandal answered. "Back in my era, I destroyed the defensive formation and killed the patriarch of the Odrea nation after I won the race toward the Divine ranks. Yet, I needed something to observe to rekindle my spirit whenever I thought that the passage of time would crush me. I even created myself to stop the dispersion of my mind."
The explanation seemed over at that point, but Noah and the others had so much to ask.
"Why did you create this dimension?" Flying Demon asked.
"I can't improve here, nor in the Immortal Lands since my laws are just a copy of a copy of the natural ones in the world," Shandal said. "I figured that I could train again if I made a copy of a copy of the Immortal Lands."
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