Chapter 143: The Unmentionable Existence

Lord Sheng fell unexpectedly silent.

He understood what Wang Li wanted to ask, but he could not say, nor did he dare to say.

After a long silence, Lord Sheng said, "Let's talk about the Prime World instead."

Wang Li also knew that his question touched upon that unspeakable existence, so he did not press further.

"Very well, this is the first time I've ever heard of the Prime World!"

Indeed, cooped up in the Heavenly Profound World, he had virtually no contact with the outside world, and he was curious about everything beyond it.

It was just that Lord Sheng had always seemed to steer clear of these matters, so he had held back from asking. Now that Lord Sheng had brought it up of his own accord, he listened very intently.

Lord Sheng explained, "The Prime World does not refer to a single world, but rather to the 1,200 worlds clustered around the roots of the World Tree."

"These worlds were born very early on and are located close to the World Tree's position for absorbing chaotic energy. Even under the constraints of the World Tree, they are able to receive plenty of nourishment from the primal chaos qi escaping from the wounds at the World Tree's roots. Therefore, they are very fully developed, and their upper limit of power is also very high, capable of accommodating the physical bodies of Saints."

"Within these worlds, the path of cultivation is quite complete. Races such as humanity, the demon race, and the celestial race have established extremely brilliant civilizations. In the past, the passages between two hundred worlds were opened, allowing various worlds to freely communicate with one another. The evolution of civilization gradually tended to converge, and there were no communication barriers among the major living groups. Immortal cultivation was prevalent, and a few races even maxed out their technology trees, developing unique and advanced civilizations."

"Conflicts between the cultivation civilization and the technological civilization are constant. Because the technological civilization lacks the ability to break through the barriers of the Prime World and explore the World Tree, it is basically a vassal of the cultivation civilization. There hasn't been a breakthrough in basic theory for a long time; at most, they have merely implemented the knowledge I passed on to you."

"However, none of this matters; it cannot affect the bigger picture."

Wang Li asked at the most opportune moment, "What is the bigger picture of the Prime World?"

"Hehe, do you remember when I told you about how many worlds ran away from the World Tree?"

Wang Li nodded.

Such a thing sounded utterly unbelievable. The foundation of a world was the World Tree, and those worlds had merely taken away a small portion of its roots. After detaching from the main body of the World Tree, where on earth did they obtain the foundation to continue growing?

Even if that portion of the roots carried a great deal of energy, once they left the World Tree, they were sources without roots. You surely couldn't claim that they used that piece of root to cultivate an entirely new World Tree!

Lord Sheng had said that the primal chaos qi had been almost completely absorbed by the World Tree. Could it be that they had found a massive amount of primal chaos qi, or resolved the source of power needed for their own growth and sustenance?

He had many questions in his heart, eagerly awaiting Lord Sheng's explanation.

Lord Sheng did not disappoint him, and elaborated, "The bigger picture is that the World Tree has begun to degenerate. If the Prime World wishes to continue growing and surviving, it must find a way to restore the vitality of the World Tree, or track down those runaway worlds to see how they solved the problem of energy scarcity."

"Faced with the survival of the Prime World, the Prime World has split into four factions."

"The first is a group of people hoping to find a solution at the end of the cultivation path. This faction has the fewest people, but they are extremely powerful because they are all Saints, or at the very least, Golden Immortals of the Da Luo realm."

"However, they also face the greatest difficulty... the dual suppression of the World Tree and the World Will."

"The World Tree has been burned once before and will absolute not allow beings capable of threatening it to appear within the worlds. Therefore, once those Saints reach the limit of their cultivation, it is extremely difficult for them to continue breaking through."

"The worlds where the Saints reside also do not allow them to transcend the world, and there are precedents for this as well. When living beings become powerful to a certain extent, the threat they pose to the world is simply too great. Thus, aside from those few fellows who exploited loopholes to become Saints, throughout countless cosmic epochs, I am the only new Saint. Unfortunately, I was too reckless, and as a result, I became the only unlucky Saint to have fallen. You must remember my lesson well, young man!"

Wang Li said, "Rest assured, Senior, I am not reckless."

Lord Sheng nodded with satisfaction and continued, "The second faction is much more pragmatically minded. They are deeply influenced by the ideology of technological civilization and believe that the primal chaos qi did not disappear after being absorbed, but rather transformed into other forms of energy. Therefore, they want to find a way to retro-engineer primal chaos qi to extend the life of the World Tree."

"It's just that their path has gone astray. They conceived of using the energy of other small worlds collapsing into extinction to retro-engineer primal chaos qi. Although the number of worlds is large, they are ultimately limited. Once the small worlds are exhausted, will they set their sights on the Prime World out of a desire to cling to survival?"

"Consequently, they quickly became targets of universal condemnation and have been dormant for a long time. However, they haven't stopped their actions either. To buy more time, the other factions turn a blind eye to their covert efforts to fertilize the World Tree."

"The third faction is quite aggressive. Their philosophy is to divide the World Tree and go their separate ways. Those who can find a solution will live, and those who cannot save themselves will perish."

"Their mindset is very passive and not recognized by the majority of living beings. They are basically like rats crossing the street, even more hated than the fellows inspiringly trying to extend the life of the World Tree."

"The final faction is very moderate. They simply want to track down the runaway worlds, make the World Tree whole again, and see if it can regain its youth."

"Of course, if those runaways have already resolved the ultimate problem of their energy sources, they wouldn't mind making the World Tree even more magnificent."

"The boundaries among the four major factions are not very distinct. Living beings are pragmatists and may defect to other factions at any time due to various circumstances."

At this point, Lord Sheng felt something was amiss. He patted his forehead and said, "Having said all this, it's actually not of much use to you. These are the thoughts of just the tiny sliver of top-tier living beings in the Prime World. The ordinary beings in the Prime World know nothing about the World Tree, nor do they care."

"Because the highly developed civilization of the Prime World immerses most living beings in seemingly ultimate problems like how to simply survive."

"Therefore, the Prime World is very chaotic—at least for living beings below the Da Luo Golden Immortal realm, it is chaotic. But for the beings at the bottom, it is quite effortless."

"Material goods are abundant, and lifestyles are convenient. They only think about living better lives, and they neither have nor are conscious of the high-end issues concerning the world."

"That is probably ordinary happiness."

Wang Li scratched his head. "So? What on earth are you trying to say, Senior?"

"Cultivators have different opinions, but mortals and cultivators don't even live on the same plane, so there's really no comparison, right?"

The topics Lord Sheng spoke of were truly high-end. Although he was curious, Wang Li had almost fallen asleep. It was only when Lord Sheng mentioned the lives of ordinary people in the Prime World that he regained a bit of interest.

Yet Lord Sheng stopped talking right there... leaving him hanging.

He simply didn't believe that Lord Sheng hadn't probed his thoughts.

Lord Sheng smiled mysteriously. "I've said so much precisely to tell you that it's time for the Heavenly Profound World to change as well. Are you interested in transforming the Heavenly Profound World into another Prime World?"