It took some some time for Alex to realize that the discomfort and anxiety was only partially caused by the depression he felt. Earlier, while rushing in the library, he ignored the fact that in the residence there was no cultivation spot similar to Lou Chen’s pavilion or to the ones Wang Hao’s disciples had. In fact, the sect master had to have the best Qi gathering formation in the world, but all Alex found was a bunch of books.
Guided by the curiosity he began to turn the whole place upside down trying to find another hidden door. It was only logical that the sect master would’ve wanted to recuperate after the fight with Lou Chen and theoretically that place had to be somewhere outside, but only if the formation was similar to what the others had and unfortunately Alex didn’t notice any structure like that when he arrived.
The Qi pond in the Academy of saints was located at the spot where the Qi naturally gathered from the surrounding mountains. But the core of the Immortal Gate sect was in a snake formation and the sect master’s residence, being located at the head, had to be the place where all the Qi congregated. It would be a crime against the common sense to not build an amplifying formation here and, judging by the size of the ‘snake’, the formation had to be much larger compared to what grand elders had.
Alex’s mood was instantly lifted when he thought of this possibility, but it took him some time to find another secret passage.
After the fight with Lou Chen, the sect master definitely had to go to recuperate somewhere and since Alex met him on the way down, it indicated that the hidden passage also had to be either in the library or in the room behind the other door. In addition, Lou Chen’s body also was brought somewhere else since he hadn’t found the old man yet.
Unfortunately no matter how meticulous Alex searched, there was no sign of abnormalities in the second room thus leaving the library as the only option. Alex was not happy about it in the slightest since there was no telling which book or shelf could be the secret lever opening the passage, but then he realized this was not a place he needed to preserve. With such thought he began to quickly pile books on the floor until there was none left on the shelves, but when he was done the only result he achieved was turning the library into a complete mess.
Then he began to inspect the walls. Even after a careful observation they seemed to be simply carved in the rock and inconspicuous, but a more detailed search allowed Alex to discover a small bloody fingerprint close to the floor in the furthest part of the library. Few moments later he found a tiny protrusion that, after being pressed, opened the passageway he was looking for.
The most surprising part was the strange mechanism that allowed one to close the wall behind them after entering and Alex, after weighing his options for a moment, did exactly that.
The passage turned out to be unexpectedly long, but contrary to the route to his Qi pond, Alex could easily walk in full height. Some other things about it were similar though.
For example, after a couple of minutes he arrived at the first cave room. It was relatively large and furnished as a dead end, creating an impression as if it was the spot the sect master came to in order to retreat from the world, but Alex knew better and after few minutes he found a tunnel leading further into the mountain.
After another hundred fifty or so meters he arrived at next cave room, but this one turned out to be more like a giant trap. With the weak lighting the torch provided, Alex didn’t notice the lack of floor, or rather – the ground. When he stepped inside, he found himself in a free fall, but somehow managed to grab a slight protrusion on the wall and didn’t fall to death.
The air, filled with the stench of sulfur made him dizzy, but after a bit of struggle Alex climbed back up and with a bit of jumping got over to the next tunnel. He glanced back down the chasm one last time and heaved a sigh of relief – just a bit more and he would’ve joined Lou Chen and the core disciples who most likely lie at the very bottom. From what it looked like, this was the only place where one could dump the bodies around here and thus it became the resting place of countless core disciples who arrived with the delusional dream of becoming immortals.
The next tunnel turned out to be the last one, albeit the longest one as well. Of course, after the previous misstep Alex advanced with extreme care, but fortunately there were no traps – neither natural nor man-made.
He walked for almost half an hour and after many twists and turns finally arrived at a huge cavern.
After looking around Alex could only shake his head and sigh – compared to this place his Qi pond cave was a rabbits den. The cavern, in a size of a large estate, was artificially carved deep in the mountain in a half spherical shape. It was obvious that not only the runic carvings on the walls and ground, but the whole place was created by someone, most likely by the same people who made the time altering formations outside.
Alex slowly explored the place, admiring the walls like he was visiting an art museum. Even though he recognized few of the runic markings, he had no clue what they actually meant. They looked impressive and as a part of formation, probably, worked and for now that was enough.
In the end he made his way to the middle of the cavern. There, like a huge hot tub, lie a milky pond, similar to the one he once had, except this was at least five times bigger. The water inside was also warm, but Alex hesitated to jump right in.
First of all, he was used to wash himself before getting inside and secondly – a thought of another man soaking in there for centuries was not the most pleasant one.
Alex stared at the milky water for a minute and then thought, ‘F*ck it! I’ll just call this place my ‘big Qi pond’!’
He forced himself to undress, put out the torch, got in and slowly submerged, in his mind immediately returning to the place he basically lived a couple of lifetimes ago.
Initially the feeling wasn’t really bad, but the memories of him and Nabia spending years in cultivation returned again. With a smile Alex relived the previous life once more while mostly enjoying it, right up to the point when emperor Cirius killed him.
Alex opened his eyes being all pissed at himself just like he did after the previous reincarnation and slapped the water surface in annoyance. Turns out his opinion about himself was too high – even the many years of Qi cultivation did not allow him to control his own mood. Obviously a big part was played by the fact that he was in a youth’s body again, but the inability to stay calm was disturbing.
Then he suddenly got an idea – if after a soul merge person’s looks slightly change, could he use that in order to mature faster? But then again, which of his longest lives should he chose – the first one or the one during which he met Nabia? Or both?
In the end Alex decided to Soul merge with all the remaining reincarnations. Sooner or later he would do it anyway, so why not now?
One after another he connected to his previous lives starting from the first and slowly absorbed them while adding the acquired soul particles to his soul brand. It grew to unprecedented size, but what surprised Alex was the ease of the process and how quickly it went.
What he didn’t know was that actually the process was not quick at all and he had spent over half a century in the big Qi pond – and that according to the time flow of the core sect. In the outside world several generations have changed and the people he knew long passed away.
During the first decade Alex was in meditation, nothing major happened. But soon few of the grand elders became restless. The disappearance of Lou Chen was not a surprise – most people including the sect master didn’t particularly like him, but the sect master was never absent for more than a year.
While disciples discussed if their glorious leader had gone back to the real of immortals, the elders questioned whether Lou Chen actually managed to gravely injure the sect master or maybe even take him along to the afterlife.
In the end it was Tang Hai whose ambitions forced him to brave into the sect master’s residence and find everything just as Alex had left.
To the experienced eye of the grand elder from the first glance was clear that there has been a huge fight and after a more detailed search he found multiple poisonous needles, few of which had tiny bits of blood on them. He quickly guessed that it was highly likely the sect master would never show up and a couple of hours later he found the secret passage and the decomposing remains of the sect master.
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This was a risky once in a lifetime opportunity that Tang Hai couldn’t let pass, but he had to act fast. He immediately gathered few other grand elders and announced that he’s been appointed to be the acting sect master until further notice. His support was considerable, but that didn’t prevent Wang Hao to rush to wake the first and the second grand elders from their secluded cultivation to create an opposition.
Of course, Tang Hai already expected such proceedings. In fact, at first he actually was preparing for the sect master’s return, therefore a couple of old-timers didn’t scare him. As a result a colossal battle between two parties occurred at the sect master’s residence.
If Lou Chen and the sect master fought concentrating their attacks on each other, then now two large parties consisting of over hundred Qi experts on each side went at each other trying to inflict as much damage as possible. It all led to huge changes in the landscape where even the two mountain ranges greatly suffered and the only thing that for some reason couldn’t be damaged was the ancient time altering formation.
While lying in his big Qi pond, Alex was oblivious to the tremors caused by the battle as well as the fact that the passage leading to the cavern he came through caved in. Later there were attempts to find the former sect master’s treasuries and secret cultivation rooms, but the cavern was so deep below the mountain one would need incredibly advanced equipment in order to find it.
During the next several years the world experienced huge political changes – the Immortal Gate sect quickly lost its influence on the other continents, but on the original one it transformed in to a religion led by one of the surviving grand elders. The core sect was transformed into a ‘sacred land’ and became the destination of countless pious pilgrims and near the former sect master’s residence was built a huge golden statue of the ‘god’ everyone worshiped.
Meanwhile Alex was still on a quest to merge with his previous lives until the one he cared most about was left as the last one. He performed this soul merge particularly slowly, savoring every second of this life, but in the end was once again left with bitterness and regrets.
Before he fell into a permanent state of depression, he noticed another soul thread that wasn’t there before. Alex was certain he merged with all his previous eight lives, thus this soul thread could only signify there was a life he didn’t know about or rather – didn’t remember.
Thrilled by the implications he began to follow the thread. It was barely visible and at times he could barely feel its existence. He even lost it occasionally and had to start over, but the whole process turned into exciting game. Alex had no clue how much time passed and, in fact, didn’t really care. Step after step he followed the soul thread until one day he did find a life on the other end, but what he discovered almost made him blank out – this life was definitely not his!
But he recognized it very well. The sense of familiarity hit him like a hammer and Alex immediately interrupted the process on purpose. The most logical explanation usually is the right one and this time he was certain he was having hallucinations – the Soul merge theory was based on the principle of merging with your ‘other selves’, not other people. Of course, the sect master did absorb life force of others, but that was only by physically having people present and had nothing to do with the soul particles.
After calming down Alex decided to ignore the strange soul thread and work on his Wheel of life improving it by adding the loose soul particles which in his big Qi pond were almost in unlimited amounts. Compared to the merging with another life the process felt incredibly slow, almost an aimless endeavor, thus Alex’s attention soon switched back to the peculiar thin soul thread.
It didn’t take long for him to give in to the urge to follow it. He realized this might be an illusion, but it was one he longed for – on the other end was Nabia’s life after all.
He didn’t rush the process which this time went exactly according to how the sect master described the Soul merge. If Alex wasn’t so blinded by his desire to merge with the life at the other end, he would’ve thought of a possibility that the Soul merge actually might not always have something to do with ones own incarnations or parts of consciousness, depending the definition, but it could be executed targeting other people – just like he was doing now.
Alex felt blessed. He was finally reuniting with the person he longed for the most and the union actually happened in the most intimate way possible – they literally became one. He relived Nabia’s life through the memories in her consciousness and the experience gave him a completely different perspective on everything that happened. Her love, joy and pain was on a completely different level than his, especially the latter. And more importantly – during the soul merge process all these emotions mixed with Alex’s own became his or rather theirs.
Still, them merging this way only felt right. During the process Alex learned how Nabia was longing for him even more than he was for her and how after his death she locked up in the Qi pond in order to cultivate her soul brand trying to force the next reincarnation to occur together with him. It didn’t work out that way exactly, but somehow her efforts led to connecting their souls with a thin soul thread – at least that was what Alex guessed.
The strange part was that the soul merge transpired so easily because from the ‘other side’ Alex not only felt familiarity or closeness, but the being actually called for him and urged to hurry as if he was late.
When the soul merge was complete, Alex realized he became something more than a single entity with their consciousness, emotions and experience mixing together, but they didn’t have time to dwell on that. The count of Nabia’s soul particles, including those from her soul brand, was almost comparable to what Alex absorbed from his eight previous lives added together and they didn’t intend to let them go to waste. The moment the soul merge was complete, they added a completely new layer to the Wheel of life depicting what Nabia experienced in all her lifespan in detail.
After they were done, before savoring the feeling of completeness, they noticed several new soul threads that weren’t there before and immediately guessed those were Nabia’s other lives. Without a moment of hesitation they rushed to soul merge with those lives as well.
One life after another was absorbed into a larger and larger entity, and the soul particles were continuously added to the soul brand expanding the Wheel of life with every next soul merge. The human who regarded himself as Alex gradually lost the previous identity that followed him through nine lives. Now they were someone new, someone with addiction to soul merging. The transformation happened so fast they didn’t even notice, but even if they did, they would interpret it as evolution.
If Alex was still his old self, he could’ve guessed that this was something the sect master of the Immortal gate sect felt, except in their case every soul they merged theoretically already belonged to them – thus the desire for the next merge and the sweet feeling of completeness afterwards.
The problem was that the soul threads never ceased to show up and the moment another one did – it was immediately used to complete the next soul merge. The process seemed to be never ending, but they didn’t intend to stop in the first place. In the beginning Alex, then he together with Nabia and afterwards multiple entities together had long lost the count of the soul merges they completed. With decades passing by not only the being in the big Qi pond under the mountain completely transformed, even the strange collective consciousness residing within it was not really that of a human anymore.
The only thing left that was still human-like was the greed, but in their case – the greed for more soul merges and an urge to expand the Wheel of life that they continued to grow from the added soul particles.
At this point the process of the ‘soul merge’ had transformed to something completely different from the technique the Immortal gate sect once had. While living beings breath, drink and eat for their survival, the entity below the mountain lived to connect to more souls and merge with them purely on instinctual level.
With more souls merged the consciousness rapidly continued to grow and the merging process became faster as well, and after several centuries they were capable of performing multiple soul merges at once. As the result the process sped up and the entity below the mountain strengthened and grew both physically and mentally at higher rate that only continued to increase the count of soul merges.
The strange thing was that for some reason every soul they absorbed was never a dead end. Every person for some reason was connected to another, even if the soul threads connecting them were barely there. And not only that – turned out that the soul threads linked humans with other living beings!
If Alex was his old self, he would’ve marveled about the beautiful construct of the world how the souls of every living thing were interconnected and, maybe, worked on theories about the soul threads actually being ‘karmic’ or ‘fate’ threads that existed in the time dimension. But now, the entity that almost had become one with the mountain, continued to greedily rush to soul merge with more and more beings while instinctively adding soul particles to the Wheel of life.
Since connecting with the souls that didn’t initially belong to them was easier in the world where their physical body lie, this was where the most soul particles were initially gained. The problem was that with years passing by the world became more and more barren – so much that after several millennia there was no living thing left.
They didn’t care though – the other worlds still had an endless ‘supply’ and that’s where they continued to feast in.
Indeed, with time the soul merge transformed into a methodical process of absorption. They continued to consume one consciousness after another while continuously expanding the Wheel of life.
At first it felt as if it could continue infinitely, but after emptying several worlds of soul particles they finally began to feel satiated. At this moment they didn’t realize they had physically already merged and become one with the world they were initially in, but the greed for more soul particles and the expansion of the consciousness didn’t allow to stop.
Even when it felt that neither their consciousness nor the world couldn’t contain the created Wheel of life anymore, they continued to greedily grow it despite the increasing feeling of bloatedness. All they wanted was to own all the soul particles in the world together with the consciousnesses they formed. Because of that the speed of absorption continued to increase … until they reached the breaking point.
Without any thundering sound or flashy light show, the Wheel of life that contained countless soul particles disintegrated together with its owner that became dust in the space. The soul particles that once formed the initially tiny soulbrand and later the monstrous Wheel of life, dispersed returning to where they once were across the worlds and began forming living entities once again.
One could say that the natural order of the universe was restored, but it was never disturbed in the first place. People, animals and entities of different kinds are born and die continuously. Some of them become smart or strong and rule over others while some die in a struggle for survival. But in the end there is only one law that can not be shaken – everything that once is born has to die sooner or later.
Alex, of course, knew that not only in theory – he had been born and died multiple times. But already before loosing his individual consciousness as a result of the soul merge, he knew one thing that was even more important – no matter how many times one was born, they had to live with a smile on their lips while doing things they loved … and … maybe sharing it all with another … ye, probably!
The end.