About to inspect his internal world some more, Alexander was interrupted by the young waiter.
"Here is your order, enjoy!"
'Alright, I'll check it later.'
Eating with a clear lack of elegance, Alexander spontaneously pried to a conversion he suddenly overheard.
"Hey, have you heard?"
"Bout' what?" Munching, the man's voice was bored.
"About lord Valtos!"
"What about him?" Raising a brow in suspicion, the munching man had long since been fed up with his long time friend's blabbermouth. Mainly because he mostly spoke of useless happenings.
But not this time.
"Lord Valtos apparently broke through to the Nihility Realm seven years ago!"
"The Nihility Realm?"
"Exactly, I'm not lying this time!"
"Wait, you were lying-"
'Valtos broke through... so he was at the Earth Transcending Realm's peak at the time...' Resting his chin on the back of his hands, Alexander finished eating in a heartbeat before heading back to his room.
'Now onto my internal world...' Becoming one with himself, Alexander's soul avatar shaped itself inside his Universal Core.
The world around him, or more so the Universe, was devoid of many things. All that he could see was a dark blue, purply mist drifting about everywhere. When looking closer, the mist's composition indicated a presence of matter within.
But the truly eye catching event was the speed. Everything that could move did so at an incredible velocity. As for the delimitations of his Universe, it clearly grew alongside.
'My comprehension of the Space Dao and Time Dao are used as auxiliary support beams of sorts, but the main supply for this mess is...'
Grasping at the void, Alexander could see an orange luster hidden deep beneath a layer of space.
'Origin Energy!'
The orange Origin Energy inside of him was hiding under a blanket of pure space while feeding the Universe enough energy to expand continuously.
'Let's wait and see... Once it cannot grow anymore, I'll think of the next step. Right now, I cannot even fully understand what is going on.'
Done with his inspection, Alexander still covered his entire being with his Divine Sense to see the state of his body.
'And then there is that...'
According to the information given by Valtos, Alexander knew that not only was he a step away from the Universe Realm at the time, but that his current internal world's happenings were a clear depiction of the Universe Realm's first stage.
Obviously, after going over his cultivation base during his Divine Sense scan, he also realized his aura to have abruptly changed.
Firstly, his body was now fully back to normal. No more were sparkly membranes of Universal Dust and the likes coating his skin or even eyes.
He was a tall young man with long silver hair and a pair of silver eyes, like usual.
Secondly, his aura radiated an ancient yet young feeling. Other than the sign of a breakthrough, Alexander was now a fully fledged Universe Realm expert. Not only so, but his race had changed as well.
Evolving from a Celestial Human to a Greater Existence, Alexander was now a Human, but also a Universe. A Human-Universe, of sorts.
'The information says I should just wait it out. The Expanding World stage is just a matter of time. Reminds me of the Ascension Realm...'
Jumping out of the bed, Alexander easily landed on his feet, before showing clear signs of a worsening mood.
'Well, I'm used to it.'
Next on his list was a much needed, but also extremely difficult challenge. Being a Universe Realm expert now, Alexander required an incredible amount of time, therefore...
Relaxing was his only choice.
Lazily jumping back into the bed, Alexander yawned audibly.
'A cultivator's path is just too hard...' Closing his eyes, he felt his thoughts slow down, and his body turn heavier by the moment.
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Wandering in the lands of dreams, void of sense and logic, Alexander's avatar explored the world without purpose.
He drifted across the rainbow clouds and dived into the dark stars plaguing the sky.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes attacked him, many worlds collapsed and entire dimensions clashed with one another.
Amidst the turbulent waves of chaotic mists, floating beyond reality.
Drowned within the void.
Forming before the thousand dimensions.
A world.
Surrounded by space, the world was nostalgic. It had a cold sky and warm mountains. Many lives explored this world once again.
Birthed anew, Alexander's internal world.
Far away, engulfing the world, the myriad space. The Universe, expanding vastly by the moment, was reaching its limits.
Screeching, the elastic void crashed into a hard wall. This membrane, stopping all movement, was Alexander's Universal Core and its physical edges.
Fretting not, the space rumbled, and with a bang, exploded.
Dimensions torn apart, the world crumbling to dust, Alexander Dao of Space surged naturally to repair the glaring damage.
Sentient, the Universe attempted to control this same Dao. Without much success, the Universe was left with no choice.
Alexander's avatar lost into his own world, he stood without motion. The prior explosion, Universe-destroying, came as a tickle.
A gigantic hand caressing his face, Alexander's soul avatar turned its head.
The avatar lacking lucidity, it somehow understood the Universe's complaints.
With a wave of its hand, the avatar altered the Dao of Space of the entire Universe, sending it like a whirlpool across the colorful mists.
The edges of the Universal Core, as if gently caressed by the Space Dao, hummed.
Noticing the change, the giant hand shot across the void and clashed with the membrane. Only to end up coming out of the opposite side of the Universe.
Happy with this ingenious trick, the Universe's consciousness resumed its expansion. Each time it collided with the wall, it would appear on the other side, as if carefully crafting a dimensional web.
Without the anger of the void, the material world could finally be granted a rebirth.
Outside of his world, Alexander's body was currently inside of a cocoon. Its threads were silver at times, and a dark blue with twinkling colors at others.
The flow of time carving its way forward, Alexander's cultivation steadily soared during his natural hibernation.
Unfortunately for him, his hibernation lasted for much longer than Alexander could imagine at the time. His goal was to sleep and relax, but his body decided otherwise.
Being inside an inn of sorts, his stay ended up going over his paid time.
On the brighter side, no one came to disturb him after watching over him a few times.
Beneath the dark sky, trapped inside a sealed world, a cocoon.
This same cocoon, beautifully crafted from silver and colorful threads, cracked.
The gapping wound spreading at lightning speed, the cocoon could not endure it. And after a few moments, broke apart like a sandcastle.
Yawning, Alexander rubbed his eyes, before stretching himself. Feeling refreshed yet sleepy, he was just about to lay back on the bed when the lady he so often passed by and discussed with, interrupted him.
"Hold on young man! Do you know how long you've stayed here?"
Suddenly gaining a bout of lucidity, Alexander felt sweat drip all over him.
"No?"
"A good three million years!"
"..."
"How will you pay for it?"
"..."
"How much is it?" Hoping for an affordable number, his hopes were stomped upon like dirt.
"I'll round it down to two million."
"A couple millions... is it..?"
"Yup!"
"Is there another way to pay?"
"You can do the dishes for a few millennia."
"I see..." Verifying his current wealth, Alexander had not many choices.
He could accept and waste thousands of years working like a servant.
He could also decide to bargain and try to get some credit.
Or he could do it the risky way.
'She's at the Instinct Liberating Realm... and I saw no one above her in here...'
The problem Alexander had was his current situation.
Even if he fled or actually erased the entire place from existence, his identity might still be exposed. Without certainty on his escape route, doing anything reckless would be extremely dangerous. He was not weak in Limbo's Inner Territory, but he was not strong at all either.
"If I say I am a fully fledged member of the Dark Wall, can that give me some leeway?" Going all-in, Alexander hoped to see some light.
Gulping, the lady was showing signs of weakness.
'The Dark Wall is indeed quite influential, but it's no wonder. Even more interesting, is that she clearly fears people of the Dark Wall, even though she is inside... Wait... Actually, never mind, I'll think about it later.'
Alexander still knew from Valtos' words and gifted information how powerful the Dark Wall truly was.
For perspective, the Inner Territory was divided into very few parties.
Out of them, the two most powerful and vast territories were those of the Ninth Martial Dynasty and Frozen Dream Sect.
Without taking into account neutral zones and parties, the Inner Territory was basically a circle with half controlled by one behemoth, and the other controlled by the remaining one.
One was either with the Ninth Martial Dynasty or with the Frozen Dream Sect.
This showed how mighty the Ninth Martial Dynasty was. But then, what about the Dark Wall?
With Valtos as its leader, the Dark Wall could be considered the fourth most powerful faction within half of the Inner Territory.
Such a background could simply not be disregarded by most.
Alexander was currently in a very peaceful but also weak establishment. He did not mind paying if he could afford it, but since he could not...
"Let's just put it on a tab. I'll pay it when I can, I don't have nearly enough Origin Crystals right now."
"It's... It's fine..."
Glaring at the kind lady's horrified face, Alexander harrumphed as a show of dominance before exiting the building.
'Depending on their influence, I might have to actually pay or fight. Two million Origin Crystals is an extremely high number, and not only so, but this place is shady...'
The staff members never disturbed him or even talked about the majesty of the cocoon he was in. This came off as fishy to him. They knew he would not be able to pay, because they were also aware of the cocoon's significance.
'It's a damn scam!'
The plot of the establishment formed itself before his eyes. Anytime someone half a step into the Universe Realm came in, they would try to offer the best services to keep them around. Once they struck the jackpot and obtained someone in Alexander's situation, they would force them to pay an incredibly large amount of wealth.
'If not for that stupid hibernation, I wouldn't be so much in the gutters! But the true mystery is... ah...'
Paying more attention to the establishment's surroundings, Alexander understood the crux of the matter.
'So it's like that...'
The reason why this establishment, clearly within the Dark Wall itself, showed terror at his words was now plastered all over his field of view.
Alexander knew the Space Dao of Limbo to be very well developed, but even then, would it be able to do so much? When Alexander first entered, nothing but buildings could be seen.
But now, when looking in the other direction, realization struck him.
He was not within the Dark Wall anymore! Except for a spiral filled with space principles hovering in the air, everything felt too real. It was now night, and the stars and planets sparsely distributed could not be faked. Deciding to verify his suspicions, Alexander flew high into the sky.
After a few boring years, he managed to escape the world he was within and arrive in space.
'They are sponsored! It's not inside the Dark Wall at all!'
Getting back down a few more years later, Alexander got close to the portal.
The closer he was, the more his identification token would glow.
'I've almost been had!'