A general direction already imprinted in his mind, Alexander flew without stop.

The Inner Territory was already gone by the first century after his restoration. Throughout his journey, Alexander realized for himself why these territories existed.

The further away from the center one was, the less oppressive the energies and laws would be. He was aware of it, but never experienced it.

This also helped tremendously in navigation. If one went too high, too much right, left, any direction away from the center point, they would notice it.

The Outer Territory's vast edge was actually almost the same as the Inner Territory's edge. But as Alexander advanced further, the less resistance he felt.

Because of it, he could go faster and faster, stay stronger but never make progress in his cultivation.

After two thousand years of boring and uneventful travel, Alexander was already in the middle. And where he currently stood, the Origin Energy was so thin and sparse, even people at the Qi Refining Realm would easily survive.

However, his journey had yet to end. The Outer Territory still spanned for countless kilometers more.

Unfortunately, his travel would be halted time and time again as groups of ignorant fools would approach him now and then.

These people forgot about the world of cultivation and used their lives on each altercation as bargaining chips. To stop a random person every time, these groups were bound to end up dead at one point or the other.

This would not only hinder his physical progress across Limbo, but also his Time Dao manipulations within his internal world, hoping to make it manageable. The issue Alexander had with this...

'Why am I the one who has to kill these fucking idiots?!' Waving his arm, Alexander removed some red and golden blood from his sleeve.

'Annoying pests!' Sending a palm strike forward, the void quaked as a duo across the horizon was pulverized into nothingness.

'So weak! I don't even need to use my Origin Energy on these dirty things. Just a shockwave is more than enough.'

And after travelling for five hundred years more, mostly thanks to his accelerating momentum, Alexander had encountered over three hundred hostile creatures in total. While low for thousands of years, someone aware of Limbo's actual population density would not flinch hearing such numbers.

Limbo had suffered in the past, and this showed greatly. Even the greatest powers of the entire Inner Territory lacked personnel. Of course, this was without taking into account someone's internal world. Since someone around the Earth Transcending Realm would have countless beings, something Alexander understood even more from his own white pyramid's history.

Lost in thoughts, Alexander suddenly awoke from his dreams one day.

Curiously gazing around, he found himself so far away from Limbo's center, Origin Energy was near missing. Furthermore, a barrier covering his entire field of view actually appeared!

This barrier was dark blue, almost black, pulsating with blueish veins of sorts. It extended too far for Alexander to fully take in. Be it up, down, left or right.

It was the edge of Limbo, and this barrier gave Alexander nostalgia. In a bad way.

'Better not be someone's internal world! Limbo better not be! Should I test it? Even if I get teleported to the other side of Limbo, I should be able to come back. Actually, might as well send a clone.'

Getting better and better at making said clones, Alexander only needed to open his palm for a sphere of light to shoot out from it.

Landing in front of him, the ball of light squirmed, taking his own shape in a few seconds.

"Go!" Waving his hand casually, Alexander saw his clone clash with the barrier head first. The outcome however... was not as first anticipated.

'Oh? It's actually a solid barrier this time? No spatial tricks? No nothing?' Coming over, Alexander ignored his wincing clone with a colorful forehead, putting his palm on the barrier.

Feeling a hard force block his way outside, Alexander frowned.

'Really?'

Still quite doubtful, Alexander ordered his clone to send a powerful blow onto it.

A powerful palm print of orange crashing onto the barrier, it dissipated without making a commotion. The barrier simply annihilated the palm as if a ball of paper hoped to defeat a sun.

'...'

Making small sounds with his mouth, Alexander shook his head. Even teleportation and any other spatial manipulation felt impossible.

'Better not get too obsessed with this for now. I'll come back when Limbo is struggling under my feet!'

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

What was the point of struggling to break a barrier more resilient than Limbo itself?

'But... I'm at the edge, and should be north-east... now... am I too high or too low? Maybe too far on the sides? Both?'

Sighing, Alexander sat cross-legged next to the barrier, as it offered the best protection against backstabs.

Opening his palms wide, balls of light surged all around.

'Might as well use clones.' Creating dozens of clones at the Earth Transcending Realm, Alexander left them to their own devices, and so with only the goal to explore until they found traces of a graveyard.

After which, they would return. After a century, they would come back anyway.

Sighing again for the day, Alexander let his clones run around for a hundred years.

.

.

.

Beams of silver converging near Limbo's border, Alexander was currently assimilating their memories. It had been a century and all clones came back unscathed.

'Alright, let me see for myself...'

'Boring, boring, boring...'

'Oh! Boring.'

'Where did that clone even go? There's no world anywhere-'

Casting a surprised glance over some memories, Alexander found his first veritable clue.

In the set of memories, lost in a space devoid of any other world, extremely close to the border, a planet.

'The graveyard! It has to be it!!'

The planet was similar to some battlefields where bones gathered by chance. Since nothing could really move too much in Limbo, especially worlds themselves, it was not strange to find bones littered across the void, but it was much more difficult to find bones in a mound or small ball.

This planet on the other hand, was actually exercising a powerful suction force. Furthermore, the graveyard truly earned its name. The planet was not made out of earth, but bones instead! Carcasses formed a world much bigger than some Alexander saw. As for the surroundings, as if an atmosphere, it was multicolored.

Yet, even this fun look could not trick Alexander's clone, and even less so Alexander himself.

This atmosphere was multicolored, not because of some strange atmospheric composition, mineral lodes, or anything of the sort. It was all blood.

Races were varied in Limbo. Even though Alexander rarely came across anything other than humans, and especially so when taking out all humanoid races, there existed many.

And when techniques, evolutionary paths, special constitutions, cultivation levels and everything else was put into the equation, it became apparent how this strange appearance formed.

The blood of Alexander used to be red, and throughout his cultivation journey, it did change from time to time. Now, his blood was a translucent dark blue color on the outside with a myriad colors on the inside. As if a Universe reduced to a liquid.

Some people had golden blood, some cyan, orange, red, purple, multicolored, neon-like, black, abyssal and the list went on.

As for the bones beneath this layer of blood, some skulls looked clearly strange compared to human ones. The same went for the ribs, spine, legs, arms...

Alexander even noticed countless bones he could not even identify or theorize about. Each bone was a different color from the next as well.

The suction force had slain countless beings of Limbo... and maybe from somewhere else as well.

'I see... it's indeed a great opportunity! A suction force this noticeable in Limbo? And so... potentially naturally as well? Ha! It's mine!'

Without wasting any time to potential bad luck, Alexander rushed to his left, like a shooting star of silver.

His journey did not even receive a single hindrance on the way, giving Alexander a peaceful moment.

His eyes locked onto a ball of color far into the horizon, Alexander walked upon the void.

Surrounding the multicolored world were bones of all kinds littered everywhere. The closest one was, the least bones were present. This was obviously caused by the near unique suction force ahead.

This also gave Alexander a clear warning.

To stand in front of the world, one must be mindful of death.

This was the Outer Territory's furthest location, one of them at least. In this place, one would not even expect a single cultivator. Yet, the bones looked truly sturdy. The blood felt powerful.

These remains belonged to experts, some even too strong for Alexander to comprehend.

Getting closer and closer, Alexander kept a steady but wary pace. And once he attainted the place where bones disappeared, he stopped.

The distance between him and the world was still massive, yet something quite unexpected showed itself.

'?!'

You are missing a key resource, therefore you are not authorized to challenge this opportunity!

FATE REQUIRED

'Is this trying to piss me off? What do you mean fate required? Is this stupid system made to anger people and let them die ahead?'

'In the first place, why is there a system here? Who made this? Who put this shitty system here?'

However, even after lashing out inside, Alexander did not dare take another step.

'I'll wait until I'm strong enough... I don't feel safe going forward a single meter.'

'So now, might as well search for cultivation related information.'

Outer Territory, a random planet near the middle, far below the agreed horizontal plane.

This world glowed a beautiful amber, deserts of minuscule crystals and gem dusts covered it. The sky was orange, the main culprit to this amber shade. The ground, deserts mainly, was a mixture of purple and blue, almost grey sometimes. All kinds of different shades of these colors embraced the vision of any lucky enough to witness their illumination.

One such lucky man was Alexander, currently crushing some crystals under his every step.

The weather was nice, a cold gale charming his skin, relaxing his muscles.

And far around him, mountains of grey and sparse dark green hugged the horizon.

One of them was on his right, awfully close to his position.

'Let's explore this one.' Taking a turn right, Alexander altered his momentum's destination.

Walking and walking, Alexander felt a slight enjoyment to this small journey. He did not fly nor run. He intended to feel this walk with his very senses, and so to the fullest.

The world was beautiful, much to his liking. And walking leisurely for a few weeks, Alexander found himself at the foot of said mountain.

However, there was no desert of crystals where he now stood. A very small forest overtook the land instead.

The greenery appeased his mind, the cave entrance just ahead granted curiosity to his heart.

'Let me see for myself...'

One step at a time, Alexander went deeper and deeper each second, soon drowned under the darkness.

His exploration of this mysterious cave only lasted a couple hours before a suspicious quake across the air appeared.

'A sealed world?' Tearing it apart with one motion, Alexander entered its wavering mysteries.

When his senses recovered, giant space filled his field of vision.

Light from a fake amber sky gently caressed the interior, illuminating the giant cave with a warm orange.

Upfront, in the middle of this giant space, was a broken stone stele.

'Oh? Now it's getting interesting.' Closing in on said stele, Alexander read its content with ease.

[History of the Realms]