Limbo, opposite side of the Core Territory's gate, near the grey sphere.
Alexander was hiding within an asteroid, the closest possible to the Core Territory, benefiting from some stronger pressure.
And now, he could only try to breakthrough, never making the mistake of asking for a letter with such a cultivation base.
He could still vividly remember Monarch Lu's grandiose aura, pressuring him multiple times more than Valtos himself.
Sitting cross-legged, as usual, Alexander cleared his mind.
One with his internal world, one with the void and one with life, he closed his eyes, ready to take the next step.
However, without the necessary artifacts nor a natural pressure, Alexander needed to create one of his own.
His domain of Origin Energy condensing more and more, Alexander maintained his rule over this dominion while creating funnels around.
Letting the wild energies enter his internal world, he refined them more and more, slowly but surely gaining a steady amount of reserves.
His domain not gaining in size but density instead, Origin Energy could be seen turning darker and darker.
Clenching his fists, Alexander felt his body's strain, showing difficulties moving. As for his meridians, they were still intact.
'How troublesome!'
The feeling of one's meridians turning into a liquid of sorts, as if goo almost, was not a pleasant one.
Putting more and more pressure on himself, Alexander felt his body shiver before universal blood dripped from his pores.
'This is so fucking dangerous!! One mishaps and I'm gone!' Calming his raging nervousness from deep within his own body's warnings, Alexander kept increasing the pressure bit by bit.
And each time, his body would respond more and more violently, trashing about uncontrollably.
'Why is my body reacting like this? Is something wro-'
Cough!
Vomiting universal blood by the gallons, Alexander's face turned sparkly.
'Fuck!'
His veins bulging all around his face, Alexander controlled his anger to the best of his abilities.
'What now!?!' He could simply not understand it. Nothing should have gone wrong, his every moves perfect. Yet, while the pressure bore down on him, his body convulsed abruptly, and so even more than before.
The one to blame was his own domain!
'Why?! I don't get it... why?' His mind turning silent, Alexander's face turned dreadful.
Wondering why his domain showed such a wild issue, Alexander decided to try a little experiment.
Shaking his head, he created another domain of Origin Energy in front of him. Turning denser by the moment, the domain showed no arising problem. And when the pressure within attained his previous interrupted record...
Nothing wrong happened. The pressure kept building up until Alexander's maximum ability.
'...' His mouth slightly opened, Alexander did not look dejected, but more so in painful denial.
'I still don't get it...'
Examining himself, Alexander could only get back inside his own mind, searching for memories.
A blue soul avatar forming in a white dreamy space, Alexander ignored colorful bubbles everywhere around him. Only granting a single glance to a certain one.
'Earth... tsk!'
Finally finding the correct one, Alexander immersed himself within.
Opening his eyes, he slowly stood up, gazing upon the distant world of matter.
After some time, veins bulged across his entire being, pumping hot blood through his growing veins.
'Fuck this!!' His body bending forward, Alexander's right fist suddenly connected with the ground, shattering the entire asteroid to bits.
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He was not angry against himself, nor the memories he just reviewed. He felt quite happy about their content instead. But something else pissed him off a bit more.
'Valtos!!! I endured your fucking piece of shit of a fucking existence until now!! I won't no more!! Your little advantage of being my creator stopping me from making that stupid breakthrough... you can put it up your giant fucking ass!!'
Still ruling himself, Alexander contained his voice, only letting his inner one run wild for a bit.
And with his now red eyes slowly regaining a silver luster, his abrupt fit of rage subsided.
Sigh.
'Alright, now... let's do things properly.' Sitting cross-legged upon the open void, Alexander did not bother looking for another asteroid.
His back straight, his bright eyes were soon covered by slim eyelids.
'First, my existence itself...' His avatar forming within his Multiverse, Alexander ignored everything else, forming clones everywhere.
By the first century of his internal world's time flow, Alexander created a billion clones.
After a million years, ten trillion clones of different cultivation bases shaped an infinite sea of white.
Exhaling a mouthful of air, Alexander's real avatar waved its arm.
"Go..."
With his new restrictions, Alexander managed to slow down his internal world's erratic time flow. However, this time... he did not hesitate to let it be slightly unruly.
His avatar patiently waiting, a being of an infinite lifespan within this world, a trillion years flashed by in a mere moment.
Gazing ahead, Alexander's avatar noticed ten trillion wisps of pale blue rush at him.
Not fighting back, the fragmented souls from his clones were swiftly assimilated, a blue glow blinding the colorful space.
Opening his eyes in Limbo, Alexander's hollow eyes showed a lack of lucidity.
A thousand years, five thousand years...
After eight thousand years, his eyes regained a proper glow.
'...'
His ten trillion clones having lived their lives to the fullest, they all died in this trillion years timespan. And in only eight thousand years, to the cost of a will breaking headache, Alexander assimilated all of their memories.
Thankfully, the assimilation did not rob him of his remaining emotions and powerful greed for power.
As for the reason behind this sporadic decision... it all came down to Ysh Zul's teachings.
To surpass one's limitations, decided from birth, one must surpass one's creator as well.
Gaining an existence on par with one's creator is a must to surpass their own limits.
After which, reshaping yourself to be a true self is of primordial importance!
This advice not only addressed his current situation, but the ones of countless others.
As for the way to gain such an existence, Alexander could only give this experiment a shot.
Sitting down, Alexander naturally used his active domain of Origin Energy for another experiment. A painful, extremely dangerous one.
However this time, his domain was slowly being tainted from his own mind, a silver light blossoming across space.
The gentle light turned his domain the same silver color shortly after.
His Life Wheel turning a slight shade darker, Alexander's body began crumbling bit by bit, cell by cell.
And with it came the excruciating pain and despair all should feel.
Yet he did not mind. His objective was almost as prevalent, as important as his initial one.
An arm falling, his Life Wheel turned a yellow shade. But, when this arm grew back brand new, a tint of green resurfaced.
His current goal was to slowly but surely reconstruct his body from the ground up while using his own existence to refine the energies.
'Was it why Monarch Lu's aura was golden? I'm not too sure... could be something else...' Eliminating his rampant, unrelated thoughts, Alexander began reconstructing his other arm's nails. Then, the tip of his fingers came, then the entire fingers, forearm, elbow, biceps, triceps, entire arm.
A mass of flesh sent crashing down beneath, a brand new arm showed itself.
'Better to do it the other way. Not as annoying.'
With two arms reshaped, his Life Wheel unfortunately showed a bright yellow light.
'Calm... calm... It doesn't matter. A Life Wheel... If I don't want to die, then even my Life Wheel's crumble won't be able to stop me.'
A leg falling, another followed.
Flesh dripping, bones turned into fragments.
A skull visible from outside, brain matter seeped out from the orbital bones.
As a light of silver drowned the world, a new being birthed itself.
'Now for the shitty part...' Bracing himself, ignoring his trauma from the Origin Realm, Alexander began slowly but surely reconstructing his entire Multiverse. His entire Void Core.
Worlds began eroding at visible rates while another mysterious power healed them.
Galaxies glowed silver, worlds did as well.
His entire Multiverse was blinding.
And so was his Void Core's structure. His Infinite Chasing Boundary, his orange shade, his new dimension. Even his entire soul could not escape the treatment of rebirth.
His entire cultivation...
His entire cultivation journey...
An old path ending...
A new one appeared for him to walk upon.
A domain of silver Origin Energy shaping itself all around him, the density of the energy pressured him exponentially as time flew by.
His meridians slowly turning into goo, they married the shape of his body.
The meridians were both physical and spiritual, somehow connected to another dimension. And so, just like the Dantian.
Therefore, they could be contained, but also let free.
And with his meridians slowly gaining in volume, his entire body began transforming into a giant meridian.
His entire body was getting infused with his meridians. And with it came the liberty of using martial arts without grievous limitations. With it came the brutal proof of the Chaos Archetype Realm!
"Ahh!!!!!" Roaring aloud, his cultivation exploded outward for all to see.
From the light he emanated, the void receded, fearful of his power, creating visual distortions all around.
'When I'm done cultivating... Valtos... you will be the first one on my list to get your skull opened on my knee! I will feel your brain splatter over my robes, upon my skin!'
His strength almost running wild, Alexander felt his previous cultivation to have been nothing but minuscule. While not much stronger, having passed the first stage, Meridians' Liquifying and entered the second one, Chaotic Meridians, his power rose multiple times higher than the Nihility Realm's peak.
Finally freed from Valtos' chains, Alexander felt himself be granted back his past self.
A free being ready to crush the Martial Dao into pieces!