I walked through the silent nothing, staring off into the distance that was not there. Other realms simmered in the sky, blazing off in the distance. I felt a little tired.

  It was a lot. I’d learned and grown and fought but most of all, I had talked. It was such a short period of time, probably nothing more than ten seconds back on Ah-Marin but it felt like a lifetime for me.

  The void felt different. I certainly didn’t feel safe and I was being just as careful now as I was back then. But I was less worried. Caution and fear could be mixed up for one another quite easily and I felt I had more of the first and less of the other.

  I wondered if Forn’s father had somehow impacted me. He was a higher being and that came with a more impactful existence. The thought made me frown for a moment.

  He just advised you, The Tome suddenly spoke. Nothing more.

  “I thought you had left,” I muttered.

  The Tome didn’t reply. I had my suspicions as to where it went and why, and its silence all but affirmed it.

  “Is that why you were trying to get me to go through other Celestial Realms? You wanted to use me as an unwatched messenger?”

  The less you know, the better boy. The Tome replied. Knowledge is power but if you can not stand strong, it will crush you down into the earth.

  That was Tome speak for ‘You're too weak to know what I’m talking about.’

  I silently promised myself I’d be less cryptic with Chin, what could this be if not some cosmic form of karma?

  There was a lot to think about.

  Things would be the same, but on some level, things had irrevocably changed.

  I started to make a to-do list of all the things I’d have to take care of once I got home.

  First, I’d have to consult the Tome on beasts developing daos and figure out how much knowledge I could gain from it without having to pay it back. I knew one of the reasons the Tome was doing this was because ‘it owed me.’ The knowledge I had provided was so valuable that the Tome itself felt compelled to let me know of my ailment and how to fix it.

  That was part of the reason it had been so willing to give all that information on souls and guide me directly in fixing mine. It still wasn't a done deal though, and I would probably need to do more to expedite the process.

  I couldn’t allow myself to stagnate with just this small progress.

  I also needed to train and grow, as well as look after Nai and that array, making sure they gained enough strength to defend themselves from the upcoming calamity.

  And Chin and Medin-

  Would they reach immortality? Would they want to? What about the girls? And the beasts? I couldn’t keep them locked up forever, not when they were growing and developing into actual people.

  But if I let them free, then what? Tai Jey immediately finds me and comes after me.

  Problems seemed to come out of nowhere.

  “Why didn’t I notice the mistakes?” I asked the Tome. “I am functionally a thirteenth ranker, even without Dane’s ego I should have perceived the possible problems with my actions. How didn’t I see the risks?”

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  You have eyes but do not see Mount Tai.

  “Ha!” I laughed.

  To see is not to know. A man might see a mountain from a distance and think it a hill. And yet he might see a molehill just a sprint away and believe it to be a mountain that pierces the skies. A mortal’s ego is small, it measures everything relative to a mortal’s life. You care for mortals because, in your mind, you are one. You cared about the servants because to you they were people, while to their owners they were nothing more than convenient mayflies. A mortal immortal, a man and a god, an ant and a giant, and you cycled between the two when it felt right. You even shaped your dao in that perspective.

  “But couldn’t I… outthink it? Even if I am set in my own ways, I can think so much and so fast. I’m an array master of the thirteenth rank. Shouldn’t I see something?”

  Do you remember what you said to Forn?

  I nodded.

  Dane would have said nothing. Dane wouldn’t have helped the servants and Dane wouldn’t have gone to the Divine Beast Emporium. If he were still alive, he would be hidden up in his empty realm on that small planet, rotting away from the very center of his being. Your mistakes in parts are nothing more than differences. But your broken nature causes you to see from both a mortal and an immortal’s mind, dragging your understanding from one to the other. It is healing and as it comes together so will the person you truly are emerge. You should be safe from your mortal woes from now on, but the healing is far from done. Your soul, while whole again is still a mauled and tattered thing.

  “And how do I go fixing that?” I asked, though I already knew. I knew from reading To Heal the Soul, A Collection of Cures for the Fabric of Your Being.

  That book had seemed almost tailor-made for my condition.

  You must cultivate of course.

  I sighed. Dane had broken his soul, my soul, in order to avoid needing a dao and had tried to change his nature to something like an insect’s. Gaining a dao was already one of the first steps I needed to take to fix the breaks and I had already done that. So the next step would be to cultivate that dao and raise it up to my own rank.

  “Nothing else?”

  You could traverse to certain areas and seek the help of-

  “I knew it. You are trying to use me as a messenger. That book only offers solutions that lead me to other celestial realms allowing you to go contact other imperiums.”

  We passed by a small realm that was barely holding on. I looked into them and found quadrillions. A collapsing world on the verge of death, full of mortals. A space-fairing group of humans with only about a year’s worth of energy left.

  I saw a swarm of giant ants all around the ninth rank with their queen at the tenth eagerly bite into the still-living realm. They were quickening the decay, cutting into the lifespan of the realm. If I didn’t do something it would crumble and fall, and that small realm would be consumed in an instant.

  The Tome seemed to go silent as I contemplated. Dane would have pushed away the ants and went on with his life. He would have brushed aside the insects and let the realm fall on its own. That was as far as his kindness would have gone. At best he would have relocated the cluster of mortals.

  I ached.

  This wasn’t Earth, but it reminded me of it. It was a small realm, one that couldn’t support any cultivators so humans were forced to rely mainly on science and push themselves forward.

  You heard stories of powerhouses rising from backwater realms all the time, but those realms had infinitely more qi than the one in front of me. True backwater realms like this one rarely lasted all that long. No one from Earth could have cultivated. If you were born in that realm you were cursed to die in that realm, and your people, your language, your culture, your history, everything humanity had accomplished would be forgotten as soon as your realm was destroyed.

  Earth must have met the same fate. I don’t know how Bill’s soul managed to escape it. It must have sunk into one of the rivers of death and somehow popped out near Dane’s realm.

  I was lucky or unlucky depending on how you looked at it.

  I held the realm. It was like a grain of sand in my hand, nothing more than a dust mite. It was quadrillions of people, a near infinite bundle of dreams, hopes, and sorrows and yet it was so small in front of me.

  I pulled at it, separating it from the web of realms and shaking off all the insects trying to devour it. It wouldn’t fill them up anyways, it was like a crumb to their colony.

  The ants ran in response, not bothering to fight me for the small realm.

  I patched up the delicate realm, feeding it, pushing it to grow stronger and willing the fabric of its realm whole again.

  I watched the realm heal and grow. They could do that if you fed them the right way. I watched as people found a second chance at life again.

  And for the first time in my existence, I felt wet tears come down my face.

  I smiled at that. I was healing, becoming less of a mortal man, but I still cared.

  I was afraid that would change. I was terrified of ‘fixing’ myself and becoming more like Dane, but at least that part of me wouldn’t change.

  With a little bit of acceptance, I took a detour down to a place Dane would never have gone to, down to the Gates of Justice at the low Heavens.