Chapter 411
A Song of Jade (II)
Long Tao's mind was spinning in ways it had never before.
For the first time in his life, this and previous, he could not utter a sound. All he could do was sit like a statue in the chair and stare at the face of his Master.
Though it all sounded incomprehensible, every word that was coming out of the man's mouth, somehow, some way... Long Tao felt they all added up. Certainly more so than all theories he, as well as many others, held toward those things.
The invisible force pulling everything down, the celestial objects that were uncaring and unfeeling...
Long Tao swallowed hard, feeling the weight of his beliefs crashing down. Even if it did make sense, he'd been convinced for so long that those two were some void creatures that he had to defeat. That was what he was working towards, what he was cultivating for, the reason why he believed he had to surpass the limits nobody else ever did--just so he could face those things with an iota of chance to survive and come out ahead.
"... Can they be destroyed?" He knew he had asked a rather stupid question, but his Master--if he felt it--never let it show on his face.
"They're not immortal," he said. "As all things, they are slowly dying. Though it will take a long time… they are not eternal. But as far as them being destroyed... no, I can't say that they can. Do you recall those tiny motes of light flickering at their far edges?"
"I do," he nodded, recalling what he thought were plumes of Qi.
"They alone are physically larger than all the worlds combined."
"!!!"
"In fact, they may be so much larger that one of those motes of light could burn through everything, leaving only cosmic ashes in its wake."
Long Tao bit his tongue, keeping his thoughts to himself. Was it possible? Truly possible? That a single mote of light swirling around the leviathans was so massive it outscaled everything he has ever known?
"How, then," he said. "Is it not 'swallowing' us? If the force they wield is as powerful as you claim, how are we fine?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure," the man seemed to mull for a moment, taking a sip of wine. "There are a few possibilities. First, it could be that we are simply just outside the range of effect; while the black holes are massive and their pull even greater, it is not infinite. The second one, and in my opinion likelier, is that we are within its range and are being pulled, but there's something--or someone--conjuring counteracting force. If those two are great attractors, then something--or someone--here is an even greater repulsor."
"..." Long Tao frowned. Was it someone? Impossible. Though he had never earned the title of the strongest across the heavens, he wasn't so far off that he couldn't see the peak. He met Nameless, the progenitor of the Heavenly Court and likely the strongest cultivator of all time, once--very briefly. And though the man had an aura that made him seem greater than the world itself and was far more oppressive than anyone else Long Tao had met, it was still nowhere near what those two leviathans exuded. In fact, even the union of all Emperors and Empresses across the heavens wouldn't be anywhere near enough.
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Which left just the one answer.
"Dao," he mumbled.
"..." Master remained silent for a moment, gently nodding. "Possibly. But I really am not sure. Though I know what those things are, I don't know. Their machinations, their nature, their principles, and, most importantly, their relation to us... all those things elude me. It could be that the entire thing is an illusion projected against the dark, endless void; it could be that they are nowhere near as massive as I think they are; it could be a small million other things."
"..." Long Tao remained silent, pondering.
While true, in a way, it was unlikely; they were real, he knew that much. And though his Master said that he didn't know much about them, he knew more than everyone else combined. It confirmed something that Long Tao had suspected for a while--the man... was not from here, whether that 'here' be spatial or temporal.
He came from a world where they did not mistake celestial bodies for eldritch horrors hellbent on swallowing up the world. But he also came from a world that did not have Qi--one shorn of Dao, even, it seemed.
"What would happen if that something--or somebody," Long Tao played along. "Were to suddenly stop providing that counteracting force?"
"The same thing that's happening to all those things you saw around the holes," his Master replied. "We'd get sucked in."
"What's inside like?"
"I don't know."
"..." Long Tao arched his brows as Master chuckled helplessly.
"I really don't," he said. "How could I? How could anyone? Since nothing can escape from the inside, which includes light, it is impossible to know what is inside."
"... according to my grandmother, there are more than a few people and groups trying to contact those two things," Long Tao said. "Or burrow their way out of the Heavens and toward it. If they somehow manage to dislodge the protective sheen, everything would be destroyed."
"Uh, yes. As I said."
"Then, it stands to reason that something--or someone--ought to stop them, no?"
"I suppose it does stand to reason." Long Tao cracked a faint smile, sighing to himself.
Of course, his Master wouldn't simply sit idly by as the literal world was being threatened.
Though the task did change, the goal did not; Long Tao had always known that his first wall would be those trying to 'resurrect' or 'summon' the leviathans, as he believed.
"Your family is rather well-learned, Master," Long Tao said.
"Ah, we have our bits, here and there. Not quite as impressive as yours, though."
"Of course. I never said it was."
"..." his eyebrows twitched as he took another sip of wine. "Could it be that Sages are trying to do it, too?"
"Unlikely," Long Tao said, choosing not to elaborate any further; those trying to open up the void were at the very pinnacle of martial arts, almost a step into the song beyond. Sages? While unusually powerful for this corner of the world, chances were that their goal was simply to amass enough Life Qi to resurrect one of the Ancient Demons or such. "Thank you, Master."
"For what?"
"..." Long Tao merely smiled, stood up, and left.
For what?
For being honest.
The man could have more than easily feigned ignorance, maintaining some level of illusion still. Instead, he chose to tear down the veil and teach him something that nobody in this world knew.
Nobody could know.
Where was his Master from? That was irrelevant. What mattered was that he was here, and he had the tools to aid him in the journey. One day, when the Seven Heavens were safe from the corruption of greed, he would tell him everything.
When he was born, where, how his life was, who betrayed him, why...
And he hoped the man would reciprocate--tell him of the strange world that did not know of Dao, yet did know of all-consuming leviathans shattering reality itself.
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