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Chapter 326: The Sea Between Galaxies
🕑 Added 2023-12-14 17:36:01 +0000 UTCJack, Brock, and the Sage shuttled through space. It was like they both were and weren’t there, passing through entire stars without feeling anything. They were like ghosts.
“The interspace,” the Sage explained unprompted, his yellow teeth shining. “The space between space. The deeper into it a teleporter can push us, the faster we move in relation to regular space.”
“How deep are we now?” Jack asked.
“Normal teleporters go around five to seven layers deep. This one…” The Sage smiled with pride. “Up to fourteen!”
“...That doesn’t sound like a lot.”
“It’s exponential. Your ten-mile range teleportation is one layer deep. A regular teleporter can pierce through five layers of space, and that is enough to get you ten light years away in a few minutes. See the difference?”
Jack sucked in a cold breath. He’d never considered it like that before. “So why do we need fourteen?” he asked. “Isn’t it overkill?”
“You’ll see.”
The stars zoomed past them. Now that Jack paid closer attention, he could see that the speed at which they crossed space was vastly superior to regular teleporters. Even the large teleporter that had once transported him and Brock to Trial Planet moved at a turtle’s pace compared to this. Brock was looking around in silent approval, admiring the view.
Soon, however, they noticed something peculiar. The stars around them were thinning. Up ahead, endless darkness took up an increasingly large part of their horizon.
“Are we…” Jack began, but he didn’t need to finish the question.
“Yes,” the Sage replied.
They shot out of the galaxy.
Jack could see it clearly now. A beautiful expanse of stars, vaster than anything his mind could fabricate. Even a tiny part of this colossal place would require millions of years to cross with a normal starship.
But the stars… The stars were endless. They stretched and stretched. As Jack and Brock flew farther away from their home galaxy, millions and billions of stars filled their view, their different colors finally combining into a single, blue radiance. The galactic spire appeared, then another. After a few minutes, the entire galaxy was visible, a swirling mass of light.
And Jack was pulled away from it. Into the endless darkness, a void so large it defied comprehension. Even this massively gigantic galaxy was just a drop of water in the ocean.
There were always taller mountains, always greater talents. That was a saying Jack had heard many times in the cultivation world, but only now did he truly grasp its truth. The world was so vast. His current strength was nothing, absolutely nothing. And suddenly, he had the feeling that, before such vastness, no matter how much strength he attained, he would never amount to anything more than a grain of sand.
The galaxy was growing smaller in their sights. They had left it far behind now, and darkness was overtaking their vision. They were plunging into an abyss. Though the coldness of space couldn’t reach them here, Jack still felt a shiver down his soul, a reminder of his own mortality.
At least he had the Dao. And, besides that…he had Brock.
A warm smile spread over his face as he turned to regard his little brother. “What do you think, Brock?”
Brock cupped his chin in thought, then nodded. “Very big. More big than my biceps.”
“It is, yeah…” Jack shook his head. Various memories passed through his mind. He saw Brock as a tiny little brorilla, so small he could stand on Jack’s shoulders. Back then, he used to growl and throw poop at any threats. Now, he was a late D-Grade immortal beast with the power to smash mountains and convert even gods to broism.
They were brothers now, standing on the same stage.
Jack then turned to the Sage, who was staring the other way. His gaze was piercing into the world-ending darkness, the endless, empty sea between galaxies. Giant beasts the size of stars could be hiding here, and Jack would be none the wiser.
“Where exactly are we headed, Sage?” he asked.
The Sage looked back, and Jack caught a hint of warmth in his eyes before it disappeared. “This is the empty space between galaxies,” he explained. “It is so large it defies comprehension. Galaxies are grains of sand in its ocean.”
“I gathered that much, yeah.”
“Our current destination is a black hole lost in this empty space. It is not near any galaxy; a founder of the Church discovered it accidentally once, then used it as the faction’s headquarters. Finding it without knowing its exact location is impossible—that’s why we’ve been able to remain hidden for so long.”
Jack whistled. “But what was your founder doing out here?”
“A-Grades can travel between galaxies. They often do, either to search for resources or just to retire in undiscovered places where nobody will ever find them. There are even some who, as they approach the end of their lifespan, fly out into the void and try to reach the ends of the universe.”
“Did anyone ever manage it?”
“Nobody returned.” The Sage shook his head. “But, don’t dream too big. Even B-Grades can only dream of crossing this empty space. If they tried, it would take half their lifespan just to reach the nearest galaxy.”
Every word the Sage said birthed more questions in Jack’s mind. “How long do A-Grades live for?” was the one he chose to ask.
“Around a million years. B-Grades live up to a hundred thousand, C-Grades to ten thousand, and D-Grades to a thousand, as I’m sure you already know.”
Jack shook his head again. A million years… The entirety of recorded human history was around ten thousand years. A-Grades could live a hundred times that much. To them, history was just a slightly longer meditation session.
“The only truly immortal beings,” the Sage continued, “are the Old Gods…and the Immortals. The robots that destroyed the Ancients. That’s where they got their name.”
“So nobody can escape mortality.”
“Not unless you become a God.”
“Is that possible?”
“Of course not.” The Sage laughed. “And if it was, it wouldn’t be your prize to claim, my friend. Focus on reaching the C-Grade for now. There is a long road ahead of you.”
Jack nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. Brock, who hadn’t spoken much, had also heard the Sage’s words, and he shared Jack’s thoughts. Both of them felt their horizons broaden. They were leaving their galaxy and entering a greater stage. There were people here who could live for a million years, treat planets like toys, and freely travel between galaxies.
It really was a brand new world. The Animal Kingdom suddenly seemed so tiny.
“Wait,” Jack suddenly snapped to attention. “Did you say we’re going into a black hole?”
“I said we’re going to a black hole.”
“Sage?”
“Yeah?”
“I have a bad feeling.”
“Don’t worry. It’s all going to be okay.”
Jack was not placated by the Sage’s nonchalance. Right then, the Sage raised his head. “We’re here,” he said. “Prepare yourselves.”
Jack looked ahead, into the endless, spotless darkness. “I don’t see any—”
A terrifying force of gravity pulled at him. He instantly felt elongated. His body, which was hard enough to endure a falling mountain, cracked and creaked. Brock groaned. Jack endured the pain and forced his eyes open, catching glimpses of something ahead of them.
That something was as dark as its surroundings, but the galaxies behind it suddenly seemed warped, as if falling into a dark sphere. Jack felt terror grip his soul. This was a black hole. The most destructive object in the universe. And he was falling into it. Even time lost its meaning, stretching and contorting without rhyme or reason.
Was this a trap? was all he thought before time and space instantaneously solidified. Jack reeled like he’d been slapped in the face. The transition was too abrupt. He barely kept his stomach in check, while Brock couldn’t take it and puked on the spot. As soon as he did, his stomach fluids fell towards the ground at extreme speed.
There was a ground.
Jack looked around. They were no longer moving. There was rock beneath their feet, twelve white columns around them, and endless darkness over their heads. No, it wasn’t just darkness; to Jack’s surprise, he could see galaxies in this sky, so distant they seemed like stars. And they were moving. The entire sky was slowly but steadily rotating, as if time was flowing so fast that he could see the movement of stars in the night sky.
It was both mesmerizing and terrifying. Jack’s mind created images of his children growing old and dying before he could return to Earth, and despair gripped his heart.
“Relax,” a calming voice reached his ears; the Sage. “Time is still flowing properly. We’re just spinning around the black hole.”
Jack struggled to grasp this. Finally, he lowered his gaze, but he shouldn’t have—what awaited was just surprise after surprise, shock after shock. A few feet away from him, outside the perimeter of the twelve white columns, a man was sitting cross-legged. His eyes were closed, his robes were dark, and his body was so thin he could be called emaciated.
Yet, the moment Jack laid eyes on this man, he was instantly assaulted by a deep and heavy pressure. This man exuded a sensation of absolute power, as if his breathing was the Dao itself, as if his body was space and his will was time.
Jack froze. A moment later, he regained himself and nodded deeply. “Elder,” he said, as superior cultivators were customarily referred to.
The man did not reply, but the Sage nudged Jack. “That is just an Envoy, not an Elder,” he whispered.
If the Envoy was insulted by the Sage’s words, he did not react.
“What?” Jack muttered back.
“This is an Envoy. A B-Grade disciple of the Black Hole Church. The Elders are all in the A-Grade, and I’m confident your mind would break if you saw one in person.”
Jack was reeling. This person’s aura far outstripped anyone he’d ever met. It felt like this man was made of the Dao itself…but he wasn’t even an Elder?
“Come on, get it together. You’re making me look bad,” the Sage said, and Jack habitually restrained himself.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was just a bit shocked.”
“Understandably. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone the first time. Outside this place, everyone at the D-Grade and above restrains their aura, so not many people have felt the real presence of a B-Grade before.”
“I can understand why…” Jack replied numbly.
“Yeah. If a B-Grade released their aura on a random planet, every F-Grade nearby would drop dead. Here, however, the weakest people are at the D-Grade, so nobody needs to hide their presence. It also makes the Cathedral feel homely, like taking your shoes off after a long day at work.”
“The Cathedral?”
“This place. The Cathedral, that’s what we call it. Because we are a Church.”
Jack shook his head.
“Move to register,” the cross-legged B-Grade said.
“Yes, Envoy,” the Sage replied, then motioned sideways. “Shall we?”
Jack made to move. Once he did, however, he realized that it was hard. Much harder than usual, like he was carrying a mountain on his shoulders. He frowned, then his brows rose in realization. “Ah,” he said. “The gravity. That’s why Brock’s puke fell so fast before.”
The Sage winked. “Exactly. The gravity here is a thousand times stronger than on Earth—it’s part of the reason why the weakest people around are D-Grades. It also makes for great training.”
Jack did not even reply, just shook his head in shock. What monstrous place did I dive into? He then smiled. Suddenly, his fighting spirit was fully roused, and his lips formed a wild grin.
Perfect.
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Sean Dunning
I'm here for it!
