Chapter 16: I am the Devourer of this era
Everything is decided by the Tree of Tao, the Will of the World. There are those it blesses... and those it curses.
Reaching the peak (ninth star) of the Nascent Soul is not enough. One must create their own inner world, the Ashkharsh. Where, in my old world, this stage represented the pinnacle of power, here, it is only the beginning. For once this foundation is laid, a new ascent opens up to the truly cultivated.
The Ashkharsh is divided into three stages: knowing its law—understanding its law—Creation of the inner world.
Then come the true steps toward power: Sage, Saint-Sage, Supreme-Sage, Celestial King, Transcendence, Celestial Emperor, and Immortal. Until now, cultivators remain measurable. Some have more powerful laws, others more solid foundations, but the difference remains understandable. Even if the power is all the more immeasurable. The power that separates an ant from a mortal is closer than the power that separates an emperor from someone who has not yet reached Transcendence. That is why, upon reaching their level, many emperors either numb their emotions, become detached from the world and cultivate in seclusion, or become extremely violent, killing everything like insects under their feet.
But from the next level, all comparison becomes futile. Reaching this stage means becoming one’s Law. It is no longer mastery, but absolute fusion. Law Incarnation. A cultivator of fire no longer wields the flame: they are the flame. A master of ice no longer invokes frost: their presence numbs spacetime itself. There are no tiers at this level. Nor any way to detect this stage of power.
And yet... one final threshold remains. Here, it is no longer about individual laws, but the fundamental principles that govern the universe.
Ruler Incarnation, the hypothetical level the first Devourer had reached.
The rules are fourfold: the Dharma, which represents the cycle of Creation and Destruction, encompassing laws like time, space, fire, ice, light... The Samsara, which embodies the cycle of Reincarnation, encompassing life and death. The Karma, which governs the cycle of Destiny, encompassing causality and the connection between all things. And finally, the Nirvana, the source of desire and primordial chaos, born from the extreme Yin of Nothingness.
All these rules are subdivisions of the Taoji, the Universal Order. But there is an adversary. The opposite of the Taoji. Where the Taoji shapes and balances, the Wuji consumes and annihilates, returning all to nothingness. Its harbinger? The Devourer, an entity embodying extreme chaotic Yin Qi.
The natural enemy of this world. The antithesis of the Will of the Tao.
The one who should not exist.