11: Epilogues 1

Head of Soothing Wind sect’s view

Working with other powerful sect masters, a plan has been made. We will split this world, and make sure our half doesn’t include that horrid new force that’s draining our power and making it impossible for us to continue cultivating. This is really our last hope. It won’t be much longer now before this vicious force grows strong enough to threaten more than just our cultivation. The majority of all the older cultivators have already died. 

...

God’s view

Hmph, trying to escape? I wish I was allowed to just smite these people, but nooo, I just had to agree to that silly rule about not interfering directly… okay, no, the god wars sucked, this is still better than those times. Still, it’d be so much easier to deal with this if I could just smite them… hmmm… Oh, I know how I can mess with their plans! Mwahahaha!

...

Head of the Soothing Wind sect’s view

“Success! We’re free!”

“We only got a quarter of the world though. That’s barely enough space for all our sects to rebuild.”

“No matter, I just need a chance to ascend and leave all this nonsense behind me!”

“Hmph, that’s right, we just need to ascend and none of this will matter anymore.”

“Is it just me, or does something not seem right with the world?”

“What are you talking about? The force that was draining us is gone!”

“No, they’re right, something else is missing too.”

“Huh? Wait… why are the ki levels so low?”

“It’s gone! IT’S GONE! THE ORIGIN OF KI IS GONE!”

“What?! That can’t be!”

I fled as soon as I noticed. While I didn’t watch, I can predict what would happen next and don’t want to be around for it. Once everyone realizes what it means to have no ki origin in the world, they’ll turn on each other in a last ditch effort to cannibalize each other for enough ki to ascend.

Sadly for me, I’m not good in direct fights. I’m an assassin. I need some prep time so I can properly rig the fight in my favor. Fighting fair is for suckers. Of course, this means I have no intention of making the same mistake they are making. It’s risky, but there’s one other way to deal with the lack of ki: Attempt to travel through the void to another world. 

Normally this sort of plan would be suicidal. However, I’ve been preparing for this ever since I noticed the world had changed, even before we started preparing to split the world. I only held off trying this, because I can’t bring my students with me. The ones not dead yet, are as good as dead now. Whichever of the sect leaders wins the fight between them, will surely seek out and kill all remaining cultivators. I don’t intend to stick around to protect them. There’s not enough ki in this tiny world now, even if I could devour all remaining cultivators myself. 

…

Captain’s Log [Redacted]

We found someone lost in the void. It’s a miracle they are still alive. The gear and equipment they possess is not nearly good enough to protect them properly, though it seems they did make an attempt, they just don’t understand what type of danger the void is. Their soul strengthening artifacts are likely the only reason they haven’t died yet. 

Normally I fill this log with complaints about the pointlessness of scouting the void, but I guess it actually wasn’t pointless this time. Maybe we can learn something about where this person came from.

…

Captain’s Log [Redacted] 

I can’t believe it. Our guest attempted to assassinate the guard assigned to them, and then tried to steal our ship’s power core! Thank goodness [redacted] managed to stop them. If they’d succeeded, we would be stranded out here! Though I wish [redacted] had stopped them sooner. Watching the security footage leaves me so tense. Just because you think you can stop them at any time, doesn’t make it okay to just sit back and watch, hoping for more information! *sigh* I guess it’s my fault they ended up with such a personality. 

…

Captain’s Log [Redacted]

The guest has finally calmed down. Though not before spending a while ranting about needing the ki to ascend. They aren’t even an immortal yet, why would they even be thinking about ascension? Everyone in our world knows there’s little reason to ascend. Better to focus on creating a local power field for exploration and travelling between worlds. *sigh* I envy the people assigned to exploring new worlds. The stories and videos I see look so much more fun than this explore the void nonsense. It’s called the void because it’s empty!

At least I found an author I like who keeps writing funny stories. I just wish they published faster. This new guest is the most exciting thing to happen out here in years, and even they don’t take up much of my time. I’ve got so much freaking time to kill. [Redacted] always says I should spend my free time cultivating instead of reading novels, but that’s so boring. I’m already strong enough to explore the void. It’s not like I’m trying to compete with [redacted] for the title of strongest. Honestly, I think anyone trying to compete with [redacted] is crazy. It’s just not possible to defeat them.

***Author Note***

I called the chapter Epilogues 1, but I don’t actually expect to write more epilogues. I just gave it a name that would allow for more incase I do write more. 

The captain’s “guest” is likely to remain imprisoned for the remainder of their multi-year journey after that stunt they pulled, with trying to kill the guard and steal the ships’ power core. What happens when they are finally taken to a world? Well, that depends on how well they do in the interview when they get there.

As for what’s going on with these void ships? Well, they were first introduced in the epilogues of Cultivating Change, the first cultivation story I wrote.