Defiance of the Fall

The Void Mountain felt far more tangible than when Zac first got it, though that was partly a temporary effect of practicing the [Nine Reincarnations Manual]. However, Zac had spared no expense in collecting Void Treasures to facilitate its recovery. He'd spent tens of thousands of D-grade Nexus Coins over the past months, but Zac knew the mountain was worth every penny.

Void Energy was already seeping out of Zac's cells, rushing toward the mountain like Dao Seekers approaching Kunlun. The mountain reciprocated, turning the surrounding Void into a myriad expressions of the Void. Zac spotted hints of the Voids of Life, Death, and Conflict among them, but they were fickle and soon replaced by another absence of truth.

Their appearances were too short to grasp anything tangible, even when using the [Court Cycle Token]. Luckily, Zac had already found the solution after months of trial and error. A fount of condensed Dao burst forth from [Spiritual Void] in the center of his Soul Aperture. His mind had just calmed down after the earth-shattering clashes, but the lingering energy was swept up in the tsunami released by his Hidden Node.

It formed a pillar of Life and Death, seemingly rising toward the Heavens. In reality, it flooded the Void Mountain's hidden space, and the mountain accepted it all. The Mountain rebuffed any attuned Mental Energy or Dao. But any Dao stored in the [Spiritual Void] was an exception. The mountain would even accept the leftovers from the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] so long as it was mixed with at least 50% Void-refined Dao.

The mountain's influence on the ambient Void Energy soon shifted. Until now, no aspect of the Void was more dominant than any other, but noticeable pockets of Life and Death gradually appeared. They also lasted longer before being forced into another form, giving Zac a longer window of discovery.

His E-grade Hidden Node only managed to turn a few percent of the Void Energy into a matching element with the help of the accumulated energy, but that was enough for Zac. The frontlines and the upcoming campaigns were pushed aside, replaced by the hidden truths of the Voids of his path.

Unfortunately, the mountain was immeasurable and insatiable, and [Spiritual Void] couldn't keep up for long. The Mountain could release pulses a while longer before it would fade, but Zac immediately retracted his Void Energy. The longer he used this cultivation method, the longer the mountain would have to recover. Even this short stint meant he'd have to feed it for a week before trying again.

The remaining energy in his Soul Aperture was immediately dragged into [Spiritual Void] to replenish its lost stock. Zac let the Hidden Node do its thing while he digested the results of his latest session. It had taken months, but Zac was finally starting to grasp hold of something tangible.

First of all, he'd confirmed that while the Void was the absence of Dao, it was also truth on its own. However, it seemed as though it couldn't exist independently. The Void relied on the Dao like a shadow needing a source. If the Dao shifted as the Era progressed and Supremacies vied for their corners of the Heavens, so would the Void change its meaning.

But how did that fit with the First People? What happened to the Void when the Dao shattered? Zac felt there was a missing piece of the puzzle. One possibility he'd considered was that the connection he'd felt was a result of his Bloodline rather than a fundamental truth. The Void Emperor was a bridge between the two, which made the impossible possible.

The truth was elusive, but the connection had helped him with his research. It let him observe the Void of Life and Death through his Daos, comprehending by observing contrasts. He'd already reached a basic understanding, and the Void had gone from a mysterious enigma to something that could be chipped away piece by piece.

Zac had named the Void of Life Stagnation and the Void of Death Dissolution.

The Void Of Death didn't represent immortality. At least, that was not what Zac saw when he observed the flickering motes in his mind. For him, it felt more like the terrifying blankness beyond the Void Mountain.

Death was the ultimate end of all journeys, but it was also a major driving force for all beings in creation. Fear of death, desire for longevity. Purpose, struggle—they all faded when the fundamental truth of Death was removed. It was a form of existential apathy. Without Death creating stakes, nothing mattered.

It was ominous, but Zac believed it would naturally fit with his Evolutionary Stance. The technique represented the unquenchable spirit of Life and the unending struggle to shatter the chains of fate. Dissolution was the other side of the coin. It gave Evolution context in a way that another Dao could not.

In practice, Zac believed infusing the Void of Death into the Evolutionary Stance would make his attacks harder to counter. Just like how Kator's Technique messed with Zac's sense of time flow, so would Dissolution make his opponents less attentive. Adding the unpredictable nature of the Void and his attacks would be much harder to counter.

Of course, Zac was far from reaching the point of replicating the phenomenon predictably and without relying on the Void Mountain. He hadn't made any significant breakthrough, but he loved the feeling of making gradual progress. In every session, he managed to extract a few grains of understanding. They were not worth mentioning on their own, but they would eventually accumulate into a mountain.

He'd asked Vilari, and the sensation was similar to how meditating on the Dao felt for high-affinity cultivators. He'd always suspected his odd constitution came with inverted affinities, and the Void Mountain had all but confirmed that fact.

There were some important differences between comprehending the Void and the Dao. Zac was certain he had already reached a level of comprehension that could match a Dao Seed, but he didn't have anything tangible to show for it. There were no prompts from the System, no Dao Apparitions or Fractals, nothing.

Zac couldn't generate or move the truths of the Void with his Soul. As such, it was impossible to infuse his skills with something like Void Seeds of Stagnation and Dissolution. He still had to rely on his Bloodline and the mountain to conjure the Voids of Life and Death, but he couldn't control the Void Energy after the mountain separated it.

Yet Zac was certain his work would eventually bear fruit. He knew he hadn't discovered the true purpose of the Void Mountain or what secrets it held. Zac sometimes felt like he was collecting the cobwebs and dust from an ancient treasure chest, ignoring the true prize within. But the more he interacted with it, the closer he was to getting some real answers.

If nothing else, Zac could already see some benefits through his cultivation of the [Void Vajra Sublimation]. The better he understood the Void of Life, the more Life he could steal from the Cosmos to further his constitution. A couple of months of practice had already increased his cultivation speed by 20%—a much-needed boost. There were no Abyssal Ponds for his human side, and the large gap between his constitutions couldn't be bridged in a month or two.

Zac's Draugr half left the cave to deal with the various matters that had cropped up. Zac also stood up, but he didn't leave his cave. He crossed the vibrant forest and stepped into the side chamber that was the source of the Life-attuned energy. It was the original cave he'd discovered after snatching the [Fruit of Ascension]. He'd jumped into the pool of Nexus Water to escape the sea of poison that Ogras tricked him into releasing.

The cave looked vastly different today. In fact, it was barely recognizable from just a couple of months ago. For one, its size had grown more than five times to accommodate its new occupants. Every inch was covered with dense vines, forming a lush cocoon that had suffocated all other life despite the transcendent environment. All other life except the gargantuan bulb in the cave's center.

Zac's Worldring was still more than large enough to accommodate the adolescent Worldrender Vine, but the synthetic environment of the Spatial Tool couldn't match up to the environment of his cave. There was something missing, no matter how many treasures he threw inside. The energy and Dao were rootless, making them hollow compared to the real thing.

Even the Inner Worlds of Monarchs faced the same problem, though their Daos nurtured their worlds in a way that Worldrings couldn't match. But they were still incomplete, and staying inside such a world for too long was harmful to one's cultivation. Only the Inner Worlds of Autarchs held the true Dao thanks to connecting a ladder to the Heavens.

The difference didn't matter for Vivi, who had reached her limits. It was different for Haro, who was in a stage of explosive growth, where his demands on quantity and quality were constantly increasing. Zac would have left Haro in here permanently if the battlefronts hadn't been so beneficial to his growth. It was almost like the bloody atmosphere was fertilizer, allowing Haro to strengthen its connection to the Dao of Conflict.

"How are you guys?" Zac smiled as he walked inside.

Haro couldn't answer, and Zac doubted he'd bother even if he could. Haro could barely be considered aware by this point, but he already displayed the signature arrogance and aggression of a Heavenrender Vine.

Vivi was happier to see him, and he felt the connection to his companion restore as she sent a few Vines over to greet him. Zac threw out a couple of recently killed Beast Kings, but she only took some blood for herself before giving Haro the carcasses. The beasts were quickly dragged into the bulb, and Zac heard crunching sounds for a few seconds before things calmed down.

Zac felt a pang of sorrow as he observed Vivi's lacking appetite. Vivi's vines didn't look as wan and withered as when he got her, and most of her brown leaves had turned golden. It was no surprise. Heda had been a prisoner of the Orom World like everyone else, and she barely had enough resources to avoid relegation. She simply didn't have the resources to provide an old experiment like Vivi with top-quality nourishment.

However, Vivi's lifeforce was still only growing weaker. All the treasures in the world couldn't subvert the river of time and the limits of fate—at least not any Zac had found. They had made Vivi a bit stronger, though. She was now a strong Peak E-Grade Spirit Plant, rather than Late E-grade like when he got her, and she could enter something similar to Half-Step Hegemony for short bursts. However, months of fighting with the evolved forms of [Verun's Bite] and [Love's Bond] clearly showcased the undeniable gap between Vivi and his other companions.

She couldn't keep up.

Dealing with normal soldiers was no problem, but Vivi couldn't threaten or contain most Middle Hegemons, making it hard to fully utilize his Evolutionary Stance. Zac often used [Primal Edict] to complement her pressure, but it wasn't the same. Those vines were hard to control by their very nature. They represented the wild cycle of death and rebirth, and they didn't have the same connection as he had with Vivi or Alea.

And since Vivi couldn't break through, Haro needed to wake up sooner rather than later. That way, she wouldn't need to drain herself to keep up with his constant fighting.

The timeline hadn't seemed like a problem when Zac first got the Heavenrender Seed. Haro would be grown up in time for the Assimilation, at which point Zac had expected to be a middle Hegemon at best. After all, he'd known just how difficult progress through Hegemony was for Mortals. Then came Ultom, paving a path to power while bringing terrifying enemies to his doorstep.

Luckily, Zac hadn't held back on providing for Haro. His aura already surpassed Vivi's, even if he was only a big bulb with some feeding tubes.

Haro's shocking progress left Zac with mixed emotions. It was yet another reminder that the Multiverse wasn't fair or equal. Passing the F-grade wasn't a given for Humans, and becoming a Hegemon made you a talent even in the Multiverse Heartlands. The vast majority simply didn't have the fundamental qualifications to take that step. Even those with talent had to work hard and risk their lives to break through.

Meanwhile, Haro wasn't even slowing down as he tackled that threshold. No, it couldn't even be considered a bottleneck for Haro—Hegemony for a Heavenrender Vine was nothing more than entering puberty. There would be no tribulation, no lightning, and Haro wouldn't encounter any roadblocks on his way to Monarchy. His only bottlenecks were his natural absorption speed and the depths of Zac's pockets.

A powerful presence pushed against Zac's mind as he walked over to the building-sized bulb. It almost felt like he was being stared down by a monstrous beast reeking of blood and destruction. The hazy consciousness wasn't completely hostile, but it was still full of warning. Zac almost wanted to slap some sense into the huge bulb. He'd spent a fortune on Haro's growth, yet it barely tolerated his existence.

The problem would only grow larger from here on out. Not even a Plant Master like Heda could subdue a grown Heavenrender Vine, let alone Zac. And Haro was not a normal Heavenrender Vine, thanks to its extravagant diet. He needed to form a binding connection before it was too late. It was essentially taking advantage of the naivety of a child, but it was his only chance.

Today was a chance to kill two birds with one stone. If everything went according to plan, both he and Haro would benefit tremendously. It all depended on whether his purchase lived up to its description.

Zac took out the box that had set him back to a measly 2,328 merit after having accumulated over 200,000. It had cost him everything he'd earned over four months of campaigning, along with most of his remaining starting bonus. Zac opened the lid, finding three items inside.

One was a vial filled with a viscous golden liquid. Not even the dense isolating inscriptions could block out the immense amount of lifeforce sealed within. Zac could feel a palpable desire as Haro sensed its contents, and dozens of feeding vines slithered toward him.

"Now you're suddenly friendly?" Zac snorted while casually slapping the vines away, but his eyes never left the vial.

The liquid within shimmered like it was mixed with miniature diamonds. Opalescent runes flickered around the vial, forming a halo of truth. Even the glimmers within the sealed container seemed to hold the primordial truths of Life. However, Zac could tell the runes weren't just random expressions of Dao caused by the liquid's intense energies. There were patterns within the chaos, combining into a natural formation of incredible complexity.

Zac turned to the item next to the vial, which was a single leaf lying on a bed of shimmering sand. It looked more like a delicate sculpture than something naturally formed, and it actually made Zac think of Iz Tayn. Like her features, the leaf was completely elevated from the mundane, proof of its intense affinity.

But while Iz was a personification of the myriad Daos of Fire, the leaf embodied the essence of Life. Its mere appearance set the Divine Energy in the cave astir, like subjects greeting its king. However, it was clear the grand appearance wasn't the leaf's original state. Like the vial, it was ingrained with microscopic dots of life.

They were likely the source of the patterns covering its surface. Who knew? The leaf might have been completely ordinary before it encountered the opportunity that made it uniquely linked to the golden liquid.

The last item in the box didn't exude any spirituality. It was a normal Information Crystal, and Zac closed the lid after taking it out, much to Haro's dismay. Zac scanned its contents for twenty minutes before taking out a wooden block and one of his artisanal axes.

Lines appeared at a rapid pace, and a fractal resembling the leaf had soon been etched into the block. Zac looked at it thoughtfully for a few minutes before making some minor alterations. It shouldn't pose any problems.

"Alright, alright," Zac smiled as he extricated himself from the web of Haro's feelers.

Almost everything was in place. Zac was only missing some fuel for his plan to work, and two new boxes thumped onto the ground. Neither had the signature array of the System's wares. They were normal treasure chests Zac had bought in the Perennial Vastness. Inside were piles of Dao Treasures reeking of both Life and Conflict.

Cultivation was to take measured steps on a neverending road. But sometimes, you had to take a leap.

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