The White room

Alistair woke up and found himself inside a white room. The room was too clean, not even a speck of dust could be found in it. The abnormally clean room was sealed entirely without any door or window. Many yellowish-white lights were floating in the room.

Only then he realized that he had a 360 degrees' vision and concluded that he was also a white ball. Although he was able to look around, he couldn't move from the place he was floating.

'So this is where people go after their death' then he assumed that these balls were the soul of the dead, and thus he tried to communicate with other souls. But he didn't get any response from other departed souls.

As there was no means for measuring the time, it was felt absurd at the same time depressing. After some time, few of the souls started to dim out and fade. This continued on for a long time; one by one, the balls would become smaller and smaller then it would slowly vanish.

It was a creepy kind of torture to stay silent, and it's a miraculous record maintaining the sanity. This was an extreme tested of patience and willpower of the people. As Alistair was a successful businessman and had gone through hard training, his patience and moreover, his endeavour of travelling around the world strengthened his willpower.

After who knows how long all the souls except Alistair vanished. Alistair sometimes felt like eons passed since his death, but at times it would feel like just a few years has passed by; it was very confusing and driving him crazy.

The only reason he was able to survive was his strong will and curiosity. He was inquisitive to find out what would happen after all of the souls left. Immediately after the last soul vanished Alistair heard an ancient senile voice

"Congrats on passing the test."

After that, there was a short pause, Alistair wondered where the voice came from as there was no one in the room.

"I know you have any questions, but I don't have the time to answer your question as I'm dying. So just listen carefully and consider the options given to you before answering."

Without giving Alistair any time to provide the response, the old man continued.

"I'm god or heaven or the being responsible for all the supernatural activities on Earth. Actually, I'm Earth's Guardian. Each world would have its own guardian; the guardians are responsible for maintaining the balance of their world and guarding it against various threats."

"A guardian could not survive with a planet, and a new guardian would be formed if a guardian is destroyed. Thus both the world and its guardian are interdependent and interrelated. Though Guardians derive many powers from the world, they can't possess emotion or conscious or soul. To put it simply, we are like a set of programs that will be executed in different scenarios." The old man said as if he was stating a well-established fact, which is common sense.

After that, the old man paused. While Alistair thought, 'If this old man really is the Earth's guardian as he portrayed himself and being what he told was about guardians were true, then how could this old man even exist. He surely has emotions, soul, and he is not in a coma, so he definitely has conscious.' Alistair was confused.

It was as though the old man could read his mind "But I'm an exception I have emotions and soul, I'm the only guardian with conscious and soul in the universe. This was because of an accident. Now let me tell you the reason for testing you. Many eons ago, the Earth was the world's strongest planet in the whole universe."

"Then Earth was the heart of the whole universe and holy land for cultivators. Because it was the most developed and largest planet in the universe, all the top clans, sects, and other influence had their headquarters on Earth. Earth was simply too unique and special; compared to Earth, other planets were too backward."

"Like all good things must come to an end, Earth faced a very tough trial. A mega explosion took place near Earth. Then a Cosmic black hole was formed, and it was never-ending expanding. The black hole did not seem to have an end and looked like it was going to devour everything on its way.

"After the planet nearest to Earth was devoured, all the people realized the magnitude of the disaster. The Cosmic black hole was nearing Earth, thus to save Earth at the same time not to lose their precious cultivation holy land all powerhouses across the universe joined hands, temporarily setting aside their grudges and differences."

"They all rushed to the core of the cosmic black hole and tried to destroy it. All the powerhouses believed that they could achieve anything if they all joined together. Their arrogance and confidence blinded them, and the reality struck them harshly everyone died, but they didn't sacrifice themselves in vain as the black hole was also damaged. After devouring Earth, the Cosmic Black Hole closed and suddenly vanished from the universe. "

After speaking continuously without a break, the old man let out a long sigh that contained a myriad of complex emotions. He was gratified, guilty, grateful, helpless, depressed towards those who sacrificed their lives defending Earth.

"I somehow survived that disaster with broken Earth's core and found myself in the void current that was formed due to the Cosmic Black Hole. The void current was filled with dead souls of the powerhouses and treasures that they had before death. Then I found a white box floating in the space, it was peculiar, and I got a strange attraction from the White Box. As I went near it, a sudden suction sucked everything in the Void Current, including the dead souls, treasures, Damaged Earth Core, and me."

"Only then I realized that the Cosmic black hole was actually caused by this White Box's birth, and the energy devoured was also absorbed by the white box. And the Cosmic Black Hole stopped only because of devouring enough power to support the white box."

"After entering the box, all the dead souls miraculously merged with me, and the treasures melted and were merged with the Earth's core. The souls that merged with me only had memories of the powerhouses without their consciousness. But this merger gave me a soul, conscious, and emotions."

"Though the souls merged with me healed me to some extent, it could not completely cure me, but it was just a temporary solution, and Earth was also in the same situation as me. Though the core was repaired to some extent, it could never reach its previous level. I was dying, and the prestigious Earth reduced to the lowest level of the world in the universe."

"Moreover, Earth could not be sent to the universe as guardian with soul and consciousness was defiance of the natural order, and the universe's will would destroy both Earth and me. Thus I decided to develop Earth as much as possible before my death. After my death, a new guardian would be formed, and it will naturally be integrated with the universe."