Chapter 56: Reading the History of the OverRealm

[for those who don't know, (" ") means speaking. (' ') means thinking or conversing via divine sense. (~ ~) means reading.]

The first page was the table of contents, informing me of the page where specific information was stored; a few caught my eye, such as 'The Hierarchy of the OverRealm', 'Currency of the OverRealm', and 'Other Realm or Dimensions'. However, I decided to start with 'History of the OverRealm' on page seventy-eight.

~The OverRealm, is something that has existed since before the Primordial Epoch. Not much is known about how the OverRealm came to be, other than the evidence we have from other Realms being birthed; however, we do know that the OverRealm is the very first Realm ever to exist.~

~Primordial Epoch is the Epoch directly after the creation of the OverRealm. This is the Epoch when life first came to be; whether it was the first blade of grass or the first conscious living being, it all started from this Epoch. Shortly after life was created, the first intelligent creature was born; Dragons. Intelligent sea-life creatures followed closely behind; then various creatures began popping up everywhere, Phoenix, Druids, Golems, Goblins, Humans, Elves, Demons, Angels, Fairies, Dwarves, Giants, and many more creatures of varying proportions. Eventually, each species came together to form villages, these villages then became towns, then cities, and before you even knew it, every species had an entire Empire with many citizens and cities under its command. Then the inevitable happened, species began finding each other, and war happened just as you would expect.

Once the war started, it never stopped; for thousands of years, battles raged between different species, with Empires and kingdoms being destroyed and built every millennium; though, one day, an elderly human male discovered Qi after having meditated in seclusion for years on end; no one knew his name, though he has many different moniker's, however, he is widely known as "The Creator of Cultivation." Alas, with no knowledge about cultivation, he made minimal progress, and shortly later, the elderly man died, and it wouldn't be until a couple of hundred years passed that his diaries about Qi and Cultivation were unearthed, illuminating the world of the trek to Immortality. Knowledge about cultivation quickly spread, and with many people using it, cultivation made massive breakthroughs until an Elf, now known as Progenitor Lordess, got her hands on cultivation. After experiencing many battles and near-death situations over many years, Progenitor Lordess had one final battle against the Dragon king, who was said to wield power that of an average Peak Half-step Saint cultivator, and after a day-long war, she eventually slayed him. Shocking every living being at the death of the very first Dragon, as during that era, Dragons were akin to gods with their incredible might. However, the surprise wasn't over.

A month later, Progenitor Lordess advanced to a Saint and Declared her Empire as 'The Immortal Elven Empire', the creation of the very first Immortal existence. Progenitor Lordess alone caused a spark that quickly progressed the OverRealm into the next Epoch, the Flourishing Epoch, also known as the Warring Epoch.~

Primordial Epoch; Estimated length: [Three point seven Eons](3.7 billion years)

(Note: Eon means one billion years.)

~Flourishing Epoch; The Epoch directly after the Primordial Epoch, in which Cultivation greatly flourished, making incredible progress, along with many Empires and Kingdoms declaring themselves as Immortal Empires, but of course, when they did such a thing, they would immediately be targeted by the masses and quickly exterminated; on the rare chance they survived, they got to keep their title rightfully. However, as time went on, people began finding out that the greater your cultivation base, the slower you cultivated, so the need for special resources appeared, which resulted in a war of a monstrous magnitude. Killing and pillaging for resources became normal. If you hadn't aligned yourself with a faction, you were either killed or captured as a slave; even the most peaceful of species abided by this unspoken rule.

After a very long time, things finally began to calm down, and after such a long time, six different Immortal hegemonies were born; The Immortal Dragon Clan, The Immortal Demon Sect, The Immortal Ocean Clan, The Immortal Heavenly Empire, The Immortal Beast Sect, and The Immortal Golem Empire; adding The Immortal Elven Empire, for a total of seven Immortal Hegemonies, and to this day every single one of them still exists. Of course, while not as powerful as the Immortal hegemonies, many other factions believed themselves to be powerful in their own right, so they created their title, such as The Divine Druid Kingdom, or if you were slightly weaker, then you would use the title Ancient instead of Divine. However, everything didn't stay relatively peaceful for long, as not long later, the Chaos Lord was born, and he ushered in the next Epoch; The Chaotic Epoch.~

Flourishing Epoch; length: [One-hundred twenty-four thousand point seven Eons](≈124.7 trillion years)

"Illumia, could you get me some tea." Said Elif as he took a quick break from reading the book.

"Yes, your highness." Said Illumia with a bow before disappearing from her spot and reappearing shortly later with a tray of tea and snacks.

"Thanks." Muttered Elif as he sipped tea before continuing from where he had left off.

~The Chaotic Epoch. The Epoch directly after the Flourishing Epoch, in which the Chaos lord appeared, slaughtering trillions of living beings. The Chaos lord first appeared in the OverRealm as an Independent cultivator with exceptional talents; over time, he bested many renowned cultivators and eventually made his name resound throughout the OverRealm as one of the most talented Independent cultivators. Eventually, an Ancient Sect invited him to join their sect, but after the Chaos Lord openly rejected their invitation, they retaliated.

Even though the Chaos Lord was a powerful Independent cultivator before an Ancient existence, he was quickly captured and openly executed for all to see; however, the Ancient sect didn't know that the Chaos Lord's soul managed to escape. A few Eons passed, and rumors of a ruthless Independent cultivator who captured the souls of everyone he killed appeared; at first, no one cared as it was merely a rumor. Still, as time passed, several subsidiary kingdoms of that specific Ancient sect started getting destroyed. Not long later, that Ancient sect was destroyed, catching the attention of the entire OverRealm as that was the first time since the Flourishing Epoch that something like that happened.

Shortly after, the man was identified as the Chaos Lord that was supposedly killed; however, mostly everyone ignored it as they believed he just wanted revenge, though what they didn't know was that his new Cultivation technique required souls for him to improve, and the only reason why he still managed to keep his sanity after absorbing untold numbers of souls was his intense desire for revenge; once he accomplished that his soul was quickly corrupted by all the other souls he's accumulated, causing him to turn into nothing but a rampaging monster that desired to absorb souls. The more he slaughtered, the stronger he got; during his rampage, he destroyed three other Ancient Hegemonies and one Divine before somehow finding the Divine Fairy Clan, which was always hidden away with illusions.

Fairies are one of the few species that have no physical bodies and are born as just souls, so even being near the Chaos Lord significantly weakened them, and if it weren't for the Fairy Queen requesting for help from one of their long-time allies, The Immortal Elven Empire, then they would've been destroyed as well. The Immortal Elven Empire sent over one Grand-Ancestor, and not even a day later; the Chaos lord was slain. The Chaotic Epoch ended with the Chaos Lords' death, and the Harmonious Epoch arrived.~

Chaotic Epoch; length: [Fifteen Eons](15 billion years)

~The Harmonious Epoch; The Epoch directly after the Chaotic Epoch and the current Epoch.~

Harmonious Epoch; length: [Nine-hundred seventy-four thousand Eons and counting](974 trillion years)

Setting the book down, I take a sip of tea while digesting all the information I had just read, mainly thinking about Progenitor Lordess and the Chaos Lord.

'So we were the first to declare ourselves as an Immortal existence; now I want to know more about Progenitor Lordess.' Thought Elif, grabbing the book once again while sipping some tea.

Flipping to page one-hundred twenty-nine, where information on the currency of the OverRealm is contained, however, there was far from the amount of information compared to the history of the OverRealm.

~Spirit stones are the currency of the OverRealm, with the lowest being an Earthly spirit stone and the highest being an Immortal spirit stone; spirit stones are also separated into three minor realms, which determine the amount of Qi it contains.~

~An Earthly-low spirit stone has a value of one, while an Earthly-middle spirit stone has a value of ten, and lastly, an Earthly-high spirit stone has a value of one hundred. However, a Heavenly-low spirit stone is worth one-hundred times an Earthly-high spirit stone, for a value of ten thousand.~

I did the remaining math in my head, and let's just say the numbers got big, very big.

I skipped over Hierarchy of the OverRealm as I felt I learned enough from reading the History of the OverRealm, so I flipped to page three-hundred ninety-five to read Other Realms and dimensions.

~Outside of the OverRealm, there exist many other realms, all of which are vastly smaller and not as Qi-dense; those realms are called the Mortal Realm, Spirit Realm, and the Heavenly Realm. The Mortal realms are so incredibly tiny that most towns are bigger than them, and they have very little Qi, to the point where merely a Foundation Establishment can't be born.~

~Spirit realms are vastly more extensive, with a size comparable to a large city in the OverRealm; they also have very little Qi, only allowing inhabitants to reach the Half-step Divine realm; however, unlike the Mortal Realm, it is possible to ascend into the Heavenly Realm and continue cultivating.~

~A Heavenly Realm's size is comparable to a small kingdom's territory, enormous, but nothing compared to the OverRealm; they have a low amount of Qi which allows the inhabitants to reach the Half-step True God realm; they can also ascend to the OverRealm as well if they wish to step into Godhood.'~

~A Dimension is a separate space isolated from the rest of that specific realm with a separate environment; a Dimension is usually smaller than the realm it's connected to, but on infrequent occasions, Dimensions can be bigger than the said realm, though it's only occurred inside Spirit Realms.~

"Alright, I finished one book; now I have several more to go." Said Elif, closing the book and setting it down on the table as he took a break and sipped some tea before picking up another book.