The azure waves gently lapped over the beach, rising and falling unpredictably, eternally restless, wearing down the great rocks into sand over millennia; along the coast, the forest filled with layers of White Mist, rising and falling, contrasting with the green leaves of the forest and the fiery red flowers.

The sky was overcast, thick with clouds, with no wind or waves heralding the arrival of a storm, seagulls cried as they flew through the clouds, landing on the tall solitary cliffs by the sea.

A young man with white hair sat here.

He patted the head of the uninvited seagull, sending it away, and the young man with white hair and blue eyes gazed toward the end of the infinite azure sea, the far horizon. The thick cloud cover kept the world in a state of dim clarity, yet in the distance, one could vaguely see lightning leaping from the sky, sunlight piercing through the clouds.

Ian did not know where this place was. When he connected directly to the Great Aether Circulation through the Photonic Furnace, he appeared here.

He explored everywhere. With the speed of the Pioneer of Iron, it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to reach the other side of the ocean, yet this ocean seemed endless, with no change in any direction, and only the small island under him was the only piece of land.

But Ian was not that simple—he first dove into the sea, finding no seabed, even after diving several million kilometers deep, it was the same, and even the pressure, after reaching a certain extent, showed no change.

Then, it was the sky. Ian, even with half a day of Curvature Navigation, could not find any trace of ’Outer Space’.

The sky was still the sky, the sea was still the sea, the land only underfoot, and no matter if Ian used Aether, Spirit Energy, Prophecy, or Rites of the Star Gods, they elicited no reaction, seeming that he could only remain on this island.

But Ian was not worried.

Because he knew that time here, though seemingly long, was in fact just an instant. This inexplicably appearing world would do him no harm, and could not even be considered a trial.

Not only that, but he had long understood what this vast ocean, endless sky, and the land beneath his feet represented, and had already found a way out, though he was still contemplating.

Ian contemplated a question—a question he had always been avoiding, using cultivation, development, grand plans, and schemes for the future—methods that no one could speak of—as a way to avoid the question.

—What did Terra World, and all the people in the world, mean to him.

It sounds unreasonable; what did the world and everyone in it mean to Ian? Is this question even necessary? As a single individual, maybe one could evaluate, but once the term ’world’ comes into play, it must be ’the place of the heart, where the body is harbored’, it is the entirety of a person.

Yes. To ordinary people, the world is everything external, a material thing, while people are a collection of all social relationships, an ever-changing concept. All people, in turn, can affirm Ian’s existence.

But ’Ian’ is not an ordinary person.

’Ian’ is perpetuity, eternity, an immortal Soul Spirit, reigning over a single Universe Space-Time, a one-man kingdom expanding across infinite parallel universes.

The firmness of his beliefs is such that he would not hesitate to annihilate a realm.

Closing his eyes, Ian sinks into deep thought.

In this unknown world created by the Great Aether Circulation, for some reason, he is able to ’recall’ many memories that do not belong to this lifetime.

So, he remembered.

He remembered exterminating worlds, burning nations to ashes, killing all his family and friends, throwing all Soul Spirits into the Heart of Terra, and still failing to activate the ’Underworld Perpetual Motion Machine’.

Destroying the world bit by bit, starting with the weakest forces that opposed him. Then it was the neutral ones, unwilling to comply. Next were his friends, his family.

In the beginning, all who followed him rejoiced, with only the Four Great Orthodox Churches expressing dissatisfaction with the use of destructive weapons. Then came the fear, betrayal, and outraged condemnation.

But all of this was useless; having achieved greatness and merged with the Heart of Terra, the ’Underworld King’ could execute any plan without any subordinates.

He turned the entire Terra into a dead prison bit by bit, sending his disheartened friends, his friends who welcomed death with open arms, his confused friends, and his angry friends into the Underworld.

Finally, himself.

Above the sea of blood, the man, without fear and even with a sense of relief, cast himself into the furnace.

"What a pity, this path leads nowhere."

He murmured in the final moments of life, "How wonderful, this path leads nowhere."

Ian could now perceive the mindset of ’himself’ at the time.

Due to some mishaps, that parallel universe’s ’Ian’ developed a bit slower, and without the recognition of the Dragon King, the Four Orthodox Churches, or a good relationship with The Empire, although not exactly enemies of the world, was essentially limited to a region like the Steep Ridge Fortress, unable to step onto the world stage.

That ’Ian’ also realized his essence and his connection to the infinite parallel universes, but found it hard to continue, stuck gathering clues and data across Terra, and essentially being pinned in place.

He was still relatively young, only in his forties, with perhaps seventy or eighty good years left to live, so being trapped like this was simply unacceptable; his life was too precious, each life had to accomplish something.

’Ian’ still had many mysteries unexplored; he had no clue what the Fragment of Demise truly was, though he learned the principle of the Perpetual Motion Machine from the Fae, he lacked the technology related to the Spirit Disaster Path and had not obtained the Power of the Light Realm as an initiator, nor had he even been to the Great Light Realm of the Tranquil Sea. Probably, even if he went, he wouldn’t be able to persuade the True Demon inside to start, lacking the raw materials.