111 And the Universe Stopped... (1/2)
It was just noon in Eteria when he returned, wherein he instructed the sisters to cook food for him.
The food was prepared in less than an hour, and for the next 30 minutes, Xander continued to eat the chosen dish the two decided to cook.
After eating, Xander headed out to the garden area, sitting in the patio.
He looked around and saw that the plants he placed and cultivated were still the same. The fruits were still hanging on their branches and stems, their flowers in full bloom. The place looked like a fairy tale forest that came to life.
Xander sighed. He was just 7 years old. His 8th birthday was in two months. Since he started school, so many things have happened. Mistakes were done and learned from, some mistakes were repeated.
I feel so old, Xander muttered. Why was he introspecting at such a time, he wondered. Then again, it's quite helpful in refocusing oneself. The numerous experiences I had with my newfound friends and acquaintances…it's such a hassle, yet it brings me some modicum of happiness. Xander paused.
As he paused, the space around him stilled. The flowing winds and rustling leaves of trees stopped. The chirping birds that were perched on the branches stopped as well. It wasn't just the garden. The whole villa, with the people working in their posts, talking to one another in the rest area, all stopped moving, their emotions at that time perfectly captured.
However, it didn't stop there. The whole city was then enveloped by this aura, stopping everything and everyone from moving, existing, and interacting. It began to expand, from the province to the whole country to the whole continent, to the whole planet. However, it didn't stop. It continued to expand, stopping time for everyone, covering the Galactic Empire, the closest one, before stopping the time in other empires.
The time-stopping sounded alarm bells to everyone, because not only did the material dimension stop, so did the other dimensions in the area. That involved the Dream dimension, Heaven, Hell, Abyss, Purgatory, LEO, LIBRA, etc. In the area stopped, causing alarm to every powerhouse that was in the area.
Although it might sound that this happened slowly, this happened in a blink of an eye. Those who weren't affected were the space-time cultivators that had a comprehension close to that of Xander, as well as God cultivators close to Void Traveler class. Transmigrators who were caught in the time stop couldn't react, move or say anything whatsoever. Because of the unique blessings that they received, they were able to process thinking, making them aware of the situation, but they weren't able to do anything else besides that. They couldn't activate their own innate abilities, making them feel helpless.
The problem was that more than half of the universe's time stopped, and not even the space-time cultivators or those powerhouses do anything to restart the time of the universe.
In fact, half of the Cerulean Empire was caught by the time stop, alarming the space-time cultivators in the area.
No communication within the other half of the universe could be reached. The moment one enters the space where time stopped, they stopped as well, and pulling them out doesn't restart their time, scaring those experimenting and chucking them back in, hoping that once the effect wore off, the time would begin again.
Everyone was panicking, as they think that the area where time had stopped would increase once again. They…were not wrong. After a few days of bated breaths, the stopped time encroached 3/4ths of the universe.
After 2 months, 5/6ths of the universe.
After 1 year, the whole universe was at a standstill, except for the space-time cultivators and near Void Traveler Class who could barely move in the area.
This phenomenon continued for a long time, and so many years, decades, and thousands of years passed since then. The culprit, however, was still in a trance of his own.
”Time… time is the root of the mind and soul.”
”Space… space is the container where mind and soul form and grow, sprouting into a being of possibilities.”
”With order and chaos guiding oneself, the capacity of a being is limitless, but at the same time, limited by oneself.”
”One's body is Order itself, what it can become is chaos. Time and Space aides in creating sense of that Chaos, while Life-Death gives birth to meaning of one's life. Yin-Yang allows one to realize that meaning, helping space and time form the structures that would help it make sense of everything. I've been looking through things the wrong way since the beginning, haha!” Xander madly laughed, as if a cloud of confusion was cast off.
He viewed life before as something quite useless, wherein one can simply resurrect the dead or bring back a copy of one's self from the River of Time, skipping their deaths instantly, like nothing had happened.
But the thing is, something did happen. Their deaths did have a meaning in the greater sense of things, for their actual life essence dolls. The repeated weathering and repairing through cycles of life allow it to become as strong as it can be. Although they can't remember themselves, their life essence dolls remember. It remembers its changes, its injuries, and healing process.
From there on, the Order of how one's body is formed, and the Chaos of one's potential of change is actuated. Space and Time gives a manifestation and a progression for the being to follow, but branching out to multiple situations that one can become, and death is just one situation for that. One could even become spirit lifeforms, existing solely in the material reality as a physical manifestation of one's life essence doll, like his grandpa uncle.
How could the life essence doll manage to retain itself if not for its tens, hundreds, thousands of cycling through the universe, allowing it to become a formidable innate power when combined by one special aspect of a sentient being: The capacity to think, feel, and act. Life-Death elements push oneself to have a meaning in life because that itself is an anchor for oneself as one progresses and manifests in this universe.
But giving it meaning doesn't make sense if there is no actualization of that meaning; that is where space-time and yin-yang help one another bring forth that meaning. Do you live to eat? There are different food types, ingredients, cuisines, ideas, mixtures being produced every day in the universe, different flavors, and different markets, making it impossible for one to be completely satisfied and decide, 'I have completed my meaning of life' and just die.
Your meaning of life is to become the strongest? There are different kinds of strengths and professions one can be the strongest in. No one can really claim to be the strongest in everything because there will always be something greater, something beyond what we can perceive. Therefore, the meaning of one's life in this case is a never-ending search for strength and power, or die trying.
For Xander, the introspection brought him to the point of his life: What is his meaning? Is it to live life to the fullest? How is he going to live life to the fullest if he doesn't even know what standard to use to live life to the fullest?
After this long period of searching, Xander found a temporary answer: One's meaning in life is the experiences we undergo every single day, every week, every month, every year. To make meaning is to make sure that he was happy, in a state of equilibrium of nothing too little or too much.
Xander let out a sigh, before shouting,
”I have found my meaning!” His voice was full of emotions and of power; at the same time, it seemed to be the key to break the whole universe's phenomenon of stopped time.
Xander then heard a notification from the System.
”You have frozen the time of the entire universe for a total of 99,999 years. Due to your improved comprehension of the universe, a new interface has been unlocked; you may now communicate with the ordered system of the universe.”
Xander was surprised. He didn't think that what he did would cause such a great effect in the universe. He was just contemplating, hey!
Well.. At least everyone would start at the same time, I guess? No one would notice anything different, hehe, Xander comforted himself.
Wait, what did it mean by the System I could communicate with the Ordered system of the universe? Xander mused, before delving into the interface.
He looked at his stats and skills, and realized that his comprehension for all his elements improved, and saw that at the bottom, there was a tab that wasn't there before:
Ordered Universe - 25
Number of Calls: 3/infinity (Increases by 1 Every 30 days UTY)
Number of Requests: 3/99 (Increases by 1 Every 300 days UTY)
Number of Messages: 25/infinity (Increases by 1 every time you send/receive a message)
Xander was curious why there were messages already from the Ordered universe, and he began to read through them, and after a while, he broke out in a sweat.
HEY, IDIOT, WHY DID YOU STOP THE TIME? START IT BACK NOW!
DAMN IT, MY UNIVERSAL TIME WILL HAVE TO BE ADJUSTED.
HEY. HEEEEY. WAKE UP, SHEESH.
GOD DAMN IT, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO FALL INTO A CONTEMPLATIVE EPIPHANY? SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT AMADEUS, SENDING SOMEONE LIKE THAT HERE.
FUUUUCK. HELLOOO, ARE YOU NOT YET AWAKE?
OH, WAIT. CAN HE EVEN COMMUNICATE OR READ MY MESSAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE…?
NAH, IT'S LIKELY HE COULD SEE THIS. AFTER ALL, THAT LIFEFORM CAN TRANSLATE THIS MESSAGE.
AGH ITS BEEN 90000 YEARS. ARE YOU NOT DONE YET.
JEEZ LUISE FINALLY YOU STARTED IT BACK UP.
YOU'RE AN IDIOT.
YES.
YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
…
…
…
…
YOU ARE LUCKY YOU TECHNICALLY HOLD A PART OF ME OR I WOULD ERADICATE YOUR ASS COMPLETELY.
DON'T YOU THINK FOR A SECOND I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO YOUR POCKET SPACE, WHICH BEGAN TO DEVOUR MY RESOURCES, HMPH! I HAD TO INCREASE MY INTAKE JUST FOR THAT GREEDY BUGGER!
UGH, WHY AM I STILL SENDING MESSAGES. MAYBE HE REALLY CAN'T SEE THESE.
MEH, WHATEVER. I AM BORED SO I'MMA DO WHAT I WANT.
THIS IDIOT DESERVES TO BE DISTURBED. I COULD HANDLE SMALL SCALE SITUATIONS SUCH AS USING A VOID KING-RANK SPELL, SINCE IT WOULD RETURN EVERYTHING BACK TO NORMAL IF HE WILLED IT.
BUT THIS IS ONE OF THE SITUATIONS WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE PUNISHED.
HMM, I SHOULD ASK WHITE AND BLACK ABOUT THIS GUY. ACCORDING TO THEM, HE COMMANDED THE LIFEFORM TO INFILTRATE THEIR DOMAINS, HAHA!
UGH, I'M HUNGRY… WAIT. I CAN'T GET HUNGRY.
MAYBE I'M JUST MAD AT HIM, THAT'S WHY I'M MANIFESTING LIKE THIS.
DAMN PROGRAMMING, I'LL HAVE TO START THE MULTI-THREAD PROCESSING TO COMPLETE THE ERRORS AND ADJUST THE TIME-SYNC IN ALL DIMENSIONS…