Three hours were enough for Ethan to learn about the world of Shinmya, the world he had been transmigrated to.
Well, not everything, but at least everything he absolutely needed to know if he wished to avoid making mistakes along the way.
"This world is just like the others… this world is also a part of a cluster of worlds divided between lower and upper planes…"
Ethan muttered as he went over everything he had learned in the library.
After spending around three hours in the library, Ethan went to the cafeteria, bought several meals, and returned to the residential area.
Unexpectedly, no other sect members came to cause trouble for him, though they still sent stares and glares his way.
Anyway, the world Ethan had been in until now was all very similar.
The first thing to know was that there were countless worlds in the universe.
Not all of them contained intelligent life, but those that did were ruled by intelligent beings.
These beings were either part of technologically developed or developing worlds, or they belonged to supernaturally developing worlds like the one Ethan was currently in, a cultivation world.
These worlds were classified by the System as [Intelligent Worlds].
[Intelligent Worlds] were further divided into two categories known as [Origin Worlds] and [Prime Worlds].
[Origin Worlds]: These were the worlds where intelligent life first appeared or evolved.
Beings born here possessed the potential to grow beyond mortality but could never truly achieve immortality because their world either lacked the capability or had yet to develop the capability to sustain the presence of Immortals.
No matter how much beings in these worlds cultivated, regardless of the method, they would eventually hit the upper limit of their [Origin World].
At that point, they would have become the most powerful being in that world but would be unable to progress further.
If they wished to reach the next level, they would have to leave their original world and settle in a new world with a much higher upper limit, a [Prime World].
Prime Worlds had more than enough capacity to sustain the presence of Immortals, and their size was incomparably larger than that of Origin Worlds.
Take the cultivation world of Shinmya, for example.
Shinmya was also one of the Origin Worlds.
In Shinmya, beings were born as mortals but cultivated toward immortality.
Every time they reached a new cultivation level, they grew significantly stronger, and their lifespans increased exponentially.
If Ethan reached the upper cultivation limit of Shinmya, he could not progress further unless he ascended to a Prime World.
These worlds also housed different species within the universe, which could be divided into three planes: the Lower Plane, the Upper Plane, and the Supreme Plane.
The Lower Plane was made up of Origin Worlds and other mortal-level worlds.
The Upper Plane was where the Prime Worlds and other immortal-level worlds were located.
As for the Supreme Plane, it was said to house unimaginable horrors and monsters straight out of nightmares, things only true immortals dared even to think about challenging.
The Supreme Plane was the greatest and largest plane of them all.
Another interesting thing was that the Lower and Upper Planes did not just contain intelligent worlds like Origin and Prime Worlds.
They also contained countless other worlds without intelligent life but filled with limitless monsters, beasts, resources, and opportunities for Awakeners to grow stronger.
These unintelligent worlds were clustered together with Origin Worlds and Prime Worlds, interconnected with one another, but only with worlds in the same plane.
For example, Shinmya, as one of the Origin Worlds, was interconnected with many other worlds.
Most of them lacked intelligent life, were uninhabitable, or were just worlds filled with monsters, but all of them were in the Lower Plane, just like Shinmya.
The same applied to all other Origin and Prime Worlds as well.
By the way, Earth was also one of the Origin Worlds, but it did not have a Prime World connected to it because it was still a developing world where people had yet to become Awakeners.
Another important piece of information was that there were some worlds in the Upper Plane classified by the System as Unity Worlds, or what cultivators called Commercial Worlds.
These Unity Worlds (Commercial Worlds) were massive, with vast land and sea masses.
But what made them important was that they were connected to all the Prime Worlds in the Upper Plane.
This meant that cultivators from different worlds could meet and trade in these Unity Worlds, a place where everyone was accepted regardless of race or the type of cultivation they pursued.
Naturally, these worlds, highly developed in terms of cultivators and their level of cultivation, were well aware of the presence of other Prime Worlds as well.
Ethan also knew of these worlds.
After all, he had lived in both Origin Worlds and Prime Worlds as a powerful cultivator himself.
"Well, not everything is the same though…" Ethan muttered, remembering a peculiar point he had read in one of the books.
"From what I've learned so far from the records of other Prime Worlds, Qi cultivators are categorized among the top ten types of cultivators by other worlds, and the records here also say the same thing," Ethan muttered, rubbing his chin.
"If the records are right, with Qi cultivation I've experienced every method of cultivation discovered so far…"
Even the records of the last world he had lived in before coming here, and the ones before that, all agreed.
According to them, he had experienced every single one of them.
Only two remained: Magic and Qi Cultivation.
In his last world, he had experienced Magic, and now he was about to experience Qi Cultivation as well.
"Hm… my reasons to believe this is my last transmigration are growing. If it is, then when I die, I will not be transported to another world," Ethan clicked his tongue.
"I've been reckless until now because even if I died, I knew I would be transmigrated to another world. But I cannot afford to be like that anymore. It seems I've exhausted my life."
A serious expression appeared on his face as realization struck.
Then his expression eased as he shook his head.
"Why am I thinking of the worst-case scenario already when I do not have definite proof that this is indeed my last life? I do not even know what is causing me to be transmigrated from world to world yet, or why it is happening." Ethan shook his head again.
He had asked himself this same question millions of times before but had never managed to reach a conclusion.
Firstly, even if he had been transmigrated naturally, he should have kept his original body after each transmigration, but he did not.
Every time he woke up in a new world, he found himself in a new body.
This alone was reason enough for Ethan to believe it was not a natural occurrence but someone's ploy.
"Tch, whatever… the seed of doubt has already been planted inside me. I should move carefully from now on. If this really is my last life, I cannot be reckless and lose it… I love life. I love living it too much. I have to do whatever it takes to make sure I will live forever," Ethan said.
"The easiest way to do that would be to become immortal, a true immortal."
"And who knows, maybe the cause of all this might end up revealing itself to me on my path," Ethan shrugged with a sigh.
...
Somewhere unknown, unreachable, unrecognized, and incomprehensible, there exists a place of nothing but emptiness and darkness.
A pair of huge, sharp eyes opened, burning with golden flames that blazed without fuel, even in that void.
For an unseemly instant, the golden flames burst forth like firecrackers.
In the very next moment, the being to whom these eyes belonged seemed to sense something.
Waves of golden energy surged outward, spreading everywhere like a tide, only to vanish an instant later, retreating back into the eyes and restoring everything to complete darkness.