Nothingness.
That was what was around Tang Ze.
He wasn't sure where he was, because it looked like there was nothing here.
Up.
Down.
Left.
Right.
Directions were meaningless as it all looked the same.
If felt as if his body was weightless, floating in an endless, waterless ocean.
After what felt like eternity, or maybe it was only a few seconds (time seemed to have as much meaning in this place that space did, as in, none at all) - he started to remember what had happened.
That's right.
He had fought that powerful asura, and then died as a result.
He was dead, right? He couldn't imagine what this place was other than some kind of purgatory, and why he would be someplace like here unless he had died.
Well, at least his second death had been a more noble one than the first, he consoled himself.
"Yes, you are dead," a voice said to him. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, one that seemed neither female nor male, neither old nor young - and combined the gentleness of a mother's voice along with the firmness of a father's. It was a voice capable of both extreme cruelty and extreme charity at the same time.
It was a voice that Tang Ze felt that he had heard many times before, and yet was also completely alien to him. He thought that only one person was speaking, but it also felt like there were millions if not billions of voices echoing alongside this one voice whenever it spoke.
As a matter of fact, Tang Ze felt that he could even hear the faintest echo of his own voice among that multitude.
"I must thank you for what you did - you managed to rid the world of a great evil."
The voice had no origin, it seemed to be coming from everywhere around the void all at once. Or maybe it was just speaking directly into his mind? Tang Ze couldn't tell.
Tang Ze wasn't sure what to say in response to its words. 'You're welcome?' It wasn't like he had done so anticipating any reward, he had sacrificed himself to save those in that world whom he cared about.
"You have my gratitude, and with it, a small boon I give unto you," the voice continued. "A second chance. I can send you back in time. I can give you an opportunity to change things, if you would take it."
Did Tang Ze have any regrets about sacrificing himself for the world? No!
At the same time, there was so much he had wanted to accomplish. So much he still had to do.
He wanted to be there for Zhang Long's and Jin Zhen's engagement - and even more than that, for their wedding.
He wanted to finally master the [Lotus Palm] from Elder Su Ruo.
He wanted to see the Komainu grow up into an adult. Come to think of it, who was going to take care of it now that he wasn't there? Someone needed to play with it to ensure that it didn't become depressed again. Also, he really wished that he had told it 'You're the best dog in the world!' one last time before he had left with Elder He Xuan. Then again, he hadn't anticipated dying before the two of them had departed.
He had been looking forward to the sect auction and possibly nabbing a few things at a bargain, and had been hopeful that he could get a storage ring for himself.
He had wanted to go to that spirit spring along with his squad to cultivate there. He had also wanted to go to the Theocracy of Serragnia one day - even putting that aside, he had barely seen a sliver of what the Raswatian Empire had to offer.
Overall, he really just wanted to enjoy as much time as he possibly could with his friends.
He also wanted to let Elder He Xuan know that he didn't blame him for anything.
Above all of these things though, he wanted to be able to finish Xian Yue's dress!
He had promised her that he would do so - and she had put all of her expectations on ascending to the Hinayana realm on him because of that. She had even helped him out while looking for the Grimoire of Heaven, and he had done nothing to repay her for the same.
He wanted to be there when she would finally ascend to the Hinayana realm and gain her body back!
He remembered the scene that the Grimoire of Heaven had shown him where he was proposing to her. He knew that someone like her wouldn't normally look at someone like him twice, but maybe, if he had been successful, she would've given him a chance? Even if she wouldn't, he wished he had fully expressed his true feelings that he had developed over time for her. He had pushed them aside, thinking that he would only say them once he had finished her dress - but to think that things had turned out like this.
Then again, if he had not attacked the asura, all of his friends would likely be dead right now and he wouldn't be able to do any of the above anyway, so he truly had no regrets about what he did.
Even if he was dead, he could rest peacefully knowing that those he had cared about in that world were safe; no matter if he couldn't be with them.
"If you do not wish to return, let me show you what would lie ahead of you," the voice said.
By this point, Tang Ze had realized that his body was completely gone and it was just his soul floating around in this endless void.
But he felt his vision change as if his 'head' had turned, and he now gazed upon a sight that took his breath away.
All living creatures are subject to playing out their lifetimes along the Wheel of Samsara in accordance with their karmic bonds.
What happened to living beings when they were born, as they were alive, and when they died was something that was easily evident.
What happened in the time period after death and before birth, however, was something far harder to decipher, even for cultivators.
However, right now Tang Ze could clearly view this portion of the Wheel of Samsara.
He saw trillions upon trillions of souls emerging from countless worlds every fraction of a second, moving in accordance to their karmic times, and then being sent out of the void once again into the countless worlds to be reborn.
The incoming souls merged into a single stream - as impossible as it seemed, Tang Ze could see each and every soul, which were like droplets of water in a river, and simultaneously the whole picture as well. The voice that was speaking to him had to be helping his mind process this, otherwise he could not have possibly comprehended what he was seeing below him.
To his immense relief, he could not see the souls of anyone he knew down below, meaning that killing that asura had indeed seemingly prevented their deaths.
The individual souls moved amongst each other while they were within the river in accordance to their karmic ties. Some of them moved to the upper layers to be reborn in higher realms, while others sank below like rocks. Those on the lower layers would be reborn in the wombs of lower beasts without intelligence and so would have no true way of achieving enlightenment in their next lives, while those on the lowest layers would be thrust into the wombs of creatures like the asuras.
It was a sight that many cultivators would give up their right hands to witness. Many spoke of this, but how many of them could have claimed to see it with their own eyes? Even those who had deduced its existence, like many Soul cultivators had through various clues, could not say that they had verified its existence with their own eyes.
And the icing on the cake was that Tang Ze realized after some time that he wasn't even seeing the full picture. What he saw before him, he quickly realized, was only a fraction of a fraction of this step of the process. If he had been shown any more, he would not have been able to register what he was looking at.
Out of every few hundreds of trillions of souls that emerged, one of them would inexplicably be freed from its karmic bonds and disappear.
He only saw one such instance after a minute, unsure of what it was - but the sight had stood out so much to Tang Ze that he waited to see if he had just imagined what had happened, it was some kind of 'mistake' in this system, or something else entirely.
As he watched it further, after what felt like a few minutes, he saw another soul just blip out of existence.
It was then that he realized that he had not imagined what he was seeing.
These were souls which had completely severed their connections to the Wheel of Samsara, in other words, they were enlightened individuals.
Of course, that generated a question within Tang Ze's mind, which he felt that he just had to ask.
"Those souls which have received enlightenment, where do they go?" Tang Ze asked. They did not pass over into the next life, having been freed from Samsara completely. He had seen their souls just vanish though, so what did that mean? Were their souls just destroyed, or did they go somewhere else?
"They are free," the voice said, not explaining what exactly that meant. When Tang Ze asked for clarification, he was told, "That is only for those who have broken free of the great Wheel to know."
Oh well, Tang Ze figured. He had already seen far more than any normal person could have ever dreamed of, and he didn't consider it wise to push his luck. And he had no desire to draw the ire of this voice.
And while this had been a glorious sight, he already knew what his answer was going to be.
After all, he had an easy solution to things if he was sent back. All he had to do was tell Elder He Xuan what was beneath that rock, and then none of this would've happened.
He didn't understand secret realms well enough to know whether or not, when that secret realm eventually collapsed, if that would've released the asura into the outside world, or just killed it - but, that secret realm had looked rather stable when they had gone inside of it.
It would've taken many decades at minimum for it to even begin to destabilize, and by then, Tang Ze felt that he would've either been strong enough to deal with it without having to kill himself, or would have had enough time to find some sort of solution.
As a matter of fact, while he mulled over things; so long as he could deal with his heart demon before entering that realm, he could probably defeat that asura before it escaped into the outside world.
If they had waited another decade before going in there, Tang Ze could've mastered the [Lotus Palm] and likely would've been able to beat the Asura Emperor to a pulp within that secret realm.
With the benefit of hindsight, there were numerous things that he could've done differently.
"Yes!" Tang Ze said. "I would like to return! I do want a second chance to turn things around."
"So be it," the voice said.
While light washed over Tang Ze.
"Wait a minute - this isn't right!"