Lowly Ascent

The book continued:

"It was an age-old question, why did the Purebloods and Mixed bloods fight? Why were the half-bloods caught in the middle?

"Supremacy, the desire to reign above all. Mortals and Cultivators had this want. Mortals wish to be like the "Immortals" whom they think Cultivators are, and Cultivators want to suppress other Cultivators to become the strongest. Everything is a game of power and supremacy, we are all pieces trying to become a player.

"The Architect didn't like this, she hated it even. In joining the War of Lineage, she used her Army of Plant Puppets to consume the battlefield in terror. Grass puppets were foot soldiers, trunk puppets the tanks, vine puppets the support, etc.

"At this time, the Puppet Dao wasn't well known, but it became famous after the Architect single-handedly stopped both sides from fighting, massacring both armies to a point where they couldn't continue. She became the limelight of her Generation, her army even causing Growth Stage Experts to Tremble in fear.

"Later in life, the architect commented how she wanted to walk the Dao of Creation and she felt the Puppet Dao was the best path to reach that point. Unfortunately, no one knows if she reached that stage.

"The Hellfire Duke, one of the top 10 Fusion Stage Cultivators at the time, once publicly said the Architect once joked in one of the City's meetings that she would create a husband for herself, a proper King for a Queen. This is in line with the rumors that she was using Ivory to create a more human-like puppet that was more powerful and flexible than any other, a puppet that might be able to become a life of its own.

"After the War of Lineage, the Architect disappeared, or at least entered seclusion, not much is known besides some accounts from a few members of the Immortal Sect. Lots of information was blocked by Guan De. When she finally reappeared, she was a Peak Enlightenment Stage Cultivator who completed the Puppet Dao and had an army of Mable Giants that could crush any force.

"What the Architect did next was even more crazy, taking a massive plot of land in the North, the Architect brought out a massive marble planet from the void.

"The marble ball was so large it reached the heavens and could be seen from every direction, only slightly shorter than the tallest mountain ridges on the edge of the Seven Provinces, containing the world like a bowl.

"No one knew the specialty of the Puppet Dao until this point, and it was shown while a giant city of Marble was constructed piece by piece, and moved into another world! To do this required an immense amount of Space Spirits, along with other Spirits like Concealment Spirits, Barrier Spirits, Earth Spirits, etc. Yet the architect couldn't have possibly harnessed that many souls.

"But she did the impossible, she created a whole new world! She created a place for cultivators! Using her puppets as the vessels, giving them souls to use!

"I was not one of the first cultivators to enter when the City was created, but I remember when the Architect announced to the world the creation of the Marble City, droves of Enlightened and Fusion Stage Cultivators entered. There was a great event that happened inside, where the Fusion Stage Cultivators helped the Architect rear what is called a sun from the void. She found it while exploring and used it to give the Marble City light, turning it into a beautiful holy land basked in eternal light.

"From then on, the Marble City became the land of cultivation, only Sects remained with a few disciples to pick out new seeds while they moved their headquarters inside the city, taking up shop in towers they continuously construct. Currently, these towers pass the clouds, some of them are so tall no one dares to fly long enough to see just how far they reach.

"When the Sects moved into the City, the stragglers did as well. There was ample Spiritual Qi, everything was thought of by the Architect. All our needs were met using the countless different spirits in the world and cultivation bloomed.

"There were terraces of Green where Nature Cultivators practiced, volcanos gushing magma for those who walked in fire. All these platforms floated in the sky, containing miniature holy lands for every kind of cultivator. All of this was done by the Architect, she made a perfect world to study the Dao.

"Even now, after her abrupt death, we continue to live on with her in our hearts. Even as an Enlightenment Stage Cultivator, she swayed the hearts of even those in the Fusion Stage, those with near Infinite Spiritual Qi. The rulers whose stage destroys the Dantian and merge fully into the Dao.

"If only she made it to that stage, then maybe this world of white would become a whole new place where all colors roamed freely, just like her tower. Alas, she never did succeed in achieving the Dao of Creation, dying while trying.

"Rest in peace, the savor of all of us, the Architect of our home, the hero of Cultivation. Sleep well."

Cain closed the book.

'It was short, but this is more of a memorial piece, there are 6 other books here with similar biographies. It seems this Architect was well loved, reading her achievements, the love is well deserved. To think a single Enlightenment Stage Cultivator made this place. The Puppet Dao seems interesting, but the consumption must be great...'

Cain continued to read more books, he read until his brain hurt.

'There isn't a lot that's interesting. Cultivation seemed to have stagnated in the Marble City, no one tried to do anything interesting or new, and the world of Cultivation became weak because of peace and ample resources. Only when the infighting became extreme did the Sects leave to return to the Seven Provinces. The rest that stayed got trapped a few thousand years later when a failsafe came into place. The Architect indeed had plans if she died prematurely...'

Cain felt something off, he put down the book from one of the cultivators who got trapped inside the city and picked up another.

Once the city became an Inheritance Ground, the Cultivators inside didn't panic at first, only once the Spirits they relied on entered the command tower which no one entered for eons did they panic.

The Architect had been dead for almost a millennium at that point.

The internal affairs of the Cultivation world were logical, it should have taken so long until things broke down and everyone left, lest they gain the ire of the Marble Army.

From the notes of a victim of the sealing, many cultivators tried to invade the command tower only to be mercilessly killed by the Marble Giants.

Even as an Enlightened Cultivator, the Architect could make Puppets that contested with Fusion Stage cultivators, using Spirits and souls similar to the Energy Spirit and then making multiple spots for other souls, making the constructs invincible against any normal Fusion Cultivator.

Only those with rare Dao's like Chambers could deal with him, but he came from the Past, around a few centuries after the Architect died, using a paradox to come to the future.

In truth, the paradox was only a failsafe, like what happened to the Mable City. The day when he saw his body glowing green, he was overjoyed as well as sad. He was going farther away from the point in time he lived with his family.

Hours went by, and Cain read book after book, his hungry eyes devouring everything.

'Lots of repeats but the different worldviews help. Overall, there isn't much besides what I learned about the Architect. Everything else is useless to me at this point.'

Cain was a resolute person, he read hours on hours of techniques, and although he could use them for reference, he wasn't getting anything juicy. That sort of information was supposedly higher up in the tower.

"On to the next floor, I suppose."

At that moment, thousands of cultivators found themselves on mountains of books in the dark, yelling for one another.