One day, in a surprisingly good mood, William opened the door to his balcony. The space was empty except for a single white plastic chair, dusty and caked with filth. In the ten years since he'd moved into the apartment, no one had ever sat in it, not even him.

He sat down, not caring if his pants got dirty. He felt a pang of sadness for the neglected chair, but since this was the last day he would ever see it, he finally gave it a purpose. He sighed, the simple act of sitting granting him a strange sense of peace.

The view of Jakarta wasn't particularly good. Another high-rise apartment stood directly in front of his, blocking the view of Mount Salak. Even if the building weren't there, he still wouldn't have seen the mountain through the city's severe pollution. The wind, though, was nice. It blew strong, making his blond hair dance as if it shared his good mood.

"It's all a lie, though," he muttered. He was in a good mood, but that didn't mean he was happy. There would be no tomorrow, and the knowledge that it would all end today had set his heart free. His heart held no worry, no anxiety-inducing thoughts—nothing. While the feeling was liberating, it was also hollow, like a leaky bucket relieved to be empty and free from the pressure of being filled.

William sat there for a good thirty minutes. To his right, the sun sank lower, bathing the sky in orange. People must be coming home from work, school, or their daily activities. He had considered not ruining the end of their day with what he was about to do, but why should he bother? Who were they to him? Why should he think about their lives? It was his last day. Surely, it was okay for him to be a little selfish, to inconvenience people on this one special day.

William got up from his chair and, with surprising ease, stood on the balcony railing. He spread his hands as if wanting the wind to carry him away, his eyes shut. Though the wind was strong, he resisted it, balancing perfectly. Then, after inhaling and exhaling deeply, William opened his eyes and looked down.

He saw the base of the high-rise apartment, where people as small as ants entered the building—their homes, where they would sleep and rest and enjoy a hearty meal, some of them even accompanied by a family. Then and there, a treacherous feeling surged to the front of his mind and went on a rampage.

It said he didn't want to die. He wanted to draw. He wanted to get the fuck away from all this shit, to hole up in a little hut in the mountains where he could survive by farming and hunting.

He wanted to live!

"The fuck are you saying?!" he snarled at his own mind. "We agreed to do this. This was your idea!"

William thought his mind had finally cracked. But then, it did something unfair. His brain ordered him to look down again, this time carefully. Suddenly, the view blurred. Vertigo settled in, his body began to tremble, and a profound fear coursed through him, as if his very blood carried it to every fiber of his being. His heart began to beat uncontrollably, and his stomach churned like a vortex. His legs trembled like those of a newborn calf.

"Jump, jump, jump," he muttered.

His view flashed. He was no longer William standing on a balcony railing; he was Liu Xing. Below him, instead of pavement and ant-sized people, a huge blue whale churned the water into a vortex. Its two ringed eyes shone with intensity. The depths of its mouth were dark, a void that seemed to swallow light itself. His turtle statue swirled in the vortex, falling deeper and deeper, moments from being swallowed whole.

"Damn, damn!" Liu Xing cursed. His feet trembled, and the qi inside his body moved erratically. The protective qi bubble around the statue had broken, and the crazed wind lashed at them, trying to throw them from the turtle's back into the sea. Fortunately, the second layer of qi, the one encasing the statue itself, was still holding. Gritting his teeth as his statue swirled like a ship sucked into a vortex, he ordered it to take off into the sky. With great effort, the turtle began to detach from the swirling sea, water cascading from its feet and massive body.

"Hold on to each other!" Liu Xing shouted. The turtle escaped the vortex and rose slowly into the air, which was filled with a swirling qi mist. At first, the wind made the statue tilt to the side, but with firm qi control and willpower, he managed to make the turtle ascend as smoothly as an elevator.

Just then, Su Nian, who stood dangerously at the edge of the turtle in a human chain held together by Fang Ruxue and the others, shouted, her eyes wide. "It's doing something!"

Liu Xing's stomach twisted. A bad feeling settled in his heart. He willed one of his Eyes of Lightning to move so it could look down at the huge blue whale. He felt a flicker of relief when he saw the whale had closed its mouth and the vortex was dispersing. But then he saw it was still looking at them, fire in its eyes. Its tail began to move with slow deceptiveness, propelling its giant body up, up, and up.

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He widened his eyes. "No way. It's as if it's going to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the sea below rose, its surface tension breaking as the giant whale… jumped from the sea!

A sound like giant waves crashing on a beach erupted. A loud whale's wail reverberated through the air, making the mist move chaotically. The giant whale opened its mouth wide, and it moved through the air with an impossible speed.

As his heart leaped to his throat, Liu Xing willed his statue to move faster. Yet, given the whale's speed and his turtle's slowness, being swallowed seemed inevitable. Liu Xing cursed inwardly, gritted his teeth, sent qi to his gun, reabsorbed it, and then channeled it into his gauntlet. They couldn't escape, so Liu Xing did the only thing he could.

"Eat this!" Liu Xing shouted, shooting a giant pillar of lightning toward the whale. He also swung his stone blade, sending a giant crescent of purple qi hurling toward it, and followed up with a barrage of Exploding Fist bullets. Yet, his lightning pillar hit the whale's forehead and did nothing. His purple qi crescent likewise landed without leaving a scratch. His bullets were useless.

Liu Xing shouted, desperately trying to move the flying statue to the side while sending out more attacks. But soon, the giant whale's mouth swallowed them whole, closing behind them and submerging them in a sea of darkness.

***

Liu Xing blinked several times. His vision was blurry, but with each blink, the world grew more focused. Soon, his eyes functioned perfectly again, but what he saw was bizarre. He looked down and realized he was standing on flowing water. If he lifted his foot, he would see that the sole was wet, yet he didn't sink.

To his left, a red planet floated so close he felt he could jump to it. To his right, a giant tree grew from the center of a swirling blue nebula. Thousands of its roots hung down, and on the tip of each root was a planet shaped like a head. There's human heads, lizard heads, crocodile heads, and many more. He could see clouds and water on each one.

High above him flowed a river of stars, planets, and galaxies. Between them moved colossal creatures—crocodiles, whales, snakes, sharks, birds, frogs and many more—so vast they dwarfed the celestial bodies around them.

The most eye-catching sight, however, was a palace made entirely of fire in the distance. Its flames burned red, white, blue, green, and even black. Confused, he began to walk toward it.

"Where am I?" he muttered.

Liu Xing tried to rack his brain. He didn't know where he was or why he was here. The bizarre view, the watery floor, and the general feeling of the place felt similar to being inside his own consciousness, but this was clearly not it. The more he thought, the more worried he became, though he couldn't remember why.

His heart began to beat faster, and his stomach churned like a rough sea, making him want to vomit. He was forgetting something important, he was sure of it, and the fact that he couldn't remember filled his heart with unease.

"I need to get out of here," he said.

Liu Xing walked faster, his brain racing to figure out why he was here. The place was too unreal. As he looked around, he thought that he was in an illusion. If so, that meant his mind was trapped, and he needed to wake up to escape. Still, the more he walked, the more real the place felt. He could feel the silent breeze carrying a salty aroma, hear the flowing water, and sense the heat from the distant fire palace. He suspected that if he were to drink the water beneath his feet, he would taste the salt on his tongue. For an illusion, it was quite elaborate.

As he walked, he pinched his chin. "Could a Core Splitting realm cultivator create an illusion like this?"

He suspected they could, but judging by its scope and sensations, it would have to be a Heaven Grade Technique, honed for countless years. Liu Xing's eyes sharpened. If someone had truly trapped him in this illusion, then he was in real danger.

"I need to get out of here," he said again.

Just then, his eyes caught something in the distance. A white table stood upon the flowing water. Beside it was a red paper umbrella. On one side of the table was an empty white chair and on the other, a woman sat elegantly. She had long white hair that flowed like a river. Her striking red robe was adorned with silver lines that shone faintly. She looked toward him, smiled, and waved as if she had been waiting. But her eyes were not human, they were two different galaxies, swirling as if in the center of her eyes there's black holes.

"Come here," she said.

Instantly, he was no longer walking but sitting in the white chair. In front of him was the woman with galaxies for eyes. Between them was the white table, to his right was the paper umbrella, and behind her... behind her floated a giant blue whale.

"Nice to meet you, Liu Xing," the woman smiled. "This is exciting. I thought I would never get a junior. But look at you. The heavens decided that five of us was not enough, and so it chose you. The future is going to be exciting!"

Liu Xing's eyes were fixed on the giant whale behind her. It was far away, yet so massive it could have swallowed a mountain easily. Its blue-ringed eyes stared at him with an intensity that felt like it had vow to eat him no matter what. Upon seeing the whale, his mind began to scream, and his heart hammered in his chest. He was forgetting something critically important, and he was sure it was connected to that whale. He looked back at the woman carefully. She looked young, like a teenager, and her words confused him.

"What do you mean I'm your junior? Are you a disciple from the Purple Moon Sect too?"

She covered her mouth as she laughed, a pleasant and melodious sound reverberated. "No, I'm not. Neither are my seniors. We're actually independent. I think you're the first saint to ever belong to a sect."

"Pardon?" Liu Xing blinks several times.

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