POV: Sequoia Pama

Time. It flows in an endless river, a twisting stream, yet all at once it is never moving. It is both relative and not irrelevant, and something all things are subject to. Time is not an abstract concept, nor something imagined. The more intelligent beings attempt to measure it, giving the passage of time some meaning so they know how much time they have left, without truly knowing that they have all the time in the world.

Time is merely passage. A single word; passage. It passes by, endlessly, seemingly infinitely and without malice. All things happen in time, yet it is not a cause nor an effect. Time merely provides the sense of something passing.

I have seen the passage of time flow by me for tens of thousands, nay, a hundred thousand years. The meadow I had once inhabited was overgrown with dense forest, the ruins long faded into dust. Even the forest itself was different, the trees thinning and lightening up. In the long run, not much time has truly passed. The forest is still a forest, not a desert or anything else, and I am still very young. Yet I can see it - the passage. I have paid attention to it since the very beginning, and am one of the first to begin to tap into its essence. Now I know why people have developed such a fanatascim for cultivation.

To be able to grasp even the slightest understanding on the workings of the world is such a wonderful feeling, even if there is so much more to know and understand upon gaining an inkling.

Then, abruptly, my mental state was broken. The period of enlightenment I had been experiencing was shattered by a boy stalking right past me, grumbling to himself and shaking his head.Time around him seemed...weird. Like it was passing him by at five different angles at once, which is odd. Bounding to my feet I leapt in front of the boy, flashing him a grin and putting my hands on my hips.

"Hello!" I chirped, "What's your name?"

Said boy just looked up at me, his deep purple eyes flashing for a moment as he promptly moved around me and kept going. I frowned. That just won't do. I will not be denied a new friend!

"Hey," I said, floating into the air (I loved flying, because who ever heard of a flying tree? It's just silly!) and casually floating beside him. "I'm Sequoia Pama. Whatcha doing?"

"Look, sorry for breaking your state of enlightenment and all that but I'm on a hunt. There's this girl I'm trying to find, and I get the feeling she's leading me on a wild goose chase. It's...exhilarating. I haven't had a challenge like this in far too long." The boy mumbled. I hummed and began flying upside down, putting my chin in the palm of my hand.

"Aren't you too old to be off chasing after girls?" I asked innocently. This made the boy stop and stare at me, his deep purple eyes narrowing.

"What are you talking about? I'm only fourteen." He said slowly. I furrowed my brows and peered at him. He certainly did look to be fourteen, hence why I thought of him as a boy, but I could only ever see this really old person whenever I looked at him. It was kind of like when I looked at Dad or sought for the Tree. I just kind of...knew.

"You're really old," I said firmly, nodding. "Older than the Old Man. That would make you the...Oldest Man? Older Man? Something like that." For a long moment the boy said nothing.

"Sequoia...right? My name is Ichiro. You can call me the First, though. They have the same general meaning." He said with a shrug.

I flipped rightside up and flashed him a smile. "Nice to meet you. The First what, though?" I asked.

"Exactly," he said with a smirk. I laughed, but didn't really understand it. I got the feeling it was supposed to be funny, and I like laughing, so I laughed anyway. "Ah, I see now. Time and Heart, that's what you're going for? Quite the tricky combination."

"How so?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. The heart was the heart. Everyone had one. And I had just come out of thinking about time, it seemed pretty simple too. My comment, however, made the First laugh out loud.

"Ah, so you're the oblivious genius type, huh? You're always good for a laugh or two. If it's all so simple then tell me what it means for something to be Timeless." The First asked, setting his hands on his hips. I frowned and thought about it. Timeless seemed like a paradox, because to be without time would be nothingness. When I told the First my thoughts he laughed. "You're not wrong, but I'm not talking about something like that. That's more Void stuff. I'm talking about true Eternity, to be Timeless even when surrounded by time. Like, for a rock to be timeless."

I thought about it for a moment more, before shaking my head. "I dunno," I admitted.

"You didn't even try to think about it," the First said. I nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't like thinking too hard about things. I figure it'll come to me when I need to realize it, no sooner and no later." I defended with a pout. That was exactly what had happened with my enlightenment, it just suddenly popped into my head, and that line of reasoning prevented me from being too torn up about having my enlightenment broken. Not that I cared much anyway, but it's a cool feeling. I just figured that I had been woken up for something even more important in the long run, if not immediately.

"Not a bad way to think at all, certainly less stressful that way," the First praised, nodding appreciatively. "But let me tell you this, the Heart and Time, your two paths that you are walking, are closer to being Timeless than you think. I've only ever seen something timeless once. It was...breathtaking. And not something I think I will ever see again...or at least for a long while yet. To be timeless is to be something so special that not even Time is willing to touch it. The Void will not devour it. Creation will not destroy it. That is timeless."

I hesitated for a moment, thinking hard about what he said. He said that the Heart and Time were very similar to Timeless, but what did he mean by that? I got the feeling it was incredibly simple, and all dangling right in front of my eyes. With a frown I sat down, closing my eyes and ignoring the First as he continued to ramble, only stopping when he realized I wasn't paying attention anymore.

It was right...there.

And I was enlightened, and my path changed ever so slightly. It wasn't big, but it was enough.

POV CHANGE: Statera Luotian

The First had been making waves, but this is the icing on the cake. I mean, it was kind of weird that he was looking for me without really looking, because if he just asked it'd be incredibly easy to find me as my consciousness literally encompasses the entirety of the Four Realms and spirits would guide him to me or an incarnation within minutes, but he wasn't. He was going so far as to even reject the help of my spirits as he wandered, looking for signs.

Back to the waves he'd been making. It started with the Gallos Empire, his technical homeland...at least for his male body. Just a few words to a cultivator who had seen the young boy teleporting vast distances without making a dent in his admittedly ludicrious reserves of power (even I didn't know the extent of it all) was enough to jump-start a new wave of spacial technology in the Empire, making the spaceships and tech even more prevalent and advanced. Soon there would even be inter-planetary teleporters, which would be useful even to the higher-level cultivators, as they wouldn't have to fly between planets anymore.

Then came the multitude of minor nations who had major upsets because some random kid was walking through their most private areas, searching for clues of the "super-powerful cultivator chick with killer eyes," as he so...strangely put it. This riled up the Mortal Realms even moreso than previously, especially when he started doing the same with the larger nations. Seeing as how that wasn't getting him anywhere, he decided to change tactics, and started following powerful karmic trails.

Using this method he'd come across rather important figures. The first and foremost of which was Sequoia Pama, whose change was qualitative. Which was likewise the reason Reika was now pacing back and forth in my workshop, fretting and wringing her hands nervously.

"I don't know what changed!" she cried helplessly, "It's different and I don't know why and I don't know where it's going to lead!" I simply sat back and listened to her ranting, letting her get it all out of her system. She was usually the most unflappable of my first four children, but when she did let it all out she gushed. I was more than willing to be the person she vented towards.

A part of me refocused on the First, idly watching his progress and deciding to scramble a few karmic trails. Nothing too drastic, but it was enough that it would be much more difficult for the First to follow. After, of course, he finished following this particular trail. Which would lead him to -

"I just don't know!" Reika exclaimed, throwing up her hands in exasperation before burying her face in them. I smiled gently and moved over to her, wrapping her up in a hug and kissing the top of her head. Being slightly taller than her, I could do this.

"Hush now, it's ok," I whispered, "it's ok." Reika sniffled a bit, pressing futher into my chest as I gently rocked back and forth. For a few moments we stayed like that, until she pushed away, face flushed with embarrassment. I chuckled and patted her head, shaking mine.

"I'm...sorry about that," she said sheepishly.

"Don't worry, I'll just judge you for it for the rest of eternity," I teased, wiggling my eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Mother," she paused then, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. "...you know, now that I think about it, I realize it's kind of weird to call you Mother when you look like a guy. Only if I really think about it, though." I looked down at myself, realizing that I was in my male form. Huh. There goes my record. I stayed androgynous for a full seven years before swapping.

"If you say -" My train was cut off as all my attention abruptly focused on the First, who had finally met with the two Elementals. Reika noticed as well, the blood draining from her face as she realized what the implications might be. We had been preparing for this, but with the waves the First had been making, it was all up to chance now. Not even I could perfectly see how this would turn out, although I did get the gist of it all. "Look at me, Reika." I commanded. She did so.

"There is nothing to worry about. This is a balancing act - important to the Four Realms. The Mortal Realm will not befall any true harm." I told her firmly. It was all the truth, too, which she fully understood. Taking a deep breath, Reika calmed herself and nodded.

"Right. Thank you," she said.

The conversation between the First and the two Elementals didn't last long. The exchanged a few words, the First got pissed, punched the male, slapped the female, and promptly teleported away while shouting profanities at the two. I almost chuckled. Apparently he didn't like the two.

The only reason I didn't laugh, however, was because of what was to follow. That short exchange would bring about new insights for the two Elementals, which would in turn bring about the first Evil Dao to exist in the Four Realms. They would not be stars that hung in the sky, but rather would open a path to the Abyss, and stay where chaos reigned. In just a hundred years, too...

Well, it cannot be helped.

"What are you going to do, then? Are you going to go back to your Tree or stay with me for a while longer?" I asked Reika, who sadly shook her head.

"Sorry, but I don't feel like I can stay much longer. I'll come see you again soon, Mother," Reika said with a sigh, giving me one last hug and vanishing. I smiled and turned away, teleporting to the library in my Palace. There were plenty of books for me to read, as the mortals were constantly churning out new material. I could easily kill the amount of time it took for the Elementals to finish their Daos in here, so long as I took the time to actually read the books instead of auto-assimilating all of their contents at once. Which I could, but preferred not, to do.

In the end, it took them a full century and a half to solidify their Daos, and sink them into the Abyss as red stars. It was a historic day for the Four Realms, another first, and more would eventually follow. The male earth Elemental, Terra, earned himself two stars with his Dao of Assault - a polar opposite to Tian's Dao. Whereas Tian used the Martial Way to rise above, the Elemental used his to manipulate and destroy. As for the female fire Elemental, Pyre, her Dao was only one star. Her dao was the dao of the Mind, used in the same way Terra used his - to manipulate and destroy. Hers was a truly devious path that involved fucking people up from the inside, rather than Terra's more straightforward approach.

To be honest, I almost prefer Terra's path. To put it in reference, it's like this; Terra will stab you and kill you. Pyre will convince you to turn the dagger upon yourself, knowling exactly what you're doing and perfectly willing to do so. It takes a special kind of evil to be able to convince someone to do that.

They were...complimentary Daos, and the moment they succeeded it sent the Mortal Realm into a tizzy. They wouldn't go to war yet, but small skirmishes would start breaking out in response. The Dao Progenitors, as well, wouldn't take this lying down.

With a sigh I turned my attention away from the Mortal Realm as a whole and focused on the First, whose female form was frowning as she stared at the Evil Daos that had fallen into the abyss. When I looked at her, I could see a bit of doubt clouding her, some part of her knowing that she had been the cause of this. She wouldn't really care, it was going to happen anyway, but she did speed up the process, so I let her know.

When I sent her a divine message that essentially told her it wasn't something to worry about and wasn't her fault, the purple box appearing before her, I shivered with a bit of glee. It was so fun! Maybe I should start sending purple box messages to my children, as well...

You really enjoy that, huh?

Yes. It's a fun change, but I won't make it standardized. That would ruin the novelty. Speaking of, Mr. Blue Boxes, what do you want?

1 Chat Message!

Sender: Yueya Oshun

Subject: Upgrades

"Oh," I said aloud, all my attention now on the chat message. I had forgotten about this chat feature, honestly. I am glad that Yueya reached out to me, however, as I could use a bit of a distraction. It was time I turned my sights beyond the Four Realms anyway. With a flick of my wrist, the message opened.

Subject: Upgrades I recently had a few significant insights into how I should further the advancement of the One World, and thought you might benefit from them. Below I attached a a small snippet. Let me know what you think.

I hummed and closed my eyes, letting the insights flood into me. They were...interesting, but nothing overly new. Yueya had a new outlook on some old insights I had a few hundred thousand years ago, which made me rethink a few things. Seeing as how my Four Realms were far more advanced in terms of the number of high-tier beings, it made sense that I had deeper insights in that regard. The opposite was also true regarding the physical growth of our universes, in which Yueya was the undisputed expert.

"Mm, you're on the right track, but I'd focus more on the karmic aspect of all of this..." I began, the words appearing in a divine message that would be sent as a return message. I also put a few of my own insights into the message for reference, as well as how I was strenghtening the internal structure of the Four Realms. Sending it off I leaned back and let out a breath.

It was...time to get things moving. I'm getting impatient.