From the balcony of his palace Eric looked down on the crowd assembled below. The balcony was situated at the top of a thousand foot tall tower. Even then it was impossible to see the entire crowd. Over ten million of his subjects had gathered. The weakest of those below were immortal realm cultivators and mages. Many had even reached the early divine realm. Yet none were as powerful as Eric. Nobody was.

When Eric began cultivating everyone had called him weak and untalented. Instead of giving up he had pushed forward. It had only taken him a thousand years to reach the peak of the cultivation world. It was an unheard of feat. He had proven all the naysayers wrong. Then he killed any that didn’t grovel and beg for forgiveness.

Those gathered below were there to witness a historic event. The marriage of Eric to a demigoddess. Of course she wasn’t his only wife. And she wasn’t exactly pleased by the situation. Eric didn’t care.

In the world of cultivation the strong made the rules. The weak either obeyed or died. Eric was the strongest so he could do anything he wanted. Which was why he had dozens of beautiful wives. Soon they would be joined by the daughter of a god.

“You know you aren’t the strongest right?” An elderly female voice said beside him.

Eric looked over in shock. An old woman was looking at him with a mischievous grin on her face. It had been centuries since someone had managed to sneak up on him. He figured she must have a very powerful hiding ability or treasure.

Eric shook his head. “There isn’t anyone more powerful. Two hundred years ago I reached a realm that others believed was only a myth. I’ve only grown stronger since.”

“You have no idea. You’re a frog at the bottom of a well.” The old lady said with an infuriating chuckle.

“I dare you to find anyone more powerful than me.” Eric said angrily. He didn’t appreciate being laughed at. He was considering just killing the old lady.

“You have quite the temper don’t you?” The lady said with an amused look.

Eric grimaced. Apparently she was a powerful telepath. Eric had invested heavily in mental defenses that prevented telepaths from harming him. It also stopped all but the most powerful telepaths from being able to read his mind. Her reading his mind wouldn’t stop him from killing her though.

She could read that thought also. Surprisingly she seemed unfazed by it. “I’m far more powerful than you.” She said giving him a look like he was an idiot.

Eric almost laughed at her. Then he thought about the fact that she could conceal her presence and read his mind. He gave her a more appraising look. He was sure that he had never met her before. Yet for some reason she looked familiar.

“Who are you?” Eric asked feeling slightly concerned.

“I’m the head of the regional pantheon.” The old woman said.

Her words filled Eric with dread. He had met a few gods during his life and was more powerful than them. He hadn’t met the head of any pantheons though. Which meant there was a possibility she really was more powerful than him.

The old lady shook her head at his thoughts. “The gods have a ranking system just like the cultivators. Comparing the gods you have met to me would be like comparing a mortal realm human to a divine cultivator.”

“What do you want?” Eric finally asked. Many in his position would have bowed and groveled before a god. During his entire life Eric hadn’t bowed to cultivators that were stronger than him. He certainly wasn’t going to bow before anyone today. Even if they were a god.

“Never liked all that bowing anyway. Besides, groveling before me won’t change anything. You kidnapped my granddaughter. For that I’m going to punish you.” The goddess said.

For a moment Eric was confused. Then he remembered the demigoddess. “That’s why you look familiar.”

Without warning Eric took a swing at the goddess. He put all his power behind it. Enough to destroy planets. It would destroy his palace and kill many of those gathered outside. As long as he survived he could gain new followers though.

The power dissipated before it got close to striking the goddess. Eric fell to his knees as a wave of weakness hit him. The goddess made a motion. Eric felt intense pain as he was dragged towards her.

“I could kill you. But then you would just reincarnate in another universe. I’m sure eventually you would regain everything you have lost. It’s too bad destroying souls is forbidden. But fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately for you, I have other options.” The goddess said grinning evilly.

The next thing Eric knew he had what most would consider a terrible headache. He had experienced far worse pain though. Opening his eyes Eric looked around in confusion. Then another person’s memories slammed into his mind.

It took a few seconds for the confusion to pass and for Eric to realize what was happening. His soul and memories had been transmigrated into someone else’s body. He had heard rumors of such situations happening but had never imagined that it would happen to him.

The new memories were like nothing he was expecting. Filled with near constant terror, filth, and madness. For a moment Eric thought he had been transported into a hellish plane. Then some earlier memories surfaced and he realized the truth. The goddess had put him in the body of someone with severe mental issues.

At first Eric was confused. There were many medicines and techniques that could cure mental illnesses. Even in the rare case of an incurable mental illness there would be ways to mitigate the effects. Then new memories surfaced about his life. There were medications that would help him. Unfortunately they were expensive and often caused terrible side effects. Even when available he had often refused to take any medication.

Opening his eyes Eric looked around. He had a level of discipline that the previous inhabitant of this body hadn’t had. He ignored the shadowy figures and monsters that he was confident were just figments of his imagination. If they were real he was too feeble to survive their attack anyway.

Of course he couldn’t truly blame the previous inhabitant of this body for their fear. They hadn’t faced death thousands of times. Instead their own body had betrayed them when they were a mere child. They lacked even the basis for what a normally functioning mind was like. Without the help of others it was highly improbable they could ever live a normal life.

Thinking back on the earliest memories of the man whose body he now occupied he realized that they hadn’t had a family. At least not one that they knew about. In fact the man didn’t even know what his name was. The mental issues had turned what would have been a difficult life into an impossible life.

Opening his eyes Eric looked over his body. It was riddled with scars and indications of various diseases. Despite this body being far younger than his previous body it appeared to be nearly three times the age. Shockingly he was also missing his right hand. The memories of losing that hand were blurry. All he remembered was waking up in a hospital and none of the nurses or doctors knew exactly what had happened. The next few weeks were some of the clearest of his memories due to the hospital putting him back on his meds.

Looking around Eric took stock of his surroundings. Unfortunately it was just as bad as he had expected. His camp bore a closer resemblance to a garbage dump than an actual camp. Trash and various pieces of junk were scattered everywhere. As far as Eric could see there was nothing of value in the camp.

Eric was starting to see a pattern. This was the punishment the goddess had devised for him. She had transmigrated him into the worst body she could find.

Shaking his head Eric couldn’t help but grin. She was underestimating him. He had never let anything stop him. Nothing was going to stop him now. Everything he was facing could be solved by reaching a high enough cultivation realm. Since he had already done it once, doing it a second time should be easy.

Closing his eyes Eric tried to draw energy from the surrounding area into his body. After just a few minutes he realized that something was wrong. He wasn’t gaining any energy.

Groaning Eric realized that the goddess wasn’t going to make things that easy. Obviously he had been put on a low energy world. Perhaps even a world without any energy. Such a world would actually drain energy from its inhabitants.

Fortunately this wasn’t the only way to gather energy and cultivate. If he couldn’t gather energy externally he could use the spark of energy that was inside all life and generate more energy. It was an easy, but time consuming process.

An hour later Eric was growing concerned. He was generating energy in his core but it was even slower than he had expected. Even worse after about fifteen minutes the amount of energy in his core stopped increasing. He had long ago mastered cultivation techniques that should have allowed him to generate massive amounts of energy.

Finally Eric stopped and decided it may be better to see about getting some food and water. Perhaps he could even find some better shelter and some medicine. He was shocked when the energy he had painstakingly generated started to drain from his core. Over the course of just a few minutes it was gone.

Blinking in shock Eric tried to figure out what had happened. Then he remembered an ability he hadn’t used in nearly a thousand years. Concentrating he pulled up his status sheet.

Access to their status sheet was said to be a gift from the God of creation. Just that morning Eric would have scoffed at the idea. After meeting a powerful goddess he was starting to wonder just how true some of those myths were. He could remember her saying that destroying souls was forbidden. Which meant that someone had authority and power above even her. Hopefully removing his access to his status sheet was also forbidden.

He nearly breathed a sigh of relief when a screen appeared in front of him. The information displayed was regarded as useless for even a mediocre cultivator. Cultivators had to have an extreme understanding of their bodies in order to cultivate. Using their energy they could get a far better analysis of what was going on with their bodies than anything the status screen would tell them.

However, for a non-cultivator the status screen had a number of uses. Looking at the screen Eric could see that all of his attributes were lower than average. A result he expected based on the condition of his body. Below that was a list of all his mental illnesses and various diseases.

Finally he saw the issue. The status screen said that he had a fractured core. Eric stared at those words in shock. In simple terms a cultivator’s core was similar to a glass and energy was water. Just like a broken glass was unable to hold water, a fractured core was unable to hold energy.

Of course it was far more complex than this. For example, if he was in a world with at least some energy he would be able to keep as much energy as the environment had around him. Similar to putting a broken glass in a sink full of water.

Fixing a fractured core was possible. Doing so required either powerful medicine or a massive amount of energy. With his knowledge he may be able to find an expert cultivator willing to help him though. The advice of a peak divine cultivator would be practically priceless to any cultivator. First he would need to find a sage level cultivator. That would require a great deal of luck, especially in a low energy world.

Out of curiosity, he looked at the location portion of the status screen. Typically it was meaningless since it just displayed a string of numbers. But this time there were some words. According to the status screen he was in corrupted prime human backup plane number 2,749,003.

Eric was starting to feel more and more shocked. He had heard of the prime planes and prime backup planes. Anyone that messed around with a prime plane disappeared. The backup planes were nearly as dangerous. Although he had never heard of a corrupted backup plane.

The real issue was that most prime planes were null planes. Which meant that they lacked any energy, power, or the other benefits that nearly every world had. Eric had visited null zones and even a null planet.

Such places were often used as prisons. They certainly weren’t the types of places anyone would want to visit. Energy and power would slowly be drained from the occupants. If they stayed long enough they would lack the power to leave.

Not only had the goddess transmigrated him into a body with numerous disadvantages. She had also put Eric on a plane where he couldn’t cultivate. In addition cultivators and mages would likely never visit a null plane. It was practically impossible for him to escape.

Eric was actually considering just killing himself. Afterall like the goddess had said he would reincarnate. The only downside was that he would have to grow up again. But a new body wouldn’t have as many issues. He also couldn’t imagine many locations that were worse than a null plane.

Then Eric saw something that gave him a glimmer of hope. According to his status screen he had been blessed. That hope was snatched away as soon as he read the blessing. What many would consider a blessing was the most evil curse possible for him. He had been blessed with true immortality. It meant he was stuck in this body and therefore stuck on this plane. It was nearly the straw that broke the camel's back.

For a few minutes Eric sat there nursing his depression and defeat. The goddess had thought of everything. He was on a null plane, with a fractured core, no resources, and a vast multitude of issues. And it was impossible for anything short of a powerful god to kill him.

Nobody that reached the level of a peak divine cultivator would succumb to that type of mentality for long though. Every challenge Eric had faced he had overcome. He had faced what he had believed was certain death multiple times.

Given enough time he would overcome this challenge also. Since he was immortal there wasn’t a limit on how much time he could spend. Eric swore that eventually he would get his revenge. Even if it took him a million years.

Standing Eric staggered off to find some food. Once again he ignored the monsters around him. He was crossing a hard surface covered in lines when one of those monsters made a squealing noise before slamming into him. Everything went dark as he slid across the pavement.