39. Hearing the Dao in the Morning

Elian's fingertips moved once more, pointing toward the outer ring of the giant wheel.

"These are the Outer Planes."

"If the Inner Planes represent the foundational elements that compose the world, the Outer Planes represent the world's spirit, ideals, concepts, and direction of evolution—all metaphysical entities."

"Precisely because of this, the Outer Planes are known as the Planes of Ideals—symbolizing the eternal opposition between good and evil, law and chaos."

"The deities we know and their divine realms mostly reside within the Outer Planes."

"When a sentient being dies—whether in our continent, other smaller continents, or different planets lacking civilization—its soul travels to the Outer Plane matching its alignment and ideals, or to the divine realm of the god it worshipped."

"Therefore, the Outer Planes are also referred to as the Planes of Gods, the Afterlife!"

Elian looked down at the chief mages kneeling before him:

"In your past magical experiments, you may have already discovered that a concept called [Alignment] exists within this universe."

"The universe judges the alignment of every living being based on their tendencies toward good and evil, law and chaos. For instance, a naturally free-spirited good person would be judged as chaotic good."

Alignment... Helen and Gutt bowed their heads simultaneously, recalling their past researches.

"That is correct," Helen said.

"Every creature's alignment seems detectable by specific magic, while also influencing the interaction with certain supernatural forces."

"For example, magical weapons enchanted with the power of goodness are more effective against creatures of evil alignments."

"I recall my alignment is... lawful evil?"

Elian was not surprised by this result.

In fact, within the current floating city, due to past atrocities, most high-ranking mages had been judged by the universe as belonging to the evil alignment.

As for himself, when he had just transmigrated, he belonged to the lawful evil alignment. Because of the reforms over this past year, which had helped a large number of surface commoners, his alignment had finally shifted toward the side of goodness.

In this fantasy world, alignment was a natural law, entirely dependent upon the judgment of the universal will.

It had nothing to do with personal perception or the social standards of the contemporary era.

For instance, even in countries or eras where slavery was legal, slaveholding remained an inherently evil act!

"Indeed, the Outer Planes I mentioned just now are the materialized manifestations of alignment,"

Elian continued, his fingertips tracing across one Outer Plane after another.

"Every single alignment has its corresponding Outer Plane."

"For example, [Mount Celestia] symbolizes lawful good, the [Arborea] symbolizes chaotic good, [Mechanus] symbolizes lawful neutral, the [Limbo] symbolizes chaotic neutral, the [Nine Hells] symbolizes lawful evil, and the [Abyss] symbolizes chaotic evil..."

"Furthermore, at the boundaries between different alignments, there are more finely divided planar spaces. You do not need to understand those for now..."

"Among them, those Outer Planes representing the good alignments can be collectively referred to as the celestial realms."

"As for the evil planes, the devils of the Nine Hells (lawful evil) and the demons of the Abyss (chaotic evil) are engaged in an eternal Blood War—which symbolizes the eternal opposition between chaos and order since the dawn of creation..."

Mentioning the demons of the Abyss, Elian paused slightly.

He knew that was the source of the disaster that would destroy Aldolun thirty years later in the original timeline.

Elian's fingers moved again.

"Beyond the Inner and Outer Planes, there are even more transitional or reflective planes."

"For instance, the Shadowfell, which represents the shadow of the world... well, currently it is still called the Shadow Plane or the Shadow Demiplane..."

"For instance, the Feywild, which symbolizes a brighter reflection of the world..."

"For instance, the Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane, which serve as transitional planes..."

"When we cast etherealization spells, we feel as though we have entered a parallel space; this is actually entering the Ethereal Plane, which is the operational principle of that spell..."

Gutt and Helen sat like two patient students, listening intently.

The planar relationships described by Elian matched perfectly with numerous past magical experiments connecting to other worlds and the operational mechanisms of various spells.

This convinced them that what Elian spoke of was indeed the truth of the universe!

The Grand Unified Cosmic Planar Theory—which they and the mages of all Aldolun had failed to fathom over the past three hundred years, spanning dozens of generations—

was articulated so naturally in this setting, right from Elian's lips.

"So that's how it is..."

Gutt looked at the slowly rotating, philosophically aesthetic projection of the giant wheel and suddenly smiled.

He never imagined that the truth he and his colleagues had pursued their entire lives would be explained, right before the moment of final judgment, by the very opponent who was about to judge them.

Could this be considered dying without regrets, in another sense of the word?

"Thank you for your generous sharing. Is this the research fruit you have been working on, Your Majesty?"

Gutt smiled sorrowfully: "I finally understand the gap between us chiefs and you, the Supreme Mage."

"This is not the achievement of myself alone," Elian said.

What he was recounting was the answer obtained in true history through thousands of years of planar experiments and otherworldly explorations by generations of mages and scholars after the destruction of the magical empire Aldolun, paying the price of tens of thousands of lives.

"Your Majesty's achievements will surely be recorded in the history of Aldolun," Helen praised with a bitter smile, and then fixed her clear, profound dark eyes on Elian:

"However, what does this have to do with the question I raised?"

She remembered her question was—

What did Elian actually want? What was he pursuing?

"Of course it has to do with it."

Elian pointed to the wheel projection hovering in the air:

"So, do you know what this is now?"

"The [Great Wheel]."

Gutt and Helen simultaneously repeated the name of this cosmic planar model.

"No,"

Elian said.

"This is the territory of the Empire."

The two of them froze simultaneously, clearly failing to anticipate Elian's answer would be like this.

Of course, even so, at this moment they still believed Elian was merely using a relatively exaggerated description.

Meaning that the Empire would travel to one or two of these planes in the future, exploring and occupying a small fraction of those planes.

They only heard Elian continue:

"As you know, the Elven Court in the west occupies the most fertile and beautiful land, the fey woodlands brimming with natural magic, and the most bountiful mithral mines, monopolizing the finest resources across the entire continent."

"Whereas we can only struggle in this barren eastern land against orcs, goblins, and kobolds, fighting over meager scraps that the elves disdain."

"Competing with the elves on this Prime Material Plane has no future."

"Therefore, we must set our sights further away, toward the sea of stars, toward other planar spaces!"