The Barrier of the Otherworld
The moment the Dimensional Net of the Dimension Creator God Coa touched the defensive barrier of the Otherworld, the combined authority of the Absolute Realm and the Main Universes, it was violently repelled by an enormous rebound force. Even the descendants of the Wind Family were not exempt—excluding Jinri himself. The greater the power one possessed, the stronger the repulsion became, making it all the more dangerous.
Still, it wasn’t an issue that needed to be dealt with immediately.
Destroying it outright left a bad taste in his mouth. The reason the Otherworld had turned out this way was because of Jinri. The Origin and the escapees who had resisted the unification and pacification of the Absolute Realm to the very end had fled into the Otherworld.
The restrictions that came with re-embodiment and any authority of the Otherworld had no effect on him—the one who had finally surpassed the 1st Generation 10 Mainstays after countless life-or-death battles. Not even the Origin and his fellow sympathizers, who had lost their 1st Generation 10 Mainstay leaders and chosen to resist in rage until the bitter end, could stop him.
And this was the Otherworld that had been utterly devastated once by Jinri as he pursued them.
All of this was thanks to the Origin, who had resisted until the very last moment.
Though the Origin had lost his 1st Generation 10 Mainstay leaders, he rallied the remaining forces and attacked Jinri, who had been left in tatters after his hard-fought victory. Jinri had been in real danger for a moment, but with the help of the Wind Family descendants brought by his grandson, he barely managed to stabilize and recover.
After that, he thoroughly erased the rebels, extracted their titles, and used them as the foundation for the Absolute Realm. The rebels, after prolonged resistance, were annihilated. Having lost all territory and forces in the Absolute Realm, they retreated to the Otherworld to rebuild their strength. Since all the ruling class of the remaining resistance forces had fled to the Otherworld, Jinri had claimed complete victory and taken full control of the Absolute Realm.
The authority of the 1st Generation 10 Mainstays, which surpassed even Eternal Beings when gathered together, could not be allowed to leak into the Otherworld. It had to be passed on entirely to the 2nd Generation 10 Mainstays. The same applied to the authority of the Absolutes under them.
The desperate flight and pursuit that followed Jinri’s complete re-embodiment and chase into the Otherworld shook the entire realm. The voice of Jinri chasing after them plunged both the escapees and the entire Otherworld into terror.
Since the Origin and the escapees were all beings of the Absolute Realm, they could not evade the search and detection of Jinri, who had become their Creator. However, to shake off the relentlessly pursuing Jinri, the Origin had them scatter, each sacrificing themselves to slow down the chase. They then hid within the intelligent or spiritual beings of the Otherworld in spirit form to conceal their identities.
The idea was that once a spirit slipped into the body of an Otherworld being, it would be impossible to distinguish them immediately, buying time. But Jinri had no intention of playing a tedious game of hide-and-seek with a handful of resistance forces ever again. He destroyed anyone even remotely suspicious.
If they hid inside another being and became untraceable, he simply erased everything around the point of disappearance. The Origin, who had never expected Jinri to resort to total annihilation in the Otherworld, lost his body once more and fled while screaming in despair. He had miscalculated, believing that the Creator of the Absolute Realm would never act this way in the Otherworld. In an instant, he lost all his comrades and was left alone.
The Origin had evolved and grown uniquely through his long struggle against Jinri. As long as he did not give up, his life force would never be severed. No matter what authority or blow he received, as long as his fighting spirit remained, he would eventually resurrect and fight again. This evolved authority had been applied to his physical characteristics, allowing him to flee in spirit form even if his body was killed—an extremely difficult state to capture.
That was why, while he had subdued and extracted the titles of all the others, the Origin had slipped away hundreds of times.
The pursuit and extermination war that traversed the entire Otherworld ended up devastating the surrounding forces as well. Shocked by the enormous damage, the rulers of every faction in the Otherworld united to stop him. Of course, there was also the Origin’s final desperate scheme, born from the fact that his vitality was growing weaker and maintaining his authority was becoming difficult.
Jinri, who had single-handedly subdued the 1st Generation 10 Mainstays that surpassed Eternal Beings and become the Creator of the Absolute Realm, was on a completely different level from the ruling class of the Otherworld, who had been enjoying peace and power. He revealed the truth—or rather, the fabricated fact—that the moment Jinri completely overcame the inevitable restrictions of re-embodiment in the Otherworld, everything in the Otherworld would be integrated into the Absolute Realm.
Naturally, the Otherworld, which trembled before the power of Absolute Realm beings even when they exerted authority without physical bodies, could never accept such a thing. Above all, the integration of the Absolute Realm and the Otherworld—whose fundamental components were entirely different—would be tantamount to the destruction of their world.
Having convinced all the ruling class who could be called the Eternal Beings of the Otherworld, the Origin led them in one final assault.
After repeated defeats and relentless pursuit, even the Origin’s tenacity and obsession finally reached their limit. The battle in which he himself declared it was his last ended with the extraction of the Origin’s title and the complete erasure of his existence.
It had been neatly wrapped up. The masterpiece created by every being in the Otherworld, who had been horrified by the power of the Absolute Realm and poured their heart and soul into it, was this very barrier.
The defensive barrier formed by the full concentrated power of the Otherworld was so formidable that not even a member of the Wind Family could pass through it recklessly while possessing a physical body. Yet this time, the barrier was completely powerless.
Sssssssssss—!
Instead of a violent rebounding explosion, there was only the sound of water soaking into sand as the Dimensional Net of the Dimension Creator God Coa passed through the barrier as if it didn’t exist. Even the gods of the Otherworld, who were stunned that the barrier had no effect, were left behind as it vanished far beyond the universe.
The personal defensive barriers they had hurriedly activated—expecting catastrophic destruction from the divine power contained in those wings of light—now felt utterly embarrassing. Although there was no immediate visible effect, Jinri nodded in approval. He had recognized the value within the aftermath of the authority emanating from those wings of light.
It hadn’t simply passed through the barrier. In a single instant, it had synchronized with the barrier, turning the obstruction into propulsion instead. No one could even guess how far the Dimensional Net—which had swallowed the barrier created by the convergence of all the Otherworld’s authority—would spread across the Otherworld.
Even his grandson, the oldest member of the Wind Family standing beside him, let out a sigh of admiration.
There were many reasons why the Eternal Beings followed their half-Eternal grandfather Jinri, but the most important one was singular: although they were pressed by his overwhelmingly superior power, the decisive factor was that Jinri showed no interest in the Absolute Realm or the Main Universes and made no attempt to claim them. Because their superior had no greed, the benefits naturally flowed down to all his subordinates. Moreover, since he was an absurdly powerful being that no one dared challenge, they had no choice but to follow.
In addition, the Wind Family—Jinri’s bloodline—did not rule as a dominant exploitative force. Instead, they created benefits and distributed them. The 10 Mainstays managed the Absolute Realm, but Jinri had created a thousand Main Universes equal to the past Absolute Realm and distributed them to the Eternal Beings, thereby quelling any discontent.
When an existing Eternal Being became a Creator, they were granted complete independence and the right to refuse orders. Of course, refusing meant they had to prove their instructions were superior to Jinri’s and were given the duty of prosperity and maintenance, but compared to the Main Universe they received, it was nothing.
Those who had never experienced it might not understand, but no one could give up the sense of fulfillment gained from the loyalty offered by hundreds of billions of spiritual beings, nor the right to grow stronger even while doing nothing. Every time a new Main Universe was created, they fought duels without hesitation. In the past, they had been lethargic and never acted this way.
In the past Absolute Realm, there had been only one seat of the Creator. Since an immortal being held it forever, the thousands of other Eternal Beings had no opportunity at all.
That was why the Eternal Beings had spent their time on hobbies in the background. But now the situation was different. Already about one-third of them had won fierce competitions and taken the position of Main Universe Creator. These days, an Eternal Being who was not a Main Universe Creator was treated like a fool.
Moreover, information that this particular Main Universe was special had leaked, and subtle inquiries and requests were already pouring in. If a member of the Wind Family participated in the competition for the 1,001st Main Universe’s Creator position, it would cause an absolute uproar. The difference of 10 trillion versus 1,000 trillion in power was something no amount of Eternal Being characteristics could overcome. And since they were both Eternal Beings, the victory would unquestionably belong to the Wind Family no matter what anyone said.
Allowing a Wind Family member to participate was essentially the same as appointing them Creator of the 1,001st Main Universe.
Dooong—!
However, when the conversation showed no sign of progressing, Jinri lightly tapped the floor with the Sword of Ruin and Soul.
The gap between the Wind Family, who only trained among beings stronger than themselves, and the existing Eternal Beings was unimaginably vast. Even with equal divine power, they stood no chance.
He already knew that Cha-ho, the Origin of Dimensions, was currently in the 499th Main Universe. It seemed he was having tea with the 499th Creator. The moment the situation was explained, an answer came immediately.
…….
It was the refusal he had expected. The idea that power obtained through one’s own training was stronger than power taken from others was an extremely orthodox belief, but it was common sense that only applied to the Wind Family, whose infinite talent was guaranteed. In normal cases, raising divine power alone was extremely difficult, so it had to be done in parallel to grow quickly.
For this reason, the majority of Wind Family members disliked becoming Creators and preferred growing stronger through personal training.
…….
The person speaking to him from the side was an Eternal Being—the 499th Creator. No one knew when the child who used to stay cooped up at home doing nothing but research had become so close to the 499th Creator, who was known as the most difficult and ill-tempered among all Eternal Beings.
Since his intention was firm, the connection was cut and the decision finalized. They had left room for participation, so if the situation changed, he would join immediately.
It was rare for Jinri to give an order while feeling strangely uneasy. The grandson before him had exceeded expectations on every task assigned so far, but he had never stepped forward himself. He had simply led the children around him and had them handle everything.
However, the manufacturing time of over 100 million years mentioned by the descendant in charge of Main Universe production was far too long. Although most of that time was for stability testing and inspection, the current state of the Wind Family was worse than it appeared, so they needed to hurry.
The fact that Wind Family members were growing stronger and increasing in number too quickly was also a problem. Thanks to that, the Absolute Realm could no longer endure them, so they had moved their main house to the Otherworld. But even one planet in the Otherworld was no longer enough; they were already forcibly maintaining it with authority.
Even Jinri, the highest ancestor of the Wind Family and the one overseeing both the Absolute Realm and the Main Universes, considered them a force that had already exceeded all norms.
They needed a world capable of withstanding these children, who had grown so strong that neither existing Main Universes nor the Otherworld could contain them. And to proceed even a little faster, he needed his grandson’s power.
…….
As expected, he woke the Origins who had been collapsed around him and were permitted to intervene in reality. It seemed he planned to divide the labor among them again. There was no way to tell him to do it himself.
Eternal Beings who had been far too strong with firmly established egos from the very beginning had no need for cooperation and could not cooperate even if they tried. Although they were of the same bloodline and descendants, as complete Eternal Beings, they could coordinate in battle but could not work together on anything else.
He could gather the power of all the Wind Family and accomplish something with it. Even Jinri was astonished by the level of that power. It was something only possible for the grandson who had created and knew most of the current Wind Family, to the point he was called their nanny, transcending differences in power.
Watching his grandson forcibly wake the unconscious Wind Family Origins, Jinri let out a sigh without realizing it.
Beside him, the Magic God of Dimensions continued endlessly muttering “Dimensional Net… Dimensional Net…” in a trance, already fading from everyone’s awareness.