[MA] 335. Infinite Improvement (Patreon)

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‎[Notice: There will be no chapters from 12/26 to 01/08. In other words, I'll take two weeks off. I was initially compelled to do so by my wife, but I'm feeling more tired each passing day and believe it's the right thing to do. It's been forever since I took a real vacation to decompress.

I acknowledge the notice is a bit sudden, so if you want a refund this month, just comment below or DM me. No questions asked, no hard feelings.

Chapters this week: 1/3

Next chapter: Thursday]

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In hindsight, the collapse of Shen's Domain of Limitless Denial was inevitable from the moment he formed a True Self. The domain had been born from his experiences and feelings when denying his reality. As soon as it came to be, it affected his self-perception without his notice, despite him being a True Path Walker. Yet, a True Self was all of him in one place, and having a True Self was to know himself even more intimately than a True Path Walker.

A domain that denied oneself was possible for other people but not for someone with a True Self.

It was already a miracle that his Domain of Limitless Denial could coexist with his Truth of Limits, even keep it glued with everything else in his True Path. In fact, Shen suddenly realized that True Boundlessness and his Will of Absolute Power had worked together to make that possible, too.

Alas, his Truth of Limits and his Will of Absolute Power couldn't coexist without a domain holding them together. Acknowledging his Absolute Power was limited by his mind only made things less unstable; Absolute Power was still anathema to Having Limits.

A True Self was exceptional. The proof was that his True Self only slowly started unraveling, even without the required domain to keep it together. But it was only a matter of time. Too little time.

Shen had mere minutes before he died.

He considered using his Aural Realm in his late-domain's place but quickly discarded the idea. His Aural Realm was not him but a way of increasing Reality's hold in an area. The Axioms and Laws from his Path had a say in the Aural Realm, but pushing Reality's Laws, unfiltered, directly into his True Self sounded as bad as doing that to his soul—and his soul was also part of his True Self.

So, Shen decided to be humble for once and ask how opposing ideals could coexist in his True Self.

He wouldn't ask anyone in the Alliance. It was an organization with too many discordant voices that suffered similar issues as his True Self. Rather, he would ask the largest organization of all, which encompassed all voices that existed and have ever existed.

Shen reached toward Reality and pulled.

It had been three years since he last cultivated his Laws, and now he was once more reaching toward the cosmos. This time, not to grow stronger through an understanding of individual parts of the whole, but to grow possible like the Axioms of Water and Fire that coexisted despite being opposites.

A tentative answer came to him as soon as he touched beyond: Concepts.

Axioms were made of Laws that could coexist through Concepts. The differences between Water and Fire were primordial and irreconcilable—but only if you simplified them into monoliths. Laws and, more importantly, Concepts made it possible for them to coexist.

The way his Absolute Power accepted it was Limited by his mind was more or less like it. But he needed more. He needed his Will, Truth, and True Boundlessness to further dialogue with each other.

Shen sighed, realizing he had reached for the underlying Laws of existence to merely conclude that he could improve the results of the Will-Path Merging.

To be fair, Shen would've been incapable of improving anything back when he underwent the ritual. He hadn't known himself well enough before having a True Self. But after three years of True Self, and after his domain disappeared, he knew himself perfectly.

He could connect everything he was with everything else in a way no generic ritual could ever hope for. Probably. He just needed to see precisely how Reality accomplished it.

Shen felt the Laws of Reality and acted as he would if he sought to improve his Path's Laws. He slowly checked his guesses and theories, matching them against Reality. Very slowly. He wanted to gain time in that place to closely observe each of his Laws and see their Concepts.

How did each Law interact with each other? Why? What was missing that he couldn't see because he could only feel his own Laws?

Most fundamental of all, what were Concepts?

Liya had defined them as contracts. That was conceptually true, but as he connected with the cosmos and looked deep, they felt more like... Feelers? Infinite fellers came from each of his Laws and touched the others.

Or rather, tentacles feeling and constraining each other and their Laws.

That should be the true form of Reality—countless Laws in a tangled mess that ultimately reached an equilibrium of sorts.

If one saw S-rank entities and their allies as Axioms and Laws, the Alliance wouldn't be much different from that, a tangled mess that restricted each other to create a united-ish mass. You had to be willing to sacrifice the individuals, though, who were akin to Concepts. Shen hated that about the Alliance.

He also concluded Reality's way of doing things wouldn't work for him. His True Self was already a bunch of tight-fitting wires in a way, but each of its three "corners" repulsed the other too vigorously. Even True Boundlessness didn't want to be there.

Using Reality as a reference, Shen only had three "Axioms" in his True Self: Will, Truth, and a Law. That was it. In Reality, all Axioms limited each other, but if it were just Fire, Water, and a third other, they would probably just destroy themselves and Reality with it. Shen wasn't Reality and couldn't add "buffer Axioms" to his True Path.

There was no answer for him in the grand Axioms of Reality. The issue remained the same: Shen needed a domain.

Developing a domain wasn't something one could do just because he wanted to. Moreover, Shen's anger had burned true but was gone. The despair for his impending demise wasn't that great. He was nowhere as emotionally focused as he had been when he formed his previous domain.

If those were the only things he had going for him, Shen would die. However, he had had the foresight to broaden his Path in more than one way in his last breakthrough.

Shen had forced him to be more aware of emotions and, more importantly, to reach the Ethereal Harmonization realm without a fight.

He was no longer a hot-blooded, inexperienced man. The way he had held himself in the free-for-all was proof. He didn't need to be in battle to grow stronger. By breaking through to the Ethereal Harmonization realm in peace, he had given himself more robust foundations upon which to build his Path. And that very foundation, which didn't seem that important until now, was the reason he wouldn't die today.

To cultivate was like building a structure that needed solid foundations or a plant growing over its roots. If the base was lacking, the height and growth would be limited.

Shen could develop a domain today because if not for his previous one already being there, everything he had done and the way he had grown would naturally lead him to form a domain. His Domain of Limitless Denial had, paradoxically, even denied him that.

Noticing how Reality's solution was imperfect to his True Self was the final trigger to naturally develop a domain.

Long ago, Shen had considered which Laws related to overcoming challenges could be part of his Path. He had discarded the idea. He still didn't believe that would make sense, but at the core of overcoming challenges was a simpler truth much more in tune with him, which he had realized even back then.

He liked overcoming challenges because he liked to improve.

His entire story, ever since waking up, was about improving. His life before the Alliance was about seeking a way to improve himself to survive.

That was one of the reasons True Boundlessness was his first Law. It was one of the reasons he felt so close to it and it was so special to him. He wasn't just a Path Walker; he deeply cared for his Path more than others might. Even now, he was in this conundrum because he couldn't accept a fundamentally wrong Path. He also had to improve it.

A domain related to self-improvement would also prevent him from ever having a similar identity struggle. If he weren't perfect when he reached the end of his Path, he only had to work on himself until he did become perfect. If he had Limits, he only had to improve himself until they encompassed more. If Reality couldn't conform to his vision, he only had to use his Absolute Power to force it to improve.

That ideal so perfectly reflected all he was that he could pour all his emotions into it without trouble. A domain was to expand one's Path beyond oneself through metaphysical energy. Emotions were a trigger and gave the domain form and purpose. All his emotions and beliefs agreed with the domain that took form when he faced himself and the world and found both wanting.

Shen's drive was to improve that which was imperfect, and his Domain of Infinite Improvement heeded his call.

Limitless Denial had been about refusing a Reality that didn't conform to his wishes. Infinite Improvement was about forcing anything to conform to his vision. It was the final evidence of how his latest breakthrough had changed him. Not everything was an obstacle to be destroyed or refused. Some things only needed to be fixed or improved.

Infinite Improvement filled his body and soul, yet not. Shen felt the domain right in his grasp, yet he never reached for it. Not because he couldn't use it but because he would die if he did. His soul would explode. He instinctively knew Infinite Improvement was a more powerful domain than his previous one—and this was the first time he was made aware that domains could differ in power.

So, instead of killing himself, Shen only used his almost-domain in his True Self and glued everything together.

His True Self became one again. Better, too. Not quite as rigid as before. Shen's beliefs were more cemented than those of other people at his level but no longer immutable. Already, his almost-domain helped, and it had not even been fully brought to bear yet.

He smiled as he improved himself and kept at it.

He was still connected to Reality, and it was time to improve his comprehension of his Laws. He had had many ideas in these past three years. Now was an excellent time to grow one step stronger, as he predicted a lot of fights to come.

Shen pushed his ideas and theories toward Reality, syncing his Path to that imperfect thing that he would one day make better.

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[A/N: I didn't want to write a conceptual chapter now, but it kinda just happened, and I couldn't skip such a fundamental change like what happened to his domain.

Don't worry; no screen time will be given to his Law improvements. The plot will keep moving in the next chapter.]

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