Zui Tian stood on the rooftop of the Celestial Tavern, the wind whipping through his tattered robes as he stared into the night sky. The stars above twinkled, but his mind was far beyond them, reaching into the depths of the Infinite Immortal Realms and beyond, toward the vast unknown that had always beckoned him. His thoughts, though usually wandering with the haze of drunkenness, had become unusually sharp.
He was thinking about Ideas.
Not just fleeting thoughts or concepts, but the primordial force of ideas—their power to shape worlds, realities, and even the cosmos itself. Ideas were the foundation of existence. Without ideas, there was no reality, no form, no meaning. It was the nature of the universe, this flow of ideas, that gave birth to the stars, to gods, and to beings like him.
But now, as he stood on the precipice of something new, Zui Tian’s mind lingered on a single question: What was his Idea?
Zui had long been regarded as an enigma—a drunkard, a wanderer, a being who seemed disinterested in power, yet possessed it in spades. He was an Eternal, one of the Anulled, a being that existed outside the normal laws of time, space, and life. But in truth, he had always been one step away from fully realizing what that meant.
Anulled meant he was a paradox, an entity that was both beginning and end, creation and destruction. But for all his vast power, he was still bound by the framework of the universe. There was one step beyond his current existence—one final leap that would allow him to ascend to a state of pure Idea. A state where he would become the idea itself, not just a manifestation of it.
Zui took a long swig from his flask, the taste of his Endless Wine—his own creation—filling his senses. The wine was more than just a drink; it was a part of him, a reflection of the chaos and order that resided within. It represented his Idea—the idea of Freedom.
His idea was Freedom in its purest form. The ability to move through the universe unchained, to create or destroy on a whim, to exist without boundaries. It was why he drank, why he wandered, why he laughed in the face of chaos and danger. To Zui, the ultimate expression of power was to be free—not just from the physical world, but from the constraints of thought, responsibility, and even purpose. To be free was to be truly alive.
But he was still not there. Not yet.
On the other side of the city, Wujin Meng stood alone in a quiet courtyard, her hands clasped behind her back as she gazed up at the same stars Zui was watching. The night was calm, but her mind was anything but. Like Zui, she too was contemplating Ideas—but her thoughts ran in a different direction.
Her Idea was not freedom. It was something more profound, more rooted in the nature of existence itself.
Wujin Meng was known as the Mistress of Dreams, the eternal embodiment of stillness and contemplation. She had created worlds within worlds, entire universes born from her mind’s eye, yet she knew there was still more to learn. Unlike Zui, who thrived in chaos, Wujin Meng was drawn to the concept of Balance—the delicate harmony between opposing forces.
Her idea was Duality.
To her, everything in the universe was built on the balance of opposites: light and dark, life and death, creation and destruction. One could not exist without the other. They were two halves of the same whole, constantly in tension but also in harmony. Her power came from understanding this balance, from walking the fine line between opposites without letting one overwhelm the other.
But like Zui, she had not yet fully realized her Idea. She was one step away from becoming Anulled, from embodying the perfect harmony of duality in her existence. She was still tied to the limitations of her vast but finite knowledge of the Dao. To truly ascend, she needed to merge with the Idea of duality itself, to become both the beginning and the end of all things, to be one with everything and nothing at the same time.
Wujin Meng exhaled softly, her breath visible in the cool night air. The path to Anulled was a delicate one. It required not just power, but understanding. She had spent eons contemplating the nature of the cosmos, but she knew that the final step would require her to let go of everything she thought she knew.
Later that night, the two siblings met in the same courtyard, the quiet stillness of the city surrounding them. Zui Tian, still holding his flask, leaned lazily against a pillar, while Wujin Meng stood calmly, her gaze focused but distant.
“You’ve been thinking,” Zui said, his voice low, as he took a swig of wine.
Wujin Meng smiled faintly. “So have you.”
“Yeah.” Zui glanced up at the stars. “Ideas. They’re everything, aren’t they?”
Wujin nodded. “We exist because of them. Without ideas, there is no form, no purpose, no existence.”
Zui chuckled softly. “I guess that means we’re just a bunch of thoughts floating around, huh?”
Wujin’s smile widened. “In a way. But thoughts have power. And the Idea is the foundation of that power.”
Zui sighed, his usual carefree attitude slipping for a moment. “I’ve been chasing freedom all my life. I thought I had it, too. But now I’m starting to see that there’s more. Freedom’s just the beginning. To be truly free… I need to become freedom.”
Wujin’s eyes flickered with understanding. “And to become freedom, you have to let go of everything that binds you. Even the idea of yourself.”
Zui stared at her for a long moment. “What about you? What’s your Idea?”
“Duality,” Wujin answered simply. “The balance between everything. Light and dark. Creation and destruction. It’s all connected. But to fully understand that, I have to become that balance. I have to let go of my need to control both sides and let them flow naturally through me.”
Zui laughed, though it was a quiet, thoughtful sound. “We’re both chasing something, huh? One step away from becoming Anulled.”
Wujin nodded, her expression serene. “We’re close. But that final step… it’s the hardest. It requires more than power. It requires surrender.”
“Funny, isn’t it?” Zui mused. “We’ve spent our whole lives trying to be stronger, to control our worlds. And now, to reach the end, we have to let go of everything.”
Wujin turned to face him fully, her eyes soft but determined. “When we take that step, Zui, we’ll become the Ideas themselves. We won’t just shape the world—we’ll be the world. We’ll be everything and nothing.”
Zui smiled, lifting his flask in a mock toast. “To everything and nothing, then.”
Wujin returned the gesture, her smile calm but radiant. “To the Anulled.”
As the two stood in the quiet night, their conversation faded into silence. The path ahead of them was clear, but it was not one they could walk together. They each had to face their Ideas alone, to confront the essence of their existence and transcend it.
One step away. Anulled.
The cosmos was alive with whispers—threads of fate woven and rewoven across the Infinite Immortal Realms, yet something elusive hung just beyond the understanding of most gods and immortals. Paracausality—the concept of existing beyond the boundaries of cause and effect, beyond time, beyond fate itself. It was a mystery only the oldest beings, the Anulled, could touch.
Zui Tian sat in his usual spot atop the Celestial Tavern, staring at the stars above. But this time, his thoughts were not on wine or the distant realms. They were on something deeper. Something he could barely grasp but always felt beneath the surface of existence. His hand tightened around his flask, not out of thirst, but out of contemplation.
“Paracausality,” he muttered to himself. “The power to exist outside the flow of things… outside time, space, and even the Dao.”
He had always toyed with the laws of reality, bending them with a drunken flick of his wrist. But what if he could exist outside those laws? What if he no longer had to follow the rules of cause and effect? Zui Tian had never really been bound by much, but even he felt the constraints of the universe’s natural order—actions had consequences, and even the gods had to follow that path.
But paracausality was different. It was freedom beyond the freedom he had always known. It was the ability to act without consequence, to change reality without being bound by the past or the future. It was the true essence of freedom, and it was calling to him.
Meanwhile, Wujin Meng was meditating in a garden, her mind drifting through the endless planes of her inner universes. She had been contemplating duality for centuries, understanding the ebb and flow of opposites, but now her thoughts turned to something more abstract. Paracausality had always been a distant concept—too elusive for most beings to comprehend, yet it lingered at the edge of her understanding.
She had always believed that duality was the ultimate truth—that everything existed in pairs, balancing each other, creating harmony. But paracausality was the disruption of that balance. It was the existence of a being or an event outside of the dual forces of cause and effect. It was something that simply was, with no beginning and no end, no cause and no consequence.
“It disrupts the balance,” Wujin whispered, her thoughts intertwining with the paradox of the idea. “And yet, it creates a new kind of balance. A higher order beyond duality.”
Her connection to Zui was profound, more than just the bond of siblings. They were two halves of the same primordial essence. If freedom was Zui’s ultimate truth, then harmony was hers. But paracausality? That was something else entirely. It was the state of being outside even harmony and freedom—a step beyond the eternal chase.
Wujin opened her eyes, her focus sharpening. She needed to understand it. She needed to see what lay beyond the fabric of cause and effect.
Later that night, Zui Tian and Wujin Meng found themselves once again standing under the stars, their thoughts heavier than usual. They didn’t speak at first, letting the silence between them stretch.
“You’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you?” Zui finally asked, his voice low, his eyes never leaving the sky.
Wujin nodded, her gaze distant. “Paracausality. I’ve been feeling it… tugging at the edges of everything I know.”
Zui let out a soft laugh. “It’s funny. I’ve spent all this time thinking I was free. But what if we’re still tied to something? What if even we’re stuck in the web of cause and effect?”
Wujin tilted her head, her eyes reflecting the starlight. “We’ve been bound by duality. Even freedom is balanced by constraints. But paracausality is the absence of both. It’s acting outside of any law or limit.”
Zui grinned, his carefree attitude returning for a moment. “So, what you’re saying is… we could do anything. Change anything. And nothing could stop us.”
Wujin’s expression remained thoughtful. “In theory. But what happens when you step outside of everything? What’s left when you’re beyond cause and effect? Do you still exist, or do you become something else entirely?”
Zui considered that for a moment, taking a swig from his flask. “You become an Idea. That’s what I think. You stop being a person, or a god, or whatever we are. You just… are.”
Wujin smiled faintly. “A pure concept, beyond time and space.”
Zui nodded. “It’s the last step, isn’t it? The final thing keeping us from becoming Anulled.”
“Paracausality,” Wujin murmured. “To exist without a cause, without an origin.”
Zui stood up, his usual lazy demeanor replaced by a rare seriousness. “We’ve been trying to reach that last step for a long time. Maybe this is it. The moment we stop trying to do things and just… be.”
As they spoke, the very fabric of reality around them seemed to ripple. It was as if the universe itself was listening, waiting to see what they would do next. Paracausality was not something that could be taught or even understood through logic. It was something you had to become.
Zui Tian closed his eyes, feeling the flow of time, space, and fate around him. He could sense the threads of causality pulling at him, binding him to the universe’s natural order. But in that moment, he reached beyond them. He let go of the need for action, for consequence, for anything that tied him to the world.
“I think I get it now,” Zui whispered.
Wujin turned to him, sensing the change. “Zui?”
His body began to shimmer, fading in and out of existence, as if he were slipping through the cracks of reality itself. “It’s not about breaking free. It’s about stepping outside. Cause and effect don’t touch me anymore.”
For a brief moment, Zui’s form became ethereal, like a shadow of an idea rather than a solid being. He was there, but he wasn’t. He existed, but not in the way others did. He had become a paracausal being, free from the constraints of the universe.
Wujin’s eyes widened as she watched, feeling the same pull on her own soul. She too let go of the constraints of duality, of balance, and simply was.
Together, they stood in a place beyond time, beyond space, beyond everything. They had touched paracausality, and in doing so, they had taken the final step toward becoming Anulled.
Far away, across the Infinite Immortal Realms, beings of immense power—gods, demons, and others—felt a disturbance ripple through existence. Something had changed. Something fundamental.
The Anulled, it seemed, were no longer bound by the rules of the cosmos. Zui Tian and Wujin Meng had become more than mere gods or immortals.
They had become Ideas, free from the chains of time, space, and causality.
And in doing so, they had become the embodiment of paracausality.
As the Paracausal Idea took form, the cosmos itself trembled—not in fear, but in recognition. The very fabric of existence, woven from the threads of causality, fate, and destiny, rippled in acknowledgment of the new beings who had ascended beyond its grasp.
Zui Tian and Wujin Meng stood in the infinite void between realities, no longer bound by the laws that governed even the highest gods. They had transcended power as it was understood by the mortal, immortal, and godly realms. They had become the very embodiment of what power was—cultivation in its purest form. Their ascent was not just a victory over fate but an escape from the very notion of limits.
Why does a being chase power if not to escape their bonds? This question had driven every cultivator from the beginning of time. Every life, every struggle for cultivation had been, at its core, an attempt to free oneself from fate, from weakness, from the cycle of life and death. Now, Zui and Wujin had become the manifestation of that eternal drive.
They were now the paracausal beings of freedom, harmony, strength, and duality—ideas that would never cease as long as life existed. Power and freedom in their rawest, purest forms, unshackled from the need for understanding or mastery.
Zui’s Idea—the very essence of freedom—had expanded far beyond the desire for movement or autonomy. It had become the embodiment of power without restraint. To be free in this form was to transcend even the act of choosing. To exist was to be free, and that freedom carried with it the raw force to create or destroy worlds without the need for permission or reason.
Wujin, meanwhile, had embraced her Idea of Harmony and Duality on a level far deeper than ever before. She was no longer simply balancing opposites. She was the balance, the eternal bridge between all things. Weakness and strength, light and dark, life and death—she had become the point of convergence between them all, yet stood outside them at the same time. Her power was the power of non-duality—the realization that opposites were merely reflections of the same essence, and in embracing both, one transcends them entirely.
Together, they formed the Paracausal Idea—the Idea that power and freedom were inseparable, that to truly cultivate was not just to grow stronger, but to escape the very laws that bound growth itself. The paradox they embodied—strength and weakness, duality and non-duality, freedom and harmony—was the very heart of all cultivation, the driving force behind the desire to break through limits.
Across the Infinite Immortal Realms, a deep, resonant tremor was felt by those ancient beings whose slumber had stretched across eons. These were the Ancient Ideas—the primordial forces that had given birth to reality itself, concepts older than time, beyond the comprehension of gods or mortals. These Ideas had slumbered peacefully, knowing that nothing in the realms could challenge them.
But now, they stirred.
The presence of Zui Tian and Wujin Meng, newly born as the embodiment of the Paracausal Idea, reached even the deepest, darkest corners of existence where these Ancient Ideas lay hidden. For the first time in eons, the Ancient Ideas felt a ripple of something akin to fear.
The very Idea of Freedom and Harmony had awakened in a way they had never anticipated. It was no longer an abstract force or an unreachable concept. It had taken form, it had consciousness, and it would never cease as long as life continued. For as long as beings existed who sought power, who cultivated to break their fates, the Idea of Freedom would thrive.
And with that, the balance of power shifted.
Zui Tian laughed—a full, hearty laugh that reverberated through the void. His flask, ever-present and ever-full, swirled with the Endless Wine that now seemed to represent the infinite possibilities before him. “I never thought it would feel like this,” he said, turning to Wujin.
Wujin Meng smiled softly, her ethereal form radiating both light and shadow in perfect harmony. “I always knew there was more to cultivation than just power. It’s about understanding, and now we are that understanding.”
Zui took another swig of his wine, letting the vastness of their new existence settle in. “We’ve become the very thing every cultivator dreams of, haven’t we? Freedom. Power. The ability to be unbound by anything.”
Wujin’s gaze shifted as she looked into the distance, sensing the tremor in the Ancient Ideas. “And yet, there’s more. The Ideas that have shaped the cosmos since the beginning—they know we’ve ascended. They feel it.”
Zui raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Do you think they’re worried?”
Wujin’s smile widened, her eyes glowing faintly. “I think they’ve realized that we are now the Idea that will shape the future.”
The two siblings stood together, their presence alone reshaping the very nature of reality around them. The worlds within their bodies had grown exponentially, no longer confined by the normal limitations of space or energy. Their inner worlds were now reflections of the cosmos itself—vast, infinite, and teeming with power.
The students back in Dragon City had felt the tremor too, though they couldn’t comprehend its full meaning. But they knew something had shifted. The world seemed heavier, more alive with potential. The ancient forces of the universe had stirred, and the future was now open in ways it hadn’t been before.
Zui Tian turned to his sister once more, a mischievous grin on his face. “So, what now? We’ve become Ideas. Do we just sit around and let the universe figure itself out?”
Wujin chuckled softly, shaking her head. “No. We guide it. We’re no longer bound by fate, but we can help shape the destinies of others. Our existence will inspire others to reach for more, to cultivate not just for power, but for true freedom.”
Zui raised his flask in a mock toast. “To freedom, then. To the Idea that will never die.”
Wujin raised her hand in response, her fingers glowing with the delicate balance of light and dark. “To harmony. To a future where strength and weakness are one.”
As they stood there, the infinite cosmos rippling around them, they knew that their presence alone had altered the course of reality. The Ancient Ideas may have stirred, but Zui Tian and Wujin Meng were no longer mere beings. They were paracausal forces—the very embodiment of power, cultivation, and the freedom that every living being sought.
And in the endless stretch of time and space, their Idea would continue to grow, touching every corner of existence and forever altering the path of the Infinite Immortal Realms.