Jin Nan slowly turned the fragile pages of The Book of 100 Worlds. The title was not symbolic. Each chapter represented a different version of the same world, recorded by a Sage who lived before a Chaos Rain. Every world followed the same cycle. Civilization would rise, cultivation would flourish, the Great Wars would strengthen each generation, and eventually the Chaos Rain would arrive. The old world would fall, and a new era would begin. Since Jin Nan had lived through the 5th Great War and could already sense the signs of the 6th approaching, he estimated that roughly 600,000 years had passed since the 100th Chaos Rain. That left approximately 400,000 years before the arrival of the 101st. Humanity still had time, but not nearly as much as most believed.
The realization was staggering. For more than 100,000,000 years, the world had been trapped inside the same repeating cycle. Every million years, another Chaos Rain descended, bringing invasions from countless dimensions and reshaping the history of the world. The greatest tragedy was that almost nobody remembered it. According to the book, the Chaos Power released during each invasion distorted space, time, memory, and even causality itself. Entire continents vanished, timelines shifted, civilizations disappeared, and historical records became fragmented beyond recognition. By the time peace returned, only scattered myths remained. Every generation believed they were the first to face such disasters, never realizing that other civilizations before them had fought the exact same battle and left behind almost nothing.
The author of the first chapter introduced himself as Spirit Master Primus, the Sage of World 1. During the very first recorded Chaos Rain, he accidentally entered a state he called Sage Enlightenment while wandering a place beyond reality known as the Chaos Sea. There, he encountered a dying Celestial Dragon whose body had been torn apart during the dimensional conflict. Understanding that ordinary materials would never survive the passage through future Chaos Rains, Primus crafted the manuscript using the dragon's skin as its pages, its bones as the frame of the lectern, and its blood and flesh to create an immortal ink that could never fade. He entrusted the completed book to fate, hoping that one person in a distant future would uncover the truth, continue the record, and finally break the cycle that would imprisoned their world.
As Jin Nan continued reading, he discovered that not every Enlightened Sage agreed with the methods of their predecessors. The Enlightened Sage of World 21 questioned whether humanity truly needed to destroy itself every 100,000 years to grow stronger. His answer was to unite mankind against powerful spirit beasts instead. He deliberately nurtured beast populations, hoping they would become a common enemy. The experiment failed. Although the beasts were dangerous, they reproduced too slowly and could not sustain enough pressure across an entire million-year cycle. Once the strongest beasts were hunted down, humanity quickly returned to fighting itself. World 21 eventually followed the same familiar path, ending with another Chaos Rain and another entry in the immortal book.
The Enlightened Sage of World 29 attempted a different solution. Rather than relying on enemies, he engineered natural calamities across the world. Volcanic eruptions, spiritual storms, dimensional fractures, poisonous mists, and collapsing mountain ranges constantly threatened civilization. For several hundred thousand years, the plan worked remarkably well. Kingdoms and sects cooperated because survival demanded it. Unfortunately, cultivation continued advancing. Exceptional clans eventually produced geniuses powerful enough to resolve many disasters on their own. Once those gifted individuals emerged, unity slowly disappeared. Competition returned, alliances fractured, and the familiar pattern of Great Wars resumed. The Sage concluded that calamities alone could not maintain long-term cooperation once humanity became too individually powerful.
The Enlightened Sage of World 35 carefully studied both failures before creating a hybrid approach. He maintained dangerous beast populations while simultaneously allowing controlled calamities to occur throughout the world. Neither threat alone was overwhelming, but together they demanded constant cooperation between sects, empires, and clans. His strategy proved to be the most successful recorded in the book. For most of that million-year cycle, humanity remained surprisingly united, sharing knowledge and developing cultivation at an unprecedented pace. Instead of enduring 9 or 10 Great Wars, his world experienced only 3, and all of them occurred during the final years leading up to the Chaos Rain. His final note was both hopeful and cautionary: "Peace can strengthen humanity, but only while every generation remembers why it must remain united. Forget that reason, and war returns on its own."
When Jin Nan first discovered The Book of 100 Worlds 100,000 years ago, he expected to find an ancient cultivation manual. Instead, the moment he opened its first page, his consciousness was drawn into a state of enlightenment unlike anything described in ordinary cultivation. He stood before the accumulated wisdom of 100 previous High Sages, each leaving behind their understanding of the world, the Chaos Rain, and humanity's endless cycle of conflict. When his mind returned, he was no longer the same person. Without increasing his cultivation, he had become a High Sage. That single moment explained how he had survived 100,000 years in seclusion without actively cultivating, without chasing longevity techniques, and without ever triggering a Divine Tribulation. His life was now governed by an entirely different set of laws.
The book explained that Sages and High Sages were fundamentally different existences. A cultivator with sufficient talent, wisdom, and opportunity could eventually become a Sage through cultivation and enlightenment. High Sages, however, could never be reached by cultivation alone. That title required Divine Recognition. A person either had to be acknowledged directly by the Will of the World or receive recognition from an existing High Sage capable of passing on that authority. Jin Nan experienced something unprecedented. As he read the manuscript, the Will of the World accepted him while the collective wills of the 100 High Sages recorded within the book also acknowledged him. From that moment onward, he inherited not only their knowledge but also the responsibility they had carried across more than 100,000,000 years of history.
Many High Sages chose quiet lives after receiving that burden. The High Sage of World 71 became known as the Lazy Sage, spending his era observing history rather than guiding it directly. The High Sage of World 80 wandered the world alone, believing small acts of kindness could influence destiny more effectively than ruling nations. Jin Nan respected every path recorded in the book, but none matched his own heart. He refused to accept that humanity was destined to repeat the same tragedy forever. He would become the High Sage who ended the cycle and rejected the Chaos Rain itself. Ironically, while he was still deciding where to begin, the people of Green Willow Village had already given him the answer. By calling him their Sage, they unknowingly handed him the very first foundation upon which he could build a future capable of changing the world.
As Jin Nan continued studying the records left behind by the previous High Sages, he reached the chapters describing High Sage Domains. Unlike ordinary Sages, who could seize territory through strength and establish a domain by exercising Sage Influence, High Sages were forbidden from doing so. Their authority came from the Will of the World itself, making forced dominion a violation of the very principles that granted their recognition. If a High Sage desired a domain, there were only 2 lawful methods. The first was to create an entirely new realm, an achievement so difficult that only a handful had ever succeeded. The second required the willing recognition of the people living on that land. Only then could a High Sage legitimately claim it as their eternal domain.
By Jin Nan's era, only 101 High Sages had ever existed, including himself. Although none ruled over the others, they all agreed to follow a shared collection of principles known simply as the Sage Laws. These laws were not enforced by heaven or by the Will of the World. Instead, every High Sage accepted them voluntarily, believing that absolute power without restraint would eventually destroy everything they sought to protect. One law in particular carried enormous weight. When a High Sage established a domain through the recognition of its people, that domain became permanent. Unlike the domains of ordinary Sages, it could never be overwritten, conquered, or replaced by another Sage, even if its original High Sage had long since died.
The permanence of such a domain carried another extraordinary consequence. A High Sage who died after establishing a domain retained the right to reincarnate within it, returning to the very land that had once recognized them. However, the Sage Laws deliberately attached a severe limitation to discourage abuse. A reincarnated High Sage awakened with their memories intact but lost the ability to regain Sage status immediately. They were prohibited from becoming either a Sage or a High Sage until they had completed 7 reincarnations, measured within a cycle of every 10 incarnations. The restriction ensured that no High Sage could dominate the same civilization forever by endlessly returning to power generation after generation.
For that reason, another important Sage Law was established. No High Sage was permitted to intentionally create a domain for personal benefit or future reincarnation. A domain could only be accepted if it arose naturally through the sincere recognition of the people. Once that recognition was given, however, the High Sage was obligated to accept responsibility and establish the domain without hesitation. Refusing the people was considered a betrayal of the Will of the World. Conversely, a High Sage who never established a domain would reincarnate in a completely random location after death. Although they would lose any connection to a specific homeland, the book noted that such individuals possessed a much greater chance of once again attaining Sagehood in a future life. For Jin Nan, the decision had never truly been his to make. The people of Green Willow Valley had already chosen him, and the Sage Laws required him to answer that call.
As Jin Nan read deeper into The Book of 100 Worlds, one thing continued to surprise him more than any cultivation technique or ancient secret. None of the previous 100 High Sages had ever lived at the same time. Each belonged to a different world, separated by an entire Chaos Rain and often by 1,000,000 years. Yet their writings felt like a conversation carried across history. Every High Sage openly recorded their successes, failures, regrets, and discoveries for the next person to inherit the book. There were no hidden techniques, no misleading instructions, and no attempts to preserve personal glory. Every generation willingly passed on everything it had learned, hoping the next High Sage would surpass them where they had fallen short.
Their philosophies often disagreed. Some believed humanity needed conflict to remain strong. Others argued that lasting peace produced better cultivators. Several promoted powerful centralized empires, while others favored independent sects and small communities. Their proposed solutions differed dramatically, and many respectfully criticized the conclusions of earlier High Sages. Even so, their disagreements never became personal. Every criticism was followed by careful reasoning and sincere respect. Each author acknowledged the sacrifices of those who came before, understanding that every decision had been made with the same ultimate goal: ensuring the survival of their world. Reading their words, Jin Nan felt less like he was studying a historical record and more like he was sitting among wise seniors discussing the future around the same table.
That realization changed him more than anything else contained within the book. The greatest cultivators in history had proven that people with completely different beliefs could still trust one another, remain honest, and work toward a shared purpose. Their bond seemed stronger than many families connected by blood. They had never met, yet they cared for one another across millions of years through the pages of a single manuscript. Jin Nan found that astonishing. It became another reason he accepted the burden of becoming a High Sage without hesitation. More than defeating the Chaos Rain, he wanted to create a world where ordinary people, sects, clans, and empires could learn to cooperate with the same sincerity as the 100 High Sages who had quietly guided humanity from one age to the next.