The sky was dark and heavy.
Across the vast wilderness, a lone figure trudged onward, like an utterly insignificant speck of dust. Yet with every step he took, the world behind him swiftly crumbled and vanished, leaving only nothingness, with a glimmer of white jade light at its core.
He did not look back.
A fissure abruptly appeared ahead, plunging deep into the earth. Scalding blood and flames gushed from it as it spread relentlessly to either side, and bone-deep hatred surged from its depths.
His path was blocked.
A young man stood at the fissure's edge, his dark robes stained with blood and his eyes blazing. In a trembling voice, he asked, "Do you harbor hatred?"
The traveler did not answer. He merely gazed into the abyss of blood and fire, then stepped forward. The ever-widening rift beneath his feet instantly closed, becoming level ground that allowed him to pass.
And so he continued onward.
An impossibly steep mountain of stone now stood before him, too high to cross, its summit lost from sight. Even the most nimble ape could not have climbed it.
Beneath the mountain stood a divine statue, majestic and mysterious, with an otherworldly bearing. It said only, "Do you desire to reach the summit?"
Still the traveler did not answer. He drew his sword, chiseled steps into the stone, and climbed upward one step at a time. Upon reaching the mountain's peak, he leaped without hesitation, falling to the ground like a meteor.
He was utterly unharmed.
He brushed the dust from his clothes. Behind him, the towering mountain of stone seemed to shudder, then abruptly collapsed, its thunderous roar echoing between heaven and earth.
He continued toward the end of this land. Ahead lay an expanse of emptiness where cause and effect did not