Everything in the world came from the Creator's hands. Thus, in practical terms, "existence beyond the Oldest One" and "absolute nothingness that did not exist" could be equated. This was why these two symbols intertwined.
And the place Lin Chuan currently occupied was an ancient sefirah formed primarily through the convergence and evolution of these two symbols.
Yet by the universe's conventional logic, this sefirah's very existence was a paradox. Since it symbolized "the nothingness of the Oldest One," it could not truly exist within the universe.
The Oldest One could possess a symbol of "beyond the Oldest One," yet the existence of that symbol itself seemed rather impossible.
The reason was simple: the truly complete Original Creator possessed an ineffable, unknowable omniscience and omnipotence. Logic in its ordinary sense meant nothing to Him. He could be both divided and converged, both inside a circle and outside it.
But symbols and sefirot were not, ultimately, the Original Creator Himself. Their power came from the Oldest One, yet they could not transcend logic as He did.
Just as the symbol of convergence resided within Primordial Hunger, while the symbol of division could never give rise to a stable Great Old One. Even if the symbol of division ceased to be scattered and forcibly condensed into a Great Old One, that being would tear itself apart the instant it was born.
Thus, even if the symbol of "nothingness" had existed at the dawn of creation, it should have been unobservable. No existence other than the Oldest One Himself could touch it, much less give rise to a corresponding Great Old One.
That remained true until a meteor silently streaked across the boundless starry sky, and Lin Chuan's true body crossed into this world. Within the sefirah, the two symbols representing "beyond the Oldest One" and "nothingness" underwent an exquisitely subtle shift.
Under the original circumstances, the symbol that could roughly be called "beyond the Oldest One" was theoretically important. It could ride on the Oldest One's name, giving it an extremely high ceiling for what it could achieve.
In practice, however, it was nothing but an empty shell. The Oldest One had created the world, and everything within it came from Him. Where could an existence beyond Him possibly be found?
Thus, "beyond the Oldest One" was a false concept. It could only sit at the same table as the symbols of "nothingness" and division. Everyone knew such things existed in theory, and they sounded impossibly impressive, but their actual effectiveness was precisely zero.
Then Lin Chuan appeared.
So let me ask you: what lies beyond the Oldest One? Is there anything that doesn't belong to Him? See that person who came from who knows where? Isn't he an existence beyond the Oldest One? Answer me!
And so, the universe's underlying logic kicked in. As the only entity in the entire universe that perfectly matched the concept of "beyond the Oldest One," Lin Chuan was forcibly converged into this sefirah of "the nothingness of the Oldest One."
Yet that still wasn't the end of it.
Remember, "beyond the Oldest One" and "nothingness" had always been two near-synonymous symbols belonging to the same sefirah. Before this, one was a meaningless, empty symbol, while the other was a symbol that did not exist. They had, in a sense, been harmoniously unified.
And now? One symbol remained "the nothingness of the Oldest One," while the other had changed from its original state of being equivalent to "nothingness." The symbol of "beyond the Oldest One" had come to exist.
So the situation at the time was this: one symbol represented "the nonexistence of the Oldest One," while the other represented "existence beyond the Oldest One." These two symbols still belonged to the same sefirah.
Black and white, yin and yang, existence and nothingness.
Yin alone could not grow, yang alone could not beget life. Within yin lay yang, and within yang lay yin. When yin and yang united, all things arose.
Two symbols that likewise fulfilled the conditions for dualistic opposition, and one sefirah originating from the Oldest One. Now, what would happen next?
By this point, Lin Chuan had completely lost his composure and laughed in sheer exasperation.
Seriously, dude?
Am I really going to replace Time Chen as the one to blame for everything wrong with this world?
Still, things clearly hadn't reached the worst possible outcome. Otherwise, if the Oldest One had truly awakened in full, rather than merely stopping at the level of primordial chaos as He later had, Lin Chuan would never have had the chance to stand here and look back on the past.
What else would there be to say? I'm all in, boys. Time to get buried along with the whole universe.
After calming down, Lin Chuan realized that the Oldest One could not possibly have awakened back then. For one thing, he was still standing here perfectly fine, while the Oldest One lay on Earth.
More importantly, the symbols of existence and nothingness could indeed serve as the perfect ingredients for assembling the full-fledged Oldest One, coming even closer than Mirror Primordial and Nine-Sefirah Chaos. But all of that depended on the two symbols being "the nonexistence of the Oldest One" and "the existence of the Oldest One."
Not an "existence beyond the Oldest One" like him. Both might be forms of existence, but an existence beyond the Oldest One and the nothingness of the Oldest One were like two puzzle pieces utterly different in both material and art style. Their edges might seem to fit perfectly, but they could never form the correct picture belonging to the Oldest One.
Only after truly opening his eyes from his true body's perspective did Lin Chuan fully grasp his situation. He felt that this bizarre experience could be summed up perfectly with a classic internet joke:
Symbol: Is that sefirah in this photo you?
Lin Chuan: I'm a perfectly normal human. How could that possibly be me?!
Symbol: It is you. You just hadn't been born yet.
"So I landed and got a free pass straight to the top, immediately becoming an awakened sefirah and half a Great Old One. Along the way, I broke Klein's speedrun record of 'a true god in three years, half a Great Old One in five.' Then I wiped my memories, reincarnated on Earth, and got handed the wish-fulfillment script of an urban rebirth protagonist-"
Anyone who believed that could wait until the First Epoch, get exiled to the Magic Wishing Lamp, and have a nice chat with the Genie about scam prevention.
The reality was nowhere near that glorious, though it wasn't exactly miserable either.
Lin Chuan had crossed into the world of mysteries in his physical body. Thanks to his nature as a genuine transmigrator, he had converged directly with those two stumbling-block symbols. After the Oldest One's failed attempt to wake up, the matter of his true body, which came from outside this world, had turned into a sefirah, while his soul became the first self-awareness born within this ownerless sefirah.
In a certain sense, he really had been given a "free pass."
If he wanted to, he could cross the threshold of Above the Sequence at any moment, directly becoming a Great Old One or even a Pillar. Then, in that very instant, he would dissipate at the speed of light and return to nothingness.
Although the symbol of "beyond the Oldest One" now had him, an entity from outside the world, as its foundation and was no longer an empty shell, it had only raised the ceiling of his status. The actual power depended on Lin Chuan's own limits.
At present, this sefirah's power came almost entirely from the symbol of "nothingness." But that symbol was much the same as the symbol of division: a Great Old One of "nothingness" ought to return to nothingness.
This was why Lin Chuan could theoretically ascend straight to a Great Old One, yet actually doing so was rather unlikely.
Before you continue