The Boundary Sea was already the reality of heaven and earth as they could imagine it. It was so vast that even if they traveled for a dozen or twenty Epochs, they might not reach the opposite shore, much less the unknown, undivided lands farther beyond. Those were worlds they could never touch in their entire lives.
Yet now, from what the Emperor said, the Boundary Sea did not outline the entirety of heaven and earth. Beyond it lay other Boundary Seas and other Myriad Heavens. How could this not shake their understanding of the world?
What an immense map of the world was that?
There was no need even to think about it. It was surely like the sea receiving a hundred rivers. Even as Kings, they were no more than mortal beings, unable to touch or cross it in several lifetimes.
"Was the world really that vast? If so, didn't that mean..."
"Once, I thought a single planet was all of heaven and earth, and beyond it lay the unknown. Later, I thought the universe was all of heaven and earth, containing everything. Later still, I thought a great realm encompassed the Myriad Worlds, holding all the past and present within it. Finally, I thought the Boundary Sea was the ultimate, that nothing could be vaster. But now, there are seas beyond the Boundary Sea, Myriad Worlds beyond the Myriad Worlds. This is simply... unimaginable!"
"The closer we come to reality, the more keenly we feel our insignificance. Heh, across the Boundary Sea, we may be transcendent, but beyond the sea, beyond the world, we are creatures in a pond again. How ironic and sorrowful."
Had anyone else told them this, even a towering King from the Boundary Sea who stood above them, the Kings might not have