"If that's really the case, then I should be safe to assume…"

This was nothing more but a slight trick of mine that had the chance of working only because the two of us both were from the earth, and knew about that part of the past about each other. It was thanks to this sense of connection that Makay most likely had to me, that putting him on the spot by not finishing my answer properly had a chance to result in him speaking about what he thought I would be asking right now!

"That you have a shot at returning to earth while ascending from this world? And why do you think everyone ascends? Only a selected few are actually interested in becoming the fuel for the so-called God's meatgrinder in the upper world. Most of us actually just want to have a shot at returning to our home."

This by itself was already a huge reveal for me, but it was at the same time something that I could guess. The influence that the system of the transmigrators could wield over its users was limited. In my case, the lack of the so-called "decorations" prevented Bonger from ever trying to push me in certain directions, making him feel more like a partner than just a tool. But that wasn't the case for anyone who had the properly working system from the beginning.

If what Bonger told me about those "decorations" was true, then most of the transmigrators didn't really have any choice in terms of what kind of cultivation technique they did practice or what was their aim from the very beginning.

At this point, I had to silently congratulate the god that came up with the idea of the system for doing so. With how freedom-fixated most of the people from the earth were, by naming all sorts of forced tasks and activities as quest, this god actually managed to push the line where people would realise what was actually going on nearly too close to the ascension for most of them to do so!

"Tell me, what was your mission here?"

At this point, I had no doubts about it. Makay no longer attempted to pretend like he was weaker than most of the people around him. His entire power that I had a glance off before was now released in the open, free for anyone to adore. But there wasn't even a single hint of hostility in him, as if there was some kind of rule that prevented the system possessors from going at each other's throats!

"My mission? Ah, so you realised."

Smiling lightly under his nose, Makay only shook his head for a moment before raising his stare to the blue sky.

"You see, at first I was sent here in order to prepare the grounds for my lord's ascension. Ah, to prevent misunderstandings, a lord is just a title given to someone who is closer to ascension, so that people under him would get the chance to observe this event in order to possibly learn how to break out from the pull of the heavens."

Hearing Makay speak, I couldn't help but wonder just how much I could learn from him. With how different our understanding of the so-called 'heaven's' was, those few words that he accidentally shared with him was more than enough for me to make a huge leap in my own private investigation about this entire world!

"Anyway, I strayed off the topic a bit. I was sent here in order to prepare the grounds for my Lord's ascension, attempting to lure all those from the ground faction from stopping him from doing so. While I can understand their motives behind remaining in this world and creating our new earth right in this land, given how Gods are capable of influencing this world and we can't repay them with the same, it's only a matter of time before their cause will be stomped down once again, just like it happened over and over again in the past."

At this moment, this leisurely talk that we had, during which Makay somehow opened himself to me, turned into nothing more but a sales pitch. With how he explained the existence and purpose of a faction that I never heard about, it was clear that he was actually attempting to push me towards joining the faction that he was a part of!

"Tell me if you can, but who told you that we are unable to influence the other realm of this world?"

I couldn't blame them. Anyone who blindly followed the system's quests to reach the stage they were currently at, would fail to use the opportunity to learn more about this world back when they still had it.

Thinking about this, a memory of the golem from the ancestral lands returned. Was the owner of that system someone who dared to go against heaven's will? Was he killed off because of this? Or did his demise came as a result of his own actions?

Shaking my head, I pushed those thoughts aside. Even if they could lead me to some interesting answers, I couldn't divide my attention right after dropping the bomb right at Makay's head!

"Isn't this obvious? For as long as a single particle of this world's energy remains in us, we are bound to this plane. While you could say that being an immortal is no different from preparing oneself to ascend into the heavens, its this ritual of passage that allows us to finally shed the last bit of qi away, finally replacing it with the eterium."

Save for the different naming senses for the forces I was aquaintanced with ever since my time all the way back in the arena city, this story was more or less fitting in the boundaries of what I already knew. Given how the other realm was not some kind of gods' palace but a mirror plane where positive magical energy was exactly the same as entropy or negative energy in this world, it went without saying that transcending the realms required one to clean the entirety of the wrong kind of energy from himself!

"But if that's the case, how did God's manage to influence our plane? You might not know that, but just like entro… eterium used to be poisonous to us before we grew strong enough to resist its force, ma… qi is poisonous to those who reside in the other realm!"