According to the Ancient Tree of Faith, they all truly voluntarily became the Guardians and willingly met their deaths.
But.... isn't fear of death an instinct of life?
So much so that Zhang Wen even entertained the thought that "maybe all life forms in the Cosmic Realm are like ants, controlled by an undiscovered queen ant guiding the entire tribe's development," a notion he later dismissed himself.
Impossible.
On one hand, such powerful control, able to dominate nearly all tribes within a world, would be more surprising to Zhang Wen than the rules of the Cosmic Realm itself.
On the other hand, if such a powerful life form did exist, why would it bother controlling these 'weaklings' in the Cosmic Realm? With such vast willpower, it would likely flatten many worlds, including the Celestial Profound Realm!
'Could it really be the difference between worlds?'
