A/N: As I mentioned in the Spring update, no chapter on Tue or Thu. So next chapter in a week!
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"Are you sure about this?" Jikasi asked, not hiding his growing impatience as he looked at the derelict ruins surrounding them. "This isn't another one of your idle interests, is it?"
Testing his might against the ancient, unpredictable arrays and competing excavators over the past week had lost its novelty. Any further delays were something Jikasi could ill afford at this critical time. Destiny was drawing closer, and they were on a tight schedule. They were only halfway through their journey, with the Imperial Court still years of travel away.
Taking these kinds of detours would risk them arriving late, missing the opening ceremony and the opportunities it presented. Sifting through the detritus by hand also took away from his precious cultivation time.
Jikasi had spent most of his life in secluded cultivation in the depths of his clan's manor, but he knew one thing for certain. The moment you relaxed, you would fall behind the competition, and it would be nigh impossible to catch up. Progress was a constant that couldn't be interrupted, or you'd soon find yourself wallowing in mediocrity.
As far as Jikasi could tell, there was nothing in these humdrum remnants of a failed society that warranted such sacrifice. They had nothing to show for their efforts, and Jikasi's patience with his elder brother had long since worn thin. He would have directly hauled Bhutosi back to the Imperial Road if not for the elder council's urgings for Jikasi to follow his brother's lead during the journey.
"You know my attainment in the Dao is limited, preventing me from contributing strength to the clan. Instead, I've spent the past centuries expanding my knowledge, which includes studying ancient records," Bhutosi said with a gentle smile. "And studying our history is more than a pastime. It can mean the difference between life and death, the difference between opportunity and calamity. This knowledge is also why father had me guide your journey, my overly focused little brother."
"It's my focus that resulted in me being chosen by the Heavens," Jikasi countered, finally relenting upon seeing his elder brother's troubled expression. "Fine, we do have some time to spare. But what's so special about these Methele Ruins? There are ancient remnants popping up all over the place with the continent's realignment, and you've only put focus on this one."
"It's a matter of preparation and suitability. The Methele is a little-known society all but forgotten on the continent. I only encountered their society by chance. I doubt there are more than a handful of mentions scattered through the region. Those who have come before us have likely gone in blind, while I've studied their secrets at length. We have a decent chance of seizing valuable resources where others have failed."
"As for suitability, the Methele were an ancient species naturally endowed in the arts of the mind. They were also highly skilled artisans, particularly when it came to alchemy. They held the recipes for extraordinary soul-nurturing pills, recipes far surpassing the ones our family control. If you had the recipe, or even an ancient Spiritual Pill that has been nurtured by the realm for eons..."
Jikasi's eyes gleamed with interest, and his annoyance over missing cultivation time disappeared. His progress had indeed slowed down as of late. His soul had hit a bottleneck well over a decade ago, and ceaseless effort had only weakened the barrier by a modicum. Jikasi had planned on solving the issue upon reaching the court, but achieving a breakthrough before his arrival would be preferable. Then, Anima Court's resources could be used to further advance his path.
"If the Methele were so formidable, how did they get wiped out?" Jikasi said, unable to fully let go of his disdain for their disreputable act. Call it excavation or adventuring; they were ultimately just grave robbers rifling through a failed society. As far as Jikasi was concerned, such matters were better left to branch families or servants.
"No one is infallible; everything has its counter. The Methele were too focused on a singular route, which led to their downfall. They were targeted by an insensate beast tribe that was nigh immune to spiritual attacks. Soul blasts that would put fear in Celestials were effortlessly shrugged off, and the Methele had little else to throw at their enemy," Bhutosi said with a pointed look. "Their fate is an important lesson."
"I haven't ignored my spirit cultivation, you should know that, seeing as you're usually reading outside my cultivation chambers as we travel," Jikasi said.
"I'm just worried for you, little brother," Buthosi grinned as he ruffled Jikasi's hair. "Dangers come in all shapes, and you're about to walk into a viper's den."
"Viper's den? Such words border on treason," Jikasi scoffed as he pushed his brother away.
"The courts might be mighty and glorious, but benefits always walk arm in arm with conspiracy. Few who cross their gates can truly claim to be untouched by mortal dust," Buthosi sighed as he stopped to inspect a wall of barely visible scribbles in a script entirely foreign to Jikasi. "I hope to find something here that will help secure your position. And I believe we are close."
"Oh?"
Jikasi had to admit there was some value to his elder brother's scholarly pursuits, though he ultimately wished Buthosi had focused on his cultivation. As the eldest son of the current Clan Leader, it was unsightly to have fallen so far behind their contemporaries in Pastur Avur. Over a thousand years old and not yet a lord. If he didn't accelerate, he risked seeing his Dao severed. When Jikasi one day took the reins, he'd tighten up the clan precepts, ensuring that as little time as possible was wasted on side paths.
Buthosi's estimate soon proved correct. He eventually found the traces of a hidden spatial fold beneath a seemingly ordinary manner. Jikasi's extremely incisive Soul Sense had failed to catch so much as a trace until Buthosi pinpointed a weakness. Between Buthosi's insight and Jikasi's might, it took the siblings another day to open a path without alerting the competition.
"It's a corner of an externalized Soul Aperture," Jikasi marveled as they arrived at an underground palace larger than the manor above.
Jikasi took a deep breath and felt his stagnated soul stir. There was a mysterious force permeating the pocket realm. The energy flow was too natural and harmonious to come from a Natural Treasure. It had to be a unique type of Dragon Vein highly conducive to Soul Nurturing. It was like his Soul had been born anew from drawing a breath, filled with life and new beginnings.
Jikasi's eyes gleamed with desire. If he could cultivate in such an environment in the future... "After we're done, send word back to the family. Have the elders come here and investigate whether the Dragon Vein can be transplanted."
"Of course. But first, we should see about those pills. I can vaguely smell a medicinal fragrance. I'm afraid breaking in has weakened the seal. If the pills have gained enough spirituality, they might use the opening to escape," Buthosi warned.
"Oh no, let's go!" Jikasi shouted, turning into a streak of spiritual light as he rushed into the palace interiors.
The decrepit barriers were nothing before Jikasi's anxiety. Overwhelming Soul Blasts tore straight through the barriers. Each time he did, he felt the medicinal scent grow stronger. There were indeed pills hidden in the palace—pills that had not only survived but flourished. They must have absorbed the unique spirituality of the Dragon Vein for untold years, becoming something unique.
Eventually, they reached a set of stone gates, at which point Jikasi finally stopped his advance. It was covered in dense engravings. Jikasi couldn't deduce their meaning, but his soul warned him that forcing open the doors would have calamitous results. By the time a panting Buthosi caught up a few minutes later, Jikasi was veritably trembling with impatience.
"Hurry up, will you! I can sense movement on the other side," Jikasi urged.
"I can open it. Give me a moment," Buthosi declared before slowly adding one line after another onto the complex mesh.
After what felt like an eternity, Buthosi pointed at a particular rune. "Now, infuse it with your Mental Energy."
Jikasi followed the arrangement, but he almost forgot his task when a crack opened in the gates. A medicinal aroma beyond anything Jikasi had ever experienced poured out of the sealed chamber, almost causing Jikasi to break through on the spot. He quickly brought his swimming mind under control to guide the Soul Array into opening the gates enough to squeeze through.
The gates were ordered shut after they'd entered to prevent any Spirit Pills from making a break for it. Jikasi's soul had already spread to cover the entire chamber, making every inch his domain. The Alchemy Hall didn't look like anything he was used to. Instead of a cauldron, there was only a large pit filled with unfamiliar sand.
It was ochre yet occasionally released glimmers of dark green that filled Jikasi with discomfort. It also shifted on its own, as if it held the consistency of water. Most importantly, the sand utterly blocked Jikasi's Soul Sense. Forget about inspecting what was hidden beneath the sand; Jikasi couldn't even inspect the grains of sand themselves.
Powerful Soul Nurturing fluctuations emerged from below, their spirituality strong enough that it could only mean one thing. The hidden realm's Dragon Vein had been tied directly to this room, or rather the well of quicksand. And on top of the shifting bed, a single, shimmering pill rested. Jikasi's eyes were wide as he took it in. He'd expected to find a whole stockpile of ancient pills, yet all the medicinal aroma came from this solitary concoction.
This was not bad news in any shape or form. Jikasi's hands trembled because he could see his brightening future within that pill. No deeper inspection was necessary to know that the pill would facilitate his breakthrough and more. This was the kind of pill that everyone in Anima Court would fight tooth and nail to seize.
And it was sinking.
From the moment they entered, the pill had begun to be slowly pulled into the depths. At least it seemed that way. The pill was trembling as if it struggled to break free from an invisible hold. Jikasi would have already jumped in if the sand's shimmer hadn't given him such a bad feeling. If nothing else, its soul-sealing power would greatly restrain his strength.
"What is this? What's going on?" Jikasi shook Buthosi anxiously.
"Why is the nourishing bed changing now? Did our arrival trigger something?" Buthosi muttered with a frown before turning to the growing inscriptions on the wall. He patted Jikasi's shoulder to reassure him. "Give me a few minutes, I'll see if I can deduce the meaning behind—"
"No time!" Jikasi spat with red eyes.
He could see his future shrink as less and less of the pill was visible. Jikasi couldn't bear to wait any longer. He knew he was the clan's heir, but his brother was useless at this moment. Only his strength could be relied upon right now. Two anchors made of Mental Energy and empowered by the Dao of Ambition slammed into the ground, securing Jikasi's position.
He rushed onto the nourishing bed, appearing just above its center without actually touching the sand. He'd even erected invisible walls to prevent direct contact. And at that moment, his skills completely failed. He fell right onto the sand, grabbing hold of the struggling pill by instinct as a wave of weakness filled his head.
Jikasi struggled to fly out. When that failed, he tried to stand. Even discarding his dignity to crawl out didn't work. A terrifying toxin was pouring into his Soul Aperture. Worse, any time he moved, he felt himself being dragged further into the nurturing bed. Now that he'd entered the bed, he could even sense some form of spatial energy below.
"Brother!" Buthosi screamed with alarm, but what could a weak scholar do when Jikasi himself couldn't resist the bed's intractable pull?
Jikasi's heart hammered with horror as he desperately tried to get his rampaging emotions under control. It proved impossible. The weird toxin grew stronger the further Jikasi was dragged down. Soon, only his head was above the surface. Jikasi shared a pleading look with his unmoving brother, words failing him upon seeing Bhutosi's unfamiliar expression.
Why did he look so—
The next moment, Jikasi found himself free from the quicksand's constricting grasp, yet it brought him no relief. The muted spatial fluctuation he'd felt was unmistakable. He'd passed through a realmgate hidden in the depths of the nurturing bed. Jikasi now had an answer to the source of the marvelous energy, but it didn't solve his predicament.
The pull only grew stronger as he was dragged farther down, along a hidden route between realities. The toxins flooding his mind still prevented him from mounting any resistance against the spatial fractures, allowing them to carve ghastly scars across his body. Desperate and unwilling, Jikasi turned his attention to the glowing pill struggling in his grasp.
It had come to this, what point was there in holding back?
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A confusing tangle of natural and induced emotions crashed into Zac's mind as memories aligned. Thankfully, the pain of having his body sliced up like a steak helped him wake up from the influence of the mind poison. He kept Jikasi's fear at bay while harnessing his anger to stir his own bloodline. Soon, a pulse of purification swept through Zac's mind, disrupting the sinister compound long enough for him to release his Dao.
Life, Death, and Conflict roared into action, shredding the sickly green threads that had almost caused Jikasi's Soul to collapse. From outside, [Purity of the Void] and [Immutability of Eoz]tore into the foreign energy, reducing it to raw fuel for [Void Heart] to swallow. The poison fought back with extreme ferocity, but it couldn't resist the ferocity of Zac's innate constitution. Besides, the misalignment in soul positions between himself and the body he'd occupied worked in Zac's favor.
Seeing his most pressing predicament resolved, Zac directly wrested control over Jikasi's body. What should have been an epic struggle of competing wills between himself and a genius mentalist was over without a fight. Jikasi's main Dao belonged to the Peak of Sensations. Between the mind poison and the calamity he faced, Jikasi had completely lost control over his Dao. Accordingly, his strength was at its absolute lowest.
Meanwhile, Zac was barely affected by Jikasi's emotional turmoil, and facing death this way was just another Tuesday for him. His first order of business was to nix Jikasi's desperate gambit. Zac's hand stopped just before his open mouth, and an engraved Jade Box appeared in his left hand. Instead of swallowing the Supreme Spiritual Pill, it was safely stowed away in one of Zac's Spatial Rings.
History being rewritten caused a significant rift in the timelines. As Zac kept falling, the original timeline played out in his mind. As expected, Jikasi had no way of controlling the terrifying amounts of medicinal energy trapped inside the ancient pill. It only added fuel to the storm in his mind. By the time Jikasi realized the danger, it was already too late.
Jikasi's soul cracked, and Zac couldn't help but groan at the tearing agony transmitted through the memory. Just moments later, Zac sensed familiar energy fluctuations. There was a huge crack in the spatial tunnel that reeked of death just below. It was the source of the intractable pull on him, and Zac did nothing to avoid it.
Instead, he activated [Void Zone] and [Empyrean Aegis] to erect two layers of protection against the intensifying spatial turbulence surrounding the crack. The next moment he was pulled through. Even with his defenses, Zac gained a new set of ghastly wounds.
Zac found himself hurtling through a boundless darkness filled with Apocalyptic Death. However, the Ninth Hell he was looking at differed from the one he'd traversed. There was a sense of vigor in the death. This was the Ninth Hell of the past when it was still managed by the Limitless Empire. If the pristine spirituality wasn't proof enough, there were still the majestic structures floating in the gloom.
One such building was a large palace erected on a pitch-black disk of glass. It was the closest one to Zac's location, and it was the last thing Jikasi saw in the original timeline before his ailing body and soul could no longer hold on. The promising mentalist fell, and the drain on the lantern's stockpiled Imperial Faith skyrocketed. Despite only beginning minutes ago, Zac doubted that the memory world would last more than a day.
A powerful eruption of death coming from the depths of the palace brought Zac back to the present. The next moment, a Peak C-grade Revenant appeared right before him. If he were the inexperienced Jikasi, he might have been scared out of his mind upon encountering an undead cultivator in an unfamiliar, mysterious realm. After all, there were no undead factions within the Limitless Empire, at least not in the open.
Zac was the opposite. He knew exactly where he'd ended up, and he had a decent idea of this Revenant's status.
"Who are you?" the Peak C-grade Revenant asked.
"I'm Jikasi In'Vela," Zac panted as he took out Jikasi's Sealbearer token. "I was en route to the Anima Court and encountered a mysterious ruin. I was dragged down by a quicksand trap and ended up in Lord's realm. May I ask for assistance?"
"Fate diverted..." The Revenant looked at the closing spatial crack behind Zac for a few seconds. Finally, he nodded, and a small boat appeared in the emptiness. "From life, you found death. Perhaps it is fate. I'll take you to the lord. What happens then is up to fate."