The Pathway - Chapter 63 Strands

Through the corner of his eye, Ju Feng glanced at the back of the leaving Stellar Wind-Eternal. That was an extremely powerful cultivator who could have used a flying treasure or even a portal, yet, he preferred to walk like a mortal. More so, he was more than concerned about him, who was just reaching the Zhuji stage, in regards to his fated-death.

As he was deep in contemplation, he recollected seeing something in the honoured stellar’s eyes while he was addressing him. Though for a fraction of a second, it appeared to be something of a recognition. Could it be a flash of the memory of a past? Or maybe it was just his own Zhuji’s mind displaying a ruse on him. Yet, he could have sworn he saw something he thought was an accreditation in the stellar’s eyes.

After the departure of Stellar Wind-Eternal, Ju Feng heaved a sigh of relief as he stared at the life-stone in his hand. This was a farewell gift of a great significance, from a diviner who happened to know the impact and true extent of a fated-death. Although, it couldn’t prevent his imminent death, the lumence stone could tell him how close his death was, after the honoured stellar had linked it to his life-force.

There were three colours that the stone would display regarding the nearness of his impending death. Blue colour was an indication of years, yellow would be for months while red signified days of impending death. At the moment, the stone was only transparent which meant that he had some time before beginning the herald of his death.

With a smile of relief on his face, Ju Feng decided to go back to his room. There were still many more days to go before the luminary week would come to an end. More so, his friends were all busy with their own at the moment. Hence, it would be the right time for him to visit planet Charat. He was just hoping they hadn’t gone to his hillock to check for him. It would be a strangely suspicious sight if they couldn’t find him inside, when they knew he should be, especially after his heavenly tribulations.

How would he explain it to them after re-appearing again? They might even think that he was a daemon or a member of another school, who could open a portal inside their protective arrays. That would be a scenario he wouldn’t want to be in at all.

He was just turning to leave, when he saw Su Ming coming out from the other side of the haven. The true martial sister Su Ming, who had sacrificed a rare pill of hers to save his life. A debt he hoped he would be alive long enough to repay. The more she came into view, the more he realized something looked different about her appearance. Was it a more vibrant aura? Thinking faster, he recollected that he had also experienced this vibrant aura before. It was an aura of advancement in the stages of cultivation.

Had she advanced as a result of her near death experienced with the revenant?

Ju Feng’s rapid hand wave caught her attention prompting her to slow down her movement as she turned her head in his direction. She stopped as the realization of Ju Feng’s identity finally dawned on her.

That outer disciple?

Su Ming flicked her hand, an indication to approach, at Ju Feng who quickly flashstepped towards her. Su Ming gave a slight shake if her head as she acknowledged Ju Feng. There was something about him that kept nagging at the back of her mind. Anyway, just like herself, this was somebody who had reached the threshold of death but had survived to tell the tale. Wasn’t it a great feeling to be alive?

“Still alive?”

“Thanks to you, Shijie. If not for you, I wouldn’t be here today. You saved my life.”

With a cupped fist extended forward, Ju Feng gave her a slight bow.

“Think nothing of it.”

With a shrug of her shoulders, Su Ming waved away his comment, casually.

“You needed help and I helped. Simple as that.”

Ju Feng shook his head in a strong conviction before staring at the sky. Light of Radia was never a simple matter. He could have easily entered the light and be on his way to reincarnation. The moment he entered the revenant’s force-field, he knew he was in mortal danger. He had lost total consciousness and there were memory gaps he couldn’t even fill. Those were the signs of the threshold of death. For him to recover and avoid walking the path of reincarnation was no simple thing at all.

“No Shijie, reincarnation is not as simple as that. I could have died without me even knowing it. Words alone can’t express how happy and grateful I am for what you did, Shijie. A debt I hope to repay one day.”

“Think nothing of it. All that matters is that you are alright now.”

“And for that, I thank you, Shijie.”

“Don’t sweat on it. It was simply the necessary thing to do.”

Something in the distance caught her attention. She turned her gaze towards it for a moment before returning her focus on Ju Feng. She could feel the scrutinizing eyes of Ju Feng as he tried to decipher the changes in her aura. With an easy smile on her face, she gave a mild shrug of her shoulders.

“I guess it’s all about a higher soul’s stage. Well, I have to go now, so much to do. See you later then. And, try not to die soon since you got a debt to repay.”

“Thank you, Shijie. I will. See you later too.”

With a smile on his face, Ju Feng headed towards the male dormitory. So, Su Ming had truly advanced as he suspected. That meant there could be benefit in death experiences, though, he would prefer not to have any death experience. The risk of reincarnation was greater than the benefit of advancement.

He entered his room and gently locked the door, securely, behind him. With the weight of the fated-death and of a living Su Ming, lifted off him temporarily, he felt himself a little tired. Falling heavily on his bamboo bed, he decided to rest a bit, before heading for Charat planet. As soon as he closed his eyes, he was transported into the world of dreams.

Just as before, Ju Feng found himself sitting on a floating cloud while observing a raging event unfolding before him. He was like a phantom presence who was observing a scene from a memory. The terrible scene he was witnessing appeared to be the continuation of the one concerning those two entities he saw before in his dreams. Two beasts of unknown origin to him but of immense power and size. One was a wyvern who was residing inside a raging cloud, while the other was a devonian armoured turtle that was staying inside the water.

Unlike the last time he was here, now, there were many spatial rifts and tears that were causing the gradual destruction of the fabrics of this world. Was this how a world could easily be destroyed? The moment he turned to observe the massive turtle who was half way submerged in the water, he was instantly absorbed into the turtle’s spirit domain. In spite of it being a dreamworld, he appeared to be roiling from the intense power of the turtle. Inside this place, was the engraved memory of the ancient turtle.

‘I, Zothikos, stood there awaiting the end of my world as the raging cosmic void encircled it. Such a sad and lonely life it had been for me for billions of years. A life that was now ending by the power of the Cosmic Void Rift seal. A forbidden seal used by my ancient nemesis, Fotios, in his desperate attempt to have what never belonged to him. For billions of years, he had been a bane in my existence, a bane which I had come to accept in accordance with the laws of this universe.

What laws of the universe?

I was never a creature of this universe. I was a voidbeast, the same as my nemesis, Fotios. During the explosion that created the Alpheron and Ominu cores, there were other reactions in the void too. The particles of matter in the void formed other cores and one of the cores formed my universe, Hypagus. A universe that was made up of many worlds. It was one Hypabeast to one world with the strongest taking the biggest world. Despite this, there was a relative peace in our universe until the coming of an extremely powerful entity alongside few other shadowy entities. This particular shadowy creature who appeared to be the leader had no particular form or variation but had a whole massive creation’s core at the centre of its existence.

There was a colossal war between us and this shadowy entities that lasted many years. The Hypagus core tried as much as possible to seal them off, but they were exceedingly powerful. After many years of battle, this leading shadowy entity made a single move that eventually caused the destruction of my universe. A universe that took creation millions of years to achieve, about to be brought to total annihilation by this dangerous entity.

Some of us escaped before the total destruction of our universe. I, and a few others, decided to seek shelter in this very universe since it had energy that was similar to ours while the rest sought abode in other universes. One of the others that came with me, was Fotios. A wyvern who had his world next to mine when we were still in Hypagus. Anyway, when we arrived in this universe, we met the guardians of this universe, a set of exceedingly powerful beings who called themselves, the primordial divines. They too had encountered this shadowy figure but had managed to rebuff it’s aggression, hence, we made the decision to stay in this place.

However, there were two of rules we had to follow, if they were to allow us into the universe. These were rules we could live with, after careful consideration. First rule was not to kill any living entity in this universe without a just cause. Second was to fight alongside the divines whenever it was necessary since it would be our universe too in the nearest. And if we were to accept, we would have worlds of our own. A world to a Hypabeast and these worlds were closer to the primordial holes. Since we were not a killing type, this agreement we readily accepted.

We were here during the great wars of the primordials between the primordial divines and the primordial beasts. Though, some of our chaotic brethren were with the primordial beasts, we never indulged in any confrontational battle between us, as we fought alongside the divines. Our core values wouldn’t allow us to wallow in killing. And after the last battle, we did our possible best to help the divines in creating the cosmic seals that blocked off the primordial holes. We never wanted another battle that would force us to kill. With seals done, we returned to our worlds to live peacefully. And this peace continued until one day when a crystal with immeasurable power, arrived in my world.

On this fateful day, I was roaming about in my world when my nemesis, Fotios, appeared right in front of me to taunt me as usual. He had just arrived in my world through an opened portal, when a crystal entered my world through the closing portal. I was the quickest to react and with a flick of my hand, I caught the crystal. The moment my hand closed around the crystal, there was a massive energy surge that got me reeling in absolute shock. It was then that I realized the nature of the crystal in my hand.

I took a glance at Fotios and saw recognition in his eyes. He too had guessed what the crystal was and there was more anger and hatred in his eyes. I still remembered his first words to me that day.’

“Zothikos, hand over the crystal. It followed me through the portal and by its right, belonged to me. Now, hand it over.”

‘That was the beginning of Fotios’ obsession with the crystal. For many millions of years, he had been devising means to take the crystal from me. Though, he was an irritation and I regularly chased him away, any intention of killing him had never crossed my mind. Now, I watched as my nemesis had finally abandoned the values of his existential core and succumbed to the dark side of chaos. He had finally decided to destroy me through the cosmic void rift seal. How he came about this, I had no idea but I knew something was amiss.

Yet, there was nothing I could do now. The end of all these was near. With my impending death at the corner, I would have to seal my memory in a spatial dimension and hope it would sift through the void rift. Only a truesoul would be able to find its existence. For I know that since I wasn’t an entity of this universe, my soul essence would have to make the journey back to my home universe for a time of rebirth in limbo. If it was still in existence. ‘

As Ju Feng continued to watch, the turtle’s head suddenly turned in his direction, staring him dead in the eyes.

“You.”

His gaze was held by the turtle’s glowing eyes that suddenly released a gust of powerful energy blast that knocked Ju Feng off the floating cloud and into the fiercely cold water. But, just as his body was touching the water, Ju Feng woke up with a big jolt, sitting upright with his hands still shielding his body.

He checked his body for any sign of blast injury and wetness, having satisfied himself there was none, he heaved a sigh of relief. This dream was really getting weird and strange. Him? What about him? What did he do? And hypa-beasts? He had never heard of them before. Could the dream be a cast dream? Work of a dream cultivator? But, why would a dream artist cast such a dream on him? Was there more to it?

What was he even rambling about? Sometimes, dreams could have ways of disarranging the minds. But that was a dream he wouldn’t want to have again.

Well, time to go to Charat.

He sat down in a lotus position and placed the pagoda in front of him. He sent his energy into the pagoda and watched as the pagoda grew into an average sized door like before. This door was a risk if seen by anyone when he wasn’t around. He would have to think of a way to avoid this. In the meantime, he simply had to go to Charat planet. He shouldn’t delay any further.

Standing before the portal door, he turned his head to take a look at his room and with a great anxiety, he stepped through the portal door.