The Universe is Innately Just - Chapter 327
“Is there something wrong with that place?”, asked the woman in confusion. She had seen him look toward that direction numerous times, even while gorging down the rough breakfast she had given him.
“Not really…,” he muttered slowly with a slight shortness of breath. Nonetheless, the odd expression he had on his face caused the woman to doubt his word.
The youth noticed that and flashed a beaming smile toward her. Fell continued lying on the couch while conversing with the friendly woman, and only after dozens of minutes passed that he found the strength to leave the comfort of the couch.
He rose to his feet, and began making his way through the reception hall with steady steps. Small shadows appeared from the corner of his visions, and the next moment, a group of toddlers flooded his surroundings.
“Young Uncle!”
“It’s the big brother from this week.”
Two brazen snotty nosed kid ran to his front, their dirty hand gripping at his clothes. A shy girl, hidden in the corner of the small group, and discreetly peered at the other individual from the district. As though she was afraid of the contemptuous gazes, they could potentially throw toward her.
Her short life didn’t protect her from the harsh gazes from the inhabitant of the shantytown, and she didn’t hope for a better treatment coming from the even more stranger main district natives.
During her shy spying, her sight crossed the direction of the pretty next-door sister sitting next to the couch; And immediately diverted her gaze toward another spot in the room.
Sadly for her, the place where he had threw her vision in her last-second panic wasn’t toward her feet, but toward a peculiarly tired man. Under the fatigue, the middle aged man’s face had turned grim and was a clear mirror of the stress he was feeling inwardly.
A small cry escaped from her mouth, immediately gathering the attention of the individual in the room. A heavy silence took hold of the large reception, but more precisely hang in the throat of the little girl.
The grieving weep was soon followed by a string of heart breaking sob that caused a changed in the expression of the woman sitting near the couch. Distress flashed on her face as her stressed mind was contagiously affected by the little girl’s small cries. She rose from her seat, and approached the girl with the intention to console her but before she even had the time to approach the group of small natives of the Baby Cemetery.
A warm hand patted the head of the crying girl a few time. The latter was surprised for a few seconds, and as she took the tiny hands covering her big eyes away, she saw a beaming smile appear in front of her.
“Everything is good?” He asked softly as he made sure not to make the situation worst. But contrary to his tactfulness, the little girl reacted positively to his actions and returned him a shy smile, but nonetheless beaming.
Without waiting further, Fell used the opportunity to flee from the scene as though he had stolen the treasures of the mansion. The spectators didn’t react much to the scene, and to be precise, only the woman that had fed Fell continued paying attention to the events. And even then, she couldn’t understand how the kids happened to be this familiar with main district natives.
“What if…,” she muttered in a near silent voice before finishing the end of that sentence in her mind.
She moved her head left and right as she cleared her mind out of the confusion, and focused her mind on the group of children standing in a daze, right in the middle of the large hall. She approached them with an open stance, ready to numb her stressed mind with their company. Before long, only the children and the woman remembered the short passage of the black haired youth.
After leaving the dilapidated mansion, Fell’s mind was brightened as he savored the state coming with having satiated his hunger. He couldn’t help but slowly hum a cheerful tone as he walked through the narrows passage of the Baby Cemetery. Before long, he met the few faces inhabiting these cursed lands, and couldn’t help himself but flash a polite smile toward them.
A few individuals returned his greeting with large smile and beaming faces, while other didn’t even bother looking at his direction as they were too focused on the fear dwelling in their hearts.
“Lot of new faces have appeared around here,” he muttered as he couldn’t help but finally noticed that the Baby Cemetery hosted many more people than last night.
“Well… I guess it is good for the small orphans,” he added before falling silent during the rest of his travel through the Baby Cemetery.
The moment his feet left the dry muddy ground of the Baby Cemetery, and began moving on the crooked pavement of the other parts of the Core. Less than ten minutes passed, as he took his time in touring through the streets of the city.
Compared to last night, many more people had made their way out in the streets. And even the usual drunkards that were still wasted at this time of the day were strangely sober. Some looked at him without having second thoughts, while others seemed to recognize him through his features. Every time the later event happened, he would always made the first move and interact with the person first.
In three or four streets, the amount of time he came to a stop and began short discussion with random passerby had rose past the two digits. And his antics didn’t seem to stop as he took particular enjoyment in that. Particularly toward one specific man that jumped toward his hand, he grabbed it in a tight shake before vigorously expressing his gratitude through a rapid repetition of up and down movements.
The man in question was a clear faced junkie, and without a doubt was the same one that had given direction to Fell when splitting apart from Leove after meeting the armed forces’ leaders.
“Bruv,” He exclaimed oddly with a mouthful of spit flying through the air. Fell didn’t even deign to avoid the speeding bits of saliva, and find himself obliged to accept everything coming toward him. “I can’thank ya enauf fer yest’dey’ magik!”
Fell’s facial expression tensed as he felt chilling small pearly dots connect with his face. But the man’s words caused him to be confused as he couldn’t understand what ‘magik’ he was talking about.
His eyes glinted with a strange light as he opened his lips while distancing himself discreetly.
“What kind of magic?”, he expressed succinctly with an apparent curiosity toward the sober hobo’s words.
“De cool chillin’one my frien’,” he ended shortly as his eyes rose toward the clear rising sun in the sky. “I stil’feel sum effect… V’ry effective…”, he muttered as he repeated soft ‘yes’ several time in a row before recollecting his mind. Only to find that the youth he was speaking with was an even strange oddity than a sober junkie.
He caught sign of the black patch of darkness in the corner laying down in the street. And less than a few seconds, before he even came to understand what the man was doing, he saw Fell’s figure disappear further down another trail.
“Wa’ta volat’le boi!” Exclaimed the hobo in a crooked mutter.
Fell continued passing through one street after another as he made his way toward a very specific direction. As he moved through the streets, a small change happened to his soul as memory began slowly filling the void of his soul. He was still incomplete and his current state of mind was a far cry from being considered a complete set of memory, but was nonetheless in a constant state of progression.
Every interaction he made, every small talk, and every inch of the Core that entered his sight made the process his soul had orchestrated further even closer to completion. The process in question was a risky one as it fully sealed his three cultivation paths in exchange of an opportunity to fix the innate flaws of his soul.
To cultivators that always needed to push forward toward the future. Not having a past was the same as lacking an anchor of the mind, as it could easily be seen from the reaction Fell had when he failed his attempt of stopping the Bestial Formation. If it was Fell’s past consciousness that would have faced the Bestial Formation, he might have faced hurdle even harsher than the one the current Fell had faced.
But even then, even if he abandoned his attempt and retreat to the city, his mind and ego wouldn’t have taken such a hard hit.
Thankfully, as soon as he arrived to the Core, the strange void in his soul had slowly started filling. At first, it had been filled with Fell’s undying pursuit of greater height and with the passion that was born with his sword path.
Then what came after it was the less joyful part of his memory, but that still caused him to feel inner peace when regaining them. Those memories were the ones related to his life growing inside of the Baby Cemetery, only the current set of memory was a completely different Baby Cemetery as the infamous place was now being used as inhabitation for the main district civilian.
Although the houses and overall view and surroundings were the exact same as the one existing in his lost memory. The one he currently had were completely different, as they basked in a completely different atmosphere due to the new presences.
His journey continued through the streets of the shantytown. With every single minute spent here was filled with new encounter that put Fell’s mind in a particularly good mood. If he had to be honest, he wouldn’t say the encounters themselves were making him happy, but that it was the fact that he was constantly gaining anchors for his flawed soul.
The elusive progress of his memory recovery continued steadily with every street he crossed, and before long, he found himself standing in front of a wooden store sign. The fashioned wooden-sculpted board was loosely hang on a set of nail, and a pig’s paw was shallowly inscribed on it. His eyes moved toward the metallic door, and noticed a small pinkish colored pattern that roughly represented a shape similar to the paw of a pig.
Without further hesitation, he stepped toward the door and opened up as a small but comfortable looking bar entered his eyes. Even this early in the morning, small noise were acc.u.mulated into an annoyingly cheerful hubbub that completely contrasted with the drastic atmosphere underground.
As the armed forces prepared themselves to face the fierce and highly dangerous army of creatures. The shantytown’s native joyously numbed their soul with harsh liquor at the first light of the day.
A broad shouldered man saw the new arrival, and couldn’t help but jerk slightly in the middle of his movement. He swiftly swiped the glass of window he spilled on the wooden bar, and spoke to one of the woman working in the current shift, asking her to take care of serving clients before Moha began making his way toward the standing still Fell.
“Want to drink anything?” exclaimed Moha as he felt that Fell was old enough to hold his liquor. He couldn’t help but remember the times where the black haired youth used to work in the local bar, barely able to feed himself decent meals every day. But now, he not only grew in height and stature, but also in overall presence.
Yet strangely, as he gazed at Fell, he felt that something had changed since last night, and that the youth standing in front of him resembled the small child he had helped in the past.