Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 9. The Golden Rune.
“So our soul realms can combine! That’s amazing!” Laien said excitedly, his attention focused on the orbs of essence behind Yin. “We can gain insights into the Aspects much faster if we meditate on them here! I wonder if I can understand one of yours? Ah, don’t try touching them though!” he spoke a bit randomly as he approached Yin and the orbs of essence floating behind him.
“Pride and Humility seem to be fused, just like my Wrath and Tranquility,” he noted immediately, glancing at the two complete orbs which were slowing orbiting around each other. Like Yin said, the orb that was created from the essence of the Aspect of Awareness was only half-complete, while the essence of the Aspect of Desire was only a cluster of loose strands.
“We can train faster? And what do you mean by dangerous?” Yin pulled Laien by the shoulder and asked, knowing little to nothing about how soul realms worked.
“If you concentrate on the essence of an Aspect while you are in here, your training speed will become much faster,” Laien explained with a smile. “If you try touching it, however, the feeling of the Aspect will overwhelm you and you will lose yourself to it. For me I nearly lost the will to do anything after just sliding my finger against the essence of Tranquility,” he elaborated hurriedly, quite impatient to try mastering at least one of the insights into the Aspects Yin had.
“Are there any limits to being here…?” Yin asked, the image painted by Laien seeming a bit too good to be true to him.
“Your mental strength I guess,” Laien said with a slight smile. “I trained in this realm only once, but that time I spent here about three and a half hours. About the same amount of time passed outside… though I am unsure if we will get alerted in time if there is any danger,” he summed up and sighed a little. Indeed, he hadn’t thought about the possible danger back then; he was being confined and given the circumstances, no one would have tried to kill him anyway. But now? He and Yin were sitting in the middle of the forest.
“Well, I guess it shouldn’t be too dangerous if we spend a few hours here,” Laien said after giving the matter some thought. Normal animals wouldn’t be able to wound them while magical beast would be scared silly by their aura. It left them vulnerable to strong practitioners… but would they really be unlucky enough to be randomly attacked by one of such people in the middle of nowhere?
“I wouldn’t want to leave just after we got here either,” Yin said with a laugh, his line of thought about their safety pretty much matching up with Laien’s.
“I wonder if I could…” Laien mused aloud and waved his hand lightly, the thought alone causing the three orbs of essence of his own to move closer to the two of them. “Yup, I can,” he said with a laugh and glanced at Yin, then took a step forward and sat down facing the four orbs of his friend’s.
Yin chuckled, understanding Laien’s intentions quite clearly. He also sat down and rested his back against Laien’s, then took some time to look at the two essences he was most interested in; Tranquility and Wrath. Even without trying to comprehend them he felt the powerful essences influence his emotions and as a result… bring back the things he didn’t wish to think about. He wanted to get stronger… but he couldn’t help rejecting those thoughts and emotions.
“It doesn’t look like I will be able to understand these two…” Yin recognized just after a few minutes. Even when he was attempting to lose himself in those two emotions, he couldn’t do it due to the mental block he had. He sighed a little and directed his attention to Laien, who also appeared to be quite unhappy.
“I can’t. I just don’t believe it,” Laien said helplessly. The emotion of humility just like the one of pride, they were both very far away from him. They were incomprehensible to him. In despair, he felt no humility; he felt rage and helplessness, which he might suppress through his reason and try to act differently like when he had originally submitted to Jasi. In his happiest moments… he felt joy. He could and would often be arrogant, but he never was overly prideful.
“We got our hopes up for nothing, eh?” Yin asked with a little sigh, wondering when… if ever the time they would be comfortable with accepting different emotions would come. In this Combined Soul Realm, the two of them could sense each other’s emotions very clearly, to the point of being just a bit away from reading each other’s thoughts, so they needed no words to know they had both failed and to learn why they failed. They simply weren’t compatible with those Aspects.
“We can always see if it works better with the Principle of Energy,” Laien suggested hopefully and moved over to sit at Yin’s side. Since the Principles had nothing to do with one’s emotions and character, they might just be more suited to be exchanged between two people, or so his reasoning was. “Like this,” he said with a smile. He needed to only imagine the way to manifest the Principle of Energy for Yin to catch on what to do and thus, the two of them quickly brought forth two clouds of golden dust.
Before they could do anything else though, the two masses got out of their control and clashed in a rather chaotic way, creating a ‘puff’ one could expect from two clusters of desert sand being smacked against each other. The two clouds merged into one, and as they did…
“That is…!” Laien and Yin uttered at the same time, feeling as their insights into the Principle of Energy began rising at an astonishing speed. Neither of them would dream of missing this opportunity so they both immediately shut their eyes and began meditating on the stream of fresh knowledge they were receiving.
As they pondered on the new mysteries, the two of them were also gaining many new insights, which would often, in turn, prompt the other person to understand something on their own. The process continued unobstructed, the understanding of the Principle of Energy the two of them had risen to new heights.
Laien and Yin completely lost themselves in meditation and lost any track of time. Before they noticed, more than three hours passed. During this time the loose cluster of golden dust in front of them first had begun rotating, then converging into a smaller and smaller entity. By this point, it was already a tight cluster of something that resembled golden metallic liquid.
With the passage of each minute, the cluster was beginning to shine with an even stronger golden light. It was slowly transforming and changing shapes, forming something that resembled… an ancient golden rune.
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“Uncle Ruan, you said they would finish soon, but they aren’t coming back at all!” Raia complained angrily. She rarely had a chance to chat or play with anyone her age, so she was really looking forward to getting to know Laien and Yin! But even though her uncle said the boys would come back soon, they were nowhere to be seen!
“I said they might finish soon, I never said they would,” Ruan pointed out rather helplessly. Were it any other kid he would have already scolded him for acting in a spoiled way, but he couldn’t not have a soft spot for his good friend’s daughter. “They are probably meditating, we shouldn’t disturb them,” he said in just a little reprimanding tone, himself wondering where those two still were. He had told them they would be leaving in three hours, but it had already been more than that and they still weren’t here.
“What could they be doing for so long?” Ruan wondered silently. As a Courier he had often been entrusted with valuable information, so had long since learned about the existence of the Secrets. However, he would have never connected the two boys and the arts that were supposed to be reserved only for the cream of the top of the continent’s Realm of Heroes experts. Thus… the only explanation coming to him was that that boys lost track of time; at the very least he didn’t think that the two would have ignored his words.
“We could go look for them if you want,” he suggested and glanced at Raia. In the end, he could simply push Laien and Yin to ride as fast as yesterday and they could make up for a few hours of lost time. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if they set out late.
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“Didn’t you say they are in the forest?” Raia asked with a little frown, but also a little smirk. “At least tell me the direction or we’ll never find them!” she said with a smile, excited by the perspective of treasure hunting… or would man hunting, or rather boy hunting be a more fitting word in this situation? Maybe, but it would just sound so wrong to call it that.
“If you wait a bit I can prepare some snacks,” the tall woman with very long black hair, Vanessa, suggested with a smile. “I’m sure those two would love to eat a sandwich and some sweets after training so hard too,” she said carefreely, the idea of having a little picnic seeming quite nice to her.
“You really want to make a trip out of this?” Ian asked helplessly. Weren’t they just going to pick up two slackers? What was so interesting about that? Those three really were irredeemable.
“Why not?” Vanessa inquired with a smile. “Did we not meet on one of your own little trips?” she asked alluringly, though, out of consideration for her husband’s she mood avoided using the word ‘adventure’. It was such a nice morning, she didn’t want to spoil it by the talk about their daughter’s dreams and limitations.
“Fine, fine,” Ian conceded and sighed a little. He had come to hate his old life and so he settled down in this place with his wife, but who would have thought he would begin missing their dangerous adventures? Was it the influence of their daughter who would pester him to talk about the old times at every opportunity and would listen with such a bright gleam in her eyes?
“Mm, just give me a few minutes,” Vanessa said merrily and headed to the kitchen to prepare a few sandwiches for everyone.
“Yay!” Raia rejoiced and hurried after he mother, intent on making sure she wouldn’t prepare any of those gross vegetables-filled sandwiches for her.
After about ten minutes the preparations were done and the four headed into the forest. While Raia kept looking around all the time, the older three simply chatted leisurely. Ruan knew the boys were rather far away and had told the other two, so unless the boys began heading back they wouldn’t bump into them anytime soon.
“Ian,” Ruan brought up bitterly after a few minutes. “When are you planning to tell Raia that she was born with a damaged Qi Origin?” he asked quietly. The girl was already nine and very obviously desired to go out and adventure the world. However… how could she hope to do that when he martial cultivation could never advance past the fifth mortal realm? There was a period of time when Raia was too young to tell her the truth, but now she was beginning to grow up. If this secret was to be kept away from her for too long, she would definitely be very frustrated, maybe even resentful when she would finally realize the truth on her own.
“I don’t know,” Ian said honestly. “I realize we should tell her… but I couldn’t bear to see her depressed and sulking. She always dreamed of great things, how can I tell her she will need to be satisfied with the life of an average person?” he asked and shook his head. He had sent the word to his old friends to see if a method to repair a damaged Qi Origin existed somewhere in the world, but nothing came out of it so far. Perhaps it was wrong of him to cling to this little ray of hope, but he didn’t want to crush his daughter’s dreams so early on in her life.
“We should tell her soon,” Vanessa said with a sigh. What followed her simple statement though was a silence; Ian couldn’t bring himself to make this choice, while Ruan felt it wasn’t his place to be making it. Thus, the three of them walked in a rather grim mood for the time being.
“There they are,” Ian said with a slight smile, being the first one to notice the two boys between the many trees obstructing the view.
“Where? Where?” Raia asked impatiently. Even after peeking at her father and seeing where he was looking at she couldn’t quite spot the boys.
“Straight ahead of us, about five hundred meters away,” Ian replied habitually, used to giving this kind of directions to his subordinates.
“Let’s go and see what they were doing for so long!” Raia called out and ran ahead, her energetic behavior bringing troubled smiles upon the faces of her parents.
“There they are!” Raia said merrily when she spotted the two with her own eyes. “What are they doing though? Sleeping? Or meditating like daddy?” she wondered, baffled by the sight of two boys sitting right opposite to each other with their eyes closed and without moving at all.
“I wonder if it’s okay to wake them up?” she thought quietly, approaching the boys at a slower pace than before as to not make too much noise. “Daddy is always angry when I disturb him when he is meditating, so I probably shouldn’t,” she assumed reluctantly. She really wanted to play with those two, but they needed to be training all the time instead! So unlucky!
“No wonder they didn’t come on time,” Ian said with a light chuckle. “It’s easy to lose the track of time when meditating,” he tried to excuse the two in Ruan’s eyes, thinking it would be a pity if his friend got angry at kids just because they were absorbed in training. It was one thing to be late because of something silly and another to be late since you got too into doing something productive.
“You don’t need to make excuses for them,” Ruan said and smiled at his friend. “I won’t lecture them about it… too much,” he added with a laugh, to what Ian smirked meaningfully.
“They don’t even notice us,” Vanessa pointed out with a smile. “We probably shouldn’t disturb them, maybe they found a really amazing insight,” she said half-jokingly, not expecting children to have learned anything too significant about the mysteries of cultivation.
“It should be okay if we just look, right?” Raia asked innocently. “They are both really good looking, much more than those boys who stop by our inn sometimes,” she said while looking at Laien and Yin, pretty amazed how the two different types of ‘good looking’ could fit together. Yin was a bit more like her father, the word beautiful suited him perfectly. Laien, on the other hand, was just like a knight from the stories she liked to imagine and daydream about.
Vanessa hid her broad smile behind her hand as she chuckled in amusement. “Dear, I’m sure she isn’t looking for a boyfriend yet. You can relax,” she said teasingly, the expression on husband’s face proving to be a really interesting one.
Ian snorted quietly, a little frown appearing between his eyebrows. They had heard from Ruan who those two kids were and their identities and current goals were a bit too similar for comfort to Raia’s imaginations. If Raia was a bit older and if her Qi Origin wasn’t damaged, he could easily see her telling him ‘Sorry daddy, I’m going on an adventure with them!’ or something like that.
“What is this…?” Ian frowned heavily, suddenly overcome with a very bad feeling. However, before he could realize what was going on a wave of energy burst forth from the two boys. The wave spread outwards at an incredible speed, passing through the startled Raia with full power before beginning to dissipate, collapsing entirely before it could reach him, his wife or Ruan.
“Raia, are you alright?!” Ian nearly shouted as he leaped forward, crossing the distance of twenty meters in the blink of an eye and stopping right next to his daughter.
“I’m okay,” Raia responded, quite apparently dazed from the strange experience she just went through. “Only… my belly feels strange,” she said while putting her hands on her upper stomach, mystified by the strange sensation. The next second she shivered slightly… as her martial cultivation advanced from the second to the third mortal realm.
“She advanced so easily?” Ian thought in shock as he exchanged a glance with his wife. “Raia, let me see your stomach for a bit,” he said with an ill-hidden excitement in his voice.
Raia raised her eyebrows, but removed her hands and allowed her father to put his hand where they had been.
“Her Qi Origin…” Ian uttered silently, then laughed in disbelief. “It’s restored, it’s completely restored!” he rejoiced quietly, the look on his face being more than enough for Vanessa and Ruan to understand what must have happened.
“What are those boys?” Vanessa asked aloud, glancing at Laien and Yin who were still sitting on the grass, motionless, holding hands and radiating a slight golden aura. “Eh?” she gasped as a change began occurring in their surroundings.
Amazed by what was going on, the four of them stared at the part of the forest in close vicinity to the boys, just in the range through which that surge of energy passed through. The grass was growing and turning richer in color, dozens of new trees sprouted from the ground while the few already grown ones were turning completely humongous.
In the span of about a dozen seconds, the area of thirty meters around Laien and Yin became like a jungle, filled tightly with all kinds of leaves, bushes and small trees.
“Indeed, what are those boys?” Ian repeated the question as the four of them stood outside of the green cocoon, all of them looking at it with smiles of disbelief.
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In the soul realm, Laien and Yin opened their eyes. The two of them looked at the mysterious golden rune floating in the air in front of them, and at the small, newly-formed clod of golden dust just beside it. The golden rune was emanating a calm, yet powerful aura. The level of insights this rune represented was at least five times over the level of what Laien of Yin originally understood and the power it seemed to be able to allow them to unleash… was at least ten times as much.
Although it was hard for them to say how much their battle prowess increased due to that, they were pretty sure the change wasn’t a negligible one.
“We should repeat it from time to time,” Laien said with a content smile. He glanced at Yin, after what the two of them allowed their concentration to fade what resulted in the golden rune disappearing. “Let’s get out, I’m pretty sure we’ve been here longer than we should have,” he added lightheartedly, very happy that the discovery of being able to combine their foul realms didn’t end up being without benefits to them.
“We wouldn’t want to make Ruan angry,” Yin said with a chuckle. He and Laien nodded at each other, then sent their consciousness out of their souls, dissolving the combined soul realm.