Chapter 8 - Dao Heart!!

"It's there!!"

Yu Yin face was one of utmost excitement and his eyes were brightly sparkling!

"I'm ninety percent sure that it must be there, else, I'll truly be out of ideas!"

His thoughts had turned towards one of the three guardian sects of the Yu Family. Each one of them was a superpower in their own right and were experts in their own specialised fields.

The Alexandrite Sect, known for its incredible prowess in elemental soul techniques. No power in the Frigid Enigma Continent, other than the Yu Family itself, could match the Alexandrite Sect when it came to the quantity of quality of its soul magic. Any random technique of the Alexandrite Sect would be fought over if it appeared outside, just like how wild animals would fight over free food! The Alexandrite Sect was the shield of the Yu Family, used to defend it from those fools who dare have malicious intentions!

The Jadeite Sect was known for its mastery over weapons. Over the years, it had produced countless sword saints, sabre devils, and spear masters. No matter the weapon, the Jadeite Sect without fail, could preach the Dao of said weapon to an insanely high degree! The Jadeite sect was the sword of the Yu Family, used to cut down the buffoons who had the audacity to defy the Yu Family.

Finally, the was the Nephrite Sect, known for its proficiency in runewriting! Unlike the Alexandrite Sect and Jadeite Sect which were specialised in combat, the Nephrite Sect served the Yu Family to help it prosper and expand its influence, bringing it to even higher heights. The Nephrite Sect was more a school than a sect. Its goal was to attract young talent from across the continent to teach them the art of runewriting, allowing them to gain riches and prestige while giving the Yu Family an endless supply of runewritten spells. The Nephrite Sect had even been given a Rune Emblem by the Runewriter's guild, a superpower that even the Yu Family itself would have to be respectful too! This meant that the Nephrite Sect could be considered a branch of the Runewriter's guild. Yet, such a sect served the Yu Family wholeheartedly.

If there had to be a place where the Yu Family received its income from, it would be the Nephrite Sect! It was also Yu Yin's best bet as to the location of his soul. The family library had also crossed his mind, but he had quickly dismissed it. After all, the library wasn't actually all that important to him, and it only contained information on how to identify treasures, not where to find them. He rushed out of the main palace and speeded towards the grounds of the Nephrite Sect. This resulted in another bout of gossip from all the phantoms again, but he didn't care at all. Heck, Yu Yin would have self-cast [Acceleration] if he could! Unfortunately, he was walking around in an astral projection as to say, so this wasn't possible.

The sect headquarters of the Nephrite Sect wasn't as extravagant as the main Yu Family palace, but it was still a sight to behold! The Sect had an inner circle and an outer circle. The outer circle was a place of learning, where the young generation honed their skills in runewriting. The Inner circle was a place of research and was where the main building was. Here, the elders would band together to try and make a breakthrough in the level of their engraved rune spells. Overall, the sect was absolutely huge with its grounds stretching over 5 kilometres in diameter. Obviously, Yu Yin couldn't search the entire sect in a mere 40 minutes, so he decided to look for his soul in the main areas of the inner circle and sect headquarters. As there was simply no time to waste, he started exploring immediately as the clock counted down towards his deadline...

.....

Outside of his soul abode, Layla was staring intently at Yu Yin with her sapphire-like eyes. She had gotten bored of playing with his Qilin horns around ten minutes ago, or rather, she was no longer in the mood to do so. Half an hour had already passed, and Yu Yin was still sitting in the lotus position, having not moved an inch. He only had another half an hour left! She looked into the air and sighed before mumbling a few words to herself.

"There's a reason why mortals gain a momentary enlightenment into the energies of heaven and earth when they begin to awaken their soul. To even enter the [Rousing Soul] realm, to even start pursuing the pinnacle, one must first both select a path to power to walk on and find their Dao Heart. It's actually the discovery of their Dao Heart that invokes this clarity. Yu Yin has the Dao of Blades depicted in the [Myriad Blades of the Endless Night] as his path to power, but as for his Dao Heart, he still needs to discover it."

She had a faint smile on her face as she spoke of this "Dao Heart". She picked up one of the Silver Qilin horns again, which seemed to calm her anxiety towards Yu Yin's endeavours to cultivate. She started speaking to him.

"Yu Yin, I know you can't hear me, but if you are ever going to succeed at this then you must find your true self. You need to look at yourself and find what truly makes you tick, get a sense of who you truly are! Once you've done that, you have yourself a Dao Heart!"

She let a self-mocking chuckle, sighed, and looked down towards the Qilin horns.

"Yu Yin, was it a mistake not to tell you?"

....

Obviously, Yu Yin had no idea what was going on in the outside world. He was currently kneeling on the ground, shouting non-coherent nonsense and flipping off the sky with his middle finger!

"SCREW YOU HEAVENS!! Of all the people brought into this world, out of all of them...how on earth did you manage to forget to give me a soul?! How does one even manage to do that?!!"

Fifty minutes had passed since he had entered his soul abode, and he had yet to see any sign of his soul. He has searched all the important areas of the Nephrite Sect, but nothing was to be found. Therefore, he was reduced to his current state. Suddenly, a tremor ran through the entire soul abode, shaking it to its very core! Yu Yin snapped out of his episode and quickly realised the ridiculousness of what he was saying.

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"That must have been one of the signs that I'm running out of time..."

He stomped his foot on the ground.

"Damn! I refuse to believe I don't have a soul. I'll find it or my name isn't Yu Yin!"

He started pacing again for the third time but stopped halfway through.

"I'm absolutely sure that my last speculation was right, that my soul is at the place where my aspirations lie. That's the only theory I have that truly makes sense, but I've checked every place that I think that it could be. Unless..."

He sat down and started contemplating further.

"Is money truly the only thing I want? If so, then.... why do I desire it so much?"

This was a question Yu Yin had never asked himself before. He had never thought this deeply about his desires in his life, as he had never had the need to. He closed his eyes.

"No...It isn't the riches themselves that I desire... It’s what I can do with them afterwards!

"I want to have what the masses can only dream of having, to become the object of envy across the world."

"I want my status to soar above the sky so that all must respect me and yield upon my command."

"I want to stand at a place so high, that the rest of existence can only look up to me"

"I want to be idolised by all heaven and earth, with people longing to just lay their eyes on me"

"I want to be transfigured into something worthy of recognition."

"....Something worthy of true value...."

Yu Yin opened his eyes and let out a soft sigh. With only ten minutes left to find his soul, Yu Yin now knew with absolute certainty where it was. He walked towards the main building of the Yu Family Palace at a leisurely pace as if he had all the time in the world. As the limit to his time in the soul abode arrived, the wandering phantoms that inhabited the place seemed to become more and more solid, less illusory after every minute. Yu Yin paid them no heed, not giving them any attention in the slightest. By the time he had reached the palace, only five minutes remained before all chances of cultivating were lost forever. He entered the palace and walked straight up to the double doors at the far end of the hallway.

"These doors lead to the ancestral hall of the Yu Family, a place that only my seniors can enter. Not even I have ever risked sneaking into this place with all those experts wandering around in there! Rumours say that the secrets that lie in here can cause heaven and earth to quake and tremble!"

Yu Yin pushed open the doors and walked inside yet, he was completely taken aback by what he saw. What he saw was not at all like he thought the ancestral would look like. In fact, he was positive that the sight he was seeing wasn't even the ancestral hall at all!

"My soul abode is built according to my memories. I have never entered the ancestral hall so of course, it wouldn't appear here!"

Beyond the double doors, was a place that couldn't even be called part of the palace. Instead was an expanse of misty white fog, identical to the fog Yu Yin saw when he first entered his soul abode. Three phantoms could be seen lurking amidst the fog, although, they couldn't really be called phantoms at this point as they looked solid like true human beings! As he walked towards the fog, their forms became increasingly clear until he recognised who they were. He sized up the three-familiar people in front of him as they noticed his arrival. The first figure was his sister, Yu Xue. She had an icy expression on her face seemingly dissatisfied with her environment, although her face lit up when she saw Yu Yin. The second figure was his grandmother, Yu Jingyi. She had a stern look on her face and seemed to be contemplating something. Finally, the last figure was his mother, Yu Xiuying. She was sitting on a throne behind the other two phantoms, emitting an otherworldly aura that seemed to be both gentle and domineering simultaneously. Yu Yin could feel a familiar fluctuation within the fog, one that didn't belong to any of the three characters in front of him.

"My soul is certainly here; I can sense it practically in front of me!"

A faint and abrupt tremor could suddenly be felt, signifying that he only had five minutes left. Pieces of rubble could be seen falling from the roof of the Yu Family palace behind him. At this point, Yu Jingli noticed him and narrowed her eyes.

"Tch, you sure do have some nerve brat, marching into here like you own the place. Don't tell me you don't know the clan rules, because we both know you fully well do!"

Yu Yin's eyes widened in shock upon hearing his grandmother's reprimand. This was the first time any of the phantoms had interacted with him directly, as in talk directly to him. Although the other phantoms had noticed him and gossiped about him, it wasn't anything like the current situation at all. This place wasn't the true ancestral hall either, so he was also a little confused as to why she was angry at him.

Yu Xue had masked her joy from before and now had the expression of ice from before.

"Don’t bother lecturing about the clan rules Grandmother, we all know why Yin’er is here”.

She walked up to Yu Yin and stopped just a half a meter away from him. She looked him in the eye and smiled at him warmly and genuinely, something she would never allow others to see.

“I’m rooting for you Yin’er! Become strong so I don’t need to worry about you anymore, and don’t forget that promise you made me 10 years ago. I’ll be waiting!”.

Yu Yin remembered the promise well. How could he possibly forget?

“Of course!” Said Yu Yin smiling confidently.

Yu Xue smiled happily before turned back towards Mother and Yu Jingli and she resumed her icy glare from before.

“I shall excuse myself.” She said before leaving the ancestral hall.

She brushed past Yu Yin's shoulder as she went past him, which shocked Yu Yin yet again as he could actually feel it! As soon as Yu Xue was completely gone, Yu Jingli suddenly took a step forward, shocking soul power fluctuations rolling off her! For a phantom to release such soul power completely took Yu Yin aback! His heart was palpitating, and his spine was trembling in fear. An aghast expression on his face, he couldn't help but look to the phantom of his mother, Yu Xiuying. Only, it seemed she hadn't noticed the precarious situation he was in. She was just sat on her throne, frowning at her fingernails as if she had split one of them. Yu Jingli took this opportunity to speak.

"This truly is unfortunate Yu Yin. It seems that we've let you roam free a little too long and that you've forgotten discipline. After all the trouble you've caused over the years, not even you can escape the family rules this time! You'd better give me a good reason why you're here, else prepare to face punishment worse than death!"

Yu Yin gulped and took five steps back, his scalp tingling with fear. It seemed Grandmother was not as intelligent as Yu Xue thought, or perhaps the phantoms act not logically but instead according to the rules his subconscious memories. Notwithstanding her reason for acting like this, Grandmother’s power seemed very real, incredibly real. He was sure that perhaps this phantom could truly do him harm! At this junction, Yu Yin felt he had to tell the truth lest he die a miserable death!

"I'm here find my soul in order to learn cultivation!"

...

...

...

After a few moments of silence, Yu Yin looked up. Yu Jingli was standing there with her jaw hanging wide open, and his mother had finally looked up from her fingernails. A flicker of light passed through her eyes as she looked at him for the first time...