"Of all the people I could become cellmate with, I had to come across a nutcase. Wait, he's a she," Harun realized as he studied the terrified Empyrean's looks and pondered her words. All the men her face disturbed could now regain their dignity—for she was no "he," but the cream of the crop among Heaven's beauties. And while he didn't know her exact identity, Harun could guess that she ranked very high among Empyrean clansmen. Otherwise, she couldn't take such a conceited stance before the guards, not in the Extreme Yin Prison.
Knowing that this cross-dressing girl was his first genuine shot at understanding the root of his situation, Harun took the bull by the horns.
"Yes, it is I! I have returned to claim my stash of boo…" but then lost his willpower.
"Alright, I can't do this. Hi bitch, I don't know who the Serpent Emperor is, but apparently he's weak enough that any imperial guard can throw him into jails. Suspicious, right?" Harun rhetorically asked, forcing the gal to snap out of her nightmares.
"Oh wait that's true, you're too weak to be that monster," enlightened by his words, the Empyrean girl said. Her lips curved into a smile, but immediately afterward, fright returned.
"Wait, you're really not the Serpent Emperor?"
"Nope…"
"But your eyes…"
"The Empyrean race has white hairs and icy-blue eyes. Does that make all the cultivators with those traits your kinsmen?" Harun countered, and feeling that the words made sense, the girl heaved a long sigh of relief.
"Woooh! You should have said that sooner! I was almost scared to death," the girl replied while wiping off her forehead, then recalled that people couldn't sweat in the Extreme Yin Prison. Harun wanted to say that he didn't come prepared for such a debate, but realized his companion of misfortune may not have enough brain cells to process his words.
"My name is Jiyan, sorry for mistaking you for that mass murderer. Because I inherited some of my ancestor���s memories, I'm particularly scared of him. Nice to meet you," the dumb Empyrean girl said, and stretched her hand toward Harun.
"Huhh...wait, did you just reveal that you inherited the First Emperor's memories to a possible criminal?" Harun couldn't believe his ears and squinted his eyes at Jiyan.
"Oh it's fine, everyone here is too busy surviving the Extreme Yin and can neither cultivate nor use their strength. You guys are basically mortal inmates waiting for death. So we might as well have something to talk about," Jiyan replied while rubbing her chin with a pondering look.
"I thought you didn't want cellmates?"
"Oh that's because all those I've seen so far are either damaged goods or have that look in their eyes that scream 'If I don't kill 300 people per day, my life is meaningless.' You seem fine."
"Mhm...interesting. And here I thought Heaven didn't have lambs," Harun said following the exchange, and returned to his meditation cushion. Meanwhile, the third inmate snored in his corner, as if undisturbed by both the frigid air and commotion beside him.
"But it's strange. Since you have Sovereign Pupils, why are you in jails? Shouldn't you be like super strong and a master of Fate? What cultivation level are you even at?" Jiyan asked. Within the prison's walls, she couldn't use her Divine Sense to probe Harun's cultivation, and therefore couldn't see his level.
"Fourth-level Celestial Kin." Harun shrugged, unaware of what his new pupils could accomplish. But once the words "Celestial Kin" left Harun's lips, Jiyan's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"Lies. You don't need the ancestor's memories to know that someone with Sovereign Pupils receives Heaven's Blessing at birth and starts at the Heavenly God Realm. Upon adulthood, they automatically reach the Empyrean Monarch Realm. So unless you were born out of Heaven's reach or someone messed with your birth, you should be on your way to Monarch-hood," Jiyan narrowed her eyes at Harun and said with suspicion—mistaking him for an underage celestial.
Since they were already behind bars, what use was there for deceit? That boy wasn't nearly as nice as he first seemed to be. Or so Jiyan initially thought, but when she saw Harun's jaw drop, as if trying to detach itself from his head, Jiyan wondered if she wasn't wronging him.
"B-born Heavenly God? Monarch upon adulthood? I should be an Empyrean Monarch? Me?" Unable to constrain his shock, Harun grabbed Jiyan's hand and aimed her index at his face.
"Isn't this common knowledge? Split into three tiers, Double Pupils are the highest form of innate traits across the 33 Heavens. All possess unique abilities and, without exception, Double Pupils owners all receive a blessing that makes them start above the Celestial Kin Realm.
Monochromatic Pupils owners start at the Celestial Knight Realm and become Ascending Gods upon adulthood.
Heterochromatic Pupils owners start as Ascending Gods and become Heavenly Gods.
Sovereign Pupils owners start at the Heavenly God Realm and automatically rise to Empyrean Monarchs.
Moreover, regardless of their tiers, Double Pupils contain various portions of Heaven's Will Strands—a critical cultivation resource for Heavenly Gods and Monarchs. For those reasons, we call you guys inborn deities.
According to the ancestor, the Sovereign Pupils are the only ones whose color and abilities remain the same. Control of the world's myriad treasures in your golden, left eye. Authority over the destiny of men in the purple right. There are limitations, but no wonders they call it Sovereign Pupils.
In his heydays, the Serpent Emperor could not only find all relics of Heaven and Earth, but could take control of and nullify the effects of all his opponents' treasures. Worse, he could bestow good fortune, alter his subordinates' fate, cultivate Sovereign Essence, and strip those he disliked of their luck," Jiyan explained, but if at first she believed that Harun was playing a joke on her, as she studied his gaze, she realized she had it wrong.
"This is not right. This is not fair. The script is incorrect. You're telling me that because someone messed with my golden spoon, I went through 150 years of harrowing cultivation to reach a measly Celestial Kin Realm, when I should have started as a Heavenly God?" Harun's trembling hands tightened around Jiyan's wrist, but while the good-natured lass didn't want to crush his heart, her straightforward soul handled the job.
"150 years of cultivation? Oooh, I got it. You're a mortal-born celestial. Well, I've never heard of a mortal born with double pupils so I can't say with certainty that's the reason but...it's possible that since the Mortal Realm doesn't have Heavenly Qi, your birth got messed up, and instead of receiving Heaven's blessing you got a defective product you have to fix on your own.
Then you ascended to Heaven, some greedy Gods sensed the strands of Heaven's Will concealed in your eyes and started fighting for them—somehow landing you here.
Oh my god, you got screwed by Heaven." Jiyan covered her lip, and burst into laughter.