————————————
Rhys stabilized his breathing before he saw the new vision. Before him, stood Edea and Ailin, it was in his, Rhys's room. But everything around him faded into a black. It was as if only they three existed within this vision.
Rhys smiled at them, but that smile turned ugly when he saw their crying, broken faces. Tears veiled their eyes as they seemed to be furious, at someone, at himself.
Rhys spoke subconsciously, "Mother, sister, what is wrong?" He did not realize he had called them 'mother' and 'sister.'
Yet before he could realize, Edea gave him a reply, but it was something that made his pupils dilate.
"Shut up! You are not my son! You are an impostor!" Her words were filled with hate, sorrow, and tried. She seemed like she had lost a part of herself as Rhys stared at her eyes, with shine having decreased by a lot.
"W-what?... No..." Rhys tried to speak before he was interrupted.
"Don't lie, I know my son. The way you act, speak and move. Do you think I wouldn't notice!? Where is my son? You are not my child! What did you to him." Rhys, the transmigrator was absolutely shocked.
This third, and final tribulation was too much for him to take.
"I-"
"Where is my brother!?" Ailin spoke, her words contained more hate than Edea's. That just went to show how much she cared about Rhys.
"He... is dead." The transmigrator spoke as he looked down.
"AAAh~~" Ailin broke down at his response while Edea tackled him.
Hearing that someone they cared about died, and was taken over by another soul was horrible. They felt like killing him, but they could not bring themselves to kill the entity who wore the face of their loved one.
"N-no..." Ailin muttered like a broken record, she seemed to have lost her mind from the way she cried and spoke. She did not want to accept the reality of having lost Rhys, her Rhys.
Edea on the other hand suppressed the transmigrator with her cultivation. She pressed her hands against his neck, wanting to break it. Yet she could not bring herself to kill the one who wore the face of her beloved son, the child she raised.
The transmigrator who was seeing their reactions felt like something within him snapped.
'How did they find out!? How!? Why am I being shown this!?' Rhys thought, this was his greatest fear, more than his three women betraying him.
He was scared of the mother and sister of the original Rhys finding out he possessed the corpse of the deceased Rhys. How would he face them, or even explain?
Would he tell them it was his fate? They would not accept it. Could he tell them he had to save the universe? They would not care about such things. So how could he react? Tell them what he just did, he died.
The transmigrator was at a loss, seeing Ailin cry like a little girl who lost everything and Edea pinning him down, her eyes veiled in tears and filled with hate for him.
"I'm sorry..."
The transmigrator muttered so low one would not normally hear it, but Edea did, "Sorry? SORRY!? Do you think that makes anything better?! You took my child! How dare you apologize with his face!
"If you are so sorry then die and bring my son back! How about that? Bring my child back. Leave his body!" Her smile turned deranged as she felt she was losing herself in sorrow.
The transmigrator did not know how to reply, yet he still moved his lips, "I-I can't."
"Hahaha, of course, you can't die. Why would you die when you took over the body of someone else and have a chance of life again!?" Edea laughed and spoke to herself mockingly, feeling like she was a fool for saying such words.
Snhng!
Suddenly, the transmigrator felt danger and moved his face to the side. It took him a second to realize it was Ailin who had attacked him. Her face was veiled in tears, her golden eyes shining brightly with flames of hate.
"Ailin, sto-" Before the transmigrator could finish speaking, Ailin replied.
"Do not speak in his voice! Don't!" Her energy soared once more and prepared to go against him. Rhys felt danger but did not move anymore, he simply smiled self-deprecating at himself.
"I see." Edea did not respond to such attacks, in fact, she did not seem to be herself anymore. Her eyes were dulled and her grasp weak, the suppression had mostly vanished, which allowed him to move.
She seemed to have locked herself in her mind, maybe to cope with what she learned. It was unknown.
So Ailin could act freely without the fear of her mother interfering for whatever reason.
Fwoosh!
Another attack was thrown and stroke the transmigrator's arm, yet he did not move, not cry in pain. Only his face turned into a grimace.
'I am tired of being shown these visions...' The transmigrator thought to himself as he saw Ailin walk closer, a spear appeared on her slender hand, as she grasped it tightly.
The transmigrator surged the little energy inside of his body to move Edea aside before Ailin stabbed him in his stomach.
Ailin was no longer focused on Edea, but only on the transmigrator.
Blood flowed down his mouth as he felt his body cry in pain, yet he simply looked at Ailin's sad, lonely figure. Full of hate for him.
'It's enough... This isn't real. Although something similar might happen when I tell them that, if I tell them that.'
He smiled at Ailin, for a second his smile made Ailin think of Rhys, her eyes turned more watery as she once more thought of what she lost.
Alas, before she could move, Rhys's cultivation soared and outclassed hers, Earthly Saint undulations spread in the area.
'This is nothing but a vision, within my mind. In other words, vision shown within my world.' Rhys had a moment of enlightenment as he realized this. In his mind, Rhys was absolute. For he could make anything happen, the world was like his realm. His thoughts would become a reality, so he regained his current cultivation.
"Edea, Ailin. Forgive me, but I know I hurt you. Yet, begone, begone from my world!"
The space twisted all around him, as the figures of Edea and Ailin vanished into thin air. Like he thought it was all fake. Rhys was lucky, for he realized the true nature of heart tribulations.
They were nothing but visions shown in one's own mind, the world they control.
Like that, his wounds healed as he returned to his peak.
'Enough of this shit. "Break!"
Rhys spoke the code words, like this everything around him broke down and he found himself in the same place he last was in.
Rhys looked at the timer that was so close to him it appeared gigantic.
-0:00:00:12
'That is some bullshit! There is no way I took that long, either way. I passed.' Rhys smiled as soon as the same voice he heard almost a week ago spoke.
[Congratulations, you passed the first trial. You are given 10 hours to rest before the second trial begins.]
-00:9:59:57
Rhys saw the timer had reset to 10 hours and was going down now. Letting out a breath of relief, Rhys sat down as he closed his eyes. He felt exhausted at all that he was shown. Honestly, he was close to having his will shattered in the second and third tribulation of the heart.
'I'm tired.' Rhys felt like sleeping, so slowly, he closed his eyes. Unaware that he was being watched.
——————
The soul wisp of the Divin Eternal Moon Goddess looked at Rhys's sleeping figure.
'Strange, for some reason he struggled a lot. What could he have been shown to struggle so much? The boy seems to have gone through a lot.'
She could still think as she was the soul remnant of a powerful Divine being.
'One would take a few days at most, he almost took the whole week!'
'Poor kid.'
——————
Outside, in her shack, the first empress in a lotus position, still lost in cultivation before she felt the island slightly tremble.
Stopping her cultivation, she smiled and thought, 'He passed.'
She knew this because it was said when one passed a trial, the island would shake as acknowledgment, the harder it trembled, the closer one was to complete the trials.
'I guess he only has a few more.' the first empress spoke as she closed her eyes and fell into cultivation once more.
She had no idea how long or how many the trials were. All she knew is that it would take a lot of time.
——————
Within the Moon Palace, Aurora, Stella, and Crystal sat next to each other cultivating.
They were cultivating the technique left behind by Rhys before he left, known as the 'Eternal Yin Lotus Cultivation Technique' and 'Forsaken Frigid Empire Cultivation technique.'
The former was for Aurora, while the latter was for Stella and Crystal. Both techniques were Divine grade. Meaning one could cultivate all the way to the Divine Realms with them.
Aurora had an icy blue ethereal lotus behind her, it was vertically open, making Aurora look majestic and beautiful. She looked wholly holy. Stella and Crystal on the other hand had beautiful crowns on their heads as if they were empresses. The crowns were blue and had blue gems adorn in them, the crowns were made naturally ethereal and not real, it just served to show what cultivation technique they were using.
The lotus behind Aurora was absorbing energy, making it glow brighter and get bigger. Its petals were growing bigger and more livelier. Her cultivation that had been stagnant had reached the Peak of the Celestial Saint realm, that was because she already had enough energy to make a breakthrough, she just never did since her manual wasn't good enough to match the strength of Peak Celestial Saint cultivators. If she broke through she would be weaker than those in her realm.
Stella and Crystal's crown was also absorbing energy, transforming it into icy energy that went to their dantian. Making them grow stronger as well as their crowns more prominent. They had both reached the Mid Earthly Saint realm, one realm above Rhys's cultivation.
They suddenly stopped cultivating as they all three stretched their curvy bodies and smiled at each other.
"I feel so much stronger than with our old cultivation technique." Stella muttered as Crystal clenched her fists.
"Indeed sister, these cultivation techniques are awesome."
"Well, they are from Rhys after all." Aurora spoke pridefully, talking as if it were normal.
"It has been over a week, how long do you think he will take?" Crystal asked.
"It matters not, we will wait for him as good women, but we must also get stronger. Since when he returns he will definitely be much stronger than when he left." Stella replied while Aurora smiled at her daughter's chat, they were really head over heels with Rhys.
"That's right. So let's get over our duties before we cultivate once more." Aurora spoke as they nodded before they walked out.
——————
As Rhys slept, within his mind. The enlightenment he obtained from being able to tell what tribulations of the heart were was being integrated into his mind and dantian. He did not know this now, but once he reached the Divine level, he would see how much this would benefit him in the long run.
Alas, he was still very far away from such a level of strength. Still, the benefits were still there, just it would slumber until Rhys met the conditions of use.
Soon, Rhys woke up, finding that there was only an hour left of time. Nine hours of sleep was enough for his cultivation to recover and his stamina to return.
Taking a deep breath, Rhys looked at the timer slowly decreased while lost in thoughts.
'Soon, the second trial will begin!'
Rhys felt some expectations arise as he thought of which type of trial it would be.
————————————
Author's Note:
Learned of the inconsistencies in my own story, I will make sure to speak about this tomorrow and clarify a few things.
I worked hard (yet failed), so please send motivation. :)
Anyways this is the last chapter for today...
3/3