It was finally time for the troupe to rest.
Yesterday had been a very terrific day for both the troupe and Silver.
For the troupe, although they may have seen Immortals from afar, it was not every day that they got to travel with the descendant of a martial clan backed by one.
Unlike legitimate immortal forces, martial clans were less rare. There were many martial clans spread throughout the world, but it didn't take away from the prestige of being from one.
For Silver, he had matured more as a person, at least according to him. This was a necessary step for Silver in order to adapt to his changing environment and it will help with everything he does down the line.
***
The campfire was ignited and the people gathered together to roast the meats and other food they had on them.
There had been no casualties from beasts but two people had collapsed and died during the journey. Not surprisingly, these two were the ones from the infirmary Silver was temporarily a part of. They had faked their health to not be left behind but their bodies gave up in the end.
They were buried not long after they collapsed, the troupe couldn't afford to spare much time for the already deceased after all. They had to cover maximum distance while they still had sunlight.
The expression on the people was a little more lively compared to the bleak tiredness before. It may be because of the emergence of martial clan descendant or the end of the journey nearing, whichever it was, Silver had no way of knowing it yet.
The group of kids from dove city had become the center of everybody's attention because both Mo Chen and the others in the group were traveling towards the same place.
The travelers knew all too well of their intentions for going to such a place, traveling alone at such an age.
The people who dreamt of pursuing the path of immortality were an all too common sight for them. Every year thousands would try to get into the immortal forces but not even a handful succeeded. Most of them would just end up dying somewhere unknown, away from their loved ones.
Even after all of the difficulties that laced the path. People would still try their luck, not giving up the chance.
According to the knowledge that was spread in the common world, at the age of thirteen, your soul and body would consolidate and it is the best time to pursue immortality if you're destined for it. As to why this was the case, even most immortals wouldn't know.
So it was not shocking for them when they heard of their destination.
But it was a different matter with Mo Chen. He was already a descendant of a martial clan, that meant that he had the blood of an immortal flowing through his veins.
He could be considered the closest thing related to an immortal they had ever seen. It was not an exaggeration to say that people could go their whole life without even seeing the footprint of one.
Being from the same group, the dove city kids also received part of this attention.
For Mu twins and Miao, such attention was too much to handle. They were never placed in a situation like this but now all of a sudden, people were being nice to them and started looking after them. What to say? They didn't hate this feeling.
It was different for Han Ling though, This was something she always wanted. Even though the people were doing this in hopes that they could put in a good word or let them be known to Mo Chen. She didn't let go of whatever attention she received.
But still, in between all of this, she would pay attention to a lone figure, who'd always maintain distance from their group now. Whenever she looked at his face, she would first be a little bewildered, thinking if this was even the same person who flocked around her like a dog and then she would be furious with livid anger remembering how that bastard had treated her in front of the whole troupe.
'Bastard…I will show you once we reach the Azure Order Sect, even if you offer your life to me at that time, I won't let that matter slide. I will let you have the taste of the same humiliation.'
She had already decided her course of action once she got selected as an outer disciple.
She had no doubt that Mo Chen would be selected, after all, he was a descendant of a martial clan.
After getting selected, If she establishes a closer connection with Mo Chen then her status would immediately rise.
'What will be a mere dreg like you be in front of me then?'
She placed her attention back to the people who were showing courtesy to her and her mood improved at once.
***
Not having any idea that he had been already targeted without even doing anything, literally. Silver was busy roasting his dried beast meat.
'I don't know how long we will be traveling. Not understanding the language is a major handicap, I will have to do something about it as soon as possible.'
Not understanding the people around him and not being able to talk to them had been a major blow to Silver. He was akin to a deaf even when his ears were just fine.
'What can even be done about it…? Should I work as a handy man in the houses of little kids who don't know how to speak yet?'
Learning a language from scratch was possible but only if you had the resources needed to learn it.
'I don't even know the level of people here but looking at the means of transport, it may not be much so I guess something like a picture book is not an option.'
'If something like magic exists…Can't I just magically know the language.'
Speaking of magic, Silver had already experienced two magical instances. The first was being thrown in and out of that dilapidated house and then the green firework with which Mo Chen had pierced the centipede beast.
Only after that did he come to the conclusion that this world was fundamentally different and something that was not possible on earth may be very much possible here.
The thought of magic and the like didn't boil his blood, saying that would be an utter lie. He just didn't know if he would be able to use it.
'Even if I'm not personally able to use it, I can always get help from those who do. But I'd still prefer doing it myself instead of blindly trusting others, especially in a place I know nothing about.'
He didn't even trust the people of his family back on earth, how was he supposed to trust anyone for that matter especially in a different world altogether?
'Still nothing much changes, I don't know when the journey will end. I don't have anything on me. These black-clothed people will just drop us off at the destination and then I am all on my own. I don't understand shit and I don't have any skills that would effectively cut the communication part.'
Silver had barely started studying his first-semester syllabus, he had little idea about operational amplifiers, signals and systems and amplitude modulation methods but he didn't know shit about surviving in a world without knowing its language and history.
'Honestly, shouldn't I know about the language? Considering that it is my soul that possessed the original's body, his memories should still be in his brain, should it not?'
Silver didn't even know what he was talking about but he thought that whatever he blabbered out made sense. If he had learned anything from the horror movies he liked to watch when he was a kid, it was always the dead people's souls that possessed living people and after they had been exorcised, they most of the time would return to their normal lives.
'So If I am dead and just a soul possessing the original's body, does that mean I'd be off to the afterlife if someone were to exorcise me? No wait, I'm not a ghost though. I can perfectly control this frail body as though it were my own…'
Midway to his conclusion, his face soured as he cursed internally,
'Fuck! Isn't that very ghost-like?'
Silver was caught in a dilemma no one would ever encounter in their life. He was in a similar existential crisis.
'Am I even Silver Dellsworth? Since I've memories of him, I should be. But what if…'
Suddenly, Silver thought of a very scary possibility.
"What if the original was just a schizophrenic and Silver Dellsworth was just one of his identities…"
This ridiculous thought scared Silver so much that he said it out loud, getting a few eyes turned in his direction and looking over at Silver and wondering if he was performing some sort of ritual.
Calming himself down a little with the breathing method he had learned in the past, Silver once again thought about his wild speculation.
'Even if I am just a sub persona, shouldn't I still have the memories of the original and that's just considering if I'm really a sub persona.'
He sat back down and nodded, relieving himself of the stress his wild thought had created.
'That's just considering the If case, there can be so many other cases, like the original spending so much time dreaming about a guy in another world living in a mansion that he became the guy himself, or maybe the original died and I from another world just took over his body due to some reason.'
These cases seemed a little more crazier to him though. Whichever the case was, he felt like he should know of the original's memories because his body was just fine and if he remembered correctly, memories were stored in the hippopotamus of the brain.
'No, wait it was the hippocampus, yeah.'
Silver felt that he was close to the truth but had no idea about where to apply it.
'Even If I know, but does it really help? Where do I begin–'
Click
'I think I know just the right place.'
Click
'If I want some answers then I need to go there.'
Click—
'But how do I ent—'
Crash!
"The dilapidated house…"
After a brief disorientation and the all-so-familiar pain, Silver opened his eyes.
He was once again standing in the ghost-quiet silence with the white fog embracing him as if welcoming his return.