Al opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a long time, usually around this time he would be in deep sleep, but for some reason, his heart kept fluttering as if in a premonition for some unknown event to come,
After dazing away for a good while, almost 2 hours Al heaved a sigh of dejection,
It seemed that going back to sleep was an impossible endeavour!
Completely giving up, Al went and took a cold shower that washed away any sleep remaining from his mind, wearing a light outfit Arthur went to the backside of the mansion for some exercises.
By now, time was around 4 AM, the sky was still dark, and the stars shone brightly, there were still around three hours till sunrise, Yet some servants and guards could be seen in the training area, exercising quietly or working diligently.
After greeting a few servants and working out with some of the guards he was more familiar with, two hours passed swiftly.
" Captian Thomas, Thank you for helping me today. " Al said as he stood up,
Following a short conversation, the guard went to his position to start his job while Al decided to run around, however seeking a change of scenery he decided to go walking in the city.
Some moments later, a youth wearing a wind-breaker stood in front of the gates of the Hidden Clouds mansion, winter was as cold as always. heavy clouds patched the sky, while snow from the previous night covered the streets, creating a beautiful white veil.
Wearing his specialized headphones Al played his favourite playlist as he listened and fell into the tempo of the music. his speed matched the gradual rise of the song, smoothly transitioning from walking to jogging, after a while, the track changed into a lively one,
With it, Al's speed increased and he started running at an increasing speed.
The cold winds hit his face, and cold air entered his lungs, causing faint pain with each breath. the faint sound of the cutting wind was barely noticeable as it was overwhelmed by the music Al was listening to.
His wind-breaker's headcover was blown back, and as Al was running at a fast speed his hair flew everywhere, an excited glow filled his eyes, immersed in his mood, and without his notice, the wind hitting his face changed, from a cold and betting to a refreshing and gentle.
The pain with each breath was gone, and as if aided by the wind his speed increased, the spiritual energy surrounding Al's body seemingly danced in joy.
At the moment Al had reached the outskirts of the city, without notice half an hour had passed, Al finally noticed where he was after barely accidentally colliding with someone, after hurriedly apologizing, he went to the side and stood catching his breath.
Minutes later,
" Since I'm already here, let's go to the city centre and then return. " Al thought to himself.
This time, Al revolved his spiritual energy, circulating it through his body, a moment later, he closed his eyes, this time with more focus he sensed his soul as he accessed his soul energy, revolving it his sensing went to his mental space,
Within his consciousness, an infant version of him floated with its eyes closed. that was Al's Nascent soul's projection.
The Nascent Soul opened its eyes in the consciousness space. In the outside world, a higher form of spiritual sense erupted from Al's glabella and surrounded his body.
using the soul senses was a unique ability of cultivators in the Nascent soul realm
waves of soul sense surrounded Al's body, after a moment, the energy stabilized and then it started spreading to the surroundings like a ripple effect.
covering a radius of a little more than nine meters, everything within that range appeared within Al's mental space, unlike the view from an eye, it was an image constructed of lines and silhouettes, some were too small to be noticed, while others disturbed the imaging of its surroundings.
however, all in all, the mental image was more than enough for a blind man to walk freely let alone a normal person
- In situations where a cultivator relies on their soul senses to perceive the world around them instead of their physical eyes, they are said to be using their 'mind's eye'. The strength of one's soul determines the clarity and accuracy of this vision. -
Taking a breath, Al absorbed the spiritual energy around him, circulating it throughout his body, it was gradually refined. Once this spiritual energy reached a certain purity, it would be stored in his dantian.
Energy flowed in and out of Al's dantian, circulating through his meridians and reaching every part of his body. with each limb filled with energy, a feeling of power and lightness filled Al's heart.
With his eyes closed Al tried walking depending solely on his soul sense, and after a while of walking without any accidents, his confidence increased, and with it increased his speed.
in a matter of moments, Al's figure was little more than a blur, streaking across the streets.
With his focus away from the music playing on his ears, its sound faded into the background. In its place came the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat,
Ba bump,
Ba bump,
Ba bump,
Ba bump,
accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the heartbeat were two faint voices speaking intelligible words, slowly with time the two voices grew louder yet Al couldn't understand a thing.
The next moment a thought came to his Al, " I'm wearing my earbuds? why am I hearing others talking "
Opening his eyes, Al's originally confused eyes opened wide and soon were filled with bewilderment and amazement.
The city's buildings, streets, cars, and even pedestrian were all gone, in their place was the view from what seemed to be a glass wall, from which beyond could be seen a world covered in ice and snow.
Shock filled his eyes, as his gaze took upon his new surroundings, soon Al came to notice that other than his eyes, the rest of his body was rather impossible to move. yet his sense had seemingly evolved to an unimaginable realm.
The vague sound of two people arguing accompanied by a sound that seemed so similar to chess pieces hitting a board resounded intermittently, far away two figures could be seen,
From the moment Al tried moving his body, the two figures froze, the next moment, their eyes opened wide, as their gaze focused on a figure enclosed in a giant ice crystal,
There, the figure of a young man was sealed in a giant crystal of ice, the eyes of the young man were open as they regarded his surroundings with an apathetic gaze.
Despite being unsure of his surroundings, Al remained calm and collected. despite it being his first time in this state the view did not look as strange for some reason, the surroundings felt oddly familiar for some reason even though Al was sure he had never been there before.
As Al observed his surroundings, a ball of white fur caught his attention, from the size, it didn't seem to be an animal but rather some kind of a monster or beast curled up into a ball, sound asleep with its body partially covered in snow,
Al's gaze wandered here and there, tell it returned to the two barely visible figures in the distance, after focusing for a while a wave of exhaustion struck his and the world turned dark.
....
In the moments before sunrise at the Great Cyrus mansion, Seraphina stood on her balcony with her eyes alight with excitement for the future ahead. She held in her hands a book entitled 'The History of the Myriad Dao World' its pages filled with the ancient tales of the great heroes of the Myriad Dao realm.
unlike Al, Sera did not have a wink of sleep that night, as she was playing a scene in her head again, over and over.
It was after her spar with the clone of a weakened younger version of Davina after the cheering from the crowd ended, she left them and went to talk with Lady Davina, and that conversation she still couldn't believe that it happened,
The light smile on Davina's face as she asked that question!
" ...Are you willing to become my disciple? ".
Seraphina stood frozen in shock, her face a mask of confusion as she struggled to comprehend what she just heard, fortune struck too hard for her to comprehend!
Was she going crazy? this was what she thought of at that moment.
Seraphina's heart swelled with disbelief, then elation as her idol gave her a chance to achieve one of her dreams,
The Celestial Empress. Davina Celestia Aeon, this name carried no less weight than any other name in the list of the strongest powerhouses in this world, titled the Sun Empress, to her people she was as warm as the warm sun rays during the cold winters.
Sera's childhood dream was to join the Rose Division and work beside the Empress, such a dream would have needed her to grind her soul and body off in hopes of seceding, and even till yesterday, even with all her efforts his success was not guaranteed, yet now she was offered something she could not even think of.
Opening the book in her hand on a marked page, it showed the information about Davina's early days when she and Sebastien started gaining fame,
she read...
" ...After the great battle with the kings of the Dawn continent, Lady Davina's title was officially decided to be the Sun Queen...."
" ...The Sun Queen along with her companion, the Order King destroyed the stronghold of the Dark races... "
" ...The order King single-handedly defeated and banished the Blood Ancestor, while the Sun Queen Fought and decimated the Blood race's army on her own..."
" ...The Royal Pair declared the establishment of the Celestial Dao Empire... "
" ...Trimphing about the four greats, The Aeon family now establishes themselves on the throne of the strongest in the Myriad Dao world. and the Celestial Dao Empier as the Strongest empire in existence throughout history... "
" ...Surpassing the four greats, The fire king of the Cyrus family, the Silver Witch of the Dawn family, the Golden King of the Earl family, and the Wise Sage from the Augustine family... "
Events that wrote the Myriad Dao world as it is today were written so clearly in that book.
With the two of the Great families as subordinates, the Aeon's territory was considered as 3/5 of the area of the Myriad Dao world, an area of 1.5/5 was ruled by the Dawn family while the remaining was under the rule of the ever-reclusive Augustine family.
.....
Regaining his senses, Al realized that he had run farther than he had intended to, thought of what he experienced filled his mind as the sun began to rise over the horizon, illuminating the stunning view of the mountain range near the city,
Soaking in the warmth of the sun, Al pushed the thoughts to the back of his head, " Whatever, I will just ask someone later. " he thought to himself.
Half an hour later, Al jogged his way back to an area populated with schools, as the street filled with school busses, traffic wasn't as fast,
Waiting to cross the road, Al waited at a red light, beside him the chattering of a group of small kids filled the early morning atmosphere with liveliness,
" They seemed to be 1st graders? or are they from kindergarten? I'm bad at judging age, aren't I? " Al mused to himself while he waited for the light to turn green.
a moment later, he closed his eyes, relaxing and regulating his breathing, suddenly his senses caught the distant and faint sound of a car's engine... gradually nearing, out of boredom Al started guessing the type of engine.
" Is it a V8?... no it's too soft, and stable... it's an inline six.. " Al thought to himself, even if the sound was distant or faint, when focusing his senses it was possible to figure out small details.
The signal turned red and the cars stopped, the pedestrian light turned green, with the road suddenly cleared, one of the children darted forward excited to cross the street. Their accompanying teacher was preoccupied with his smartphone, oblivious to the happening around him.
With his spiritual senses spread, Al was aware of everything in his surroundings, using his spiritual energy Al nudged the teacher, the latter noticed the situation and shouted at the kid from the start then took the remaining kids to cross the road.
Al moved along as well, crossing the road, In his mind the sound of the same car was growing louder among other sounds even though he was no longer focusing on it.
Suddenly in Al's spiritual senses, a car speeding towards his direction,
Al's eyes darted between the car, the kids crossing the road and their teacher, the latter was a normal person with no cultivation, the kids were as weak as any other kids and he was the only one who could do something.
Instantly, Waving his hands, spiritual energy condensed into a protective bubble that enveloped the two children farthest from Al before propelling them to safety on the other side of the street.
Meanwhile, a crude but strong pulse of energy rebelled some of the people crossing the road backwards, as Al shot back while grappling two kids who fell near him.
As a spur-of-moment move, the energy pulse was crude but effective more.
Al barely reached the sidewalk when he felt another cultivator's aura, a short but meaningful message was sent from the aura fluctuations.
" Not an Enemy " was how Al understood it.
A figure flashed beside Al and yanked the young teacher along with a kid to the sidewalk.
A Red car whizzed by, like a blur, generating a strong gust of wind that rustled Al's clothes.
Cold intent shone in Al's eyes as he focused his eyes on memorizing the car's plate number.
A moment later, Al turned his head to the side as he looked at the man standing beside him,
" Been a while, Nicholas...".
" Long time no see, Sir Arthur "