Silver had a dream.
No.
It wasn't a dream.
It was extremely strange. Very strange.
He was in a semi-conscious state where he could neither see, feel nor hear anything. But he was conscious.
He could not explain it.
This strange state continued for an unknown amount of time before he heard an extremely soft whisper.
Strangely, despite how low and soft the whisper was, Silver could still pick up the words spoken by this whisper.
{What do you desire?}
Once again, another strange event occurred.
Despite knowing that he should be wary or cautious of this voice, his lips parted open to reply this whisper. He could not stop himself, he could not control himself, and even the little bit of wariness in his mind disappeared as he spoke.
"I want a much better talent."
The instant he gave his answer, the voice spoke once again.
{What do you desire?}
This time around, Silver paused for a few seconds, and then he gave his reply.
"I desire to be the strongest."
{What do you desire?}
The whisper came once again and Silver replied immediately,
"I desire power."
This time around, no words were spoken by the whisper and Silver's strange state came to an end. He was no longer in a semi-conscious state and he entered a deep sleep where he thought and dreamt of nothing.
When he wakes up, he would completely forget the events that just transpired.
(Three days later)
Silver sat in front of what remained of the golden tree and golden pond with a bark of the golden tree in his mouth.
Shockingly, he was chewing and eating the golden tree bark like it was food, and surprisingly, it was!
Silver had woken up the previous day, and when he woke up, he found out that he was not as hungry as he was before he slept. However, he was still hungry.
A strange thought and desire crept up in his mind to try and eat a branch of the golden tree. When Silver had this thought, he almost thought he was running mad.
However, he was becoming hungry and he was also curious, so he ate the tree branch. One can imagine his surprise when he realized that the tree branch was not even as hard as a tree branch.
It was almost like he was eating sugar cane. It was sweet, and he could not stop himself from eating parts and parts of the tree.
Silver kept on eating the tree and drinking the golden water of the pond. Now, what remained of the golden tree was so small that Silver could comfortably sit on it and even step on it.
As for the golden pond, it was now so small that it could only be called a puddle. A very small puddle.
Silver knew it was extremely strange and absurd that his hunger seemed to never go away from the moment he ate the golden fruit and drank from the golden pond.
He knew he was being influenced by the golden tree. However, since he could not sense any negative changes to his body, he decided not to worry too much about it. He planned on asking his mother and father to check his body for any changes.
Also to his relief, Silver had stopped feeling hungry some minutes ago. He now felt 'full'.
He swallowed the golden bark in his mouth and then he looked at what remained of the golden tree and the golden pond with a complex expression,
"I can't believe I ate a tree."
Silver mumbled with a slightly embarrassed expression. He looked at his body and realized that it was in a better shape compared to what it was when he first woke up.
Although his injuries had not fully healed, his Morningstar bloodline was not fully activated, and his physique did not improve, Silver could feel a certain change in his body and mind.
The first change was that his bloodline was now partially activated. He could feel his first bloodline gate in the verterbrae of his spinal cord open partially, and it was because of this that the injuries he had, had gotten better without treatment these past few days.
The second change was more intangible and ethereal.
He had been having a strange feeling. He could not put it into words, however, it was more like he could feel the world or something of sort better.
Like he had a connection to something.
It was extremely strange to him, and did not know how to explain it at all. It even baffled him and he wondered what exactly the golden tree was.
This strange feeling that he has been having was more like his Spartan instincts which had saved him countless times ever since his rite of passage started.
And this strange feeling was warning him that he had to leave where he was quickly. That he could not spend another day in this cave or else he would regret it for the rest of his life.
He had been having this strange feeling for the past hour, and since this strange feeling was similar to his instincts, he trusted it. Besides, it was believable to a certain point.
It's not like he could keep on staying in the cave. He had to leave. However, how to leave was the main problem he had.
He could absolutely not leave through the snake's den. Who knew what that massive snake would do to him if it saw him try to leave.
When Silver thought of the massive snake, he could not help but wonder what happened to it and why the snake had not approached him.
Surely, for a snake of such a high cultivation level, the snake should have sensed him. Right?
"Let's just hope that whatever it is that is preventing the snake from approaching me continues to prevent it."
Silver released a sigh, and then he scratched his head while looking around.
"Should I just check the walls and see if there's another way of escaping?"
Silver mumbled, and then he shrugged to himself. There was no harm in trying right?
The worst that could happen was that he would not find another way out and would have to pass the snake's den to leave.
"I just hope that's not the case."
Silver shook his head, and then he started knocking on several parts of the wall to listen for a hollow sound or a strange sound.
As Silver moved from one part of the wall to another, his expression was one of concentration and also a tinge of hope.
To his immense surprise, when he knocked on a certain spot on the wall, a hollow sound reverberated throughout the cave.
Silver was shocked and he knocked again to make sure.
"It's really hollow." Silver exclaimed.
He then brought out one of his shields and took several steps backward. With a slight groan, he ran with the shield in front of him and slammed into the wall.
Bang!
The wall broke apart and crumbled, and Silver's eyes widened in joy and relief as he saw a long and almost endless path before him.
He looked around and then his eyes caught sight of a black object on the floor. The object was just in front of him, so he bent to take a closer look at the object.
To his surprise, the object was a black book.
Without picking it up, Silver read the words on the book.
"The Devil's Scripture?"
----
[A/N: So everybody, I know it may come as a surprise, but we'll start going premium from here on. I was planning on waiting till a certain part of this story. However, I realized that we might not reach there until 15 or 20 chapters later. So, I've decided to go premium.
I'm sorry for not informing you guys earlier. I just had this thought today after writing this chapter.]