Pathway

Frost had gathered on his face and streaked his robe. He was beginning to grow acustomed to the dense frost due to his mind being occupied by the task at hand. He had to be very careful, if not, he could easily walk into a dream or illusion he wasn"t prepared for. This was why he couldn"t use the flashsteps but rather walked slowly and steadily.

The words of the tree was still sounding in his ears.

"Follow the direction I"m giving you and you will come to a place where the snow falls in a spiral. From the edge of the spiraling snow, turn and face the eastern side. For you, twenty feet forward will take you to a small snow mound. Three steps to the right before taking three steps to the front, followed by three steps to the left will take you inside the dream."

These were the clear instructions given by the tree that he needed to keep to the letter in order for him to enter the right dream for the Script of Sentience. This was the one the tree asked him to bring for it.

He looked at the one of the four dream crystals the grey tree gave him. It had told him that whenever he was about to enter the dream or illusion field, he should put one crystal in his mouth. This would be a remedy against forever succ.u.mbing to the effect of the dream and illusion. Afterall, he was still an infant immortal at the Zhuji stage and he was only ten mortal years of age. How could he even fight off the simplest of the dreams and illusion?

After giving a careful thought to his recent life, he sadly laughed aloud.

"He he he."

Although, it appeared he had been courting death, this particular endeavor was like having a romantic kiss of death. He didn"t looked as if he would escape his fated path afterall, therefore, why not cautiously followed it courageously?

He needed to rephrase that. How about the courage it takes not to die? Whether it"s in your hands or not, it takes courage not succ.u.mb to death. He prefered that, it fitted in perfectly.

He put the crystal in his mouth and as the the sweet burning sensation of the crystal erupted in his mouth, he took a step forward into where the dream field would be. The moment he stepped into the unseen field, he found himself in narrow way between two huge walls. At the other side of the narrow pa.s.sage stood a small house.

The walls" surface were smooth and perfectly patterened. But the most striking aspect of the walls were the types of the stones used to make the walls. A beautifully polished and smooth quartz walls blending to the perfectly crafted hypnotizing patterns on them that could make a soul gazing on them, lost in the moment of time forever. He didn"t know the time his right hand started caressing one of the walls.

Oh. It felt soothing and relaxing. He could simply lie down here and revered in this heavenly place. As he was closing his eyes, he felt a sharp bust of burning sensation in his mouth which transmitted into his brain and jolted him awake. He quickly removed his hand from the wall and withdrew to the middle of the narrow pa.s.sage.

"This is truly a terrifying place."

If not for the dream stone he put in his mouth, he would be trapped in dreams forever. That means the words of the grey tree were true.

He continued walking towards the house and noticed the details of the houss. It was made of dull quartz stones with runes all over it. As he stepped on the large cobblestone in front of the entrance, the door immediately swung open. It was as if the house was alive and there was no need for attendants.

What did he expected in a dream in the first place?

There was something about the dying glow that made him not to like the place, but his courageous will and determination were pushing him forward.

Colorful light, though it was faint, but was still brighter than he had seen in this dream, flowed out to encompa.s.s him. This light was coming from the walls inside the houss, it was as if the white runes on the walls were giving off a dying radiance.

There was a large oak table at the center of the room along with an oak chair. They were smoothly polished and giving off a shining glow. There was a large opened book to the left side of the table and to the right was another larger golden scroll. Behind the table and chair was a large oak shelf filled with scrolls and ma.n.u.scripts.
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Sitting at the table was an elderly man in a light golden scholar robe. His hair was golden, his eye brows were lightly trimmed and golden and his beard was long and also golden in color. He was holding a golden feathered pen and appeared to be lost in thought.

From his first glance of the elderly man, Jufeng could tell he was looking at an ancient scolar. The wisdom and knowledge they possessed were a thing of unparalleled pride in the world of cultivation. In here, he knew he had to maintain his silence until being told otherwise.

Few moments later, the old man raised his head to observe Jufeng.

"Young scholar, welcome to the House of Riddles."

"Greetings, senior."

"En. You must be here to help me with some of the riddles."

Without waiting for any reply, he continued.

"Very well then, come closer. Young one, these riddles are a thorn in my robe. I just couldn"t find the right answers to them. Since you are here, maybe you can help me solve them. But there is a little problem if you call it that. Young scholar, you see, with the importance of what I"m doing here, you can only give me wrong answer a total of two times. The third wrong answer will create a bring problem for you. But, you can leave or continue after the second wrong answer only if you subst.i.tute with five Iradium gold coins. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, senior."

Jufeng replied with a nod of his head. What else could he say? He had a telling comfort in knowing that hewas having the Iradium gold coins given to him by the tree. The tree had truly prepared for all these.

"Excellent. Here are the riddles."

And here we go. Jufeng knew the trial had started. He could only miss the answers twice, missing them three times meant he would be in serious trouble. The tree already told him that the questions would be on his level of understanding and reasoning. The tree better be right. If not, then it would be on the tree for not getting the script.

The elderly man gently raised the feathered pen as he stared at Jufeng with a slightly raised eyebrows.

"The first one.

"I never was, am always to be,

No one ever saw me, nor ever will,

And yet I am the confidence of all,

To live and breathe on this creative existence.

What am I?"."

Jufeng scratched his head as he mused on the riddle. He had done a few riddles before but nothing close to this. This was a hard riddle. If the first one could be this hard, he wondered what the other two would be like.

The time was gradually pa.s.sing by and he had yet to come up with an answer.

"Young scholar, why do you ponder so long on something that never comes?"

"Ah, I see. Tomorrow! That"s it!. The answer is "tomorrow"."

Jufeng voiced in delight after recieving the hint from the elderly scholar. The joy of getting the answer right was satisfying despite the situation of things.

"Thank you senior."

"Aha. Though, not just you, young one. I give hints on every first question but the rest is on you. Now, for the second one. This second riddle is no better than the first. Here it goes.

"I"m the beginning of eternity,

The end of time and s.p.a.ce,

The beginning of every end,

And the end of every place.

What am I?"."

The beginning of eternity and the end of time and s.p.a.ce? It could only be one thing. The Void. The beginning of every existence. Everybody knew that. Could the answer be that simple? Jufeng was musing very hard in thoughts as he tried to resolve the riddle. He came to the conclusion that it had to be the void.

"The Void?"

"That is a wrong answer, young one. Do you want to give another try?"

Okay. If it wasn"t the void. What could it be? Could it be the Alpheron then? That was the beginning of everything in the universe. He had to be careful especially now that he only had one more wrong answer left. After thinking hard for what seemed to be a long time, he cleared his throat as he drew the attention of the elderly scholar.

"The Alpheron?"

He had just said those words when something flashed through his mind and it instantly dawned on him that he gave a wrong answer. But before he could make adjustment, the elderly scholar gave his remarks.

"Wrong again, young one. You know what that means. Five Iradium gold coins, then you will decide whether you want to leave or continue."

Jufeng removed the five Iradium gold coins and gave them to him. He heaved a sad sigh of relief. Heavens tears, now that he had used the precious Iradium gold coins he had no subst.i.tute left. Only if he had waited a bit longer. It didn"t matter anymore and with a bitter smile, he answered.

"I want to continue, senior. You are "E"! Letter E!."

"That"s correct. I"m letter E. And don"t be too hard on yourself. Though it took you time and missed chances, you are still wiser for your age. You should take pride in that. Just one more riddle for you to help me with. Here it is.

"Three men are standing, each is holding a box. In only one of the boxes there is a treasure, the other two are containing evil. The men know what is in their respective boxes. Each man will say only one sentence. Only one of them is telling the truth about the treasure and the other two are lying.

The first person says: The treasure is not in my box!

The second person says: The treasure is in third person"s box!

The third person says: The treasure is not in my box!

In whose box is the treasure?"."

Jufeng closed his eyes as he pondered on the riddle. This was a difficult riddle. How would he answer this one when he couldn"t tell from their responses? After thinking for some time, he opened his eyes only to discover that the elderly scholar, the table, the chair and the shelf, are all gone. The room had grew darker and the only source of faint light was the runes on the walls. At the center of the house were three boxes labelled from first to third.

Why did he had the feeling that this was related to the third riddle of the elderly scholar? That would mean that one of these boxes was containing the script he was looking for while the remaining two contained stark evil. Who knew what kind of evil would be inside them? What was the possibility of him surviving any of the evil?

"Which one of them is even telling the truth? First one said plainly that it wasn"t in his box. Second one indicated that it was in third one"s box. The third one straightly denied that it wasn"t in his box."

As he continued to think about the riddle, a scene that happened back at the sect flashed in his mind. The more he compared the two, the more he could see the similarities. Moments later, he stepped forward and opened the first box slowly with caution. He held his breath as he raised the lid cover of the box and inside it was a sealed bamboo script.

The Script of Sentience.

True joyful relief washed over him as he took the script from the box and turned it over in his hand as revelled in acquiring it. He put it in his spatial sac as he looked around the room. The closed door had opened again. Hence he made his way to the door as he kept an eye on the remaining two boxes.

He left the house and walked back through the pa.s.sage while avoiding making contact with the walls. He stepped out of the dream and into the frosty plain. Good to be in the open again. He took his time to relax as he brought out some turtle meat and preserved goat milk. An adventure inside another adventure. The sense of it was frightening enough, it would be better not to delibrate on it.

Ah, the wonder of the magical turtle meat and finest homely made goat milk. He thought happily as he consider the next place he was heading next. That would be entering a real illusion to acquire the Mystic Order, the first one had chosen. In the Aculum Divinis, reality is but an illusion and illusion is nothing but reality.

He followed the directions he was given and he came to an area where the snow appeared to be gravitating upward. He was told to use his spiritual sight to examine the area. He would see a particular place, a single line of bigger levitating snow. That was where he would have to enter the illusion. After locating the place, he put another dream and illusion crystal in his mouth and enter the levitating snow field.

He nearly stepped into the path of a pa.s.sing blade-light that would have splitted him into two. He quickly sidestepped and dodged behind a huge fallen statue.

What situation did he just walked himself into?

He raised his head to take a peek and saw that there were powerful battles going on at every corner. Some of the cultivators fighting were around his age while others were older. He quickly dodged back after confirming he was in the right illusion.

Did he even come at the right time? It looked as if he had just walked into a battle arena where a fierce battle was going on.

This called for careful observation. As he raised his head a second time to take a look, a flaming arrow that was blazing like a meteorite, streaked past his head prompting him to quickly ducked. From the power of that arrow, the shooter was definitely more than that of a Jindan cultivator. Which signified that these people were either nascent souls or ascendants. Could they even be demiG.o.ds just like the tree told him?

The route he needed to take was through the left side of the battle into the valley of mountains that were scattered in broken chains. The mountain he was looking for, had a white patterns on it. He had to enter the mountain through a hidden opening on its side. At the heart of the mountain was the Mystic Order.

He slowly took out his sword but wasn"t really sure of how effective a bronze sword could fare facing powerful attacks. It"s all he had on him anyways.

He was just leaving his position behind the fallen statue using flashsteps when the statue exploded into ashes. The impact of the explosion knocked him forward but he didn"t stop, instead, he used the momentum to increase his speed. He had to leave this battlefield if he didn"t want to be turned into ashes.

He was almost out of the battle area when an alarm sounded in his head of an incoming mortal danger to the right. He quickly pushed as much as possible, a vast amount of Chi energy into his body as he raised his sword in a blocking position and turned towards the approaching danger. In a lightning speed, the battle axe appeared right in front of him and collided with his sword.

The impact broke his right hand and was almost torn off his shoulder"s socket while his left hand was twisted awkwardly. The bronze sword was shattered into fragments and laced his body as he laid on the floor semi-conscious with air was knocked out of his lungs. The axe was fastly descending on him when a hand suddenly thrust into the arena and pulled him out.

"Thank you."

He managed to say before drifting into uncosciousness and was carried off to a distance before he was settled on the floor. It was after couple of hours that he regained full consciousness. He looked around as he tried to see where he was when his gaze fell on the boy who was sitting in a lotus position, watching him without making any sound.

"Thanks for saving me back then."