The Pathway

Reena stared at the beautiful sky, captured in its serenity. This was no time to reminisce about the events of the past or think about the future. This was a moment in time for a soul to experience the harmonious peace of the universe. Lost in the wonder of the sky, she closed her eyes as the serene feeling encased her nascent soul. But immediately, her closed eyes flew wide open. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it, quietly. The moment was gone but not before Reena could grasp a thought. Though, it was for a fraction of second, she laughed softly.

"Hehehe."

Reena was still laughing while staring at the sky, when she heard her mother"s voice to her to her right.

"Beautiful, isn"t it?"
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Still smiling herself, Reena turned to the sight of her mother"s own beautiful smile. She nodded in answer before turning her gaze towards the sky as her mother continued.

"The true joy of a sunset is something we no longer understand. Only the mind of the discerning ones, when there were no lights, could understand the true joy of a sunset."

"True words, Euanthe. True words."

Mother and daughter, directed their attention towards Aodh, who was staring at the sky with converged insight.

"Sunsets and sunrises are the moments of transitions. Though they are beautiful to behold, they carry with them hidden secrets, obscured information and aspects of the universal truth. When a soul discerns any of these, it attains some form of enlightenment. This is a step closer to being one with the universe. A complete oneness with the universe brings the true immortality."

Lowering his gaze from the sky, he watched his wife and daughter for a time before letting out a long breath of sadness.

"This discernment and insights are the most difficult parts of a cultivator"s life. The reason why many cultivators focused on immortality instead. I do not blame them. Immortality without anyone killing you, is good enough for any cultivator. And as you know, Reena, immortality starts from the nascent soul. That is why your mother and I, are also striving towards forming our nascent souls."

"True, and we are on the right path. The crystallines have been a great help to us since we came to this cave. I"m already a middle-stage golden core while your father is a late-stage golden core. Surely, we are on the right path."

Reaching where his wife and daughter were standing, he put a hand over Reena"s shoulder while holding Euanthe with the other.

"Indeed, we are. But we must always keep this in mind, immortality doesn"t come into account when facing a more powerful ent.i.ty. Even a celestial, can easily go into reincarnation."

"Yes, we know. Before any combat, always know your way out. If there"s none, you run."

Said Reena, resting her head on her father"s shoulder. Her son could have been here too, enjoying this with them, but he had now gone back to his sect. Let him continued to learn, knowledge was too important to ignore anyway. Moreover, the sect premises was more safer for him for now, especially when uncle Primus wasn"t around. Her mind would be peaceful if she should undergo the taking, knowing her son would be protected in the face of any attack, as much as possible.

Her thoughts were disrupted by the voice of her father.

"Not really running, Reena. It"s simply "staying alive". Staying alive to enjoy the beauty of nature like this."

They continued to enjoy the scenery, until Euanthe brought them back to reality.

"We should go inside now, before the food looses its aroma."

"The smell of the food can"t even let me concentrate on the beauty of the sky."

Bemoaned Reena jokingly, as they all laughed while walking back into the cave.

She had a perfect family. Loving parents and a loving son. Her family was once bigger than this. She used to have a loving husband too. Ju Huan. Though not from their clan, he had been a really good husband. Until, he died during the attack of the antramental demons on their village.

Could it?

Not now. She took her mind of it as she looked at her parents before turning to the contents on the table.

Sitting on the table, was a large pot of steaming mountain fowl meat. One of the oca.s.sional change in meat since the discovery of the pond turtles. Accompanying it, were one smalk container of goat milk and two large containers of grubs and lily tubers layered with wasp honey. The aroma of the food, filled the whole interior of the knoll. This was due to a new cooking recipe that Euanthe bought from a food merchant, a week before.

As she sat down at the table, taking her time to relish the aroma of the food, Reena couldn"t help but be appreciative outwardly.

"Hmmmm, smells soooo good."

"I agreed with you, Reena. Ever since your mother brought home that recipe, I often smell her food in my dreams."

"Hehehe."

The two of them bust into soft laughter as Euanthe smilingly shook her head.

"Are you two going to eat or you"ll just continue smelling the food?"

"We wil, mother. The aroma of a good food must be properly appreciated, inorder to prepare the body and soul for the incoming food."

Answered Reena, to more laughter from her father.

Since her mother brought back the cooking recipe from the market, she couldn"t have enough of her mother"s cooking. Where in t.i.tan"s torso, did the recipe even came from? Well, no matter where, it was really a divine blessing.

Reena took a bite of the fowl meat and exclaimed with delight.

"Hm,hm,hm. Soo delicious."

She closed her eyes as she savoured the taste of the food. She couldn"t believe she had only been gone for around twelve hours in Lorra"s time. But due to the Forsaken Palace, she knew she had missed several days of her mother"s cooking. Several days! How could that be? There was no doubt in her mind that she had spent several days in the palace.

But, after remembering the palace being a divine s.p.a.cetime artefact that had been reworked over the years by many including the celestials, she sighed inwardly.

"The extreme power of s.p.a.cetime."

They continued to eat as they relished the moment together. After they"ve had their fill of the food and had the rest put away, Reena called the attention of her parents.

"Father, mother, there"s something I want to show you."

Reena sat down at the table and her parents followed suit. She reached into her spatial sac and retrieved the Flame Essence spirit fruit. She placed at the center of the table as she glanced towards her parents.

"A spirit fruit?"

Aodh and Euanthe stared curiously at the red fruit. They could sense the high energy coming from the red fruit. As farmers, they knew the differences among the fruits. Back in their home village, White-fountain village on the Xuanpu continent, they were, once, farming medicinal fruits. The low-grade Red-Water medicinal fruits, used to nourish the blood"s life-force. And this, was nothing compared to the lowest-grade Spirit-Fruits.

"Yes. It"s the Flame-Essence spirit fruit."

"I"ve never seen one with this high energy before."

"Me neither."

Spirit fruits were much more rarer, expensive and consomed more significant time and effort than medicinal fruits. Medicinal fruits could take between five and twenty years to be ready while spirit fruits could take hundreds of million of years to ripe. But one thing about the two types of fruits was that, each type was grouped according to their gradings. With this high energy coming from the fruit, it would be nothing short of a high-grade spirit fruit.

"I believe it"s because of its pure essence of fire."

The two continued to stare in abject shock at the red fruit. This was no common fruit that could be found easily on the mortal plain. Euanthe, recollecting herself, turned to her daughter in utter surprise.

"How did you come across this, Reena?"

"It was only by chance."

Reena recapped what happened to them. From the moment she sensed Ju Feng to the moment she picked the fruit in the garden of the Jade emperor"s forsaken palace. Everything he relayed to them including what happened inside the s.p.a.cetime palace, except a tiny little part.

"Since I"m now a peak-stage nascent soul, I have no need for the fruit. So, I want the two of you to have it."

Recollecting the words of the fairy as she left the forsaken palace, Reena knew she couldn"t afford to advance any further if she wanted to avoid early tribulations. It was true that demiG.o.ds didn"t undergo heavenly tribulations, but that was only true for demiG.o.ds born on the Luminence Dimensional plane. But for Reena, she was born on the mortal plane. Her life essence was connected to the mortal plane until she attain ascension to the heavenly plane.

"Is that really necessary, Reena?"

"I mean, we can make do with a spirit fruit but you need it more than us."

"Don"t worry about it, mother, father. As I said earlier, I no longer have use for it. Please, accept it from me."

After staring at Reena for a moment, Aodh nodded his head in agreement.

"If it"s as you said, then we accept. We cannot thank you enough, Reena."

"It"s alright, father. It"s only a spirit fruit."

Euanthe, lightly squeezed Reena"s hand as she looked at her.

"Thank you."

"Nothing to it, mother. It"s the least I can do."

After much hesitation, her parents finally divided the spirit fruit into two, each taking a half. In great antic.i.p.ation, they ate their shares of the fruit before proceeding towards the pond area. They sat down in lotus position and started meditating, using the Soul-Pith technique which was a mystical technique. Mystical techniques focused on the elements inside the Chi essence. The Flame-Essence fruit was a fire element fruit, hence, they had to use the Soul-Pith technique instead of the Astral-Primal technique.

The importance of mystical elements couldn"t be emphasized enough. They had direct connection to the soul of a cultivator through the Chi essence. The nature and appearance of the nascent soul would reflect the mystical elements of the cultivator. The more a cultivator advances in the mystical arts, the more conditioned the soul would become for cultivation.

As they continued to meditate, they started to feel the power of the fruit"s energy growing stronger in their core. Then, all of a sudden, a red flaming essence materialized around Aodh. The essence continued to get denser and thicker until it finally encased Aodh in a coc.o.o.n. Few minutes later, Euanthe too was covered in a coc.o.o.n of flaming essence.

Reena, who was sitting on the knoll-top, looking at her parents, smiled widely at their transformations. This would make their mystical arts much more stronger than before. Their ancestral mystical art was the Beast-Inferno technique. Reena, remembering her own nascent soul creation of a tall figure cladded in feathered armor with large flaming phoenix wings, could only wait in antic.i.p.ation. They wouldn"t form their nascent souls this day, they would have to advance to the nascent soul stage first. Their conditioned souls would make that easier.

However...

She frowned at the thought of their impending tribulations inorder for them to reach the nascent soul immortality. For now, they would have to take their cultivation slowly until they are fully prepared for the heavenly tribulations.

"They would be ready."

Reena spoke out softly into the dark night, nodding her head. She was about to lowered her head when she saw the flaming essence converged on her father before dispersing outwardly.

Her father floated into the midair before executing the Heavenly Dragon Stance move of his Dragon-Inferno technique. A bit surprised, Reena was still staring at the manifested move when her mother"s coc.o.o.n of flaming essence was dispersed too. Reena"s sight was grazed by powerful energy coming from the manifested flaming giant eagle claws.

t.i.tan"s torso!