A Second Elevation of the Fate Principle Talent!

The gray sea of mist churned, split in two by a magnificent, sacred road of gold. Wisps of vapor drifted toward either side of the road, only to be turned aside by the shifting golden light, unable to encroach by even a fraction. Upon this golden road so utterly at odds with the gray mist, Bai Zhou crouched by the wayside with his head tilted, scrutinizing the seven-colored spark on the ground from every angle with the utmost care. This mysterious ember burned slowly with crystalline, radiant flames of seven colors, like the condensed essence of a rainbow after rain. Faint, weathered, and peculiar ancient glyphs could be glimpsed weaving and shifting through the blaze. Most astonishing of all, its flames trembled ceaselessly with each rise and fall, beating in a rhythmic cadence like a heart. Bai Zhou shivered without warning. He suddenly felt that this knowledge was alive! ...He even had the strange impression that this ember should not be lying so casually by the side of the road. Instead, it belonged enshrined in ancient, lost ruins, burning silently within a revered temple, gazing down upon the sacrifices of surviving descendants from atop a sacred dais surrounded by boundless treasures. *Thump, thump...* The ember pulsed like a living heart. Bai Zhou circled it for quite a while, unable to make heads or tails of it. In the end, he gritted his teeth and reached a hand toward it. With a swift *whoosh*, the ember transformed into a dazzling divine rainbow, darting aside at lightning speed to evade his grasp. *?* Bai Zhou's eyes widened. *Knowledge turned into a spirit?* Next, he made several more attempts to catch it. As expected, every attempt ended in failure. After lunging into empty air once more, Bai Zhou glared through gritted teeth at the seven-colored ember right in front of him. It lay lazily by the roadside, yet the moment he drew even slightly closer, it would dart away like a startled rabbit, exceedingly agile. Bai Zhou refused to accept defeat. If he had never seen it, that would be one thing. But since it lay within arm's reach, there was no reason to leave a mountain of treasure empty-handed. *What if... I try spirituality?* It suddenly struck him that it was spirituality that had caused the golden pass to carve out this road in the first place, leading him to this ember. No sooner said than done. Bai Zhou began attempting to channel the spirituality within him. ...Before long, a mote of spirituality emerged at his fingertip. This translucent mote had no physical form. It was like the purest condensation of both his body and mind—pristine, flawless, and immaculate. It was like light yet not light, at times drifting with ethereal grace, at times shifting between substance and illusion, and at other times brimming with vigorous vitality like the dawn's first glow, profoundly wondrous. By Bai Zhou's understanding, aside from the Fate Principle, spirituality was likely the defining trait setting an Extraordinary apart from an ordinary person. A mysterious attribute of endless utility—though one he had yet to develop in the slightest. ...Then, holding the spirituality aloft, Bai Zhou slowly crouched down and extended his fingertip toward the spark. This time, the seven-colored ember showed obvious hesitation, inching slightly closer to his fingertip. Yet when Bai Zhou tried to draw closer still, it darted aside again like a frightened hare. "It works!" Bai Zhou was overjoyed. *Hah, just a rabbit after all.* He had just studied an essay from the gray mist's knowledge and memorized it backward and forward. It suited this moment perfectly: *What wiles can a beast truly possess? They serve only to provoke laughter.* Without another word, Bai Zhou channeled even more spirituality from his body without holding back. One mote, two motes, three motes... When seven motes of pure white spirituality hovered above his palm, a sudden wave of dizziness hit him. A powerful sensation of weightlessness rushed over him. Bai Zhou's face drained of color as if he had lost a vast amount of blood, and a hollow weakness welled up from the depths of his body. He immediately realized that this was his current limit; he could not muster any more spirituality in the short term... Right then, the seven motes of spirituality converged in his palm. Their faint lights intertwined, coalescing into a blazing halo of pure white that blossomed in brilliant splendor, miraculous beyond measure. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Bai Zhou held the seven flawless motes of spirituality aloft and slowly edged toward the seven-colored ember. "..." Sure enough, this time was entirely different. Sensing his approach, the ember trembled twice. Yet it did not flee. It lingered in place, wrestling with itself for a long time, until at last it could no longer resist the temptation and lunged directly for the spirituality in his palm. The instant the surging flames enveloped the motes, the spirituality melted away, devoured down to the last scrap. The very next second, the seven-colored ember turned to flee. But it was already too late. *Trying to pull up your trousers and run after eating?* With a flash of his burning gaze, Bai Zhou snatched it in one swift grab— Instant refinement! *Hum—* The moment it touched his palm, the seven-colored ember dissolved, blooming into a seven-colored radiance across the surface of Bai Zhou's body. Everything before him vanished. The sea of gray mist, the golden road... all that remained in his sight was a single seven-colored ember. In a daze, Bai Zhou felt his mind grow exceptionally tranquil, like an unrippled well. A seven-colored spark sank into the center of the lake of his mind, like a seed planted in fertile soil. His consciousness seemed to merge with the seed... The seven-colored seed broke through the soil and sprouted. Resting upon the tip of the sprout was a colossal orb of light, blazing like a multicolored shooting star. Bai Zhou looked closer and realized that this blazing, seven-colored meteor was actually half a broken ancient glyph... This ancient glyph was something he had never seen or heard of, as though drawn from some celestial tome. An extraordinary, mysterious power faintly resided within its brushstrokes, every line bearing an archaic resonance and a ponderous weight, shimmering with brilliance. Bai Zhou's heart surged. He could hardly imagine that merely half a glyph could display anomalies far surpassing the golden knowledge from before, even possessing the elusive nature of a living creature. Its value was likely beyond measure! One could only imagine that if this glyph were whole, it might not be something the current Bai Zhou could even touch. In fact, it might even bring unpredictable dangers. The half-glyph branded itself into Bai Zhou's mind. Meanwhile, the seven-colored glow upon it was greedily swallowed whole by his Fate Principle. *Rumble, rumble—* As the rainbow light descended where the sea met the sky, the pitch-black, silent Sea of Ignorance began to churn once more. Bai Zhou's Fate Principle, that little white sun, seemed to be lifted from below by an unseen force, leaping upward by more than two chi in a single bound! Bai Zhou gazed at the white sun above the sea, instinctively knowing its current distance from the Sea of Ignorance. Five chi and four cun! Compared to the earlier height of three chi and three cun, it had nearly doubled! And it was not over yet. Wisps of rainbow light spilled out from the surface of the Sea of Ignorance, ultimately converging into a river of rainbow light that spanned the space between the white sun and the black sea. The rainbow hung like a descending waterfall, connecting heaven and earth, endlessly bearing the little white sun upward by the faintest increments... Slowly, steadily, it continued to rise! Like the sun at dawn, rising without end. A black sea, a white sun, and a rainbow river. The spectacle of the sun rising over the sea set his heart racing. "The sunrise..." Bai Zhou's heart thumped against his ribs. Out of excitement, naturally. A fortuitous fragment of golden knowledge had already allowed him to awaken his Fate Principle and even brush against the threshold of genius Crow had spoken of. He had already been more than satisfied. Yet now, merely half an ancient glyph had nearly doubled his talent again? It had even caused his Fate Principle to undergo a secondary awakening so soon after the first? Even now, that little sun was still rising, rising... Though slow, it was like the foolish old man moving mountains, steadily accumulating. ...But why? Bai Zhou was bewildered. This question was entirely necessary. Because Crow had made it very clear: The baptism and infusion of knowledge into the Fate Principle, and its decisive role in determining talent, were effective only before the awakening. In other words, the moment the Fate Principle awakened, an Extraordinary's talent was fixed! At the very least, once his Fate Principle awakened, the gray mist could no longer flow into his body, let alone infuse into his Fate Principle. Presumably, the same would apply even if he encountered more golden flecks. Under normal circumstances, had it not been for this stretch of golden road and the seven-colored ember, he ought to have recited the departure incantation Crow gave him long ago, concluding the ritual and leaving the mist that no longer held any benefit for him. —Just as Crow had said, this gray mist was Fate's gift to those awakening for the first time. It had nothing to do with those who had already awakened. Those who failed to seize the chance were doomed to mediocrity for life, because from that point on, "knowledge" remained merely "knowledge." No matter how much more one learned, it could never alter the Fate Principle's innate talent. So then... Was it purely because this half of a seven-colored glyph was special? A fragment of knowledge capable of altering an Extraordinary's talent after the fact? At this thought, Bai Zhou's mind churned. For an even deeper question lingered in his heart. His Fate Principle was still slowly ascending. If his understanding was correct, it was because the Fate Principle could not digest all that rainbow radiance at once, turning it into a sustained absorption. Only when it finished digesting would the height of his Fate Principle be truly finalized. Yet... that was just half a glyph. What if the glyph were complete? "..." Just as the thought crossed his mind, a needle-like pain flared from the ancient glyph in his mind. The pang arrived without rhyme or reason, vanishing as quickly as it came, gone without a trace in the blink of an eye, almost like an illusion. *What was that?* *This half-glyph...* Bai Zhou opened his eyes in suspicion and uncertainty. —Yet at that moment, he realized that beneath his feet was no longer the golden road. The golden light behind him was slowly fading. Without his realizing it, he had reached the end of the road. Or perhaps, while he was immersed in digesting the seven-colored ember, the end of the road had arrived beneath his feet on its own. "Where is this...?" Bai Zhou looked around with a slightly dazed gaze. Before him stretched a boundless crimson wasteland. The ground was planted thick with broken swords and shattered blades, standing like a forest of tombstones, while tattered battle flags fluttered along the horizon. The familiar blood moon hung once more in the sky. A crimson firmament curved down like an inverted bowl, and the ruined remains of a colossal city hung densely suspended from the dome above. Scarlet flames leapt everywhere, and broken, gigantic gears turned slowly upon it, hovering between reality and illusion. *?* *Where the hell did that golden road take me?* In a daze, the churning gray mist seemed to linger before his eyes, but Bai Zhou knew he was no longer in the crevice world inside the mirror. An inverted sky, rotating gears, the suspended wreckage of a skybound city, ancient corpses and shattered weapons strewn across the ground... This seemed to be the ruins of some ancient battlefield. A battlefield belonging to one or more ancient, mighty lost civilizations. If Bai Zhou's guess was correct, the end of that golden road had punched straight through the crevice world and delivered him to the other side... The Reflected Ruin Realm?! —The Eden, the Nibelungen, the Peach Blossom Spring Crow had spoken of. The back side of Blue Star, the place where all finality converged. A secret realm fraught with perils and opportunities, worthy of an Extraordinary's lifetime of exploration. —And Bai Zhou's home. "I'm... back?" Bai Zhou's expression stiffened. At that moment, the blood moon high in the sky cast down its eerie scarlet light, falling upon the face of the returning traveler. It felt warm. Yet Bai Zhou felt not the slightest touch of sentiment; his eyelids twitched uncontrollably instead. Setting aside the question of just how many moons the Reflected Ruin Realm actually had... This Reflected Ruin Realm was a far cry from the honest, harmonious, and peaceful Wancheng in his memories! Dilapidated, eerie, chilling, and utterly surreal! ...Yet this was far truer to the definitions of "reflection" and "ruin." No wonder Crow had said the Reflected Ruin Realm was full of dangers. A petty grave robber who blundered into a grand tomb without refined skills would only be crushed into paste by rolling boulder traps. Cold sweat broke out across Bai Zhou's back. He immediately pulled out the golden pass, channeling the spirituality that had replenished and surged anew after absorbing the seven-colored ember, and poured it in. Just as he expected. Nothing happened. "...So, is this the price?" Bai Zhou remembered that at Uncle Xiang's corner store, every "second drink half off" promotion always charged extra for the straw. All the gifts of fate have long been secretly marked with a price. By the same token, was this the price for stepping onto the golden road and claiming the seven-colored ember? Bai Zhou surveyed his surroundings tensely, taking in the vicinity in a rapid sweep. Clearly, this boundless crimson wasteland was the site of an ancient battlefield. Apart from crumbled walls and broken ruins, the most common sights were broken sabers and shattered swords jutting from the earth, along with rotten armor. In the distance, decayed tents and fragmented chariots lay scattered everywhere, showing chaotic signs of an army once encamped here. Amid these fragments ran a winding trail, visibly beaten flat by marching boots and horse hooves. ...Curiously, the winding path led straight toward towering cliffs far off in the distance. Yet Bai Zhou was certain that whoever made those tracks had not gathered to commit mass suicide by leaping off the cliff. —Because directly above the precipice, a corner of the ruined mega-city suspended upside down in the sky stood quietly in place. It was a staggering sight that words could hardly describe. Ancient ruins, yet floating in the heavens; the remains of a civilization, yet inverted upon the celestial dome. The city hung poised above this wasteland battlefield, like a colossal dark cloud pressing down heavily upon the sky, its fractured foundation forcefully bound to that vast firmament. Beneath the rotating, titanic gears, broken spires flickered with flames that had burned unquenched for countless years, their severed tips hanging toward the earth like silent, ominous stalactites. It was hard to imagine what glorious civilization had once stood here, what heights their technology and culture had reached, or what kind of war had ultimately shattered it. "..." After staring up at the boundless, inverted mega-city for a long time, Bai Zhou brought his gaze back to his immediate surroundings. ...Compared to the distant suspended city, a dry riverbed barely a dozen meters away drew his attention more pressingly: a conspicuous pit of corpses. Inside the pit lay dozens of ancient bodies packed tightly together. Calling them ancient corpses was hardly accurate, for aside from a few shriveled, mummy-like husks, the rest were little more than mounds of half-crushed skeletal debris. By now, these ancient dead had turned into a brownish, fossilized state, though certain limbs displayed an unusual, translucent jade-like quality. They lay upon the parched, cracked riverbed, the dark, empty hollows of their eye sockets gazing up at the inverted sky as if in lingering defiance. And beside them bloomed a brilliant, gorgeous, large red flower, swaying gently in the wind. —A big red flower? Where had a big red flower come from? Bai Zhou froze for a moment. The last time he had seen a little red flower was back in kindergarten in Wancheng. A well-behaved student like him had earned one every year, of course. But this was entirely different... This red flower was in full, magnificent bloom, its color appearing all the more vivid beneath the crimson moonlight. It was completely out of place on this lost ancient battlefield, intensely jarring. ...Bai Zhou leaned in and took a closer look. The next instant, the heart that had been thumping wildly ever since he arrived skipped half a beat— There was no red flower at all! It was clearly a cluster of scarlet last words, writhing like tiny red worms, packed tightly together into the shape of a "flower"! What was more, their words were identical: [Let me rest!] [Let me rest!] [Let me rest!] [...] The vibrant red flower swayed in the wind. Petals folded upon petals. A sight that chilled the blood!