Chapter 21: Unsolvable Mystery
"Where exactly are we right now?"
Currently, Yuan Zhen and the skull-woman were sitting in the void, discussing matters.
"We are in Bane-devil Grotto, which is within the Golden Purgatory Realm." Once she heard this, the woman scoffed.
"Bane-devils? Mere bane-devils are spreading around variations of my canon? What bullshit!" Her soul power erupted, filling Yuan Zhen's core and almost destroying it. If she were not still in control, she might have destroyed it completely and ended his life.
"It's true. One bane-devil, calling itself the Blight Lord, used this art to rule over his own territory. When I came across him, he tried to use the art against me, but I came out on top. Right before he died, he rejoiced that he was to see the Netherworld again."
"Again?" Her eyes flickered and her fists tightened. She was still naked, but her hair covered most of her.
"You say this is the Golden Purgatory Realm, but what star does this realm exist on?"
Yuan Zhen did not know how to answer for a time. He had only ever heard mention of a 'star' once in his life, and that was during the time he spent with Jin Yuan.
He recalled the events, then remembered the name. "The Sapphire Star."
The woman was silent for a moment, her fingers in constant motion as she deliberated.
"Is there a Heavenward Gate on this world?" Once again, Yuan Zhen had to think back to his time with Jin Yuan. He slowly came to realize that Jin Yuan knew secrets that even he had yet to discover.
"There was a gate, but it was destroyed by the sky race after they helped with the extermination of the Infallible Race."
Suddenly, she snickered. "Then this is truly one of those places. Tell me, are there humans on this star?
"There are. I believe there is more than one human realm, just like there is more than one realm of beasts."
She nodded, "That is possible. What is hardest to believe is that you picked up the Soul Decimating Canon from a deviated technique. That should be almost impossible."
While they were both in thought, Yuan Zhen recalled something he had gleamed while brainstorming. "Are there strict requirements for cultivating the Soul Decimating Canon?"
"Strict? Perhaps if you don't live in the Netherworld they can be considered strict. If you lived in the Netherworld, then it would be almost to easy to develop bloodlust. What's difficult would be developing a strong enough bloodlust to cultivate it to a higher level."
"Why do you ask?"
Yuan Zhen sighed and then explained his situation.
"WHAT!?" As expected, her reaction caused her soul power to explode once again.
"If that's the case, then it would be possible to gleam a bit of the canon. This 'soul art' seems to be a way of using the canon without the need for bloodlust."
Yuan Zhen's brows furrowed at this. "But, Senior, I couldn't use the soul art. I was barely able to devour weaker souls in order to strengthen the bloodlust of my own soul. It took me an astronomical amount of souls to develop the bloodlust I have now."
"What about after your reincarnation?"
"My soul no longer possesses that bloodlust. Instead, it has been passed on to one of my manifestations." She nodded, folding her arms.
"The matter of your reincarnation is simple enough to understand. By willpower alone you broke away from the cycle of Samsara, and that allowed your reincarnation to be more or less on your terms. This is not as rare as you think."
"The true mystery is, why were you prevented from using the soul art until after you reincarnated. Was something waiting for you to develop a strong bloodlust."
Yuan Zhen smiled wryly. "I thought you were the one doing that. After all, it was you who showed up and passed the soul art to me."
"Me? What?"
Yuan Zhen recounted his fight with the nine soul fragments, which she listened attentively to. After a while, she appeared to be confused and held her skull.
"Now that you say that, I wonder... How the hell did I even get here. I can't remember anything. Holy fuck! I don't even know who I am. I'm from the Netherworld but ...Am I even from the Netherworld?"
In her panic, she almost annihilated Yuan Zhen consciousness. He had to withdraw it from his core and give her some time to process things.
When he returned, she had indeed calmed down.
"When was the first time I spoke directly to you?"
"That was when you sensed the thunder soul, after I absorbed the energy from the inner region... Wait a minute."
Yuan Zhen had only just remembered that, while he was in the inner region, he had absorbed that lifeform. Now, when he searched for it, he could not find it anywhere within his body.
He could only think that the grey figure and the lifeform had merged somehow. Then, did that mean that the grey figure had now become the embodiment of the inner region.
So, was the inner region a part of the Netherworld?
"I don't think so. From what you say, that was merely the spirit of the inner region. It likely was birthed after the years of energy accumulation. How do I even know that?"
He could see that she was still struggling.
"You mentioned something earlier. The Infallible Race, I think?"
"Yes."
"Tell me about that." Her green eyes brightened, as if widening in interest. Yuan Zhen explained, in detail, the origin and fall of the Infallible Race (which was irony in and of itself).
"Truly bold to call themselves the Infallible Race. Now their souls must be laughing at themselves in the Netherworld. Again with that Netherworld business! What do I know of the Netherworld, damnit!"
There was an obvious duality within the skull-woman's mind. Sometimes she would speak authentically, as if she were well informed, but then she would immediately realize she knew nothing of what she was talking about.
"Senior, does the name Jin Yuan ring any bells?" In a last ditch effort, Yuan Zhen decided to speak the name of the most well-informed person he knew. Maybe Jin Yuan knew her or knew of her.
"Jin Yuan? Isn't that the Primordial Beast's son? Wait... Who are we talking about?"
Despite the state of her head, Yuan Zhen felt like he could trust her information. "Senior, when two spirits are merging, what possible complications can arise?"
"A variety of them, ranging from a dissociative identity to terrible mental health. In some cases, when the two spirits are unequally matched in power, aspects of one spirit stand out more than the other, which can lead to memory loss... Maybe that's what happened to me... Could it be true?"
Yuan Zhen softly bit into his lower lip, his eyes closing. As he took breath after breath, he realized that thinking was getting him nowhere.
"Then, going off of what I already know, we'll have to get you more soul power. That seemed to bring you to a state of being able to speak properly, so maybe it will help your situation further."
"Mm! Makes sense. By the way, what's your name?"
"I'm called Yuan Zhen."
"What a name? I'm called Huang... Huang who? It's even harder to remember than other things. How odd."
"That's fine, I'll just call you Miss Huang for now. How about that?" She assessed the idea for a while before he skeletal mouth opened wide and she shouted, "It's settled. From now on I am called Miss Huang!"
Finally, Yuan Zhen left his core and returned to the outside. Once there, he gathered some of the lingering energy and brought himself back to a peak condition. Sadly, everything on Feral-Fang and Soulbleeder's bodies had been destroyed.
Picking up the still unconscious Qi Zixie, he began walking out of the tunnel and toward the largest mountain of them all.
"I should try to reach the source of energy from the very heart of the region. From there, it might be even easier than it was when I was in the inner region." Yuan Zhen didn't realize it, but he was speaking to Qi Zixie as if she was awake.
He spoke about the recent things and even laughed with her, which reminded him of the way his life had always been. Though he had trusted comrades, he never had anyone he shared everything with. He couldn't even trust his own brethren fully, especially now that they had actually betrayed and killed him.
Now though, he realized that Qi Zixie was slowly becoming the person that he coukd trust fully. And she wasn't even awake.
"Maybe it's cause you're asleep and I know you can't hear me. Maybe that's why I feel like I can trust you."
As he continued, he noticed that the lightning had mostly subsided. Only a few bolts struck the mountains every few minutes, unlike the unending stream of lightning from earlier.
He approached the foot of that mountain, standing at an astounding height of around 7,000 feet. To it, the other mountains were like children playing at its feet.
Yuan Zhen was even less in comparison, more like a flea than a child. This was the second time he stopped to marvel at the sight. At the very top, he saw how the clouds would collide with the mountain, obscuring it with their foggy bodies.
He had actually never been to the top, since he was unsure of what was up there. He was certain of the presence of treasure within the mountain cave, and thus weighed the risk and chose the cave. He did not want to make a wasted journey until after he had acquired the treasure.
As for the other mountains, he had already visited and cleaned out those caves. Besides great knowledge, he had only gained one thing.
His spear. It had no name, and he didn't desire it to be given one either. All he knew was that, in his past life, it and him were the perfect match. Perhaps it was what he had been closest to, since he had no family.
Finally, he saw the cave entrance and went over to it.
"Yuan Zhen." It was Miss Huang's voice speaking in his mind.
"What is it, Miss Huang?"
"There's a mark on the entrance. I don't know for sure, but I think it will alert the caster of your presence." Yuan Zhen nodded, having expected as much. He was only displeased that he hadn't sensed anything. If Miss Huang had not been present, he would have missed it.
This annoyed him.
"Thank you, Miss Huang. Do you have a way to remove it?"
There was a brief period of silence before he heard her voice again.
"That's strange. Normally there's no way to do it without alerting the caster, but this cave is special. It doesn't conform to the mark, but instead the mark conforms to the cave. Since that's the case, you can use the cave itself to eliminate the mark which won't be recognized as a foreign entity."
Hearing this, Yuan Zhen was lost. How was he supposed to 'use the cave?'
"Try using the Soul Decimating Canon to control the cave." As foolish as it sounded- using the canon to control the soul of a cave- Yuan Zhen did it.
Using the aquamarine mist, Yuan Zhen penetrated the side of the mountain and actually found something.
"I feel a slight pull coming from the cave."
As he followed that pull, he ended up being led further into the rock than he thought. He soon was able to sense that the mist had reached a point of concentrated soul power.
Naturally, Miss Huang could also sense what he was sensing, as they were both connected through the soul art.
"That should be it. Force that to wipe away the mark. Threaten it with death."
Yuan Zhen chuckled, then quickly went ahead to connect with the soul power. As soon as he reached it, though, the soul power's intensity decreased and it merely allowed itself to be controlled.
"Quick! Wipe away the mark before it comes to its senses." Yuan Zhen had been busy trying to understand the situation, so Miss Huang snapped him out of his thoughts.
He was now able to sense the mark through the cave's soul power, and easily erased it. It was likely Ji Xie's mark, but there was no way to be sure. What he did know was that the mark was not there before.
He also found it hard to believe that the cave itself had soul power within it. He had missed that in his past life, which made possible that he had missed other things.
With bright red, curious eyes, he looked up at the mountaintop before stepping into the cave.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone