Chapter 16: Returning to the body
The consciousness felt loneliness again. It watched the girl leave the frozen abyss and finally realized it had reached where the ice ended.
It tried to move forward, but couldn't; only the ice supported its existence.
The consciousness soon returned to the great tree, where it stayed for countless years. It wondered when that girl would return.
But even after countless years, she never did.
The consciousness encountered new humans but only observed them from a distance, avoiding any kind of relationship with them.
It learned many new things from these humans, witnessing both good and bad acts. Its understanding of the human world deepened as the years passed.
After seeing that woman die, the consciousness lived alone while waiting for the girl to return. It now knew how to count the years, but after so much time, its perception of time stopped working correctly.
The consciousness wandered to the external area again until it felt it had no purpose or reason to be alive.
It felt that this place no longer comforted it as home. It tried to escape the external area in many ways.
But without success.
It then returned to the great tree where one of its mothers was buried, and there it stayed for an indeterminate time.
After so much time, its sadness had slightly eased, but a great anger still existed within it.
After much contemplation, the consciousness decided to return to the center of the abyss.
Now knowing it was also human, they decided to find its true body, thinking that returning to it would allow it to leave this place and seek revenge against those who destroyed its family.
'Dream Tower, I heard that name from her; it must be the ones who killed my mother. When I leave here, I swear I'll destroy them.'
The consciousness thought as it bid farewell to the tree and ran toward the gigantic ice mountain in the center of the frozen abyss.
Upon reaching the enormous mountain, it felt a connection; something was calling it.
'This…'
The consciousness entered the ice mountain and soon reached its core.
There, it found a baby—extremely cute, with long white hair and a snowflake on its forehead, making it look special.
The consciousness stared at that body for a while.
The body seemed lifeless, but when it approached, it heard the heart beat faintly.
"Is this me?" It thought while trying to touch its body. Suddenly, the snowflake on its head glowed brightly.
The consciousness was then pulled into the baby's body without being able to react.
'What?' Its consciousness began to slow down, as if it were close to falling completely asleep.
But it forced itself to stay awake; it had a feeling that if it slept, it wouldn't wake up for a long time.
But no matter how hard it tried, after an instant, it finally fell asleep completely.
At this moment, the snowflake started to shine even more. The immensely concentrated ice mountain trembled as the sound of the baby's heart began to beat more frequently.
And so, the consciousness remained in a state of deep sleep for countless times.
But its small body changed every few hundred years. All the ice around its body constantly sent Qi from somewhere.
If someone saw, they would understand—those beings who tried to venture into the central area were being completely absorbed by the snowflake on the baby's head.
Then a slow transformation occurred in the depths of the mountain.
This went on countless times until…
'Thump, thump.'
'Thump, thump.'
That small heartbeat, after years and years, began to spread slowly.
The consciousness in the body seemed like it would wake up soon.
…
*********************
At the edge of the external area of the frozen abyss, above the golden ship, thousands of people were gathered.
In the sky, twelve people were flying, one of them at the forefront.
"After discussing, we understood the situation a bit. The beasts are coming more frequently; everyone, prepare for an imminent war."
"We don't know where that sound comes from, but we can't care about what we can't control. Just don't let the beasts escape to the rest of the continent," the young man flying said to everyone.
"Yes, leader."
A wave of affirmation was heard as everyone descended from the ship and gathered in front of the external area, awaiting the arrival of the beasts.
*********************
Two weeks had passed since the golden ship arrived at this place.
Fights against the beasts were frequent, and many losses occurred.
The strongest beasts were of the Emperor realm, the same as the elders, but there were many compared to the elders.
But no elder had died; only a few were injured.
While a battle was taking place, suddenly a completely terrifying aura pressed down on the golden ship.
All the elders present frowned solemnly.
"It's a beast of the Saint realm."
"Leader, we have to rely on you," an elder said with a slight fear.
"Hmm, protect the disciples from the impact of the fight. I'll end this quickly. It seems that the weak beasts have stopped coming out of the abyss; the hordes decrease every day."
"I don't think all the Saint beasts from the internal area would be scared off by this sound, probably only some would."
"Are there more than one Saint beast in the abyss?" An elder then asked incredulously.
"Huh? But that's obvious; this is the place with the most concentrated Qi on the continent. It's obvious there would be many powerful beasts, maybe even one in the Transcendent realm."
"I hope I'm wrong, but the terrifying being that's making this sound might be one of them."
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