Chapter 43: Erratic Changes Everywhere, all at Once - I
---Blue Green Star System, The Blue Giant---
The capital city of the planet Blue Giant, was in high spirits that day. It was all because of the incredible scene they witnessed at the public square platform. A pill phenomenon! Something they have only heard about in rumors.
Some were more elated than the rest, as they betted on the Dong family and made a small fortune. But indeed if there were winners, there must be losers.
"God damn it! All my savings… every coin of it went down the drain. I cannot stand it!" A man who looked like a giant meatball said in frustration to his companion who looked completely opposite of him. That man was thin as a stick and had a similar troubled look on his face. The heavy smell of alcohol reeked around them suggested they were intoxicated to the limit.
"Do you know what I could not stand? It's that smug look on that Sun fellow's face when he took away his winnings. Hundred thousand gold coins…! Damn it, I really wanted to wipe off that smug look!" The skinny guy spitted.
These two were the same two characters who tried to cause trouble for Kayson at the betting stand. Obviously, they didn't get nice treatment from the guards before the competition then on top of that they lost all of their money. Luck seemed to run out for these two.
While grieving they came to a junction where they were supposed to get separated to go their ways. The fatty was lost in his thought about what was he going to tell his wife about the money he lost while the skinny person counted the days for the next salary.
After walking for some time the skinny person heard a metallic sound. He looked around to see from where the sound came. Just as his head was turned a dark shadow came straight at him in lightning speed.
"Bang!" As the shadow collided with him he sent dragged along the street and smashed against the wall due to the overwhelming force. Skinny had no idea what happened. He shook his head to throw away the nauseating sensation and slowly stood up with the support of the wall.
As he stood up he felt someone or something just a few feet in front of him. He instantly looked up, there stood a complete dark figure. The thing that spooked him the most was the eyes of the person hidden under the shadow. Eyes that shined with murderous glint.
"Thud… squash"
A disgusting mashing sound entered his ears. A sound similar to the squashing of a pulpy material. A sudden coldness overwhelmed him, the stinging feeling that erupted in his chest suggested something was very wrong! He slowly looked down at a horrifying scene. The hand had shoved through his chest!
"Wh…at… Who…" Before he could even finish, his soul already left his body yet his lifeless body kept standing due to the support of the murderer's hand.
The murderer withdrew their hand so the lifeless body fell to the ground.
"You shouldn't have made me remember the people I disgust the most at such an auspicious time. You ruined my mood early in the morning." The dark figure whispered in contempt before disappearing into the darkness.
---Blue Green Star System, Green Giant---
In the middle of a jungle, three creepy-looking human shadows entered a cave hole in the ground. The hole was well hidden by giant tree roots that spread everywhere.
"Bang…bang…bang" Three figures landed on a smooth floor that was undoubtedly man-made. They lit their light crystals to illuminate the cave as it was poorly lit. All of their actions looked so natural which implied it was not their first time exploring a such cave. What came to their sight was a massive hall! All the walls of the hall were nearly twenty to thirty feet tall. There seemed to be scripts carved onto them. With the help of the crystals, they managed to read some of it.
"Pill recipes…! Hundreds of them." One figure said pointing the crystal light all over the walls.
"Leader, this looks like a treasure tomb of an alchemist. Look at that thing!" Another one pointed his crystal light at the end of the hall. A huge statue of a human figure was illuminated by his light. They cautiously approached it.
The statue depicted a male who was stirring a concoction pot.
"Looked like we hit a jackpot." Said the leader of the trio. "If this's an alchemist tomb there might be a place that stores pills… Search… watch out for traps!" The leader warned the two subordinates.
After a while, one shouted in surprise. "Leader there's a rune barrier." All three gathered at the back of the statue. There stood a doorway to an adjacent cave but the doorway arch was covered with rune language.
"Looks like there could be valuable pills or herbs stored other side of this barrier. We need to take in the family's rune master."
They didn't try to enter through the doorway, in the end, they were only here to scout the area and that was what they did exactly. After another hour or so of inspection, their leader left to bring in the said rune master and extra help from their family while two subordinates stayed to guard the newfound treasure trove.
---High Plane of the Mortal Realm---
Among the thousand galaxies belonging to the High Plane of the Mortal Realm, there was one galaxy whose center was covered with a cold mist. Hidden within this cold mist was a massive castle made of milky white crystals.
At the top of the castle, there situated a half-spherical-shaped hall. There were seven masterfully crafted jade thrones inside the hall and seven figures were currently occupying each.
One eye-catching aspect of these occupants was apart from the occupant of the relatively bigger leading throne, all the others were stunningly gorgeous females.
The atmosphere in the hall was oppressive. The leading male figure looked to be in a very bad mood, the same could be said about the female figure to his immediate right. Other than her and the cold-looking female to the left of the leading throne, the rest of the females were trying their best to maintain a stoic composure but were failing miserably as their poorly hidden nervousness revealed from time to time.
An outsider could immediately identify the cause of this tense situation. There should be a high chance it was caused by the lonely figure who was half-kneeling in the middle of the hall.
"From where did you find the courage to attack the Crimson Dynasty's fleet? How come you didn't tell me anything about it till now?" The male figure on the leading throne howled at the one kneeling in the middle.
An awkward silence was the only answer he got. "Answer me!" He bellowed again.
The kneeling figure gritted and answered. "Lord father, it was a well-put plan. There was no way it could have failed! I selected the most capable people…"
The male figure butted in at the middle. "Then how come every one of these capable people went missing? On top of that, you lost the most precious artifact of our empire! Bang…!" He smashed the throne which made it crack.
"Dear husband, please control your anger. It's not good for your health." The woman who was occupying the throne to his left chimed in. She wore a charming yet seductive white gown like the rest of the females. The only difference was the gown's decorative patterns were bright red. "Even though the crown prince lost the artifact we cannot guarantee it was due to his incompetence. I know he made hasty decisions when it comes to that Zhang girl, but he never take stupid decisions. So why don't we hear him out."
She waited for a moment and observe her husband for any discord, since there was none she proceeded.
"Crown prince, please explain what convinced you to attack the Dynasty's vessels. But, be mindful not to hide anything, since this is extremely important to the survival of our empire."
"Yes, godmother. One of the spies I placed inside the Dynasty's spaceship squadron sent a message saying…"
Then onward the crown prince Jayson confessed how he came up with the plan to attack the Crimson Dynasty's fleets to kidnap the younger princess. He explained how he found out the battle capabilities of the fleet and sent one of his trusted slaves to carry out the attack using the Book of Destruction. He also didn't hide the fact he bought half of the army promising wealth.
"I only wanted to make them accuse us of the attack. Then let it escalate for a while and later reveal it was not us but someone else who attacked the fleet. So we could request a public apology. I was planning to use Uncle Wallace to pull some strings within Overload Temple to force them to make Zhang Hao Yan follow me.
"First part of the plan went perfectly, as my slave Oliver informed in the last transmission, they managed to destroy all the fleet and shoot down their leading ship. But after that there was no message came through. Something might have happened to them after that…"
"Hmm… At least your plan was not completely foolish." Crown prince's godmother said. Then she turned to her husband. "Dear husband, it seemed someone else was involved in this mess. Some force who is a powerful ally of the Dynasty."
"I thought the same." Said the handsome and majestic-looking occupant of the leading throne. His extravagant white robe emphasized those qualities more. It was decorated with golden patterns and looked delicately crafted to fit his posture well.
"If what Jayson said is true, a third party might have interfered with the process. But our spies tell something else… They confirmed, that there weren't any major forces within the Thunder Cage at that time. There's no possibility, that a large force which has the capability to fight against twenty battleships could move without us noticing." Said the emperor.
This time the regal women to his right spoke. "Are you suggesting someone else other than the four empires involved?" She was the crown prince's mother, the Queen of the Ice Castle.
Even though her son was being criticized by her husband she didn't step in to ease the situation. She knew when to show affection and when to take a tough stand. Moreover, she never gave her son any favors over the children of her sister wives. That was one of the reasons she was well respected in the castle. So it was no surprise to anyone she didn't interfere with the emperor.
"Yes, I'm suggesting exactly that. But what puzzled me why the artifact ended up in the Dynasty?" Emperor sounded genuinely confused.
"It seems whoever attacked genuinely wanted to help the Dynasty's people. They didn't want the artifact or maybe they didn't know about its value." Muttered the queen.
"There could be another reason…" Prince's godmother suddenly said, but she looked a bit bothered about whether she should tell it or not.
"Haha… Lilith, is it one of your conspiracy theories? Please go ahead and let us know what you think." Emperor's mood suddenly changed from seriousness to jovial. His flirty comment managed to add tinged of flushness to the cold woman's face.
"Ahem… someone might have wanted to change the power balance of the Mortal Realm. So they left the artifact in the hands of the Dynasty in the hope to empower them."
"Really farfetched. But to do that whoever this third party needed to know the Book will be there, aren't they?" The emperor questioned his take on the idea.
"It…" A low voice escaped from one of the women who remained silent from the beginning. When she gained everyone's attention spoke again loudly. "It could be a coincidence. When they found the artifact they might have improvised and left it with the Dynasty to cause us trouble."
"It could be Mea, but I have to say now you're really stretching what Lilith said. I know you two vixens did that to get me thinking and ease my tension and it worked." His mouth curled to a smile.
"As always." Said, Lilith. Following that the atmosphere became less oppressive and all the ladies sighed in relief.
"Jayson as you're the one who caused this mess you should be the one to clean this up. Do you agree?"
"Yes, Load father. I'm grateful for the opportunity and I will not disappoint you again." The crown prince promised solemnly.
The emperor nodded in satisfaction. "What are you going to do to untangle this then?"
"I'm going to announce one of our trusted commanders went rogue and stole one of our precious artifacts. Then asked for help from all other three empires to capture the traitors and reacquire the artifact." Jayson had already formulated a plan. As, the crown prince, the next inline inheritor of the throne he had a clear grasp of the political atmosphere of the four empires. "Then I'm hoping to ask Uncle Wallace to mediate the tension between us and the Dynasty."
"Hmm… simple yet effective. That's as much we can do for the time being. We have to take our next steps after observing how the Dynasty approaches the issue. Meanwhile, we have to look out for a potential threat from an unknown third party. Tch… What a headache!" Said the emperor in annoyance.
"I'll keep that in mind lord father. I'll leave you to your rest then." The crown prince bowed and left the spherical hall.
"Sigh… We have to find a way to retrieve that artifact before Dynasty's people realize how to operate that."
"That's a problem for another time. We cannot do anything until the situation cools down. How about we retreat to the bedchamber? I'm tired." Said the queen.
---Somewhere in the Middle Martial Realm---
Within a massive golden castle, floating over a golden planet, an old man was meditating on a floating golden lotus flower. The whole atmosphere surrounding the old man was engulfed in an aura of mysteriousness.
Suddenly he shivered and opened his eyes.
"It's already begun! The Mortal Realm will descend into chaos. But there seemed to be an opportunity. I have to contemplate more."
He immediately entered into his meditation state. The golden lotus he was sitting on rhythmically buzzed. Tiny golden sparks formed on it creating a breathtaking scenery of etherealness. As he concentrated more and more the deeper his conciseness merged with a mental plane that withheld infinite future possibilities.
Meanwhile, a sudden space crack appeared behind him without him noticing. A delicate golden hand slipped through the crack. Then a bolt of rippling golden lightning started to gather on the golden palm. In the next moment, it ejected from the hand without a warning and merged with the old man's meditating figure. The hand retreated as the space crack closed. Space returned to normal as if nothing happened.
As the golden lightning bolt hit, the old man felt an indescribable feeling of clarity, he sensed the bond his consciousness had with the mental plane became stronger. The plane became more vivid and clear. But surprisingly he didn't feel the need to clarify what happened. All he felt was his confidence in himself increased to another level. He was so sure he could peek into the future he need effortlessly.
In that plane, every future possibility was in his grasp. He only had to focus than could seep important details about the future. This was the reason why this old man was one of the most sought-after individuals within the Middle Martial Realm. The amount of power and influence he held within the Martial Realm was enormous.
The old man's consciousness was visualized as a projection into the mental plane. Here he was no longer his gray-haired weak self but a healthy middle-aged man full of life. He looked at himself and sighed. An illusion of his best years of life!
Suddenly a golden light circled him and a projection of a bustling marketplace visualized centering him. Playful children, bargaining customers, and shouting venders made the marketplace lively.
Right before the old man's projection, a chubby vender was screaming loud as he could. Behind him was a luxury build hut that had a wooden podium placed in the middle. Vender's sweat-drenched round face suggested that he was doing this for a while in hope of gathering a crowd. And was already successful, a group of thirty to forty people was waiting in unhidden enthusiasm and expectation for something.
"Haha… Welcome, all of you… as promised last time your favorite vendor is back in town. And just as promised I brought another rare… mysterious… marvelous… yet cryptic treasure for your enjoyment… this could be the next item in your collections."
Along his speech, the crowd stirred up more.
"Please show us…"
"Haha as expected of Bobby the Traveler, always come with weird and puzzling artifacts."
"I wonder what he has brought today."
"Last time when he came to the Crimson city he brought an ancient defensive talisman that could create a barrier around the user, I heard it could stop a full-blown attack of a Spirit realm cultivator. Imagine my surprise…!"
"Shhh… Vender Bobby is taking out the treasure."
From the luxurious hut emerged a pink-clad woman carrying a tray containing something hidden under a veil. Her long legs glistered like polished jades when they were exposed through the revealing clothes she wore intensifying her seductive aura even more. Long eyelashes, cherry red lips, button nose, and lustful gaze of her half-closed eyes managed to cast an inescapable spell on the crowd. And every male in the crowd fell into it. Poor souls!
She gently placed the tray on the podium. Just before backing down from the podium, she winked at the crowd. That did the trick, now all of them were eager to throw their money away just to impress this seductress. Chubby vender secretly smirked at this. One had to say Bobby knew how to manipulate his customers.
"Everyone get ready for the surprise… whoosh…" Bobby dragged the veil away like a presenter with great practice.
The old man had his eyes fixated on the podium. He didn't want to miss anything. A chance to glimpse into the future did not come easily, when it came one had to utilize it to the fullest. But as soon as the artifact was unveiled something strange happened!
Blinding silver rays sprinkled everywhere. As the light fell on his projection the old man felt the eerie nature the silver rays carried. Not only that he felt his projection starting to wither. The light is countering his fate energy!
He was shocked, his whole demeanor became pale. There was only one time he had come across such eerie energy. It was the day he found that taboo artifact he locked away in his chambers. And this treasure unveiled by this street vender gave off that exact eerie taboo aura.
"…A…another one? How many of these things are out there?"
That was the only thing he was able to see before the silvery light disrupted the whole vision. Next, the scenery changed abruptly and he was floating among the stars. Everything was gloomily quiet. Soon he noticed something. He was not alone!
Dozens of feet away from him there stood a man, cladded in full black leather tight-fit armor. The man stood straight, emitting an imposing aura. His face was hidden under a pitch black mask. Then his eyes met with the man. The old man felt a cold shiver going through his spine. The man was staring directly at him!
'How is this possible? He's there in his soul form moreover this was a vision of the future! Is the masked man aware of his existence through time? Impossible!'
The man slightly tilted his head as his eyes were filled with mockery directed at his projection, he extended his hand and a milky white orb with golden patterns appeared on his hand emitting eerily silver rays. In the face of light rays, the same thing happened again. His projection was disrupted.
The scenery changed again! This time his projection arrived in a cave. Every corner of the cave was covered with rainbow colours. More specifically with rainbow coloured seven petal flowers.
'Seven Petal lotuses… such number of them? How…?' In the middle of the lotus field there stood a flat rock, on it was a sitting lonely female figure. A female figure he was so familiar with. His disciple. She was already in a deep meditation state.
'What? How come she came here?' Soon his questions were answered. Some distance away from the flat rock slab a dark-clad man stood with his arms resting on his back. The same masked man he saw in his previous vision, and he was looking at him! The masked man nodded in his direction.
'What is going on? How does this person know my mental projection was there? Who is this monster!!!'
"Boom!"
A loud sound breakout and echoed through the cave. His gaze quickly looked on to the source. His disciple!
'She's breaking through! Finally becoming a Martial Lord! But…'
The vision was disrupted again. Not only that his consciousness forcefully ejected from the mental plane.
"Gasp…" He woke up from his trance. For the next half an hour he analyzed everything he saw in his visions to find a meaning for them and the result was obvious.
'That mysterious masked man is the key to everything. And the way to find him is to track down that taboo object.' But he was still left with many unanswered questions.
'But how many are of them out there? I accidentally found one and I thought that would be it. How could so many taboo objects exist? Does he know their origin?' To find the answers he had to track down the masked man. Not him, but his disciple.
'She'll leave her chamber after two months of closed-door cultivation. At that time, she needs to visit the Mortal Realm. The vision of breaking through… should be a sign of Fate. She must grasp on to the opportunity bestowed by Fate.'
---High Plane of Mortal Realm---
In a star system that was engulfed in darkness, there was a semi-fertile planet near a dying sun. On the surface of the planet, massive cargo ships were parked. Many people dressed in hard leather clothes loaded some kind of crystals onto those ships. The whole planet appeared to be a massive mining operation.
Far away from the mining site there stood a lonely castle. Sometimes the workers glanced at the castle and sighed.
"It's nearly sixteen years since he came out of the castle… Sigh…" Said one worker to another.
"I think he'll never come out again."
"Never mind let's finish this, we have to pass today's quota.
"Hmm… In another few months, this star system will become inhabitable after the sun dies. Tch… when will we be able to get out of this disgusting environment. My qi energy already started to get poisoned by darkness element."
"My friend, don't get your hopes up. The new emperor will never allow him to leave this goddamn place. Let alone his army. We are already dead. Why are you talking about the things you already know?"
"Haha… don't mind him. He just saw the messenger from the outer world enter the castle. He became a bit nostalgic about the outer world."
"A messenger? It's not the usual time the messenger arrives… might be some important news."
Just as the worker said that a blasting pressure spread out from the castle. The pressure was so powerful that all the workers on the working field were pushed to their knees. Ships that took off a moment ago came crashing down from the sky. Ships that were already on the land started to push into the ground. Within seconds the pressure was withdrawn.
"Hff… Damn… he... seemed to be pissed!" Said the first worker getting on his feet, wobbling.
"S…seemed? Funny, to make him mad to this extent, I wonder what happened."
"The only thing he care about was…" The worker looked at his partner meaningfully.
"Did something bad happen to the prince?" Whispered the second worker as if he was afraid someone was listening to him.
"I hope not. If so, he will go on a rampage."
"Boom!!!"
Suddenly the lonely castle's tallest tower was blown into bits. An extremely dazzling light spread blinding all the workers. In the next moment, the light shot through the atmosphere like a shooting star and disappeared into the distance.
"Sigh… look like the worst thing happened. Citadel will fall into chaos" Muttered the worker.
"What a tragedy!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
2kZ
2kZ “The Universe is So Much Bigger than You Realize.”
- Everything Everywhere all at Once: 2022 -
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