Chapter 15: Chapter 14 - A Glimpse of You

CHAPTER 14

A Glimpse of You

Back on the riverbanks, Lee Jihoon and Tie Li were debating over how they should search for the gadgets they had left before plunging into the Phlegethon previously.

Suddenly, a deep voice sounded eeriely in their heads,

“Yuriel must break through now. She said you can go back without her. But before that, enjoy your remaining time here. Iron boy, you should meditate—the Phlegethon’s power is the best catalyst for your breakthrough.”

With that, a gust of gloomy grey fog-wind blew over from downstream.

As it blew away, a few shiny pieces—Lee Jihoon and Tie Li’s electronic devices—could be seen on the ground in front of the two.

***

At this moment, Yuriel felt what Edward, Lee Jihoon, and Tie Li had felt when they previously entered the cultivation chamber during her awakening.

A heavy, ancient aura, terrifying and beyond comprehension, submerged her, making her feel utterly small and insignificant before it.

It was gone in a second, though.

Everything went back to normal. Yuriel rapidly blinked, adapting to the change of light. She glanced around, finding herself surrounded by rugged cavern walls. A soft, amber-colored light hung in the quiet air.

“Feel the fire attribute here—meditate on it and start your breakthrough. I will protect you.” the previous voice Yuriel heard sounded.

Yuriel, who was still dazed from the rapid change of events, immediately remembered why she was there. She looked around and found a relatively flat rock jutting out of a wall nearby and sat cross-legged on it. She closed her eyes, quickly entering a meditative state.

Coursing through her meridians, both the majestic purple-gold cosmic power and the Phlegethon power surged madly, hurting her meridians. Yuriel frowned. With the condition being like this, how was she supposed to concentrate and break through safely? But if she didn’t raise her cultivation base, her body wouldn’t be able to contain the power, and would explode.

At this moment, Zhuque General’s voice sounded in her mind,

‘Remember this—you are the Crown of Cosmos. Ever since the beginning of time, the power inside you has always been yours. And even everything in the whole of cosmos is under your authority. You should be controlling the power, not be controlled by it.’

The instant she heard those sentences, Yuriel was struck by a sudden realization. Yes—she was one of the Twin Stars of Cosmos, the Crown of Cosmos. She was the embodiment of the cosmos itself. She was created and had been born nine times, all for the sake of saving the whole of humanity.

Following the change of her mindset, the nearly uncontrollable circulation of her natural power suddenly halted.

‘Break through,’ she thought.

Everything froze for a second. And then Yuriel broke through. Just like that. As simple as that. All it took was one simple thought.

From here, we can see just how powerful the power of thought is. That was why Edward’s ultimate faith attribute was so highly-regarded.

Of course, the reason Yuriel could so easily break through wasn’t only because of her mind power.

To break through to the King rank, one needed to think of the outline of one’s Path. To put it simply, the Path was the future direction one wanted to cultivate their natural power to. Other people would need months, years, or even decades to think of their own respective Paths. Yuriel, however, was the embodiment of the cosmos. And as the Crown of Cosmos she had always been, her Path was naturally the Path of the Crown of Cosmos.

So, it was relatively easy for her to break through, because the outline of her Path had long been laid out, and had even been perfected—which was one of the requirements of breaking through to the next rank, the Earthly Emperor rank.

Of course, she had to first strengthen her body and consolidate her cultivation. Or else, her foundation would be unstable, which would consequently increase the difficulty of breaking through to the higher ranks.

Purple-gold energy rumbled thunderously through Yuriel’s newly-expanded meridians, seeping into her flesh, blood, and bones—every cell of her being. Meanwhile, the fiery power of Phlegethon was swept along the torrent of purple-gold helplessly—forced to submit, be purified, and be a part of Yuriel’s Crown of Cosmos power.

By the time it had been completely integrated into the power of cosmos, Yuriel’s cultivation had surged to the fifth stage of the King rank—halfway through this rank. However, Yuriel wasn’t satisfied with her foundation—she felt that it wasn’t strong enough. So, she compressed her power, forcing her cultivation back down by two stages to the third stage.

Finished doing these, she suddenly remembered the dark cavern she was in, and how strong the fire energy there was—just perfect for her, who had the dual attributes of ultimate darkness and fire.

You must be confused—if Yuriel had the Crown of Cosmos power, didn’t that mean she had the attribute of cosmos? Well, yes and no. Firstly, you must know that the power of cosmos is incredibly powerful and boundless, absolutely impossible to be withstood by one person. So, there were the Twin Stars of Cosmos—each Star both withholding and was a half of it.

Yuriel was fire, darkness, and precognition, withholding the Sword of Time. Meanwhile, Tang Tianjue, as the other Star of Cosmos, was ice, light, and postcognition, withholding the Sword of Space. If you are wondering—well, time and space might be different, but they both held the key to travel through all of the Thirteen Dimensions.

Anyway, Yuriel mediated on the fire-darkness coexistence in her surroundings, deepening her understanding of both the ultimate powers of fire and darkness.

Fire emitted heat, bright, active, and always intending to burn everything in its way that it can burn. It appears when fuel, oxygen, and heat come together, starting a chemical reaction which is called combustion, thus producing heat and light in the form of flames.

So, fire, or flames, are heat and light.

What about darkness? Darkness is a state where light is nearly or even totally absent. But... is that all to what darkness is? Is it really that simple?

The same question appeared in Yuriel’s mind. What was darkness? Putting aside its simple definition of ‘the absence of light’, what was is, really?

In the beginning, before the Creator created Earth, everything was dark. No—even the concept of ‘dark’ hadn’t even been known, because there was no light, no life, and... no Earth.

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That was it! Yuriel’s eyes lit up. The ultimate form of darkness was...

Nothingness.

Darkness is the absence of light, life, and literally everything—a state where there is nothing.

That was why darkness was often associated with death, while light was associated with life. Because before there was light, there was no life—there was no life in the darkness of nothing.

As she visualized this state of dark nothingness, Yuriel was unknowingly entranced. Gradually, she fell deeper and deeper into it, and when she came to her senses, she found her spiritual body standing on the surface of a dark purple-blue body of water, which stretched endlessly into the distance, glittering mysteriously with dots of silvery and goldish light.

Yuriel tilted her head up—and quietly gasped.

On the sky, dark-gold mountains with notes of white hung upside-down, complete with trees, winding paths, rivers, and all.

“Who are you?” a voice sounded suddenly.

Startled, Yuriel shifted her gaze to the space before her.

Standing across her, a dark figure ‘stared’ at her. She couldn’t see the figure’s features, but from its outline, it was a man. A young man. With messy short hair, wearing a set of formal, long warrior robe.

Noticing this, Yuriel glanced at her own form—her spiritual body was similarly dark, features hidden.

“Where are we?” she subconsciously asked the question in her mind.

Her counterpart seemed to blink. “I should be the one asking you that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You brought me—my spiritual body—here.” he paused. “Didn’t you?”

The two fell silent. Yuriel’s mind moved. She seemed to understand...

“Son of Cosmos.”

“Crown of Cosmos.”

The two spoke at the same time, then went silent again...

“Tang Tianjue.”

“Zhang Yujin.”

Another awkward silence... Suddenly, they burst into laughter in unison.

“Eh? How did you know my name?” Yuriel blinked.

Tang Tianjue seemed to blink, too, but didn’t answer.

“How did we end up here?” he asked instead.

Yuriel shrugged, eyeing him. “I was meditating on the principles of darkness, then somehow ended up here.”

“I was meditating on the principles of space within my sword.”

“Well, it seems that we’ve both touched upon the same level of understanding on the respective attributes we were meditating upon, and were somehow brought to this place.” Yuriel speculated.

Tang Tianjue nodded. “But we can’t seem to properly see each other.”

The moment he said that, their surroundings spun. Right became left, up became down. Everything swirled around, dizzying their minds.

When they came back to their senses, they were now standing—no—they were floating above the splendid dark-gold mountain range.

“What happened?” Yuriel glanced at Tang Tianjue.

“I don’t know.” the guy was similarly confused.

His figure flickered, and then, it brightened, turning into a hazy, white figure. He looked at Yuriel, finding her undergoing the same transformation.

She looked at him. Somehow, his facial features were clearer. She still couldn’t see him that clearly, though, but she could now ‘guess’ where his eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth were.

Similarly, Tang Tianjue could now sense her facial features—her big eyes, cute nose, and beautiful lips...

“You’re pretty.” he suddenly said.

‘Oh no, what did I just say?!’

“W-what?” Yuriel was caught off-guard and swallowed nervously, subconsciously taking a step back.

Her spiritual body disappeared in a flash—and reappeared a few meters away from Tang Tianjue. Did she just...

“Yu’er, did you just—teleport?”

“I just—stepped back...” Yuriel blinked—everything felt so strange to her, yet also so familiar, at the same time.

And then she realized something else.

“Did you just call me... ‘Yu’er’?” she narrowed her eyes, suspicious.

It was Tang Tianjue’s turn to be nervous. He swallowed. Looking at the figure of the girl, which was so familiar, he couldn’t bear to be silent for long.

“I’ve seen flashes of our past...” he paused. “Our past lives...”

Yuriel stared at him for a moment. Her spiritual body flashed and appeared right in front of him. Again, she subconsciously took a step back—but this time she just floated backward a little.

She cleared her throat to hide the small shock. “That, uh, doesn’t explain how you know my name.”

“I...” Tang Tianjue scratched his head. “My teacher is the one behind all of the... poisoning cases, that recently happened.”

Yuriel wanted to say something, but decided against it in the end. Yeah... How could she not remember it—the person who caused countless imbalances on Earth, the person who would kill her friends, family, and...

The guy in front of her. A-Jue.

“I-I’m sorry, Yu’er...” Tang Tianjue said nervously. “I can’t oppose him now—I’m not powerful enough... Yet.”

“I know.” Yuriel suddenly smiled. “And you know, I’ve also seen flashes of our future... A-Jue.”

Shit. That was really cringe. And embarrassing. Yuriel silently cursed.

In front of her, Tang Tianjue was stunned speechless.

“Can we meet in the real world?” he blurted out.

“W-why not...?” Yuriel looked down and ‘blushed’.

“It’ll be New Year in just a few hours... Should we watch the fireworks together?” Tang Tianjue blurted again.

‘What the hell did I just say?! What’s happening to me?!’ he mentally shouted to himself, imagining himself pulling his own hair.

“S-sure,” Yuriel unexpectedly agreed. “What about we meet in Paris?”

‘Zhang Yujin, are you insane?! Paris, you said?! Paris, the City of Love?!’

Thinking about this, she hastilly added, “I-I’m close to Paris, so...”

“Alright—I’m also near Paris.” Tang Tianjue quickly agreed.

Before any of them could embarrass themselves further, the space around them spun rapidly.

They opened their eyes, finding themselves back in their own physical bodies...

***

Yuriel stared blankly, feeling empty.

“Seems like you no longer need my help...” an amused voice echoed.

Hearing the Vermilion Bird General's voice, Yuriel suddenly remembered where she was and why she was there.

“E-ehm...”

“Don’t worry, even if you didn’t plan to meet the Son of Cosmos, I would also tell you to meet him—because only with him can you save your parents.”

“What do you mean?” Yuriel slightly frowned.

“I cannot leave this place, Crown of Cosmos... Like Hades, I am also guarding a Seal. So are the other Generals and ancient gods.”

With a start, Yuriel ‘remembered’ that in the future, the Forces of Darkness would force their way into the dimension humans were in through a total of seventeen Seals, and kill all the Seals’ guardians...

Previously, the reason she had wanted to sought help from one of the Four Generals and not an ancient god like Hades, was because she thought the Four Generals were the only Immortal-ranked powerhouses who weren’t guarding any Seal. But it turned out that they were also each guarding one...

“Crown of Cosmos, I cannot help much, but I can offer you a sentence to guide you in your future adventures: Everything happens for a reason.”

“Good luck, Crown of Cosmos. And enjoy your first date...”