Zamian was naked, surrounded by piles of papers filled with green letters and drawings of his body.
Luckily for him, the door to his cultivation garden was locked.
Sitting down with a writing leaf in his mouth, he reviewed a paper in each hand, his eyes moving erratically.
It had been a few days since he shut himself in his cultivation room, compiling everything he knew about his body, his essence, and even his past into these manuscripts. He only left to join his companions for meals three times a day and to check on Bohlo and Tulip’s cultivation progress.
‘The big guy is close to his breakthrough,’ Zamian thought, pulling the leaf from his mouth and correcting some paragraphs. ‘Tomorrow or the day after, he’ll surely become a Zealot.’
Nodding, he put both manuscripts down and reached to his right, his hand brushing against the grass.
“Hm?” he muttered, glancing at the empty spot on the ground. “I reviewed everything?”
Dazed, he looked around, seeing the organized piles of his manuscripts, each one detailing his physical condition, the pathways he cultivated, his battles, his feelings, his friends, his dark space—anything that was part of his life.
Except, of course, the White Dot.
“Show me my status, white servant,” he said, clicking his tongue.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name: Zamian Greenfield
Level: 3 [12%]
Tier: Mortal
Main Pathway: Knowledge
Title: None
STATS
Body: 3000/3000
Mind: 3200/3200
Soul: 3000/3000
REWARDS
Ancient Astral Seal
Description: A Star Seal guarding your Astral Self.
Ancient Identify Technique (Passive)
Description: See the secrets beyond the limitations of time.
Nameless Physique
Description: Breaker of the natural order, bearer of perpetual body, an unshackled lifeform.
QUEST LOG
Last Quest: Destroy an Unholy Sapling before the end of the month
Reward: Special Physique (??)
Status: Complete
Main Quest: Bring destruction to a Level 8 Immortal tainted by Godhood
Reward: Inheritor’s Cave Entrance
Status: Ongoing (91 days left)
Reading the wall of white text three times, he dismissed it.
Sighing, Zamian massaged his temples, muttering, “Was I wrong? Books weren’t the answer… Maybe I should get Lin Zhi’s help.” He shook his head. “No, no. I need to try a little more.”
Reaching for one manuscript, he started to read it, looking for any mistakes or additions he thought he should make.
Reading how he described his childhood friends, he chuckled, leaning against a nearby tree and hitting it with his elbow, making a red fruit fall.
He reflexively grabbed it and took a bite, flipping through the manuscript’s pages with his thumb.
At first, Zamian read with the intent of reviewing his material. But the truth was, he had already spent days doing that.
So, instead of nitpicking sentence by sentence, he let himself be embraced by the story.
His eyes became moist as he read about his mother and father’s relationship, how he had been an annoying brat more than once, how he had a crush on Lakea, and how Bohlo’s mother, Misandra, fed him delicious fruits whenever he went to play with the other kids at the market.
Zamian lost his sense of the present, immersing himself in his stories. Without a second thought, he grabbed another manuscript, reading about his battles—how he felt no fear or shame about killing and how that inwardly concerned him. How he believed he was becoming a crazy person, like most cultivators.
One by one, he read through the manuscripts. When he finished every single one of them, he grabbed more paper, threw away the fruit in his hand, and started writing again.
‘Pain and death. I barely described those in my books, but I’m intimate with both,’ he thought, half-smiling as he wrote about his encounters with physical and mental pain and his enlightenment about death.
“Secrets and treason… How could I forget about that?” Zamian muttered, compiling another pile of manuscripts focusing on his feelings and experiences on those subjects, avoiding only writing too much about the Verdant God out of spite.
“There’s also my future, my goals. I still need to get stronger and become a Chosen and—” he paused, his eyes trembling as he kept writing. “And that I’m constantly ignoring the fact that my father may already be dead.”
No longer smiling, Zamian wrote about everything that crossed his mind until, suddenly, there was no more paper left.
“... I need more,” he stood up, his eyes bloodshot as he rushed to the exit.
Then he stopped, feeling a piercing pain in his head.
His instincts whispered to him, and suddenly, his body became sluggish.
Zamian almost resisted, but there was a strong feeling of familiarity in this sensation.
Slowly, his vision darkened, and he collapsed onto the floor.
In front of him, a humanoid figure composed of uncountable specks of white light appeared.
The specks shone brightly, whispering as white essence from the dark space itself gathered and entered the figure.
Wave after wave of white essence entered Zamian’s soul.
‘My soul is still evolving along with my cultivation base,’ he deciphered his instinct’s whispers. ‘It's just a bunch of Soul Force that needs intent to take its final form… A Spirit.’
Then Zamian non-existent eyes widened as he saw the humanoid figure moving for the first time!
‘It can move?!’ he thought in awe
He relied on his blabbering instincts to tell him what had happened, then laughed in disbelief a moment later.
‘The first technique of the Light Pathway? Soul Tome?’
He watched as his soul’s hand moved, and a great surge of Light’s essence formed a giant open book.
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Zamian shifted his point of view, but as he guessed, the book was also filled with white light. ‘I can’t see a blight thing in there. No surprise that it’s blank,’ he frowned inwardly.
As the Soul Tome took shape, a rush of knowledge flooded Zamian’s mind, similar to when he first learned the Everbark technique upon becoming an Enlightened.
‘This…’ He thought in incredulity. ‘It’s the worst technique I’ve ever heard of!’
The Soul Tome was a simple and direct technique.
Zamian could enter his dark space and write whatever he wanted in the Soul Tome, and it would be stored inside his soul.
Glaring at the White Dot always hovering in the corner of his vision, Zamian cursed inwardly.
‘You blighted mute, I could become a giant monster with the Nature Pathway, and you gave me this rotten thing?’
Zamian was about to leave in anger when another chorus of whispers reached him.
This time, he felt dizzy, as if the voices were coming from everywhere. Be it inside the dark space, from the outside, or some other ethereal place, they grew louder and louder.
Not understanding how he could feel like this while still inside his soul space, Zamian realized that the Light’s essence was imbuing him with another technique.
‘Could it be…’ Remembering that he was a Zealot, and therefore someone who had received two techniques from Nature’s knowledge in the past—Everbark and Nature’s Embrace—he inwardly smiled.
‘Yes, give me my other technique, thank you,’ he thought in glee.
But as the knowledge of the new technique entered his mind, he wanted to vomit blood.
‘Luminous Senses!? White Dot, I’ll chew you up and spill your remains on old Calla’s tits!’
This technique was one he could activate just like Nature’s Embrace, but instead of creating armor, it would enhance his senses. As Zamian understood, it would allow him to read faster, listen to lessons more clearly, and sharpen his reflexes to write without losing focus.
‘This can’t be all. Give me my Beginning of the Cycle back, give me… I deserve it… It was from my enlightenment…’
Feeling the rush of essence fading, and the essence whispering lessened until it was all silent, Zamian chose to stay in the dark space.
He observed the shining white humanoid, now holding a book in one hand while the other hovered above it, completely motionless.
Time passed.
Zamian left the dark space.
Opening his eyes, he spat out a mouthful of grass, feeling his naked body pressed against the dirty soil.
Sitting up, he looked at the corner of his vision, his momentary numbness shifting to fury.
“White. Blighted. Dot.” He spat each word through gritted teeth, his eyes glowing white. “Show. My. Blighted. Stats.”
‘I’ll kill you, I’ll rip out my eyes and kill you, I’ll make—’
As Zamian planned his sweet revenge, a wall of white text flooded his vision.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name: Zamian Greenfield
Level: 3 [100%]
Tier: Mortal
Main Pathway: Knowledge
Title: None
STATS
Body: 7400/7400
Mind: 7600/7600
Soul: 0200/7400
Zamian’s thoughts halted as he gawked at his stats.
“Wh-what?!”
His eight hearts beat faster as he consciously made them accelerate, checking if he was alive.
Zamian didn’t dismiss the white text.
“Oh no,” he muttered, his eyes shaking. “White Dot, did you break? I was cultivating! I just entered my dark space and learned some rotten techniques! Where did the additional five thousand points in each stat come from?”
He was losing himself between self-doubt, concern, glee, and madness.
Standing up, he rushed to a tree, wanting to punch it and test his strength.
Then, he found himself stopping just a finger’s distance away from it.
“Wh—” His eyes widened as he turned around, his instincts blaring at him.
Sluggishly, he controlled his footing, and upon noticing the brown gash in the grass, he guessed, “Did I… get faster?”
Opening his arms and crouching slightly, he tried to maintain his balance as his instincts kept screaming at him, pointing out flaws in his running posture, and his current position.
Ignoring his instincts, Zamian closed his eyes.
“Calm down, calm down,” he whispered, slowly trying to make sense of the situation. “I won’t die now, right? So shut up.”
Forcing himself to breathe, despite not needing to, he sat cross-legged and opened his eyes.
Then, he scanned his body inwardly.
Physically, nothing had changed.
“Good, no new arm or an extra third leg,” he sighed in relief. “But this… How long is it going to take for me to get used to my body now that I have so many flaws to correct? I mean… It didn’t change, but the amount of essence infused in it sure did.”
He frowned, still listening to his instincts, aware that he was now more than three times stronger than before. In fact, he was only a few steps away from having the same strength as a Chosen or a Warlord like Ruen.
“But my stats caps are close,” his eyes shined a white light.
Zamian then willed his essence to cover his fist and clenched it tightly.
He laughed.
“I’m stronger than when I used the Beginning of the Cycle transformation,” he grinned. “My blighted enhanced body is strong enough to deal with a Chosen, I’m sure.”
After laughing some more, he kept a wry smile.
“I know I can control it with time, thanks to that Nameless Physique,” he said, scratching his head. “But I need to see Bohlo’s breakthrough, and breaking his cultivation garden would be less than ideal.”
Standing up and slowly reaching for fresh clothes, he searched for a specific line of text.
Main Quest: Bring destruction to a Level 8 Immortal tainted by Godhood
Reward: Inheritor’s Cave Entrance
Status: Ongoing (90 days left)
Dismissing the text after reading, he chuckled. “A day passed? No problem!”
Then, while putting on his pants, he glanced at the corner of his vision.
“See? This kind of stuff can’t surprise me anymore. I bet I’m not even late for Bohlo’s breakthrough. Try harder, mute.”
As Zamian finished speaking and pulled on his shirt, white letters materialized in his vision.
New Side Quest (!): Protect Bohlo until he completes his breakthrough
Reward: 01 Book from White Tower's First Floor
Status: Ongoing (12 hours left)
(!) Failure to complete this quest will bring ?? penalties
Zamian glanced at the text, quickly reading it.
His instincts said nothing.
But his eyes narrowed, and his cheerful expression morphed into a cold one.
Zamian’s mind raced as time slowed down, every piece of knowledge from the last few days flashing through his head. His eyes blinked erratically, shining with a strong white light.
Essence coated his body, like a liquid layer gleaming in white.
The young cultivator then moved his essence in a specific manner, willing it to help him conjure one of his new techniques.
His vision shifted as the world gained new colors. Distant sounds reached his ears, neatly divided into invisible spheres around him, allowing him to consciously choose which one to focus on.
He felt a good chunk of his essence being spent on this technique as a wave of dizziness hit his mind.
Zamian commanded the White Dot to show him his stats.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name: Zamian Greenfield
Level: 3 [78%]
Tier: Mortal
Main Pathway: Knowledge
Title: None
STATS
Body: 7200/7400
Mind: 7400/7600
Soul: 0002/7400
‘Two hundred points in each stat and maybe twenty percent of my current essence, the rest being used to enhance my body,’ he thought. ‘If it had cost a little more, and I expended all my soul points to conjure this Luminous Senses technique, what would have happened?’
Dismissing his stats, Zamian ran to the exit.
The door was almost pulverized, the splinters small enough to become dust.
A loud booming noise accompanied him as he sprinted down the hallway toward Bohlo’s cultivation room.
Zamian found no one in the corridors, but the breathing sounds and distant chatter he heard confirmed there were people in the main building above.
Not only that, but as he neared Bohlo’s room, he could also hear his friend’s heartbeat.
It was loud, erratic, and accompanied by labored breathing.
Zamian took a single second to confirm that neither Bohlo nor anyone else was near the door—then he passed through it, destroying it too.
Without pausing, his eyes scanned Bohlo’s garden as he rushed to his friend’s side.
Bohlo was sweating over dozens of small sprouts, some slightly older than others.
This was the result of him following Zamian’s advice to act like a Farmer.
Even after hastily checking the trees, the stream, and the bushes with his enhanced vision and hearing, Zamian found nothing out of place in the cultivation room. So he focused on Bohlo.
The bare-chested cultivator had his eyes shut, his veins bulging beneath his skin as his heart raced like never before.
Green essence flowed from the sprouts into Bohlo, aiding him in gathering energy. At the same time, Nature’s essence from the surroundings rushed toward him.
The pale cultivator knelt beside his friend, hesitating as he moved his hands, stopping just before touching Bohlo.
A single thought passed through his mind.
'What can I do to help him?'
Then another.
'Why is this happening?'
As his friend trembled on the floor, struggling to breathe, Zamian’s mind went blank for a second.
Glancing at the flux of essence entering Bohlo, he thought, 'I need to get him out of here.'
Just as he was about to grab Bohlo, he remembered the contents of White Dot’s Side Quest.
"Protect… Not to save. Not to stop the breakthrough. But to protect."
He mumbled, his eyes bloodshot.
"But protect from what? From who?"
Zamian found nothing here!
As he stared at his best friend, unsure of what to do, his enhanced vision, sharpened by the Luminous Senses technique, detected a strange glow on Bohlo’s back.
Most would mistake it for Nature’s essence surrounding him.
But Zamian was different. His senses were beyond what common cultivators could grasp, and he could distinguish even the slightest variations in color.
Noticing the shape of the glow, he muttered, "This form… Is it a green leaf?"
