Mystical Journey

While he was chatting with Fenistine, he thought about the source of his special powers and had a vague feeling, as though his powers were sending him a signal .

The attribute and skill panes at the bottom of his field of vision had both started shimmering slightly . It was like countless ripples on the water surface .

At night, he sat cross-legged in his hotel room . On the surface, there weren’t any changes in his body, but his spirit kept trying to catch that little flash of inspiration in his heart .

It was just like a piece of paper flashing through his mind . He could see the words and pictures, but he just couldn’t recall them .

Garen tried his best to catch those traces, or rather, those memories .

As he kept concentrating, the ripples in his attribute pane kept getting larger and larger . Until finally .

Boom!!!

There was an ear-splitting noise, and Garen’s mind was a complete muddle as he descended into oblivion .

After some time, a series of mystifying images appeared in his heart .

In the middle of the endless starry sky .

A red shard sliced past the galaxies at high speed, eventually being pulled in by the Earth’s gravity and crashing into a certain place on Earth .

As the shard burst past the atmosphere, most of it was oxidized, and at the same time it turned into countless tinier pieces, scattering like rain across Earth’s sky .

The rain-like shards entered many living beings without a sound or trace, invisible to the eye . Most of these living beings self-combusted, and were burnt to ashes .

A few of them survived, but were greatly weakened . After contracting all sorts of diseases, they died an early death .

And then there were the ones amongst ten millions, those who were hit but continued with life as usual . The shards had no effect on these people .

Garen quickly noticed his past incarnation . He had also been one of those hit, and was one of the lucky few who were unscathed . At the time, he was a mere teenager .

In the blink of an eye, many years passed . He grew up, started working, all the way until he died of electrocution .

Just as he was electrocuted into a pile of charcoal, a translucent figure slowly rose from his body . It was about to be torn into shreds by the unseen rays radiating through the air, when suddenly the figure glowed with a faint red light from deep within . This light was the unique life of every individual, that little bit of sizable energy born from their bodies, memories, and souls .

It wrapped the figure’s head, blinking continuously, until the head slowly merged with the red light . Finally, both vanished without a trace, while the remaining body that was left behind was directly torn to pieces by the rays .

Strangely, Garen also saw the other people who had lived after being struck by the red shard at the same time .

Those people either died of illnesses, or ended their lives peacefully . Some of them were also killed .

But of all those who died, only three managed to awaken that dot of red light that lay dormant within them . The rest were torn to smithereens .

He was one of these three with the blinking lights . Although the other two managed to awaken the red light, the places they merged with the red light were different . And in the final process of merging, the red light had gradually faded, meaning the merging had failed .

Therefore, of all the countless Earth humans who had been awoken by the red shards, he was the only one who successfully merged with it, and he had merged his head as well .

The red shard was like a stimulant to the DNA of the soul . Some of the creatures succeeded and lived, while others failed and died .

The ones who lived were one in hundreds of millions . And of those who lived, there was another tiny, miniscule chance that they could successfully awaken the red shard .

Of the ones who were activated, they still needed to merge with red light . And the parts that merged were all different .

After Garen absorbed the red light, the soul in his head that was wrapped up in the red light floated slowly through the universe . It sporadically blinked into different unknown universes, before finally being swept up in a space tornado and ended up swept onto this planet . It was then that it was incorporated into a young man named Garen .

As he wandered through the starry sky, Garen gradually began to understand what this sort of red shard was for .

It was a natural mutagen for soul, and only worked on souls . The activated souls would present all sorts of different effects, some useful and others useless . Some were very powerful, while others were extremely weak .

And the difference in the part that was merged also manifested in different results . He was very lucky to have merged his head, and even more fortunately, he was able to find a planet with sentient life and a proper body before his consciousness was ultimately destroyed after aimlessly wandering the starry sky .

The starry universe was limitless . If he wandered for too long under those circumstances, even the strongest would end up grounded into nothing .

If it weren’t for this round of quiet reflection, and his natural-born power having merged with his head, he truly wouldn’t have been able to see so many of these memories .

He didn’t know how it was like for the other creatures awoken by the red shards, but it certainly wasn’t like his situation . After all, every creature’s experiences, lives, and memories were distinct . These differences decided that the red light they had nurtured would also be different, and the special powers developed as a result of the final merging would also be certainly different .

And his special powers, were this body’s attribution abilities . Perhaps his ability to transmigrate was part of that as well .

Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Garen slowly opened his eyes . There was a thin sheen of sweat on his brow .

"So this was the truth of my beginnings…"

He had always wondered where his special powers came from, even though there wasn’t any doubt deep within his memories . But he had never really seen the whole process .

He wasn’t sure what that shard was, but after it activated the red light, it burned itself out completely . That must mean it was some sort of medicine .

He was lucky to have that light merged with his head, so he could retain all of his memories . He was lucky to have found a planet with humans and successfully merged before his consciousness disappeared completely .

"This was basically the lucky result of countless coincidences . "

Garen completely understood the source for his natural-born powers .

To put it bluntly, his body on Earth had nurtured a mutated soul . After the body hosting it perished, this one-of-a-kind soul transmigrated through space and time, and was lucky enough to meet a new sentient planet before dying, finding a new merger, and took over someone else’s body .

It was a miraculous process . Without the physical body on Earth, without these memories and experiences from before he was even born, without these countless coincidences, there wouldn’t have been someone as naturally talented as Garen .

And this most basic idea lifted the heavy concerns from Garen’s heart .

This was different from hereditary powers, his were natural powers born from the mutation of his soul . The source was the very quality of his soul, that had changed after being awoken back then .

A hereditary power came from the blood and genes . These were two fundamentally different things .

One was the body, the other was the soul .

The blood was gone once you change a body, but it wasn’t the same for the soul . A power that followed the soul was purely nurture, not nature . So the hereditary powers could be inherited, but the powers of the soul could not…

"It’s fine as long as they can’t be copied . Or else, if there’s someone else with the same powers as me…" Garen knew exactly how strong his powers were . With enough potential, no matter how untalented that person was, as long as they weren’t too unlucky, they could still be pushed to the very top .

But these memories he had just excavated made him realize that souls did indeed exist on Earth . At the very least, he was an example of someone whose soul had mutated .

"In that case, as for the Behemoth Gate…" When Garen imagined the other side discovering the truth, he couldn’t help but relish in their misery . Black Orchid would surely throw a tantrum of crazy proportions .

　　******************

In a hidden underground base somewhere in the Confederation .

Black Orchid’s face was pale as she looked at the white crystal rock in front of her . Her hands dug deeply into the surface of the stone, leaving deep scratch marks .

"How can it be!!?? How is it possible!! How can the essence of such a strong man produce a life reading of only white quality!!" Her eyes were about to spit fire .

"There’s nothing impossible about that . " A man with long black hair reaching his chest stood behind her, and replied mildly, "That person didn’t make love to you willingly, but was forced to by drugs . And even normal people could have imperfect descendants, the same goes for strong fighters . The only difference is that the chances would be smaller . "

He glanced at Black Orchid . "Alright, time to decide, are you going to have the child or not? Essence Stones aren’t that easily wasted according to your whims . "

"I…!" Black Orchid gritted her teeth, her heart suddenly a mess . She had no idea how to respond .

Within the underground chamber, both of them fell silent .

Finally, Black Orchid forced the words out of clenched teeth .

"I’ll have it!! Even if it’s just a normal person, it’s still his son! That man, he won’t be able to leave it alone!"

The long-haired man was about to reply when suddenly, the white crystal that was as tall as a man was dyed a faint wisp of red .

His expression changed, his gaze turned disbelieving .

"How could it be!!"

"What happened!!?" Black Orchid instinctively sensed something amiss, and asked hastily .

The long-haired man’s expression was torn between laughing and crying . He turned his gaze away, his expression as he looked at Black Orchid holding just a hint of pity .

"In the testing process, that man’s essence weakened and died because its life force was too weak… To put it professionally, its chances of living were too low . So you can’t have it even if you wanted to . "

Black Orchid froze .

"Then… Then I…" Her voice began to tremble .

"Congratulations, you were f*cked for no reason . " The long-haired man looked at her with pity .

Black Orchid stood there, staring .

She wasn’t even aware of when the long-haired man left the room . She just stood in front of the crystal blankly, watching as the stone gradually returned to its original colorless state . It reflected her pale, colorless face,

"Garen!!" She finally spat out those words through gritted teeth .

Just then, Garen was sitting on a plane headed towards the seaside city . He could imagine the ugly expression on Black Orchid’s expression upon discovering the truth . But no matter what, he still had some special feelings for his first woman .

"If we are to come into conflict again, I’ll make her death easier," he told himself . Without that mental burden on him, his relationship with the Behemoth Gate was simplified once more .

At the same time, he finally understood the source of his powers . He was no longer worried about hereditary powers, and so that lifted a heavy weight from his chest .