Mystical Journey

Bzz… Bzz-bzz…

Countless tiny white cracks appeared on the surface of the tentacle.

"Don't let me see you again!!!" roared the owner of the tentacle angrily. His berserking Will was intense enough to create countless waves in the water of the Mother Stream.

Bam!!

The huge expanse of green water exploded from within the tentacle, turning into a rain of blood that fell onto the surface of the Mother Stream, creating even more tiny ripples. What remained of the tentacle hurriedly retreated. It instantly vanished through the hole that was created in the Barrier.

The hole rapidly shrunk, but he could still see the colorful flowing light outside, though he did not know what that could be.

Just as Garen thought that everything would return to being peaceful as usual, and that he would continue drifting, suddenly he sensed a faint but clear wisp of Soul Energy Aura, appearing rapidly outside the hole.

"That's…!" Garen was instantly stunned. His reflexes, far faster than light, recovered immediately.

Without a hint of hesitation, he gathered up all the Soul Energy he had and turned it into a propelling force behind him, so that he leaped out of the water like a fish.

Splash.

His whole body turned into a white line that shot toward the hole in the Barrier above him.

All skills and abilities were useless in the Mother Stream, because the laws of other universes were ineffective here, and only the General Universal Laws applied here. Garen's Confinement Essence and the Hellfrost Peacock Queen's natural abilities were not affected, but he needed a physical body to use those, so he could not do anything in pure soul form. Therefore, the only thing he could use in the Mother Stream was the Soul Energy generated from his Soul Ring.

This remained true even if the strongest Void Creature came here, and that was also the crucial reason why the Mother Stream could protect the true souls of the Ancient Endor beings.

Garen was worried that his power was insufficient, so he used all of his Soul Energy up all at once, his body almost turning into lightning as he shot through the hole in the blink of an eye.

Poof!!

There was dull sound in his brain, and all Garen could see was rainbow-colored flowing light. He was blind to everything else.

The universe outside the hole was no longer the one where that giant octopus had been. Within a few short seconds, a ton of rainbow-colored light had flowed past outside, and the universe where Garen had sensed that Soul Energy Aura was a completely unfamiliar place, several universes away.

The rainbow-colored streaming light continued to flow past him, and Garen reached out his hand, trying to grab this streaming light, yet he could not touch anything at all.

The streaming light continued for more than ten minutes, and dark light spots began to appear slowly in front of him. Some of these light spots were grey, and others were black, all of them brushing past Garen.

As time passed, there were more and more light spots, with less space between them.

Psst!

Suddenly his vision blurred, and Garen abruptly found that the everything before him had opened up. The streaming light had instantly vanished, and directly in front of him was a wide, dark, vast and limitless area of space.

In the very center of this space, there was a giant planet with purple-red edges.

Garen could not help but turn around to look, the space behind him was just a sea of black, and he could still vaguely see the tiny ripples in space gradually vanishing.

"As expected… The place where the Mother Stream's currents connect must be where the habitable planets exist." Garen understood. "Things can only enter the Mother Planet when their lives end, and there they enter a new cycle. And the Mother Stream also transmits life in its endless flowing tides."

He flew toward that single purple-red planet. The sun, a star suspended in space near it, drew his attention.

The light emanated by this star was golden in color, and it had many black spots on its surface, so it looked like a moldy kumquat.

"This…" Garen suddenly frowned. "There are such powerful laws here…"

The V-shaped white mark surfaced on his brow, but it faded instantly as soon as it appeared.

Garen closed his eyes, and carefully felt the differences in the laws of this universe as compared to the previous one. After a mere dozen or so minutes, he opened his eyes once more.

"Impressive…! It is 53% similar to the laws of the Mech Universe, and most of the Energy Machine Imprint's functions don't work here. Other than the basic computing abilities, there were strict laws regulating any unnatural powers, as well as anything that existed purely as energy."

He looked at the kumquat-like sun, that piercing light forcing him to narrow his eyes slightly.

"This sort of universe… is even stricter than the Vampire World, the intermaterial bonds are shockingly strong, so it's probably not possible to use other methods in order to leverage on the pure energy here…"

He allowed his body to fly toward that purple-red planet using its momentum alone. Looking at the purple-red planet from a distance, he would not have noticed that he was moving at all if it were not for the galactic debris brushing past him on both sides.

"Without a Jumping Ball, I can't use any powers other than my Soul Energy… No, even my Soul Energy is being suppressed, no form of pure energy here can exist without material form… What an extreme world." Garen frowned slightly, carefully analyzing the laws of this universe.

"But I can still use some of the knowledge I had gained over the past few worlds, so I should be able to protect myself without any problems. I just have to pinpoint the individual power system of this universe, and then I will be able to increase my powers quickly. It might be slightly difficult to reach the same heights as before… But in a world like this, I won't be able to use unnatural powers, so naturally others can't either, not even Void Creatures. My safety will be guaranteed!"

In that case, however, it would probably be very hard for him to leave this world on his own. That was why Garen was starting to wonder if it was a mistake to come here.

The vast Soul Energy around him was rapidly diminishing, it was being worn out at an even faster rate than when he was in the Mother Stream. Because this place did not allow anything that existed as pure energy to last for so long, so Garen knew that a soul such as his would not be able to last very long in here.

"I need to find a new body as soon as possible…"

He created an explosion behind him with his Soul Energy.

Psst!

The faint transparent light exploded, and Garen's body immediately shot out, his speed reaching a terrifying level. Because he existed as merely a soul now, his own mass was close to zero, meaning he was practically insubstantial. The explosion of Soul Energy created a massive force that was enough to send him propelling forward at extreme speeds.

As he continuously approached the purple-red planet, mysterious images and fragments appeared before Garen's eyes once more.

"These are the memories of the planets again… I can only receive them while I'm in soul form…" Garen clenched his teeth as the information overload surged into his brain, and was completely unsurprised by this sudden barrage of memories.

The same thing had happened in the past few worlds that he had transmigrated to.

But this time, it seemed to be slightly different.

The memories of this planet were scarily long, it seemed to have existed since the moment this entire universe exploded into being.

As the information surged in, other than the general trend of this planet, there was also a lot of f information about this universe as a whole. Although these were just fragmented clips, within a mere dozen minutes or so, Garen felt as though he had experienced the entire history of the entire planet and the universe, from the moment of their conception until this current instant.

"This universe… only has one habitable planet!" Garen resisted the headache, and looked at the enormous purple-red planet in front of him in shocked admiration. "According to the survival records included in the information given, this planet is the center of this universe, and it's the only habitable planet in this entire universe."

All the contents about the general trend instantly flowed through Garen's brain.

This was a normal yet abnormal world.

Compared to the previous few worlds, this world was a lot more realistic, and a lot simpler.

The general trend of the entire world originated with the Four Great Cornerstones. In other words, it hinged on four people. Four users of unnatural powers who were constantly reborn and resurrected on this planet.

They had the Sacred Sigils of the Ancient Universe, and possessed unimaginable power. The four of them represented the entire planet, and the four basic powers of this universe. Other than them, no one else could use unnatural powers, they were the origins of all the legends. At the same time, they were also the source of the Soul Energy Aura that Garen was sensing.

"The Soul Energy Aura I sensed before this… is over there!!" Garen instantly determined his target location.

"The Four Great Cornerstones? What a strange law…" With a final sigh of admiration, his soul sped up further, turning into a shapeless light that fell straight toward the planet.

***********************

Lily of the Valley, in the country of Slann

In a small and slightly old yard by the suburbs, a yellow-skinned man with a tan was holding up a bespectacled boy of fifteen or sixteen with both hands, his expression solemn as he yelled urgently in a rather tongue-twisting language.

The hot sunlight shone down on both of them, and a faint stench of sweat began to rise from them.

The man was frowning so hard that his brows were knotted together, and he hurriedly picked up the boy, running toward a cooler, shaded part of the yard. He placed the boy gently on the slightly scalding floor, and then ran into the inner house hastily. Soon. he came out again with a basin of cold water, and there was even a white towel in the basin. The towel had been washed until it was yellowing slightly, and it looked like it had quite a few years behind it.

Splash.

He wrung the towel dry, and gently wiped the sweat off the boy's face.

The boy had slightly pretty features, but he was mostly just plain. His skin was slightly pale, as though he did not get much sun, and his lips were extremely cracked, his eyes tightly shut. It was quite clear that he had a case of heatstroke.

Whoosh…

Suddenly, there was a cool breeze.

Faster than anyone could see, an invisible light fell directly down from the sky, stabbing directly into the area between the boy's brows, It sank inside, vanishing without a trace.

The man did not notice a thing, and continued to wipe the sweat off the boy's body carefully.

Soon, possibly because the cool wet towel had an effect, the boy's body finally trembled a few times,

"Water… Water…"

Suddenly, he awakened blearily, calling out in a hoarse voice.

"Water? Here! Come on, drink slowly… take it slow." The middle-aged man hastily took the cup of water he had prepared beforehand and brought it to the boy's lips.

"I told you a thousand times not to fall asleep in the yard under the sun, but you never listen!" nagged the man in a low, whining voice that was completely different from his stern appearance.

The boy did not say anything more, and fell into a deep sleep after drinking a few sips of water.

The middle-aged man shook his head helplessly, picking up the boy in his arms and walking into the house, placing the boy on a bed mat in the room.

He reached out his hand again to touch the boy's forehead, testing its temperature. When he felt that it had cooled down somewhat, he finally left, relieved. The stress of the past few moments had caused him to break out in a sweat as well, so he desperately needed a cold bath right now.

The man's footsteps faded into the distance, and he entered another room, closing the door with a bang.

Only then did the boy lying on the mat slowly open his eyes.