The Pathway 36 The Forsaken Palace The Garden

Reena pretended as if she was just seeing him for the first time with a look of shock and surprise.

"Mother! It's really you."

Jufeng ran to his mother and gave her a hug. Momentarily, he forgot about the situation they were in as he continued to hold his mother. After taking control of himself again, he looked in bewilderment at his mother.

"Mother you are here too. Did you also know about the palace? How's grandma, grandpa and uncle Primus?"

"Easy now. They are all fine. I heard about the location of the palace from some merchants and decided to come and check it out. Sometimes, it's good to see the world outside. Luckily for me I found it just as described with the gates opened and I entered."

With her head lowered, she continued to feign suprise as she looked on at her son affectionately.

"But, what are you doing here? Are you not suppose to be learning right now?"

Reena raised her head and glimpsed the other disciples.

"It seems we have a little group here. Are you out on adventure too?"

"Uhm.. yes mother. This is our luminary week. So, we decided to go out on a little adventure. These are my friends, Chenric, Daxia and Yingjie. Together with our sect elder, elder w.a.n.g Xiu."

Voiced Jufeng as he introduced them to his mother who acknowledged them one by one but changed to her mindvoice as she communicated with elder w.a.n.g Xiu.

"I greet you, elder w.a.n.g Xiu of the Last-Sword sect."

"My greetings too, demiG.o.d. Thank you for your intervention back there. I appreciate it."

"Didn't mattered much. You would have escaped the place like you did anyways."

"Greetings elder w.a.n.g Xiu."

Reena uttered as she extended her cordiality towards elder w.a.n.g Xiu and recieved one in return.

"Greetings demiG.o.d."

"Reena, call me Reena."

Reena switched back to her mindvoice as she continued to address elder w.a.n.g Xiu.

"You could have left once that seal was broken but you stayed. You would have escaped but your disciples might not have been so lucky, hence you decided to stay behind. You are a true elder. I commend you, elder w.a.n.g Xiu."

"Thank you lady Reena. Unforseen dangers occur sometimes."

"Yes, they do."

They turned their attention back to the scenery in front of them. Truly, the forsaken palace was a glorious place to behold. The place was so peaceful and serene that a cultivator could meditate without any disturbance. This was a place truly befitting a Jade emperor and emperor Wan Bao was as ancient as they could get.

After a moment of delibration, they decided that the best course of action was to continue moving forward. Since they didn't know who or what could be outside the gates were they to leave especially with Lang Hai still trailing them.

They gradually began walking down the entrance path that led to the palace. They had only taken a few steps down the path when they heard a voice.

"Stop. Show me your pa.s.s."

A huge figure in a large black drape suddenly but silently, appeared from the thin air right before them. His exceedingly large frame could only mean one thing, a giant. White, curly hair tight in a ponytail with a furrowed face of hollow brown eyes that were set firmly within their sockets. Half dead eyes that seemed to watch cautiously over the soul they've been isolated from for so long. A large ragged beard that matched his eyes and would leave a haunting memory of his former glory. But, what really caught the eye were the golden seal around his neck and the golden rune on his forehead.

A residuum [a remains of an existence].

Residuum was a fragment of an ent.i.ty's previous self containing part of the consciousness necessary to function, diminished life-force that would dissipate if the seal and rune were removed and the soul that was entrapped inside the broken sh.e.l.l of the ent.i.ty's own body at the point of death. The ent.i.ty was no longer dying or completely dead and wouldn't be able to die completely and to reincarnate until being freed from the bondage. This was a forbidden practice. When an ent.i.ty was subjected to death, the soul had to undergo a reincarnation. That was the law of creation. Preventing a soul from reincarnating was against this law of creation.

"Your key."

Chenric quickly fished out the large jasper ring and showed him.

As soon as he saw the ring, the giant waved his hand and the ring appeared in his hand. He examined the ring before lifting his head to gaze at them with a short nod of his head in cognizance.

"Welcome to the grand palace of the eternal Jade emperor, Wan Bao. I am Dargehk, the caretaker of this palace. Since you were having the ring which showed your right to be here, I will treat you fairly. But, you won't be getting the ring back. The alignment is right and all the five keys are now here which meant the palace would cease to be accessible after this period. This palace is a domain world created with rules. Obey the rules while you are here."

With his gaze still fixed on them, he paused for an instant before he continued.

"You are ent.i.tled to a fruit each as a welcome gift. If you are ready, follow me."

Dargehk moved to a location on the right side of the walkway that overlooked the garden and made a hand seals gestures. A path appeared before him and gestured for them to follow.

They moved to the opened entrance leading to the garden. They expected to see what they already saw from the outside but what they were seeing was a different scenery from the one they saw from the outside.

The first sight was that of a path of marble stones that looped around the garden. Ruby beds of gra.s.s that were accompanied by what seemed to be mutated ruby flower bushes and shrubs. There was a runic fountain of mist that stood near the back of the garden, spouting mist high up into the air. Behind the ruby flower bushes and shrubs were the plants and different types of spirit gra.s.ses. After them were the ancient huge trees with single fruit each. Most of them had no fruits since they had been plucked.

Jufeng and the other three disciples could only look on in utter alarm at the scenery in front of them. What had appeared to be a peaceful and beautiful garden turned out to be the exact opposite. They need to thread carefully.

"This is different from what we saw from the outside?"

"Doesn't look the same garden?"

"What's with the place?"

Reena and elder w.a.n.g Xiu observed where they were carefully with their divine and spiritual sight respectively but didn't see any sign of deception.

"What did we missed?"

Degarhk turned to look at them with indifference.

"This is the true state of the garden. The ruby beds are ancient death beds that would entrap anyone who forcefully enters or disobey the garden rules. The same thing with the misty fountain. But how could you have seen it from the outside? This is a G.o.dly domain. True, it exists here but it's not part of the mortal plane. Afterall, you are just a demiG.o.d and you, only a nascent soul. How could you have known?"

"Are you an ascendant or hegemon?"

The highest a cultivator could go in the mortal plane before being forcefully ejected from it into the heavenly plane through the heavenly tribulations was an ascendant. Ascendant were nascent soul cultivators who had reached the gates of G.o.dhood and had traces of G.o.dhood traits. If an ascendant didn't want to be sent out of the mortal plane, the ascendant would have to let go these traces of G.o.dhood and would be able to undergo a different tribulations from that of ascension.

The abate tribulations.

This tribulations made an ascendant a permanent hegemons with no possibility of future ascension. Hegemons were ascendants that refused ascension into the heavenly plane.

"Ascendant or hegemon?"

Dargehk asked as he glared at Reena in dismay.

"Ah, what a pity."

He shook his head as he gazed at an unseen past.

"I, mighty Dargehk of the giant race. I was once a renowned genius from the planet Zorda. My fame and prestige were known throughout my birth world and different parts of the mortal plane. So mighty I was in those days that few cultivators ever confronted me."
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He looked at the them before shaking his head.

"You have no idea who I am, do you? Hm, I thought as much. I don't fault you. How could you know anyway, you definitely had never seen me before now. I became a lowG.o.d when most giants were still trying to form a nascent soul. After that, It never took me long to become a highG.o.d. But my ego took a hold of me and I under-estimated my opponent. I Dargehk, how many could face the wrath of my Oblivion?"

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu remembered a text about an axe called Oblivion, owned by a giant. The giant that had caused destruction in the Mightybound realms that caused the intervention of the celestials.

"Dargehk the barbarian?"

"Aha, so you have heard of my name."

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu, in utter alarm, could only nod her head but kept her mouth shut. The others didn't know who Dargehk was but from the expression of elder w.a.n.g Xiu, knew the extent of the power of the giant in front of them.

Seeing their tensed state, Dargehk made a gentle laughter.

"Hahaha. You don't need to worry. In here, you are totally safe with me as long as you maintained the rules of this place. So, relax yourselves and enjoy the place. Now, back to the garden. There are many trees you can choose from, each tree as you can see only have one fruit which had taken hundreds of millions of years to ripe. You choose a tree or a plant that connects to you and you place these tokens under it before taking the fruit or the plant."

With a swipe of his hand, he sent six golden tokens to them before continuing.

"You are allowed to choose only one fruit tree or plant. Anything you choose depends on how fortunate you are. You can start."

Jufeng watched as everybody started contemplating on Dargehk's words and the whole event. The state of apprehension had receeded and they were already warming up to him. But they were still cautious of the place. This was a G.o.dly place afterall.

Despite many fruits being taken over the years, there were quite a number of coloured fruits still left in the garden. He moved around cautiously as he examined the fruits. Some had started placing their tokens under the tree of their preferred fruits.

He continued until he came to a tree with a yellow fruit freckled in red. He observed the tree and the fruit for a time before deciding to move on. He had started moving when he suddenly changed his mind and stopped. He turned back and placed his token under the fruit tree. The tree lowered its fruit enough for him to pluck it. The fruit seemed a bit weird with the freckles but looked robust.

He joined others who were holding their own fruits and examining them as they waited for elder w.a.n.g Xiu who arrived shortly afterwards. With all of them back with their fruits, they turned their attention to Dargehk who had been patiently waiting where he was standing.

"Now that you all have your gift, would you like to know what you each have?"

He asked them as he glanced from one face to the other and recieved nods in return.

"Alright then. You, young cultivator."

He pointed at Chenric.

"What you have is the River Root spirit fruit. The River Root tree was taken as a seed from the ever dangerous Crimson realm due to a fortunate encounter. Though it was here on the mortal realm, the Crimson realm was an extremely dangerous place. The fruit you are holding can easily take you to the Jindan level, if not to the threshold of nascent soul, from your current stage. Even a mortal could reach evanesce core, at the least, from eating that fruit. You are inbetween the Lianchi and Zhuji stage as I can see. You need not worry, with that fruit, you will easily form your golden core. The quality of your golden core is left to you by the way."

Beside Chenric was Daxia who had been apprehensively waiting for her own turn.

"Your own is the Twin Soul spirit fruit. One of the rarest fruit you can find on any plane. This particular tree seed was found in the Million Dream realm. With that fruit you are holding, you can form your mortal image. A second you with all your features but only with a fragment of your will-power and soul. How wonderful it is to have another you in the mortal realm although your image wouldn't be able to cultivate. How you protect your image is left to you."

Yingjie got the Wyvern Scale spirit fruit.

"The spirit fruit that you are holding was a powerful one. The fruit tree was grown from a seed of a tree that grew on the spot where a dragon-like primordial beast was found by the divines after the last primordial war. How fortunate you are. It would make your body almost indestructible when facing an opponent of Jindan level and below. Though, a nascent soul would incinerate your body nonetheless."

Flame essence spirit fruit was in the hand of Reena.

"The flame essence. The tree of which could only be found in the Fiery Abyss after the Seven Inferno realms. As a demiG.o.d of the nascent soul stage, if you eat that fruit, your ascension could be very near. The fruit will transform the fire element in your Chi. Your mystical art would be displaying a compressed fire of the ascendant level at the least. It might even remove your mystical art's physical manifestation just like the G.o.dly level. Know this, demiG.o.d, when you eat the fruit in your hand, your mystical art would transform and with that would come tribulations and ascension."

Dargehk looked at the fruit in elder w.a.n.g Xiu's hand.

"Your fruit is called G.o.dly Valor spirit fruit. You can't even phantom the power of the fruit you are holding. Although, it has good sides and bad sides. When you eat the fruit, it will give you a G.o.dly power for a day. The type of the G.o.dly power, lowG.o.d, highG.o.d or trueG.o.d depends on you. Only for a day. And the day after, you will be weak to engage in any form of fight. So, day after you eat it, stay faraway from fight as far as possible. If not, you may die."

When it finally reached Jufeng's turn, he stared expectantly at the terrifying giant who was standing a few yards away from him. He extended his hand forward properly for him to see it clearly.

"Yes, the Heavenly Solitude spirit fruit. In the world of cultivaton, few things compare to soul meditation. Every cultivator needs meditation to advance the soul. This fruit tree was from the Slumber Monks mountain in the Bodhi realm on the heavenly plane. A fruit of this kind would take hundreds of millions of years to be like this. It's only when you eat it that you will see with your own eyes."

After watching their reactions for a while, Dargehk raised his voice.

"Time to leave the garden. Follow me."

He moved towards the way they came from and they all followed him.

Jufeng who had been quiet since they recieved the description of their fruits continued to wonder what he did to deserve this particular fruit out of all the ones in the garden. Everybody in the group got a great fruit apart from him. Heavenly Solitude! Soul meditation! Sounded more like solitary solitude fruit. He had been meditating from his childhood. Why is everybody looking for a way for him to die in meditation?

They left the garden and returned to the walkway leading to the palace.

Dargehk turned around to face them with eyes firmly on them.

"You have all recieved the welcome gifts. Now, I ask you all, do you want to go back or you want to proceed to the palace?"

His gaze was still on them as he continued.

"If you decide to go back now, the gates will be opened for you to leave. If you proceed to the palace, you will have six hours in this place before you are all ejected. Everything you get, you keep. If you can't continue, say 'Dargehk' and you'll be ejected to the portal archlit where you will have to wait for the others."

They looked at one another and after thoughtful delibration, they decided to proceed. Why not? They would just say his name. Moreover, they wouldn't be able to come back in the future.

"Continue along the walkway until you come to the palace. There you will come to the presence of the outer palace guards. If you are able to pa.s.s them, you will meet me inside."

With that, Dargehk disappeared silently and the group continued to walk on. As they neared the front of the palace doors, two voices suddenly boomed out.

"Well, well, well. Femara, What do we have here?"

"Oh Neviria, we have a new set after the treasures. Emperor treasures. Hehehe."

"Six treasures hunters from five no-G.o.ds to a demiG.o.d, very interesting."

"All of you, come forward and stand in front of the Emerald eye."

The group slowly stepped forward and a large emerald eye appeared in front of them.