45 Heart Chamber

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Inside the Frozen Chamber, furious and ruthless cold wind grazed Sieg's skin over and over again. His whole body was shivering and covered with a thin layer of ice. His body is completely covered by snow since he was sitting down for quite sometime already and silently enduring the baptism of the cold.

Inside his body, almost all of his blood vessels are turning blue along with his skin, his heartbeat was also slowing down and his blood flow moved like a snail. Thoughts of falling asleep filled his head and his Ki flow, and even spiritual flow became really sluggish.

This scenario is completely similar to when he changed his Ki Manual, the only difference is that now he's prepared and this cold is stronger than the previous one he experienced, which also means, his preparations were useless.

'The jade slip warned that it's cold here. What the fuck is that kind of warning though. Are they seriously expecting us to think that there would be lava inside a frozen environment? Do they think we're stupid?'

This must be the most useless warning Sieg ever read in his entire life, he was fighting the urge not to ask who made that jade slip and punch them in their guts for putting such a useless warning.

Nonetheless, Sieg continued enduring this cold environment. Of course, Sieg isn't the person who would do something completely unnecessary. The reason why he endured the cold is because he wanted to deepen his connection with the Ice Element. He wasn't just sitting down and gritting his teeth to persevere until the one hour was finished. He was also familiarizing himself about what 'coldness' should feel like and thinking on how he could emit the same kind of feeling when he execute an attack.

But aside from this, Sieg also felt weird sensation inside this realm. It was something mysterious and incredibly profound at the same time. He felt it is something very powerful, similar to what the 'dew-like' thing inside his body, he had no idea what it was and he can't explain how it felt properly with words as well, all he did know is that it's very powerful.

Because Sieg didn't knew what is this feeling, he decided to ignore it for now, he was sure that sooner or later he would these anyway and poured all of his attention to the task at hand.

Time quickly passed and Sieg's one hour already finished, he was instantly teleported out of the Frozen Chamber and appeared outside the door. This event happened so fast that Sieg was caught off guard. It wasn't something incredibly bad though so he ignored it.

He went to the changing area since the clothes that he wore before entering the area is now completely drenched, it was previously covered in snow and ice before and as he teleported out, the snow and ice melted thus resulting in a wet clothes.

After changing, he didn't immediately entered another chamber, he decided to spend some time making a decision. Although he wanted to try the rooms he picked earlier, he had to plan carefully so that he could control his merit points.

He thought that going to the Warrior's Chamber now would be a waste since all he could do there to check how many beast he could kill in an hour, it would be more beneficial for him to enter this place once he got a new blade art. He also hold onto going inside the Chamber of Insights. Though this room is extremely mysterious for him and he really wanted to pay a visit, 20 merit points is just an amount that he can't spend so casually right now. So in the end, he chose to enter the Heart Chamber.

As he told the attendant about his decision, he heard him say:

"Since you've seen the jade slip earlier, I won't do too much nagging, just be extremely careful. Remember that you could only rely on yourself." Then the attendant took something out from his pocket and placed it in Sieg's hand, "This is an exit badge, crush this if you can't hold on anymore."

Sieg nodded and placed the attendants words in his heart, he also held onto the badge tightly.

To be totally honest, he is incredibly nervous about this.

'Just what type of Heart Demons do I have?' He curiously thought, be he also knew that thinking about this now is useless for he would find out eventually after entering the portal.

The door for the Heart Chamber is made out of wood, there's also some thin vines that are curling around it with leaves growing in them. The bark of the wood remained vibrant, it is also still pumping with life which made Sieg amazed by it. Just how did such a decoration able to emit a sign of life? This is a huge mystery for Sieg as of now.

The wooden door of the Heart Chamber opened after the attendant made some few hand gestures, and just like the Frozen chamber, Sieg saw the familiar appearance of a portal.

He steeled himself, took a deep breath and entered the portal.

Sieg felt a slight headache upon doing so, it feels like his head hit an invisible wall or something, there was a throbbing sensation in his head and he felt slightly apprehensive.

He opened his eyes while massaging his temples, what he almost bewildered him.

'Is this...Dark Bamboo Forest?' He thought as he saw the familiar looking dark bamboos around him.

He tried touching one of them and felt the similar rough texture of the bamboo, he also felt it's leaves, the surrounding grass and he even lay down in the ground to confirm his suspicions. But for him, everything was so real.

'Remember that you could only rely on yourself' as the attendant's voice echoes through his, he felt a pant of shock and his body visibly trembled. Cold sweat drenched his back and his head throbbed even more.

He felt this sharp pain on his head for quite sometime before he finally recovered and was gasping for air.

'That was too close.' He mumbled in his head. For a moment he really thought that everything around him was real, his couldn't believe that this dimension could even fool his senses. Nothing even happened and yet he's already struggling this much. And even though his head doesn't hurt that much anymore, there's still a sting left in there which greatly puzzled him. He just couldn't find out why he was hurting.

He decided to walk around the area while still massaging his temples. He looked around to find clues on what should he do in here. He knew that there is a reason why he was transferred in here, he just needed to find out what that is.

After walking around for quite sometime, he heard a sound which caught his attention.

It was like a tiny squeaking sound that has a joyful rhythm on it, it was coming from the north which is surrounded with thick bushes.

For some reason, hearing this sound made Sieg felt a burning sensation in his chest, his heart was also violently pounding and he don't understand why. But these signs made him want to check just what's behind these bushes.

He forced his way through these thick bushes, parting them using his hand, as he walked forward the squeaking noise became louder and louder until finally he saw the source of that sound.

He saw large basket, inside these basket is white blanket covering the body of a helpless, adorable and giggling baby. This baby have short black hair, same colored eyes, and a fair skin tone. It looks like the baby is a boy, his giggles echoed throughout the whole area where Sieg.

Beside the basket, is snake. It is about a meter and half in length and some inches wide, it looked at the baby and was emitting hisses of annoyance.

Sieg's mind went blank after seeing this, his mind and his body shook in disbelief.

'This baby is me!' He shouted in his mind. At a very young age, Sieg's first foster parents told him that they found him inside the Dark Bamboo Forest. Someone left him inside a large basket and they saw him being eyed on by a snake. 'What is happening in here?' He asked in his head.

He tried to move but it was like there's some invisible chains surrounding his body preventing him from moving any muscle. No matter how hard he struggled to break free, he can't break these invisible chains at all. He wanted to slash the snake in half to save the baby, or himself but he can't even issue a sound.

What happened next made Sieg's world almost crumble in pieces. The snake moved, it wrapped itself around the basket and it's head is so close to the head of baby Sieg.

As he saw this happened, his heart tightened, he clutched his hand so hard that he could almost feel it wet with blood, his was furiously struggling to break free but he can't, he wanted to shout or intimidate the snake but he can't. The snake was just a normal snake, weak to the point that if it saw grown up Sieg, it would scurry away as far as possible. But these current conditions doesn't apply to Sieg or the snake. All he could do is just helplessly stare at his previous self being threatened by an animal that he could easily trample. This feeling of weakness is torturing him to madness.

As his heart tensed up and his mind worked at an incredible speed to find an answer, he remember the attendant's words. His whole body shook once again and he shouted in his mind:

"None of this is real! This is just an illusion! I won't allow myself to be defeated by a mere Heart Demon!"

And just like a heavenly judgement, his words reverberated inside the area and a massive axe fell down from the heavens. It sliced the head of the snake, separating it from it's body. Snake's blood spurted out from the severed head and scattered all over the basket where baby Sieg is.

Grown up Sieg gasped for air, his heart was still raising and he felt exhaustion all over his body. The invisible chains that restricted him disappeared as his body slumped to the ground. He also coughed out a mouthful of blood.

Sieg heard baby Sieg cried out loud, he was clearly terrified of what just happened. Grown up Sieg wanted to rush over and comfort him but he couldn't find the strength to do so. It wasn't until he heard some commotions behind him that tensed up his countenance.

"Irene! Come he's safe." He hear a middle aged man's voice echoed, after that two people emerged out of the bushes.

The middle aged man had a head full of brown hair, a sharp countenance and full neck beard, he was about 6 and half meters tall and is wearing a regular lumberjack's clothing. Behind him is a fair and gentle looking woman, she too have brown hair, slender body and a delicate countenance.

The two of the walked passed grown up Sieg like they didn't even noticed him there. They hurried over to baby Sieg and crouched down to look at his condition.

"The baby is fine, he is just shocked by brother Gerald's axe." The woman named Irene said while chuckling and wiping the blood away from baby Sieg's face.

"Is that so? Well, I'm sorry little guy, I did it for your safety okay? Stop crying." The man named gerald held baby Sieg and tried to stop him from crying.

Grown up Sieg looked at these scene, he felt hot tears coming from his eyes and his vision becoming blurry.

"Ge, I found something inside the basket." Irene said, she was holding a tag of some sorts.

"What does it say?" Gerald say while he looked at baby Sieg who is now playing with his beard.

"I think his name is Sieg-something, I can't make up the rest of the words since it's incredibly blurry." Irene frowned and told him. She looked up to see Gerald struggling to keep baby Sieg's hand off his beard, she laughed and said: "It seems that he likes you? Should we adopt him?"

Gerald thought for a while and stared at the newborn in his hands. Baby Sieg just laughed and showed him his gummy smile, this made Gerald chuckle and said: "Yes, yes we will do that."

Grown up Sieg felt even more emotional, his tears are now uncontrollable but he steeled his heart and crushed the badge from his hands.