Young Master Bai Changming (2/2)

Dragon City, one of the Tier-I cities governed by the Bai Clan, is a big prosperous city with area even more than most dynasties of the Dao Realm. It is a city where sun never sets.

Dragon City is one of the scenic cities full of nightlife along with lowest crime rate among all the major cities in the whole Dao Realm as the Bai Clan heavily bolsters it. Due to this heightened security many scholars who are were not given chance to publish their theories in old established scholar cities and inventors who were betrayed by the very people they believed in or were thrown aside after draining their use major clans can be sure that they will never face anything like that due to Bai Clan managing the city directly.

All this free flow of thoughts led to the birth of a city which not only contains architectural senses from different realms but also contains huge skyscrapers found in advanced Mortal Realms, strange polygon building which rotates on its own based on the alien theories beyond the Universe itself, and undercity for those who belong to underworld and those who are poor and helpless. Dragon CIty, from a small military base city has become the very city which symbolizes the 5 Upper realms and 100,000 realms under them.

But irrespective of the progress towards freedom of speech and free flow of ideas, it also hides various unspeakable facts underneath its shadow. Among many urban legends people living in this City of Progress hold three restricted areas very dearly to their heart and anyone entering the city directly or indirectly implied to never enter these forbidden zones as even Dao Ancestors has fallen to death there in past.

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In the outskirts of the city there are mountain ranges completely occupied by the Bai Clan and today on the day of the Realm Games many of them left their posts on free holidays to take their families to see the competition in the arena. But even then, around five million strong people are here to protect the Dragon City from any harm.

The whole White Forest Mountain Range is so huge that it itself is almost equal to half Dragon City. Among many peaks, there are four Private Peaks created for the use of the use of elders of the Bai Clan for recreational purposes or to cultivate in peace. Among the four peaks there is one barren peak which holds a special meaning for Bai Clan of the past, it was the centre of the very base from which Dragon City was formed and only a few old people remembered that in Ancient War the outpost was in White Forest, not in the Central Area of Dragon City and most believe right now.

Equipped with a well-maintained ancient building with no servants a museum for Ancient War now stood there. The children of various clans are allowed to come here to witness and remember the past glory of the Universe.

Even with no security guards it is the most fortified peak as no one could dare to try passing the mountain ranges protected by the barrier mantained by the Rank 9 Immortal Array Masters and which is even capable of taking 3 blows from Dao Ancestor level powerhouses while seriously injuring them.

After a few hours of the match, in the night where all the realms enjoy a spirit of festival, a shadow passed through the forest as if it is invisible to al the security measures the mighty Bai Clan made. As it reached the blue barrier it a hard male hand came from the shadow and flashed a white crane amulet and passed through it easily.

He entered the grand halls of the historic war base remodeled as a museum. He didn't care for the antique fragments and weapons lying there and went straight to the grand library near cafetaria. As he entered the library a few bulbs started by itself revealing the shadow to be a middle age uncle with a small cut across his right eye and samurai clothes with big hat only seen in the Shogun Villages in the Demon Realm.

He was undisturbed in slightest as if he is habitual to see this. With the moments so fluid as if he repeated them a thousand times, he went to the Kid Books section and picked a book containing the story of an evil god defeated by the hero of light and tapped five times on the right bottom margin of the page 72. As soon as he finished tapping the ink on the pages of the book gathered on the centre and became an eye with no pupil. A white light flashed from it and moved across the face of the samurai. Soon a mechanical female voice sounded throughout the library.

[Identity Confirmed: Number 10, Codename: Kenshin. Request for space jump authorized. Please hold to a stationery item near you during the transfer for a safe journey. The space jump will be initiated in 10 seconds]

"Sigh, here we go again."

With a tired face thinking of nauseous feelings that stemmed from his subconscious he moved fast and picked the large sofa he usually picks and lay on it while gripping it as tight as possible.

[...3,2,1. Space Jump initiated. Have a wonderful day, Number 10]

The whole aura of the library fluctuated; one-foot-wide black rotating circles etched on every wall of the library which remain invisible every second on a normal day shined with a mysterious glow. Soon a big white magic circle made of many small magical spells with unknown archaic languages appeared and floated midair. It resonated with the black circles and got connected with each of them with a white line, soon all the black circles started to become rotate with a huge rumbling sound.

Kenshin looked at them with a weak stomach and braced even harder, and soon everything started vibrating faster than the speed of sound. He clenched his jaw and embraced the sofa tighter as a blue light flashed throughout the library from the big circle and the whole library vanished from the building.

After a few seconds in an underground empty area the library appeared with Kenshin wobbling inside it. He tried to calm his breath and found himself chocked on the black miasma which appeared in his vision, and he knew that the library moved the correct space this time.

Controlling his weak stomach, he dashed to the door to find a lounge with sofas and transparent crystal masks besides them, he picked one sofa in random and hurriedly picked up the mask and used his Qi to activate it. Soon an orange magic spell appeared on it creating weak Qi from the black miasma around him which was enough for him to survive in one of the urban legends of the Dragon City the Dark Hole where no one could survive for long as with no Qi to protect against the dark miasma which kills cells as soon as it enters the body.

Of course, no one else besides the secret organization which he is part of would dare to create office in such an area. He knew well the value of the mask on him is enough to drive ancient clans crazy as there are more than one region filled with black miasma like the Dark Hole of Dragon City some are even bigger than it, and all the big clans tried to explore then but failed every time.

After breathing a few deep puffs and exhaling the miasma he opened the double door leading to the huge meeting room and office of the organization. The whole cave was filled with dark miasma but unlike being filled with darkness, like lounge it was fitted with Immortal glow stones on every piece of one square foot creating well lightning conditions.

Not only that, a huge chandelier of ancient times lies above an even bigger round table where 15 seats were laid down with numbers from 0-14 etched on the back of the chairs. The chairs were made from the world tree of Demon Realm while the huge table was made from the largest Blue Sea Gem ever found in the history.

Ignoring other pieces of furniture which could make collectors die for even to touch them he reached the chair bearing marking of "0" and drew out a scarlet gem from his pocket and placed it in a hole at the centre of the back of the chair. As soon as the gem moved in the hole scarlet lines appeared on the screen and became a light that created a door beside him.

"Sigh, even after seeing this so many times I am not able to understand properly how he created this type of system."

While he marvelled at the scene in front of him a black shadow approached behind him alerting and making him take a defensive stance for the incoming attack, but he was a little late as the shadow covered his body and placed a runic blade across his defenseless neck. After a few seconds, the shadow released him and to appear as a young elf with black lustrous hair and pale skin. The young elf was handsome in his own right and was facial features of the biggest hero of the elf race and a golden circle on his forehead which represents that he is the part of High Elf Royalty.

But most interesting thing for anyone looking at the scene would not that the fact an elf is capable of move comfortably in black miasma as being a member of Old Race they were full of tricks like these but the fact that this Royalty was wearing a black butler's dress and white gloves as royals even now would die rather than serve someone besides them.

He released Kenshin and looked approvingly at him "You have improved a lot since you came here. This time your reaction time was faster by 0.15 second, I saw this type of improvement once before from Number 11 and look how strong he is now. You have potential Kenshin, let's have a full-on fight so that I could point you better."

Kenshin, with a foul mouth at hearing the words from the battle hungry elf, ignored him and opened the door only to find his wrist strongly clamped on his hand by the elf.

Unlike previously where elf was easy going and smiling at him the current elf became a cold blade ready to kill Kenshin the very next moment. With his cold temperament rising even shadows under the Immortal Glow stones waved as if they were coming out to answer the calls from the elf.

Kenshin could have released his own strength to counter him but refused because of the matter in hand and coldly said "I got the final ingredient Alpha, let me go and deliver it, if you want to play, we can play after I am done."

Alpha's expressions changed as soon as he heard and went being a professional butler with trained etiquettes.

"Are you the one who got it. You must have grown well enough to get it from Abyss Mouth, come back as soon as possible, I now want to help you grow stronger even more."

Alpha withdrew his hand and moved his hands like an experienced butler and moved himself as if welcoming him to enter the room, even urging him to enter it hurriedly and come back to entertain him.

Kenshin rolled his eyes and felt his energy drained after thinking about the tiredness he will experience for days after this task. He then passed through the door and the door vanished from the cave leaving Alpha there alone who looked the chair number 0 and the cave around him; he whispered in low creepy voice "So, the time has come for the Lord to grace the world. I should work faster to prepare the gift I planned for his ascension." and then he vanished in the darkness leaving the cave completely empty to work on his project and come back soon to train Kenshin.

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Kenshin found himself standing in the entrance of the natural hot springs after passing a few teleportation gates and finally found the head of the organization who desired the items he obtained for the last 5 years.

He found the smell coming from the hot spring strange and paused a bit, he bent down to touch it and stand up with blank hollow eyes as he was experiencing some new shock to his remaining common sense, most of which got destroyed the moment he knew about the organization. He then looked slowly at the huge bath and muttered soullessly the silhouette sitting a few meters in front of him "Young Master you used Wood Jade Spirit for this bath?"

A gentle playful voice came from the figure soaking in the bath "Of course, don't tell me that you don't bath with it, with the money you are making now it should be enough to have a bath like this every day."

"Young Master, I have a clan to feed. Forget about using this immortal grade holy water I don't have personal stash to enjoy a bath with mortal elixirs."

"Sigh, you are missing on a lot of Kenshin. By the way has Alpha returned to the office."

"Yes, I met him while coming here."

Then a surprised voice came out from the figure "Really? You entered the base only a few minutes ago as far as I know, and today Alpha didn't catch you to 'educate' you?"

"No, as even he would not dare to make me meet you any second late when I got the final item from the list."

The gentle captivating voice of the man covered in the mist stopped for a few seconds before the sounds of thick holy water moving to give him a path echoed in the natural hot spring inside the cave.

As the person came towards Kenshin the silhouette grew larger and finally revealing a breathtaking being.

The man has jet-black shiny long hair reaching his waist. With his sharp dark-brown eyes and a slightly angular face his perfect face showed how well he had inherited the genes from most beautiful couple of the Dao Realm. Looking at the ripped but lean body covered in the gleam of holy water even he gulped down hard as he found the man this attractive for the first time in his long life.

"Cough, young master please wear the clothes. Show some decency my lord!"

"Come on Kenshin, you are a man, I am a man, and we are standing on a freaking bath, you expect me to wear a suit here? I know that I am a being so beautiful that it looks like heaven created me with care but even then, could you, a man with over five children, be charmed by me?"

Kenshin stuttered a bit and denied the allegation "No, young master, I just care for your i..image."

"Yeah, caring for my image in a dark cave where only we are standing. Don't speak more, you are even embarrassing me now."

With blushed face Kenshin looked down. Before he met him he made jokes on his wife about how much she adored Bai Changming to which she retorted that he is first in ranking for the beauty among the men for all the realms, with many agreeing that he is even more beautiful than the Immortal Empresses on the female list and chided him that unlike his husky shell Young Master is a holy being. He scoffed at her as he knew precisely how diabolic the person is and even after meeting him a lot of times, he never found him so much attractive, but now when he saw him like this, he found it strange why he considered him average in appearance.

Watching Kenshin's changing appearance Bai Changming knew his feelings as even a fool could see his shit eating expression. He ignored him and tapped on the watch on his left wrist to see a floating screen of seven inches which was remarkably like the Smart Phones currently selling hot in the Dragon City and a magic spell appeared on top him, drying him, he then picked out a bath robe from his storage ring on his right hand and draped it over himself.

Looking at its Kenshin felt relieved as he felt like as if his sexual orientation were changing the longer he saw the scene, he struggled a lot and finally asked the question appearing in mind constantly "Young Master, your appearance, it feels very different now....Why?"

"Of course it is different, I must remove all the immortal spells before coming to bath here or else I could not use the elixir properly. It is a immortal spell my mother laid out on me to protect me from girls pouncing on me. The appearance you see now is my true one without the interference of the spell, only a few have seen it beyond my close people. You should be proud now."

"For that matter, Young Master, I believe that your photos of this appearance are in circulation between women as my wife did say that you are still number one ranked male beauty..."

He smiled sleepily and scratched his head awkwardly "Ah, five years ago I was forced to model for my aunt, who also happened to be the leader of the jury of the voters of this ranking. She promised me to give a huge capital to start some companies, so I said why not and did it.

But I cannot believe that I am still in top rankings...Sigh, are the men of the realms are so ugly now that a kid like me is still Rank 1? Hm, should we make a beauty cream for men? I am sure that we could earn well with it if the ugly men increased in population during these 5 years."

"No, young master, please no. Have mercy on us, it is you who have distorted sense. While being a mortal you shook my entire being, an Immortal man like me went to trance upon seeing you, you expect some other man to do be more destructive that this? If there is such a man living, then the entire world I know of would be destroyed."

"Very well, that may be true, it has been a long while I appeared in public and don't know how my body changed over these years.

Well, anyway get over this Kenshin, give me the item. I waited a way too long for this moment."

Kenshin then gave him a transparent bottle filled of black slimy goo which squirmed as if it was alive.

Bai Changming examined it without opening it and nodded to find it an acceptable ingredient and brought out a bottle of multicoloured liquid from his storage ring and started processing it.

As Kenshin looked at the strange ingredients in front of him, he was not able to stop himself from asking about them.

"Young Master, I found it near the Abyss Gate, outside the gate in a gorge to be precise. But even after looking at it many times I cannot understand it."

"Wait, do you mean to say that it was available outside the gate?"

"Yes."

Bai Changming was a bit taken and looked at him seriously.

"Number 10, Codename Kenshin."

Looking at the serious situation Kenshin removed his layback attitude and replied promptly , "Yes sir."

"Do you the reason why I created the Umbra 10 years ago?"

"No sir."

"Yes, that is right beside a few on the table no one knows the reason Umbra exists, heck I bet many like you would not even know that Umbra means shadow in an ancient alien language."

"Yes sir, thanks for educating me."

"But still, you all are loyal to me. Why? Tell me Kenshin, why you are loyal to organization and to me?"

"Sir, we all respect you and w-"

"Stop the Bullshit Number 10! Do you dare to speak more bullshit like this!? Respect me? I am not a fucking Holy Son of Dao Realm here but the Number 0 with a Codename Cipher, similarly you are not the Shogun of South but Number 10 with Codename Kenshin. Don't sugar-coat your words and treat me as a Young Master here Kenshin. Now speak truth Kenshin, only truth."

"Sir, we all came here for our own benefits in beginning. The Umbra helped us well when we were in pinch, that's why we serve Umbra well. But sir, I may sound wrong to you now, but to tell you a truth, all the numbers below you do respect you for what you have done for realms and for all of us. Many of us are even alive thanks to you, not the Bai Clan sir."

He continued while speaking with sheer conviction while looking at Bai Changming with his blazing eyes "And I can assure that we respect Umbra and you very deeply. You may treat your acts as trivial and not deserving of respect, but we can not do the same sir, so please have some self-confidence over what you have done, almost all the new innovations came from you and Umbra, now many cities are starting to adopt the culture you enforced in Dragon City, we respect you for all you did while taking almost zero benefits.

The Shogun of South would not come here for a fetch quest for a mere Young Master of Bai Clan sir. Likewise, the royalty of the Old Race like Hight Elves at the World Tree would not come to serve as a servant to the Young Master Bai Changming who have Bai Clan and Heavenly Emperor as backing, no, that man like all of us came together to serve the Cipher of the Umbra."

Baffled and embarrassed by this outburst Bai Changming softened his gaze and sighed.

"Thank you for your words. But irrespective of the fact that you all have come to respect Umbra or me I am still at fault of not explaining the reason I started this organization, a shadow organization separate from any clan in Universe. I thought that I would not need to explain it for another 10 years, but your words destroyed that fantasy just now."

Hearing this an ominous feelings emerged from the depth of the heart of Kenshin as he really can not understand the reason why a man who could treat the whole universe as a tool stayed most of his life in shadows and acted as a waste for public to make sure that his reputation remains at bottom. But he knew very well a fact, like all the members besides him, that the reason he did all this should be earth-shattering and they will get to know them when time is right.

"...Shall I contact other members of the table and convene the meeting?"

Bai Changming hesitated a bit but finally rejected his idea "No, not at this time. I will tell you the real purpose of the Umbra right now and will call the meeting after a week as I would need time to test and digest the serum."

"Serum?"

"Yes, the things you all gathered for five years are ingredients of a serum used to hack the DNA and gain inborn powers hidden there. With this serum even mortals could challenge the cultivators."

Kenshin widened his eyes as he understood well the significance of the words and felt deeper fear and reverence to the man creating it. As if reading his thoughts Bai Changming shrugged his shoulders "Don't look at me like this. I learned the formula from the tomb of one of the Dao Ancestor at the Bay Clan and only gathered the ingredients with the help of you all. I am not a genius intelligent enough to develop this."

Kenshin looked him strangely and felt as if he was being treated as an idiot here. He knew very well that no Dao Ancestor will hide such a terrible thing in their grave for "someone" to eventually find it. It appears as one of the act where their leader acts embarrassed and tries to hide his greatness. Now, after being over the shock he gained after seeing his real appearance he can see that the man in front of him is still the tsundere leader who is cold and ruthless but gets embarrassed rather easily, just like now.

Looking at his strange gaze he just felt bad as bemoaning in his head 'Damn you idiot! Do you want to hear the truth that I saw the creation of the Hunter Serum by my own eyes and even used one in my previous life on Earth?

Forget about it, it is much better to hold the old people responsible for the things I learned from my past life or else the whole of Umbra will treat me as if I am a damn god and may become a full-on cult of madness. Well, it is near to it the moment I took in idiots like him. But still, it is better to be treated as a tsundere until I could have the strength to facy any consequence of everyone knowing the fact that I reincarnated while being a Mortal Being,'

Sighing at his probable future as a god of a religious shadow cult he felt bad and blamed the fate which cannot let him have an easygoing life even after saving two different worlds in his past life.

"Cough, anyway, the main purpose of Umbra is to stop the Parasites destroying the world. Shocked, aren't you?"

"Hm, not so much, we long knew that the reason you created the Umbra must be earthshattering.

But sir, for saving the world there are many better empowered than us, you yourself can command the whole Dao Realm and save the Universe. And Umbra, to be honest sir, is full of misfits; many of us do have strong individual strength but we are not strong enough to match even one legion of Bai Clan and there are 9 other clans like yours. Why not use them?"

"Do you think that the mighty and aloof Dao Ancestors and Heavenly Emperors of the realms would listen to me? No, they would not. The threat we are facing may feel like a joke to them, but it is a threat which have destroyed multiple Universes since beginning."

"Was this also learnt at the tomb of a Bai Clan Dao Ancestor?"

"Cough, yes. It was a tomb explaining the Hunter Serum and the story of parasites who host deep inside waiting to devourer the whole Universe."

"So, the serum even has a name now, Hunter Serum. Okay, and I am quite sure that this Dao Ancestor is different from the one from who learnt your knowledge of the ancient arcane language you use."

He looked strangely at the Kenshin and felt a little embarrassed about the mention of Dao Ancestors he never even knew about but to make the lies a truth he even started believing that such tomb exists as he knows the best that to fool the someone, he needs to fool himself first.

"Yes, that is right, and there are many other hidden things I currently have not told you and all of them came from the arduous work of Bai Clan Dao Ancestors who travelled beyond the Universe and paved the path pf our genius. It's a shame that only Main Branch of Bai Clan is allowed to visit the tomb, or I would have arranged a field trip for you all, who knows that you would get even more powerful inheritance from there."

Kenshin looked playfully at him and agreed with him "Yes, it is a shame we would never get to see the 'Dao Ancestor' who gave them their inheritances to you and tasked you to save the world. I would surely share the will of the 'Dao Ancestors' with other members and work hard with others to save the world."

Knowing that the things have gone beyond his control he decided to completely ignore his status at Umbra from now own and mixed the colourful liquid and the black goo onto the lfat plate of the Alchemy Table he brought from his alchemy table.

A reaction soon occurred, resulting in fight between the goo and liquid where goo appeared to be defeated by the liquid and soon the whole mixture became a colourless liquid just like normal water.

Bai Changming picked a dropper and used to taste it a little while nodded as he remembered that the Hunter Serum he knew tasted just like this thing.

After transferring some liquid into an injection, he put aside the injection to address the confused Kenshin.

"The black goo you collected is a remain of a parasite. As per the records of the ancestor, these Parasites are mindless beings which leave these black goos when they die. Normally consuming them will lead to multiple organ failure as it cannot be assimilated with any kind of living body. But by using this Hunter Serum we are using poisons of the world to kill the 'will' of destruction in this black goo and convert it into this water like serum."

"So, this is the real appearance of black goo I collected?"

"Yes, over the years I was certain that these parasites are present in Abyss Gates and told you all to look out for this black goo. This was supposed to be inside a gate not just show itself in front of the gate, which means that this came from a parasite who died after coming out of the gate."

"Did it die after coming in contact to our world. I cannot really see how it could endanger us sir. Are you sure that Dao Ancestor made a correct prediction?"

"What do you know? These parasites adapt faster than humans, throw them to void and they will learn how to survive in space after a few months. Throw them into this world and after learning to survive in Qi they will be ready to invade all of us. What you are seeing today is their first stage of invasion which also made me tell you all this as Umbra needs to move faster this time."

"This time?"

"Yes, yes as per ancestor these things have possibly invaded our Universe before too and were sealed in Abyss Gates. They are terribly slow and don't move so fast. But Abyss Gates changed 30 years ago, and as per records we should have found them in our world in more than 100 years the Abyss Gates changed, that is why I told you all to find this inside the Abyss Gates, but who knew that you would find it just outside it."

"...I will arrange a round table meeting as soon as possible with Alpha."

While holding the Hunter Serum in his grasp he nodded at his words.

"Yes, you do so. Arrange the meeting int he Dragon City after a week. I have heard that there is a month-long festival going on now, is it true?"

"Yes, the games started today."

"Oh, those silly ranking games huh. Never mind, let the kids act as our cover and call the numbers to appear officially here. It will take more than a meeting to sort all the things and it has been a long time since we all gathered and have some fun. I will even arrange some seats for all of you for the matches, ah and bring your family, I will arrange at least ten special seats for each of you as I am afraid of being blamed by all of you as a slave driver leader here.

Tell me the number of people you all are planning to bring, just don't come with a number even I can't manage, okay?"

"Yes sir! I will arrange the Round Table Meeting with Alpha as directed and will share you the number of tickets we need after meeting with others on my own as soon as possible."

He was excited to hear about the special tickets as even as a Shogun he gets only one ticket every four years a game occurs and had to skip one game every time to collect another ticket so that at least he could appear at the games with his wife. He moved briskly to the teleport magic spell he came from with a new vigour to complete the tasks assigned like a good child.

Knowing his fate of being defeated gain by the Alpha soon after leaving him Bai Changming decided not to give him one other task he remembered as he was leaving and sighed at the marvellous situation on how the Umbra has corrupted even a heroic samurai to become a lackey like this.

Then he looked at the injection tightly in his mind while muttering.

"I wonder what power I would get this time.

I will also get Umbra to collect the ingredients in bulk at the meeting while also explaining them how to produce the serum after I have tested it properly."

He packed up his alchemy table and looked at the time and found that it was close to his sleeping time and went to the magic spell and changed it to have it transport directly to the Immortal Fairy Hotel he was officially staying at and left the cave.

As soon as he left a stunning peerless woman wearing ethereal white dress appeared exactly where he stood before leaving. With her majestic boundless aura she tried to check the strange circle in front of her but soon got disappointed as the whole network was so vast that even with her enhanced capabilities as a superior being she failed to crack the network.

But soon her disappointment converted to happiness as she smiled sweetly but soon blushed as her eyes moved to the bath and remembered the most stunning scene she saw for a long time.

"He is surely his reincarnation. But while Wang Yan was quite handsome for his time, Bai Changming is...way beyond handsome. When he evolves further his looks will enhance even more, so much that even old ghosts will come to eat him alive. Sigh, looking at this, I cannot blame his mother to give him that spell to cover his real face."

Looking at the cave for silently she was reminded her of the days when Wang Yan spent chasing her before dying for her. She clenched her first hard as a few tears flashed in her beautiful eyes, she finally decided to ignore all the fake reasons she gave to her subconsciousness to follow him and decided to express her true desires she kept hidden for all such years just because they were not suited for her status.

She relaxed a bit and soon smiled playfully as if she returned to her teenage years where she roamed the world for fun without caring for silly reasons.

"Yes, that is right. I am not an Empress here, nor I am an Officer of the company, I am just me and me alone. I really missed this feeling of freedom, huh, maybe I am not really capable of handling those posts just like my predecessors said.

Let's have some fun as the good old princess Li Daiyu"

After creating her new plan, she decided to explore this Universe left the cave to have some fun for her own while following her deep seated desires.