2 Raizel's Awakening

Golden eyes, dull of emotion, opened for the first time in many years. Suddenly, there was a whirl of, pain, anger, joy, sadness and despair as the life he lived flashed before his eyes. 

Memories of the past, both the remembered and forgotten, the happiness and the pain, the people and the deaths, all he experienced.

But it doesn't last long. All of this happened in a second as his eyes again turned dull and indifferent but the pain and loss, all the emotions still there in the depths of his golden eyes for a second longer, but gone soon after as if an illusion. 

Raizel glanced through the familiar cave. The one in whom he closed his eyes the last time he was conscious. How long has it been since then? He was quick to clear his mind as there were more pressing matters at hand.

Using his spiritual energy he entered his spiritual sea to understand whether or not his rest had alleviated the damage caused by his battle with the devil king. 

Floating cross-legged, he inspected his meridians. Each one was very robust, pale golden energy circulated within. This golden energy flowed along the meridians and out of the acupressure points, entwining, melding and converging at a very large sea. This was his sea of consciousness.

"It looks smaller." Raizel noted.

In accordance with his realm of cultivation, His sea of consciousness was more akin to an ocean filled with the purest spiritual essence swaying with immense power. However, after his battle with the Devil King and him sealing the Devil World, his abundant sea of consciousness had dried up. 

There was not a drop of spiritual essence left. It was a hopeless situation for most cultivators. Without the sea of consciousness, the Dao tree would crack and dry up as well. 

Raizel had to use all the herbs, pills and treasures he had to sustain himself till he activated the Southern Seven Swords Energy Absorption Array. His only blessing was that his meridian was not injured or the energy would have no channel to enter his sea of consciousness.

Raizel sighed. Luckily the hard part had been done. Even though his sea was not as big as it used to be. Accumulating energy through cultivation would take care of the rest.

As long as he takes it easy and does not expend more energy than he should, in a few years he will return to his former state.

To recover to this extent shows how powerful the Southern Seven Sword Energy Absorption Array truly is. 

No wonder the Nine Sins Sect had destroyed the Southern Seven Sword Sect just to get their hands on it. It was a terrible massacre, not even dogs or a single grass was spared. Who would have thought that the formation would fall into his hands? 

Within the sea of consciousness of golden lights, lay different plants. Some were saplings, Some had little leaves and branches, some were large flowers and some had borne fruits.

In the middle of this sea was an enormous tree. It was extremely tall, had a grey trunk and its fruits had the colour of ash but it didn't give off a feeling of death, rather it gave off nothing.

It emanated an ancient and obscure aura of emptiness. A silence that resounded the beginning of the world. A feeling of nothingness. This was the Dao of Void. 

A small figure made of energy that looked similar to himself was beside the tree. He lay his head on the trunk of the Dao Tree feeling a sense of peace.

A desire for his soul to merge with the tree began to burn in his chest. But before the desire became uncomfortable, the vermillion mark on his forehead turned golden and the desire fluttered away. 

Near the large tree, was another tree with scattered leaves. Its leaves were unique, they were circular and had coloured veins moving from the leaves to the branches to the stem to the root and back. Its entire body had tiny, sharp barbs on it.

It seemed like any action you take against any side of the tree would affect the rest of the tree. It was as if the entire tree was intertwined in this mysterious way. It had a completely indifferent aura. This was the Dao tree of Karma. It had no flowers and fruits, only a few leaves.

He sighed. His understanding of the Dao of Karma was still not enough to merge it with the Dao tree of Void. His eyelids shuddered as if remembering something and a trace of sadness passed through his heart.

To cultivate the Dao of Karma and to ensure his reincarnation, Raizel has spent his life since he was five years old accumulating karma. 

He was born with the Celestial Void primordial spirit that can only be seen in a million years. The old abbot of the Shalom Temple said that when he was born, the entire sky turned grey for seven days. 

Millions of beasts cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. An anomaly. While this was a great gift, it also brought a greater disadvantage. 

The opposite of 'being' as in existence is void. Having the Dao of void Raizel's soul was a part of the world yet apart from the world. He could not enter the cycle of reincarnation. He could only cheat the heavens by involving himself with matters of the world.

To fix this he had to learn the Dao of Karma. And after so many years his understanding of the Dao of the Karma has reached the last stage of the Tribulation Realm. 

Now if he closed his eyes, he could trace countless very faint red threads surrounding his soul. 

A smile finally crossed his face. He had succeeded. He noticed a bright red thread. His spiritual energy followed that thread of fate, curiosity and expectation hidden in his golden orbs.

As he observed the thread, a thought came to his mind. Had any of his friends survived the tribulation? When he saw the other end of the thread, he had a very strange and complicated expression. Had he really made a vow to complete that idiot's regrets? He had even compiled it in a book.

Raizel looked around, noting his still returning cultivation level and still recovering sea of consciousness. He had saved the entire Terra Realm.

He had fought the Devil King and the Nine Sins Sect, losing his junior martial brother and the members of the Extermination Union. He had expended all his cultivation sealing the devil realm. So many wars and so much bloodshed. Even the many years of sleep did not alleviate the tiredness he felt in his bones. 

He would love to live the remaining of his years peacefully. Experience life without shouldering the hopes of an entire realm on his back. Not for some noble reason like to gain insights into the Dao of life or the Dao mortality.

Just..just because he can.

Closing his eyes, he returned from his sea of consciousness to the cave. It was a large cave. In the centre was a jade bed. Hundreds of arrays were drawn around it.

It was clear the owner of the cave was not meticulous in the arrangement of his treasures. Millions of high-grade spirit stones lay stacked against the wall, their shine was all gone.

He picked up one and sighed. Its energy has been siphoned by the Southern Seven Sword Energy Absorption Array. It was like any ordinary stone now.

It wasn't only the spirit stones, even the monster cores had all paled. He quickly went to the equipment that lay scattered on the ground. Raizel's heart thumped, these were the treasures he had collected with his life on the line.

His collection of swords that followed him from the beginning of his cultivation journey. His very first sword, 'Mirage'. His hands touched the blade and it disintegrated upon his touch. Like time, it faded into nothingness. 

Raizel's breath hitched and he began to search for these salvageable items he had remaining. He pulled the storage rings that have not disintegrated and began to sort through them one by one.

He picked up some spatial rings and browsed through. No pills or herbs were remaining. He had taken all the pills and herbs he could find as he dragged his battered body towards Thousand Herbal Forest. 

The battle had been extremely intense. If he knew he would run into a situation where he had no spirit stones. He would have taken the Devil King's Storage ring before he had sealed the world or maybe even his junior martial brother's ring.

He was sure that guy would have lots of stuff in his ring. He always thought he was a hoarder till he met Lucas. Remembering his junior martial brother, he laughed sadly. He must have reincarnated.

All the middle and low-grade storage rings were destroyed. The high-grade storage rings were damaged but Raizel manoeuvred his spiritual energy carefully to enter the ring. He was a bit rusty and three rings were destroyed because of that. 

In one of the rings, he finally found a robe. A long white gown inlaid with gold strands. It was a spiritual item hence the formation spared it. 

Raizel thanked the owner of the ring silently in his heart and put it on. The cloth was incredibly soft against his skin. The image of a frivolous young master soon appeared in his mind, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. 

He continued searching and discarding. He went through the high-grade storage rings and started searching through the few ephemeral storage rings.

After an hour, the entire contents of the rings were piled up in front of him. One side contained jade scrolls and ancient books, the other contained spiritual items and treasures that were not damaged.

He flipped through the hundreds of books and scrolls.

'Collapsing Saber Art'

'Isolated Cloud Step'

'Seven Kills Technique'

Raizel did not put these high-class Dao skills within his eyes. 

However, it was skills and techniques such as 'Netherworld Sutra' that grabbed his attention. He picked out the divine Dao skills he could and put them in his storage ring.

He did the same to the spiritual treasures and nodded his head satisfied. He then recalled something and stopped before picking a few items and techniques. He clicked his tongue.

"If I really do get a disciple one day, why on earth would they use these low-grade manuals?"

He got up from his position and began rearranging his cave. He layered the cave, placing tests and rewards in each layer. Under his control, the simple cave became an entire underground maze. 

He made the jade bed the core of the entire maze.

 Hesitating a bit, he dropped the first three chapters of his own cultivation technique, 'Mystical Void Scripture' and his first five levels of his Dao skill, 'Formless Tribulation Sword Art'. He made sure the chosen person could only read it within his chambers and it would disappear after it had been read.

He also placed a protection charm containing three of his strikes with 50% power, a divine sword, a spirit ship and a disk array. Any of these items would lead to a massacre between sects. 

For someone to come down here, they must have great affinity with each other. He will take the person as his direct disciple. For those that would stop at the layers before this place, he would take them as his in-name disciples.

The moment he concluded that in his mind. The book in his hand floated up and flipped to a particular page.

~~~~

' Every single time, I am risking my life in inheritance tests. My luck is really bad. I hardly get anything unless I reach death's door. The moment I reach the Dao Master realm, I must create the most difficult inheritance test. '

~~~~

There was a small tick by the side of the note.