Chapter 39: Infant of the Dark

Darkness.

Feng Zhiming found himself facing a sight he was all too familiar with, he would often find himself here if he over exhausted himself.

"This dream again." he thought to himself as he tried to feel his surroundings.

But it was all for naught.

It was the same as it always was, darkness and nothing else.

He took a deep breath in, there was no air, no oxygen and nothing else.

He tried to speak yet nothing was said, no frequency, no vibration and nothing else.

He tried to listen and he heard nothing, no waves, no speakers and nothing else.

He tried to feel but nothing was felt.

Feng Zhiming hated this environment, this was the closest he had ever gotten to death.

He was aware yet he felt dead, he could no longer do anything, the only proof of his existence was the fact that he could think.

This reminded him of another part of Zhishi Wu's scripture, a section on the idea of existence.

"Cogito Er-" he tried to think before he was interrupted.

He jerked his head to the side, or was it up or down, he couldn't tell properly.

He could hear something now.

Something chewing, biting and eating.

Something smacking its hand against the darkness.

He couldn't believe his eyes, an infant was crawling towards him, he could not see its face or any other features but he could paradoxically tell it was an infant chewing the very fabric of the darkness.

He reached his hand out to touch the infant and it vanished. At the same moment he began to hear something.

"CAW CAW CAW."

The calls of a crow, he turned his head to where he heard the sound and it vanished.

*WHOOSH* a gust of wind hit him.

He was beyond surprised, this was the first time his dream was so expressive, he had never had anything in his dream beyond the simple darkness.

Without any warning or cause a deep fear flared up in his heart, it was as if his heart was ablaze as it bled, pain of the likes he had never felt.

This was true pain, pain of the soul, of his very origin, he could feel his blood boiling.

Something was looking at him from the darkness, something he could feel resonating with his very existence.

*SCREAHBAS*

A strange whisper mixed with a deep guttural roar sounded in his head.

Feng Zhiming brought what he thought were his hands to his ears to cover them.

When he looked to his side he noticed that his hands had turned into a dark mush and began to melt.

He began to walk backwards, or forwards or fly up or fall down, he couldn't tell.

He felt an intense feeling of trepidation, something was approaching him.

It was not that he could hear, see, feel or smell its arrival, yet he could feel it approaching, it did not feel like a thing or a person.

He sensed that the presence was closer to an abstract idea.

His mind began to fail him.

It was something he could not comprehend, he knew if he tried to think too hard he would do something he should not.

As the presence grew ever closer he heard the same whispering voice say something to him.

"FSLAINME DIRBBIRB, I I I I I I II II II I I I I I I I I I I I I IIII I I."

It was I, it kept saying I, just I.

"I." Feng Zhiming thought.

What the hell was he saying? He couldn't understand what I meant in this context.

He felt like death was about to grab a hold of him, no, he felt nothing was about to grab a hold of him, this didn't feel like death it felt like nothing.

He couldn't understand.

At that exact moment, he felt his heart burst into flame and consume his entire body.

"CAW CAW CAW."

A phrase appeared in his head.

"Rise, illuminate and protect. I I I I II I II I I II I II I Rise, illuminate and protect. Rise, illuminate and protect. Rise, I I I I II I II I I II I II I illuminate and protect. Rise, illuminate a I I I I II I II I I II I II I nd protect. Illuminate, illuminate, illuminate, illuminate, I Illuminate."

"AAHAHAHADHADHADAH!!!!!" he began to scream as he fell to his knees and grabbed his head, trying to rip it off his body.

Between the two different thoughts his mind was tearing apart at the most fundamental level.

"HHHHUA!"

He yelled as jerked up from his bed and broke out into a cold sweat.

His heart was beating wildly as his pupils constricted and his blood flow skyrocketed in speed.

Anissa opened her eyes from her meditation and immediately ran towards him.

Feng Zhiming instinctively kicked off the bed and slammed into the wall before holding out his hands in front of him in a defensive stance.

Anissa slowly approached him, unsure about what to do, she had never seen something like this before.

His eyes were bloodshot as he tried to look around, eyes darting around violently.

Anissa stood there waiting for the hyperventilating Feng Zhiming to calm down.

Eventually he began to lower his hands.

"I am alive?" he asked as his heart returned to normal and he stopped sweating.

"Yes you are alive." Anissa answered while still unsure about what had just happened.

They both stood there for two minutes before Feng Zhiming completely came to his senses.

"I'll be out soon just wait for me outside." he said as he sat down and looked at the ground.

Anissa nodded with a look of sympathy obvious in her eyes.

Feng Zhiming chuckled after she left.

After all this time in this world the first time he had actually been hurt, was by a figment of his imagination.

Even a mighty cultivator was not safe from his nightmares.

He stood up from the chair as he crushed its arm rests in his hands, he had an idea of what that creature in his dream was, it was too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Earlier he had been hunting for fun, for sport, to spite the assembly. But now, the battle has become personal.

Who was he? He was himself and everything external to him was exactly that, external to him, and thus replaceable.

"What better way to face your fears than to remove them from reality." he threw open the door and walked out.

An urgency that had not been there before was born in his heart.