CHAPTER 81: MISUNDERSTANDING

As the caravan moved closer, Night could see a massive wall surrounding the entire city. The wall had to be at least 100 feet tall and must be hundreds of miles long. He could also see large black spots at a few locations along the city wall.

"Those are the city gates," one of the men traveling along side Night said to the woman next to him as he pointed toward one of those spots, "See how all the caravan traffic is funneling towards those locations. Everyone wants to get inside...You still have that stone I gave you, right?"

"Of course...I still have it sweetheart...I know we can't get inside without paying the toll," the woman responded.

Night already knew that he had to pay a toll to enter the city. It was a simple stone for him, but for some of these common demons...it was a pretty significant expense just to gain entrance.

As the day went on, the caravan moved closer and closer to the city and everyone eventually found themselves in a long line to enter the city. There were numerous guards stationed in and around the gate. Although these guards inspected goods, overlooked the people and dealt with conflicts.....their most important task was recording those that entered and exited.... and collecting the entrance toll.

Without any big hassle, the members of the caravan made their way through the gates. The guards seemed to be very experienced with the great quantity of people coming into and out of the city. The process was very efficient.

As soon as he entered, Night was impressed with the layout of the city. Since he was a former architect, Night seemed to revert back to his old self as he gazed at the sweeping arches of the doorways and the intricate sandstone building construction. He could have easily spent a day just looking at some of the buildings.

Although Night had only been in the City of Setting Sun for a few minutes, he looked up at the sky and judged that he had about an hour before darkness would start to fall on the city. After speaking with some of the caravan members, Night decided to rent a room in one of the nearby inns. He really wanted to settle in first before exploring the city. He also had a few things that he wanted to take care of....such as selling some of his items and trying to find Lili to question her about the mark on his soul.

He exchanged a few pleasantries with Enok and the man had given him some information about the company that he worked for with caravans. He extended Night an offer that he could join any of his company's caravans for no charge anytime he wanted. They were always looking for strong demigods to help protect the routes. Night left the group of people he had been traveling with for months.

The city was so huge that it only took Night around for about 20 minutes before he found a quiet inn to settle for the night.

Entering the inn, Night approached a man seated at a bar in what looked like a lounge area.

"Sir, I would like to get a room. What is the charge?," Night asked the innkeeper.

"One stone for one night," the innkeeper said while not even looking up at Night.

"Damn...that's expensive....I'll go somewhere else," Night said as he turned around and started walking toward the door.

His motion toward the door got the innkeeper's attention.

"Wait. Wait. I forgot to mention we are doing a three nights for the price of one special," the man said trying to get Night to turn back around, "...and I can throw in a free meal each day."

"Deal," Night said as he turned back around and pulled out a stone from his pocket. Actually, he pulled the stone out of his space ring...he just acted like he pulled it out his pocket.

Night was led by the innkeeper to a nice cozy room in the upstairs of the inn. It only took him a few minutes to settle into the room. Looking around the room, Night saw a small wash basin on a table. Night couldn't remember the last time that he had actually cleaned himself, so he started to wash himself off.....it was absolutely wonderful and he started to yearn for a basic shower like one he would have on Earth. After a few minutes, the wash basin was filled with a grimy slush of water and Night was the cleanest he had been in over a year.

Feeling quite refreshed, he made a game plan for his first couple of day's in the city. First, he would try to find a place that he could sell off the gold looking metal pieces. Then, he wanted to see if he could get a craftsman to make a weapon for him with the small darkness elemental stone. Then, he wanted to try to find Lili. Just the slight thought of the woman was bring a tickle to his soul now and he wanted the issue resolved.

Before he proceeded with anything the next day, Night decided that he would try out the soul root stone to see if he could get some information from his godmother. He had perfected his list of questions and decided that it was time to give it a shot. In his typical fashion, he placed the green isolation orb down on the table in the room and sat down on the floor.

He took the soul root stone out of his ring and focused in on the stone with his heavenly energy.

Similarly to last time, he appeared in his soul space. However, this time he had three Ker present. Two were in the process of having a sparing match and one was in an unconscious state.

"I am here to do something.....you don't need to worry about me," Night mentally transmitted to the two women who where sparing.

With some more thought, he focused into on the soul root stone and drew power from it.

Similar to the first time, a woman's solute started to appear in his soul space. It was like she was waiting for him.

"My frien...," the woman said pausing half way through and frowning, "....who dares put a soul mark on my child?"

With a wave of her hand, Night felt a weird sensation at the little connection in his soul related to Lili. He could feel some sort of change happen, but he wasn't sure what it was all about.

"That is much more appropriate," the woman said with a grin that reflected starlight.

The whole incident completely caught Night off guard and he was left asking, "What just happened?"

"Oh.....someone thought they were smart and placed the beginnings of a soul mark on you.....it wasn't finished yet so I modified it in your favor....ha ha....teach them to mess with my child," the woman chuckled with another starry grin.

Honestly, Night didn't say anything in response. What was he going to tell her? She seemed so proud of herself.

Disregarding what just happened for now, Night refocused on his purpose and tried to get some of his questions out. But before he could say something, she spoke again.

"You have improved my friend, but not enough," the dark silhouette spoke.

"I know," Night responded, "This world lacks knowledge. I am confused about many things. Can you help me understand? Your child knows so little."

He had rehearsed this type of question over and over again. This was his top question. He needed to know more about the world of cultivation.

The woman's expression became happy at the question and she replied, "Of course. We all derive our power from Truths of the Universe. Truths can be found in the physical, elemental or soul. Your darkness is from the elements but your reality is from the soul. What do you need to know?"

"I understand the basic route of the Truth of Darkness from my learning here...but I have no knowledge of path for cultivating the Great Truth of Reality, can you offer help?," Night said in response.

Night understood how to progress forward in darkness concepts based on the skills he once trained. Essentially, he would just keep practicing the skills until he had a revelation in understanding of the concept. However, he didn't know how to train in the Great Truth of Reality. He had just been lucky so far. He mastered the Dream Concept because of his lifetime of experience with dreams. He mastered the Concept of Presence after 6 months of attempts and a lucky guess. He needed to know a bit more on the other reality concepts to help him grow.

"Okay....I can try to explain....but remember.....no one that I know has truly mastered the Great Truth of Reality....", she said before beginning an explanation.

From her explanation, Night learned a few important pieces of information. All concepts in a Great Truth of Reality compliment and build upon each other. He should look for inspiration by comparing the concepts.

To train Concept of Fake, he must experience and overcome things that are not real. This was similar to how he could escape mirrors and nightmares. He just needed to start doing the same for other types of situations. Night didn't really understand what these other situations could be, but he got the general gist of the practice.

To train in the Concept of Real, he must essentially learn to craft whatever he wants directly out of a combination of heavenly energy, elemental energy and soul energy. The process sounded very complicated to Night and she recommend that he "try making simple stuff first."

She actually couldn't tell him much on the Concept of Imagination but she could tell him her limited knowledge. From what she understood..... If presence was making yourself seem different to everyone else. Then the Concept of Imagination was making everything else seem different to you...and everything else actually become different. The whole idea was very confusing to Night.

When she started to talk about perception, Night interrupted and started talking about his ability to look at the dream orbs in his soul space, his perception over the real world and his ability to overlap the two views.

"ha ha ha....My child...You have a misunderstanding. The Law of Perception is the perception of everything. What you call the soul space is your own soul. When you extend your focus outward...you see other souls that are not in your own. What you call dream orbs are actually the soul energy of others. Your soul perception is just that....you are using your own soul to view the world around you.....yet you can only perceive the physical and the soul. Eventually, you will perceive the elements and then you should have mastered the very basics of the Concept of Perception.....then you can work on perceiving time and space to condense your law."

"OH.....," Night felt a little embarrassed at the realization that he was over complicating the whole thing, "What's this about condensing a Law?"

"Just keep training to develop the concepts after you have mastered the initial phase.....and you will learn all about it," she said as her face shifted to sadness, "I have very little time remaining. Do you wish to know anything else? Quickly."

"Yes.....why can I understand everyone despite their language?," Night asked quickly.

"I transferred you the language of the soul at our first visit," she responded but did not elaborate. Time was almost out and she had to be quick.

"I must go now. Let me provide a little help to one of your Ker," she said as she waved her hand toward the cabin in Night's soul space.

"Wait. I have one more question," Night tried to squeeze one more question in.

"What is your name? I can't remember," Night said.

"Oh....my friend....you remember so little...," the woman said with a little sadness in her voice.

"My child....Your mother's name is Nox.....and seek me out again if you need more knowledge.....I am trying....," she said before fading off into the darkness.

"Nox," Night said as he came back to himself inside his soul space. He wished that he could talk to her for hours, but even a quick few minutes had been more than beneficial. He really needed to find some more of those stones or go through a transmission portal again.

Looking around in his soul's space, Night could see see two women below.

Misery and Distress had stopped sparing and were just staring at Night with wide eyes. The door to the cabin opened up and Grief walked out with a look of amazement on her face. The three women looked up at Night then moved towards him.

"Who.....Who was that?," Misery said with a bit of amazement in her voice. Night had never really heard her voice sound like that before. Grief and Distress just stared at him waiting for a response.

"Her name is Nox. She refers to herself my mother and my friend. I like call her my godmother....she has given me a lot of help," Night said with a thankful look on his face.

The three continued their talks for awhile. Grief had felt a burst of power and woke up from her meditation. She was almost as powerful as Misery now. Night decided to rest a bit in his soul space and mentally prepare for his exploration of the city tomorrow.

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The next morning, Night made his way downstairs to the lounge area of the inn. The innkeeper and several other people were sitting at a table helping themselves to food in bowls spread out family style in the middle of the table.

"Hurry up if you don't want to miss breakfast," the innkeeper said to Night.

Night hustled over and sat down at the table. When he sat down near the other men, one of the men stopped eating.

"What?," Night asked when he realized that the man paused when he sat down.

"N....Nothing," the men said before cramming a biscuit into his face and getting up from the table. He wasn't the only one that left the table. One more man got up and left. Only another man and the innkeeper remained, but even they got up from the table a few minutes later.

"Damn. Do I stink or something?," Night said looking around at the empty lounge.

Not entirely disregarding the incident, Night took a few more bites of food and decided to leave the inn. Something seemed off, so he was planning on not coming back to this place. Luckily, he didn't leave anything in the room and kept all of his stuff in his storage ring.

Exiting the inn, Night started to make his way around the city. Although this place had great architecture, it was so big that finding his way was quite confusing. He even spread out his perception to get a cursory review of the city layout. It didn't really help thought.....it was just too much information to take in at once.

He really need a map or a guide of some sort, but until he could find something...Night was left to wander the city looking around.

As he was walking, he observed the daily life of these demons. They weren't much different than humans in most regards. However, he did notice a few glares headed his way as he walked.

'Man, some of these demons sure do seem unfriendly,' Night thought.

Regardless, he went about his planned activity of trying to find a map of the city. The place was so big that he needed some type of direction on where to go. If he could find a map vendor, maybe he would be able to successfully navigate the city.

After Night walked for some time, he could finally see some sort of trades area. He could smell the fire from forges and hear the banging of hammers. About the same time that Night saw the trades area, he also saw a patrol of city guards walking down the street towards him. The occurrence didn't seem that out of the ordinary since even small towns like Manco Oasis would have guard patrols. However, as he walked past a group of guards.....the men had suddenly turned around and pointed their spears at Night's neck.

"You are under arrest. Don't resist or you will die," one of guards shouted.

"Wait. Wait. This must be some sort of misunderstanding," Night said as he cursed at himself for not being more on guard in this unfamiliar place.