Immortal Murky Stone
Ellie's mirror dimly illuminated the dark cave, its fractured surface struggling to cast light. Ellie's tired face revealed the strength of the attack dealt by the Brotherhood of the Eternal Light.
She had given Al's twisted blade to Agnethe, who now clutched it tightly. Cesar led the way, with Jin at his right side, the four of them following the man who had saved him into his cave.
Along the path, they passed a collection of swords, tools, and the remnants of the short blades he had thrown and exploded.
"You can rest here until tomorrow. I'm sure you can fix that etheric shell in a couple of hours," the bearded man said, gesturing towards Ellie's mirror.
"As for you, I'm guessing your friend was a Stubborn Will or Manipulative Will cultivator?" He added, his gaze fixed on Al's twisted knife and chain, now held by Agnethe.
"Yes, his name is Alexader Adamos. He's a Stubborn Will cultivator, and I know he will come back," Agnethe replied, her emotions held in check.
The man gave her a strange reaction and changed the topic "That reminds me of a dream I had a few nights ago. I was at the beach, sticking my toes in the warm sand," the man began, describing several of his dreams in detail.
Cesar interrupted, "Senior, I apologize, but we have been listening to you for hours now, and we don't even know your name. It would be an honor to introduce ourselves to the man who saved us" Cesar said, humbly expressing his gratitude.
The man scratched his long beard, contemplating for a moment before replying, "Alright, I'll tell you. My name is Immortal Murky Stone, and the reason I saved you was to absorb the essence of those damned Dawn-keepers. You see, I'm in the Physical Domain of the Immortal Chasm. The reason why I brought you to my cave is to reminisce."
"But you're not inside an Immortal Ring. Is it even possible for someone to be an Immortal and not be a part of the God Leaves?" Jin blurted out, voicing his collective confusion.
With a knowing smile, Immortal Murky Stone replied, "You have a lot to learn boy." he turned to look at the four of them before asking them "Do you know how long it takes to reach the Immortal Chasm?"
The group silently pondered the question before Jin spoke up tentatively, "If everything goes well, 700 years?" The others nodded in agreement, but Immortal Murky Stone couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh.
The long-bearded man turned around and said "At 650, you begin aging rapidly, and by 664, if you haven't become an Immortal, you'll turn to ashes. The earliest I've heard of someone entering the Immortal Chasm was after 300 years. It took me 559 years."
He walked over to pick up one of his small blades, a contemplative looks on his face, before asking with a hint of mystery, "Do you know how long I've been in the Physical Domain of the Immortal Chasm?"
Cesar and the rest exchanged their best guess before turning back to Immortal Murky Stone "500 years?" Cesar ventured, only to receive a smile and a slow shake of the head from the Immortal.
"Try a little over one thousand years," he replied, sending a shiver down their spines. To think that the man before them had been alive since at least the 5th century AD was nothing short of astonishing.
A surge of curiosity and determination washed over Cesar. "How can someone enter the next Domain faster?" he inquired, his heart beating faster with anticipation.
Immortal Murky Stone drew closer, a delighted smile on his face. "Are you sure you want to know?" he teased, reminiscing about his distant past.
Before Cesar could utter the word yes, the Immortal swiftly grabbed his hand and drove the blade into Cesar's abdomen, leaving him in shock and pain.
"Stay still, or you'll explode," Immortal Murky Stone calmly advised, to which, Cesar complied, his breaths coming heavily.
Jin hesitated, wanting to intervene, but Ellie and Agnethe held him back. The Immortal's voice cut through the tense silence, "I missed his vital organs on purpose. He will slowly die, but I can save him. However, I will only do it if you answer my questions correctly. Fail three times, and I will kill your little captain, and then every single one of you."
They all stared at the man who had saved them, now holding Cesar hostage and threatening to kill them all. Surprisingly, they remained calmer than Immortal Murky Stone had anticipated.
His intense gaze shifted to Ellie, noticing her broken mirror and focusing on her studying the short girl with black hair. "You, if I were to kill you right now, what would be the meaning of your life?" he posed his question.
Confused, Ellie pondered, "If I died, the meaning of my life... Could he be talking about my Will?" After a moment of contemplation, she replied, "The meaning of my life if i died right now would be a reflection?" Her uncertainty was evident.
The Immortal shook his head, issuing a stern warning, "Two more wrong answers, and I'll kill your dead. You, girl with the twisted blade, what would be the meaning of your life if I killed you right now?"
Agnethe, having more time to think about the question, responded swiftly, "The meaning of my life would be a rebellion against nature and the heavens." Immortal Murky Stone examined her answer more intently.
"No, you're not there yet. What about you, boy?" he turned to Jin, who quickly responded. "If I were to die right now, the meaning of my life would be a cry. I grew up under the Takahashi name, which produced so much good fruit it became common. An attempt to shine and stand out would be the meaning of my life if I were to die right now," Jin answered thoughtfully.
Immortal Murky Stone nodded in agreement.
Finally, he directed his attention towards Cesar, who appeared pale and was dripping with sweat, but remained focused.
"What about you, little captain? If I were to finish the job right now and kill you, what would be the meaning of your life?" Cesar struggled, his mind racing. "Change... constant change... I accept every new... challenge. Like the wind," he responded slowly.
Immortal Murky Stone smiled at him, then quickly pulled his small blade out before walking over to a vase full of water. He grabbed a cup and handed it to Cesar, instructing him to drink.
As Cesar drank the water, his wound miraculously healed the flavor was familiar to Ever-life water.
He turned his attention to Ellie's broken mirror as Immortal Murky Stone warned them, "She will have to fix that through her power. You won't always have blessed water by an Immortal Healer"
In response to their unspoken question, the Immortal continued, "From my little test, I would say Cesar and then Jin are closest to the Mental Domain, followed by Agnethe and Ellie. The more you understand your Will, the easier it is for you to Cultivate it. The Physical Domain comes after the Awakening of Will."
He finished speaking, observing if anyone still had questions.
Jin spoke up, his expression perplexed, "Senior, this might sound dumb, but what exactly is the Physical Domain?"
Immortal Murky Stone smiled an enthusiasm like a teacher about to give a favorite lecture, and he replied, "It is the state of your Awakened Will entering and spreading through your body. The Mental Domain involves your Will entering and spreading over your mind. And the Spirit Domain represents the actual formation of your ethereal spirit made in your likeness, born from your Will. A successful formation of your Ethereal spirit is what separates the Mortal Chasm from the Immortal Chasm. The title 'Immortal' is given to anyone who has crossed into the Immortal Chasm."
A broad smile graced immortal Musky Stones lips, and with a gesture, he released a smoky red mist from the top of his head. The mist condensed into a miniature version of himself seated in meditation.
"See, even if I were to die in flesh, I would live on with the capacity to one day recover my body," the Immortal explained, pulling back his Ethereal spirit.
A gloom settled over his long beard as he added, "Still, death has a date for us if we do not enter the next Domain, which becomes increasingly more difficult. The obstacles become indecipherable."
Their awe-struck gazes remained fixed on the Immortal. Although they had briefly encountered an Immortal who had teleported them to the main base of the I.P.S, they had never engaged with one so openly before.
"As I told you four, I brought you to reminisce, well I used to teach to future generation as part of the Erosion Leafs 4th Immortal Seed. But before any of that, I was a young 20-year-old in the remnants of a collapsed Roman Empire. We didn't know it at the time, but we were entering the Dark Ages, which marked the blooming age of Cultivation," the man continued telling them his cultivation journey until morning.
When the morning sun came, he bid them farewell and immersed himself in deep meditation.
As they resumed their journey through the mountainous terrain, Ellie couldn't help but remark, "Wow, to think he was forced out of an Immortal Seed. The Immortal Chasm must be incredibly challenging." Her mirror had recovered, and she appeared much healthier.
"Yeah, but 24 years being the fastest we can enter the Mental Domain means we will all be in our 40's by that time!" Cesar expressed his frustration. Ellie tried to reassure him, "Doesn't matter, as you enter the Spirit Domain, you become youthful again."
However, Cesar remained unmoved. "It's too long without being able to defend ourselves like we did with the technology of the I.P.S," he reluctantly said.
The four of them were sprinting swiftly through mountains, which spewed smoke as if in turmoil. "You're overthinking it. Strength takes time to develop. As Senior Immortal Murky Stone said, we have a lot to learn," Jin offered some perspective.
Suddenly, Agnethe, who had been silent all this time, interrupted, "Al is still gone, and all you three can think about is how to grow stronger?" Overwhelmed with emotion, she ran off with tears streaming down her face.
Clutching Al's twisted knife close to her heart, Agnethe finally came to a stop and fell to her knees, sobbing. Though she had only been with Al for a short while, the depth of her pain was beyond comprehension. Tearfully, she quietly pleaded, "Come back, please!"
Her tear hit the twisted blade, causing the ring attached to the chain of the Knife to glow. To her astonishment, a ball of flesh began materializing between the ring, gradually growing into a finger, hand, arm, and eventually a whole body.
Al had regenerated from seemingly nothing, appearing naked as he fell into Agnethe's arms. She caught him, immediately hugging him tightly as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"What, where... where am I?" Al spoke, disoriented, gently pulling away from Agnethe's embrace. Witnessing her distress, he shifted his focus. "Hey birdie, don't cry. What's wrong?" he asked, lifting her chin to meet his gaze.
Agnethe gradually ceased her tears, still sniffling. "You were dead, idiot," she whimpered. Al responded with a guilty smile, "I know, but your words and tears brought me back. In the darkness, I heard your voice."
Agnethe held him close, and Al embraced her just as tenderly. She softly whispered, "A thousand years without you? I rather die."
Cesar and the rest approached the two, shocked to see Al had returned, although they knew he was going to regenerate. They couldn't help but feel guilty for not worrying more about Al being dead.