Dancing Golden Fruit

Lord White had reigned as a supreme leader to designers in the world when he combined all his nine paths to one essence converter. In his long life, he designed many celestial weapons, shields, warships. He had explained theories behind many simple things for easier understanding of natural events happening around the world, which later became a basic standard knowledge required for building essence converter. Everyone had praised his designs as the most profound one, and as time passed, he also started believing it.

However, the damaged necklace he had found in an ancient relic shattered his beliefs regarding his knowledge. Its high complexity and superior design were not something he could replicate in one lifetime. He at that time had realized that his skill was too shallow compared to the designer of the necklace. Nevertheless, this only ignited his passion for designing more profound things.

He had spent decades comprehending the design of the necklace. He was successful in understanding necklace as a soul-based design; however, he never understood its purpose. It does not shield the soul from any external curses, soul damage, or anything he knew. Also, it does not augment the soul power. It served a completely different purpose which he had not realized yet. He had designed different types of celestial and mortal soul treasures for enhancing his understanding of the necklace. He had considered all those efforts as some practice to restore the necklace.

Fifty years ago, when he implemented his long-awaited plan, he understood a few things while restoring it. He realized that necklace was a soul protecting design, but he could not specifically identify in what way it protects the soul, as none of his previous experiences matched the function of the necklace.

When the restoration process had reached the final stage, Lord White had felt an intuitive fear towards it. It was as if the necklace was going to suck their souls out of the body. Lord White had right away stopped the restoration of the necklace as he had realized the danger and had considered it as a cursed object.

He had tried to seal it away, but at that time many small drops of golden serum had oozed out of it, which came together and had formed a small fruit resembling strawberry with a golden colour.

The golden fruit had possessed an enormous amount of life energy. Lord White had guessed that the origin of the golden fruit might be related to the necklace. Therefore, he had wanted to study the golden fruit and its source. However, when he had attempted to take it into his hands, the fruit escaped from him like a slippery eel and it would skim upon notice of anyone's attempt to catch it. His speed and reflexes were useless before its movement. He had observed that it could only move within 5 meters radius of the necklace. He had used many means for grasping it, but none were successful. At the times when he was almost successful, it would vanish into the necklace. Every so often while he had been sleeping, it would come and dance around him. Lord White had even suspected that little fruit had sentience and was showing contempt towards his inability to catch it. This continued for many years, and he eventually got accustomed to its uniqueness.

However, last year when Captain Ellen had visited Lord White's pavilion, the little fruit suddenly materialized in her palms. Everyone who had worked tirelessly for it became ecstatic with that development. It had fallen into their grasp after countless failures. However, the golden fruit stayed only with her and it would fade away upon any attempts to seize it from her. So, Lord White had considered it as fate and had allowed her to retain it. After careful observation that there was nothing wrong with the fruit, he had suggested her to eat it. She was initially hesitant to consume the fruit, but she had eaten it upon noticing high vitality it contained.

After that, he had seen some changes in the necklace. It resembled jewelry worn by mortals. He wanted to study it more, so he made a blood connection with it. As he made the connection, it immediately entered his converter foundation and settled there as if it was built for it. He couldn't control the necklace at all, what's more, it would greedily suck more than half of the divine essence sent by his 9 systems to the converter.

It has almost had been a year since it had occupied his converter foundation. Lord White could only sigh as he remembered his curiosity towards the design of the necklace. It is the only failure in his life so far. Nonetheless, he is happy that they now had a descendant.

Lord White and Lord Cooper discussed on other issues for some more time till the sun rose in the sky. Lord White, Archer, Lee, and Mei came personally sendoff Lord Cooper.

Mei said, " Lord Cooper, who could be potential enemies to my nephew? It is a waste to spare them for ten more years."

Lee who by her side said, "You should start using your brain more instead of your muscle. See their faces and tell me if they are happy or worried."

Archer teasingly said, " I will take care of my child. Both of you should plan on giving my son a younger cousin."

Though Mei and Lee are husband and wife, they act more like rivals. They only want upper hand over the other so, they did not bother with Archer's remark and only glanced at each other for a brief moment and turned their heads away.

"There is nothing to worry about. Senior White is still here. Even if Crimson Eyed Devils leave the cursed land and attack your clan, school is there to protect.", saying so Lord Cooper boarded the ship.

****

Inside the ship, a Three-Eyed subordinate of Lord cooper said, "Lord, that boy is very strange. When I saw him normally, he was like any other child. However, when I used my divine vision on him, I felt like I am nothing but a little ant in front of him. Maybe he is a devils spawn."

Lord Cooper laughed at his subordinate's surmise; he massaged his third-eye lightly before responding, "Though we can see the future, we should be careful with our speculations because some things are still beyond our means, in such cases, rely on your intuition and take the gamble. You had only observed the boy from the distance and had not gotten the chance to perceive the brilliance of his divine aura. His celestial aura is holier and purer than mine: thus, there are very little chance devils will ever be able to contaminate him. It is more likely sooner or later he will become a target of devils because of his holy aura. If he ever becomes a devil, it will not be late to kill the boy. I have faith in the caben clan, before we may act against him, they will finish him off if at all the boy turns out to be evil."

*****

Lord White returned to his mansion after Cooper left the clan. After ordering servants to not disturb him any further, he returned to his room and sat alone in a lounge chair.

He saw portraits hanging on the wall and fell into a daze. His wife, his son, his cousins, his granddaughter, and others were depicted on them. Many of them died in battles, while some died due to withering of the lifespan. His lifespan is also about to diminish in coming 15 to 20 years. He had no regrets in his life.

However, he still has a very strong desire, that is to at least understand necklace's function. Bright's birth and his previous experiences fostered him to comprehend it even more. He wanted to try again and see whether he would succeed this time around or not.

He went to his cultivating room and sat on the floor in a meditative posture. Concentrated his thoughts on the necklace which was residing in his Essence Converter Foundation. Unfortunately, as always, the necklace was resting there without any scruples.