After the fusion between the strange and magical crystal object and the baby named Li Wei, a shining large light enveloped the cave, illuminating it fully. Before realising something, Li Wei found himself outside the cave and back at his home.
Checking back through his former steps in the books, he found that all the clues and puzzles had suddenly vanished, as if the hand of God had erased their very concept from this world. This was, in fact, more reason why this was a unique secret to him, he thought.
' I'm not even a year old and i'm already courting death aren't i,' Li Wei sighed, some parts of him filled with dread, the natural instinct of survival raging after the act that was commited, his remaining will was full of excitement, as if a drunk driver was left off to navigate the reckless road, an almost indescribable hype. His connected full will spoke.
'Yes, this is what I've always wanted. I want to court death, I want to do it more' he thought as his body trembled, from both fear and excitement.
'As long as I Li Wei am alive, I will keep courting death and defy the Heavens, ' he thought, surprised as well that he had an opportunity to generate this thought with reason behind it, even if flawed.
If he thought of such things back in his previous world, it would feel awkward and pointless.
The rest of his day was, as always, nothing much, and of course, nothing else that Li Wei could generate, other than some normal baby reactions, to gather more affection and strengthen the relations with his parents; this was a routine.
'I still have so much energy, even if it's dark outside'
'Thinking of the matter, what is important is what are the circumstances of this opportunity, i can't just simply assume that it was a coincidence, that there is not a price to pay with an interesting and more flexible destiny, or that this might not screw me off in the long run, yes i know even if i had reasons to analyse and accept that there is some form of safety in my decision, in the long term this is superficial, I mean how hard is it to hide some important matters from a newly born who has no ability and opportunity to inspect seriously, this is leaving my fate in the hand of destiny, or in my favorite words, this is courting death. If there is any real malicious intent, I can already consider myself at least half dead.'
'Hmm if i were to think of some obvious reason to indulge the flexibility of my choices, one can think that this goods have more players, perhaps a contest between us, either to dominate them, sacrifice them in a ritual, or steal their treasure, the crystal and its authority for ourselves through peaceful or not so peaceful methods, i have no way to know how it works.
Perhaps if there are more of them, by completing the set, we might awaken something that is not beneficial to us.
Perhaps this is a curse by someone of a very high position; they might try to achieve something like a ritual by gathering those who took the crystal and taking things from them. These are only a few examples, and at most, they only count as unverifiable suspicion. When one needs to count on them, they are mostly useless. In some cases, if the reviewer is incompetent, they might be detrimental as well, giving false hope and confidence.'
As a deep thinker Li Wei put very little value in his personal suspicions, he could come with thousands of them, each moving into a unique direction, showing to him how small and feeble their light are, he also knew that if someone believes too much in their suspicions and conclusion they could easily be tricked, he had a natural aversion on doing such thing, as he naturally doubted his suspicions and conclusions as well, for the rumours and other people suspicions, he doubted them even more than his own, but he will always research information, doing it secretly and on his own terms, it was a process similar to choosing bad crops from good crops, something that he enjoyed to do and had a deep affinity on practising.
'The most important thing is how I discovered it and why my parents failed. From my view of them, they seemed like the guys who would take responsibility for what they bring, and they had time, even if they are not above the norm, they are observant enough, they should see some strange things, no, what am i thinking, my parents might not be neccessary to keen on such things, they have other responsabilities other than wasting time, unless someone tells them a specific clue like 'there is a hidden secret in the spirit beasts's encyclopedia' they wouldn't find it.
The important thing is that the lord cultivators didn't find anything, even if they might have methods to research through things, and they are likely to do a routine search with their methods to avoid any cracks in security or unexpected things. Sure, such things are only effective on the surface, but it still says something.
Perhaps it could be fair to say that i managed to accomplish conditions unique to me that other people failed to do so, like for example a vendor who wanted to spread this, or an invisible action of fate brough a case of books along with the encyclopedia, that if the books were read fully, understood fully, and done by a new birth who is younger than a year or two, he would accomplish the condition, letting him see the puzzle protected by the other who lacked the qualifications, perhaps to the lord cultivators without the condition accomplished it was invisible, similar to how i found it after rereading it again. This is either targeted with a purpose, or is an inheritance who needed to be protected, using such means as a secret so that other people who already have an established advantage won't be able to push their weight around and steal this treasure in unfair circumstances, in other words, 'we have a selected target, you the mases of a certain prospect can go away', 'this is our method of selection', or things like that.
What worries me is that my transmigration might be the trigger, this is also proof that my secrets are easily seen through,' as he though of many more things Li Wei sighed, he lacked the power to do anything, his position was too limited, he was stuck like a log that was navigated by the surging river, without any right to complain or change his direction, this was the authority of fate, punishing the helpless who lacked the power to do anything, and if it wanted it could easily dispose of him through a strange and unexplained event.
'Power, I need more power if I want my freedom, even an idiot can come to this conclusion'
After a while, Li Wei went to sleep.
What he had wasn't his usual dreams,
These seemingly dark moments of unconsciousness, or the vibrant stories of random scenarios.
No, this was different, far more potent, far more lucid.
He was in a state of consciousness, as if this were a parallel world rather than a dream world.
Checking himself, he confirmed that this wasn't like his usual dreams; he could even feel the small pain of pinching his cheeks.
'So this is the effects of the crystal, interesting', trying to do more things, he imagined himself into a more effective adult body.
Suddenly, his tiny defenseless body grew anew, larger and larger, inch by inch, until it was fully mature, fully adult, a warrior body.
"Excellent, this authority in this dream world is amazing. Here it looks like every thought can become a wish, then turned into reality, but this isn't normal; there should be some limits."
As soon as he finished that, a strong, gushing feeling of fatigue encompassed him.
"Ughh, looks like this is the payment," Li Wei groaned in dizziness, the payment hitting hard.
After waiting for another 10 minutes, he was finally relieved.
"Good, back into full health, time to explore this place."
Although it was a real physical dream world, there wasn't much for Li Wei to explore, just a dark forest with some trees and a cave a little far away.
Li Wei walked slowly as he looked around, an instinctive and abstract feeling warned him discreetly not to stray away from the main road; the main road was filled with light, allowing him to see even in the darkness of the night. Other than the macabre trees, Li Wei had the feeling that he saw for a fraction of a second eyes, which quickly evaporated into nothingness as soon as he glanced towards them.
He walked until he reached the cave, and entering there, he felt as if he touched a delicate string of silk.
Suddenly, a stray arrow shot towards him. Seeing and reacting quickly, he jumped away.
"Interesting" through observation, Li Wei figured out what things should be done here; of course, this was only available on the first layer.
He walked slowly, as arrows shot towards him, altough he was curious of what would happen if he died here in this dream world, he felt that his curiosity wasn't worth the risk, he continued to dodge and avoid arrows, timing it he even catched a few, they weren't that fast, much slower than an average arrow, this allowed his limited mortal body, even if trained to be able to handle the situation.
As he walked further, the arrows became more aggressive, more potent, as he started having problems dodging, and soon a few of them managed to hit him.
"Hmm, I need a better method," he said as he envisioned a small knife and a magical pill of recovery.
Taking out the arrows and eating the pill, his wounds recovered. Along with a few minutes to shake off his fatigue, he continued to explore the cave. It was rather large and linear, and he was pretty sure that he had walked for at least 2 kilometers.
The furious arrows came at him as he focused and hit them away with his knife, a strong sensation of spiritual sensing similar to the sixth sense started to glow around his mind, as if it was trained, memorized with each arrow he deflected, he envisioned some sunglasses to gradually supress his vision, the light in the cave weakened with the help of the sunglasses, making the arrows even more discrete.
*fwoosh* *fwoosh*.
*clang* *clang* *cling*
Arrow after arrow came at him as he executed them like a tyrant, his movements reacting fully to the nature of the arrows.
*Fwish* *crrck*
An arrow, even more abstract than the previous ones, was released. It went straight to his leg and landed, leaving a deep wound.
*Fwiish* *Fwish* *fwiiish*
Arrow after arrow, fully abstract and colorless, as if they were no different than the small distortion made by the hot air influenced by fire.
They came fast, no different than any normal arrows, and hit Li Wei in many places, making him look like a hedgehog crossdresser. Blood flowed outside in quantity.
Seeing that he didn't have the time or resources for a normal method, since the arrows will attack when he is weak, Li Wei, who was now filled with adrenaline, envisioned a fire and controlled it to burn the wounds after taking out the arrows with a shockwave at the specific places. He was weak, in pain, and fatigued, a perfect place, a perfect scenario that constructed his graveyard, and if the creator of the crystal was as ruthless as he thought, Li Wei might as well never wake from this dream.
In this position of weakness, something discrete, hidden, and like a sign of death shot itself towards Li Wei, and finally, his world slowed down intensely, as if these were his final moments in this world.
Li Wei hadn't thought of anything; there was no feeling or emotion behind his being, just focus, intense and utter unimaginable focus, with a discrete desire to live, to succeed, to win and conquer this place.
As the arrow drew closer, the strange spiritual sensation spiked, allowing him to 'see' and feel the arrow, catching it with all his 'senses', feeling it as if the arrow was an extension of his body, identifying the position was something he couldn't fail at in this moment.
*clang*
He struck down the arrow that aimed for his head and tried to claim his life. Before long, the cave started to shatter and disappear. Li Wei awoke from his dream to a scene of morning.
It was a new day.