Her personal librarian? The compiler of the Archives of Time, as well as holding the status as the envoy of the Gate of Origin – so he was just like Xilong?
An Fei’s mind felt excruciatingly boggled at the constant state of confusion, but quickly pulled herself together after a ruthless pinch to her thigh. Suppressing a wince and steeling the muscles on her face from cramping, the young girl stared at the middle-aged man with unblinking eyes.
“I have many questions.”
“I have many answers. However, some may not be appropriate with your retained knowledge,” Compendium crinkled his eyes.
“Should they be questions about the past, then I can provide the correct answers. Questions regarding the future should be directed towards the Gate of Liberation.”
The young girl nodded. An Fei lightly shivered and drew the blankets closer around her body, revealing only her countenance and a pair of scarlet irises that continued to bore holes into Compendium’s spotless robe. As time passed, the confident smile on the middle-aged man had gradually dissipated, until a blank expression of bewilderment remained.
Fifteen minutes passed after the young girl and middle-aged man fell into a similar mood of confusion, and An Fei couldn’t withstand it any longer.
“Clothes.” She jabbed her finger towards the dresser across the bed.
“I need some clothes.”
The young girl instantly palmed her face as she witnessed the birth of realization bloom on Xu Shen’s countenance. Her mouth hung open in disbelief as she witnessed the middle-aged man lurch around as he fished out random articles of clothing with no taste or regard for the type of fabric, color, or kind of clothing.
It took him more than twenty solemn minutes to gather a set of clothing that had seemed to meet Compendium’s requirements, and An Fei suddenly found herself holding two lace-woven sets of underclothes and a light night gown.
Before Xu Shen’s obvious display of accomplishment plastered on his countenance, the young girl slammed the bedcurtains shut, and the rustling of cloth whispered throughout the platform of sky-blue crystal.
“Was there a problem encountered? Why was the reaction so different?”
Compendium stepped back and rubbed at his nose in confusion. A shard of crystal hanging from a necklace gently gleamed with a soothing azure light as the middle-aged man alternated between accomplishment, bewilderment, and indifference. The transition in expression gradually increased in speed until a certain scarlet dragon couldn’t tolerate it anymore, and jutted itself into the Archives of Time utilizing its heavenly claws.
“Compendium! Didn’t I say, you old thing, that what you just did was a stupid idea?”
The heavenly dragon berated Xu Shen immediately after manifestation. Compendium then glanced at the crystal shard hanging from his chest in confirmation, and dispatched a thread of intent towards the intrusive dragon.
“I do not understand. The <Adoptive Parenting> I compiled earlier repeated these instructions, and performed fluidly in the Realm,” the middle-aged man frowned.
“Why does it not work here? The conditions were met without issue…”
The heavenly dragon fought desperately against the urge to claw at its scales. Xilong stared vehemently at the befuddled and clumsy middle-aged man, wondering when it could tear him apart.
“Just how, how could the conditions be met?” it scathed with a gruesome sneer.
“She’s clearly in a state of trauma, and doesn’t possess memories of us envoys. How should she react if a foreigner were to stand before her whilst she was defensele –“
“Xu Shen, who took off my clothes?”
Xilong’s message was severed at its neck by the young girl’s sudden question, and cold sweat dripped from its scales. The intensity of the heavenly dragon’s stare towards Compendium increased magnificently, and intense horror bloomed in its heart as it witnessed the middle-aged man ponder for a brief moment and part his lips.
“I did.”
A young girl and a heavenly dragon instantly petrified, and the latter could distinctly hear the sharp sound of tearing fabric. As if pouring oil onto the blazing fire, Compendium mused and pooled his memories, and the shard of crystal bloomed with a brilliant glare.
“The curse within the rain had significantly corroded your physical body, and your clothes were greatly damaged. Full recovery will require several days of ca –“
“Enough!”
The gleam on the crystal shard abruptly fizzled out as Compendium’s expression smoothed into indifference. The heavenly dragon clapped its claws over its snout as it carefully observed a fully dressed An Fei emerge from the bedcurtains, a baleful expression on her countenance. She stared at the blank expression on Xu Shen’s countenance, and her lips twitched.
“If you are the envoy of the Gate of Origin, where is Xilong, the stupid dragon?”
Alas, Xilong watched in fear as Compendium smoothly raised a finger and jabbed it directly towards the middle of its brows. Its heart then lurched as An Fei displayed a dazzling smile.
“You left since a few days ago, leaving me alone in a foreign country to fend for myself. Why don’t you come down, Xilong?”
There were a few breaths of silence, and An Fei witnessed the air warp as though a large, invisible silhouette passed through. The young girl crossed her arms and waited peacefully, only for Xu Shen to introduce disappointment by lowering his extended finger and a light exhale of breath.
“He ran away?”
“Indeed.”
An Fei’s lips twitched in disbelief, and wrung her head and sighed. She directed an inquiring glance towards the solidary middle-aged man, and brushed at her chin with her palm.
“Six days ago, you allowed Xilong to return to the Sanctum,” Compendium fiddled with the book clasped to his waist.
“It was also the instance that the seal on the Archives of Time dissipated. He was unable to return partly because of my appearance, and that you didn’t grant permission afterwards.”
She was the one who released the heavenly dragon? However… what did this ‘release’ mean?
“Why can Xilong not move of his own accord?”
An Fei creased her brows as her mind wandered through her memories. When she remembered that the young girl she had last met had possessed the two books and explicitly mentioned them to her upon their encounter, a faint idea brooded in her heart. Nonetheless, she patiently waited for Compendium’s response.
“Envoys cannot disobey the words of their master, and the Realm operates differently than that of mortal worlds,” the book opened of its own accord to a random page, hovering besides Compendium’s arm.
“Mortals can, and have done so upon numerous occasions, denied the commands of their superior for the sake of fulfilling an alternate intention or desire. On the other hand, the concept of Authority is nontrivial in the Realm. Immortal subjects cannot refute the regulations binding their will.”
“They cannot disobey…”
An Fei murmured, and couldn’t help but nourish the thought that her speculation was indeed correct. Earlier, she had read a notion in the Archive of Time that Authority was the golden cradle of God’s Will in the Realm – perhaps the young girl, by the means of the two books, imposed on the Sanctum’s authority to manipulate the heavenly dragon? At essence, the young girl had mentioned that both An Fei, her, and the figure that had initially seized the two books, were all ‘fragments’.
Fragments…
The word nagged at the jagged cracks of her mind, and An Fei felt the familiar frustration bubble within her. Acting entirely on impulse, the young girl turned her gaze to rest directly on Compendium’s solemn and passive countenance, and enunciated each word slowly and carefully.
“Then, how about this: Xilong kept mentioning that I had no soul, or that I lacked one. What is the case with this – what is he trying to conceal with his words?”
The hovering book fluttered its pages, and the middle-aged man abruptly reached to clamp it by the spine and close it shut. Xu Shen raised his wizened eyes towards the shrouded depths of the Archives of Time, and gently sighed.
“Xilong chose not to explain or conceal, but rather it is the case that he was unable to disclose the information,” Compendium declared with a wan smile.
“Amongst us envoys of the Sanctuary’s Disciplinary Channels, Xilong is fundamentally unable to withstand certain concepts – his soul is too weak to properly comprehend and pass on the information. As such, his intention was to delay for time – time until another envoy could sufficiently explain.”
“Explain?”
“The answer is simple. You are inflicted with an insidious curse, one that we Immortals have assigned the name <Jolt>. A curse that bites deep into the soul and is unable to expunge.”
Xu Shen slowly walked towards the drawing table with his eyes closed, a serene expression displayed on his countenance. An Fei stood behind him as she watched the middle-aged man place the book onto the center of the table, upon which the latter sprung open to reveal its pristine, snow-white sheets. The surrounding air began to shimmer with a pale glimmer, and Compendium’s voice revealed a raw excitement.
“If taken at face value, the curse is nothing more than an imposed identity crisis. Who are you? Why are you here? How did you come about? Are you… really you? Simple at first glance, but it is truly insidious and abhorrent to the extreme,” the words accelerated in pace, and the pages of the book began to flutter.
“Take an example; a physical immortal being. He can age to death, but cannot be directly killed by any means. Wounds seal and completely heal in a matter of seconds, and severed limbs reattach instantly if they are within a close distance, or regrow if the original cannot be recollected. However, what would happen if such an immortal were to be decapitated, and the head was separated from the remainder of the body – beyond its range of recovery?”
The exquisite robe flashed, and Compendium stretched his arms to welcome the baptism of golden light radiating from the crystalline walls. The crystal hanging from the necklace at his chest erupted into a dazzling brilliance, and his words shook the platform.
“The torso grows a new head, and the head grows a new body. Which, then holds the true identity of the immortal? Who is the fake?”
