…..
Resting in his chambers, Zilan examined a thin shard of glowing glass. Bright rainbow lights danced along its surface, but rather than stinging his eyes, they were pleasing to behold. Zilan gently ran his fingers against the glass, mesmerized by the craftsmanship. He didn’t need his “eyes” to recognize that the lights in the glass were actually embodiments of the laws.
‘This glass… resembles the Chairman’s body…’
Towards the top of the glass’s surface, the words “Roho 1” flickered in and out of focus. They seemed almost illusionary; however, seeing how the laws avoided approaching those words made evident that they were real.
‘This is the Manual the Chairman prepared for me. How does it work?’
Since attaining the manual, Zilan had tried a number of ways to control it but so far nothing had worked. He had already tried dripping his blood onto it, activating it with the help of inscriptions, and refining it before stopping lest he go too far.
Unable to come up with more ideas, he shifted his attention to the other items. A glass chest, the size of a dining table, rested in a corner of the room. Markings similar to those on voidless sacks littered its body, prompting Zilan to carefully examine it.
‘I guess every civilization has their own type of storage tools,’ He concluded.
Zilan opened the slick chest, his movements extremely careful. He had just cracked it open when waves of powerful, soothing energy assaulted him. The energy’s purity could only come from Universe energy, exceedingly pure Universe energy. Without any further hesitation, Zilan flipped open the whole chest.
Within an assortment of interestingly-coloured fruits, herbs, tools, and shockingly, even corpses and carcasses lay. Needless to say, Zilan was surprised by the contents. The Universe energy emanating from them, if successfully absorbed, would doubtlessly enhance his progress by leaps and bounds. And even once that was done, he would still be left with invaluable materials that he had a myriad uses for. For these items to house this much Universe energy, they were anything but ordinary. Especially the strange life-forms’ corpses had formidable auras leaking from their perfectly-preserved bodies.
Just thinking about how his stash of Universe-energy sapped treasures was now steadily growing sent a smile onto Zilan’s face. Before, he had only had the ginseng that he had obtained back at Morning Dew, but now, his pockets practically overflowed with wealth.
Just as Zilan revelled in his newfound fortune, the Chairman suddenly appeared in the room.
“I see that you’ve opened the chest. When you’ve successfully absorbed the Universe energy from each of the items, you’ll have to pass them back to me.”
Zilan almost chocked on his own saliva upon hearing the Chairman’s words. He even suspected whether or not the old man could hear his thoughts. ‘Did he come here specifically to crush my spirit?’
“You said training begins tomorrow,” Zilan grumbled.
“I did. I came back because I forgot to give you something. I’m actually surprised you haven’t asked about it by now.” Having said that, the Chairman threw a single piece of paper towards Zilan. It was cool to the touch, and at first glance, the ink appeared fresh as if someone had just penned the words.
“What is this?”
“What remains of Gnagus Najua Yote Kuhusu Dawa’s Alchemy tome,” the Chairman replied, wryly smiling, “A replica to be exact.”
“What? But on the mountain…”
“That was a fake. The real tome was destroyed by Akili,” the Chairman said.
“Why?” Zilan was unable to wrap his head around the fact that his Ancestor had ruined a priceless artefact that even Zaum would have found valuable.
“Who knows? I presented it to him as a gift, and he suddenly went crazy, making sure he wiped the tome from existence. He even went as far as to employ methods that harmed his body to ensure that nothing remained of it. After he’d calmed down, he hesitantly replicated the writings from the first page of the tome and said, ‘This will be a record that his legacy did indeed exist.’ He never gave me a proper explanation for the reason behind his actions; although, maybe I was foolish to expect one in the first place.”
“So, just like that, he destroyed the tome. And you watched it happen?”
“It was hard to stop the man; he never played fair.”
‘One riddle at a time, please,’ Zilan sighed. “So, you have absolutely no clue as to why he did what he did?”
“He most likely saw some things that he didn’t like; I don’t know what though.”
Zilan inwardly rolled his eyes. “What could it have been? You’ve read the tome, right?”
“I haven’t. I wasn’t allowed to. We Roho avoid such things as once I know it, all of the Roho will know it too, and it could breed unwanted thoughts.”
“…”
Focusing on the piece of paper, Zilan read the introduction, or rather, the note Gnagus had written to the Roho requesting forgiveness. After that, a few sentences detailing Gnagus’s mindset as he created the tome were written in bold.
Overall, the sentences were standard, laced with the usual insightful and thought-provoking words expected from someone of his standing. Nevertheless, a few things stood out and resonated with Zilan, imprinting themselves in his mind.
“Nothing is sacred. Explore everything. Boundaries mean nothing” were words that Gnagus repeated several times in this first page. To Zilan, the words represented Gnagus’s relentless passion and conviction as well as his thirst for knowledge; however, simultaneously, Zilan felt that Gnagus was trying to justify his actions.
Pondering it would only lead to more confusion, so he stored the paper and pushed his criticisms to the back of his mind.
AN – Creative novels as a platform is evolving and as such it must make sure that its community is receiving consistent content and that is why some new rules have been implemented. Now, I will admit I am inconsistent which is why I can only guarantee 2 chapters every week on Sunday, however, for those who don’t mind inconsistency you will most likely find that my Patreon page is ahead of Creative Novels. For example, right now….you can read up to chapter 200 for FREE.
In conclusion, every week on Sunday I will post 2 chapters a week on Creative Novels, and you will probably find FREE chapters on my Patreon page that are ahead. Now, I can’t guarantee that these chapters will always be there every single week, but there’s a very high chance they will be.
– Emerald.
