Outside the Library

Months had gone by since the Heaven clan was destroyed. By now, worries that the zombie-like creatures from the Heaven clan would attack were mostly gone and many started to forget the incident entirely.

One day, at the waterfall near the Heaven clan, there was a figure that suddenly appeared. One wouldn't be able to tell at first sight whether it was a boy or a girl, but the fact that they were beautiful was undeniable.

While getting the Martial God's inheritance didn't take very long, much time and patience was required for Shui to fuse with the speed essence left by the God of Speed. Just like reaching basic mastery in martial arts allowed him to use martial intent, speed essence was a sign of comprehending the divine laws of speed. However, this essence wasn't as easy to control as martial intent, furthermore it wasn't something he gained with his own efforts so he wouldn't be able to fully utilize this speed essence yet, similar to his quasi-divine body.

In terms of defensive capabilities alone, he could confidently survive the attack of someone in the Master Realm like that fake progenitor. Since that was the strongest being he had encountered, Shui didn't know how much damage he could actually take, but that wasn't something he planned on finding out soon. Even if his body could take the attack, his soul was still in danger and he could also be captured.

Even so, considering his gains, Shui should have come out of the Library with a smile, but instead there was a grim expression. While there was still the matter of his dead clansmen, it was also related to how he would cultivate going further and the crucial information he had obtained.

Starting off with his cultivation, the artifact spirit told him that he could now only cultivate with divine energy. It bestowed him a rune that would allow him to convert concentrated nature energy into divine energy, but even with the new symbols of 'Amplify' and 'Gather' that he inscribed on his skin, Shui could barely get any divine energy from the vast amount of nature energy that was being absorbed from the outside world.

'Looks like I'm going to need a lot of resources to push my cultivation.'

Since he was almost at the divine body boundary, the amount of divine energy he would need to boost his energy cultivation was far greater compared to someone with a normal body, so Shui knew that there would soon be days where he actually had to be desperate for resources. However, this was still a minor issue compared to his other problem.

Since it used up all of its free energy giving him the inheritances, the Primordial Library could no longer anchor itself to this space. The true location of the Primordial Library wasn't behind the waterfall, but it connected to that space due to being called by the necklace he had and his eyes. With that connection lost, unless he was strong enough to create it himself, it would take more time than his current lifespan would allow for it to charge up enough energy from space essence to make another connection. For now, it had created a spiritual bond with him and the information it kept was being slowly downloaded into Shui's brain. Since the data kept by the Library was not only from this world but also from several others, if all of it was pumped into him he would be dead without a doubt.

One of the first pieces of information to be downloaded was a summary of everything that happened starting from the Time of Beginning.

'The History of the Gods.'

Unlike the bits and pieces he was allowed to know before, he now had a basic summary of the eras when the gods shared same world as mortals, but he couldn't be happy about it at all. He should have expected it when he found out what his eyes were, but it was quite the heavy burden he had taken.

'To think my enemy is someone who went against the Prime Gods, I guess I could have seen it coming but, this is really a bit too much.'

It hadn't really sunk in, but even so Shui felt a heavy pressure from knowing who he was destined to fight. The artifact spirit might not have told him to, but if that terrifying foe was still alive, then there would definitely be a day when they met. Maybe if he crippled himself and stayed in this lower world then he could avoid that eventual battle, but Shui wasn't such a coward.

'At least I'm safe for now.'

In addition to his destined nemesis, Shui also learnt why the Sage God Eyes would appear in the lower realms. In order to hide them from that terrifying person, the Sage God Eyes would randomly appear in the lower realms and far reaches of the divine plane. Since all of the gods who left behind their inheritances followed this rule, unlike what others thought, there were more divine inheritances the farther one was from the Land Of Gods.

It was an information dump that made Shui feel weary but he was far from needing to confront it so he could put it aside for the time being. Even if there would be a future battle with the world at stake, that would not be for any foreseeable period. Right now, there were other things he had to take care of.

Under the gentle sunlight that reflected off the clear water, Shui opened his eyes. When he focused on them, there was still a slight drain, but it was much more manageable now. Shui took his time looking at the profound symbols that were all around him. He wasn't completely sure, but these symbols looked similar to the runes he had seen before. His soul wasn't strong enough to draw runes but he could at least memorize them.

He couldn't put his finger on what was different between runes and the symbols he was looking at, but he was sure that these symbols also represented the laws of the natural world.

"I'll take my time looking at these and the one in my body later."

Shui relaxed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of breeze brushing against his eyeballs as well as the slight tingle caused by the sun. For the first time, he was walking to the clan grounds with his eyes open, but there was nothing that was familiar to him. Everything was destroyed. When Shui walked past broken structures and rotten corpses, he could imagine what they used to be like. Due to the leftover aura from the reanimated ancestors which lingered, the corpses with former cultivation below Soul Realm were mostly skeletons by now. Since it focused its energy on him during the inheritance process, there wasn't much of a time difference between inside the Library and outside, so Shui had been prepared for even worse sights that would make him want to throw up. Even so, that empty feeling came back.

Shui's feet didn't pause until he reached the location of the Skywind Pavilion.

"You really fought to the death, huh?"

Although there were just pieces of flesh, Shui could recognize the corpse which still stood despite several weapons stuck in it. Close by, he could also recognize several other familiar figures.

"Did you die without regrets? Did you die the way you wanted to? Was it worth it?"

Shui knew there would be no responses; there was no hope for such a miracle. This was only his way of venting. Even though months had passed since he knew that this would be a reality, he still felt rising warmth around his eyes. Without minding that the time had moved from dawn to noon, Shui stayed there.

Although there were a couple spirit-rank artifacts and other treasures scattered about, he didn't look at a single one of them. Especially since the three most precious ones were gone. Even the residual aura of Sky Realm experts didn't matter to him. After bowing to pay his respect to these fallen warriors, Shui went to visit his mother one last time to say his farewell. Unlike the rest of the clan, the sanctum was just as he remembered it and his mother's grave was untouched.

"It's time. It's finally time for me to leave this place. I used to think this would be a happier occasion, but I guess life just doesn't go as planned. Even though I can finally open my eyes...there's nothing here that I want to see."

Part of him wished that she was here to see his eyes, but he knew that wouldn't happen. In this aspect, he envied the powerless Shui in the trial. He didn't have the freedom he wanted, but that peace, he wouldn't mind if he could experience some of it.