In the pool

Below the surface, Wei Sha began franticly flapping his hands and legs. He was desperate to resurface before anyone realised what accident had befallen him.

[He-] the same crackling sound tried to gain his attention.

Wei Sha wasn't interested in this sound in the slightest. 'Up! I need to get up!' Instead, he focussed on his struggle of getting out of the Awakening Pool. He knew he shouldn't be in here.

So he swam upwards till his hands reached the surface.

'What!' He slammed his hands against the surface of the pool. 'What's happening?'

[He-y]

Wei Sha kicked and punched the surface, yet all that resulted from his attacks were slight waves rippling the surface, nothing more, no cracks, no bubbles.

'Stuck?' He was without a doubt swimming in the Awakening Pool liquid, and as he breathed the entire time, he hadn't fallen into a total panic. Still, fear persisted.

'How am I going to get out of here? Can I get out of here anymore?' Questions began to fill his head.

A memory of his mother's words flashed in his mind.

'Right, focus on what's important,' he repeated and spun around so he could see what awaited him below. If there was no way up, he needed to go deeper.

Looking towards the bottom, he could see an infinite ocean booming with life. Hellish fiends swam together with the beast from the Primal Plain and the other plains of existence. Right before his eyes, a shadow larger than the cavern he had been inside of floated past him, and as it did so, the shadow left no mark in the liquid.

'A Void Existence!' Wei Sha gulped and tried to swam away, though his back met the surface soon, ending his attempt.

[Vo-id e-x-istance. A typ-e of be-st from th-e Void Plains. Dange-r, no]

Wei Sha kept his head fixated on the Void Existence as his eyes went to his right. There he saw a spoon full of bright-yellow lava, swaying in the liquid.

'Weird.' He stretched his hand towards this bubble of lava.

As his hand closed on it, the bubble moved.

[N-o]

'It speaks?' Wei Sha whirled rest of his head while a frown appeared on his forehead.

'It speaks!' His eyes widened.

"Come here! I want you!" Wei Sha's hands acted in an effort to seize the bubble of lava that spoke to him with static and broken words.

Both of Wei Sha's hands missed by an inch; however, he understood he hadn't been close. This being hadn't bothered to dodge more than required.

"Playing hard to get?" Wei Sha kicked his legs, diving at the bubble of lava. An individual failure wouldn't be registered in his mind.

'Whatever this thing is, I want it!' Wei Sha had no idea about the identification of this being. Yet, as it could speak, he perceived it as something extraordinary.

Almost all creatures with the ability to speak were rare, powerful, and on top smart. So if he could bond with one, he might have a shot at easing Li Li's situation. Even curing her was on the table!

[Sto-p] As the lava bubble dodged the frustrated attempts launched by Wei Sha, it tried to soothe him.

"C'mon, I need you!" Wei Sha raged. "I need to cure my mother!" Time and time again, he attacked the creature who appeared not at all faced by him.

"I'll give you anything if you bond with me!" He caught the bubble inside his fist.

'Did I catch it?' He stopped all movement to see.

[Ch-ild] The lava bubble oozed out from between Wei Sha's fingers. [Stop or I lea-ve]

"No!" Wei Sha placed his hand over the other while at the same time dragging his hands closer to his chest. "Bond with me!" His head had turned from crimson red to ruby. His frustration, anger, and desperation showing.

[Hmp-f] The lava bubble huffed, escaping from the clutches of Wei Sha in a blink. Then, without saying another word, it descended into the Awakening Pool's endless depths.

Wei Sha rolled in place. 'Damit! Damit!' Raging.

His rage continued till catharsis washed him clean a few minutes later. As it hit, he could see his mistakes.

'Stupid training.' He now saw his actions originate from the weights that had become a burden on his soul. 'Now, I lost my chances to bond with that being.'

He, in a downcast, looked below. The Shadow Existence was about to pass him, and behind it swam tens of human-like bodies. Much as a demon resembled a human that is. Those people were ghosts, slimmer than humans, though much taller, and their skin was transparent.

'That Void Existence looks like a must-have for a ghost,' Wei Sha imagined.

Studying the ghosts and the Void Existence already swimming away from him, he could see a bright blink through one of the ghosts.

'The lava bubble!' Not even processing another thought, he kicked his feet against the surface, diving after the bright-yellow light.

'You are mine.' With a smirk on his face, Wei Sha swam deeper into this unknown place.

X

As he dived, humans, demons, and angels hunted for their own creature.

Sometimes there came a frightened look from a human or an angel when Wei Sha passed them with a smirk. 'Human's funny.' Wei Sha might have lingered in here just to keep on scaring these little people if he wasn't in a hurry.

He couldn't afford a stop since the bright yellow dot kept on descending without a pause.

X

'How long have I been here?'' Wei Sha questioned when he found a sharp mountain top. When he had first glanced at the bottom, he had seen nothing resembling ground.

He spun his head around just enough to see up. 'The surface?'

'Whatever.' He shook his head and continued to descend alongside the submerged mountaintop.

X

An unknown amount of time had passed again when other mountain tops came into his sights.

'There's a bottom?' He thought when canyons and crevices came into sight. Everything he had seen so far indicated that the Awakening Pool had a bottom.

Diving into the canyon to which the bubble had gone, Wei Sha was faced by bubbles of air? Also, the moment he had passed the canyon's top, he began to feel heat.

Another memory flashed him.

It made him laugh. 'Thank you, father! For once, I thank you with all my heart!' Greatness awaited him!

Arriving at the canyon's bottom, Wei Sha hovered atop a pool of something resembling lava, yet not lava.

'That bubble passed into there. . . Does it live there?' On his way there, he had seen many temples and palaces guarded by beasts belonging to the five major plains. In his mind, it was right to think a creature from Hell would reside inside a place like this. Alone and warm, all that any being from Hell wished for.

'Don't mind if I step in.' He lowered himself so that his toe could test the lava-like substance.

Wei Sha's mind waited for results as he dipped his big toe in the substance before pulling it out.

'500 Celsius,' he marked as he dived into this hot substance without hardening his scales.

When he broke the surface, the sound he had wanted to hear arrived.

[Yo-u aga-in?]

"Yes," Wei Sha responded to the bubble, who sounded not too pleased.

[This t-ime yo- want t- liste-n?]

"I will." Wei Sha nodded; however, he didn't acknowledge his earlier mistakes. That wasn't the way of a demon.

[Good. Let the testing began]

'What's with the tone? Is it broken, corrupted?' The sound irritated Wei Sha, but as it had spoken one reasonable sentence, he could infer crude answers. Then again, he couldn't get an answer to anything before the surrounding scenery changed.

A second ago, everything had been a bright-yellow substance. Now he stood in a palace hall where enormous statues between pillars held the roof.

'This place too, corrupted.' If Wei Sha was asked, this place looked as if God had malfunctioned during creation. Statues missed body parts, parts of the floor were nowhere to be seen. . . The list went on and didn't exclude anything.

[Welcome, aspirant] the lava bubble spoke, hovering next to him. [Here's your personal card, aspirant #1X862X477X7]

Wei Sha took the card. 'Aspirant #18862447767' He flipped the card

'Progress 0%.'

[O-h you alre-dy fou-nd th-e progress bar]

"Okay." He took his eyes off the card and onto the bubble of lava. "Why do you speak in such a weird way?" Just now, the bubble had spoken fine, and now it reverted to its more broken speech. There had to be some answer!

[Wha-t do you me-n?]

"Is everything fine?"

[Yes]

Wei Sha cocked his head, glanced past the bubble. "Do you see that?" he pointed at a statue which didn't have legs yet stood tall without support.

"Anything weird?"

[No]

"Sure? No legs missing?"

[The statue of Lord Changping h-as al- of it- legs in p-lace]

Wei Sha blinked a couple of times before getting a hint. "Who's he?" He pointed out another statue.

[Lord Xaar]

Wei Sha felt confident he was on the right track, and so proceeded.

"Could you tell me his basic description?"

[Lord Xaar. Nicknamed 'The Demon Hammer', 'The Breaker of Lower Heaven's Gate', and a personal favourite of mine 'The Fifth Owner'. Favourite weapon, hammer. Favourite pastime hobby, fishing. Anything else?]

"At what time did he go to sleep?" Wei Sha asked with a smile on his face.

[A-t tw-elve o'cl-ck]

"I see." Wei Sha got his confirmation. This bubble, scratch that, this entire palace was corrupted. This bubble could give a response which it had rehearsed many times over; however, when asked a random question, would it malfunction and the quality of response lower.

[To the tests?] The lava bubble re-formed its liquid into a sign, showing Wei Sha the way.