A sharp, metallic sound broke the damp silence of the cell as the Shackles of Restraint came undone and fell to the stone floor. Dream stood up, rubbing his stone wrists not from pain, but as an automatic gesture recorded from Hong-min's memory. Before him, Ling Gu's smile was still glowing in the faint light, the smile of a hunter enjoying the sight of his prey, just freed inside its cage.
"Don't you feel grateful?" Ling Gu asked, slowly circling Dream, his movements as fluid and graceful as a black cat's. "I have granted you your freedom. Don't you feel afraid that I might change my mind? No? What a shame. I was hoping to see something in those gray eyes."
Inside Dream, the voices clashed.
screamed Hong-min's sarcastic voice.
"Since you are weak," Ling Gu continued, stopping directly in front of him, "you must become stronger. Follow me."
He turned and walked out of the open cell, completely confident that Dream would follow. There was no other choice.
The ascent from the prison was like climbing out of a living hell. They were not just stone corridors, but a museum of pain. The air was thick, saturated with the smell of rotten despair, sweat, and old blood that had seeped into the walls. From behind rusty bars, muffled groans emerged, a constant hum of suffering that had become the soundtrack of this place. Dream saw the shadows of slender hands reaching out from the darkness, their bony fingers trying to cling to something that wasn't there. Cold drops of water fell slowly and rhythmically from the high ceiling, like the tears of the stone itself.
"This was the leader of the 'Broken Blade' bandits," Ling Gu said indifferently, gesturing to a particularly dark cell. "He screamed for three consecutive weeks before he fell silent. His story was very sad." He turned to Dream. "Do you feel anything for his story? Any pity?"
"No," Dream replied coldly. "Just data."
Ling Gu smiled. The contrast between his theatrical cruelty and Dream's absolute coldness clearly amused him. They finally reached the end of a long spiral staircase, in front of a massive iron door. Two guards opened it from the other side, and light and warmth burst into their faces.
They had emerged into the palace hall. The contrast was shocking. The darkness and dampness of the prison vanished, replaced by a wide, open space. Polished dark cypress floors reflected the warm light from hanging paper lanterns. Sliding walls were decorated with delicate paintings of tigers and dragons amidst bamboo forests. A faint scent of sandalwood and incense filled the air. Driven by a logical and analytical impulse, Dream noted that the prison's location directly beneath the main hall was an inefficient design from a security standpoint.
"Why is the prison entrance inside the palace?" Dream asked, his voice sounding strange in the hall's tranquility.
Ling Gu laughed. "I will answer you in one word: anyone who enters that prison does not leave it alive. Unless they are from the clan." He gave him a sarcastic look. "Did you like my analysis?"
They walked through endless corridors until they reached a spacious and simple room. There was nothing in it but cushions for sitting on the floor and a low table. Ling Gu sat down with a graceful movement. Without a sound, one of the paper walls slid open and a servant entered, wearing simple clothes bearing the emblem of the Gu clan. She bowed silently, served them tea, and then left like a ghost.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"I've noticed you don't use any kind of 'Echo of Creation'," Ling Gu said, sipping his tea. "You do know what it is, don't you?"
Hong-min's memory provided the data. "Yes."
"Why don't you use it? Don't tell me you don't have a 'Soul Gate'."
"I don't know."
"Well, as I expected. Now, you will know. I will explain everything to you, perhaps you are unaware of something." Ling Gu leaned back, his eyes beginning to shine with the enthusiasm of a teacher who has found a unique student.
"Look around you," he said. "The air, the rock, this tea... everything is filled with a primal power we call the 'Echo of Creation'. It's like pure white light—chaotic, unformed, and containing within it all possibilities, all types of energy."
"Each one of us, we 'Chosen Ones', has a key inside us to access this ocean of energy. We call it the 'Soul Gate'. Imagine it as a unique glass prism, located in the center of your body. When you open your gate, the 'Echo of Creation' passes through it. And because of the unique nature of your prism, it filters the white light and allows only one color to pass through."
He raised his cup. "And more importantly, the lighter and purer this color is—like the crimson 'rei' or the clear-blue 'Mana'—the better your Soul Gate is, capable of absorbing a larger amount of the 'Echo of Creation' and shaping it with greater power."
He pointed to himself. "My gate, and the gates of all Murim warriors, are designed to release the color red. We call it 'rei'. A sharp, explosive, and physical energy. Perfect for combat." Then a look of faint contempt crossed his face. "As for that sorceress who was with you... her gate releases the color blue. 'Mana'. A flexible and mysterious energy, suitable for their little tricks."
He finished his explanation, and the servant appeared again, as if she had been waiting for this exact moment. She held an empty crystal goblet and a small, sharp silver blade on a black wooden tray.
"And now," Ling Gu said, his smile becoming as sharp as the blade. "Let's see the color of your prism."
Before Dream could respond, Ling Gu moved with inconceivable speed. He grabbed Dream's stone arm, took the silver blade, and with a quick, precise motion, made a deep cut.
Dream felt no pain, but he registered the damage.
The thick gray fluid, his blood, began to seep slowly from the wound. The servant held the crystal goblet beneath it to collect the heavy drops. In the goblet, the blood was just an ordinary gray liquid, dull and uninteresting.
Ling Gu looked at the goblet, then at Dream, a look of slight disappointment on his face. "Fantastic. A different color from ours." Then he pointed to the goblet. "Drink it."
But before 404's logic could reject the order, a burning memory flooded him.
Dream extended his hand and took the crystal goblet. He raised it to his stone mouth and drank the dull gray liquid in one go. It had no taste. Just data.
The moment he emptied the goblet, it happened.
The deep wound on his arm, which was still bleeding slowly, suddenly closed. Its stone edges sealed in a fraction of a second, as if time had reversed, leaving no trace or scar behind. It was Dream's healing ability.
Ling Gu's eyes froze as he witnessed this impossible healing. But before he could process what had happened, the place where the wound had been began to glow.
At first, it was a faint glimmer. Then the light exploded. A pure, bright, and intense white light emanated from Dream's stone skin, as if a small star had been born beneath its surface. Then, as the light met the 'Echo of Creation' in the air, it refracted. It broke down into a full spectrum of colors that danced and shimmered on his arm: the fiery red of 'Ki', the deep blue of 'Mana', and even colors Ling Gu had never seen before, colors that did not exist in their world.
Dream's arm had transformed into a living gem, sparkling with all the possibilities of the universe.
Ling Gu began to laugh. At first, it was a choked laugh of shock. Then it turned into a hysterical, crazed laugh that filled the entire room, making the servant tremble and the teacup vibrate on the table.
"I understand now!" he screamed as he laughed. "I understand now why you went extinct! Why the Chosen One killed you!"
He was laughing at the horrifying truth: this creature before him didn't have a prism that released a single color. His gate was chaos itself. The very essence of creation itself.
His laughter suddenly stopped, and he looked at Dream. His gaze was no longer that of a master to a slave, or a look of amusement. It was an entirely new gaze. A look of absolute greed, terror, and awe. The look of someone who had found the key to the universe itself sitting before him.
Dream felt that strange sensation again, a faint red flash deep in his consciousness. This look was not like Hong-min's. This look did not mean that Ling Gu would be a friend.
Similar to Hong-min.
https://discord.gg/g38wuq4Q
The Echo of Creation. This energy is pure white light, containing within it all possible energetic spectrums.
Soul Gate within them, located in the solar plexus region (upper abdomen). This gate acts as a personal prism for each individual, varying in shape, composition, and angles. Its function is to refine the raw Echo of Creation.
Mechanism and Training:
- Permanently Open Gate: Once initially refined, the Soul Gate remains continuously open, functioning as a prism that analyzes the surrounding Echo of Creation.
- Training for Speed and Efficiency: Training doesn't increase the gate's inherent size, but it improves the speed and efficiency of the refinement and drawing process. A novice warrior might struggle to quickly harmonize and draw energy, while a master achieves instantaneous control.
- Energy Reserve: Each individual is born with a specific reserve of refined energy that their body can withstand and utilize. This reserve represents the body's capacity to hold channeled energy.
- Ri (Ri): This is the red color of the spectrum. It is produced by the Soul Gates of Murim warriors (like the Gu clan). Ri is a sharp, explosive, and physical energy, ideal for combat.
- Mana (Mana): This is the blue color of the spectrum. It is produced by the Soul Gates of mages. Mana is a flexible, enigmatic energy, perfect for shaping spells and incantations.
Refinement Quality: An individual's power doesn't lie solely in the quantity of The Echo of Creation they can draw, but in the purity of the energy after refinement. The more effective and efficient the refinement process performed by the Soul Gate, the purer and more potent the refined energy (Ri or Mana) becomes. Pure energy is utilized more effectively, with greater intensity and efficiency.
more than one type of energy (e.g., both Ri and Mana):
- Manual Refinement: This demands greater manual effort in refinement. When desiring to use a specific energy type, the individual must focus and precisely identify the "path" or "frequency" of the desired energy within their gate. This adds an extra step and hurdle to accessing the desired energy.
- Difficulty of Multi-Mastery: The more energy types a person learns, the significantly harder and more time-consuming it becomes to master subsequent types. This is because the Soul Gate needs to learn to precisely fine-tune its frequencies and avoid interference between different energy types, making multi-specialization a considerable challenge.