Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

"’Bai,’ it looks like it was just made up on the spot, probably without even thinking about it... um—don’t change the subject, you still haven’t answered my original question. Are you also bored?"

Seemingly aware of the massive size disparity between herself and the soul dragon in front of her, Bai’s form instantly shrank.

This wasn’t any sort of transformation, because Bai’s body naturally had no fixed shape. She was a soul dragon, so her size depended solely on how big she wanted to be.

"I’ve seen you in mortals’ dreams, and in many, many people’s dreams at that. In their hearts, you are a very wise person."

Striving to appear very serious, Bai raised her head high. However, her next sentence made Nuo burst out laughing.

"So you know how to become wise—or I mean, how to make others think you are wise?"

A face full of solemnity—truth be told, as a human, Nuo found it quite difficult to discern the emotion of ’solemnity’ from the face of the dragon before him—anyhow, Bai had been troubled by this for a long time.

In the past, within the dreams of the Spirit Realm, she had briefly glimpsed the dreams of many lives. There were dreams of wild beasts, humans, and even a few weaker deities.

Some were beautiful dreams, others were nightmares, and most were a variety of strange and bizarre dreams. Perhaps because of her innate nature, Yserania was not affected by the content of these dreams. Her spirit remained pure, so even after many years had passed, she was still as she was at birth.

For a while, she felt puzzled because the owners of those dreams seemed to grow over time, so she specifically went to ask her creator about it. However, the answer she received left Bai quite disheartened.

The deity told her that soul dragons roaming in dreams would not be influenced by them; if they wanted to grow spiritually, they would have to experience life on their own, not just through observation.

After all, if the dreams of other lives really could affect these favored spirits, it would be quite a terrifying thing. Dreams and reality are inherently different, with the absurd and bizarre often being the dominant elements. Even the kindest person in reality could become a destroyer of worlds in the unconscious realm of dreams.

So, to prevent the soul dragons from inexplicably all turning into evil spirit dragons, they were given a considerable degree of resistance to dreams from the very beginning. Perhaps ordinary dragons might be influenced by the dreams of the powerful, but for Yserania, there were no such exceptions.

Because she could not sense the dreams of the truly powerful deities, and other life forms were not considered powerful to her. Therefore, seeing Nuo’s smile, Bai flapped her wings in annoyance.

"Don’t laugh, you haven’t answered my question! I’m seriously asking you!"

"If you can’t answer it, I’m going to take you back to my domain, where you’ll think day and night, every night, until you come up with an answer!"

"Ahem... Indeed, that was rude of me, Lady Bai, and for that, I am truly sorry."

Bowing slightly and reining in his smile, Nuo expressed his apologies to the giant dragon before him.

Whether dealing with adults or children, he certainly shouldn’t have laughed like that—though he wasn’t mocking her, quite the opposite, Nuo just found it all very amusing.

He was accustomed to the children of Silver Moon City treating him with utmost respect under their parents’ guidance, or as they grew up, developing various emotions towards him, like admiration, envy, desire, or jealousy and defiance, but the being before him was clearly an exception.

She evidently was a native life form of the Spirit Realm, having glimpsed him through the dreams of mortals, but she didn’t consider his negligible achievements of any importance. She too possessed great power, and although she restrained herself, Nuo, in his soul state, could clearly sense the instinctive trembling of his own soul in her presence.

"What a good child..."

Standing upright, Nuo felt his perplexity vanish. His affairs in the Mortal Realm had concluded, yet he felt he had rediscovered some value in life. Not in doing mundane tasks day after day beside the Well of Reincarnation, nor in being endowed with power and suddenly becoming an almost divine eternal being.

Compared to those, he much preferred to disseminate ideas, much like spreading the Faith of the Lord to every creature he encountered on the path of leading human migration, just as he imparted his principles to the people of Silver Moon City.

So if within the Lord’s domain, he could continue such a life within the grand Ancient Spirit World, and share with its inhabitants that beyond lies a race called humans, kind and creative, it would certainly be a venture worth pursuing. He was willing to dedicate his efforts, using all that he possessed, to make it a reality.

"Regarding your question, Miss Bai, this is not something that can be resolved in a short time,"

With a smile, Nuo said softly.

"Hmph, it doesn’t matter, I can wait."

With a humph, Bai’s mood seemed to have improved considerably. Clearly, being addressed as ’Miss Bai’ by Nuo made her very happy.

"So what do I need to do?"

"There’s no rush, before I make you, um, mature and full of wisdom, I first need to understand the environment you live in."

"How about, as you suggested, you take me to see your domain?"

Your journey continues with empire

"Great!"

Her eyes sparkled again but were quickly restrained by Bai. It was her first time inviting someone into her home - because nobody usually paid attention to her requests.

So she tried to act as if it were normal, once again drawing the illusory circle of light behind her. Behind the circle of light, there was what looked like a small nest.

"Come with me!"

With a cheerful voice, Bai went through the circle of light first. She looked back and urged Nuo to follow, who promptly did.

In the span of just one day, he had faced life and death, arrived at a realm from the myths, met the creator of all, and would now witness the world of dreams.

Nuo felt lucky. He planned to record these experiences in a travelogue. If there was a chance in the future, he would entrust someone to take it back to the Mortal Realm.

All would pass away, but knowledge and civilization would endure. Thousands of years later, people were still using the skills from the Golden Age. Nuo hoped that one day in the distant future, people would find his travelogue from the pile of old papers, and then they would know there was a Silver Moon City, and that a person named Nuo had once visited the realm of gods.

Although the thought didn’t seem very auspicious, much like how the Silver Moon City might not persist for thousands of years, Nuo didn’t think anything was impossible, especially since even the faux Divine Court of the pseudo-gods could collapse.

So he took a step forward, and as the lights shifted, Nuo undoubtedly made his choice. Standing in the fifth layer of the Spirit Realm, Laine watched this scene unfold, without much thought.

In that moment, he seemed to have inadvertently glimpsed a corner of the future, as when he entered the fifth layer of the Spirit Realm, it seemed to resonate with destiny for an instant. But Laine did not intend to ask about the outcome, just as he never prophesied for himself.

"Death and... rebirth?"

Shaking his head slightly, Laine withdrew his gaze.

It was not about the present death or the current rebirth, but what destiny hinted at, a possible event in the future. However, for him, the future was always uncertain, so Laine simply made a note of it. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The affairs of humans and gods were at a pause for now, and the world was about to enter a long period of tranquility. Not until the Hundred-Headed Dragons and Serpents rose from the ground would Chaos become lively again. As for what was to follow, it seemed to be the true beginning of the myth.

"Five hundred years in the Mortal Realm."

As if time, put on pause, began to flow again, the river of time roared on. But for gods, perhaps the only difference from the past was that the Mortal Realm from then on had winters.