432 Taurus Mill

Thales felt chills in his heart after he heard what the other person said.

"Get ready."

The stranger approached Thales and slowly extended his right hand.

Thales subconsciously stepped back, but in the end, stopped and gritted his teeth.

'I can't be afraid.

'I need to…

'Need to…'

The dense fog in the proximal world grew increasingly thin, and in just a short while, it became pitch-dark.

The stranger's hand touched Thales' face. It was cold.

"Be careful.

"Even if you feel that you have controlled it…"

Thales stared at him. He realized that he had become weightless, as though the ground had disappeared.

Then, he started feel himself fall again.

'Here it comes,' Thales thought silently as he suppressed his nervousness and tried to control his slightly-trembling limbs.

"Even if you feel that you are doing the right thing…

"Even if you feel that you can turn the power of the Mystics into the sword of justice when it is in your hands…"

The stranger still mysteriously remained in front of him motionlessly while he stroked his own face.

It was as if he had no corporeal form.

The surrounding light began to flow. The scenes before him turned from faint, blurry pictures to rapidly-changing, unfocused scenes.

"You are still not to let your guard down.

"Sometimes, the methods you resort to for noble purposes will turn against you and seize control over you without your knowledge."

The stranger's words seemed to contain endless meaning. His shining, mysterious gaze was like a lonely lamp at night. It was the only thing Thales could see in that world.

"Debates, for instance, are for the sake clarifying truths, but too many people are immersed in the thrill of winning the debate and the vain glory it brings. Violence, for instance, is for the sake of survival, but too many people are lost in pure violent impulses."

The feeling of falling was getting stronger and stronger, and the images around him were becoming more and more jumbled up. It was as if color and shape had lost their meaning.

The stranger stopped speaking for a moment.

"Magic, for instance, is for…"

Right after he mentioned that, it sounded like he could not continue.

When Thales saw his reaction, he felt strangely upset.

"I know," the prince consoled him by saying that.

The stranger snorted and shook his head indifferently. "You know?"

He retracted his palm, raised his finger, and gently tapped Thales' forehead.

"You 'think' that you know," the stranger said plainly.

The silver glow flowed out of the prince's forehead with a flash. It seemed like it was greeting the stranger's fingers.

Thales could only look at him silently.

The stranger gently said his next words. Each word in his sentence contained great emotion. It caused Thales to ponder over his words endlessly.

"Just like a hero believes that he will never submit to evil...

"Just like a wise ruler believes that having wisdom and power will allow him to right all wrongs...

"Just like a strong man believes that he is the master of strength and the commander of weapons...

"Just like a famous general thinks that as long as he continues winning, he can bring about peace...

"Just like the wizards think that as long as they expand their knowledge and improve their skills, all the problems in the world can be solved.

"Just like the reformers believe that as long as they have lofty ideals, great goals, and perform selfless actions, they can make the world a better place in the end."

Thales was stunned.

'Hero… ruler… strong man… famous general… wizard… reformer…'

Thales stared at the other person with all his attention, trying to see something from the stranger's blurry face, but he failed.

They were falling faster and faster.

The stranger stopped speaking, and the mysterious gleam in his eyes gradually faded.

"Keep this in mind, child." His words were tinged with a rare emotion. "Stay true to yourself.

"Do not let 'them' easily taint you, invade you, and capture you..." He was like a wise man who had witnessed all the changes in the world. He voiced out his thoughts slowly, "Even if their logic appears sound and plausible."

The flowing light around them shone before the brilliance was stripped from the light.

It was as if they had entered the tunnel in the mountain; it was dark and gloomy.

Finally, Thales blurted out because he had a hard time smoothing out his thoughts. He could no longer suppress the thoughts in his heart.

"Who are you?"

The "person" suddenly appeared in the proximal world.

This… Mystic...

He was Asda's guide. He called the Two Empresses "girls", and was able to hide from their eyes and ears.

He was so strong that he could freely come and go in the proximal world. He knew Silver Shadowman under Dragon Clouds City. He did not seem to belong to any faction…

The stranger was silent for a moment.

Falling faster and faster, he sighed and said, "I am Taurus Mill."

Thales was stunned.

Where did he hear that name before?

That was…

The mysterious man named Taurus continued, "The Magic Tower's glory and shame, the Empire's savior and disaster, the truth and end of the world…

"I am fortune itself, and I am also sin incarnate."

His words harbored sorrow, which he could not seem to escape.

It caused Thales to sense the unspeakable weight of his words.

'Glory and shame, savior and disaster, truth and end, fortune and sin…'

He then heard Taurus speak softly, "I am your first predecessor. I am the worst example."

He pressed his index finger gently on Thales' forehead and pushed forward.

"And… the worst future."

At the next moment, light appeared again and heat rose. Thales' vision darkened, and his breathing stopped.

He knew that he had left the proximal world.

Soon, he sank into a deep, endless sea.

He could not return to the proximal world.

….

'Here we go again.'

While pictures flashed before his eyes before they disappeared. He joyfully stretched out his hands… No, the "hands" of his thoughts, and he touched everything.

His feeble physical body was no longer enough for him to utilize in that place.

A sense of achievement, accomplishment and satisfaction descended on him again.

The sky was high, quiet, and far away. He saw numerous snow peaks. The vast grassland was generous to all manner of living creature, the boundless desert was apathetic and quiet, the deep seabed had hidden undercurrents in it, the ancient cities were majestic as well as worthy of being written about in historical poems, and…

He slowly lifted his gaze and sensed a light in the distance.

It was above the sky, coming from the mysterious and endless stars.

He took a breath and sensed everything around him.

'The whole word...

'Is in front of my eyes.

'It has laid itself bare for me.

'Hmm? The world?'

"'When you think of the world, what is the first thing you think of?"'

The pleasant and annoying male voice rose faintly.

'Again.'

He shook his mind—since he had no head to shake—and pushed those silly words aside. He continued to sense everything in his current magical state.

Of course, that was not enough…

He needed more and he needed to reach the highest place in the dream…

So he began to ascend, just like before.

And this time...

Nothing could stop him… in his desire to make that final step.

When he thought about it, he looked up gently.

'Ah.'

He let out a sigh of satisfaction.

Yes, it was still the dark and silent space.

It appeared in front of him again.

He could see clearly that mysterious gray fog displayed before him in space. It was flowing about in the distance. But then, it surged towards him in the form of an endless white light.

It was as if the gray fog was sentient, and it was opening its arms to him. The gray fog seemed to be making the most formal invitation, calling out to him.

He continued to rise and he sensed the increasingly amazing feeling of omnipotence as well as omniscience. He looked at the fog, which continued to spread towards him, and understood what was going on.

That was a call.

What was in the gray fog? It was calling out to him, longing for his arrival.

"Come…"

In his daze, he even sensed faint cries from the fog.

"Together…"

Yes.

A familiar desire and impulse rose in him.

He sensed it. In the gray fog was something he wanted most, and it was the dearest, closest thing to him.

"Come."

He ascended faster and faster, getting closer to the strange dark space. He also became closer to the fog, which was stained with white light.

"Come!"

He almost could not hold himself back from roaring.

'Hurry up, hurry up and let me enter that space…

'I want to touch the fog…

'I have to do it.

'Only by doing so… can I become more perfect.

'And only then can I truly possess this world.'

'World?'

His rising momentum came to a sudden halt.

"'The world? It's probably filled with people. Asda, what was the world like… during your time, when the Empire and Magic Towers were still around?"'

The echoes of the past was traveled into his ears like a whisper.

'Aaahhhh!

'That damn drake voice again!

'No!

'Go away…

'Go away!'

"'Let me guess, the difference between then and now isn't big, right? After all, the world we see is just a small part of what we perceive. Perhaps the world is formed by where we are right now and all the people we know. It is also formed by the world they talk about, see, and are surrounded by. We think we see the world, but in truth, what we see is our own retina."'

He was no longer ascending.

'No no no!'

He roared in agony, and his head began to hurt.

'This again!

'The drake's voice!'

'This again! It's stopping him from…'

He swore an oath. Once he rose to the top, became perfect, and became omnipotent… he would definitely tear the owner of that drake voice into pieces! He would crush him! Make him explode!

He would turn him into the finest and most indistinct piece of dust…

He would let that tiny existence, which stopped him from heading towards magnificence… bear the most terrible, painful, unimaginable, and ultimate punishment in the world!

Even if he had to destroy the world, even if it meant his own destruction, even if the end of all things was near, he would still make that drake voice pay the heaviest and unbearable price. That was despite never being able to atone for his sins even if he died a million times. 

'Aarghhhhh!'

"'Are you leaving, Asda? Has the class ended, Asda? Sir? Young Asda? Ahem, small, small puppy? Stupid Asda?

"'Huh, seems like he really left. He f*cking did it again… Why don't you change your name and call yourself Bruce Wayne instead?

"'Hmph, what is the world? You may not know… but in those unfamiliar memories, what I have to do is look at the world from another angle… discover problems we have never discovered, doubt the principles that we assume are correct, break our external shackles, whose existences we don't know of because we have been bound…

"'This is not an easy task. As Plato said, once you get out of the cave and see the sun… hur hur…

"'We used to laugh and laugh at characters who have eighth-grade syndrome in anime… But sometimes, when you look at the world again and again from a perspective no one's noticed, you'll find…

"'Maybe, maybe the one who's wrong really isn't me…

"'It's this world.

"'Right? Hey, old horse, what do you say?"'

His head hurt more and more.

'Argghh!

'Damn. Don't... Don't you f*cking stop me!

'I need it…

'I need that space, that fog…

'I need to ascend!

'I need to have it!

'I need this world!'

The next moment, Thales was like a person who had just recovered from drowning. He woke up in pain!

*Boom!*

There was a strange and loud clap of thunder.

'Aaarghhhh!

'Why…'

Thales gasped and looked up…

He was confused for a few seconds and felt like he had forgotten something again—

He instantly began to fall!

Then, without any warning, he came to a sudden halt!

It almost made him dizzy.

However, it was not over yet…

He seemed to be caught in a gust of wind, which threw him upwards. He began to ascend again.

'Why…'

*Bang! Boom!*

The moment he reached the peak again, Thales tried hard to open his eyes. Then, he jolted!

He found that there was a visible storm before his eyes.

A storm!

*Swoosh…*

At the next moment, he was blown by a gust of strange wind, causing him to topple sideways!

The sensation he had earlier was of him rising and falling in that strange, terrifying, and endless storm against his will!

'What the hell—'

*Boom!*

The wind there had color.

The gusts of wind were black, like smooth-moving blades formed by ink as they blew in the air. There were thousands of ink blades. Sometimes, they scattered away, and the ink spilled everywhere. Other times, they gathered into big waves and swept towards him like a tornado, causing the panicking Thales to tumble back and forth!

It was as if they… were flying a kite.

In the dark air, similarly-dark lightning occasionally flashed. They were accompanied by huge thunderclaps, which almost damaged his eardrums.

*Boom!*

Every clap of thunder made the dark black storm rage even more!

Thales did not know if the place was real or an illusion. He endured the sharp pain of the wind blades and sensed the panic brought on by weightlessness.

'Damn, damn…'

Thales trembled and tried to catch one of the patches of ink. But in the panic, he found himself without a body.

'What the hell is this place?'

*Boom!*

He waved his imaginary hands, but he could not grasp onto anything that could serve as his point force.

His gaze drifted with the storm. It wilfully made him turn. His whole body—if it could even be considered a body at this point—was dragged around in the air by the storm non-stop!

All he could see through his eyes was ominous black.

All he could hear was a terrifying and strange thunder.

He was a lone ship in the ship that was in even greater danger.

*Swoosh—Boom!*

Damn!

He was blown away by another storm.

Thales felt like he was about to lose his breath.

He could not see the ground or the sky. He could only feel himself being surrounded by the endless, merciless, callous, and black storm. It was all around him!

*Boom—*

He shouted, but there was no response. He could not even hear his own voice.

It was something he had never encountered since the first time he lost control up to the moment he first knocked on the Door!

'This is... the truth of losing control over mystic energy?

'A… sea of mystic energy?' he thought with trepidation.

"'When you roam the great sea of mystic energy, you'll constantly feel the threshold rising and falling, and it will affect you far more than just your physical body..."' Taurus' words rang by his ears.

*Boom!*

The storm was wild, terrifying, violent, and without moderation. There was no end in sight, and it was out of control. It continuously tormented Thales' senses.

Compared to the amazing feeling he first sensed… he really did not want to stay there right then.

As that thought occurred to him, Thales found the area before him shrouded in a layer of smoke.

It seemed like he was instantly intoxicated by it, and he sensed that amazing feeling of omniscience as well as omnipotence again…

'Ah…

'So amazing…

'I saw the world again...

'And I want more…'

When Thales thought of that, he instinctively smiled.

'No!'

The next moment, however, Thales shook his head desperately and tried to wake himself up!

*Boom!*

A strange clap of thunder sounded!

The illusion before him dimmed. He came to his senses for a short period of time and he returned to the dark storm of terror.

He continued to rise and fall along with the waves.

'Da… mn!'

The torture of the ears and senses made him try to gather his remaining will to the best of his abilities.

He knew that Asda's classroom training allowed him to get out of the psychedelic state for a short time and avoid evolving any further. But obviously, he was currently still far away from what Taurus called the "matter" stage!

'No!'

Just as the mysterious Taurus mentioned, he could not get lost there. He could not lose himself in his desires and impulses!

He had to get through it!

'Aarghh! F*ck!'

Thales growled in his heart. He focused his mind and tried not to think about the previous illusion.

*Boom!*

The ink-colored storm roared again and pulled him back into the terrible air.

'Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it!'

Thales tried to get rid of the comfortable and beautiful illusions as well as the feeling of power, which allowed him to sense everything...

Yet, the more he wanted to get rid of it, the more he could not help thinking of that feeling.

The harder he tried not to think about it, the more he could not help but remember it.

He thought of the thrill of evolving and the excitement of knocking on the Door…

He remembered his desire to enter the dark space in his basic form, and the urge to touch the gray fog…

That omniscience, that omnipotence, that grand feeling that he was the whole world and the mighty truth of all manner of being! If he touched it, he could be free from restriction, limitations, and without any discordances, he could—Damn it!

While rising and falling in the storm, Thales jumbled his thoughts and struggled to get rid of the temptation.

'No, no, no, no!

'Do not think about it!

'Stay sane… Stay true… to myself…'

Right then, he felt his brain split into two.

One half of it was in that perfect world, which seemed like paradise. It allowed him to sense that amazing and beautiful feeling of being filled with power while he sensed the truth and secrets of the world. That part of him longed endlessly—F*ck! Again!

The other half of his brain was in the dark storm of terror and brutality. He suffered from the pain of being torn apart. He tumbled back and forth, wandering about without knowing where he would end!

'Wait a minute!

'I can't have this continue. I can't go on like this!'

*Swoosh—*

He was thrown back into the air again by a gust of wind, which was accompanied by the roars in the black storm!

'Right, there's a way!'

Just as Thales felt like he could not last anymore in the storm, he remembered what Taurus said.

'The second declaration among Mystics.

'Stay true to one's self.'

The illusions and storm had occupied his thoughts as well as surrounded his body, giving him no time to remember Taurus' words. When he had to remember it, he found that he lost too many memories while he lost control.

'The self.

'Quick…'

With a muddled mind, Thales came into contact with the fading memory.

'Anchor point.

'Yes, find the anchor point… 

'Find an anchor point that's directed to myself…

'To pull me back… from this damn, scary storm.

From that false, tempting, comfortable, agreeable dream of evolution, which filled him with expectations because of its beauty… Ah, knock on the Door. For it, he could give up on everything just to embrace it in his arms and become the supreme—F*ck! Again?!

'Go away!

'I can't even control my own thinking?!'

Thales felt like a dejected writer who had to work in an office all day and night before he went back home. He was panting and feeling exhausted, but still had to struggle to continue writing...

He forced himself to stay focused because at the slightest moment of carelessness, he would sink into that sweet dreamland. Then, he would be gone forever…

Just like that writer who would wake up the next day with an empty Word document…

*Boom!*

Thales cursed everything in his heart. A furious gust of wind blew at him and made him tumble six consecutive times.

While he was feeling dizzy, he was struck by three ink blades.

'Sh*t!

'Where's the anchor point?!'

Thales struggled to search through his damaged memories again for his answer.

'Sh*t. I was prepared before, but when things came to a head, I found out that the preparations I made weren't useful at all!

'This is worse than a thesis defense!

'What even is… the anchor point that I've set for myself? What's the self that I've understood?'

Just then...

"'Have you ever thought of what you really are?"'

Another illusion appeared in front of his eyes, but it was not the same as before.

This time, what appeared in front of Thales was a towering palace.

To the north of the snow-surrounded palace was a room, and in the room was a graceful young man sitting before a pale boy, pressing hard. He asked him question after question and lifted his lean fingers slowly, as though he was pointing at the boy's heart,

"'When you're stripped of all the definitions given to you by others and leave all the circumstances that have become your purpose of existence, what do you have left of yourself?"'

Ripples appeared in the scene before it dispersed like waves.

Thales was stunned.

'The definitions given to you by others...

'All the circumstances that have become your purpose of existence…

'Anchor point…

'Anchor point!'

*Boom—*

He slowly recalled his conversation with Taurus in the boundless storm and thunderclaps.

'"So, if I want to fix the anchor on my true self, what I really need is to actually get rid of every external label.

'"Get rid of the things that will 'taint' me, as you ca."'

Thales' mind wandered again.

'What are the things that will be tainted by others?

'What is the thing that will not be tainted by others?

'What is… the real anchor point that points towards me?'

*Swoosh—Bang! Boom!* Thunder and lightning flashed around him without stopping.

He was confused and puzzled.

It was as if he had forgotten that he was still being tossed and turned about by the scary storm, as if he had forgotten that he was tormented by it.

The anchor point that pointed towards himself had to be realistic.

Was is it his unique… mystic energy?

Was it the Sin of Hell's River?

Was it that JC's dagger that had saved him in distress multiple times?

Or was it his so-called royal bloodline?

Or was it… his so-called wisdom?

*Boom!*

No, they were not.

He felt that these anchor points pointed towards the wrong direction.

'A thing not tainted by other things…

'Perhaps he should focus his anchor point? Gather it together? Make it simpler?

'Such as himself?

'Such as Thales?

'Jadestar?

'The second prince?

'Mystic?

'Or… Wu Qiren?' He paused when he thought of the name.

'Should he just fix his anchor point… on his identity as a transmigrator?'

*Bang! Swoosh—* The storm continued, and he was blown away again, like a duckweed in the rain.

'No no. My anchor point aren't these things as well… a thing not tainted by others… it has to be more abstract.

'So, my anchor point is my will? The spirit of never giving up in this world?

'Was it my memory and knowledge gained from another life?

'Was it everything that I know and have perceived from the moment I was born until now?

'It's closer to what my true self is now, but is it my anchor point?

'Anchor point…'

'Can the anchor point really direct him to his true self… which is what he and Taurus have discussed for a long time?

'The matter not tainted by others…'

Just at this moment.

*Crack—Boom!*

A loud, unprecedented thunderclap accompanied by another strange black lightning stuck Thales!

He shuddered and tumbled nonstop in the air, like a broken sack!

Sharp pain.

Even his consciousness trembled because of it.

But at that moment, Thale suddenly saw it.

His answer.