332 An Ineluctable Awakening

If the secret dimension required Baiyi to perform the Archmage's second Territory to unseal, then all he could say was "uh-oh".

This was because he could not do it.

Baiyi was just as capable as a Demigod-level being because he could use Void Energy, but a Territory was a different ballpark altogether. For Territories, theories and instructions were useless; they were no replacements for the epiphany needed to get a Territory.

A Territory was considered a metaphysical subject; it was not something he could get by shuffling through the memories of the Voidwalkers and watch them get their own territories.

Since he was summoned to the real world by Little Mia, Baiyi had never tried out his own Territory. He had imagined how it would be like, but he never found the chance to put it to practice. He was not sure if his idea could even work. 

"Pfft! Weren't you the one trying to preach to me about the wisdom in attempting to understand a Territory?! Ahaha. You never understood it yourself!" The Assassin Walker seized the opportunity to smirk.

'Oh great, now you think I said that just to look cool,' Baiyi thought internally, but he did not refute her.

Surprisingly, the Warrior Walker stood up for him. "Hey, don't tease him anymore. Give him peace and let him meditate on this while he has the time."

Saying so, she turned to Baiyi and said, "The other Voidwalkers must have shown you the events that led up to them getting their respective Territories, right? You can try to emulate them."

"Big Sister Warrior is always, always protecting him..." The Assassin Walker pouted.

"Who else should I protect, then?"

The Assassin Walker instantly went quiet, unable to answer.

Baiyi, on the other hand, had no time to ponder the deeper meaning behind the girls' conversations. After all, he had a bigger issue at hand, one which the Warrior Walker had just given him a brilliant suggestion to.

Baiyi relaxed and sat cross-legged on the riverbed. Then, he carefully began to sift through the memory of every Voidwalker. He carefully watched the events that led to the Demigod Voidwalkers awakening their Territory.

It was a long process. From the moment he sat cross-legged, he had not moved at all. The three barbarians were quiet as they knew not to disturb him.

By the time Baiyi opened his eyes, it was daybreak, and the warm rays of the rising sun shone down on him.

He realized that he had spent a day to sift through the memories.

Baiyi turned around and saw the barbarians. They were huddled together with their mountain goats, sleeping soundly. They did not leave Baiyi's side out of concern for his safety. Just beside them was a small hill of fully eaten corncobs; they had probably conducted another exchange with the villagers while he was meditating. 

As he stood up, his armor made a little noise, and that was all it took for the barbarians and the mountain goats to scramble to their feet. He could tell that they had not slept very well because they had their guard up the whole time.

Huskar looked at his friend and grinned. "You're finally awake!"

He studied the soul armature for a while, and his gaze turned to one of confusion. "Brother Hope, you look kinda different."

"Maybe," Baiyi replied, with a little mirth. Baiyi walked to the middle of the riverbed and stared at the ground beneath him; he seemed to be reflecting on something. After a short while, he began to chant loudly in Ancient Rohlserlese.

"In the name of the Emperor before me, the Nineteenth, in the name of the new heir..."

As he spoke, a strange aura began to bubble around him, and it soon began to surge out wildly with a roar. This was not his mana, neither was it his own aura. It was a commanding presence that transcended one's senses.

"In the name of the Void; in the name of the Emperors of Rohlserl; in the name of Hope — I hereby decree!"

"Wherever I lay my foot is where I will reign; wherever I lay my foot is mine to claim; whatever I lay eyes on returns my gaze with obeisance— "

The aura surged out like a web and encompassed the barbarians and the mountain goats within it. The barbarians stared at each other in confusion, with only one thought running through their head: Is this armor set before them still their Brother Hope?

"I am the Inaugurated; I am the Heir; I am the Keeper of the Founded..."

"I am Rohlserl! I summon thee as the rightful Emperor; return to me! O' sacred imperial emblem, my battle regalia, my scepter; return to my side —"

"— and submit to your king!"

When that last liturgic line left Baiyi's lips, the entire riverbed vanished. The three barbarians felt as though they had been wrapped tightly by the aura emanating from the soul armature in front of them.

Baiyi's presence was now as towering and commanding as a real emperor's, and his countenance had become abnormally dignified and reverent. The barbarians, who had no concept of royalty in their semantics, were able to understand that their Brother Hope had become different; he was now as worthy of respect as their ancestors were.

Their knees began to shiver, and they did not dare loudly exhale their next breaths.

If it was not for the fact that these barbarians had no inkling of the concepts of monarchs and obeisance, they would have long since fallen to their knees and bowed their prideful heads before Baiyi.

Baiyi had successfully formed his Territory. The sea of experience he had gained from the Voidwalkers' memories — which not only included everything they learned from their respective arts and disciplines, but also millennia of discourses and contemplation in the Void — had allowed him a unique advantage through which he was able to attain the truth of his new Territory only after a day of contemplation. His Territory symbolized ultimate power. 

Baiyi was calm and composed. To him, this was nothing to be joyous about. With the sea of experience within him, this breakthrough was an ineluctable one.

The Voidwalkers, however, were overjoyed and cheered in the Void for the birth of a new Demigod.

"Whoa! Congratulations, Doofus! Seriously, congrats! Who knew you weren't bluffing about your own skills? You managed to open up your Territory just by thinking it through! Now you're a real Demigod-level powerhouse; one much more powerful than I am!" The Assassin Walker cheered, with a smile. 

'Excuse you, I've always been more powerful...' Baiyi thought flatly. He accepted the congratulations from the Voidwalkers and returned his attention back to the real world.

His surroundings had changed. Now that he had unsealed his Territory, some peculiar events began to occur around the riverbed. Ripples were visible in the air, and the area around the small creek now resembled a painting. The wind speed became faster, and a maelstrom had appeared in the middle of this painting-like environment. The roaring winds and the terrifying maelstrom strangely seemed to converge on a single point and transformed into a gate made or pure, white light!

The gate was about ten feet tall, and it had some elegant and quaint engravings glowing on its frame. The gate was wide open, and all that could be seen within it was blinding light.

"You guys coming?" Baiyi turned towards the three barbarians and extended his hand gallantly. His strange armor and scarp still looked weird and out of place, but the barbarians now saw him in a different light; to them, he looked like royalty. There was no way they could reject Baiyi's offer.

The barbarians, the mountain goats, and Cukoo, the alpine hawk-eagle, walked behind Baiyi, following him into the gate of light. 

Just a few minutes after Baiyi and the barbarians stepped into the gate of light, three emergency reports reached the esteemed leaders of the three biggest groups in the treasure hunt.

"A gate of light appeared in the middle of nowhere? And Hope already went into it?" The Emperor muttered, with a complex expression on his face. He did not wait for all his staff members to arrive before he speedily issued a command: "Where are our best men? Deploy them pronto —with full speed!"

At the same time, in another location, the leader of the group of Northerners, the bald abbot, had just finished reading a report. In a flash, he commanded, "Move, at once!"

The Church's response was just as lightning fast. Three Paladin Grand Crosses, three bishops, and a hundred Templars had mounted their horses and were rushing in the direction of the little village, towards the gate of light.

These three forces were not the only ones eyeing the prize. Many other factions — however large or small, or legal or illegal — had taken notice of the big movements. Although they did not understand the reason behind it, they followed nonetheless.

Capital City suddenly began to bustle with activity. The road was jam-packed with horses and men, each hurrying in the direction of the little village, unknowingly volunteering themselves as attendees of the inauguration ceremony that the Archmage had planned for Baiyi. 

At the same time, in Ardin City, far away from all the hubbub, the Archmage raised his head and gazed into the horizon, in the direction Baiyi had gone, and muttered to himself, "He took a bloody long time to find the door, didn't he? Urgh, he's really dense... At least you managed to attain your epiphany; that makes up for your thickness. It took you a little more time than I had expected, and the crowd to witness your inauguration is already on its way; the ceremony to crown you the new Emperor of the Rohlserl Empire is going to be awesome. Too bad I can't see it with my own eyes."

As he was muttering to himself, he heard Little Mia's voice. "Grandpa, what are you talking about?"

The girls had woken up earlier than usual as was the Archmage's plan. He had used his mana earlier to create the image of a certain hairstyle in the air and spent a sizable amount of money to hire the best hairdressers in the city for the girls. He asked the hairdressers to refer to the image he had created with his mana.

"Nothing, my dear. Just an old man talking to himself." the Archmage chuckled.

He had only spent a few days with the girls, yet he already won their hearts and respect. The trick? Excessive pampering and spending. As long as the girls wanted something in a shop, the Archmage would toss money at the shopkeeper! Classes were dismissed even before they had ever started! Who would not love him?

"Grandpa, why are we making this weird hairstyle?" Little Mia asked.

The Archmage replied, "Because today, my dear, is a very special day."

The hairstyles he had created contained a mix of elegance, regalness, and style, and it was called "The Princess's Lock".

During the time of the Ancient Rohlserlian Empire, this hairstyle was only allowed to be worn by the daughters of a Rohlerlian Emperor.Oh, the self-doubt. Step one in every Awakening.Cool. Now I really wanna know what's the experience like when the Soul Armature Practitioner realized his "Vets hate this: Make kitty become a cat in a minute!" Territory. That epicness (or absence thereof) should be fun!