The Silver Dragon King has perished, and along with her, the Dragon Emperor Douluo; thus, the seemingly eternal [Human-Spirit Beast War] ended alongside their death.
People and certain spirit beasts across the world celebrated the end of the eternal war, excited for the new age of peace that would surely follow suit.
However, it was not only the feeling of relief and peace that was left in the wake of the war.
Even though the war ended in peace with the Silver Dragon Kings' fall and the end of the eternal conflict, nothing could change the fact that the battle incurred numerous scars.
So much was lost long before then.
It was impossible to measure how long it would take to restore the glory of the past.
However,
Even though the land was dyed in a shade of deep blue with mournful sorrow, leaving nothing but despair.
Someday, the seed known as 'hope' bloomed, giving birth to children, destined to overcome tribulations and bring greatness to the world and the spirit beasts alike once again.
As for right now.
None of that matters…
♣︎
In a galaxy far far away, the inhabitants' main way of gaining power or even potentially achieving apotheosis, it all revolved around a single thing.
Something they all held within them.
Something that could possibly make them a god.
Martial Spirits.
While there were some exceptions, this was the path known by the majority to achieve great strength.
Zhang Yujia was not an exception.
He awakened with the twin martial spirits, Steel Revolver and Spirit Brain.
The exact origin of his Steel. Revolver martial spirit is unknown; however, the abilities it granted him were plain and simple.
Creation of bullets and increased vision. Truth be told; while its abilities were expected, they were quite lackluster for a unique martial spirit such as this.
Still, with his first spirit skill, he could also shoot bullets of fire at the very least.
His Spirit Brain; however, that was a different matter altogether. Its origins were known.
A body martial spirit was something very rare and special amongst the descendants of the planet Douluo.
A martial spirit could be anything, but for it to be one's body was very rare and even if it was attributeless, it was still one of the rarest of them all.
All in all, Zhang Yujia was a genius.
His twin martial spirits and subsequent full Innate spirit power was proof of that.
His future was bright.
Still, while these abilities would make him a great ranged attacker or spiritual master in the future, this was not what Zhang Yujia wanted.
He was only 6 years old and like all his age Zhang Yujia dreamed big.
'Mommy, I wanna be a duo mecha master when I grow up!'
'What? Didn't you say you wanted to be a space pilot before?'
'I can do both! Hahaha…'
He did not want to be someone on the sidelines, no matter how important the role.
Zhang Yujia, like all children his age who awaken their martial spirits, wanted to fight.
He did not want to be a ranged fighter.
He did not want to fight with his mind.
He wanted to fight up front and close with his martial spirit.
Zhang Yujia was devastated when he found out.
There was a brief moment of joy when he found out he had awakened twin martial spirits but that joy did not last long.
He locked himself in his room as he cried.
Zhang Yujia's mother also cried as she embraced her son in a hug.
Her son had never asked her for anything aside from becoming a duo mecha master, but she could not even help him with that.
She was just an ordinary low ranked officer in the military.
Her low rank coupled with her cultivation being a rank 40 Spirit Ancestor did not grant her the ability or purchasing power to help her son in the future.
He wanted to be a space pilot and a duo mecha master; however, while he could study both due to his high spiritual power, the problem itself was money.
It was very expensive when it came to professions such as a battle armor master, mecha master and their fusion, duo mecha master.
Zhang Yujia's mother simply could not afford to help her son.
During his days at the Heaven Luo Elementary Academy, he had eventually come to accept that he could not change what role his martial spirit would enforce on him.
However, he was devastated once again when his mother told him that she would not be able to help him become a duo mecha master.
He could still become a pilot but he wanted to become a duo mech master even more.
So in an attempt to cheer up her son, she brought him to the trampoline world at Horizon Building on her day off.
The sound of children's laughter echoed loudly throughout the park.
Their wide smiles and gleeful sounds made it clear that they were all happy and enjoying their time.
All except one.
Laying on the far off side of the trampoline, Zhang Yujia stared up lazily at the ceiling.
His face was blank and expressionless, his eyes seemingly dead.
"Yujia…"
"Mommy?"
Shifting his gaze to the woman standing near and above him, his eyes brightened ever so slightly.
"Why aren't you jumping? Why are you just laying here instead of playing with the other children?"
The sadness and worry in her voice was evident.
"I don't know."
His reply made her face scrunch up as she slowly lifted him up and into her arms.
"I'm sorry, son!"
As she held him in her arms, her eyes moistened.
Not wanting his mother to cry, Zhang Yujia hugged her back.
"Don't cry momm—"
The lights then suddenly turned off, drowning the trampoline world in darkness.
*Bam!*
*Bam!*
Small screams could be heard as gravity modules holding up the trampolines also turned off and caused them to fall to the floor.
*Boom!!*
Just as his eyes also threatened to fall with tears, the wall right behind them was destroyed as beams of light ran through it.
Zhang Yujia instinctively closed his eyes and clutched his mother tightly as they both fell over.
"Ugh…"
As the screams of others could be heard, Zhang Yujia reopened his and stared blankly at the one that destroyed the wall.
A mecha.
A giant mecha stood where the wall once was as armored men rushed in from behind it.
They fired at the others who screamed and ran for shelter.
"Mommy… mommy we need to—"
In a panicked and shaky tone, he quickly shook his mother who laid on top of him; motionless.
'Huh…'
Looking at the figure of his mother on top of him, Zhang Yujia froze as he saw her condition.
Along her body were many wounds caused by the explosion.
However, the cuts and bruises were not his reason for worry.
Zhang Yujia's mother, Zhang Maomao, was missing bits and pieces of her head.
His mother was dead.
They had been too close to the explosion and in an attempt to protect her son, she took on the full force of the blast.
Not only had she been hit with an explosion and some debris, she was also hit by the beam of light that the mecha's pilot used to destroy the wall.
"Mommy…"
*Sniffle!*
"Mommy…"
*Sniffle!*
Zhang Yujia, still clutching his mother's body tightly, shook her corpse desperately, still awaiting her response.
Then, as if finally realizing, realizing that his mother was not going to wake up.
That she was gone.
"Waaaa…"
Zhang Yujia's eyes flowed like a broken dam as he cried with all his might, still clutching his mother.
An unknown amount of time passed for him as he stayed there.
'Huh?!'
A sudden sensation then flooded Zhang Yujia's body.
Slowly while straining, he opened his eyes.
In his line of sight he noticed that everything was frozen.
The people running.
The mecha's firing.
The debris that stood motionless in the air.
Everything had stopped moving.
It was as if space itself had frozen.
'What?'
Wanting to say those words outloud, Zhang Yujia also realized that he could not speak nor could he move.
His body that is, he could still ever so slowly move his eyes.
Lost in a daze from the realization that his mother was gone, his non-stop crying and the sudden spatial blockade, Zhang Yujia's thoughts ran wildly.
Tti-ring!
'Huh?'
Then, a sound that seemingly came from all around him echoed in his mind.
Moving his eyes to see what had made that noise, he noticed a woman with silver hair nearby who could still move.
Before he could formulate the thought that she might be responsible for the spatial blockade, his eyes turned illusory as golden threads appeared in his vision.
Tti-ring!!
He heard that same sound once again but this time it was a bit louder as it was accompanied by something else.
[Conditions Met: Synchronization In Progress…]
The golden threads then coiled, wrapping and knotting with each other.
They eventually formed a string of golden holographic screens before him.
[Synchronization Complete!]
[Martial Spirits have been stimulated!]
[Awakening Martial Spirits…]
'Ugh…!'
Zhang Yujia internally gripped his heart as he felt his body start to heat up.
A string of intricate silver tattoo-like patterns slowly appeared on his skin.
Zhang Yujia couldn't understand what was happening. He just felt pain like he was being doused in boiling hot water.
[Aspect - Martial Spirit: Spirit Brain → Martial Spirit: Body of Spirituality!]
[Aspect - Bound Item(Martial Spirit): Steel Revolver → Bound Item(Martial Spirit): Death Knell!]
[Registering User…]
[Error…!!!]
'Gak…!!' Zhang Yujia then gritted his teeth and eyes tightly as he clutched his head.
At this moment, a throbbing pain washed over his head as an influx of memories flowed into him.
'Is… this a… Dream?!'
Memories from someone he didn't know suddenly crashed into his own, confusing him.
Soon the pain he was feeling vanished.
However, Zhang Yujia was still reeling from phantom pains.
He was bewildered.
'Who… who am I?!"
Was what he saw in the memories a dream, or was it real?
Faced with the reality of what he saw, he could not tell anymore.
Zhang Yujia did not know who he was.
Was he the man that was burned alive? Had he become Zhang Yujia? Possessed him?
Or was he always Zhang Yujia? Had he just inherited someone else's memories?
He could not tell.
He could not tell which of the two he was.
[Error…!!!]
[…]
[…]
[User, Zhang Yujia (Thomas), recorded in the Library of Eternity!]
The screen then slowly unraveled into golden threads before vanishing from his sight.
"What… the… hell…!!"
Zhang Yujia breathed out deeply as he fell to his knees and clutched his head.
Unknowingly, while everyone else could not move in the frozen space, he could.
He had moved.
"Ss.. Status."
Speaking unconsciously, the golden threads returned once again before coiling into a golden holographic screen.
───────────────
[Mysticism System]
'Bound User: Zhang Yujia'
'Status: Mortal'
'Spirituality: Low,
Athletics: Low,
Focus: High,
'Paths: None (Click to decide!)'
'Aspects: [Body of Spirituality]'
'Special Skills: [Mecha Workshop Genius]'
'Items: [Death Knell (Bound)]'
System Evaluation: "Evaluation in progress…"
───────────────
Zhang Yujia barely had time to fully process and recognize what was before him as he was engulfed by a warm golden light.
Watching the golden threads untangle itself and disappear, he raised his head.
A ring of silver light radiated throughout the entire trampoline park. All who were touched by this light slowly started to heal.
It reduced the pain of all that it touched and caused Zhang Yujia's pain to completely vanish.
It was also now that Zhang Yujia realized that the space around him was no longer frozen.
His gaze was then drawn to the figure of the silver-haired woman he had seen before.
Gazing at her one last time, he saw her disappear with another boy of his age with black hair.
Right after his vision slowly turned to black.
Zhang Yujia lost consciousness.
.
.
.
"Zhang…"
A voice echoed within the darkness.
"... Yujia."
It was soft, gentle and carried an inexplicable warmth as it reached Zhang Yujia's ears.
"Zhang Yujia," The voice said again but to no avail.
Now the warmth it contained had dimmed slightly.
In its place was a booming voice filled with concern as it echoed throughout the room.
"Zhang Yujia," the voice called once more.
This time, it received an answer.
"Huh?"
As the fog of memories that clouded his mind finally cleared, Zhang Yujia's dazed eyes regained their focus.
'Where am I?'
Without even lifting his gaze from the floor where he gazed at the carpet beneath him, he already knew everything about the room he was in.
This was not because he had remembered where he was, he just knew.
He knew about the contents contained within the drawer near him.
About the fact that the clock on the wall was about to stop working.
About the secret vault hidden beneath the couch he sat on.
He even knew of the secret things that the therapist before him had within her body.
'Foul!'
It disgusted him, that last one.
Zhang Yujia, however, did not let such disgust show on his face as he slowly lifted himself from his hunched state and sat upright.
"Is your mind finally cleared? How do you feel?"
She asked, her voice still filled with worry as she clenched the book in her hands.
Meeting the gaze of the disgusting therapist, he finally remembered where he was.
"Yeah… I'm good now."
Four days have passed since the… incident.
The death of his mother.
The awakening of memories which contained knowledge that would drive anyone mad.
Memories that he could not tell who they belonged to or if they were real.
Because if they were then, did they belong to him?
If so, who was he really?
If they didn't belong to him, what was he then?
Was he even real?
The toll all these events had taken on him shone when he was taken to the hospital with other victims.
His eyes were now dead, lifeless as he now occasionally stared off into space while his mind wandered aimlessly.
He was even diagnosed with amnesia.
Selective amnesia which caused him to forget many things such as the incident and what happened to his mother.
All these signs pointing to one thing with there being only one solution to help him.
Zhang Yujia was assigned to therapy thereafter.
He was now to attend a session for the first four days of the first week and after that there would be a session every week.
And if so choose, if he is deemed stable enough, can continue his studies at Heaven Luo Elementary Academy.
"Will that be all for today, Miss Zichun."
Zhang Yujia spoke blankly while addressing the silver-haired, blue-eyed woman before him.
The changes were clear as day if someone from the past were to look at him now.
His once neat and tidy platinum blond hair was now messy and unkempt.
The last that once shone in his beautiful emerald green eyes were now gone.
Even the way he spoke had changed as he no longer called the adults he met as uncle or aunty.
It was just mister or miss.
"Yes, we're done for today."
Miss Zichun spoke slowly as she scanned over Zhang Yujia's figure.
He was still staring off into space and still spoke bluntly, but there had been some progress.
After four sessions, he no longer screamed or acted hysterically at the mention of his mother or the incident.
"You can leave. Oh, right! Here, take this before you go."
As Zhang Yujia stood up he took the envelope from her hands as he stared at her in confusion.
"Have this be given to the dean if you ever decide to go back to the academy. Don't open it, it's for the dean's eyes only. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
Zhang Yujia nodded before turning to the door and leaving.
A slight smile appeared on his face as he stared at the envelope in his hands.
♠︎♥︎◆♣︎ • ♣︎◆♥︎♠︎ • ♠︎♥︎◆♣︎
AN: I'm trying to aim for 2,000 to 2,500 words per chapter and this one was a bit longer at few words above 2,700
I hope you enjoyed this chapter at the very least because I didn't. I've rewritten just this chapter alone so many times.
I first wrote this last year and have been rewriting it since.
I even changed it from the original first person to third but to be honest, I don't like how I wrote it in third.
It sounded better in first person and also, I think I have more talent for it.
Anyway, enough of my ranting cause I know the possibility of anyone reading this is very low.
If you did, leave some suggestions for me and give some feedback cause I hella need it.
This is supposed to be like a test run to see if I have what it takes to actually do this but I'll still give it my all to try and complete it.
If I do, I'll write some of the actual more fleshed out ideas I have. It won't be Soul Land tho, this might be the only one I do.
Mabye…
Hope you enjoyed it!