Stepping out of the room with the old man, Alaric found himself in a beautiful hallway with white marble tiling.
He was amazed by the architecture of the place. Back on Earth, he was one thousand percent sure there was no building like this one, not even for the richest of people.
"Let's start with introductions. You can call me Old Tian. I am the current leader of the organisation called Grand Archives." Old Tian started with that.
He looked closely at Alaric, who had moved from behind him and was currently walking side by side with him. He wanted to know if the young boy had heard of his organisation or not.
He is not one to brag, but this organisation is one of the most powerful in the universe. They are currently the de facto ruler of the galactic human territory.
It wouldn't come as a surprise to him if the young man hadn't heard of his faction, as this planet was at the very edge of the territory. It was a desolate planet that rarely received any news about the outside world.
Alaric's attention was brought to the old man, peeling his eyes away from the grand architecture of this place, and he replied, "I am Alaric… Alaric Voss. I am from Dark Forest Village."
Old Tian shook his head gently, "I have heard of that place during my search. It was one of the settlements that was destroyed about 6 months ago. It's quite far from where I found you."
He didn't expect his search for the blessed would lead him to find such conspiracies in his territory. It caused him great pain to see what those sneaky invaders had done to his region.
'It's because I had been too lax these few years. They think they can just do whatever they want because I haven't had the time to pay close attention.'
"Senior Tian, can I ask you a question?" Alaric boldly asked.
"Old Tian is fine, Young Alaric, and feel free to ask me whatever questions you have." Old Tian replied.
Nodding his head, Alaric asked, "Where is this place?"
"We are currently in the central region of Dark Pill Planet. Specifically, we are in the Navile royale family estate."
He was a little taken aback; he had heard of this place before from the villagers. Dark Pill was the name of the planet he was on; it was divided into the North, West, South, East, and central regions, with the central region holding the most power for hundreds of years now.
The rulers of the central region were the Navile royal family.
"I have only recently found out. The Navile royal family has betrayed the trust of the human territory; they are practicing vile methods, so I had to punish them. I have found a suitable ruler for the territory until they are ready to elect another more capable leader."
Alaric nodded in understanding. Although it would be good to leave the people to decide who their leader would be, it would only lead to war, leaving whoever the winner is the leader, and those oftentimes are not the best people to rule.
"Young Alaric, do you know what you are?" the old man asked as they kept their pace, not bothered by the sudden pause Alaric had.
Alaric became vigilant. His status as a blessed is a topic he would much rather keep a secret. He didn't know how the man had figured it out, but he did. It could be because his flaw manifested when he was knocked out, or something else gave him away.
The man could be someone who wants to correct the mistake that was him, or he could want to use him for his nefarious reasons, so he had to be careful.
Stroking his beard in amusement at Alaric's reaction, the man replied. "No need to be vigilant, young Alaric. You are the reason I am here in the first place. If I wanted to harm you, I would have done so while you were out cold."
Hearing that, he relaxed a little and caught up with the old man. "I know."
"I am one of the 12… now 13 that is tasked with saving this world."
"Yes, you are. Your awakening is unprecedented, but I can think of a reason it happened."
"Before we get to that, do you know the current situation of our world?" Old Tian asked
Alaric shook his head.
Five million years ago, the world experienced a cataclysmic event we now know as the culling. What was being culled? We don't know; history beyond that point has been erased. What we do know is that this event reset the world of practitioners as we know it.
"At first, we didn't care about what had happened beyond that point; we were too busy fighting for what was left behind and trying to create new methods to grow stronger."
"But the history of the past has a way of chasing after us. We slowly discovered that the ambient Origin energy was slowly reducing. Origin energy is the very thing that composes every aspect of the universe, reducing could only mean our universe is slowly dying."
"We have tried to find out the reason for this, but we have come up with nothing even after searching the available ruins of the old civilizations. I believe the purpose of the blessing this time is related to this event in history, but I don't think that's all."
He paused, letting Alaric digest what he had just told before continuing.
"I don't think your existence is a mistake. It was unprecedented, sure, but I don't think you were a mistake. If the heavenly dao operates the same way it did now, then it must have also selected 12 blessed candidates, and I guess that they had failed at defending against the calamity, and that failure resulted in what is happening now."
"I also believe that because of that incident, the heavens decided to increase the number of blessed this era. It is giving the world a better fighting chance, but not everyone in the world would be convinced of that because this change has resulted in flaws in the blessed something we have come to realize is an abnormality."
Alaric took some time to acknowledge his words carefully.
"That doesn't really change my current situation." He said exasperatedly.
"Yes, but I am sure you would find others out there who would choose to believe in you." The man comforted.
"Can't I just live my life somewhere safe without the burden of being hunted by almost the entire universe?" he said, even if he knew that by this point it was almost impossible.
Old Tian stroked his beard again and asked, "That would be impossible, boy, and I have two reasons for saying that. First, do you know what your flaw is?"
His expression changed slightly, then he shook his head, "I was hoping you would shed some light on it. I only know it manifests when I fall asleep or become unconscious."
Old Tian nodded before his expression got serious, "Listen carefully, boy, before I put you to sleep, I scanned your body and noticed that you have been exposed to too much origin energy for an extended amount of time. This had kept you alive, but it was slowly corroding your body's foundation. If left unattended, you would become unable to become a practitioner."
"I had the intention of dispelling the energy in your system, then help you rebuild your body's foundation before it's too late, while you slept, but something happened when I put you to sleep."
He paused a little before continuing.
"The thing is, while I put you to sleep, another part of you woke up."
Alaric was shocked. 'Another part of me? What does that even mean?'
"I watched as your body healed up by itself. At first, this other part of you looked confused at the situation, but suddenly tried attacking me like I owed him money and refused to pay back."
The old man watched as Alaric's expression changed ever so subtly.
"That's not all, though. This crazed part of you got stronger the more it couldn't move from where I had suspended you."
"This is an attribute I have only found in another race. A very aggressive and dangerous race, to think you would manifest it as a flaw is intriguing to say the least."
Alaric couldn't help but feel detached from reality at the moment. To think he would go on a rampage while he was having a beautiful dream. What's worse? He couldn't even remember the dream he had.
"You can't go to sleep or be unconscious without someone to restrain you, being around you, you would just kill everything on sight. The is an upside to this, though, you seem to perfectly heal and adapt to your situation when in this berserk mode. Your body and foundation became stronger when you went unconscious. The downside is you can hardly ever sleep with peace of mind."
He went into deep thought, 'No wonder I felt a lot stronger when I woke up. So, if I try living a normal life, I might just wake up to the massacre of hundreds caused by me while I sleep. I have to get stronger to prevent this, too."
"Lucky for you, there is a way to at least reduce the effect of your flaw."
"What way…"
"We will get to that later."
They reached a beautiful tea garden, and under the shade, was a maid tending to a child holding a book in his hand.
"The second reason is your soul."
Old Tian's serious voice echoed out again.