"Fear is an efficient metric," the Cosmic Vagrant rumbled, his mystic blue and chaotic gold eyes tracking Soren's internal recalibration.
"It maps the boundaries of your current architecture.
But mapping a boundary and breaking it are two entirely different disciplines."
Soren slowly pushed himself to his feet, his breathing heavy, the brutal reality of his own weakness still burning in his mind.
"A harsh lesson, Herald," the Vagrant said, its mocking tone returning as he looked at the boy.
"Teach me how to break it," Soren stated, his voice returning to its flat, metallic cadence.
"Then we shall forge them," the Vagrant decreed, raising a hand woven from stardust.
Soren wiped a phantom bead of sweat from his brow, his heart returning to its calm as he sought to express his gratitude to the Vagrant.
However, the moment, his gaze looked towards the Vagrant, his sight caught the view of his Soul World, and once again, Soren was absolutely floored by the mind-blowing sight canvased before him.
His Soul World had been totally transformed, leaving him with a novel, and yet nostalgic feeling.
And the most impressive thing was that the part that was nostalgic or novel was absolutely clear to him.
Firstly, the skies were dotted with innumerable stars that carried every possible color imaginable.
However, while the skies was a river of stars and the endless cosmos, below, was a river of water so crystal clear it reflected the very skies like a mirror.
Secondly, hovering, as if trapped in between the two boundless bodies above and below, was a massive Golden Sun, rotating in the same spot even as it flared with plasmas of raging golden flames Soren knew too well.
Thirdly, were the three planets that then made up this entire Soul World into a Solar System of some sort; each of them having taken the shape of his three previous trial grounds.
The one closest to the Golden Sun was a world of gold-red, the hottest of them, boasting a labyrinth landscape made up of massive stone walls etched with various glowing glyphs, as its outermost perimeter.
A desert landscape with sharp grainy sands that glittered like diamonds as its inner perimeter.
And finally, a molten landscape with a continental-sized volcano that constantly bled rivers of lava and sent plumes of shifting mists that phased in and out of reality, at its core.
The one farthest from the Golden Sun was a world blue-white, the coldest of them, boasting absolute zero temperatures and an ultimate blizzard.
Unlike the first however, whose differing atmosphere was divided into rims of ground distance, this one was measured in rims of depth, with its surface being a world of white, fraught with constant frosty storms, snows, and icy pillars.
Hiding beneath that was a world of blue, the inner rim, a hidden underground world of frozen caverns that housed infinite maze-like tunnels filled with crystals, stalactites, and icicles of all shapes and sizes.
And an unknown core... at least to Soren who couldn't see past the underground caverns.
The one in the middle however, located at a balanced distance from the Golden Sun was the very same one they had both left and returned to, which had now become the most verdant of them all.
It looked more like an island because it was mostly made up of water bar the relatively little span of emerald forest eerily familiar to Soren that made up its inner rim.
Then finally, was the Oasis that made up its core, making it look like a lake was placed in the middle of an island.
It was above this lake that Soren and the Cosmic Vagrant currently hovered, with the latter giving him time to digest his sights and broaden his mental horizons.
However, that wasn't all; each of these planets had a moon of their own.
The closest to the sun had a moon that embodied the Ocular energy of the Origin Pupils, the one farthest carried the aura of the Origin Codex, while the one where they were currently at, carried the aura of the Cauldron of Primal Harmony.
"Shall we pick up from where we left off?" The Vagrant asked.
Soren simply responded by sitting cross-legged, right at the center of the lake, before the hovering Cosmic Being, painting the image of a mentor and a student.
The Vagrant put out its hand, and hovering above its palm was a drop of liquid—identical to the one that had birthed this cosmic expanse.
But this one was different. It radiated a feeling of absolute, terrifying beginning.
"This is a drop of Origin Essence," the Vagrant stated.
"The heaviest, most foundational energy in the cosmos.
Your physical shell in the mortal realm is currently a ruined mess of broken Star-Iron and vaporized blood.
Your 'Master Builder Gene' is a burnt-out engine.
Your 'Black Sun' is fractured.
Your 'Tranquil Poison' is dead."
Soren felt a flicker of loss each time the vagrant mentioned his innate companions; the tools that had kept him alive for seven agonizing years.
"They were crutches," the Vagrant dismissed smoothly.
"The desperate adaptations of a mortal body trying to contain cosmic truths.
To become the Herald of the Primordial Mind, you must let them die.
You must become the ultimate Blank Slate." The Vagrant extended the drop toward Soren.
"If you accept this drop, it will wipe away the ambient, corrupted Qi of the lower planes from your existence.
You will no longer cultivate the thin, polluted energy the rest of the universe breathes. You will cultivate pure Essence.
Your body will rebuild itself not as a biomechanical tragedy, but as a supreme Origin Physique.
But the pain of this erasure... it will make the Emerald Core's explosion feel like a gentle breeze."
Soren looked at the drop. Then he thought of his experience within the Ignis Tribe.
He thought of his experience in the High Wastelands.
He thought of the systemic, arrogant rot of the Oman House.
He didn't just want power to survive anymore. He wanted the power to enforce his own logic upon a universe that had tried to incubate something within him, harvest it, and then throw him away.
"A blank slate," Soren murmured, his grey eyes turning utterly cold, burying all fear beneath a wall of absolute emotional restraint.
The Vagrant's hand remained extended, with an offer that radiated an irresistible, gravitational pull.
Then Soren reached out, his phantom fingers extending to grasp the drop of Origin Qi. His mind, stripped of fear, was completely locked onto the absolute necessity of power.
But just as his translucent skin brushed the terrifying gravity of the droplet, the Cosmic Vagrant closed his galaxy-filled fist around it, snuffing out its suffocating presence.
Soren didn't flinch. He simply withdrew his hand, his molten gold and icy grey eyes locking onto the Vagrant's chaotic gaze.
"I offered my will," Soren stated, his voice devoid of anger, merely calculating the sudden shift in variables. "Is the cost higher?"
"The cost is your old existence, Little Builder, and you have already paid it.
But to consume this Origin Essence here, within the ephemeral bounds of your Soul World, would be a supreme waste of its value."
The Vagrant's silhouette shifted, the Milky Way within his form churning as he lowered his hand.
"This drop is the perfect fuel. It is the mortar for your physical rebirth in the waking world.
It will serve as the catalyst for your Natural Awakening," the Vagrant explained, the baritone undertone returning to his voice.
"But before you open your eyes in the dirt of the graveyard, before you begin forging your spiritual foundation, you must understand the blueprint of the cosmos you are about to inherit.
You must understand the laws you are destined to break."
Soren's posture straightened. His overloaded Master Builder Gene might have been dead, but the cold, analytical framework of his mind remained.
He was a student standing before the blackboard of the universe.
"Lay it all on me." Soren said.
"Pay close attention. You already know which school of thoughts to use as references for cultivation, so I needn't explain much.
If you want, you may cultivate your Soul World in the Dao of Mysticism, and your Physical Body in the Dao of Change using Mimic Drakon bloodline core.
As for the Dao of Transformation, that was the essence of rewarding you with the Origin Pupils and Origin Codex.
However, none of these would be easy, and they will all depend on your capabilities, but with the knowledge of ten lifetimes, a transformed Soul World, it shouldn't be too hard." The Comic Being explained.
Soren on the other hand already understood what he was alluding at.
In a nutshell, a Dao Seed is something he will have to create by oneself, as it is the amalgamation of all that made someone, someone.
As such, he couldn't bank on the Cosmic Being's help or even anyone's help for that matter.
"This blueprint hall be your final reward, Ryujin Soren.
I will present you with kernels of truth from the most powerful Daos I have ever come across, and they are all hidden within a final trial.
Are you ready?"
The Cosmic Being offered, and Soren accepted with a firm nod.
"To claim these kernels of truth Ryujin Soren, you must first demonstrate an impeccable level of cognitive excellence.
You must unravel the enigmas of your challenges and confront the truths that lie within.
And remember, this trial is a testament of your victory over an Origin Grade Awakening Trial, should you succeed, you shall also obtain the Medallion of Natural Awakening, an Apex Chaos Grade Treasure.
It would greatly aid you and can also help your little lover obtain a Natural Legacy."
Soren nodded. Though he had little clue about what the Vagrant was talking about, but for it mention it, then it must be just as important as the other three.
"Prepare yourself little one." The Vagrant spoke, snapping Soren into a focused mental clarity.
He took a brief moment to adjust his mental state before responding; "I'm ready."
"Ryujin Soren, to proceed, face the Ship of Zheng...
If you replace every single part of a ship over time, and you build another ship from the replaced parts, which one is the original ship?"
Soren's mind paused momentarily, trying to rid itself of all current thought processes and create a blank slate. He never expected the trial to start with riddles.
However, to answer the riddle, Soren knew he had to contemplate the nature of identity and change.
The first thing that came to his mind was the school of thought the riddle seemed to originate from; the Dao of Change.
Then he began to ponder the identity of the object over time.
'Objects maintain their identity over time regardless of change; thus, the ship's identity cannot be solely dependent on its physical components.'
Then he began contemplating what defines a 'ship'
Was it the arrangement of its parts? or was it its function? 'Or the intention behind its construction?' Soren thought to himself, determined to not just pass, but ace the trial for some reasons.
'A ship is surely defined by its function and name rather than its individual parts; after all, a car and a plane both have tires, but one couldn't be called the other.' He noted, noticing the Dao of Mysticism in his train of thought.
Then he began to distinguish between the essence of the ship (its purpose and design) and its physical form (the actual parts) and came to the conclusion that; while the form may change, the essence remains constant.
Then finally, after hypothesizing all the information he had gathered, the Origin Codex then sorted them out, before streaming a plausible conclusion into Soren's mind
The conclusion said that both the restored ship and the one reconstructed from its old parts are, in a sense, the original ship, yet they are also different due to the continuous change they've undergone.
Upon arriving at his conclusion, Soren answered, "Both and neither."
Then he explained further, "The ship remains the same by name and function, but its essence and identity are in constant flux, much like the nature of life itself."
"Well done Ryujin Soren.
Now answer me, Ryujin Soren: what has a heart that doesn't beat?" The Vagrant asked.