Chapter 3: First Trial - Chamber Of Secrets
Ryujin was blown away by the sight that greeted him upon exiting the portal with Yama in tow.
The latter, stood tall and imposing to the side; his golden robes billowing with ethereal currents.
He had intentionally waited for a few moments, just to let Ryujin take in the sight and embed it into his psyche.
"Where are we?" Ryujin couldn't help but ask, flabbergasted by the sight.
"This is the Celestial Realm of the Divine Plane."
Yama responded as he waved his arms, causing Ryujin's soul to be wrapped soul in some sort of yellow flaming membrane of energy that masked his presence and protected him from the overbearing energy currents raging around them.
"Is this where I will undergo my trials?"
Yama shook his head; "Your trial has already begun the moment we left the palace."
"Your first test is arriving at the location of your trial itself; and whilst I shouldn't be helping you with that, I believe that old monster would still give me some face." He added in assurance.
Then with a single step, the duo vanished from the spot, reappearing about a hundred thousand kilometers away.
"What treasure are we going to get here?" Ryujin asked in anticipation, totally oblivious to the speed at which they were traveling.
"The Origin Codex.
It is an Apex Chaos Grade Treasure. One that holds unrivaled power." Yama replied with a serious tone; even his expression had reverence plastered all over it.
"Compared to it, the Book of Lives and Death might as well be buried in shame, never to see the light of day forever."
Ryujin was stunned speechless. He gazed at Yama for a moment and realized that the latter was impossibly serious.
Upon taking an umpteenth step, Ryujin felt his body break past a barrier of some sort.
Then all of a sudden, he found himself in a world of blueish white.
A world where the peaks of innumerable icy mountains soared into the heavens.
A world where icy winds billowed and whipped about, whispering secrets of ancient wisdom to its netizens.
"Just what level of being must be capable of surviving here, much less call it its abode?" Ryujin muttered in disbelief; shocked to his core.
Not only was the range of icy mountains endless, they were the only thing he could see due to the tempest of bone-chilling snowy wind that blocked his vision.
"His name is Genbu, and this is his domain." Yama answered, whilst they hung mid-air, anticipating a reaction of some sort.
Then in the next moment, an impossibly large shadow suddenly dwarf them into dots, and despite giving off no aura of power or pressure, Ryujin still couldn't help but tremble in fear.
The sheer size of the creature in front of him was terrorizing.
"O- of- Ofcourse, it has to be something of this caliber... Only a being of this level can call this place its home." Ryujin stuttered with a heart ballooned with fear and awe.
Filling up his sight, was Genbu; a colossal tortoise deity with eyes that gleamed with ancient wisdom and knowledge.
"Welcome, travelers," It greeted with a booming voice, nodded slightly toward Yama, and then continued;
"The more sophisticated a being becomes, the more fascinated he is with origins.
He peers with ever increasing erudition into his soul world and discovers the galaxies of memories that birthed the 35 emotions that makes up his system of behavior, or the nature of his self.
It is the same with mortals, nature, the heavens, and even the endless cosmos and the primal entities that call it home.
Ryujin, the trial for the Origin Codex is here to test the depths of your soul and excavate the origin of the emotions that makes up the nature of your very being.
Are you prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead?"
Ryujin wanted to answer and shower his response with impressive words that could make even the great Genbu dismiss the trial and directly hand over the treasure.
However, while his mind gave him what to say, the words ended up clogging his throat, refusing to come out, as his anxiety shot through the roof.
Seeing this, Yama placed a hand on his shoulder, his touch reassuring, yet laden with the weight of a ginormous responsibility.
"Fret not, Ryujin... The trial that awaits you is not one of brute strength, but of wisdom and understanding.
The Origin Codex is one of the most valuable treasure in all of KunLun and it demands more than just physical and intellectual prowess.
It seeks those who possess a reckless level of curiosity towards understanding the core that makes up the nature of a mystical phenomenon."
Hearing this, Ryujin felt his emotions settle as his body grow lighter.
Then with a gaze reflecting a seething determination, he gave a nod of readiness.
"I am ready, Yama. I'm most certainly going to approach this trial with an open mind and a humble spirit." He solemnly promised.
"This is where your journey truly begins, Ryujin. I believe in you." Yama added; leaving a few of taps of encouragement on his shoulder.
With another resolute nod, Ryujin stepped forward, his gaze unwavering.
"I'm ready, Genbu. Lead me to the trial."
Hearing this, Genbu nodded before opening its massive maws wide.
Ryujin felt shock slightly ripple through him.
'To think the location of my trial is literally located inside the belly of a beast...' He thought to himself as he stepped in.
Then Genbu shut its mouth.
-------
Genbu's belly was nothing like the Ryujin had anticipated.
There no guts or organs in sight; rather, Ryujin found himself strolling through caverns adorned with illuminating crystals.
The glow coming of these crystals created a soft mystical ambience that revealed the ancient murals etched into the walls; each one of them telling a tale of the trials that had come before.
Then after what felt like half an hour, he finally reached a vast hall adorned with mirrors of all shapes and sizes.
"This is the Chamber of Secrets..." Genbu's voice; or more precisely, its thoughts reverberated into the area, sending seismic vibration rumbling through the entire hall.
"Within these mirrors lies the essence of your trial." It revealed.
"Each mirror reflects the depths of your soul; and to claim the Origin Codex, you must look beyond the surface and discover the truths that lie within."
It explained; its voice trailing off with the receding seismic vibrations.
Then with a sense of anticipation and psyche riddled with curiosity, Ryujin approached the nearest mirror.
"Ryujin." Yama's voice echoed in his mind.
"The Mirror of Insight will reveal all the secrets and truths hidden within your soul. To overcome this trial, you must face your fears and confront the darkest corners of your heart." Yama guided.
Hearing this, Ryujin took a deep breath before stepping closer to the mirror.
With each step, he felt a sense of unease creep over him; his reflection wavering like a mirage in astral currents, almost as if the mirror held the power to unravel the very fibers of his being.
Then he gazed into the mirror, and in that moment, the surface rippled like the surface of a tranquil pond, swirling with a multicolored lights that stirred the depths of his soul.
Memories from his past flickered across the mirror's surface, each one a fragment of his journey through several lifetimes.
Fleeting glimpses of his past and future intertwined into a movie of overlapping memories.
He saw memories of the battles he had won and lost when he was reincarnated as Beasts.
The friendships he had forged and betrayed when he was a Nobel Scientist.
Even memories of his lives as nothing but plants and trees started to haunt him; revealing his past failures where his judgment had faltered.
Each one of his them becoming a testament to the exact type of personality he had, and the core nature of his very being.
Yet amid the chaos of his memories, Ryujin saw glimpses of an imminent future shrouded in uncertainty.
It was a path fraught with danger and despair.
In there, different sorts of battles were decided in instances shorter that seconds.
Some of the results of he saw created thick clouds of doubts that loomed over his heart.
These cloud of doubts gathered and roiled intensely like they was heralding a storm of absolute destruction.
It kicked up a tempest of fear that threatened to drown his soul in its suffocating embrace.
Ryujin was forced to question his own abilities; doubting whether they powerful enough to shape his destiny, as his consciousness began to dim.
However, just as his consciousness was about to dim into oblivion, he felt three taps on his shoulder.
The taps were of the exact rhythm and weight to the ones Yama had patted him with just before his entry into the trial grounds.
It was then that he realized the true nature of the trial before him— it was indeed not a test of brute strength or power, but a test of his inner resolve and determination.
Closing his eyes, Ryujin dived deep into the recesses of his mind.
Then he began to search for the inner strength he needed to confront the suffocating storm of doubts and tempestuous fear raging within his soul world, like a dog without leash.
Then from the deepest depths of his soul, a flame was ignited.
Ryujin didn't know where it had come from or how it came to be, but with each breath he took, the flame blazed fiercer, just like the furnace of a blacksmith.
Then as he began to push aside his own insecurities, the flames seemed to have found a route to surge out of their confines; and surge it did.
Whoosh!
The flame erupted outward, spiraling into an inferno as he slammed into the tempest of fear whipping about within Ryujin's soul.
The duo clashed multiple time, but it barely took a minute before the flame swallowed up the tempest and explode into an even stronger inferno that dyed the whole of Ryujin's soul world, red.
However, whilst his fears and insecurities had given way to his determination and resolve, Ryujin's and his answers were still separated by the roiling stormy cloud of doubts.
But now that the fears that were previously clouding his judgments had been vaporized, a clear path had been created between the depths of his soul and the clouds up above.
The flames of his resolve burned even fiercer, rising even higher with an unrelenting level of heat would make even the hardest of materials melt.
It whipped and rose towards the thick cold blanket of swirling doubts with an ever-soaring intensity and collided into it.
Boom!
A soul-shocking explosion reverberated within Ryujin, even sending shockwaves that rippled out of his soul and smash some of the mirrors surrounding him into bits and shards.
Then in that moment, an omen of clarity descended upon Ryujin, swirling around him like the graceful embrace of the wind spirit.
He began to remind himself that his past failures were not a reflection of his worthiness, but mere stepping stones on his path to enlightenment.
"True wisdom cometh not from avoiding failures, but from embracing, learning, and growing from them."
He thought aloud, realizing that every defeat he had suffered in his past lives had indeed each taught him valuable lessons.
It was these lessons that were gradually shaping him into the ideal being he was striving to become.
The moment this realization dawned on him, his vision abruptly blinked off, as if someone had turned off the TV.
Upon opening his eyes once again, Ryujin found himself standing before another mirror.
This second mirror not only revealed his own reflection, but also the reflections of those he held dear.
His friends, his allies, and even his enemies; how their lives had influenced his emotions and led him to making both sound and flawed judgements that had brought him to this moment.
However, with the raging inferno within him still swirling within a hunger to destroy, Ryujin made a short work of the trial and then moved onto the next mirror.
---
For hours, Ryujin moved from mirror to mirror, each one revealing a different aspect of his being.
Yet through it all, he remained steadfast; his resolve ever-burning and unwavering.
At the end of each trial, a newfound aura of clarity would surge into him firming his heart, resolve and beliefs even further.
By the time he exited his final trial, Ryujin had already long embraced all the truths revealed by the mirror; accepting the flaws and imperfections that made him who he was.
A deep sense of calmness oozed out of every fiber of his being; and this time, when he gazed at his reflection, it was no longer wavering, but steady and resolute.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone