Chapter 17: Like a clown that always hides their sadness.
"Tower Master, are you sure? Didn't the Spirit Pagoda only give you a hundred-year-old spirit soul?"
"Consider it compensation for you. Normally, if a genius emerges in the Spirit Pagoda, someone from headquarters will come to this small town to take you in and make you their disciple," the manager said as he lit a cigarette.
He exhaled with a soft sigh. "But your talent is too ridiculous. Instead of making a name for yourself, you'll only invite trouble. Without a strong background, you won't survive in such a situation."
Is that so? If I'm not mistaken, I once read that the true ruler of the Spirit Pagoda in this era is the Qiangu family, with three Ultimate Douluo and a four-word battle armor.
The true leader, who has been undisputed for generations, comes from the Qiangu clan.
Adam looked at the Elder Tree before him, a tree with roots spreading everywhere at the bottom of the soul spheres, a brown tree like an ancient tree that has lived for a long time.
"Thank you, Tower Master. I will remember your kindness!" Adam smiled brightly.
At least, he could repay this person with a good life until the end. He could manage someone and find them a suitable partner.
He was a Beyonder of the Visionary pathway. Arranging something like this was so easy. As long as he became a Sequence 5 Dreamwalker, managing one person's life wasn't difficult.
At least, he would let the manager and the receptionist girl have a decent and peaceful life.
The tower master simply smiled at Adam, who seemed pleased. "Be careful! Even if the Elder Tree is a weak soul beast, there's still a risk of fusing with that soul. You can use the room in this building, and I'll keep watch from outside. If anything happens, I can immediately rescue you."
"Okay!" Adam held the soul ball in his hand.
The manager immediately led Adam to one of the special rooms in the spirit pagoda and waited outside. He didn't interfere with the contracting process with the spirit soul.
"Haah... there goes my promotion. But, gaining a connection with a future Ultimate Douluo might not be a bad deal." The manager chuckled, feeling that none of this was that bad.
As the manager of this Aolai City branch, he knew more than many Spirit Pagoda members about the intense politics of the headquarters.
Especially the rumors of a certain family being the absolute rulers of the Spirit Pagoda in this era. This was common knowledge among senior members like himself.
So, rather than letting Adam, the little monster, be usurped by the hynes at headquarters, it would be better if I fully support him with everything the Aolai City branch has.
"With this, Adam will have a good impression of me. All of this is enough. As long as I have a son or daughter in the future, I can be proud of this."
...
Inside the room, Adam opened the soul ball in his hand, awakening the Elder Tree from its slumber.
Ethereal-looking roots, floating between reality and the spiritual, extended and wrapped around Adam's wrist as if sensing his spiritual power.
A mix of red, orange, and yellow mingled in a mass of colors emanating from the spirit soul before him.
Excitement, satisfaction, and happiness.
Adam could see the spectrum of emotions emitted by the Elder tree in front of him, having found someone so suitable for him.
"As expected, spirit vision is the most useful ability in LOTM." Adam chuckled, the Elder tree's roots extending around his hand.
"You must be so bored, right? Being a spirit soul and forced to sleep inside a small object like this. But I envy how you can live so peacefully," Adam said, smiling resignedly at the clueless Elder tree before him.
If not for the beyonder characteristic in his body, Adam might have been able to live a peaceful life as a soul master. Maybe being an ordinary civilian in a third-rate city isn't such a bad thing.
Just living a goddamn peaceful life in this small town, getting married, having children, and finally dying peacefully.
"But fate seems to be playing a joke on me. The day I woke up, I saw writing in Hermes. The day I awakened my martial spirit, I almost lost control because of another characteristic in my body."
On the day he opened his eyes to this world, fate had already decided that he would not be able to escape madness and insanity.
Despite knowing a little about fate, one can only surrender to its dictates. They can only smile on their faces to hide the sadness they feel. - Clown
A root reached out and touched Adam's cheek, as if to say everything was okay. Like a friend patting their shoulder when they were at their lowest point.
Adam smiled slightly and touched the root of his future partner. "Thanks, I hope the day will come when we can escape the control of fate, lift our own pens, and write our own stories."
I hope that when that day comes, I will still be myself.
Adam raised the elder tree in his hand and touched it to his forehead. A contract of equality formed between them, and the fusion began.
A blurry shadow, a dragon beast, slowly opened its eyes, and a golden light with a vertical eye could be seen from behind the shadow and a torrent of emotions.
The vertical eye of a dragon was quickly obscured by the mist, leaving only two golden lights forming a single eye behind the shadow.
Adam, letting his martial spirit possess him, the fractured eye looked like a piece of glass that was becoming increasingly cracked. The lines in his eyes grew more numerous, forming small, irregular pieces, and the golden color dominated the entirety of his eyes.
Cold sweat poured from his forehead as Adam tried to calm himself through cogitation. He sat down and performed the meditation also taught by Teacher Lin Ximeng.
This was his first time merging with a spirit soul, and the Elder Tree truly carried a heavy burden on his mind.
Adam gritted his teeth and endured the pain from his head, which felt like it was being split open by something, something piercing his head and taking root within it.
The Elder Tree immediately accelerated the fusion process with its future companions. As a soul beast rich in spiritual power, its thinking process was completely different from that of ordinary soul beasts.
A connection was formed between the two, and the Elder Tree, deep within the sea of consciousness that resembled an island, took root there like a special tree unlike any other.
It didn't know where it was, but it knew that this was the spiritual sea of its companions. So the Elder Tree simply took root there and began to grow again, as it always did when it was still alive.
Adam could feel the surge of spiritual power in his head surge dramatically. It was an effort that required years of training through meditation and forging spiritual power, an effort that would make people jealous if they knew about it.
But for Adam, he didn't care about any of that.
"How peaceful..."
The feeling of calm and a slight sense of security—he could feel the thought of losing control for any moment diminishing slightly.
Not free from losing control, but the feeling had lessened.
I wish this feeling could continue forever.
But that's just a fantasy that will probably never come true.
He knew the truth as he read every step Klein had taken. Every part of him was filled with tragedy that made him lose more and more.
A guardian that fights against madness and insanity, in the glimmer of hope to be free from all the horror they experience.