Journey Towards Dao

Gorgeous red and gold drapes were drawn open, inviting warm rays of sunlight to shine down towards the trio sitting upon the bed.

Amabella glanced down, a slight frown forming as she observed her sweaty and blood soiled body.

Cedrick caught this small movement and gingerly took Auslen from her arms while calling for Diana.

Placing Auslen into Diana's outstretched hands, Cedrick stood up and turned to the now smiling Amabella.

Vast amounts of green, white, and gold motes of light burst out from Cedrick’s pores, spreading out around him dazzlingly before gathering onto his injured wife’s filthy figure.

Amabella’s eyes brightened as she felt renewed energy filling her body that was previously exhausted from childbirth and her small temper tantrum. Her cheeks whitened and her sweat dissipated. Even the blood that stained her beautiful, gold trimmed white robes was completely cleansed away.

The multicolored light began to fade, revealing the satisfied Amabella whose body looked pure and unblemished, not at all resembling a woman who had given birth just a few moments before.

She alighted from the bed with supernatural grace before walking to Diana to hold the still sleeping Auslen once again in her arms.

Turning to Cedrick, her pink lips opened in question, “Is the Body-Nourishing Pool ready?”

Cedrick nodded shortly, placing his hand at the small of her back as he led her through the door and into the large hallway, making their way to the Nourishing Chamber.

…

After entering an underground facility within the main palace grounds, the couple passed many cultivators that were guarding various entryways and corridors before arriving at a set of imposing black stone doors.

In front of the black doors, four Foundation Establishment cultivators stood there as sentries. They were covered in silver armor and black robes, with long decorated sabers hanging from their hips.

The sentries bowed briefly before turning to face the doors with their hands raised. Glyphs poured from their fast moving, gauntlet covered fingertips, causing the dense patterns that covered the set of black doors to glow brightly.

After a few moments, the large doors gradually opened, revealing a completely black stone room. In the center, a small pool full of milky white liquid could be seen from the entrance.

Cedrick and Amabella walked in, and the doors immediately shut behind them to best preserve the liquid contained within.

Crystals that aligned the walls began to shine, filling the room with soft light as they made their way to the center.

Amabella parted from her husband’s side as she walked to the side of the white pool, kneeling down in contemplation as she gently unwrapped the cloth that covered Auslen.

“Remind me, how long was our eldest son able to absorb the Body-Nourishing Elixir for?”

Cedrick tilted his stiff face slightly in thought.

His soft yet deep voice reverberated in the stone room, “A little more than two minutes. He should have had around twenty Soul Force points as a newborn.”

Amabella hummed softly while she carefully placed Auslen into the Body-Nourishing Elixir. Once she removed her hands, she noticed the Elixir being sucked quickly into the floating child’s pores, which brought a tender smile to her face.

Behind her, Cedrick’s head gave a small nod at the sight before he closed his eyes in wait.

…

Although the unconscious Oliver was unaware of his current situation, the transformations occurring within his body did not cease.

The Body-Nourishing Elixir trickled into his newborn body, as if his body was a desert experiencing rain for the very first time.

Milky white condensation traveled through his blood stream, nourishing his muscles, ligaments, and bones. However, the vast majority of the liquid flowed straight to his head.

Tiny veins rippled as vast amounts of liquid traveled into his brain, feeding and protecting the feeble organ that had continuously failed to keep up with his mature thought-streams.

Hints of sparkling white began to appear on his brain, resembling the purest of white jades. The vast amount of activity around his brain even caused his sparse golden brown locks to thicken and grow at noticeable speeds.

The changes his body was experiencing did not show any signs of ceasing.

…

Amabella’s face couldn’t have been more brilliant as she watched Auslen’s smiling, sleeping figure. Even Cedrick’s previously closed eyes had opened at an unknown time.

“He’s been absorbing the Body-Nourishing Elixir for over four minutes, and he hasn’t shown any signs of stopping. Cedrick, our Auslen is a little genius!”

Cedrick only nodded briefly; his eyes still trained on Auslen.

Time advanced slowly as they continued to watch in amazement.

Once the eighth minute led to the ninth, Amabella’s face was full of shock and disbelief. Even Cedrick’s eyes visibly widened.

However, as the tenth minute transitioned into the eleventh, nothing but solemnity existed in their expressions.

Amabella turned back to Cedrick, her face grave with worry.

She grew more cautious, glancing at the large doors they entered through previously before urgently transmitted her thoughts to Cedrick: “Eleven minutes have passed. This means Auslen should have at the very least 100 points of Soul Force as a newborn, which is unprecedented! This is troublesome, Cedrick!”

But Cedrick didn’t respond, nor did he take his eyes off of Auslen, who had already diluted the Body-Nourishing Pool by more than half.

Seeing this, Amabella had no choice but to continue watching in silence.

Eventually, after more than eighteen minutes had elapsed, Auslen’s body had finally stopped consuming Body-Nourishing Elixir. The remaining liquid in the pool was almost entirely clear, a pool that was previously prepared for the birth of at least a dozen talented children!

Sighing with a complicated mixture of emotions, Amabella reached her hands towards the pool, and Auslen’s glistening, jade-like body levitated out of the remaining liquid. Newly grown golden hair the length of his small body was hanging from his head.

He then gently landed in Amabella’s arms.

After silently rewrapping Auslen’s body with fabrics, she looked at Cedrick deeply, conveying unspoken words.

Cedrick understood immediately. He hesitated briefly before nodding to her silence.

Amabella held Auslen securely as she strode forward towards the door, Cedrick trailing close behind her.

She reached the quickly opening doors which revealed the four shocked sentries. They were obviously astonished at the exaggerated amount of time the three of them stayed inside the Nourishing Chamber.

As soon as Amabella exited the room carrying Auslen, the sentries couldn’t help but impulsively glance at the young prince, as if they could glean some sort of secret from his unconscious appearance.

Amabella’s blue eyes grew frighteningly cold as she slowly lifted up one of her hands, placing it gently over Auslen’s eyes for protection.

Rivers of Profound Qi danced frantically within her meridians.

Suddenly, she took a deep breath.

In an instant, every ounce of warmth was stolen from the entirety of the underground facility.

As of now, every visible location was filled with flowing mist and white frost. Every cultivator stationed within was frozen solid, including the four Foundation Establishment realm sentries that were foolishly examining her child a moment before.

Amabella stood in her original location, shining blindingly with golden light as if she were the sun itself. Behind her, a faint image of a pair of large golden wings could be seen within the blazing photons.

Bang!

In the very next moment, the blinding heat contained within her abruptly exploded outwards, sending golden fire flooding through every hallway, every corridor, and every room, disintegrating every single frozen figure until their remains fell to the ground as dull black ash.

Cedrick stood within the sea of golden fire behind his wife, sighing softly at the sight ahead.

…

Feeling soft fabrics and nearby body heat, Oliver’s fingers and toes twitched slightly as his eyes opened with a sudden clarity that was simply incomparable to his earlier daze. The tremendous, but sudden improvement to his psyche generated a serious sense of disorientation within him.

Thoughts and memories flowed and clashed together extraordinarily quickly as he got his bearings on his current situation.

He could feel that his thoughts flowed even smoother than in the prime of his previous life!

Unnatural strength seemed to incomprehensibly fill every inch of his day-old body. He even felt the need to glance down at his body to reassure himself that he didn’t once again die and reincarnate during his nap.

As he was looking down at his wiggling toes, he felt someone move next to him, causing his small eyes to glance to the left. Beautiful blue eyes once again filled his vision.

However, instead of the pure love that previously filled those pools of blue, complicated emotions of concern and worry became the most pronounced.

Oliver fell into a period of slight confusion.

Did something happen when I fainted earlier?

Or… is it because I’m not acting ‘baby’ enough?

Oliver had the misfortune of fathering three needy triplets. And those triplets heartlessly gave him a total of eight needy grandchildren. He unfortunately knew all too well how a baby should be acting.

Ignoring the small pang of sadness that appeared at the thought of his family, Oliver let out the most adorable, toothless smile that he could muster, considering the exceedingly unusual circumstances.

Luckily, the effects were immediate. The woman’s eyes squinted in amusement at the sight of his gums.

She sat up energetically and gently picked him up. She then excitedly recited a singular foreign word to him repeatedly, as if afraid that he wouldn’t understand.

Hmm? Auslen? Sounds somewhat masculine. Is that my new name?

Wait, is this woman really attempting to get a day-old baby to remember their name?

At the thought of this new name of his, the pang of sadness that he previously tried to ignore returned with intensity.

He had truly lost everything, and it had happened far sooner than he had anticipated.

His house that he worked so hard to pay off was gone. The money he had been saving for 40 long years was gone.

Even his family, which he thought he couldn’t stand the sight of, was suddenly and permanently separated from him.

Complicated emotions filled his thoughts as he half-heartedly played ‘baby’ with the woman in front of him.

However, those negative feelings dissipated as suddenly as they came, a calm and collected mentality quickly replacing them.

Oliver was very familiar with adapting to sudden changes. Through every obstacle, through every loss, he had managed to survive and eventually thrive time and time again. Even though the current situation was somewhat incomprehensible, at its core, it was nothing all that unique.

Besides, as a newborn, he now had far more time than he had previously. His dream of a peaceful, unrestrained life was still in sight.

Curiosity began to bloom in his heart as thoughts of all the possibilities this new life had to offer ran wild in his head. However, they were quickly interrupted due to the woman’s incessant babbling. Her previously amused face was now tinted with worry.

Sighing silently to himself, he looked deeply at her beautiful face, memorizing every curve and every corner, internally giving in to the fact that she truly was his mother in this new life of his.

Ok, I can accept this.

From now on, you will be my mother.

And… I will be your son… Auslen.

After just another moment of silent acceptance, Auslen’s face arranged itself into a truly genuine smile, unlike anything he had produced in recent memory.

After opening his small, toothless mouth, he babbled an unintelligible mixture of syllables that sounded both a bit similar and nothing at all like ‘Auslen.’

But it did not matter.

His mother’s previously worried face brightened so much that he swore he could see specks of light swirling within her cheeks. She giggled as she hugged Auslen close, engulfing him in a waterfall of long golden strands.