Outworld Liberators-Chapter 207: A Wish Beyond Immortality

The inner disciples were led to a different place higher upon the Radeon Terraces.

They passed the shrine on the sixth layer, where Shears halted and bowed his head in silent respect.

Irongrit, Daylightrays, Raxutus, Ropefist, and Youngbanners did the same, each offering five copper for incense before paying their respects.

Sackmace, who had taken fifth, Reelfisher in fourth, and Lonequiver in third, put on no airs either.

Even Almsgiver, the second-place victor, did not hesitate to kneel and press himself into a proper kowtow, as though the stone before him stood in place of heaven itself.

These new disciples had not won by strength alone. They had won because they were clever.

If this shrine truly honored the ancestor of God Eldric, then one could only imagine the height such a mighty figure had once reached.

A man of that stature was worth more than reverence. He was worth songs.

When the incense was done, they climbed higher.

The five inner disciples passed through a stone gate more than a hundred meters high and felt the change at once.

Fatigue seemed to peel off them like an old illusion. Their thoughts settled. Even the private knots in their hearts loosened, and some found answers to troubles they had not yet known how to name.

Then a great pavilion came into view.

Before it stood an enormous sword, planted like a proclamation for all to see.

Plainly, this was one of the fabled schools they would one day attend.

Still, since Shears said nothing, none of them dared to question it.

They walked past the school and climbed higher still.

Then the herbs came into sight.

That was the source of the comfort they had been feeling.

The path ran clean between them, and beyond it the land was thick with rosemary.

Tiny two-lipped blossoms nestled among pine-dark needles, delicate blue tubes adorned with elegant curving stamens.

Yet this was no ordinary rosemary. Radeon had altered the plants from within, changing the very workings of their bodies, and after long absorption of the abundant qi of heaven and earth, they had become Spirit Rosemary, a spice and herb so refined that even Nascent Embryo cultivators could benefit from it.

Irongrit, whose palm had long carried an old injury, held his hand close to one of the plants.

Within seconds, the bones and flesh gave a sudden pop.

He stared at his hand in disbelief. It felt renewed, not merely healed, but improved.

The crack had sounded loud enough that the others, alert as seasoned fighters, noticed at once.

They drew nearer, curiosity plain in their eyes, though none of them were foolish enough to touch the plants themselves.

If a plant like that could work such wonders, then one could only imagine its value.

Yet here it stood in a sea so vast that the disciples felt as though they were walking past common cabbages rather than treasures fit for legends.

They moved with care after that.

The path was broad enough for twenty men abreast, yet none of them trusted breadth when a single careless stumble might send a hand or sleeve brushing against something priceless.

Without a word, they came to the same understanding and filed themselves into line, each keeping measured distance from the next.

Soon they reached a steep slope that climbed toward the eighth layer. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

There, Shears stepped forward and beckoned Irongrit.

The boy did not dare delay. He came at once.

A plain black stone waited there, ordinary to the eye and unremarkable enough that no one would have spared it a second glance.

Shears tapped it once. At once, a cave mouth opened in the hillside with uncanny smoothness.

The grass parted without a whisper. The soil did not tear or crumble. It was as though the mountain itself had simply decided to make room.

Tabulae, meanwhile, had not been brought along with the other disciples.

She had been told to climb alone.

Her road was different, shrouded in fog from beginning to end, and as she walked through that cold whiteness, her thoughts turned inward and cruel.

Pain rose in her like floodwater. She had no one left.

No family. No true friends. No hand to hold her steady if she stumbled.

What remained to her was jealousy and the bitter knowledge that the three people Radeon had taught before her were already far beyond anything she could presently reach.

She walked for hours in that mood, each step heavy with the weight of her own thoughts.

Then, at last, an obsidian pavilion emerged from the mist.

There she saw Calyx.

At once, awe seized her. She bowed ninety degrees without hesitation.

This was a man who could move mountains and redirect rivers as though such feats were no more troublesome than shifting furniture.

Calyx only nodded and smiled.

"Master has been awaiting you. Please, come inside," he said.

Tabulae was stunned.

How could a man so powerful still have a master above him?

Her heart began to race. Every step she took toward the pavilion felt heavy, as though lead had been poured into her limbs.

Then the doors opened slowly, and there within sat Radeon in his secondary ghostly body, waiting.

He motioned for her to sit.

For a moment, her mouth fell open of its own accord, but she quickly mastered herself, bowed once more in respect, and then took her seat.

"Did you keep the token I gave you?" Radeon asked.

Color rose at once to Tabulae’s face.

She had kept it. Kept it close, perhaps too close.

Yet she was a young woman, and to fumble for it before him in plain sight felt improper in a way she did not wish to test.

"May I step behind the screen for a moment?" she asked carefully.

When he allowed it, she went behind the divider, adjusted her garments, and retrieved the token from where she had hidden it away.

Then she dressed herself properly once more. She had guarded it close to her heart because she truly wished to become a disciple and walk the road of cultivation.

Before returning, she wiped it clean and inspected it carefully, making certain it had not been dirtied or dishonored in her keeping.

Then she came forward and presented it to Radeon with both hands.

Radeon did not take the token. He only smiled.

"Why give it back?" he asked. "Do you have some wish in mind, that you return it so readily?"

Tabulae looked from the token in her hands to Radeon himself, her thoughts plainly lagging a step behind whatever truth sat before her.

For a heartbeat, she only stared.

Then realization struck.

"Waa. Waa. Wait." She leaned forward, eyes wide.

"Master Radeon, does this mean this token can truly make me a direct disciple, like Big Sister Fay?"

The question came out in a rush, for she knew she would not sleep a wink if she left that chamber without an answer.

Radeon only smiled and gave a small nod.

At once, Tabulae felt foolish, so foolish she nearly laughed at herself.

All this time she had carried the thing close, guarded it like a treasure, yet never understood the true weight of what she held.

A direct disciple. The thought alone made her want to chuckle like some silly village girl who had stumbled into a king’s favor by accident.

But she was not witless. She had heard one word clearly.

Wish.

That changed everything.

Her fingers tightened around the token. If it could be used for that, then its worth was far greater than simple discipleship.

It might be able to buy something beyond anything she could properly imagine.

She was not a greedy person, not by nature, yet even so she felt the pull of possibility stirring in her chest.

She swallowed and began to think.

She could keep it for some future calamity, save it for the day her back stood against the wall.

Or she could spend it on herself now, turn it into an investment that might change the shape of her whole life.

For one perilous instant, a thought rose in her mind.

She could ask Radeon to tell her everything he knew.

The temptation flashed hot and bright.

And the very moment she entertained it, something deep within her existence recoiled.

A nameless dread crawled up her spine.

She looked down and realized her clothes were damp. Not merely warm, but soaked through with sweat.

Her breathing had gone shallow. She touched her hair and found it wet as well.

Even her feet felt strange, unsteady, as though she had been standing too long in shallow water.

She did not know what had happened. She only knew that some invisible edge had brushed past her, and her body had answered with naked terror.

Then she looked up at Radeon.

"Are you awake, young Tabulae?" he asked mildly. "You were gone for a good hour."

Tabulae stared at him, shaken. So that was what it meant.

The wish for knowledge had been too large, too reckless, too close to something her mind and soul could not bear.

Even now her scalp still tingled, and she could not shake the ghastly sensation that, for a moment there, her life had been slipping out through the top of her head.

She did not fully understand what it meant, yet curiosity gnawed at her until she could no longer leave it alone.

"I was about to ask you to pass all your knowledge to me," Tabulae said. "May I ask what happened to me?"

Radeon regarded her calmly.

"Not all knowledge is a blessing," he said. "There are secrets which, if heard without the strength to bear them, can erase body, mind, and soul alike."

At that, Tabulae trembled. She had not known such things existed.

The thought alone made her swallow hard.

For a time she sat in silence, thinking with all the care she could muster.

Then, little by little, a smile crept across her face, the sort born when someone believes they have stumbled upon the greatest answer in the world.

"I want to be your daughter, Master Radeon," she said. "I will treat you as though you are truly my blood, my only blood in this world. In return, I want you to do the same for me. I want you to be a caring, doting, loving father who will never abandon me through any hardship, even if the world breaks apart and all reality cracks."

Radeon covered his mouth and chuckled.

It was the first time he had seemed genuinely amused.

"That is acceptable to me," he said. "But are you certain? My path is one of loneliness and solitude. It will stretch beyond ages, perhaps even to the end of time itself. Will you still be the same Tabulae by then?"

Tabulae shook her head.

"No," she said. "I will not be Tabulae anymore. I want you to give me the name your first daughter should have had."

Radeon closed his eyes.

For a moment, he felt as though he had somehow played himself. In the end, he only nodded.

And so it was settled. Through a promise he meant to keep, Radeon gained a daughter.