After finishing lunch and seeing Uncle Chen off, I went back inside to continue studying the material in the books.
When it came to boxing and sword skills, it was mostly about internal insights by now; the stances were already pretty much mastered. I decided to look into inner breath cultivation. Right now, that kind of thing was basically useless, but it didn't hurt to study it just in case it actually worked.
I kept reading until midnight, feeling I had gained a slight understanding of it. I put the book down and got ready for sleep.
Right at that moment, the unexpected happened. With a earth-shattering roar, I lost consciousness altogether.
It turned out that war had broken out. Missives of immense destructive power and atomic bombs rained down across the globe. Looking back, it wasn't the worst way to go—at least I lost consciousness instantly and didn't suffer much.
Just as my senses faded, the pendant emitted a series of silver flashes, drawing in my consciousness. My soul entity vanished from the face of Earth.
When my consciousness woke up again, I realized I had lost my physical body and was drifting inside the internal space of the pendant.
What was this? The pendant had saved my soul, but what kind of life was I supposed to live like this? And where was the pendant now?
A force surrounded me, slowly strengthening my soul. I had no idea how much time passed. During that period, communication was impossible, and with only my own conscious entity left, I nearly drove myself crazy. If I had known any way to die, I would have sought a way to end my own life long ago.
Time was immeasurable. I had no idea how long it had lasted until one day, the pendant spat me out.
I was initially filled with joy, but when I looked closely upon coming out, I found myself in the midst of the cosmic starry sky, and my heart trembled. "Big brother! You might as well pull me back in! Damn it, this is terrifying!"
The pendant returned to my neck. Endless forces of light and darkness clashed all around me, and every collision felt like a terrifying shock to my system. The pendant began to gather energy and infuse it into my soul.
A silver-colored giant was locked in battle with a completely black-and-red giant.
The black-and-red giant said, "Noa, I haven't done anything to wrong you! Just because our light and darkness attributes are different, you have to fight me to the death?"
The giant Noa replied, "Lucifer, your dark race has constantly been creating fear, anxiety, and unease throughout the universe. I have warned you many times, but you refuse to restrain yourself or manage the tribe you created. Based on that alone, one of us has to die here today."
Lucifer was far from convinced. "You were born from the first ray of light, and I was born from the first ray of darkness—who is afraid of whom? Come on, then! Let us determine both superiority and life or death."
With that, the two resumed their combat, rays of light and darkness frequently colliding. Each clash produced a violent shockwave that rippled outward in all directions.
At the edge of the battlefield, the pendant gathered countless forces of light and darkness, channeling them into my soul. The source of that power was Noa and Lucifer.
Gradually, a sphere of intertwined light and darkness formed around me, and I was enveloped within it. As the sphere grew larger, both combatants took notice of me.
Lucifer said, "Hold on a second. Look, the energy spilling from our battle is being collected and seems to be incubating something. Don't you want to know why?"
Noa said, "I noticed earlier. It's using the scattered energy to incubate a new life. The convergence of light and darkness—this aptitude is extraordinary!"
"How about you let him belong to me? I admit my mistake, and I'll go back and properly supervise my tribe, and stop causing trouble for you. How does that sound? Our strengths are evenly matched; even if we fought for another thousand or eight hundred years, we wouldn't settle the score. Give him to me, and you'll achieve the exact effect you wanted anyway. What do you say, think about it?" Lucifer tempted.
Noa refused without a shred of hesitation. "No! If I give him to you, your subordinates will only grow more arrogant, bringing endless disaster. Absolutely not!"
Lucifer said, "Then I'll let him go to you, and we'll call a truce, how about that? You can train this new life, and we each go our separate ways."
Noa looked at the energy sphere incubating me and said, "Fine, settled. You go! I'll take him with me after he's born."
"Good!" With that, Lucifer turned and vanished.
Lucifer thought to himself: *Noa, where in this world is there such a cheap deal? I still have seventy percent of my power, and I'll secretly inject sixty percent of it into him. Let's see what you do! Will you continue to be open and honorable, gambling your own sixty percent power, or will you destroy him?*
*If he ever appears in the universe again, then you truly are a remarkable figure. But if he vanishes from this world entirely, I will make you forever unable to lift your head up—falling into darkness won't be difficult at all. Noa, let's see how you handle this!*
*I heard that the humans you once helped created a biological giant modeled after you. I'll go add a bit more force to it. You might not be able to beat me at full strength, but with most of your power gone, it'll be more than enough to make you miserable. We aren't finished yet!*
Noa approached the energy sphere and carefully inspected it. This was a life co-incubated by light and darkness—neither entirely righteous nor completely evil. With proper education, he might well become a major pillar of support for the Forces of Light.
Right at that moment, a massive surge of dark energy poured in continuously, causing even Noa to curse aloud.
*Damn you, Lucifer, you set me up!* What should he do? Should he inject his own power to maintain the balance of light and darkness, or should he eradicate the creature immediately? But the being had just been born and had committed no evil; he couldn't bring himself to do it. This was a dilemma.
"Saga, are you there? Come quickly if you hear this, I need your help with a major matter! Make it fast." With that, he began injecting his own power without hesitation.
Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good, sensing my vitality growing and a new life about to begin. But suddenly, the balance of light and darkness collapsed; the dark energy surged, causing the light and darkness within my body to fall out of equilibrium, and the power began to run wild with the possibility of exploding at any moment.
*Damn it all! Just as I finally manage to start a new life, this is the rhythm of getting screwed over! Whose toes did I step on anyway? If you want me dead, just give me a quick finish, why torture me like this?*
Right as I was complaining to myself, a matching stream of bright, powerful light began to enter. With the reinforcement of this energy, the brilliance grew. The power began to stabilize, light and darkness balanced out, and the incubation resumed.
This emotional rollercoaster was truly thrilling as hell!
As the energy sphere stabilized, everything returned to normal. High in the air, Noa's form began to grow unsteady, swaying back and forth in the starry expanse—a clear sign of excessive energy depletion.
A sky-blue figure appeared, steadying Noa's unsteady posture. Saga had no physical body; the figure was composed entirely of energy.
Saga asked, "What happened? How did you end up like this? And who is this life form currently being incubating?" Three questions fired off in a single breath.
Noa said, "Lucifer and I were fighting, and this entity absorbed the scattered energy from the two of us, beginning its own incubation. A life co-incubated by light and darkness—its potential is not small. Before leaving, Lucifer played a dirty trick, leaving me very weak. Take him away with you, educate him well after his birth, and he will surely be a great asset in the future. He is a symbiosis of light and darkness; neither element can be absent for his birth. I leave him in your hands, I'm going."
Noa vanished right after speaking, heading off to find a place rich in light to recover his strength.
Saga looked at the spot where Noa had disappeared and sighed inwardly. *You really know how to find trouble for me. Whatever, raising him well can be considered taking him on as my successor! The essence of his power is a bit troublesome, but nothing major—that's easy enough to handle.*
Saga carefully scrutinized the light sphere where I was residing. Muttering to himself, Saga said, "A symbiosis of light and darkness? What would happen if I added my power of miracles to the mix? It's worth a try. This miraculous power adapts to both light and darkness and doesn't conflict with him at all. No wonder Noa came to find me."
Energy welled up in Saga's hand, enveloping the me that was still in incubation. He said, "Let's take you home. The essence of this power makes for a truly perfect living being. At my level, who else would he need to fear? Perfect!"
With those words, he vanished into thin air, taking me with him.