Chương 107: Golden Fruit

"Come forward, child," the first elder commanded and his voice echoed with all those impossible layered sounds making it seem like a dozen people speaking at exactly the same time. I walked right into the middle of the room making sure to keep my steps perfectly even and calm. Inside my inner world, the Genesis Seed was pulsing away doing a great job hiding the blue sun under its massive leaves while the red sun just kept orbiting and blazing away like it wanted everyone to look at it.

"Vayara informed us you channel the crimson light without any runic stabilization," the lightning elder spoke up.

"Demonstrate it for us." I did exactly what I did the last time and reached for the red sun, so those familiar red lines started glowing across my skin. It looked pretty unrefined compared to an actual runic technique, however that was exactly what they wanted to see from someone claiming to be a Natural.

"Fascinating," the female elder whispered.

"The resonance is quite crude although it remains stable. How long have you possessed this ability?"

"Just a few weeks," I answered honestly since I knew that excuse worked perfectly before.

"Ridiculous," the flame elder scoffed right on schedule with his runes burning hot.

"He would have either mutated or died in hours without proper stabilization."

"Unless he is a true Natural," the wind elder pointed out. Everything was going exactly the way I remembered, and they started debating my status and complaining about the headmaster being gone before they finally started arguing over who gets to take me as a disciple.

"He belongs with me," the flame elder announced.

"His core clearly leans toward fire resonance."

"Absolute nonsense," the lightning elder shot back.

"Look at his raw control, he requires precision training which means lightning resonance is the obvious path." While they were busy fighting, I took the chance to look closer at Elder Molric. I could still sense that tiny hint of wood energy hidden underneath all his crimson power, and this time I also caught these very faint shifts in his aura which meant he was running some kind of spiritual experiment right in the middle of a council meeting.

"We shall let the boy choose," the ice elder finally said to shut them up and everyone looked at me.

"Well, child? Which master do you desire?" I didn't even pause to think about it.

"I would be honored to learn from you, Venerable One," I said while bowing straight to Elder Molric. The whole room went dead silent and Elder Molric raised his eyebrows just a fraction which was his version of being surprised.

"An interesting choice," he muttered softly.

"Why me?"

"I can feel some sort of connection to your energy, Venerable One, it just resonates with something deep inside me." The words flowed out so much easier this time around since they were actually true.

"Hmm," he stared at me for a good while.

"Very well then. I accept you."

"What a waste," the flame elder grumbled but he didn't try to stop it.

"It is settled then," the ice elder declared.

"He studies under Elder Molric. Make sure the paperwork is filed." We walked out of the chamber and Vayara gave me this nod of approval.

"A very logical decision," she said quietly.

"I was worried you might get distracted by the flashier elements because most initiates forget that true strength comes from refining what you already have instead of constantly chasing new techniques." I just let her talk since I'd heard the speech before. When she gave me her usual goodbye about hoping I wouldn't die too fast, I simply bowed and watched her walk away down the crystal hallway, and it felt incredibly weird knowing she was going to get skewered by light spears the next time I saw her.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Dealing with the administration was just as boring on the second try. The quartermaster handed over the silver bands with the red markings and told me to never take them off. I nodded and played along because the Genesis Seed's filtering meant I didn't actually need the bands to survive anyway. When she dropped a huge pile of books on the desk, I didn't freak out like the first loop.

"These contain your beginner study materials and Elder Molric expects you to understand basic resonance theory before tomorrow's lesson."

"Thank you," I said totally calm because I already knew all the material and Azure could always just remind me if I forgot something. The evening bell rang so I joined the long lines of initiates standing by the walls.

"These platforms go up in tiers depending on your cultivation and resonance," the same senior sister explained.

"The higher you climb the stronger the red sun's energy gets and trying to sit above your actual level will likely be fatal."

"Thank you, Senior Sister, I will be careful." Last time I tried to show off and climbed way up high, so this time I did things differently and picked a completely average platform right in the middle section, it gave me enough resonance to work with while keeping me under the radar. The senior sister looked a bit let down since she probably wanted the mysterious Natural to do something crazy.

"A very wise decision," Azure said in my head while I sat down to meditate.

"It might be less impressive, but it also stops people from painting a giant target on your back."

"I just really don't want Zoren stalking me like a crazy dog this time around," I replied mentally. The platform fed energy into me in a much smoother way than that overwhelming flood from the higher tier. Down in my inner world the red sun started soaking up the power just like it always did.

"Let's see if it learned anything," I thought to Azure while the little sun started puffing itself up. It obviously didn't learn a single thing because as soon as it got full of energy, it turned right toward the Genesis Seed and started pulsing aggressively to challenge it again. The Genesis Seed was just as completely unimpressed as before. When the red sun tried to throw its spiritual tantrum, the giant tree just swallowed it whole, did that incredibly dramatic chewing motion, and spat it right back out.

The sun shrank down and hid in its corner exactly like the last loop. Yeah, I don't think it was ever going to learn its lesson. I spent the next few hours having a nice peaceful meditation. Because I didn't make a huge scene, nobody paid any attention to me at all, and Kiran even walked right past my platform without looking twice. The session ended and walking back to my room was great since I didn't have to stress about reading a mountain of books.

The mattress was still painfully thin, but I was more than ready to get some sleep after everything that happened today.

"Master, you should look at your inner world, the Genesis Seed appears to have changed." I closed my eyes and sent my awareness inside out of curiosity. The giant tree was standing there looking normal, hiding the blue sun and letting the red one orbit it, but Azure was right, something was different, I just couldn't tell what.

"Look up there," he pointed out.

"In the highest branches." I looked where he wanted me to and my eyes widened when I saw it. Sitting right at the very top of the Genesis Seed was a single fruit that I had never seen before. It was a perfect sphere about the size of my fist, and it looked like it was made out of actual living gold.

"Well, that's definitely new," I managed to say while staring at how it slowly spun around in place. The fruit gave off this pulse of energy that made my spiritual sense buzz in a weird way. It wasn't qi and it definitely wasn't power from the red or blue suns, it felt way older and a lot more primal.

"Master, maybe jumping between worlds repeatedly forced the fruit to grow," Azure suggested.

"The Genesis Seed went through multiple realm transitions very quickly so maybe this is its reaction to all that stress, or maybe it's a new opportunity." I tried to listen to him, but the fruit was pulling on my attention harder and harder. It honestly felt like it was calling out to me and promising to give me knowledge or power or maybe just a way to escape.

"There is another option," Azure kept talking, "maybe it successfully mixed the energies from both suns to create something brand new. We watched it process the red sun's power while protecting the blue sun, so this could be the final result of that."

"You don't sound very sure about that," I pointed out and forced myself to stop staring at the spinning gold fruit so I could listen.

"I'm not," Azure admitted.

"Neither of those theories explains the specific energy it radiates. This feels completely alien and it doesn't belong to either of the worlds we know." He was right. The longer I looked at it the more wrong the energy felt, and it actually reminded me of that exact feeling you get right before you worldwalk when you're stuck between two different realities.

"What if this has nothing to do with mixing energies or dealing with stress?" Azure said in a quiet voice.

"What if the Genesis Seed is trying to point us toward another path and another world entirely?" The second he said that the pull from the fruit got even stronger like it was agreeing with him. I could practically feel it trying to drag me somewhere else that was far away from the sect and the academy.

"Should we try doing something with it?"