Saat teleportasi berhasil, Lex menemukan dirinya berdiri di rawa, dengan awan gelap mengambang di atas kepala. Guntur bergema di kejauhan, mengisi kegelapan dengan rasa boding.
Energi spiritual di tempat ini, di manapun lokasinya, memiliki konsentrasi mirip planet Bintang 3, jadi tidak terlalu istimewa, tapi juga tidak biasa saja.
Lex menyebarkan indra spiritualnya, dan menemukan bahwa tidak ada hal menarik secara signifikan di sekelilingnya, dengan yang paling kuat di sekitar adalah binatang seperti buaya, tidur di air pada alam Nascent.
Sejauh penampilan, tidak ada yang khusus tentang tempat ini. Tapi, mengingat Lex sangat teliti dan cermat dalam investigasinya, dia menemukan sesuatu.
Ada wilayah tertentu dalam jangkauan indra spiritualnya yang terlihat पूरी normal. Bagian rawa yang tidak menarik perhatian, di mana air mengalir dan angin berhembus, beberapa hewan kecil keluar masuk dan beberapa sarang serangga menjadikan tempat itu rumah.
Semuanya biasa saja, kecuali satu fakta sederhana. Di wilayah ini tumbuh bunga hitam yang dikenali Lex. Itu adalah Teratai Yin, tanaman sangat langka yang sulit ditanam secara buatan. Bunga ini mengandung energi Yin dalam jumlah besar — salah satu dari banyak jenis energi yang ada di semesta.
Bukan energi Yin itu sendiri yang membuatnya istimewa, tapi fakta bahwa energi Yin itu tidak terkontaminasi sisa kejahatan atau kejahatan. Lagi pula, energi Yin biasanya terkumpul di tempat banyak kematian, sebagai produk samping pelarnya jiwa.
Tempat dengan energi Yin padat juga dikaitkan dengan Neraka, penyiksaan jiwa, hantu, roh, dan umumnya segala hal dengan konotasi negatif berat. Namun Teratai Yin mengandung energi ini tanpa kaitan dengan kematian atau jiwa yang membusuk, menjadikannya sumber yang sangat murni untuk energi tersebut.
Kebetulan, bunga ini adalah salah satu item yang Powell sebutkan tidak dimiliki Emporium. Masuk akal, karena bunga ini tidak bisa ditanam di greenhouse dalam keadaan biasa, dan harus dipanen di liar.
Bunga langka tapi berguna tinggi ini jarang disimpan cadangan karena permintaan melebihi pasokan. Lex tidak meragukan klaim Powell tidak memilikinya, tapi sekarang bunga itu ada di depan matanya, jelas ini tanda baginya untuk datang ke sini.
Lex menuju bunga, tapi tetap waspada, tapi tidak menemukan masalah sama sekali. Sampai di bunga, dia memanen dengan mudah, menggunakan teknik spiritual untuk mengunci agar tidak kehilangan vitalitas, supaya bisa dipakai nanti.
Kebetulan, atau mungkin bukan kebetulan, begitu dia memanen bunga, matanya tertuju ke lubang di pohon terdekat yang mirip terowongan ke bawah tanah. Kebetulan, Lex tidak bisa mendeteksi lubang itu dengan indra spiritual, dan instingnya tidak bereaksi ke keberadaannya.
"Sangat tidak mencurigakan," gumam Lex sambil melompat ke lubang, sepenuhnya siap ini jebakan elaborat. Lagi pula, dia tidak inconspicuous akhir-akhir ini, dan meski Emporium klaim netral, hanya fokus perdagangan, siapa tahu mereka tidak bisa dibeli oleh kekuatan sangat kuat?
Dia meluncur ke bawah lubang, dan memasuki ruangan, tapi saat itu jelas melewati semacam batas yang mengubah ekspresinya. Saat dia melihat ke atas, jalur ke bawah, bisa ditebak, sudah tidak ada!
Ruangan ini, apapun itu, memiliki efek isolasi yang belum pernah dirasakan! Seperti formasi perlindungan tingkat Destiny di Inn, yang bisa memblokir upaya Destiny itu sendiri, tapi jauh lebih kuat!
Di dalam ruangan ini, Lex terputus dari segala sesuatu di luar ruangan! Dia merasakan Karma-nya, sesoternya itu, tiba-tiba bebebas. Beban tak terlihat terangkat dari bahunya — beban Karma tidak seimbangnya. Tapi pelarian ini sementara, karena ketidakseimbangan akan kembali kalau dia keluar ruangan.
Lex juga menemukan bahwa hubungan tak terhitung jumlahnya yang dimiliki dengan alam semesta secara luas, hubungan yang tidak dipahami atau bahkan tidak disadari, telah terputus. Dia tidak pernah memperhatikannya sebelumnya, karena sudah ada selagi dia ada. Baru sekarang, dalam ketiadaan mereka, dia sadar mereka pernah ada.
Salah satunya, dia sadar, adalah hubungan ke takdir ras manusia. Sadar atau tidak, mau atau tidak, dia terikat tak terhindarkan pada ras manusia. Keterikatan itu tidak hanya dalam umpan balik dari Spektrum Ascendance Kosmis, tapi apa yang dia kontribusikan juga, belum lagi sesuatu lebih dalam yang belum dipahami.
Tapi itu hanya satu dari banyak pengaruh tak terlihat yang tiba-tiba terangkat dari bahunya dengan masuk ruangan ini. Bukan semuanya menyenangkan.
Di antara banyak hubungan yang hilang, termasuk juga hubungan ke Jack! Meski Lex dan Jack satu dan sama, selalu sadar keberadaan dan pengalaman satu sama lain, sejak Lex masuk ruangan ini, dia tidak bisa merasakan hubungan ke Jack!
Mengingat mereka bagian satu sama lain, bukan makhluk terpisah, putusnya hubungan ini sangat mengkhawatirkan. Tapi bahkan itu bukan fokus utama kekhawatiran Lex.
Hubungan paling menakutkan dan signifikan yang hilang bukan ke Jack, tapi ke alam Midnight!
Meski Sistem masih di dalamnya, hubungan antara Sistem dan alam Midnight terputus! Sampai tingkat dia tidak bisa otomatis kembali ke alam jika mau!
Mary tiba-tiba muncul di depannya, ekspresinya sangat serius.
"Kurasa aku tidak perlu bilang ini, tapi ini sangat buruk."
Upon teleporting successfully, Lex found himself standing in a swamp, with dark clouds hovering overhead. Thunder rumbled in the distance, filling the darkness with a sense of foreboding.
The spiritual energy in this place, wherever it was, had a concentration similar to a 3 Star planet, so it wasn't really exceptional, nor was it mundane.
Lex spread his spirit sense out, and discovered that there was nothing of significant interest anywhere around him, with the strongest being in the vicinity being an alligator-like beast, sleeping in the waters at the Nascent realm.
As far as appearances were concerned, there was nothing particularly special about this place. But, considering that Lex was being particularly attentive and thorough in his investigation, he discovered something.
There was a particular region within the range of his spirit sense that seemed completely normal. It was an unassuming portion of the swamp, where the waters flowed and the winds blew, some small animals traveling in and out and a few insect hives making that place their home.
It was totally unremarkable, save for one simple fact. Within this region grew a black flower that Lex recognized. It was the Yin-dipped Lotus, a very rare plant that is difficult to grow artificially. The flower contains a heavy amount of Yin energy - one of the many kinds of energy that exists in the universe.
It wasn't the Yin energy in itself that made it special, but the fact that the Yin energy was uncontaminated with any residual evil or malevolence. After all, Yin energy usually accumulated in places where a lot of death had occurred, as it was a byproduct of dissipating souls.
Places with dense amounts of Yin energy were also associated with Hells, torture of the soul, ghosts, spirits, and generally all kinds of things with heavy negative connotations. Yet the Yin-dipped Lotus contained this energy without actually having any association with death or decaying souls, making it a very pure source for this energy.
As it happened, this flower was one of the items Powell told him that the Emporium did not have. It was believable, since the flower could not be grown in a greenhouse under ordinary circumstances, and needed to be harvested in the wild.
Such a flower, rare but with high utility, was hardly ever kept in reserve as demand was higher than supply. Lex did not find Powell's claim of not having it suspicious, but now that it was right in front of him, it was obvious that it was a sign for him to come here.
Lex proceeded towards the flower, though he maintained his vigilance, but found no issue at all. After reaching the flower, he easily harvested it, using a spiritual technique to seal it so that it did not lose any vitality, so that it could be used later.
Coincidentally, or perhaps not so much, as soon as he harvested the flower, his eyes fell onto an opening in a nearby tree that looked like it led to a tunnel that went underground. As it happened, Lex could not detect that opening with his spirit sense, nor were his instincts reacting to its existence.
"Not suspicious at all," Lex murmured even as he hopped into the hole, fully ready for this to be an elaborate trap of some kind. After all, he had not been inconspicuous as of late, and though the Emporium claimed to be a neutral organization, focusing only on commerce, who was to say they couldn't be swayed by a significantly powerful force?
He slid down the hole, and entered into a room, but in doing so clearly crossed some kind of threshold which caused his expression to change. When he looked up, the pathway leading down, predictably, was no more!
This room, whatever it was, had an isolating effect unlike he had ever felt before! It was like the Destiny level protection formation within the Inn, which could even block out the machinations of Destiny itself, but much more powerful!
Within this room, Lex found himself cut off from everything outside this room! He could feel his Karma, as esoteric as it was, suddenly freed. An invisible burden had been lifted off from him - the burden of his imbalance Karma. Yet this escape was only temporary, for the imbalance would return if he exited the room.
Lex also discovered that countless other connections he had with the universe at large, connections he did not understand or was even aware of, had been cut off. He had never noticed them before, for they had existed as long as he had. Only now, in their absence, did he realize they had existed to begin with.
One of them, he realized, was a connection to the destiny of the human race. Whether he was aware of it or not, whether he wanted it or not, he was inevitably linked to the human race. That link was not just in the feedback he got from the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum, but what he contributed to it as well, not to mention something much deeper that he could not yet understand.
Yet that was just one of the many, invisible influences that had suddenly been lifted off his shoulders by entering this room. Yet not all was so pleasant.
Among the many connections he lost, it also included his connection to Jack! Although Lex and Jack were one and the same, always aware of each other's existence and experiences, from the moment Lex entered this room, he could no longer sense his connection to Jack!
Considering they were a part of each other, instead of separate beings, this disconnection was extremely concerning. Yet even that was not at the forefront of Lex's concerns.
The most alarming and significant connection he had lost was not to Jack, but to the Midnight realm!
Although the system was still within him, the connection between the system and the Midnight realm had been severed! It was to the point where he could not even automatically return to the realm if he wished!
Mary suddenly appeared in front of him, her expression extremely grave.
"I suppose I don't need to tell you this, but this is really bad."
Komentar Chapter (0)
Login buat ikut berkomentar.
Belum ada komentar di chapter ini. Jadi yang pertama!