Chapter 58: The consciousness of the Secret Realm

"Kael... are you okay? I..."

Seraphine’s voice came from right beside Kael the moment they passed through the gates.

She never finished.

Her legs gave way, and for a moment her body seemed to lose all its weight. She drifted up into the air as her eyes slowly closed, and her pink hair spread out around her face, swaying gently as if she were underwater.

Kael lunged to catch her, but the ground vanished beneath his feet.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them were floating in an endless sea of mist. There was no ground, no sky, nothing.

Just a cold, damp whiteness clinging to their skin and swallowing every sound, even the rustle of their clothes.

"A soul attack!" Kael exclaimed, his eyes going wide.

Was this another test?

Without a second thought, he reached for his spatial ring, ready to pull out his spear and unleash a burst of Qi to break through the attack.

"That won’t be necessary, little one. Please don’t be afraid. I was just curious."

The voice came from every direction at once.

It was sweet and genderless, with a slightly robotic tone, as if someone had forgotten how to speak and was imitating a person from memory.

A moment later, a chill settled in Kael’s stomach. His Qi had simply vanished.

He reached for the spatial ring again, but it was like slapping his hand against an invisible wall.

Clenching his teeth, he scanned the mist around him.

"Who are you?"

"The consciousness of this secret realm."

Shock washed over Kael’s face.

Every secret realm had a consciousness. Some were quite limited, little more than mechanisms following orders. Others were far freer. Some even held fragments of a past cultivator’s soul, as was the case with hereditary secret realms.

"I know what you little ones say around here, but unfortunately, no—I’m not a hereditary secret realm. My creator spent all his wealth on me."

The voice answered as if it had read his thoughts.

Kael swallowed hard and turned to Seraphine. She was still floating beside him, her face serene, her chest rising and falling in slow, even breaths.

"And what do you want with me? Why is Seraphine unconscious?"

"I want nothing to do with you. I simply noticed that this girl has a lot of restrictions on her body."

This time, the voice sounded amused.

Kael let out the breath he’d been holding, and his shoulders loosened a little. "Can you remove those restrictions?"

"I can... but you probably won’t like what it will awaken. At least not if you love this girl."

Kael furrowed his brow.

"Her memories?"

"No..." The voice spoke again, a little more distant now, as if it were drifting away into the mist.

At that very moment, a system notification appeared before Kael’s eyes.

[Memories aren’t a problem. You have the memories of the Kael from the past, but overall, you’re completely different from him.

In your case, it’s like watching a movie. You know what he went through, you’ve seen it all, but you aren’t him.]

"The problem is the ego." The voice cut off the system’s explanation. "When the seals on this child’s bloodline are broken, her old ego will awaken. A body can house a main soul and a parasitic soul with its own ego. That isn’t uncommon.

"But a single soul with two egos? That’s impossible. One of them will be erased."

Kael’s chest tightened.

"Can you fix this?"

"No. But I can help you fix it."

As the words echoed, a tiny spark appeared out of nowhere.

It drifted down like a falling ember and landed right on Seraphine’s forehead. She let out a soft moan, her body shuddering slightly as a bright glow spread across her skin.

The light flowed down her neck, along her arms, and over her legs before vanishing, as if her body had soaked it in.

"The seal on her restrictions was meant to last until the Void Venerable Realm. Now, it will last until the Immortal Ascension Realm.

"By then, you should already have some idea of how to solve the problem without losing your beloved."

The voice ended with a light, almost playful laugh.

Kael was at a loss for words.

For a long moment, he stayed silent, looking at Seraphine.

If she regained her old self, the rewards would be even greater, but...

He liked the Seraphine she was now.

Behind all the endless cursing and complaining, she was a sweet girl. And he certainly wasn’t willing to lose her.

A smile spread across his face.

"Thank you very much, Ancestor!" Kael declared, clasping his fists and bowing toward the sea of mist.

It might only be the consciousness of a secret realm, but that existence was extremely ancient and, whether he liked it or not, tied to the sect’s founder.

It deserved every bit of his respect.

"Hehehe~ No need to thank me. I was just curious how such a talented child came to be born into my Fallen Sword Sect. Extending her seals was just the whim of a bored old soul."

Then, just as suddenly as it had arrived, the voice began to fade.

The mist around them broke apart into thin wisps, slowly revealing the real world. Seraphine’s eyelashes fluttered.

Kael felt the force holding them up slip away.

He pulled Seraphine against his chest just in time, sliding one arm beneath her back and the other under her knees.

The two of them dropped. Kael’s boots struck the black bricks with a heavy thud that echoed through the hall.

Seraphine stirred in his arms and let out a hoarse murmur. Her eyes slowly opened, still a little dazed.

"What happened?" she asked, blinking as she looked around. "Where did that fog go?"

They were standing just inside the gate. Ahead of them stretched a dark, dull corridor that faded into the gloom, and the cool, stale air carried the faint smell of old stone.

The last thing she remembered was her consciousness slipping away from her body. When she came to, she was already in Kael’s arms.

Confusion and worry crossed her face. She immediately sent a thin stream of Qi through her body, carefully checking every corner of it.

Everything was fine.