Chapter 25: Yīng Huā
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The previous owner of this artifact? Now this is interesting,' thought Ethan, wondering who this person was.
Bai Yu continued her story.
"She was a peculiar person, strange in some ways.
We met under not-so-good circumstances.
At that time, in the territory of the dragon race, a civil war was raging, which ended up involving other races, humans included.
We clashed, and although she was clearly weaker than me in terms of cultivation, she still managed to defeat me.
She didn't kill me but instead asked me to become her traveling companion.
And so the years passed, and our group of two people was joined by other beings.
I discovered that she came from the mortal plane, and it was quite surprising because almost no one had managed to ascend to the celestial realm in the last millennia."
'A person who managed to ascend to the celestial plane? Then why have I never heard of her?' wondered Ethan.
Of course, he had only been in this world for no more than two years, and although there were still many things he needed to learn, he thought that a being of this woman's caliber, who had managed to ascend, should have been quite well-known here.
Bai Yu could sense what Ethan was thinking at that moment and couldn't help but shake her head.
Although she had traveled with Yīng Huā for a long time, she almost never spoke of her life in the mortal realm, so she was as much in the dark about this as Ethan.
Seeing that Ethan had digested what she had said, she continued:
"The Amphora of the Seven Sages has always been one of the most contested artifacts among the superpowers of the celestial realm.
And this is because it was one of the few artifacts that had survived since the primordial era of the universe.
But no one had ever found even a trace of it, until Yīng Huā appeared with it.
Thanks to the amphora, our small group grew in strength very quickly, bringing us to the top of the celestial realm in just a few years.
I never understood the reason for her quest for power, but my life now belonged to her, so I followed her, just like the others in our group.
Everything was going well until the news that she had the Amphora of the Seven Sages was leaked by one of our companions.
This disrupted the order of the celestial realm, which was still recovering from the last large-scale war.
After several years, the various powers managed to corner us, and it was then that Yīng Huā decided to make a desperate move.
She used the power of the artifact to seal us inside it and bring us to safety.
I don't know what happened since then, as my consciousness remained dormant, and I only woke up in the last century," she said.
Ethan didn't know how to handle this situation.
He could feel a tinge of sadness in the voice of this entity, but at the same time, he was also full of information that was poured on him one after the other.
He took a moment to reorganize his thoughts and calm himself.
Then he addressed Bai Yu:
"I understand your situation, and if I could, I would help you get out of here, but I have no idea how to use this artifact, nor do I know if I will be able to use it correctly," said Ethan.
He had understood that for her, he was the lifeline since the artifact had chosen him, and being the owner, perhaps he could free her, but the problem was that he didn't know what to do.
Bai Yu could hear the sincerity in Ethan's words and breathed a sigh of relief in her mind.
'Maybe there is really some hope for me to be freed,' she thought and said:
"To use it, you must first bind it to your soul, but even once that's done, you won't be able to fully use its powers," she said.
"Your strength is too lacking; currently, you are no different from an ordinary person," she said calmly, but for Ethan, it was like an arrow piercing his pride.
'Why do you have to rub salt in the wound,' thought Ethan, trying to eliminate the depressing thoughts that came to mind whenever he thought about his cultivation level.
Bai Yu, ignoring the forced expression he made, continued: "Currently, the power of the artifact is sealed, and it will gradually unlock as you become stronger.
This is a protective measure of the artifact because if it were completely unsealed now, you would explode due to the immense power that would be infused into you from the artifact," she said calmly, as if she hadn't just said something alarming.
Ethan, hearing her, couldn't help but thank that the artifact was weak.
"So there's no point in thinking about this now, let's first think about binding it to you."
"Okay, but how should I do it?" asked Ethan.
"We are in your sea of consciousness, so you have some control over reality here. You need to create a spiritual bridge between yourself and the artifact.
Try to think about connecting to it, and the artifact will do the rest."
Ethan closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.
He imagined a thread of energy coming out of his body and heading towards the luminous cauldron.
After a few moments, a soft light began to form around him, connecting to the suspended cauldron.
He felt a connection forming, a bond that seemed to go beyond mere physical perception.
Suddenly, a sensation of warmth began to spread through his body.
It was a strange energy, almost supernatural, that seemed to pulse in sync with his heartbeat.
Ethan felt a wave of power flow through him, and for a moment, his entire being seemed to vibrate in unison with the artifact.
As the light became more intense, Ethan felt his mind waver.
The artifact, high in the sky, began to release a vibrant light.
Bai Yu, who was witnessing this scene, couldn't help but furrow her brows.
'Something is wrong,' she thought and tried to remember if Yīng Huā had ever told her anything about this phenomenon.
Normally, a thread of consciousness was created to connect to the artifact, and it would react to this attempt at connection or not, but in this case, clearly, the artifact not only accepted it but was trying to send something to Ethan.
Ethan, who was in a sort of trance at that moment, began to have convulsions.
The energy was too powerful, too overwhelming to be contained in his still weak body.
This lasted for a few seconds, and then, as if someone had finally cut the power, everything went dark, and Ethan lost consciousness.
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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:
I've been waiting a week to write this chapter, and I finally did it.
I admit that the conversation between the two could have been handled a bit better, but honestly, I didn't know how to improve it, so I did what I could.
In a few days, if I don't have other commitments, I'll start uploading two chapters a day.
So I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I hope no one ruins my plans for next week so I can have more time to write.
As usual, if you have any questions or doubts, write them down here, and if you find errors or inconsistencies in the chapter, let me know and I'll fix them as soon as I can.
See you tomorrow.