Back at the Bright Clan, the elders waited for the younger generation to wake up from their meditation. Most of them would wake up after half an hour, with the talented ones staying an entire day. In the Bright Scripture, as long as one had high comprehension, knowledge kept appearing, and the trance continued. It expelled someone back to reality when he failed to understand something essential within a time limit.
The knowledge didn’t progress enough and stagnated at some point, becoming a waste of time. On the bright side, it made clear which participant had greater comprehension. After half a day, only Ming Qiu, Ming Bo, Ming Lan, and Ming Ren still meditated.
“As we thought,” elder Ming Zan said, “Except for Ming Ren, didn’t he stay the entire day last time too?”
The patriarch nodded, “As expected from Yu Ming’s and Ming Shi’s son. It’s a pity his cultivation talent is terrible.”
All the elders nodded. No matter how smart you are, achievements were limited without high cultivation. after a few hours, Ming Bo and Ming Lan woke up at the same time. After an entire day, Ming Qiu woke up. The elders greeted him with smiles.
Yet none of them harvested anything special from the scripture.
“Sigh, a waste of time. I don’t understand why the patriarch wants to keep this trad… uh?” Ming Zan noticed Ming Ren was still there, “… Patriarch!”
The bright patriarch immediately fixed his gaze on the remaining youth and worry flashed all over his face. The elders were astounded, no one lasted more than a day inside the scripture before.
“Patriarch…?” One of the oldest elders also looked worried. The others noticed but didn’t know why. Wasn’t it a matter of time before he woke up?
“…Call Yu Ming here.” The patriarch examined Ming Ren’s body, and Ming Zan went to call his mother.
“Is it…?” The oldest elder from before asked the patriarch, and he nodded, “Heavens!”
Soon Yu Ming came over, her body swaying with worry, “Patriarch, you called for me?”
“Ren didn’t wake up from the scripture.”
“Oh, but he will soon, right…? I mean, everyone else has…” Worry overcame Yu Ming.
“He… might not wake up.”
Yu Ming almost passed out.
The oldest elder explained, “It happened a long time ago…”
“W-what happened?” Yu Ming mustered the strength to ask.
The elder only shook the head.
“Ren, Ren!!!” Yu Ming kneeled, hugging her son. Ming Ren looked like a living doll, devoid of all responses. She wept and looked at the patriarch in fury.
Her thoughts were obvious: everyone recognized the scripture as nearly useless. If it was dangerous, why would the patriarch force the younger generation to go? Why did her son have to suffer this fate?
The patriarch stayed silent, enduring the stares. He vowed to carry the clan’s tradition, a tradition taught only to the next patriarch. If he died before choosing the next head, the scripture passed it on.
At this moment, with this mother’s tears, he completely felt the weight of the burden on his shoulders.
*
In the scripture, Ming Ren finally woke up back at the library. He sighed in relief as the familiar sight of books came into view, eyes shining with passion. The youth already forgot experiencing “death” before. Books on formations, pills, acupuncture, medicine, cultivation, and more popped up.
All basic, but last time he only browsed through some of them. This time, his reading speed increased a lot!
Ming Ren’s senses dulled for time. No matter how long it passed, for him, it was only a few minutes. He read without stopping until the last book ended, almost as if afraid the world itself would end. He felt no need to eat, sleep, or even breathe. A paradise for bookworms.
With a smile after reading all books, the youth expected to go back to the inner courtyard of the clan right away, but things changed.
Once again, he felt the bright light take away his consciousness and woke up at another battlefield, a beautiful land with a lot of green and marvelous constructions, somewhat similar to his Bright Clan but on a much grander scale.
Ming Ren saw nothing like it before, not even on the storybooks he loved to read, as if that place was the dwelling of the Gods themselves.
Blood and despair soon covered the beautiful scenery as several armies of cultivators crossed blades and killed each other. On one side, people fought with familiar techniques, the arts of the Bright Clan, except more powerful and advanced than even the patriarch.
On the other side, several clans attacked. A chaotic battle took place, and after great loss of life, the winners expelled the familiar clan from their ancestral land. Their Heaven Chosen or high-ranking members died. The survivors were allowed to go, leaving behind treasures, resources, and relics. Their heads hung down in shame.
Ming Ren noticed a familiar sight on the body of an elder, the Bright Scripture. It had no aura nor the appearance of a treasure, and could even blend with the bodies of the clan members. Ming Ren had the final confirmation this was his Bright Clan!
They expelled the Bright Clan from the Upper Realms, only the Bright Scripture as a legacy. Shame welled up in his throat, followed by a burning rage that wanted to blaze through the skies. Ming Ren felt his bloodline stirring up inside and everything went bright again. He was back in a different room, with many advanced books this time.
Ming Ren’s eyes shone with excitement. Forgetting about the shame of his clan, he threw himself on the books before his time ended, looking like a madman, a book-reading lunatic.
“…When cultivating the Divine Dragon Tyrannical Body, one must not circulate Qi through his third acupoint…”
“…When setting up a One Thousand Lightning Array, one must not use a type three runic flag as the center…”
“…When there is Qi deviation during the breakthrough to the Spirit Gate Realm, because of excessive Yin energy in a primarily Yin body, Sage Grass can counter the effects…”
The more he read, the more it fascinated him!
Time became a nonexistent notion to the young scholar. Once more his consciousness faded as he finished all books, and he went to another battlefield, on a smaller scale. This repeated itself over and over.
**
On the Bright Clan, many weeks passed with the boy in slumber. The patriarch kept sighing, unable to do anything. Yu Ming sent word to her husband Ming Shi, but without answer could only weep alone. She considered bringing Ming Ren to the Jade Clan but thought they would still be in the same situation.
The patriarch invited many experts and medicine masters to cure Ming Ren, without luck. They all had similar answers. The young man’s soul was gone, only the empty shell of his body still stood there. Not even heavenly spirit herbs could help him. What could bring back a soul?
Yu Ming didn’t give up. Ming Ren didn’t eat but his body grew no weaker as if it had stopped in time. She became depressed, her body weakened. Ming Qiu became a cultivation madman, thinking he could help if he was stronger. In the Dao, the answer was always above. Ming Bo and Ming Lan also progressed by leaps and bounds.
An event shocked the Bright Clan one day. When news of Ming Ren’s slumber reached the other clans, the patriarchs of the White and Cloud clans visited with a few experts and their prodigies, Bai Xun and Yun Shufen. Geniuses with a bright future, unexpectedly friends of talentless Ming Ren!
Bai Xun wept loudly, his brotherhood inspiring many. The white patriarch had to drag him away as he didn’t want to leave his brother behind. He vowed to save him, even if he had to tear the Heavens apart.
Yun Shufen didn’t weep the same way. She clasped hands, wishing for his return in silence. Unlike Bai Xun, she didn’t lose herself or cry in front of others. She left right away but cried alone many times after that.
The storm was yet to come for the Bright Clan.
***
Ming Ren lost count of how many books he read. The flashbacks continued to appear, with something in common: they always followed a member of the Bright Clan. A clan with ancient history on the Upper Realms.
As he waited for the next batch of books, thousands of cultivation laws appeared, and he had to cultivate each one and experience their flaws to progress. His constitution adapted to the law, and once he cultivated one to its apex, his entire cultivation reset.
Body Tempering laws, Spirit Sea laws, Spirit Gate laws, Heavenly Palace laws, Immortal laws. His resources were limitless, and he never had so much fun before. The same happened with formations, pills, and everything else. He could only advance by experiencing and learning.
Finally, he landed in a room full of arts. At that point, the flashbacks changed into real battlegrounds. Ming Ren fought his way through many battles and enemies, from humans to other races. Reaching one last room, a single art was written in a stone scripture.
The [Divine Bright Eyes].
A thousand needles pierced his eyes every time he cultivated the art. The pain only grew stronger with time. He exhausted every other way trying to leave but had no choice except to endure the pain to pass the trial. How long did it take? How many years? How much did he suffer?
Without a sense of time, he couldn’t know. He might have gone crazy if he knew. At last, once he mastered the technique, a bright and dazzling light erupted from his eyes as if it could see through every secret in the world. As if his eyes contained the mysteries of the Heavenly Dao, the myriad of miracles, the soul of all living things.
The secret realm opened itself to him, clarifying its purpose. The Bright Scripture would train the bright immortal, the one who would bring the Bright Clan back to the Upper Realms and to the peak of the Heavens. And it chose him.
With purpose fulfilled, Ming Ren’s consciousness went back to his body.
But the Bright Clan left behind was not the same he came back to.