Life is a series of decisions, as some people would agree. Some decisions have good consequences, while some have bad consequences. Ryan had learnt through experience first-hand that sometimes trusting your instincts could be bad for your health. Currently, he was in a comma and this was the second day. The odd thing was that he only had small bruises, which had healed.

The doctors could not explain what was happening. The police had come to ask him questions, but he was unconscious, thus they had to leave gracefully. His grandparents were now worried for his safety. He should have woken up by now.

While his grandparents were worrying, Ryan was actually dreaming. He dreamt he was standing in a space with a serene environment. There was lush green vegetation all over, with small grass and the sun was up in the sky. It looked like it was mid-morning, giving him the expression that he could just bathe in the sun and forget about everything.

However, he walked around to discover where he was. After what seemed like eons of endless walking, he saw a large tree. Under this tree, there was a middle-aged man with white flowing hair, wearing a bronze armor with a drawing of a dragon on one end and a phoenix on the other. The middle-aged man was talking to a young man, who appeared to be twenty-some years old. Ryan hurried until he reached the tree. The duo just looked at him and ignored him, continuing with their conversation.

“Like I said earlier, you are forgetting the most crucial thing. He is different from the Farrons you’ve taught before. You have to be patient with him, he’s human after all”, said the young man.

The middle-aged man appeared to be thinking about something, then said, “This is different. You asked me to pass your Dao upon the Farrons. However, there was nowhere in the agreement that said I’d have to train a human.” He sighed as he said this.

“I know, however, he’s YOUR successor after all. Even though it is my Dao you’re passing on, he’s supposed to be your successor. We could always reset everything, but why give up early when we’ve come this far?” said the young man.

“It’s fine. I guess I will have to change my approach to teaching him. However, I have a limited amount of patience”, replied the middle-aged man.

“Also remember, we do not have much time. Make sure he becomes the strongest human ever to have lived, apart from the so-called Soul Devourer, of course. For now, he has to reach the fourth level of cultivation, before you can bestow Excalibur upon him”, said the young man, who disappeared having said this.

The middle-aged man sighed again. After, he turned and looked at Ryan, who was at a loss of words. He actually thought they were talking about him. So who was this Soul Devourer?

With an awkward cough, he began, “Greetings to you, eh... Sir, right... Sir, would you be kind enough to tell me where we are?”

The middle-aged man replied, “We’re inside your head. Rather we’re inside the Dream plane. Since you’ve successfully activated the Ethereal Dream State, somehow, you can focus on anything without distractions.”

Ryan looked puzzled, before he asked, “What is the Ethereal Dream State? And may I enquire as to who you are, Sir? Also, how did we get here? Is there a way out?”

“Hold on, hold on. I can only answer one question at a time”, laughed the middle-aged man. He continued, “The Ethereal Dream State is a state of mind that results when one is able to remove all distractions and enter the Dream Plane. When a person is asleep, their mind would wander around in the Dream Plane. However, you managed to go into the Dream Plane without sleeping. That was how I tried to teach you the Dancing Dragon fist technique. Unfortunately, when you ‘woke up’, you had forgotten what I had taught you.”

The man sighed. “Come and sit here and we’ll talk.”

Ryan came under the tree and sat next to the middle-aged man. There were two sits under the tree, but they were made of stone.

“We’ve met before. My name is Rogarth Secretwater. It’s just that the form I’ve taken maybe different from the form you’re used to.”

“Who was that young man you were talking to?” asked Ryan.

“That was the first emperor of the Farron race. I’m sure you’ll forget anyways, you haven’t reached a state of ‘dreaming while being awake’ yet. Anyway, tell me something, why did you agree to cultivate?” asked Rogarth.

“The day we first met, my father had just been killed and I would have been too. However, what I realized was that it didn’t make sense for him to have been killed in a robbery. Every person on the planet knew he didn’t have cash in his house. This only means that someone hired assassins to kill him and stage a robbery. However, the meteor shower that occurred ended up killing the assassins, and Myra killed the remaining one. So I wanted to investigate this matter myself, I want to know who had my father killed and the reason why they did”, replied Ryan.

“I see. And if you know who and why, then what are you going to do? Revenge?”

“That now depends on the reason. If he dug his own grave in his dealings, I will leave it alone. However, if this was motivated by hostility, I will take action. Currently, my strength is lacking. If I try to find out, I’ll only be committing suicide. Therefore, I have to find a way to increase it so I can do my investigations.”

“After you’re done with that, then what is the plan from there?” asked Rogarth.

“Then I will do whatever you want me to do, I guess.”

“Okay then. I have been impatient with you. I will change the way of teaching, and I will try to be patient.”

“How do I leave the Dream Plane then?”

“You have to will it. If your will is strong enough, you can summon the light which is the portal that leaves the Dream plane. From now onwards, I will teach you a secret to channel heaven and earth ki, so as to toughen your body”, he said as he sighed. “I doubt you’re going to remember this anyway.”

“What do you mean I have to will it?”

“Sit down first.”

Ryan sat down as instructed.

“Now, close your eyes and imagine a dark place with stars. Any arrangement of stars will do.”

Ryan tried to imagine darkness all around him. It didn’t work. The sun was too bright up in the sky, despite sitting under a ‘tree’, the sunlight still passed through his closed eyes. The only thing he could see was bright light. He tried again, this time squinting his eyelids.

“When you can see it, I want you to imagine a constellation, made up of stars, forming an image of something that you desire so much.”

This time, Ryan could only see small bright stars. When Rogarth’s voice pierced through his ears, he imagined the small bright stars forming an image of a female body. I guess anyone can deduce what this meant.

A bright light suddenly appeared right by the side of the tree, as a small wind blew across Ryan’s face. Rogarth sighed and he said in his heart, ‘I guess with proper guidance he can still make it. But the Soul Devourer? Really? This is going to be really difficult.’ He shook his head and then said, “You can open your eyes now.”

Ryan opened his eyes and saw the bright light, he gasped. “Is that the portal?” he asked.

“Yes, it is. You can pass through, and you will wake up in the real world.”

Ryan stood up and walked towards the light, before turning to look at Rogarth. He asked, “When will I see you again?”

“When you’re ready”, was the reply that came.

Before he entered the light, he looked back again, but this time he didn’t see Rogarth anymore, and with that he turned and entered the light. He opened his eyes, slowly. As he woke up, a splitting headache attacked him. It was so painful that he rolled on the bed.

The nurses came in and tried to sedate him, but his grandmother forbade them. He slowly opened his eyes to see his grandparents standing beside the bed, with nurses holding syringes.

*********************************

In an abandoned warehouse, just at the periphery of Megapolis, two young men wearing tan suits with shades were standing, holding automatic rifle weapons. One of the young men was smoking and they seemed to be waiting for someone.

“Bro, do you think he’s going to show up?” asked one of the young man, who wasn’t smoking. He had a fancy hairstyle, with a tattoo at the back of his head.

The smoking young man replied, “I don’t know. We have to wait for orders. I wonder why Lopez would order us to wait here. The transaction could have been done online, but no! Someone had to be there!”

As they were talking, a mid-sized robot, which was oval with arms that looked somewhat semi-oval, appeared right before them. The robot was hovering in the air, and it had a PI Robotics logo embedded in the middle of its abdomen. On top of the ‘abdomen’, was a glass surface, and on this surface, two digital ‘eyes’ appeared followed by a digital ‘mouth’. They looked like eyes drawn on an LED screen.

The mouth smiled broadly, before saying, “Good afternoon gentlemen, I’m looking for Lopez. Would you care to direct me to his lodgings please?”

The voice was synthesized, and it appeared like the AI was talking. The young men didn’t say anything, they looked at each other, ducked and then opened fire on the robot.

After unloading magazines on the robot, they changed the magazines.

A female digital voice sounded, “Plasma canons ready...Damage report: 0 %”

The robot’s original voice sounded, “Look, gentlemen, I am trying to be amicable here. Can we talk without using force please?”

The tattooed young man looked at his partner, before asking, “Bro, what do we do now?”

His partner replied, “I don’t know! Do you have a grenade?”

“Yes. Don’t tell me...”

“Pass it on to me.”

The tattooed young man threw the grenade to his partner, who pulled the pin and threw it towards the robot. The robot kept on standing, rather, hovering in the same position.

KABOOOMMMM!!!!!

An explosion sounded, followed by a cloud of dust, which blew up the paved alleyway where the robot was hovering. As the dust settled, the two men saw the robot still hovering there, with a crater beneath it. There was no trace of damage.

“If you insist usage of force, please be prepared gentlemen. I only wanted to know Lopez’s lodgings. Since you won’t tell me, I guess I’ll have to ...” Before the voice from the robot finished, canons appeared on the shoulders and shot towards the place where the young men were hiding.

KABOOOOOOOMM!!

Another explosion rang out, and there was shrapnel that flew everywhere, resulting in the destruction on the warehouse. The two young men died, as the shrapnel pierced their bodies.

The robot turned to see a man wearing a neat suit, standing there with his mouth dropped open.

“Y-you! Y-you’re a PI Robotics robot! You went missing!” he tried to speak, but only ended up stammering.

“Mr. Szech, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re here to sell my technology to the mafia?” said the robot.

“N-no w-way... Dr. Paige? You stole this robot! Wait, you’re controlling it? Or don’t tell me, you’ve perfected it! That taboo research!”

“Yes, I’ve perfected it. I can now upload my consciousness and interface with any device that has twenty petabytes of storage or more. Anyway, can you tell me where to find Lopez?” asked Dr. Paige, who was speaking through the Pirin robot.

The neatly dressed man turned to run away, but scrambled and fell on his face.

“I only want Lopez, don’t force me to kill you too...”

“I-I don’t know where he is... Please let me go. I-I can give you anything...Just spare me please.”

“Lopez’s location. That’s all I’m asking for, is that too much to ask? If you’re not going to speak, I guess I have no choice then”, said Dr. Paige as he pointed a plasma canon from his left hand towards the neatly dressed man.