“~Mmh…”

Bathing in the sunlight for the first time in so long, Cheng Hao stretched as he looked up. He lifted his hands to block the rays from the four large suns shining down from the sky and smiled delightfully as he felt the comfortable warmth on his skin.

Not that he actually had any problem with the cold lately, seeing as how he had basically turned into a flame deity for the last thousand or so years… it wasn’t so much about his body temperature, as much as it was the feeling of awakening from a long slumber and find that, while some things might have changed, even more had not.

And that slumbering was also the reason the blue-eyed, blurry guy had been nagging him for so long.

“Listen to me you asshole! How do you expect me to accept that in the last thousand years you did nothing but fucking sleep the whole fucking time? At first I couldn’t believe it, and I still can’t now! One thousand bloody years! And you mean to tell me that in this one fucking thousand years, you simply sat cross-legged in that decaying hut? Listen, I know you are eccentric, but I kind of am quite angry at the moment if you haven’t noticed. What would you do if you spent both energy and time to get your hands on this bloody door and the guy you shed sweat and blood for used it to nap for, say, ONE THOUSAND FUCKING YEARS?”

Worker looked extremely pissed off already, however Cheng Hao’s carefree attitude only served to fuel his fury. After talking for a long while without receiving any kind of response, the blue eyes glinted with rage:

”Uh? Are you ignoring me? You are ignoring me, aren’t you? You little…”

Almost as if to release his pent up anger, Worker grabbed his blurry hair and began pulling at it:

“Dear Lord, I’m going mad!”

Cheng Hao scratched his neck as he yawned, not sparing a single bit of attention to the blurry figure shouting at the tops of his lungs next to him. Instead, he simply inhaled the fresh air and enjoyed freedom.

Finally, after a few minutes Worker seemed to have calmed down. Clearing his voice with a loud cough, the pair of blue eyes showed no trace of anger, which had instead been replaced by curiosity.

The hazy man sighed with feeling and then shook his head:

“Whatever, what’s done is done, however I hope it won’t happen again. But-“

“Say…”

Cheng Hao had finally spoken up. That one word had been enough to make the projection of the Worker stop in his tracks and shut up immediately: so the asshole finally dared to talk to the lowly commoners… rise and shine princess! We have been waiting for this for quite a while, ya know?

Cheng Hao smiled enigmatically as he asked a simple question:

“You look quite curious to know why I had close to no progress at all during this long, thousand years… or rather, why I decided for it to be that way.”

Worker’s blue eyes widened as, below the cover of the blurry veil, he grinned happily:

“Well… I can’t deny that. However, I understand that you might have had your reasons. After all, you might be an asshole, but wasting a thousand years’ worth of cultivation just to annoy me for a few minutes… well, it doesn’t really sound like something an intelligent person such as you would have done.”

After walking for quite the distance, the red haired, crimson eyed youth finally reached one of the borders of the floating island. Down below, he could vaguely see a large water surface.

That was none other than the World Ocean, the place where the Seven Seas merged into one. That was none other than one of the wonders of the world!

The sparkly surface which gave the place an ethereal feeling!

The vapors, which rose due to the actions of the four suns heating up the ocean’s waters, spiraled to the sky formlessly, and yet following a pattern!

The water of the seven oceans, each of different color, all merging into the one ocean at the center of the world, the World Ocean!

A mesmerizing sight was to say the least, but calling it such a miraculous place that even gods wouldn’t mind gazing upon would not be enough to describe its beauty! And above that miracle of nature, hovering above the reach of the colored fumes, was the island where the four lords of the world, the Four Divine Kings, dwelled.

As he stared over the edge mindlessly, his fiery, red hair fluttering behind him madly, Cheng Hao sighed with feeling. So little memories of that place, yet they were intense, to the point he could hardly keep himself from shedding a tear or two when his thoughts focused on the image of the true Divine Fire King, the true Ren Hong.

Cheng Hao brought one hand to his chest and another to the flowing, red hair, almost as if to delude himself that the girl was by his side. After almost a thousand years spent in that meditative state, the red strands had grown so long that they reached way below his feet. In fact, every time he stepped forward the hair would be dragged behind him.

Noticing that, Cheng Hao sighed and simply waved his hand. The hair suddenly shrunk as it returned to its original length, falling down his back just barely below his waist. Then, the red haired boy looked down once again, only to find his view of the beautiful spectacle below obstructed by a layer of the multicolored clouds that had formed due to the spiraling fumes.

With but a thought, Cheng Hao waved his hand and the clouds dissipated immediately, without a notice. One moment the had been there, the next Cheng Hao was grasping in his hand a swirling gaseous mass. Smiling bitterly at this, he turned to look at the pair of blue eyes of the mysterious hazy man once again.

As he let go of the fumes in his hand, he opened his mouth to speak:

“Such a beautiful land… with the power granted to me in this form, the power of the Divine Fire King, I would have very few opponents as long as the Nine Heavens are concerned.“

Cheng Hao twirled his fingers and the fumes took the form of a beautiful girl, wearing a loose, sleeveless shirt and a pair of black pants, tight at the waist. However, just then, winds arose and the figure dissipated, carried away in the wind.

”However, both this power and this world are mere figments of my imagination, nurtured by my desires… these are not real, so why bring the real into the imaginary, if you cannot bring the imaginary into the real? Just like these clouds, a slight breeze would be enough to blow them away. Just like that, with but a look at reality, delusions will dissipate into nothingness.”

Worker’s pair of blue eyes widened as he heard the last two sentences uttered by the red haired youth: “What is the meaning of increasing our strength in an illusion, if it only means falling even more deeply in its grasp? Why should I be enticed by it and be trapped in my mind forever?”

The blue-eyed man was shaken when he heard those words. This trembling was not only due to the excitement that he felt at finding out that his impression of the boy was more than simply spot on, but also because he knew what was waiting ahead.

The Door was a testing ground, however it did not test one’s might as much as it tested one’s determination. If one did not have enough determination to follow through his goals, he would just fall short and be trapped in this illusion that represented one’s most hidden desires.

This was the first hurdle to overcome. And Cheng Hao had surpassed it with full marks!

Actually, there was another limit set, and that would have been when one was too determined. After all, if one’s only motive was revenge and he had the chance to kill the person he was after, despite it being an illusion, one would trick himself into believing it as true, for one’s desire would be so great it would eclipse all logic!

This would end up with one being stuck in a bittersweet illusion, unable to free oneself, tangled even deeper than those who gave up halfway through.

This situation had been what Worker had dreaded the most. After all, in one thousand years, there could have been a chance for him to notice that… fortunately however, Cheng Hao had not. Thus, he had not been trapped.

He had been scared at first, because not having increased his strength at all might have also been a sign of Cheng Hao having lost his motivation after accomplishing his goal, but he had apparently not taken notice of Worker’s little ‘gift’.

Worker smiled as he thought of a certain crimson feather…

After all, it is a tad too soon for it to be revealed. The reward shouldn’t be handed out before the task is accomplished!

Meanwhile, Cheng Hao resumed his speech:

“If I increased my strength here, it would bring no benefits! Instead, I might even get too accustomed to power! To me, that is a lifestyle which would lead to my defeat as soon as I come back to reality!”

While looking up at the four glowing suns, the boy shook his head. His red eyed glinted sharply as he spoke one last time before walking back to the wooden hut:

“I won’t just let myself be killed of course, however I am still curious on how things will turn out with me present here, so I will play along! After all, it is almost time for the other me to appear in the Heavenly Plains! Might as well drop by and say hello, so as to let this world know the true Xu Ling!”

…

Walking out of the door of light, Worker wore a sour expression on his face, beneath his concealment. Then, he broke out into a wide grin:

“Foolish child, you really are a piece of work! However, you should not play with fire! Despite having figured out the nature of this door, you have still not passed the hidden trial within!”

As he walked down the burnt mountain, walking immeasurable distances at each step, the blue-eyed figure chuckled with delight as he recalled the youth’s confidence.

“Once you face yourself, will you still be able to still announce your name so proudly?”

And with those words, Worker walked off into the void…