The sky turned black and the bright, yellow stars appeared like millions of flaming candles that twinkled in the deep dark ocean known as space. Occasionally, wisps of clouds would gently drift by, blocking the silver full moon that hung above the ground as its strands of light illuminated the cracks of shadows that blanketed the soils.

Watching this scene of nature, Kyril sat on top of his metal pail at the back of his shack and gazed into the endless night sky with unblinking eyes.

“Because we are similar…”

Kyril thought of the mysterious words Zalea said to him when he questioned her.

“What did she mean by that…?” Kyril asked himself as confusion covered his face, but as he tried thinking of what she meant, he remembered the sad eyes she revealed to him when she answered him. Thinking back to it, although Kyril could not understand what she meant, he could guess that whatever he asked brought upon her great pain. The eyes she showed were like the eyes of someone who lost everything they had in the world; it was the feeling of being stripped of everything you ever worked for. Lost. Empty.

“Forget it. Perhaps there are some things that are just not meant to be known. If she wants to say it, then I will naturally listen, but as for now, I should not meddle with things I know nothing of,” Kyril said and shook his head gently.

As someone who Kyril was close to, Kyril did not want to pry into Zalea’s secrets. Kyril, with his past life, had already developed a mature mind and outlook with regards to others’ personal affairs, thus Kyril was able to control himself from his curiosity.

Pushing that to the back of his mind, Kyril began to clear his mind and focused his eyes on the boundless star-lit sky before him.

In front of sights like this, Kyril found an unusual sense of serenity which was something he felt even during his previous life. And due to the words of his teacher, Kyril also became more confident that this sense of serenity was truly an indication of his affinity with the universe.

“Universe…” Kyril mumbled as he fell into a trancelike state facing the night sky. Slowly, Kyril adopted a meditative state and the only thing left in his mind was the image of the universe and its mysteries, until finally Kyril had lost his sense of self. His mind and body became empty and pure.

Unknowingly, as Kyril entered this state, strands of transparent light started condensing out of thin air and formed beside him. As the strands appeared, it began circulating around Kyril’s body a few times and then entered directly into his soul.

Each strand of transparent light brought an inexplicable feeling of freshness and comfort, like entering a cool bath after walking through the scorching desert. Accompanying this feeling, information stored within the strands of light also filled Kyril’s originally empty mind.

From these strands of light, Kyril did not feel alarmed or distracted. Instead, he felt a sense of familiarity from the strands of light.

“...This is the same feeling as the time before I died…”

Everytime information from the strands of light entered his mind, Kyril did not let out a hint of resistance and just allowed it to enter.

This continued until the moon had set and the sun started rising. Only when the drops of dew from the leaves of the trees above him splashed onto his body did Kyril sober up from his meditative state. But with such important information he gained from night, how could Kyril think of doing anything else other than trying to comprehend the information?

After filling up his stomach with soup he quickly made from yellow grass, Kyril immediately calmed his mind again and started comprehending the insight he had gained from the night.

As Kyril looked at the information, he discovered that every piece of information contained deep insights on space, to the point where even just looking at it would cause the minds of the most genius people to be overwhelmed. But as for Kyril, he was undaunted. These pieces of information were like gold to him. In fact, if someone right now offered Kyril all the treasures of the world in exchange for these insights, Kyril would toss the treasures away as if it were mud!

Compared to treasures, these insights would allow him to get nearer to his goal! So to Kyril, the insights he gained were simply priceless! More priceless than any treasure he could ever find!

“Space is but a container filled with nothingness. Yet without this container, stars, planets, and beings would cease to exist… If space, didn’t exist then the idea of nothingness cannot exist…” thought Kyril. “Thus, without nothingness, the idea of something cannot exist…”

Each time Kyril comprehended a piece of information, profound bits of insight ingrained itself into his mind. It was like an old man teaching a young child about the world except this time, it was the Universe which has existed for trillions of years providing insight into a man who had not even lived a fraction of its age!

Kyril’s mind took in all the information and spared no effort to comprehend it. To Kyril, missing a single piece of information would be like death. He would not be able to bear it if he missed a piece of information!

However, in addition to gaining a better understanding of the Universe, what Kyril did not notice was that every time Kyril comprehended a piece of information, the gained insight would not only enlighten his mind, but also strengthen his body! Impurities from within the body would be secreted out of his pores as a foul, black ooze that could knock down several horses just from its smell! But with Kyril fully focused on comprehending the pieces of information, he did not know of the existence of the black ooze coming out from his body.

Every time the black ooze left his body, Kyril’s body started appearing much fuller and healthier. His skin which was originally dry and filled with cracking lines, started recovering to show smoothness and firmness. The muscles of Kyril also recovered from its usual sagginess and formed under his skin to show a sense of robustness.

Time went by and Kyril had stayed in this position without moving for three days straight. The only thing that indicated that he was still alive was the regular breathing pattern that escaped from his body every few seconds.

However, compared to Kyril’s calm state, in a not too distant place, an old hunched back woman had a slight frown on her face.

“Has something happened to Kyril?” Zalea said.

Currently, Zalea was sitting in her nameless store behind the wooden counter with her hands clasped together.

“How come Kyril hasn’t come to exchange herbs these past few days…” Zalea said to herself. “Usually Kyril would come to exchange herbs everyday. Very rarely would he miss a day of picking herbs, but to not come here for three days straight, something must have happened...”

Zalea pushed herself up from her seated position and headed towards the door. But just as she touched the doorknob, a wave of hesitation covered her. This hesitation stemmed from her unusual amount of concern towards Kyril.

“This Kyril is special… Ever since almost dying from his attempted suicide, I’ve felt an unusual strength coming from him… Could he be the one I’ve been looking for…?”

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