Chapter 45: The Great Sage Of The Ten Thousand Beast Forest
"What do you mean you’ve never seen anyone like me before?" Jacob asked the great big tortoise, scratching his head lightly as he looked in the eyes of the huge creature.
The great tortoise looked back at him, then shifted its gaze to Xenia, then back to Jacob.
"I see you haven’t told her... Yet." A voice sounded aloud in Jacob’s head, it was the tortoise’s voice, as it was communicating with Jacob through telepathy.
"Told her about what?" Jacob responded back in the same manner.
"Don’t act dumb with me boy!" The tortoise immediately scolded him, "I can see your soul energy. You are are reincarnator—one with a very unique gift, something this world has never seen." It continued.
"How do you know all that? Are you somehow digging inside my brain right now?!" Jacob exclaimed, stunned at the fact that this creature he had just met suddenly knew so much about him.
Xenia looked at both of them, their gazes focused on each other, she wondered why they had gone silent all of a sudden.
’Are they communicating telepathically?’ She pondered.
’Well, that’s rude, they just decided to converse telepathically while paying me no mind.’ She mused, scoffing inwardly before turning around to walk off.
Suddenly, the voice sounded in her head, louder than she had imagined.
"Where do you think you’re going?" The great tortoise asked her in a stern tone of voice.
"Well you both left me out of the conversation so I’m going off to do something important." She retorted, adding a little ’Hmph’ sound at the end of her sentence.
"Xenia Zoltha. You are also an interesting one. Tell me, does your young master here see much of your sassy side?" The great tortoise inquired with a chuckle.
"He doesn’t need to." She replied.
_ _ _
"Okay that’s enough of the telepathic communication for now," the great tortoise announced out loud, a relief for both Jacob and Xenia as the voice in their heads was louder than expected.
"Let me introduce myself, I’m, Shinzo, the Great Sage of the Ten Thousand Beast Forest. As you both have probably already gathered by now, I am two hundred thousand years old, I’ve been around since the birth of the forest."
Jacob and Xenia exchanged glances.
No need to be surprised, I’m just as down to earth as some of the other creatures here."
"If I may ask, Great Sage," Xenia raised a hand, "If you are two hundred thousand years old, that means that the forest was here before the continent?"
"Correct, the forest has always been here, it will continue to be be here for the foreseeable future." Shinzo replied.
"So do you just sleep here all year long?" Jacob inquired, a listless look on his face.
"Is he always this blunt?" Shinzo asked, looking at Xenia.
"Sometimes," she replied.
"I sleep for most of the time, except I am disturbed, just like you both disturbed my peaceful nap."
"I come from a very different time, I have been the overseer of this forest for as long as I can remember, maintaining the balance of peace and...you know, the other side—"
"You mean sheer, unbridled violence." Jacob cut in.
"Precisely."
"You see, long ago, this forest was a prison for rogue cultivators and the likes... all the bad people—the gods created it as a path to redemption, only if you can get through the violent, gory parts can you finally ascend into true peace. Most people find along the way that true peace lies within them, while some keep chasing it like a fable."
"So what happened?" Xenia inquired, curiosity plastered all over her face.
"I was placed as the overseer of this very vast forest, often times to guide people who were favored by the gods even after their crimes. Over the years, the forest became dry, it was abandoned even by the so called gods, most of these beasts that initially inhabited this place grew even more fierce and evolved into more ferocious creatures—"
’Ferocious indeed...’ Jacob mused, a smile tugging at his lips.
"—Only one thing is true, fewer than a thousand people have successfully made it out of this forest. It is a place that can either leave you more in tune with your inner self, or break you down into different pieces. So count yourself very lucky to have stumbled upon me, the Great Sage Shinzo." Shinzo said very pridefully, if he was human, his chest would have been puffed out to the max right about now.
"Fewer than a thousand? That’s a pretty decent number, how many people have been thrown in this forest?" Xenia questioned.
"Over a million."
Her mouth hung open in shock, Jacob held his hand over his mouth in surprise, both of them bewildered at the sheer number of people that had perished in this forest.
After a while, Jacob managed to shake off the surprise and spoke up, "So how exactly do you help people who come through this forest?—the people that run into you, that is."
"As I told you before, I am two hundred thousand years old, I am a walking library, If you choose to walk beside me, I can teach you the Dao of Balance, the harmony between the Heavens and the Earth itself, allowing you to stabilize your Qi, calm your inner demons, and overcome bottlenecks through understanding rather than brute force. I can reveal the mysteries of space, showing you how to create pocket dimensions, forge impregnable defensive arrays, and even fold the fabric of reality to traverse vast distances in an instant.
I can share the secrets of time and longevity, teaching you to perceive the flow of time differently, to train for years within your mind while only moments pass in the outside world. I can guide you through the currents of karma and fate, helping you read the stars, foresee impending dangers, and avoid tribulations before they descend upon you.
And when all else fails, I can teach you the path of absolute endurance. Through my guidance, your body shall become as unyielding as the mountains, your defenses as steadfast as the earth itself, and even the most devastating attacks can be redirected harmlessly away from you. These are the gifts I can offer—if you possess the patience and wisdom to learn them."
’Hmm, although I already possess some of these abilities, it wouldn’t hurt to have some guidance.’ Jacob mused inwardly.
The Great Sage nodded his head at him as if to acknowledge his thoughts.
"But a price has to be paid."
