When Jun entered the Kun Peng Palace it was like he was suddenly pushed off a cliff and was slowly falling to his death because of how sudden everything was.
He was only given a brief explanation of this test. Simply, if he didn’t assimilate with the Kun Peng Spirit he failed, only after would the old man tell him anything.
As the white pillar crashed down on him, Jun felt like his entire body was being flayed. But it wasn’t compared to what his soul was going through.
It was like someone was taking a pointed branding iron and carving out the vague image of a Kun Peng onto it.
For three hours this went on, but he didn’t give up. He was told there was a simpler way than it being branded on his soul, but the way how the old man phrased it, it sounded like the alternative would result in him gaining a pile of shit compared to this method.
So he stuck it out as painful as it was. Only at the four-hour mark did something happen.
He appeared floating in the air surrounded by clouds. Within the clouds, there was a beast that could only be described as a behemoth. Its scales glistened with a slick purple hue that reflected the yellow sunlight.
Its wings were motionless as it moved up and down in the clouds. Smooth and elegant was the only way to described its movements.
This scene had taken up Jun’s entire vision. Its movements in the air remained him of a fish in water. It was treating the sky like an ocean. Or rather, it was like a small fish swimming in a small pond had gained enlightenment to transform into a creature so it could fly through the expansive sky without hindrances.
Jun had already realized the creature he was looking at was the mythical creature, a Kun Peng. A fish that became a bird to soar the Nine Heavens.
However, that’s when terror gripped his heart as the Kun Peng’s body slowly turned towards him. Jun watched as it lifted its wings and made a slight flapping motion.
That’s the only he saw before one of its large eyes was taking up his entire view.
His body went ridged and the utter terror he felt having this beast in front of him all of sudden was indescribable.
This Kun Peng was thousands of kilometers away, but with only a flap of its wings, it appeared in front of Jun. Its monstrous speed was just like in the legends.
As Jun had his soul leave his body to prepare for his eminent death, he realize that even after a while the Kun Peng hadn’t made a move. It was only silently staring at him.
Jun couldn’t run even if he wanted to as his body was frozen for some reason.
Stuck where he was he was forced to face this monster. However, as he realized that the Kun Peng wasn’t doing anything to him Jun's terror slowly began to fade.
‘What does it want?’
As soon as that thought appeared in Jun’s mind the Kun Peng suddenly moved, causing his heart to skip a beat. It moved so its head instead of its eye was facing Jun.
‘This…’
Jun felt something, a calling coming from the Kun Peng. Without much thought he instinctively raised his hand he could now move to touch its head.
As he did, images flashed in his mind of a small island floating in a sea of clouds.
On this island was a single two-foot pond that had two fishes inside.
This place was unchanging even after thousands of years and past. A lone isolated feeling engulfed everything.
But suddenly, one of the fish in the pond changed that. It stopped moving in a circular pattern around the pond and instead started chaotically swimming around. It almost seemed as if it was trying to break free from something.
After an uncountable number of years of this happening, the fish finally seemed to break free from its restraints before leaping out of the water. A giant heavenly gate accompany by bell chimes suddenly emerged in the void above the island, and despite the fish being small its momentum of leaping out of the water carried it over the gate.
Slowly its body then started to elongate with small horns appearing on its forehead. It soon turned into a mythical creature that would come to be known as a dragon.
The fish-turned-dragon danced, twisting its body majestically in the air as it reveled in its freedom. It soon turned to look back at the pond with the other fish inside and waited.
It waited some more and continued to wait. But seeing the fish still moving around the pond in circles, the dragon after a thousand years decided to leave.
It let out a roar of frustration while it flew circles around the island before it turned upwards and shot towards the sky. The higher it went the larger its body became until it filled the entire sky.
A crack appeared in the firmament before opening up to reveal a palace filled with waterfalls, expansive mountains, and lush forests. From within the open crack a Phoenix, a Vermilion bird, and Rock could be seen.
Without hesitation, the dragon shot forwards and entered the crack which soon closed behind it.
This never changing world then returned to normal.
The fish in the pond had paused to turn to observe the dragon enter the crack, but only seconds after did it go back to swimming in circles around the small pond.
The years went by one after another.
A hundred turned into thousands, thousands turn into millions, and millions turned into billions.
The world remained the same as the fish continued to swim. The only difference was that the island not only had a feeling of isolation around it, but one of loneliness as well.
The fish felt lonely now that he was the only one here.
It didn’t want to continue doing this. It was fine when it wasn’t just him, but this had become unbearable.
After so long, it now gained the desire to leave and follow in the other fish’s path. But the force preventing it from leaving was even stronger after its friend had left. It couldn’t even change its direction in swimming to escape as the dragon could.
So it didn’t.
Instead, its swimming speed around the pond increased.
Twofold.
Tenfold.
A hundredfold.
It swam nonstop until its body was only a blur. It was fast, extremely fast. So much so that after a hundred years of this, the water in the pond had crashed against the edges to slowly erode it. Despite how weak and tired it felt the fish never once stop, its movements never faltered for even a fraction of a second.
It aspired to reach the place the dragon left to, and that obsessive nature to achieve its goal built its Will to become indomitable, a force of nature that can not be subdued, neither by this pond nor by the limitations of its body.
After two hundred more years of this, the forced binding of the fish finally gave out. The pond cracked before the water spilled out.
Freed the fish leaped out.
No golden gate appeared but as the fish got higher and higher towards the firmament, its body slowly started to change. Its appearance became the amalgamation of a fish and bird while its size increased to become a behemoth to accommodate a fraction of its indomitable Will.
A crack opened up in the firmament soon after its transformation which it entered in the blink of an eye.
These images flitted across Jun’s mind as he slowly opened his eyes to be greeted by the white world.
He tried to raise into a sitting position but he suddenly clutched his throbbing head, and the pain forced him to lay back down.
While his chest was heaving up and down, his breath came out in ragged pants while perspiration covered his pale face.
His vision swam but he soon saw the cruel old man approach him.
“Congratulations on gaining the Spirit of the Kun Peng.”
Unlike his usual demeanor and tone of voice, he now sounded rather happy, even a bit cheerful.
Jun however couldn’t feel his sentiments at his accomplishment since his head felt like it was about to explode.
His eyes squeezed shut as the scene of what transpired after the images faded away replied in his head.
The Kun Peng he touched suddenly began entering his palm.
He can feel some sort of power flowing through his arm to circle around his entire body, only stopping at his back where he felt a burning sensation and his dantian, where he felt it assimilate with his white core.
Jun lay there as sensed the changes happening to his body, while the old man looked on with shining eyes.
It was only after a couple of minutes that Jun finally had the strength to raise into a sitting position.
Looking towards the old man who was smiling at him, he hesitated for a moment then asked.
“Senior, the images I saw, were they real?”
“Images? What images?”
The smiling old man upon hearing Jun's question asked in befuddlement.
Jun was equally confused as he went on to explain what he saw.
Immediately, the old man had his eyes popped out of his head as he blurted out.
“You actually saw something like that? But that’s-that’s…”
The old man fumbled over his words as his demeanor showed he was in shock.
“Senior, do you know what they are? And are they real?”
Jun asked again because he really wanted to know.
The old man seemed to calm down somewhat, and he looked at Jun with a slightly dazed expression before he suddenly said.
“Just who is your Master? I can’t believe I’m jealous of someone I haven’t even met. To be able to have a monster like you as a disciple, how lucky. I could have had the clout to brag to the others that I had a student like you, but that bastard.”
The old man then released a sigh full of mourning and regret.
Jun only smiled warily at his words.
The old man then said again.
“Those images you saw were the birth of the Kun Peng. But…”
The old man paused there before he looked at Jun as if he was looking at a rare breed of a magical creature, before continuing.
“Those images meant you have assimilated with the Kun Peng Spirit a hundred percent. That’s never been done even when our sect still existed, you are the first to have ever done it.”
The old man then wore a complicated expression as he looked at Jun.
“If only someone like you had been around before our destruction, we could have nurtured someone capable of standing up to those vile wretches from the Demonic Cult.”
**
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