Chapter 550 – Xuan Yu

For whatever reason, I felt heat creeping up my cheeks as I stared at Xuan Yu’s gentle and warm smile, but quickly shook my head and slapped myself.

What are you getting attached to her for, you dolt? You’ve only met her for 5 minutes.

Clearing my throat, I took her hand in mine. “Like this?”

“Hm… yes, that should be alright,” Xuan Yu said, then turned to the bright gem a short distance away. I followed her gaze, and simultaneously, we began walking towards it.

Mei Gui and Bai He stared each other down, both with murderous intentions, and both with weapons drawn. Mei Gui’s was a burning red spear, wrapped in the wild energy of Chaos, while Bai He’s was a sword of justice, emitting the controlled and dominant aura of Order. 

“Don’t even think about trying anything, you two,” my mother said, picking both of them up with ease by the collar with a deadpan expression on her face. She was here to keep those two in check, and make sure they didn’t do anything stupid like try to fight each other to the death right here, right now.

In their current states, Mei Gui and Bai He were each only seeing their opposites, and not their harmony. Bai He believed that Chaos was unnecessary, and that Order was all that was needed to keep the world functional. While that was true, a world with only Order and no Chaos at all would be quite… boring and utterly uncreative.

Mei Gui, on the other hand, believed that Order was nothing but a set of chains, designed to bind down the everblooming nature of Chaos. Whereas Chaos wanted to devour, Order wanted to sustain. Whereas Chaos wanted change, Order wanted eternity.

But soon, they shall see the harmonious part about themselves. Soon—probably.

Xuan Yu and I approached the mechanism holding the bright gem, and with some effort, angled ourselves properly so that our fingertips were touching above the gem, but the rest of our hands were not and instead hovered mere millimeters away from it.

“Are you ready, Kai Kai?” She asked, and I gave a nod.

“Go ahead.”

“Very well. Let our minds connect and hearts beat in sync.”

The two of us closed our eyes, and I through our touching fingertips, I felt her powerful psychic connection ripple through my body and my mind. I gave way, lowering my mental defenses, and let her take control of my body—mostly. Since she wielded the power of Order, a primordial power just like Chaos, she too could use all 21 Elements of Xenith, and excelled at them as well.

Her psychic wavelength entered my mind, and I could feel her doing a countdown in her head—and my own. Then, at the exact same time, the rest of our hands closed around each other and touched the gem within our held hands. In this method, Xuan Yu was essentially controlling her own two hands, and thus could easily make sure we touched the gem at the exact same time.

That was one tragedy avoided.

Immediately, the gem began to shine bright blue, then red, then blue again. It alternated between the two colors for a while in an unstable manner, and for a second, we thought we’d failed the process. But then, slowly, the colors merged—the red became more blue progressively, and the blue became more red in the same way. Very soon, the colors we were staring at was no longer red and blue, but one single color: purple.

Power surged up the lines of the triangular tower, rising up and entering the mechanism at the very top of it. Instantly, the triangles in the mechanism began rotating quickly, faster and faster until the light in it was glowing purple, at which the rotating slowed down until they weren’t moving anymore.

Purple light radiated across the entire Nirvana Realm, settling the Chaotic red lightning and dispelling the fog created by Order. Immediately, the place felt a lot… calmer, more tranquil. As if a wave of quietness had washed over the realm, and a state of nirvana had been reached.

Slowly, Xuan Yu and I parted our hands, though I felt she was somewhat reluctant to do so, and returned to my mother, who smiled at us from beside Bai He and Mei Gui, who were now unconscious.

“Congratulations—the process is complete. Well? How do the two of you feel?”

Just as she asked this question, my eyes widened as I felt something surge in my soul, and I glanced at Xuan Yu, who met my gaze with a similar look of surprise. Together, we nodded, and quickly dashed back into the tower before sitting down and closing our eyes, facing each other.

My mother, seeing this, gave a slight smile. “You’ve only just met, and yet you’re already acting like siblings… fufu.”

The reason for our unusual actions, of course, was because of our sudden awakening. I was once told to gain Soulforce to awaken a Battle Soul, I would need to do what was most important to me. Apparently, activating this device was the most important thing to me, because damn was I feeling like I was going to burst from Soulforce right now. My body felt sluggishly heavy, and judging from the way Xuan Yu reacted, it would seem she was the same.

This was strange, however. The Chaos running through my body was wild, too wild for me to handle. I gritted my teeth and did my best to control it, but it wasn’t working. The power was just too powerful—there was nothing I could do. Red energy leaked out from my body and into the air as I was unable to control the power, and for a moment, I thought I was going to explode.

But then, I heard Xuan Yu’s words.

“Give me… your hand… Kai Kai!”

She too was in pain and suffering, but she still thought of me. Naturally, I wasn’t going to let her down. Bearing through the agony as sweat formed on my body, I lifted my arms and met her hands with my own. We sat close to one another, palms touching, and immediately after contact, I felt the chaotic energy soothe down. Her overflowing Order energy was helping to suppress my Chaos, and my overflowing Chaos energy was helping to suppress her Order.

The two of us fell into silence after that, each lending the other strength. We channeled the energy in cycles, and soon, our Chaos and Order powers merged into one. Rather than blue and red energy being separated, it became a ring of purple energy, flowing throughout both of our bodies. 

And then, slowly, the purple energy condensed in the air, drawing on energy from both of us. It was just a ball at first, but as more energy flowed into it and the shape became clearer and more distinct, it was actually revealed to be humanoid.

“… Hm…” My mother narrowed her eyes slightly at the forming shape, expression cryptic, while Xuan Yu and I still continued channeling our energy, more and more.

After several minutes of doing that, at last, the shape was complete, and the two of us opened our eyes, letting the energy settle away.

“… Whew,” Xuan Yu breathed. “That was… more difficult than expected. You saved me there, Kai Kai.”

“No… you saved me,” I replied. “Well, I guess we saved each other, technically.”

“Hehe, yes,” she said with a cute giggle, then turned to the humanoid figure floating in the air. “But this… appears to be the product of our efforts.”

I followed her gaze and stared at the levitating child there. Gender was a mystery—they could be a boy or girl, it was too hard to tell. But one thing was for sure—this person right here… was powerful.

Slowly, their eyes fluttered open, and she met the two of us’s gazes, as if verifying something, before landing on the ground and giving a sigh.

“At long last… the wielders of Chaos and Order have met, and at long last… I have been awakened.”

“Who are you?” I asked, and the girl shrugged.

“Who am I? That is a good question. I am whoever you want me to be, whatever you want me to be.”

“She is your Battle Soul, put in laymen terms,” my mother said, interrupting our conversation. “However, more accurately… she is the both of you’s Battle Souls.”

“Huh…?” I blinked in surprise, and my mother gave a nod.

“In reality, she is not a Battle Soul, but rather the incarnation of your Order and Chaos powers fused together. You can think of her as a blend between Mei Gui and Bai He in a sense, but unlike them, she does not truly have a physical form—what you are seeing right now is just a spirit.. A spirit, who can help you battle—thus, thinking of her as a Battle Soul is not that far off from the truth.”