A Strange Anomaly

What Lin Ming was holding in his hands was in-fact some books. The books themselves were purchasable through stalls or even libraries. Martial artists, despite resting during the night similar to regular mortals, also had moments when they would need items desperately at night, thus some shop vendors took shifts to have their stalls open during the night.

Lin Ming proceeded to sit down across him before showing some gestures to indicate that it was for him to learn. Xenos realising that they were to teach himself, most probably the language, nodded.

He began with some basic vocabulary, moving on to some more basic sentences until he was able to commune on the basic level. This in total took about three hours, since this was not his first language, it was easier for him to pick it up. Moreover, he finally had the ability to learn willingly, so he soaked up the knowledge he gained like a sponge.

"What is your name?" asked Lin Ming whilst mouthing the words slowly, still maintaining a fair bit of distance.

"Xenos" as he replied, an expression of curiosity showed its way on Ling Ming's face as he had never heard this strange of a name.

Not only was it uncommon but there was no surname stated with it. As for why Xenos didn't state the surname, he didn't feel comfortable in doing so. This was not because he didn't trust Lin Ming, in-fact knowing the whole future of the person in front of you guarantees that trust quite well, after spending the time within the dark space for countless years changed him a bit and he preferred not to be associated with his past self and parents.

"I mean you no harm", the alertness of Lin Ming however did not decrease by even the tiniest margin.

"I am not someone with bad intentions, I want to know... where am I?" following up, he wanted to calm Ling Ming down so he doesn't get decimated if considered to be an enemy and because he was sure he was even weaker than a mortal, similar to his previous self, and couldn't possible show any form of resistance. He also wanted to gain some information, as to where he was currently, more importantly what time of the story he had joined in.

Still casting suspicious glances on Xenos, Lin Ming began to explain the current location they were at, adding on some common information, in case the stranger didn't even know which continent he was in. As he had assumed Xenos to be of extraordinary origin since he was from the same mysterious Magic Cube where absolute masters were turned to dust from.

As soon as the information regarding the Sky Spill Continent was revealed to Xenos along with the current situation of the 'prestigious' Seven Profound Martial house. He was sure he was in the beginning of the plot, as for where exactly, he was right in the beginning, day one. This was deduced from the fact that they were in the Grand Clarity Pavilion's room as well as Lin Ming had just been in the cube. The only time Lin Ming had been within the cube while staying in the Grand Clarity Pavilion.

After he settled himself once again, he asked simple questions and also answered some in return which naturally caused Lin Ming to settle down and thank him for the help he received during his encounter with the large soul fragment. The easing of Lin Ming probably had something to do with the lack of strength he perceived from Xenos and the lack of malicious thoughts.

Internally sighing of relief, he quickly realised that Lin Ming had not had the chance to locate the Magic Cube, which was within him currently. Thinking quickly and slightly hesitating, he made the decision of wanting to possess the Cube as it would make his journey smoother.

As for why he hesitated to possess one of the three supreme treasures at all, if he possessed the Cube, not only would it change some events in the future and change Lin Ming's path but he would also be risking his life if Lin Ming found out about his d.e.s.i.r.e to possess it. Sure, Ling Ming did not currently know the full value of the Cube, he still knew that it was not something ordinary. Still, the decision had been settled and he now wished possess it.

He also took this risk hoping that Lin Ming's destiny would allow him to advance to a similar stage of strength that he would come to possess with the help of the Magic Cube according to the plot. As for why he didn't want many changes to the plot, he would basically be removing his only known advantage, the knowledge of the future.

The only issue he could find with making the move now would be Mo Eversnow. He knew that she occasionally would peak into the outside world from the Cube; this would be a problem for Xenos if he wished to keep his secrets. Trying to think of solutions, he gave up for now; as all the solutions that he could come up with required the Cube itself.

Calming down, he excused himself for the remaining hours till morning since there was only a few hours left, trying to 'meditate'. Waiting for Lin Ming to calm down and also meditate, he made his move.

Trying to mentally connect with the Magic Cube via his divine sense, he quickly was thankful as he noticed a response. As for what he was hoping for... In the plot of Martial World, the Immortal Sovereign was shown to be able to summon the cube to himself and this was explained by "having nourished the Magic Cube with his spirit for millions of years".

He wanted to try this since he boldly thought his time to be similar and since the distance between them was smaller than what happened during the plot, he hoped he could get the cube before Lin Ming noticed anything.

Breathing deeply, he waited until he calmed down his erratic heartbeat from the risk of the plan failing as well as possessing one of the three Divine Artifacts. As a flash of determination flickered in his eyes, he moved.

Willing the Magic Cube to appear in his hand, he received no response. After continuous attempts for twenty minutes straight, he felt that he was close and it happened. The Magic Cube shot from Lin Ming's c.h.e.s.t straight to his hand, knowing full well of what to do, he hurriedly hid it behind his back since it was facing against the wall.

At this point, Ling Ming's eyes shot open as he felt something to be wrong, along with the weird sensation he felt on his c.h.e.s.t for a instant, he started to look around. His suspicion mostly on Xenos, alas he was disappointed since he looked to be peacefully meditating. Finding nothing else to be wrong he closed his eyes once again but a feeling of loss appeared in his heart.

...

Sighing in relief once more, he grew excited at the prospect of possessing essentially endless knowledge. Since he could not obtain knowledge in his previous life, he truly was a starving man about to devour a feast, the world's largest feast in-fact.

Phew

Exhaling, he willed the Magic Cube to bond with himself physically, so he could store it inside his c.h.e.s.t similar to Lin Ming. As the Cube recognised the command through the spiritual connection he just recently formed, it shot towards his c.h.e.s.t before blending and leaving an inscription of sorts on the place it made contact with his skin.

Once the whole task was accomplished. He thought of his next course of action. He possessed mixed feelings regarding the Magic Cube, as a treasure it truly was priceless and one of the most precious treasures to exist. But, the fact that this took his previous life... wasn't something he got over even through the unimaginable amount of time he stayed trapped in the cocoon.

Ignoring these thoughts for now, the Cube was vital to his survival thus he needed to utilize it. Deciding to utilize the soul fragments within the Magic Cube space, he entered the space.

Unlike Lin Ming, Xenos did not have to rely on Mo Eversnow to initiate the connection to enter the Cube, thus he could use the cube more effectively.

...

As the familiar site came into view, he hurriedly checked whether he could leave at will, being trapped within the space truly had left a trauma within him. Finding out that he could still leave, he nodded to himself and treaded around in the space before arriving near the piece of fragment that Ling Ming planned to touch. Since he was aware of the contents inside of it, it would save him a lot of trouble since unforeseen circ.u.mstances could be avoided.

Although he made the decision to absorb the soul fragment, he did not plan to do so right this instant. He sat down and began to try to strengthen the spiritual connection he possessed with the Magic Cube.

As for why he wished to do so, one of the solutions he came up with involved trying to isolate he Cube from the outside world by applying his divine sense to the boundary of the Magic Cube's space. This would not allow anyone to peek inside nor outside.

Xenos soon realised that this strengthening process was easier than expected. The plot stated that Mo Eversnow gained some elements of the Magic Cube within her soul after resting within the Cube's space for 50,000 years, however the amount of time he had stayed within truly was incomparable. As for how much benefit he had received by staying in the Cube all this time, he was unaware but he theorised that the similar characteristics of the Cube and his soul allowed him to strengthen the bond much easier than it should have been.

After an hour of strengthening the bond, he ceased and tried to make an attempt at his plan to isolate the cube. As for why he was confident this would work, he knew that Mo Eversnow didn't have enough energy to break away his divine sense since she was trying to recover and wouldn't waste unnecessary energy.

After he spread his divine sense in the space and expanded it until it covered all around the border, he realised how taxing it was for him to do so, he estimated to only be able to hold this for an hour at most. Sighing self-depreciatingly at his limit and how he had overestimated himself, he decided to only isolate the space when he required absolute secrecy.

After retracting his divine sense, he began to meditate for an hour before standing up facing the soul fragment. Although he had not recovered fully, the process of strengthening and spreading his divine sense for a moment only expended a quarter of his soul force. Bringing his soul force back to about ninety percent, he was confident in combating the soul fragment's instinct from devouring his spiritual sea.

Calmly taking a few breaths he reached out to the fragment and immediately felt some anomaly in his spiritual sea, he hurriedly sent his sense into his spiritual sea and saw a hazy figure but what he felt from this assumed soul fragment left him dumbfounded.

The feeling he got from it was that of an infant trying to pick a fight with an a.d.u.l.t... he shook his head in disbelief before forming a spiritual bow and shooting the soul fragment with an arrow.

Shatter

"..."

An influx of memories flew into his spiritual sea. Shocked speechless he was unable to process the why it was so easy to conquer the soul fragment. Although he was aware that his soul force was above average from staying in the Magic Cube especially when compared to Lin Ming at the start of the plot, he had truly underestimated the level of ease.

Lin Ming had suffered as what was described to be unimaginable pain and had even bled to endure the pain as he could not enter his spiritual sea to combat the soul fragment, but he had not even felt a sting and had eliminated the soul fragment within moments.

As for his control over his spiritual sea, it was truly peerless. The only reason he didn't go crazy over the years staying in the Magic Cube was his spiritual sea, he could train it to improve so he could form things within it to entertain himself, it truly was living like a god within one's spiritual sea.

Not to mention his monstrous control over his soul force, the quantity was nothing to scoff at, the constant expenditure on the soul force had exhausted him innumerable amount of times causing his capacity to improve over and over again. If people within the Divine Realm were to hear of how he spent his soul force in his spiritual sea they would be dumbfounded.

...

After coming in terms with what had occurred, he began to absorb everything in the elder's memories, this person's strength he had estimated to be around Holy Lord. Just a speck of their soul allowed him thousands of years' worth of memories and unlike Lin Ming, his spiritual sea was practically boundless and could allow him to story everything. He obviously discarded things that were of no use but even memories of combat were kept temporarily until he could apply to his own self since this was precious experience which one usually could not gain.

Grinning like a kid he finally exited the Magic Cube's space and began to meditate to review the memories of the powerhouse. He spent his time mediating but alas it was almost time for sunrise...