Jhon raised his left hand.
From the space around his fingers manifested a serpent of pure shadow energy, coiling slowly around his skin as if recognizing an eternal home within it. A living presence woven from threads binding birth and oblivion.
The classroom air thickened. A silent cold spread like creeping fog – not from temperature, but from the absence of all vital warmth. A cold from beyond existence, an omen of what lies past the veil of reincarnation.
"Second" his deep voice resonated with supernatural clarity.
"Avoid direct soul manipulation until you are ready"
The declaration fell like a funeral bell in the silence.
"The cycle is fragile" he continued.
"If a novice's touch disturbs it, all surrounding reality may collapse. Manipulating a dead spirit without understanding is like toying with laws upholding this world. You don't know what you might unleash... or what may look back"
The serpent vanished in a sigh of mist.
In the front row, a dark-eyed student raised a trembling hand.
"Master… how will we know when we're ready?"
Jhon turned to him.
His gaze held the weight of epochs. No impatience – only the serene intensity of one who'd carried that same doubt… countless lifetimes ago.
"When you can walk the abyss's edge without slipping"
"When souls' whispers no longer unsettle you but welcome you as kin"
"When you cross the threshold and return with lucidity intact"
His voice vibrated in their bones.
"When that happens… you'll know"
The silence that followed was heavy. Not the kind that breeds fear, but the kind that precedes transformation.
Jhon continued unhurriedly. His words guided like a ceremonial blade's touch upon the spirit. He spoke of absorption meditation's foundations – techniques aligning life energy with the world's pulse. Not "supreme skills" but tools. Bridges between consciousness and essence.
Each instruction felt like an ancestral whisper crossing time's barriers.
"Sit" he said.
"And listen to the echo of your absence"
Students obeyed. For minutes – or hours – the room stood still.
Some heard voices – echoes of other lives, other deaths.
Some felt their existence dissolve like salt in an invisible ocean.
Jhon watched.
Didn't correct.
Didn't interrupt.
Let Death's Dao touch each disciple with its own voice.
The lesson ended with one phrase:
"Death isn't a door to open – it's a passage you must cross. Alive"
Then he vanished. A wisp of dark mist danced where he'd stood – a sacred memory.
Hours later...
Enchanted bells echoed through academy corridors.
Jhon walked among masters, guardians, and students like a living shadow. His cloak – woven from Underworld mists – never touched the ground but rippled beneath him like an extension of his soul.
Where he passed, wall runes glowed. Students bowed subtly. Not forced reverence – an instinctive response to something beyond divinity.
Jhon wasn't just powerful. He was the link between worlds.
When a youth approached him, his gesture was simple: a contained smile, one word.
"Continue"
For that boy, it wasn't mere acknowledgment.
It was confirmation.
Validation.
A spiritual seal etched upon his destiny.
The golden arch opened in absolute silence – as if reality's portals knew who approached.
Jhon entered.
Cosmic dust spiraled around shelves. Whispering books. Tomes written before time began. Living runes pulsed nearby.
He exchanged a glance with the Librarian.
A being without fixed form – made of crystallized thought.
...Ancient.
As ancient as the first page ever written by the Dao itself.
No words were needed.
---
『Character Record』
Name: Jhon Argan
Title: Eternal Emperor of Samsara
Age: 780 Trillion Years
Cultivation: Transcendent
Lineage: Primordial Samsara Immortal
Spiritual Root: Eternal Death Root
Soul: Divine Samsara Immortal Soul
Dao: Dao of Death • Dao of Reincarnation
Key Trait: Absolute perception of existence cycles
Presence: The shape of absence itself
Alignment: Cosmic Neutrality – preserves life/death equilibrium
---
Hall of Masters – Academy Central Temple.
Space warped faintly when Jhon entered. Pillars adorned with living records of ancient teachings pulsed.
Masters of other Daos – Fire, Water, Earth, Wind – sat waiting.
Yet when Jhon took his seat, all straightened. Their silence filled the room more eloquently than a thousand speeches.
"Your progress is remarkable" said the Fire Dao Master.
"Disciples report lucid dreams... past-life memories"
"That's expected" Jhon replied.
"When facing eternity with open eyes"
Then Selene Aetheris arrived.
Robes of pure light. An aura that calms. Eyes piercing time's veils.
Her presence filled the air like a silent tide. The forbidden tome rested between them as pulsing runes hummed softly. A silent standoff measured in breaths.
Jhon traced fingers above the book – not touching, sensing its spiritual resonance.
"It's more unstable than I imagined" he finally said.
"The seal vibrates with restlessness. Memories yearn to escape"
Selene nodded.
"These youths' souls were touched by the cycle prematurely. Fragmented dreams. Constant déjà vu. Consciousness lapses…"
She closed her eyes. When she spoke, her voice held wisdom spanning generations:
"The Dao of Reincarnation isn't a path. It's a mirror. In it, cultivators see all their forms – murderer, healer, tyrant, martyr. Each past life is a seed planted in the present. Those who touch this Dao… reap not power, but their own essence"
Jhon watched silently. Light bent around Selene as space yielded to her.
"These overlapping consciousnesses" she continued.
"Overwhelm young spiritual bodies. They confuse instead of guide. Corrupt instead of strengthen. Without deep meditation anchors… souls shatter"
"You want me to guide them across the bridge" Jhon understood completely.
"Yes" Selene answered.
"They trust you. Their fear isn't of death – it's of being forgotten"
Jhon murmured:
"Then we'll teach remembrance"
Next morning, the advanced meditation chamber stood silent.
Five youths sat atop circles of astral jade powder. Walls bore emotion-suppressing runes. Air hung thick not with raw energy but contained introspection.
Selene paced around them while Jhon stood center-eyed, regulating the energy flow.
"Today's meditation cultivates no Qi" Jhon's low voice held steel.
"It confronts the oldest shadow: who you once were"
He raised his hand.
Runes blazed. Space bent. The world shifted.
Each disciple was wrapped in spiritual projection fields. Flashes of past lives erupted – a bloodied sword, burning fields, an abandoned child's cry, a millennial monk's stillness.
"Don't resist" Selene stood behind a trembling girl.
"These memories aren't enemies. They're reflections. Embrace them… but don't become them"
Jhon walked among them.
"The Dao of Reincarnation isn't seized by force. It's traversed through acceptance. Every lived identity shaped your present self. Every mistake. Every triumph. Every death… was a seed"
A youth beside him shook violently. Sweat streamed down his temple. Eyes glazed over by impossible memories.
Jhon knelt beside him.
"You're seeing a life where you failed?"
The boy nodded speechlessly.
"Then also see what you learned. See where you fell… and where you rose. The Dao's truth lies not in perfection… but in the cycle"
Slowly, the tremors ceased. The jade circle beneath him brightened and stabilized.
Selene looked up.
"He crossed the first bridge"
Jhon rose.
"One more step"
Hours later, disciples remained in jade circles. Each now haloed in pale light – reflections of partially harmonized consciousness.
Selene retrieved the still-sealed forbidden tome. Unneeded today.
"What comes next?" she asked Jhon as they watched the meditating youths.
"Now" he said. "They'll dream. Dreams of unlived lives. Their task: remember without clinging. Learn without repeating. Above all… accept the entirety within"
Selene studied their serene faces.
"It's a long process"
"But necessary" Jhon replied.
"No Dao is more dangerous… or more liberating… than that which reveals us whole"
They left without another word.
Disciples meditated on as jade circles pulsed – anchoring millennial memories in young bodies.
Outside, Eryndor's sun shone high – changeless, silent, witness to the eternal cycle between birth, death… and awakening.