Ye Jun was drifting in a boundless sea of pure Spirituality, endless currents of invisible tides passing through his very being, asking it to come back home, to stay in this vastness.

He felt like a grain of sand in a big desert. His existence before the desert seemed meaningless, yet he did belong there. That was his home, the place he was supposed to stay forever.

A grain never suffered. It wasn’t an individual, after all. It just drifted along the winds with the other parts of the desert, always being a part of the whole. If anything was affected, the whole would shoulder it.

So, why shouldn’t one be a part of it? Why should he choose to be an individual and suffer for all eternity when he could just rest and be a part of his home?

Why... should he choose a life when it gave him nothing but pain? Did he really have to endure all of that when he could just accept this warm embrace and be forever at peace?

’No! This isn’t me! I refuse it!’

All of a sudden, a blinding clarity rose within his being, resisting the endless waves of Spirituality around him. It gave him a moment of pure awareness, though calling it a moment was also wrong considering time was a mess here.

You are Ye Jun.

I am Weaver.

You are Weaver.

I am Ye Jun.

’STOP IT!!!’

His mind was a complete mess, filled with only the longing for the plane. Still, he was awake now. His Will was fighting against the assimilation, filled with the stubborn desire to survive and live as an individual.

’Like hell I am becoming one of you.’ he roared to himself and to the world. ’You made me different by throwing the worst things at me, you excluded me from the world and now you want me to come back? Who do you think I am?’

His Will grew more and more powerful, as all thoughts vanished from his mind except for the survival instincts honed deep in his bones. The world always wanted him dead, so Weaver survived just to spite it.

He had survived so many things back on Earth and now this world wanted him to come back? Rest in its embrace?

Just the thought of being one with it disgusted him, making his Will to resist the endless currents even stronger. His existence became like that of a pointy boulder inside a river which refused to flow along with the water, creating an identity of its own even if there was nothing else aside from water.

"I refuse!"

Words couldn’t be spoken in this realm because sound couldn’t travel in a place where even space didn’t exist, yet those two words seemed to reverberate in the boundless ocean of Spirituality.

Full clarity returned to Ye Jun as thoughts slowly began to form in his mind, without being influenced by the Spirituality around him. After what felt like an eternity had passed, his existence shook slightly.

’Damn! I almost lost myself there,’ he thought. ’Just one more push and I would become nothing more than the Spirituality. I was so close to death yet again.’

He was confused, as he didn’t think he was this easy to sway by the temptations. It didn’t make sense until he tried to think things through and realised the reason.

’Soul assimilation...’

When Weaver transmigrated into Ye Jun’s body, both of their essences began to assimilate, which was why he had memories of Ye Jun and even his feelings were affected.

He thought they had already assimilated with each other, but clearly they had not. Or at least not completely. That was why the Spiritual Realm was able to use that small weakness to tempt him, or rather the parts of the previous Ye Jun.

Technically, Ye Jun was already dead and since he took over the body, his essence got mixed with his, but what if an even greater body’s essence was presented before it? What if it was allowed to assimilate into something far greater than a small sand grain like him?

’So that’s what happened...’

Ye Jun’s Essence obviously chose the greater body, but it had already assimilated greatly with his essence. Because of that, Ye Jun’s part became his weakness through which the Spiritual Realm could poison him and assimilate him.

’If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought the world has Sentience. So smart!’

It almost cost him his life, but fortunately his past helped him. Thinking of that, he smiled. This was why he didn’t want to part with his past, even though it hurt him. It made him who he was today, so removing the past meant removing a part of him.

That was one of the reasons why he had decided to keep Ye Jun’s memories.

’Now, what should I do?’

Even though he had gained awareness and stopped the assimilation for the time being, the crisis wasn’t over. His Will was currently acting like a boat stuck inside a devastatingly fast river. Before long, the river would destroy the boat and consume him. Before that happened, he needed to find that one piece of land that could give him shelter. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

It was then he sensed a string connected to his existence, its other end lost in the endless currents. Without any hesitation, he pushed his existence to navigate the currents and follow that string.

’It is probably that formation. Thank God I took the Sect’s help. Otherwise I would have drowned and lost myself.’

Just as he thought that, he sensed something else, something so much denser than the string. It called out to him with such familiarity that Ye Jun thought it was a part of him.

Unfortunately, there was no direction in this realm so he couldn’t be certain if both the string and this new substance led to the same source.

’It could be something this damned world conjured after seeing my memories. Or getting a part of my essence. As if I’m falling for that.’

Still, he was very curious about it. His instincts were telling him to follow it. His instincts that he trusted with everything.