Chapter 256: Edi Tanorputra (Patreon)

Edi

“How interesting. Someone who qualifies for Multi-Mind without the Enlightened One bloodline.”

Edi Tanorputra, along with the 317 other 16-year-olds from his class, knelt down in front of the hologram of the Yin Yang Sage in the main hall of New Neptune’s fifth Yin Yang Temple, feeling nervous.

The ancestor of all humans who lived in the Heavenly Soul Universe, the image of the Yin Yang Sage showed her as short, with bright blue eyes and curly red hair, her Heaven Hell Battle Angel race not one which changed her natural coloration much, or even grant her wings, despite the iconography which had developed from the high grade dao guide in her main temple on Earth.

According to Edi’s teachers, she’d been one of the most powerful beings in the universe, with Laws at a level higher than most gods, and she’d only not ascended due to a lacking Luck stat and messing up her class choices, so now, to make sure her descendants never ended up in the same situation, she would give advice to anyone in the Heavenly Soul Universe who managed to gain at least one Law Egg by the time they were sixteen and came to one of her temples.

This advice, however, was usually in the form of a set of written options passed to their parents and teachers through the soul net, not, at least according to Edi’s research, telepathic communication directly into their heads.

“And six Laws—calm, passion, concealing, illusion, bonds and severing—making you eligible for Yin Yang Cosmology. You are aiming big, child.”

Edi looked around the room, seeing no one else reacting like they’d heard a voice, and, as usual, Jessica, Lumi, Teresa, and about seven other girls all smiled at him when he looked their way. Now, normally, this would make him happy, but the ancient ancestor, the woman his hero described as a ‘bored old aunty watching everyone’s lives like they were some kind of soap opera’, almost certainly wasn’t the type of person to miss their reactions.

“Ooh. A playboy. This is going to be so much fun.”

Edi couldn’t help but gulp, not really sure if catching the ancestor’s interest was a good thing or not.

“Okay, everyone, the Yin Yang Sage has given her judgement, and she wants us all to leave.” Ms. Kang, their school principal, rose from where she’d also been kneeling, her aura slightly unstable even with how calm her words were, and Edi suspected the Yin Yang Sage had spoken directly into her mind as well.

“Good luck, kid. Try not to have a heart attack.”

Edi didn’t know what the Yin Yang Sage’s words meant, but they scared him, and he imagined that was somewhat the point.

It was only until just before he got home to the somewhat run down two bedroom apartment he shared with his mom that he was able to calm down.

But that calm didn’t last long.

There, sitting on the couch and drinking tea with his mother, was his hero. Long silky semi-translucent black hair with purple highlights, golden eyes which glowed to any magical senses, and the type of figure Edi’d had way too many dreams about since hitting puberty—to the point he was rather afraid her husband would murder him—Empress Li was just casually sitting there, and Edi stopped in the doorway, not sure what to do.

“Relax. If my husband killed everyone who had such dreams, he’d lose half his army.” The empress, seemingly having read his mind, smirked at him. “And he still has uses for humanity.”

Unconsciously, Edi looked at his mom, and, instead of appearing absolutely terrified like he was, she was smiling, her eyes bright and her aura showing excitement.

A low level E rank, his mom was very young, only 35, and she worked in marketing at a biotech company on New Neptune. Pretty, with mostly Indonesian ancestry, she’d had a one night stand with a rock star back when she was eighteen, and Edi was the result. Edi’s father wasn’t really in the picture, only visiting once or twice a year when his band played in nearby cities on New Neptune, and his mother’s family had disowned her, so she was all Edi really had. As a result, however, Edi knew her well, and the fact she was excited meant there was something to be excited about.

“Quick.” Empress Li nodded at him in the same way his teachers often did. “I can see why Nana Xara recommended you to me.”

Edi felt his heartbeat start to quicken, his mind racing through the possibilities of what her words could mean. But then he saw his mother point at the chair across from the couch she and the empress were sitting on, and he hurriedly took off his shoes—something he still needed as he was only a G rank—and moved to take the seat.

“This is a big day for you.” Edi watched in amazement as Empress Li used telekinesis to pour a cup of tea for him in the kitchen on the other side of the open room and move it into his hands. “It’s time to choose the start of your path and officially start to prepare for your advancement to F rank. Have you already thought about what race and class you’d like?”

“Um.” Edi unconsciously looked at his mother again before turning his eyes back to Empress Li, realizing the right thing to do in this situation was to stop panicking and just honestly answer the empress’s questions. But it was quite a bit harder said than done, the woman seemingly having decided to purposefully put him off balance when he first arrived, something he still hadn’t gotten over, so he took a sip of his tea and activated his middle grade Law Egg of Calm, allowing both the tea and his Law to sooth his mind. “Originally, I was thinking about the path of an entertainer.”

“Oh?” Empress Li looked surprised, but there were just a few things off about her performance and Edi, aware of all her public powers and having watched tons of interviews of people who’d interacted with her, had already been looking for signs of deceit, so they were easy to find.

This of course, however, meant she’d intended for him to be able to find them as, from what he knew, if she’d wanted to fool him, it would be impossible for him to figure it out.

“What changed?”

“Um.” Edi activated his Law Egg of Calm even further, pouring in all the psyforce he had, much more than any other G rank he knew of. “The Yin Yang Sage said she found me interesting and then the empress of the universe showed up in my home.”

“Reasonable.” Empress Li leaned back on the couch, her expression not changing. “But why an entertainer? Why not something with more combat power?”

Edi hurriedly drank more of his tea and thought about how to lie, but then he saw Empress Li start to smirk and realized she of course already knew the answer. In fact, it was entirely possible she was somehow actually breaking some of the laws of magic he’d learned in school and actually reading his mind with magic. So, he decided to give up on deception and just answer honestly. “I thought it would make me more popular with girls.”

“And you think you’re not good enough at that already?”

Empress Li’s response surprised him, there absolutely no judgement in her voice, very different from his teachers or his mom, and then she continued to surprise him.

“You’ve been in about a dozen of your female classmates’ rooms, right?”

Edi deliberately kept looking directly at Empress Li, trying his hardest to ignore how his mother was now glaring at him, and would likely be screaming at him were Empress Li not in the room. “Yes.”

“Who was on the posters in their rooms?”

Edi thought back and realized only three of the girls had music artists on their walls. Then about half had sports stars. But by far the most popular poster was one of Emperor Alvaro about to start a training fight against all of their universe’s C ranks at once, Empress Li included, and other posters of the emperor and their universe’s A rank talents were also obviously popular.

“Right.” Empress Li nodded at him. Then she switched her voice to more of a whisper. “And have you ever looked at your mother’s search history?”

Edi watched as his mother’s face and aura immediately changed from anger at him to utter embarrassment and a part of him wanted to jump from his seat and punch the empress right in her perfect jaw. But another part of him, the more rational part, realized the empress was deliberately triggering him, trying to get a sense of his personality and values, and that punching her wouldn’t have any effect whatsoever as he was far, far too weak.

“What do you think?” The empress turned her gaze to behind him and Edi also saw his mother’s eyes go wide, so he quickly turned around and there, leaning against the wall behind him, was Emperor Alvaro, his orange eyes closed, his expression as if he was pondering something.

“I don’t like him much.”

“I don’t care about that part.”

“Why a playboy?”

“Why not?”

“It shows a lack of judgement in how to pursue one’s own happiness, making it more likely to produce a twisted B rank.”

“He’s sixteen.”

“So, when I was sixteen, I was—”

“The most brilliant man in the world with unlimited untapped potential as a lover.” Empress Li waved her hand, her voice showing obviously mocked annoyance. “We know. We know. You don’t have to keep showing off.”

Emperor Alvaro, a man famous for how humble he was, opened and closed his mouth a few times. “I really don’t know how to respond to that.” Then he just vanished, likely teleporting away, or maybe just moving so fast a G rank like Edi couldn’t notice.

“So, where were we?” Empress Li brought both Edi and his mother back to the conversation, having used her husband to defuse the tense situation she herself had deliberately created before, and now seemingly using her pretend confusion as a way to give them time to readjust themselves. “Right. What girls actually find attractive.”

Her golden eyes focused on Edi as she continued to smile. “I’ll just give you the answer. In a universe where people can grow powerful enough to blow up planets, it’s strength. Plain and simple. At least for what you’re looking for right now.

“When it comes to finding a long term life partner, the calculation is very different. But you’re young. And that’s the time to make mistakes. So long as you don’t turn into an arrogant dick, I don’t really care.” Empress Li turned to look at Edi’s mother and then back. “Your mother might, however. But that’s for the two of you to work through when I’m not here.”

The Empress’s smile then disappeared, her face becoming more stern. “So, let’s talk about the pursuit of strength.

“For choosing race and class advancements, there are two main criteria to think about.

“First, how easy are they to advance? For races, this mostly comes down to what resources you can get your hands on, something you won’t need to worry about for early ranks. And, for classes, at least when advancing to F rank, this means choosing a class line with main requirements which are within your control—i.e. not something like entertainer, which requires the validation of others—and a grade of class at least one less than your Laws make you eligible for.

“Second, what abilities do they grant? For races, what racial abilities are they more likely to help you awaken. And, for classes, what are their class effects. Entertainer is actually good on this criteria, as its effects boost useful skills which go well with your Laws and provide an increase to the effectiveness of your Soul stat, something you need given your high Spirit effectiveness from your race and uniqueness.”

Empress Li started smiling again. “But this is all relatively basic. And I can see you’re expecting more. So,”—she held out her right hand with three raised fingers—“you have three questions you can ask me, and only three questions. What are they going to be?”

Edi activated his Law Egg of Calm again and took a couple deep breaths, aware this was again some kind of test. Then he decided to first ask the question he’d been wondering ever since he’d walked in and seen Empress Li on his family’s couch. “Why are you here?”

“I’m thinking of possibly taking you in as an apprentice.” The empress lowered her ring finger.

Edi took another sip of tea, stalling for a bit more time. “And Emperor Alvaro, he was here for a reason?”

Empress Li nodded as she lowered her middle finger. “He has a skill which helps him see what uniquenesses you’re most inclined to awakening, important information for me to know before making suggestions about what path you should follow.”

Edi felt himself getting excited, as the empress likely wouldn’t keep testing him if she hadn’t liked the results, but he held himself back from asking what they were as he’d likely learn that in the future anyway. So, instead, he asked a question he’d always wondered. “When you married the emperor, why didn’t you change your surname?”

Empress Li raised one of her eyebrows as she lowered her last finger. “Really, that’s what you want to ask? No questions about advancing your strength?”

“You’ve been testing my personality, why shouldn’t I test yours? And, if you do take me in as an apprentice, your role would be to proactively tell me how to advance my strength anyway.”

Empress Li laughed and looked over at his mother. “Good point.” Then she turned back to him. “There are multiple reasons.

“First, his sister also shares his surname and, when she’s revived, she will have at least the same level of titles as me, so there could be confusion. Second, that’s not how royal lines generally do things. You can look up that one yourself. Finally, third, and most important, I didn’t want to.

“I like my name and I didn’t want to change it, while Aalam didn’t care.”

Edi thought about it for a bit, and her answer seemed reasonable.

“Okay then.” Empress Li rose from her seat. “That will be it for today.”

Then she summoned out three small orbs from seemingly nowhere and telekinetically dropped them on the coffee table between them. “These are the three skills you’ve earned today, the Legendary grade Multi-Mind skill my husband grants to anyone who qualifies for it at G rank, the Legendary grade Illusory Shadow Steps skill from me, and the Legendary grade contract skill Oath of the Ancients as your normal reward for the level of Laws you’ve achieved.

“Train well and, if you manage to keep it a secret that I’m evaluating you as a possible apprentice, you might just become one.”

Then she vanished as well.

“Well, that was unnerving.” Edi looked over at his mom.

“Yeah.” His mom jumped off the couch and over the table between them to land right in front of him, something easy for an E rank, gathering him up in a big hug. “Good job, Edi. You even managed to attract the attention of the Empress.”

Then she took a step back and held him at arms length. “Also, you’re grounded for two weeks.”

Edi, who had been feeling on top of the world, suddenly remembered how the empress had also revealed the secrets he’d been hiding from his mother, and felt a bit depressed.

Would having such a master actually be a good thing?