Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 431 Anchor Point
"Staying true to oneself?"

Thales repeated it with a puzzled look on his face.

Yet I felt utterly lost, as if I were adrift in a fog.

Magical Covenant.

Be mindful of your own boundaries.

Compared to the mysterious and unexplained nature of the other side, this rule seems ordinary and commonplace, requiring no further explanation.

"A mage must always be mindful of their own self-control."

“That’s it,” the stranger said, with an air of unapproachability.

"The rest, figure it out yourself."

Okay, collect it yourself—

what?
Thales was stunned when he realized what was happening!
He stared at the other person, speechless.

Self-realization?
Damn it.

This classroom style of leaving a single sentence and immediately walking away...

Why does it look so familiar?

"Wait, wait! You... just like this?"

Thales stared wide-eyed at the stranger who seemed ready to flee at any moment, desperately trying to say more to keep him there:

"What exactly does 'staying true to oneself' mean? I mean, 'not digging into each other's business' at least seems like a practical rule..."

But just as Thales was about to bombard him with questions, the stranger gently raised his head and looked into the distance.

“You should go,” he said coldly, his hands behind his back.
"They noticed."

Thales' eyelids twitched.

they.

Girls
"So fast?"

The boy mimicked the other person's actions and looked at the blurry sky, which appeared empty to him.

Sure enough, there was still nothing.

but……

Thales said with a headache and frustration:
Why are they so interested in me?

The question caused a moment of silence.

After a long pause, the stranger put his hands behind his back and spoke quietly.

"Don't blame them," the unfamiliar words were filled with a faint sadness.
"They are pitiful children just like you."

"It was just a last resort."

Upon hearing this, Thales frowned deeply.

what?
Poor child? Forced into a corner?
Thales still looked completely bewildered.

"After all, they have already done so much for this world..."

Thales clearly heard the stranger sigh behind the blurry veil, a sigh that sounded quite sentimental:
"Too many sacrifices were made."

Too many sacrifices were made...

Just as Thales frowned at those words again, a sudden thought struck him!
A long-forgotten memory surfaced in my mind.

It was a conversation between him and a high priestess in a simple temple.

He believes you are different... He believes you will do even better.

He sacrificed too much.

Thales squinted in confusion, finding the name strangely familiar.

He sacrificed too much...

sacrifice……

Wait, sacrifice!
Thales suddenly snapped back to reality!
He remembered.

His breathing suddenly quickened!
Prince, desert, dungeon, assassin, attack, prisoner, hostage, alchemical orb...

Scenes and memories flooded his mind, filling in the gaps he had just missed.

"Ha—ah, ha—ah..."

Thales was panting heavily, his gaze unfocused, oblivious to the stares of strangers.

Oops……

Oops!

There……

Thales frantically recalled the last scene from not long ago...

He didn't lose control, escalate the situation, or knock on the door by accident...

There……

Yordles... the dagger with the chisel and the alchemical orb...

The boy's anxiety and tension reached their peak in an instant.

The stranger continued, "I'll help you get out of this state and then take you to safety..."

"no!"

Thales suddenly looked up!
He contorted his face and blurted out:

"I can't go back like this! I can't escape... this so-called 'out of control'!"

The stranger stopped talking and stared at him silently.

“I remember now, I felt it,” Thales clenched his fists tighter and tighter, his emotions churning.

"On that side, there is something, someone, something that is still waiting for me."

Thinking of this, he excitedly took a step forward:
Tell me, tell me more!

Thales gritted his teeth and stared at the other person, saying firmly, "You don't need to teach me what magic power is..."

"But you can teach me the tricks, teach me the methods, teach me how to 'stay true to myself,' how to remain rational in... that state of being out of control."

I must remain conscious, wielding the power of a mage...

"them."

"They are waiting for me."

Thales looked anxious and his eyes were tense.

But the other party just stared from afar without making a move, as if they hadn't heard anything.

Thales' heart sank.

"This isn't something you can master in one go," the stranger said quietly after a few seconds. "You need practice; reckless actions will..."

"But I don't have time to practice anymore."

In his tension and anxiety, the second prince's voice grew increasingly agitated: "Please teach me... I beg you!"

"For Ashida's sake, or for the sake of our 'old friend'!"

This time, the other party stared at him for an exceptionally long time.

One second, two seconds, five seconds...

But just a moment later, before Thales could react, the illusory image of the stranger's entire body trembled and became menacing!

The other party stepped forward, and two beams of intense light shone from their eyes hidden behind the veil, piercing through the obstacle as if they were tangible.

The words went straight into Thales' eyes, causing the boy's vision to darken!
In the space called 'Critical Point', the surrounding blurry veil shattered and transformed into a three-dimensional thick fog.

They pressed in from all sides as if they were alive, making this space narrow and closed, turning everything in front of us into a pitch-black expanse, like a giant, surging, dark sea!

Thales took a step back in surprise, but found the stranger in front of him to be even more imposing.

"The girls are amazing, and I can't hide it for long."

Strangers speak in a stiff and authentic way:
Understand as much as you can.

Before Thales could express his gratitude, the other party spoke decisively and without any hesitation.

"First, the anchor point."

In the dark, inky void, a stranger slowly paced around Thales, his mysterious eyes, radiating intense light, scrutinizing him from different angles.

"You need to find a good anchor point for yourself. This is the most direct and also the most... way to 'stay true to yourself'."

Still reeling from the shock of the sudden turn of events, Thales looked slightly puzzled:
"Anchor?"

The stranger stopped behind Thales.

“I don’t like using metaphors, but even as a junior, you are far inferior, so I can only explain it in this unequal and imprecise way.”

Thales' heart skipped a beat.

Behind him, the mysterious mage in the void coldly said:
"When you wander in the ocean of magical energy, constantly feeling the rise and fall of the threshold, the impact extends far beyond your physical body."

"You need an anchor to lock onto you at all times, and even in times of danger, to pull you back from the path of ascent to the most basic physical state. That is the anchor point."

The eerie, thick fog around him flowed with the stranger's words, both emitting a faint light and obscuring everything, making Thales feel as if he were in a boundless sea.

At a loss.

The stranger wasted no time and continued:
"Accurate and effective anchor points can not only help you control terrible impulses and desires, and maintain your self and rationality when coming into contact with magical energy, but they can even remain effective after you knock on the door, pulling you back from your irresistible state to your physical state and back to yourself."

Thales paused for a moment, then said, “So I need an anchor point.”

"How to do it?"

The stranger slowly raised a finger, and colorless ripples once again emanated from his fingertip, combining with his indistinct face to form a series of illusions.

"Specifically, an anchor can be anything—a memory, an object, a feature, an event."

Memory, objects, characteristics, events...

Understand yourself.

Control your impulses.

Stay rational.

Return to yourself.

Thales suddenly remembered the inexplicable "knocking" six years ago.

At that time, what brought me back to Dragon Sky City from my so-called true self...

"But most importantly..."

The stranger continued:

"The anchor point must point directly to your self."

Thales suddenly paused, then a question arose in his mind:

"self?"

His thoughts returned to what the stranger had said earlier.

Be mindful of your own boundaries.

but……

“Self,” the stranger nodded, a shimmering light appearing around his head, creating hazy, colorless ripples.
"One of the few things about you that cannot be confused by others."

A stranger's bright eyes flashed behind the blurry face.

“Now, answer me,” his voice turned extremely cold and hard, forcing Thales to take notice of him.

"who are you?"

Thales was slightly startled.

"I?"

The boy answered subconsciously:
"Uh, Thales?"

But the stranger suddenly became aggressive.

"Taylor? Hmph!"

How do you know there's only one Thales in the world?

He quickened his pace, coldly pressing for an answer:

"What if I told you that 123 years ago, on the southern shore of the Starry Sky, in a run-down bar in some port, there was also an unfortunate sailor named Thales?"

"Is the anchor point meant to point directly to you, or to him?"

Thales was taken aback by his increasingly tense words.

The stranger said in a cold voice:

"As I said, the self is something within you that cannot be confused by others."

"Thales, this name you've used for over a decade, is it truly your 'self,' or just a label given to you by others that you believe to be your 'self'?"

Thales felt his breathing becoming more and more rapid.

"So let's do it again, who are you?" the stranger repeated sharply.

The eerie, thick fog lingered for a long time.

Gloomy and gloomy.

Thales gritted his teeth and took a deep breath:

"Well, then... I'm Thales Star, born in the year 665 of the Ending Calendar, from the Lower City of Eternal Star, and whose first half of life was incredibly unlucky?"

He raised his head and tentatively looked at the stranger.

"Hmph, adding content and narrowing the scope of tag references makes it easier for anchor points to appear, which seems very effective, but the problem is, if this is effective..."

The stranger initially hesitated slightly, seemingly sensing something, but then changed his tone, his words becoming sarcastic and barbed:

"Why don't you just throw in a three-foot-thick biography?"

Thales' brow twitched.

The stranger's tone was rather disdainful:
"The longer the kite string, the harder it is to control. You've given the anchor such a heavy load that it might just be positioned at '665' before the string breaks in the storm."

Thales frowned, looking troubled.

Strangers can be quite cold and tactful.
"Self! What you need is a precise definition, not redundant descriptions and the cramming of multiple labels—you're like the protagonist in a clichéd chivalric novel, pulling out a bunch of seemingly powerful treasures and titles when facing an enemy, but none of them truly belong to him."

The stranger bent down, his blurry face almost touching Thales' nose.

His eyes still shone brightly, making it impossible for anyone to open them.
"One more time... Who... are you?"

The boy stared at him nervously.

The surrounding thick fog and churning waves seemed to reflect the other party's current emotions, putting Thales under immense pressure.

Thales steeled himself and gritted his teeth, saying, "Fine, I am—Prince Thales, the Magician?"

"There's no way to confuse them now, is there?"

Upon hearing that word, the stranger paused for a moment, then slowly straightened up.

“Very well, this ‘self’ seems quite unique, but…” the stranger scoffed.
Is it really accurate?

Thales was startled again.

"Since these three parts are so inextricably linked, is the self that your anchor point points to 'magician,' 'Thales,' or 'prince'?"

The other party shook their head and said:
"Secondly, can your true self be summarized in just these three words, Prince Thales, the mage?"

The stranger snorted and continued to ask:

"So, who were you the last time?"

what?
Thales was feeling depressed after being constantly hit hard.

The anxious and fearful tension, the relentless interrogation, and the subsequent refutations left Thales with no chance to catch his breath and think things through, leaving him completely bewildered.

He could no longer care about the surging fog surrounding the other party, nor did he have time to notice the strange scene at the critical point.

"I don't know."

How exactly do we determine the anchor point that points to the 'self'?

"Cherish this last chance," Thales asked the stranger solemnly and earnestly.
"And what is the 'self'?"

The boy shook his head honestly: "I really don't understand."

The stranger seemed to have anticipated his question and gave a soft hum.

"Because it's harder than you think."

The mysterious mage raised his hands and proclaimed:

"Most people in this world have difficulty understanding themselves."

As he spoke, the thick fog and dark waves in the critical zone obediently made way, and the colorless ripples transformed into miniature scenes in the void.

Those are countless faceless individuals.

From birth, growth, labor, achievement to death.

It is their birth, aging, sickness, and death.

"They live by a dazzling array of labels—name, profession, appearance, achievements, identity, status, bloodline, relationships, titles, power, wealth, possessions..."

Thales stared blankly at his performance.

The stranger moved his hands, and the illusion changed accordingly:
"Some labels are given directly by others, while others are chosen by oneself later."

"But whether they affirm themselves based on others' designations, convince themselves based on established habits, or define themselves based on their position, they often fall into external traps, believing that the label represents them, but never knowing what their true self is."

Label……

self……

Thales frowned, completely baffled.

"Anchoring yourself to meaningless labels, believing that those labels represent your true self, and expecting them to bring you home..."

The other person's finger trembled, and the image within the colorless ripples shattered with a deafening roar!

This startled Thales.

The stranger's words carried a subtle sense of estrangement:

"Historically, many people have lost their way at this step, disappeared into nothingness, and never returned—we call it 'misdirection'."

"Even the strongest-willed person, once they go down the wrong path, will only be going in the opposite direction and making the same mistake again and again."

Misaligned anchor...

Lost...

At that moment, Thales felt like he had grasped something, but upon reflection, he seemed to have figured nothing out.

He scratched his hair in anguish:
"Isn't 'self' a label? Can't we anchor ourselves on labels?"

"Where should I book?"

The stranger scoffed, seemingly unimpressed.

"I don't know," the other person stared coldly at him, a chilling light seeming to emanate from their blurred face.
"you tell me?"

Ok.

Looking at the other person's expression, Thales shook his head in exasperation.

He is clearly not the type of person who likes to reveal the answers to students.

In the mysterious liminal space, the stranger gave Thales a deep look before turning away.

"That's enough about 'staying true to yourself'," he said, leaving the boy with a lonely silhouette.

"As for how much one can understand..."

Thales was startled!
"and many more……"

But the other person didn't turn around and was about to disappear into the thick fog.

At the same time, Thales also sensed that everything around him was dissipating.

It was as if he was about to leave.

Thales was anxious.

Damn!

Anchor point, self... what do these things really mean?
He stared at the stranger's slowly disappearing figure, racking his brains, trying to find at least a way to keep him here...

In order not to forget, in order to remain rational.

When things get out of control or the threshold rises, you need to find an anchor point.

The anchor point points directly to myself, which can pull me back...

and so……

From the anchor point to oneself, to use an analogy, it's like when I'm sailing on the ocean, I cast a line...

and many more.

For example?

At this point, the boy suddenly paused.

He looked up, staring blankly at the thick fog that was gradually dissipating in the critical area.

"The Guide!"

Thales blurted it out instinctively.

At that moment, the thick, dark fog surrounding them seemed to have a mind of its own and suddenly trembled!
The stranger turned around, and the thick fog no longer dissipated.

He stared intently at Thales.

The latter, panting, asked:
"You—you are the guide of Ashida, aren't you?"

very good……

At least... I kept him.

Thales was filled with apprehension.

The stranger seemed unprepared for Thales's sudden question.

He moved slightly, and his blurred face trembled slightly.

A few seconds later, the stranger asked quietly:

"why?"

Thales slowly exhaled, feeling his memories gradually returning.

“Aishida said he hated metaphors,” Thales probed, uttering each word carefully.
"You don't seem to like it either."

The stranger did not speak.

But Thales felt that this was the default.

"Why, why is it a metaphor? Why do I hate metaphors?" Thales suddenly asked, then realized his mistake.

He could not discern the stranger's exact expression, but he could sense a sudden movement in the other person's gaze behind the veil, creating ripples in the air.

But he didn't seem offended.

“Because,” the stranger said in a strange tone:
“Using metaphors in the most serious and equal discussions is a form of laziness and shortcut.”

Thales felt a jolt in his heart, as if he had touched something.

The stranger continued:

"It connects the subject and the metaphor by relying on one-sided commonalities, but it is easy to blur the essence and context of things, indulge the speaker, mislead the listener, and exile the understanding to the appearance of the metaphor, unknowingly distorting the original appearance of things."

"It is the scout of sophistry and empty talk, the vanguard of deviation and misunderstanding."

The stranger said indifferently:
"Even if there are similarities, the metaphor and the subject may not be the same; even if it is easy to understand, the understanding gained through the metaphor may not be consistent with the original meaning."

At that moment, Thales trembled slightly!
He understood something.

Thales instinctively began to speak, mimicking the other person's sentence structure word by word, but with a different person:

"Even if there are similarities, labels and the self are not necessarily the same; even if they are easy to understand, the self obtained through labels may not be the true self."

Thales stared blankly.

The stranger did not answer, but simply stared silently.

As the boy slowly began to speak, his thoughts became increasingly clear.

He looked at the other person with a hint of urgency and excitement: "So, to anchor yourself, what you really need is to shed all external labels."

“Remove what you call ‘things confused by others’.”

"Because those labels also obscure the essence of things, and blur the meaning of self, right?"

The stranger remained silent.

Thales's eyes lit up, and he pressed on, "They're like metaphors taken from other similar things, containing either too much or too little content, with the context being off-target, unable to represent themselves?"

Thales' thoughts became clearer, and he slammed his fist into his palm:

"Therefore, I cannot rely on external things to set an anchor and find myself again, because that would be 'anchoring the wrong thing'."

"Just like in the most serious discussions, you don't like to use metaphors to convey your point of view, because that ignores the context and distorts the essence."

The stranger watched him silently.

Amidst the myriad thoughts formed by magical energy, a few special ideas surfaced.

Perhaps you are right, Ashida.

He is indeed different.

It's not his bloodline, not his origins, not his qualifications.

But...

Thinking of this, the stranger let out a soft hum:
Ironically, this is also a metaphor.

He seemed quite disdainful.

But at least he didn't deny it—Thales thought quietly.

This means...

At that moment, Thales frowned deeply.

"Be true to yourself."

He subconsciously repeated the sentence.

“‘Something that cannot be confused by others,’” the prince said thoughtfully, raising his head.
"So that's what it means."

The stranger crossed his arms, his face slightly flushed, making Thales think he was smiling.

I want to find it, in this world...

It is exactly what it is, completely and truly, and belongs only to me.

"Because that is hell."

Thales stared blankly.

The stranger's voice sounded doubtful:

"what?"

Thales regained his senses and shook his head: "It's nothing, just the ramblings of an old man named Sartre."

The stranger nodded, and the thick fog around him began to dissipate again.

“Then go,” the mysterious mage said calmly, “back to the most violent state of loss of control.”

"Test your anchor point."

"If you succeed in maintaining your rationality and self-control during the out-of-control situation, and don't lose yourself, then you will have officially stabilized in the 'thing' stage and become a 'contactor'—although I don't think the magic stage theory applies much to you."

Thales' expression tightened. He remembered his companions, who were still in trouble on the other side, and ultimately said nothing.

But when the time came, he hesitated slightly.

"What if I fail?"

The stranger sneered:
"If your anchor point fails... then you'll repeat the same mistake, frantically raising the threshold until you knock on the door, waiting for two eager girls to discover you..."

Thales frowned.

"What's worse, because you started from the critical point, the next unexpected knock on the door will only be more intense. I think you are very likely to completely lose your way in this state and become a kite with a broken string."

Thales was stunned, struggling to understand what the other person was saying: "A kite with a broken string?"

So where will I go?

The stranger shook his head.

"do not know."

The atmosphere around him shifted, and his words became solemn:
"Because no one has come back."

-

Oh no, I forgot to take precautions against theft!

The framework for the next chapter is already complete. I've just written a little over two thousand words. At this pace, I should be able to update around midnight... right?

This chapter touches on the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (not the invincible monster Sartre from Dota 2! Dota 2 will perish if Sartre isn't removed—cough cough, once I master Chen, I'll come back and kill you all!). In that era of rapid change, his ideas influenced a generation. Of course, I prefer his lover (winking).

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(End of this chapter)