The unicorn was still very young; having just entered adulthood, it couldn't express many things clearly. Thea summoned her clone, wanting to ask for her opinion.
"We are you. As long as you make up your mind, there's no need to scruple our opinions. We are a whole; we are your future, the choices you might possibly make. When our existence hinders your path, you should make your true choice."
The clone spoke calmly, then vanished again like smoke.
"Become childish like the unicorn? Or become gloomy like the clone?" Thea muttered to herself facing the empty night sky. She quickly shook her head; neither was what she needed. Light wasn't justice, shadow wasn't evil. This was unrelated to right or wrong; it was simply that she disliked them and didn't want them.
Merging wasn't urgent for now. She needed to make more plans and preparations. However, what Morgan le Fay called raising mental power was something achievable at present.
Although Morgan's main body possessed profound magic power and extensive knowledge, she might not necessarily understand the true secrets of this world.
And among these secrets, Thea could think of a holy land for cultivating mental power.
Nanda Parbat! Of course, not the place Ra's al Ghul called his base camp, which was actually a cellar, but a gap between mountains and valleys, between matter and illusion. There existed a paradise rich in high-level energy.
Ra's al Ghul chose this place back then; Thea felt it was most likely Trigon behind him who peeked through numerous planes and saw the uniqueness here. Unfortunately, the distance was too far, and even with the Great Demon King's power, the true hidden place wasn't found.
If contemporary Earthlings were the fifth generation and Atlantis the fourth, then this place was the gem left behind by Earth's very first civilization.
Realizing their civilization was about to be destroyed, on the eve of the drastic change, the wise men of this super-ancient civilization gathered the entire race's mental power and forcefully opened up a space. All clansmen abandoned their material bodies, existing here forever in the form of mental power to avoid the inevitable world-destroying disaster from the outside.
The initial vision was very good; their spirits were preserved, and to some extent, they achieved immortality.
But as Earth's second and third civilizations appeared one after another, without the reliance of a physical body for a long time, even the leaders whose wills were originally like iron couldn't withstand the erosion of time and the baptism of years.
They forgot their names, forgot their missions. Tens of thousands of years of emptiness caused severe polarization among them: the kind became kinder, the evil became more evil.
Weak spiritual bodies were all abandoned. Many strong ones walked out of the spiritual space; some helped the new civilization's humans build homes, while others deeply hated these people for replacing their status, stirring up trouble and committing all kinds of evil. They all forgot that the other side used to be their own clansmen, relatives, and friends. The result of attacking each other was total destruction.
Time brought great changes to the world; civilized societies rose and fell continuously, followed by a new cycle.
Their weak clansmen from back then remained in that eternal spiritual space. Their past glory was scarcely recorded even in the classics of the gods who claimed to be all-knowing. They were thoroughly forgotten, both materially and spiritually.
When the batch of deities including Zeus fell into slumber and humanity entered the fifth era, many devout Tantric monks, bishops, and imams experienced a surge in mental power before death and vaguely saw that place. From the few words they left behind, contemporary humans named this place Paradise Lost, Heaven, Pure Land, and the like.
Of course, this was Heaven as defined and recognized by secular religions, not the Heaven that truly exists.
Thea arranged her own affairs and came to this region alone. She wanted to find the entrance to Paradise Lost. After the "Forever Evil" event, the evil of the world would converge with the spiritual bodies here to form a new evil god, which would later be purified by Boston Brand. However, that was a matter for much later and wasn't worth Thea's worry.
Without alerting Talia and others in Nanda Parbat, dressed for a long journey, she bypassed the League of Assassins' base camp and walked alone into these deep mountains. The civilized world was thrown behind her; surrounding her were towering rocks. Let alone people, even animals were rarely seen here.
Thea now had an astonishing constitution, walking steadily in this barren mountain and wild ridge, occasionally taking out Croyden's Compass to confirm the direction.
One had to say, this item coveted by Constantine was indeed useless sometimes, but sometimes its effect was heaven-defyingly strong.
Thea did a lot of homework before coming. All records mentioning this area, the deathbed notes of several religious leaders, were borrowed and read by her under various names. However, the records were all vague and ethereal, leaving one confused.
Afterward, she also used her bloodline connection to find Madame Xanadu, who was now bubbling with beauty, and asked her to help with a divination. The result was disappointing; five cards popped out at once, covering all five continents. Even Madame Xanadu was dumbfounded.
Thea realized she could only rely on herself. She began various satellite positioning, carbon element detection, supercomputer simulations, mental power scanning, and magic sensing.
However, all these efforts combined were not as effective as this Croyden's Compass. This compass thoroughly taught her what "specialization in a field" meant. A magic item that could catch the eye of DC World's most notoriously lucky bastard Constantine was truly not just blowing hot air.
Following her instructions, the compass searched for the place with the richest mental power. Initially, it suffered some interference, and afterward, it would occasionally deviate in direction, but generally speaking, it was gradually approaching.
Thea didn't fly; she was afraid of missing some key locations. Since this matter couldn't be delegated to others, she could only follow the compass's hit-and-miss guidance, walking deep and shallow in this primitive mountain forest.
On the third day into the mountains, she had walked through most of this mountain range but gained nothing.
On the fifteenth day, having gone back to handle some affairs and confirmed several times, she realized she had walked past the target entrance earlier. She could only continue searching in the opposite direction.
On the nineteenth day, Diana also accompanied her to search. Wonder Woman was also very helpless; her Lasso of Truth couldn't very well lasso a big mountain to ask, right? She had strength but couldn't use it; she wanted to ask but didn't know whom to ask. The two found an empty field, with the sky as their curtain and the ground as their mat, and conducted a cordial and friendly spar.
The refreshed Thea sent Diana away. On the twenty-fifth day, she finally found a clue.
The place she was currently in was unremarkable. There were no myriad rays of morning light, nor was there purple energy coiling around. Except for two big rocks on the ground, there was nothing.
However, this was the strange place. Thea's memory was excellent; in just over twenty days, she had already walked past this coordinate point three times.
One must know her route was recorded by Gideon. She had walked the entire mountainous area twice without any blind spots. Following the compass instructions along the way, there were seven or eight places she had walked past twice, but the same location, walked past three times consecutively—only here!