Chapter 100 – When the Heavens Weep (V)

Chapter 100

When the Heavens Weep (V)

His soul was shaking, he realized.

Under the weight of something ethereal, something that could not be grasped, he found himself small. An ant staring up at the peak of the mountain that he will never climb, forever condemned to stay in its dark and long shadow.

Yet, amidst the curling flow of fear, there was… anger.

This.

He was denied precisely this.

No matter how hard he worked, no matter how many Seeds he carefully consumed, no matter how many years he suffered… he was nothing beneath this.

A mere servant of a young girl was a Demigod, a sovereign of life and death, and he was a pitiful nothing.

How was it fair?

Who dared proclaim that there was nothing fairer in the world than Dao and the Heavens? Perhaps those Ancient Sages whom the Heavens favored. Only they could proclaim something so false as true.

The servant in front of him changed–from the appearance of a boy to that of a thirty-something man. The somewhat emaciated appearance was filled out, the sallow cheeks were now jutting out alongside the square jaw, and the pair of listless eyes were all but glowing under the washing of Qi.

Ah, for how many thousands of years did he suffer under the weight of his own failed talents? In eternal pursuit of the realm of separation, the one that marked the end of Mortal Ends and marked the beginnings of the Heavenly Path.

“… who are you?” He squeezed the words out, using the scant few artifacts he had left to shield himself from the pressure.

“It used to be that I was one of the Eternal Guard,” the man said. “You should be familiar with them, no? Kang Lei, the Inverter. That’s what they used to call you, no?”

“Hah. Eternal Guard. Should you not be out there with your brethren, chasing the Seed?”

“No. I’m precisely where I need to be. We were on the run for a few years before I heard of this place–a third-rate sect in the middle of nowhere. Thought it was as good a place as any to lay down our roots and die. It was the last thing on my mind, that I’d find the Seed that was so viciously thieved from us right here. But by the time I realized it… we got caught in its clutches. Dai Xiu had yet to fully awaken her physique, which meant that she couldn’t contain it.”

“She didn’t deserve it,” he spat out.

“Yes. I’ve caught your scent a few times, when you came down to ensure she failed. It was, I think, the fourth time around that I finally realized who you are. Beneath that wrinkled skin and the sagacious appearance, I recognized the monster who, unable to contend with his own failings, went against Dao. And that’s when it all made sense–how someone managed to steal the Seed and how it was possible that we hadn’t found it in all these years.”