“Every time I think I have grasped how twisted fate can be, reality surprises me with a new turn,” Li Mingyu said, grinning morosely. “So benefactor is a disciple of Crimson Snow Sect! No wonder the prophecy had such an impact on you! Its verdict on your fate seems dark.”
‘The crimson worlds, ripped, besieged'—that was certainly no happy conclusion. But Han Xuhan wasn’t so sure that it referred to his sect. After all, where was this so-called crimson world in the sect? The only crimson color back there was in the flags and the uniforms.
Speaking of crimson worlds, he couldn’t help but recall the fiery hell connected to his dao tower, where souls were being burned in spiritual fire and shot off into the sky after being subdued. That planet not only seemed to fit the description, it also fit the ominous verdict.
Could there be a connection between the prophecy and that place?
His worried face was reflected on Li Mingyu's countenance as well. “It's good that you're taking the threat seriously. Because that's not the end of my answer to your question. There is more, and none of it carries any positivity.”
Suppressing the urge to cuss, Han Xuhan could only request for him to elaborate.
“If you analyze the references in this prophecy, it is quite clear that all the sects or cultivator factions identified in it are the top powers on this planet. Even in the less popular variations of the prophecy, the extra lines seem to refer to the strongest source of power in those regions. Seeing how grim the prediction of their fate is, what do you think is the most likely scenario for the prophecy to come true?”
Han Xuhan didn’t have to think about an answer so obvious. “Judging by what you named this prophecy, I'd say the whole planet would have to be destroyed in some apocalyptic event. No sect would be able to escape, and they'd fight back with everything they have. But the outcome would still be a devastating defeat."
“Exactly!” Li Mingyu exclaimed approvingly. “I like how accepting you are of such a possibility. Many powerhouses back then were not. And then they watched the Holy Land of Laws get obliterated over a minor squabble.”
“Do you know why it happened?” Han Xuhan asked, curious. He had asked the same question many times during his spiritual meetings with Qian Yun, without ever getting a concrete answer.
“It's supposedly an outcome of internal conflict, fueled by external elements. We had more or less verified that alien, beast-like creatures with high cultivation and a highly developed civilization came into contact with them by relying on the unique location of the Holy Land. Although the battle started from within the factions of the Law Manipulators, the alien cultivators became an integral part of it and rampaged across the world fragment to their deaths, leaving a lot of traces behind, resulting in a corrupted, uninhabitable environment. Our investigation didn't get very far before we sensed the risk the world fragment posed to the region of our planet it was anchored to. We had to seal it in a hurry. It's a pity how much of the truth was left under the smoke and dust. I would've loved to know.”
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Li Mingyu shook his head, face gloomy, recalling the desolation. Han Xuhan would have exclaimed about the existence of non-human cultivators from alien territory. After all, such plots played a crucial role in the hero's character development in cultivation novels, alongside making it clear how racist the author was. It also had to be mentioned that space alien territory arcs were supposed to come after a good thousand chapters, not when the protagonist was in the middle of the first realm of cultivation in the first major arc.
But Han Xuhan knew better now. He had seen too much in these seven months. What kind of surprise had he not faced? This was not a cultivation story. This was not about a hero's journey to the top.
What he was a part of here was an insidious world, a real, brutal world, where no one could be relied on as a template character of a typical story. Here, dog-eat-dog principles of survival were not phony tags. Such instinct was embedded bone deep in every cultivator, and the most frightening aspect of it was its apparent invisibility under the guise of civility and rationality.
“Anyway, as I was saying, the prophecy made it clear that the world, or at least this planet of ours, would be destroyed. Even the best outcome would be the destruction of all the big sects and factions. So how do you think this would affect the less powerful sects? What happens to those not mentioned in the prophecy? What happens to you and me and every other rookie cultivator out there, affiliated with sects or not? What happens to the mortals?"
Li Mingyu's question stumped Xuhan for a second. Tentatively, he replied, “Perhaps the prophecy didn't mention them because they weren't worth a mention in the grand scheme of things? After all, how important can our existence be in the face of a calamity that will affect so many powerful beings?”
Li Mingyu began to clap in appreciation of the brutal answer. “Well said, really well said! It's not everyday I see a young cultivator who understands his insignificance! It's even rarer to see someone understand the insignificance of his whole world! Millions, perhaps even billions of lives—none of them matter to the eternal wheel of destiny! On its path, most lives are not the highlighted bits and pieces, but the nameless dust that piles up and gets blown away by a gust of wind!"
A trace of electricity seemed to pass through his head as Li Mingyu's voice rose with every uttered word. The silhouette of flames began to flash around his body once more, casting a red glow on the walls of the tower. Li Mingyu's body itself seemed to slip under a veil of mental obstruction. Han Xuhan knew he was there right in front of him, facing him, yet he couldn’t quite see him in detail, like an old mortal with failing vision stuck in semi-consciousness.
“But when that flying red dust disturbs a merry moth, does it not have the right to seek out an answer?!" Li Mingyu's roar came through the cerebral confusion, and Han Xuhan caught the glimpse of massive, heated chains circling behind the burning silhouette like the tails of a cyclone.
“And if that moth foresees the oncoming wheel, can it not protect itself?"
Some of the chains began to glow brighter, as if the fire around Li Mingyu's body was spreading into their cracks and joints like molten lava,
“And if the moth wishes, can it change the wheel's path and delay the inevitable by a century?"
Bright red cracks opened up on the body of the thick shackles. The fissures seemed to follow a pattern, as if a message was being carved on them through sheer coincidence.
“Should the moth have such a wish?!”
With Li Mingyu's final roar, all the shackles exploded in a silent storm, leaving behind an imprint of the message in the air, forming a massive, circular seal of patterns behind his silhouette. It wrapped around his fiery form and sucked the fire out of Li Mingyu's body.
For a moment, Han Xuhan watched the furious, fat man caged inside the seal stare at him placidly, his eyes revealing a silver of helplessness and a resolve formed by it.
“Heaven's fire may burn me, and the weight of fate may crush me, but how can I not try to survive so long as there is a breath left in me?”