About an hour has passed since the group of five left the vicinity of the couple’s house. Well, to be more exact, the doctor that carried his four unconscious comrades left the vicinity of the couple’s house, now outside of the range of Arthur’s [Spirit Sense]... the vivid portion of it, that is.

Although all he could see at the moment from beyond his [Spirit Sense] was just a blurry silhouette running as fast as it could, carrying four bloodied silhouettes on both arms, Arthur could not help but turn silent, eventually focusing his attention back to the pile of Spirit Slag above him.

Unsurprisingly, with the damage and fear he had instilled into the group of five, the bags that the five had used to scoop up the Spirit Slag before they were attacked by Arthur were left near the pile, with a couple of them even soaking up some of the blood that trickled from their bodies. Naturally, a bit of the blood had also contaminated the pile of Spirit Slag, reaffirming Arthur’s thoughts from before on how it was so simple to inflict harm on people.

At this moment, as all of the rage that previously clouded Arthur’s rationality slowly faded away, two emotions currently reigned in his mind, that of guilt and regret.

Never once did he expect that his rage would go so far as to severely injure four people, who he knew were only there just because they were tasked by someone else to go there. After all, there was nothing else interesting going on for the couple, other than their background and the budding spirit vein they luckily came across.

However, when the leader of their group told his comrades that they would kill Jian and Qin to obtain him for themselves, people who had just so happened to stumble upon the pile he had been making, something inside Arthur snapped, making him do things that he wouldn’t normally do… or at all.

After all, inflicting grievous harm was something he’d never do in his past life. In fact, it was even frowned upon.

With the silence being incredibly deafening at this moment, Sisa could not help but break the ice, asking Arthur, “Are you fine?”

“How could I be fine, Sisa?” Arthur replied, his tone laced with a hint of anger in it. Though, he wasn’t angry at Sisa.

He was angry at himself.

“I thought injuring one of them would be enough to scare them and make them leave Jian and Qin alone,” he started to vent to her. “I even had a feeling that I would come to regret doing that action… and I did. I totally did.”

“At that moment, I swore to myself that I would never inflict harm on any being ever again,” he continued. “But then… they just had to say those words… they just had to let their greed consume their minds… and then… I lost it…”

At this point, Arthur’s voice greatly trembled as he wanted nothing other than to let out the emotions he was feeling right now. Unfortunately for him, he was currently a spirit vein, not a human. It was only now did he realize how having no outlet for emotion would intensify other emotions he would normally forget, such as rage and sorrow.

Nevertheless, the guilt and regret he felt could be heard through his voice as he continued, “I know what I signed up for, I know what kind of world I entered, I know what kind of people lived in this world… but even when I’m faced with reality, it still feels… off…”

“Qi Overflow, they mentioned it a few times… I don’t know what that is, but how they ended up after my actions make them seem no different from lambs that have accepted their fate to be slaughtered,” Arthur murmured, feeling like his mind was going to break at any point. “If I went even a bit further… if I allowed my rage to do even more… then I’m certain I…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Arthur went silent. He did not have the courage to say it, nor did he want to say it. However, both he and Sisa knew what would come out of his mouth if he did. After all, if he did go any further than that, then it would be no surprise for the four of them to just… die.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Arthur asked Sisa, his tone now filled with great sorrow, “Was my decision to be reborn into a world of cultivation wrong in the first place? From how I reacted, do you think I’m not suitable for this world?”

Feeling like Arthur was looking for someone to console him, Sisa replied, “Why would you think it’s wrong to be reborn into a world of cultivation? Just because you can’t handle a little bit of blood? What about it? A ton of people in this world, just like you, can’t handle killing other beings, much less to say about blood.”

“Plus, it’s not like the world of cultivation always revolves around bloodshed, Arthur,” she added. “The matter of you being suitable for this world or not is something for you to decide. After all, it’s your life to live. Sure, being used to bloodshed may help out, but it’s not like it’s a necessity to be able to live in this world.”

After Sisa said her piece, Arthur went silent once more. It was only after a couple more minutes did he open his mouth and murmur, “Only now did I realize that my mind back then had been clouded by idealistic thoughts and expectations. I thought being reborn into a world of cultivation would be a dream to me. I thought it would be the life I was searching for, all this time. But now that I’ve experienced the world of cultivation for myself, I’ve found out…”

“I’m not meant for such a world like this.”

Ding!

Just as Sisa thought Arthur was going to do something crazy, the notification sound resounded throughout his mind, prompting her to let out a sigh of relief as she noticed that Arthur had opened the system notification, albeit in a despondent way.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

You have received an update to your narrative quest.

Seeing that, Arthur could not help but recall the grievous states he had left those four people in, making him wonder once more if he was better off removing himself from this world. However, even though his mind was currently clouded with negative thoughts, an urge surfaced in his mind, telling him to check the update at the very least before making any other decision.

Letting out a long sigh, he murmured, “Fine…”

Ding!

[Narrative Quest: The Fate Between Two Clans (3)]

As the user was casually proceeding in their path to become a greater spirit vein, a group of five from the Xu clan appeared in the boundary of the user’s [Spirit Sense] out of nowhere, talking about how they were going to hamper the couple’s progress in awakening the woman’s father. Not only that, but they were also planning to take the user, which was a budding spirit vein, for themselves, turning the user into a resource that only the Xu clan could exploit.

In response to that, the user has decided to take action against the group from the Xu clan. After all, the user’s safety is at stake due to their actions. Nevertheless, as the user still wants both sides to benefit from their help, the user would only leave them with a warning at most.

However, rather than just leave them off with a warning, the user has decided to go beyond and truly mete out what they considered was just for people with nefarious intents like them. Although such an action meant that the user was now taking a side, that does not remove the fact that the user had spared the couple from what seemed to be imminent death if they let the group continue to run rampant.

Mission Prerequisites: [1] Opt out from siding with either the couple or the clans.

[2] Make a move against the group from the Xu clan.

[3] Inflict grievous injuries on the group from the Xu clan (Hidden) Mission Requirements:

Aid Xu Zhoujian in breaking through to the 5th Realm (0/1)

Aid Huang Qingqin in breaking through to the 5th Realm (0/1)

Have another person from the Xu clan recognize you (1/1)

Have another person from the Huang clan recognize you (1/1)

Tell either the Xu or the Huang clan of the whereabouts of the couple (0/1)

Hamper the group from the Xu clan (1/1)

Weaken the Xu clan (0/1)

Mission Rewards:

350,000 System Points, a new module for the Spirit Improvement System

After reading through the description of the newly updated narrative quest, Arthur could not help but turn silent as the words on the quest made him realize something.

Before, he felt like bloodshed was something he had to get used to if he wanted to continue living in the world he was in. However, the updated description gave him a wake-up call, making him remember that he could only inflict harm on others if he wanted to inflict it in the first place. It was a conscious choice he had to make. It was up to him if he wanted to see bloodshed or not. And from what the quest told him…

His fit of rage had saved two people from what seemed to be imminent death. His act of bloodshed had saved others. He realized that… there were two sides to the same coin.

Closing the screen, Arthur went silent once more, prompting Sisa to think the inevitable was eventually going to happen, with Arthur now just a shell of his former shelf. However, once he activated [Qi Conversion] again, that thought was quickly dispelled as she decided to go silent. Nevertheless, that did not stop her from giving off the feeling that she was happy for Arthur’s decision.

It was only after six hours later did Arthur finally open his mouth and say, “It took me a while to collect my thoughts, but I think I can finally say this.”

“In the world of cultivation, the law of the jungle is a rule many people follow. In fact, that was something I would have tried to follow as well if not for me being reborn as a spirit vein.”

“However, only now did I realize that my dreams of doing something like that are actually incredibly far-fetched. After all, I’ve already thought of ending this life of mine just because I’m disgusted at how I acted in self-defense. In response to what they were going to do to me… to both Jian and Qin. If I were human, I would have probably acted upon it and killed myself earlier.“

“But as a spirit vein… well, I guess being spirit vein has its ups and downs,” he said with a wry chuckle. “It makes it harder for you to end your life, but it definitely allows you to ponder over your actions.”

With a light sigh, he then said, “I may not like inflicting harm on beings, but if I want to live longer in this world and see what it can offer me… I should try and adapt. At the very least, I should get used to seeing blood being shed.”

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to go on a killing spree or anything like that. I don’t have the means to do that as a spirit vein. Plus, I don’t seek pleasure in bloodshed and I never will,” he clarified. “I’m just saying… an eye for an eye…”

“A tooth for a tooth,” Sisa said in continuation of Arthur’s words, finally allowing the atmosphere to return to normal… or at least somewhat normal.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take for me to truly adjust to this world I’ve been reborn in, but it’ll happen eventually,” Arthur said to Sisa, to which Sisa replied, “No worries. Take your time. You still have a long way ahead of you.”

“Well, yeah. I’m not even an actual spirit vein yet,” Arthur joked in response, eliciting a light chuckle from Sisa, only for another notification sound to resound throughout his mind once more.

Ding!

Due to your unique usage of the skill [Spirit Aura: Infusion], you have unlocked the active skill [Spirit Overflow].

“Uh oh…” Sisa could not help but mutter in response to the notification that just popped up. As for Arthur…

“I… think I’m gonna have another mental breakdown.”