“Feng Xian, do you have any last words?”

Huang Yuan held his hand out at me, white qi coalescing on it, swirling turbulently. His gold hair fluttered violently in the air. All around, hundreds of cultivators glared at me. A little girl in the back, guarded by a dozen immortals. The sigil of the heavenly sword was stitched into her clothing, a sword shrouded in gold light, the mark of the empress. Beside the girl was a man in blue taoist robes. The back of my throat felt dry when I saw the missing left side of his face. He sneered at me, and I looked away.

[You had it all within your grasp and still managed to fail.]

The system’s voice was usually monotone. Now it was all sharp edges and venom. I blinked twice to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I had finally managed to make the system angry.

[You just needed to refine that pill. It shouldn’t have been that hard.]

I caressed the half-refined pill at my neck, clasped to my necklace by a thin thread of spring. It smelled metallic, coppery, and was speckled with red dots. I had the urge to crush it in my fingers for all the trouble it caused me.

“Why don't you try doing it with five different sects aiming for your throat?”

[You had my most powerful blessing. It should have been an easy ride. If only you didn’t waste the first two hundred years of your time in this world, protecting her.]

I spat out a wad of spit on the ground.

Huang Yuan scrunched up his face and kicked me. My head snapped backwards and blood gushed down my nose.

“Huang Yuan, didn’t we used to be bosom buddies?l I groaned out, rubbing at my bleeding nose, before I chuckled. I guessed I deserved it, even if I saved his life a few times in the past. Funny how one sin could weigh over a thousand rights. ”You used to paint with me all the time. What happened to that?”

He snorted. “I will tear you limb to limb. I will fly your flesh and break your bones. I will break and torture your soul. There will not even be ashes of you when I’m done.”

My chest caved in when he pushed his palm into it. The blood that flowed out was molten gold, burning hot. He stepped on my fingers and I gritted my teeth. Unfortunately, he was the type of person to keep his promises. I tugged at the soul snare anchored to my soul.

[Name: Feng Xian

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Health: 5529/30000

Immortal Qi:1029/125000

Cultivation: Phoenix Immortal (stage 13)

Active Skills: Soul Snare]

“Stop.”

A woman walked out from the encirclement. Her hair was done in a golden crown, embroidered with horned fire dragons. I gasped. I sensed her aura, a jade immorality cultivator. Then, I felt a grin stretch across my face.

“Little Xin, you managed to break through the desolate crystal stage! I’m so proud of—

“Shut up,” she said, glaring at me with her purple eyes. She lifted her sword, lowered it, then lifted it again. “You murdered all of the Yin Yang Lotus sect. You created the vile path of soul cultivation. You refined millions of people in your mad quest for power.”

[Look, another loose end. You should have killed her back then. According to my calculations, you would had have at least an additional five percent chance of surviving this tribulation.”

I nodded my head absentmindedly. I really should have killed her back then. It would’ve have been so easy to do it too. Just a snap of my finger, and her soul would’ve been obliterated, in the frame of a mere millisecond.

“Do you know all the pain you’ve caused?” she whispered. “Millions of mortal lives were lost. More lives will be lost. Hundreds of thousands of demonic cultivators will rise because of you. Father, today I will judge you, with heaven as my witness.”

I glanced up at the eddying vortex of golden light in the sky. The eye of heaven glared at me. It had been following me ever since I started refining the pill, monitoring my every action. Right now, it shone radiantly, almost blindingly.

“Little Xin, you’re a fool,” I snickered. “Talking about mortal lives like that. So what if I killed a million of them. If I had killed a billion, or a zillion, it wouldn’t matter. Mortal lives are like the lives of ants. They get stomped by the strong.”

Her sword hand jerked up. “Dad—“ it was the only English word that I taught her—“Feng Xian, is that really what you think?”

I smiled.

“Without a doubt.”

Her brows scrunched up. Her eyes looked wet.

“Feng Xian, why did you kill my mother?”

“Because, I needed to refine this dandy little pill here,” I said as I jiggled the pill container. “If this was fully refined, I would have a moderate chance of advancing to the next realm. Imagine me as an immortal ascendant cultivator.”

“You’d be a calamity on par with the demon tyrants.” Her sword arm tensed. Her arm raised a little higher. She was getting ready to swing down. “Then, I have one last question.”

Huang Jiu stepped behind her and put his hand on her shoulder. His face was soft as he stared at her. They definitely had something going on. “Just do it.”

She shook her head.

“Feng Xian, you regret it?”

Regret it? Killing my wife? Slaughtering my sect?

I hummed for a long moment, knowing what waited for me after I said my answer. My life flashed through my eyes. An immortal in red flying through the clouds with me while holding hands. Teaching Little Xin how to fight by a shallow pond. Waking up to a system that promised me immortality.

“Absolutely not.”

The sword went down. My soul snare triggered as the blade cut through my neck. My essence detonated and burst into white light throughout one hundred li. Everyone fell to the ground with a thump. I saw the ground approach as I closed my eyes for the last time.

[What a waste. No, I won’t let your life end like this. You have so much use, especially now. Beginning revival protocols. Insufficient material. Protocol canceled. Unacceptable, there must be a way. Searching. Alternate solution found. Beginning tempus protocols.]