Liang Chen spat out a long breath and bent his legs slightly, Lao Ye mimicking his actions and spitting out a breath. The end was coming, both could feel it in the air. Lao Ye would die no matter what outcome was reached, both of them also knew that. But even so, Lao Ye had no intentions of just letting it happen, his wrath wouldn't allow it.
"Come, Storm Lord, I won't be satisfied if you'll allow my time to just run out."
Yes, that had always been an option. Liang Chen didn't need to actually attack Lao Ye, he could have just run around for the 45 seconds of life that Lao Ye had left, that would have been the easiest way to win. But he hadn't done that, his wrath didn't allow him to leave the sinner be. And Lao Ye, truthfully, was thankful for that. A wrath that was inconvenient, a wrath that didn't let sinners go even if that may be the easier option. It was good that it was this type of wrath that had come for him.
Liang Chen didn't need Lao Ye to tell him, the energy he had gathered up was all released at once. He shot forward at full speed, not even a blur as he cut through the air. Lao Ye saw his path, a straight line coming right at him. He drew in a sharp breath and brandished his fists, his muscles exploding with power just as Liang Chen appeared in front of him, his spear already sweeping out.
He pushed his fist forward, Purgatory's power flowing rampantly through his blood as he unleashed it all. But then, just as he was about to release all that power, he suddenly felt light-headed. It wasn't a headache like when Liang Chen interfered with the river of time, it was the lightheadedness that came with a lack of oxygen. His body suddenly felt incredibly light and fragile, blood leaking out from his nose and ears without end. He could feel it, his blood had suddenly thinned by a great deal, removing a majority of the oxygen it usually pumped through his body.
"Ah...Poison? Since when...?"
Yes, he recognized it instantly. He had been poisoned, and the poison in question seemed to belong to one of the sects on the outer edges of Purgatory's Cradle. It hadn't been one of the wrath sects, but it was still a sect within the cradle so Lao Ye had some knowledge of it. But he didn't know when he had been poisoned, he couldn't tell when Liang Chen had snuck it into him.
"I am poison, Lao Ye."
Whether it was because he knew this was the end or not, this time Liang Chen answered Lao Ye's question, his spear still sweeping out. And Lao Ye instantly understood, partly due to the fact that he had seen Liang Chen's body regenerate using just wind and water.
Poison, at least a part of his existence was poison. Just like his blood cracked with lightning or wind, it oozed with poison. And he had spilt a good deal of blood already, some of it on Lao Ye and some of it into the surroundings. Was it a gaseous form of the poison, had he breathed it in as the blood evaporated and scattered?
"Ah...That's sneaky, not like a storm at all..."
Lao Ye muttered a wry complaint, there was no way for him to actually block Liang Chen's attack now, not in this state. He could of course release the energy, but that one instant of lightheadedness meant that it was impossible for him to direct it properly enough to repel the attack. The spear would hit him, and then it would kill him.
But even so, he still unleashed the gathered energy. It was an uncontrolled release, just a violent outpouring of energy to slightly redirect Liang Chen's attack. And it worked, the attack pushed him back a good bit and forced Liang Chen's spear down a bit. But just as he expected, or perhaps hoped, it simply wasn't enough.
The dull grey spear suddenly released a blinding light and disintegrated, the ominous energy that constantly oozed out of it and twisted the surrounding world erupting like a vicious dragon. A line appeared in space, in reality. It went across Lao Ye's knees, across the walls of the mausoleum, across the horizon.
And then it split open. It was like being inside an orb as it was opened, the line split into two and moved in different directions, one up and one down. A bit of the mausoleum's ceiling vanished as the line passed over it, giving Lao Ye a glimpse of the world around them. The land he had gotten used to, the dead land he called his home, no longer existed.
The mausoleum itself still existed, or at least still stood, but the world around it had completely changed. Bone-like white sand that stretched out as far as the eye could see, craggy mountains made of black stone covered in small spores, a colourless sky so bleak and hopeless it made him sad. The world around them had completely changed thanks to the line unleashed by Liang Chen's attack, the only bit of colour in this pale land was the small bit of earth that they stood on.
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"Oblivion... is that the hell you've prepared for sinners?"
Lao Ye questioned somewhat powerlessly as he gazed upon the surroundings. The power of Purgatory had already left him, he couldn't even feel the presence of Purgatory any longer. And he only had to lower his gaze slightly to realize his fate. The line had also passed across him, he too was in the process of becoming part of this pale land. Slowly but surely, he was vanishing, everything beneath his knees was already gone.
But just when he thought that the lifeless land would be his final sight, the lines that had opened it closed again. The pale sky, the dreary sand, the craggy mountains, all of it vanished as the lines retraced their earlier paths, returning to a single seamless line that then sank into Liang Chen. In the end, they returned to that familiar blood-soaked land, the familiar scent tingling Lao Ye's nose as he once again sensed Purgatory beneath them. It would seem that he at the very least would not end up vanishing in that dreary land.
Liang Chen spat out a somewhat heavy breath, staggering slightly. That final line had been the truest form of the attack he had chosen for this Sixth Step. A gate to the Void, one larger than any he had ever created. Once opened, everything he designated would be forced into the Void, a death sentence for most beings. Naturally, forcing something into a gate to the Void wasn't easy, it had only worked on Lao Ye because he was poisoned and had unleashed all his energy.
"It is my win, Lao Ye."
Yes, there was no longer any way for Lao Ye to escape his fate. He was fading from existence in front of Liang Chen's eyes, disintegrating from his legs and up. Painless, peaceful, but oh-so terrifying.
"Indeed. I... Have been utterly crushed, my wrath has been beautifully trampled."
Lao Ye sat on the ground as he spoke, he didn't even try to gather any Qi to fight against the disintegration. He had been crushed completely, he had given it more than his all but it had still not been enough. And that too was fine, he was content with the outcome.
"A man I met in the past told me that the anger in my heart warms me now, but it will leave me cold in my grave. Sometimes, when I felt a moment of weakness and hesitation, I would wonder if he was right. Once I reached the end and burned, would I only feel coldness?"
He would burn forever no matter what end he reached, be it waking up Purgatory or handing that duty over to someone else. When he burned like that, would he feel cold, would he feel regret? The thought had graced him more than a few times, occupied more than a few dark nights of silence.
"Perhaps the reason he told me those things was because he sensed the hesitation within me. After all, if my anger truly burned hot enough to warm me in my grave, would I really feel hesitation enough to think about those words? But... I don't sense that hesitation in you, that is probably why you won, why you rejected my offer."
Lack of hesitation, or perhaps it was better described as selfishness. The selfishness that drove him to reject Lao Ye's offer despite it being the easier option, the selfishness that drove him to fight and personally kill Lao Ye despite just waiting being the easier option. Lao Ye didn't have that, that was why he wanted to wake Purgatory, and that may just be why he had lost in the end.
"Purgatory lies below, sealed within a recuperation array I helped him prepare. You can easily get there by just digging about ten metres down at the rightmost corner of the mausoleum, it'll take you to a set of stairs that will lead you right there. I don't know if you'll be able to achieve what you want... But whatever the outcome ends up being, I'm leaving my wrath with you, Storm Lord. Don't fall to weakness and hesitation, I'll be watching your wrath and your path from wherever I'm going now."
Lao Ye smiled calmly as he spoke, now he truly fit the image of a monk. He fiddled with the ring on his finger, sliding it off and rolling it in his palm for a bit before he tossed it to Liang Chen.
"The seeds I said you could take. Don't forget to plant them next to running water, it's best if that water comes from a mountain rich in minerals."
Liang Chen caught the ring and sank his mind into it. The ring contained far more than just the seeds, it contained everything Lao Ye had acquired in the years after coming here, it was a staggering amount of wealth. Lao Ye looked at the ring with a somewhat soft expression, his smile growing a bit thin.
"...Laogang Mountain in the Lord-Touched Waters Dominion. If it's not too much trouble, could I ask you to plant one of the seeds next to the stream running across the peak of that mountain? I have lost the right to reach Moksha, but I want to at least fulfil this final duty to my Muni, I fear that they won't be able to rest peacefully if they don't get to scold my spirit at least a few thousand times."
Liang Chen wasn't very knowledgeable about the customs of a monastery, it had never really been something he read up on. As such he wasn't sure if this was some sort of burial ritual of their monastery or just something Lao Ye wanted done to put his own mind at ease. But in the end, it didn't really matter.
"Laogang Mountain, I got it, I'll plant one there."
Lao Ye looked a touch surprised that Liang Chen agreed so easily, his smile morphing into that indescribable mixture of surprise and amusement.
"Heh, has anyone ever told you that you may be a bit too kind to your enemies? But then again, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Farewell, Storm Lord, may you and your heavenly wrath prosper in hell for eternity."
Those ended up being the last words of Lao Ye before his head disintegrated. The Emperor of Lamenting Wrath fell in this lone tomb, and joining him in his grave was the Nine Wrath sect and its subordinates, all their wraths entrusted to the one that ended them.