Cultivation Methods…Theories… History…Identity… Schemes and everything else flowed in Kiel's mind. From the highest worlds down to the slums of the lowest town, nothing was spared.
The knowledge he so wanted was at his grasp; nothing was hidden from him; everything was shown.
Even the embarrassment and those that were kept as secrets for eons became known. Those that were lost were recovered, and those that were unending met its fated day.
He who learned everything assimilated every knowledge for eons to no end. He had no physical body, and he slept while thinking. How many years had it been? He did not know. But what he did know was that his pursuit of the Truth ended.
That what he chased for centuries should have made him fulfilled, but it brought him no joy.
'As I regain my mind, I gained the truth; only then did I discover everything. My truth is that I am myself. If that is so, what was the purpose of living through everything when you're already yourself?'
The Truth he knew was not the knowledge he craved, for when he learned everything, he gained nothing.
What he gained was a mere comprehension; it was a thought and realization. It was so simple that he chuckled into a guffaw; the answer was right in front of him, but he chose to look over the horizon instead.
A Soul, a Mind, a Personality, all these were the Truth — it was Life he found.
Uncovering the inner workings of a mind meant learning of oneself, and as one finds self, one would be able to find everything else.
Ye Feng was a genius, a prodigy in many things. He learned the spear, the war hammer, the zither, a plethora of things. However, even he could not understand everything, appreciate others, or even emotions like happiness, satisfaction, and love.
"I who had learned about everything still know nothing about myself. In pursuit of knowledge, I cultivated, gained strength, and became invincible. Under the vastness of different worlds, I am the strongest. Now I became the personification of strength itself. My word can influence the very fabric of reality, my breath can upheave a Continent, yet all of it is for naught."
Ye Feng grew old, but he did not become wiser. He only grew more foolish for thinking he knew everything he needed to know.
But, even after learning about the Truth, all that he understood was his ignorance.
When Ye Feng regained his memory, he rediscovered the emptiness that plagued him only even deeper. Accomplishments lead to fulfillment, but it leads him to feel defeated.
He sacrificed one to get everything, only to end sacrificing everything for one.
When his search ended, so did his only existing desire. There was nothing left for him, 'Maybe that's why I was so ready for it all to end.'
This is the Truth—the absolute Truth of the man named Ye Feng.
It was laughable to think that when he became the culmination of all, he became nothing.
'How funny fate is.' He promptly made a deprecating laugh for the first time in eons.
He saw his Life play before him like a play without pause. Ye Feng recalled everything clearly, how he ascended past Mortality, his achievements, and the praises that showered him.
He found all the grandeur pinned to his name inconsequential to his dismal existence.
Ye Feng, a name that was the envy of all. Eons before he became untouchable by Time and Death, he walked two paths and gained two monikers.
On the Righteous Path, he was called the Drifting Leaf among Reeds. He was the most extraordinary talent without question and saved countless. He was praised for his Righteousness, and then. Revered and even deified, he was the perfect man, yet, he remained without his own purpose.
He followed others, but not his own.
This void boiled to his core until one fateful night, he disappeared.
Ye Feng walked the opposite path and rerouted his very core of living, abandoning the previous set indoctrinated upon him. He became an Evil Cultivator and marched through the mire of s. He tried every known vice known to man yet still found nothing after winning everything.
He gained another moniker, Fleeting Death.
Ending others to get what he wanted, he had neither remorse nor mercy. Soon, he was feared by all. He was shunned away by the people and cultivators alike. He was feared, and no one wanted him.
Not one looked him in the eye.
He was isolated even he walked the earth.
There are infinite paths, yet the world locked its doors on him.
Even when he did not deny anyone's touch, no one wanted him.
A true sense of solidarity.
He was cursed to be alone.
The Darkest Path was a new life without the faintest resemblance to the other, but it ended all the same. He once again found nothing in that path and left it without a second thought.
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He abandoned the Path of Darkness, similar to what he did in the past.
His name disappeared for the next ten thousand years.
The name Ye Feng was forgotten and what remained was a Moniker.
He became a legend of both sides, and despite everything else, he was a figure of respect.
The Legend of the Drifting Leaf among Reeds became the object of admiration amidst the Righteous Path. He was called a Hero and became the object of awe and respect.
A scholar once said, "The Drifting Leaf among Reeds was a Scholar who used a pen to fight. But as he witnessed evil, he picked up a spear and set out to face it. He protected the world and the weak with a soft expression and fought Evil with a stern glare; that was how he lived. Once Evil was no more, instead of vying for power or fame, he cast away greed. The Hero chose to disappear, becoming the Guiding Post of Righteousness. His name is the Drifting Leaf among Reeds, for he is different from every man."
His statue was erected to uncountable numbers of Sects.
Then, there was the legend of the Fleeting Death.
Many cultivators or just warriors, in general, admired him, and while some managed to surpass his diabolical deeds, none managed to become as invincible as he.
"The Fleeting Death appeared like smoke. He walked into the Valley of Death, where the Magna Cult set their base. He walked up to them, slaughtered everyone, and looted their halls, for he had nothing with him. He destroyed a Kingdom and reaped their souls to complete an array. No one wanted him, everyone feared him, but he was also respected. He gave everyone a swift death; he never tortured anyone, neither did he rape nor made anyone suffer, thus his moniker. But despite everything else, he was never called soft. He was diabolic as he was bloodthirsty, and he was the most idyllic person in The Darkest Path — a figure of absolute respect."
Those who strived to walk the path of the Dark Path revered him. No statue was erected, but his moniker and legend were etched in everyone's heart. An object of fear, a monster told to children as they close their eyes to sleep.
Some tried to impersonate Ye Feng's persona, but those who did drown in the spittle of disdain.
'I had everything on both paths, yet I remained empty still.'
Ye Feng once questioned why this was the case; only to find nothing for, he had nothing to base what is within the hearts of a person.
So, after ten thousand years of being detached from the world, he chose to resurface. But, this time, he was a mere no one.
No one knew who he was, but he managed to return to his origin as a scholar thanks to this. He went through different places in search of an answer and was directed to a single site… the Sage Mountain, where he spoke to the Venerable Sage, who told him that no path could fill his voided Life.
Ye Feng traveled every corner of the world, and despite reading all the books, finding nothing only enlarged the void within.
His emotions gradually withered, and only the passion for learning remained. Everyone he once knew had all died; thus, his connections were no more, and in a moment where he had nothing, he caught a glimpse of everything.
He who was so detached from everything bypassed the Spirit World and reached the very edge of the Universe. It was an unrecorded place where Aether resided… a place where he only saw an eye and caught a glimpse of the Truth.
And as he did, that was when he truly became void.
Inside the Shell of the New Universe, Ye Feng chortled once more as he found his life laughable.
He cleared his mind about the world, and then, he heard it, the being that had kept quiet all this while.
"Center of all, what is it that you find funny?" It asked, without referring to Ye Feng's name.
Ye Feng cared not for his name but as it was something, at some point forgotten as well, "I just find it funny that even after finding everything, I failed to see what I am. I know everything in the Universe, yet I was unable to comprehend what I wanted.
"I have watched uncountable lives, living in a far worst situation than I. Yet all managed to smile in their endeavors. Only my doubt kept my feet going, and with my ambitions complete, I find myself unable to do anything. The first time I laughed in true amusement was only after seeing my own foolishness. I am but a mere vintage soul that ironically failed to mature."
Now, more than ever, Ye Feng could feel the hollowness of his existence.
"You, who walked two lives in one lifetime, found emptiness in both, creating the void in your heart and soul which I now house. You are strong, stronger than anyone I have watched. Yet you are weaker than everyone else. Do you regret your life?" it asked.
"I said so many things, yet... I still do not know. I have seen others' lives, and I know that they lived better lives than mine. I find the path that I took to be laughable, but I do not know if I regret it or not. Some regret nothing if they throw away everything to accomplish their wish. While others regret nothing if they throw away their dreams in pursuit of love and happiness.
"Grasping greatness does make one satisfied, but creating a healthy relationship is the same. One can accomplish one of the other and even both, and they are satisfied, but I cannot judge anything, for I know not the weight of a choice... I have not had the chance to make one that affected my emotions. I suppose that you are right. In my youngest years, I lived in a Palace, and in the Imperial Life that I led, I already had to strengthen my heart and abandon any hope of being loved.
"I was not reared by a Mother's embrace, for she left me the moment I was born. At the age of three, my father threw me into a Sect to gain connection and protection. I lived a life of emptiness the moment I was born. Even judging if I regret my life is already a luxury... I cannot tell, for I have nothing but fabricated lies cultivated to find a path for survival."
Ye Feng had nothing… and the Beast of Origin understood this.
"You are pure without a single blight. It is impressive that the moment you gain enough sentience, you already cut off your emotions to survive. Prodigies and geniuses are cursed, but they are saved by ambitions or others. But you failed to find salvation, unlike others. You see the knowledge you gained as the final nail in the coffin you yourself prepared. You think that knowing everything led you to understand that you are empty, for you wanted nothing.
"Yet eons after your death, you begin to feel, to express, and to understand."
"..." Ye Feng failed to even make a response.
"Now more than ever, I can sense that you seek to laugh and cry. You sought the wisest of them all to be enlightened and fill your void but failed, for when you asked him how to do it, it was already over. You were a dead man, barred from finding life, and you were unable to fill your void, but you are no longer empty, for I have managed to fill the space you so desire to fill...
"You who now find a normal life envying shall have a chance of living a life filled with happiness. You have no need to kill your own emotions. No, you are no longer allowed to do such a blasphemy, for I shall stop you when you do. Ye Feng, you can finally live. "
Ye Feng listened to Aether's words, and for the first time in his long life, he felt enlightened.
He was never alive; he was a walking corpse.
His flesh did not rot, but his soul had long been infested with maggots called indifference.
He killed himself when he killed his emotions.
'I wanted to live, so I killed myself... a laughable tale.'
Enlightenment came to him.
" I can help you, cross this plane, and travel to the land of the living. What do you say?"
"...why do you care so much, Aether?" Ye Feng questioned its intentions, "Are you not the being that experienced everything since inception?"
It didn't answer so quickly.
It was thinking, only after it knew that what it held was the truth, did it answer, "...because I too want to live."
"..."
"I exist, solely to wait and hold the balance. Become its equilibrium until the vessel arrives. You and I are the same. Even before I became aware of my sentience, I already had a mission to be fulfilled. It was not I who chose it, but the laws of reality to advance. Unlike you, however, nothing I experienced was my own. A mere watcher of what I can never do. I experienced everything but never got to know the taste of life. But now, that can change. You and I are both in soul and mind but different enough to hold our own desires. I wish to experience life, and you want to understand what it means to exist, to find your purpose. We can walk our existence and live a life filled with rich colors — a life not filled with black and white, but with a lustrous glow."
Ye Feng could feel a resonance in his soul, reacting to the Origin of All's words.
"I see... so all this time...I only wanted to live."
Desire once again appeared for him to grab on. He finally understood what it was that drove him to walk.
"Then reach out to it..."
"I will."
A reaction came about when the two beings devoid of ambitions and desires found it in their existence to extend their hands.
"Claw for it if you want it!"
Ye Feng felt the constriction of the Egg. He fought its hold, wanting to tear it down and escape.
He rampaged within, crying out to draw more of what he got.
The fabric of reality began to crumble, but the two did not stop.
"Go! Do it!"
The Origin of All assisted Ye Feng; it gave him everything so they could break free. The prison that holds them shall collapse,
"CALL FOR IT!"
Nothing will stop them, and in the darkness, their voices echoed.
"I want to live!"
From inside the Shell of the Universe, the force Ye Feng released created a crack. He bashed it repeatedly, for them to break free until he saw the light piercing from the outside.
This was not the light of the sun, and neither was it the light of anything physical.
This was the light of life.
Ye Feng reached out to what he abandoned.
He destroyed the Shell and clawed his way out.
The harsh coldness that bound him was lifted, replaced by another.
Alienated to sensations, he could accurately not tell.
All that he knew was that... it was what that he wanted.
'Let me OUT!' he screamed inside his heart.
Soft walls pressed upon his flesh, constricting his movement; Ye Feng wanted to get out of the darkness, so he did his best and crawled out. After what seemed to be an eternity, he got out of the crevice with a drenched body.
"I am FREE!" He cried out of pure happiness and bliss. But he failed to hear his words as the only thing he heard was the cries of a baby. With his still blurred vision, he noticed that he was surrounded by giants.
= "It's out! Congratulations, Ava, it is a boy!" =
Ye Feng was born, his cries echoed.