‘’Craving for a longer life is most likely a curse of our race as a whole.’’ Quan sat down on a soft cushion he brought over today, it looked rather comfortable compared with their wooden benches. He also had a small table in front of him, a metallic gleam never left its shining surface. Upon that was a cup of wine. Ubel never saw someone look this intoxicated under the moonlight.
‘’When mortals live at most fifty or sixty years, in a place where people can’t even see their grandkids being born, living hundreds of years seems a bit unfair. Don’t you think so too, young ones?’’ He also used different kinds of addresses today. He never called out to them directly, he always used you and nothing else. Yet they heard a handful of words like Younglings, youngsters, young ones, little disciples, little ones.
‘’But I think it is fair. Most immortals agree it is fair. Why? Haha,’’ He smiled and gazed towards a corner of the hill, towards a small gathering of disciples hushing to each other. ‘’No, it’s not because of our pride, Shu. It is because of our fate.’’
‘’Every immortal is said to be chosen by the Will Of The Heavens, or by the world. Our fates led us to become immortals, and the mortals’ led them to be mortals. Since we have no choice on that matter, why would it be reasonable to assess whether it was fair or unfair?’’
‘’ Yes, it wouldn’t be reasonable. Then let me say this too, you might think that there are many differences between you and mortals, or other immortals. Yet, other than our strength and lifespan, what do we have different? Can you answer that?’’
Quan stood silent, his eyes never left the same student. His eyes told of a strange story, a determination. Perhaps he wondered the same question’s answer, or he already knew of its answer but awaited something different. The student kept silent, then stood up and bowed.
‘’No, I can’t answer senior master.’’ He replied at last, his face aghast with either shame of disturbing the class or not knowing of a question’s answer.
‘’Good, then this means you still have things to learn.’’ Quan nodded to him, ‘’Then sit down-or just stay like that. Everyone, stand up.’’
He swished his sleeve and both table and the cushion under him disappeared into the spatial belt on his waist. Everyone also stood up at his words, awaiting his last words before the midnight time struck and lights of the inner-mountain eclipsed.
‘’This is enough, I’ve talked way too much and you’ve listened more than necessary.’’ He shook his head, although no one had a clue why. ‘’You are dismissed, next week we will go back to book reviews. The topic will be about ancient wars and figures of our northern continent.’’
‘’Take care.’’ He departed with his words behind, the same fluttering of his sleeves echoed inside people’s ears again. As he vanished into the moonlight, Ubel stood up from his seat behind the crowd as well. I’m lucky he didn’t see me. He felt a bit of relief as he dozed off toward the end of the lesson. Although he also didn’t believe Quan wasn’t such a man to punish people. At most, he would just reprimand and tell him to do better next weeks.
‘’Hey, let’s go drinking tonight.’’
‘’It is already night-hais!’’ He heard a pretty loud sigh behind. They, the source, were of course the general attendees of the lessons, as well as the only group that drank wine after every lesson. The wine wasn’t Ubel’s thing, he learned that a month ago as well. If they had something to eat along the wine, or snacks to go with it he would most certainly hang out with them.
Sadly for him, though, they only drank wine. They drank like crazy, their consumption of barrels upon barrels almost dried up the pub they visited every week. Upon that, the first time he went with them, they all were dead drunk and couldn’t even lift their fingers at the dawn. It was then he understood, immortals were freaks when it came to drinking.
He didn't have any excuses to make at this point and felt pretty tired as well. Then what could he do? Ubel tiptoed around them without making a noise, then when he was a good few meters away started to sprint down the hill.
‘’Hey Ubel! Where are you going?‘’
‘’Sorry! I have an emergency!‘’ He shouted back and increased his speed more.
‘’Why are you doing this again-ugh!‘’ He heard a loud, frustrated grunt before their voices ceased reaching his ears.
Now...to where?
*********
So he came in front of a cliff.
Not so spectacular, devoid of the plantation that generally covered every inch of the mountain and lacking the right amount of lightning to do some reading. Though the reading was just him revising the first line of the manual.
In the horizon, at the place where moonlight, clouds, and the ocean met together a small wind sprang up. A small wind that reached all the way to the mountain, a wind that tickled his nose and brushed his long hair back. It swayed the not so far patches of grass behind him, and further than that the trees with long and wide leaves.
It smelled salty. How a sea wind could reach so high in the sky was a wonder though. But this was a relief, too. At least it wouldn't blow the Death River Qi manual to the air. The scroll had some amazing weight, there were at least two or three kilograms under its slender fabric. The reason? He didn't know.
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Taking out the violet colored scroll from a long and narrow pocket in his robe, he laid it down in front of the barren earth. If he tilted his head a bit more, Ubel sure could see the crevices and rolling down pieces of rubble under the mountain.
The first thing that greeted him was the line of text at the top. His true motive of coming here laid in those words, but subconsciously Ubel shied away from them every time he opened the scroll. The feeling of forgetting everything you knew was indeed terrifying.
Then his eyes gathered the courage and precision to stay focused on the first sentence.
There are two corpses, dead and alive.
Now, meditation was a painful process. So painful and boring that in the whole month he was here, the amount of progress he made was just one-tenth of the required to break through into the mid Qi-creation. Well, at least that was what senior brothers said to me. They said his speed was faster than the norm, not too high but something above average as well. Yet, the disappointment of wasting away his time like this overpowered that of his determination to continue.
From what he learned, as Alim said, Death River manual was a different type of manual. It was also unique, and they said there were four manuals like it. He said they were scriptures, but I don’t really understand why. In the first place, manuals and scriptures differed in use, one was for immortals’ cultivation, the other one was a culmination of religious texts and books. Yet, for a cultivation manual to be called a scripture meant it either had a connection with one of the sovereigns or had some kind of spiritual importance or closeness to a religion.
Though words of a creator shouldn’t be this cheap.
These were cheap words, Ubel had no difficulty in saying that. Dead corpses and alive corpses, they seemed like some deep and meaningful words, but in essence, they didn't make much sense. For instance, whenever he spoke aloud his impressions and interpretations of these words, the manual gave off a subtle light. It changed sometimes, from dim to bright, and from fierce to peaceful. The thoughts he had about the sentence, somehow, led him to a more plausible way of thinking for the manual, like some kind of mental control he understood at some point. The more his thoughts aligned with the desired thought of the manual, the more the light on the text shone.
This meant that rather than the words, the important thing was the intent behind it. If he could grasp the intent, or way of thinking the manual wanted from him, then it would be easier to respond to these kinds of trials. He assumed them to be so, simply because there had to be more to come after solving one.
Oh, mentioning solving one. He, at last, after pondering over and over again, found a plausible answer. Of course, not something that would garner the correct response from the manual. At least it was something that could pave the way for a clearer path.
With a dry cough, Ubel cleared his throat and started to talk.
‘’One corpse is dead since it won’t resurface in the history. One corpse is alive since it will remain throughout the ages.’’
The text shone with a brilliant light, then dimmed right after. Oh, what does it mean? This kind of response was the first. Maybe it had something to do with his way of presenting it?
‘’If one is remembered, he will be alive even after death. If one is forgotten, his corpse shall remain the same like death.‘’
The manual brightened, then the shine disappeared again. The same response. Alright, then what? Am I considering it from a different viewpoint? Perhaps, or perhaps not. Since he evaluated how to think by the brightness of the text in the past, this kind of answer baffled Ubel as well.
‘’What do you want me to say-hais!’’ He sighed, then switched his almost-numb legs and sat down in a more comfortable position.
‘’Alive is remembered, dead is forgotten. At least that much is clear.‘’ Manual seemed to agree as well since it shone with a bright light again. ‘’Remaining in history means-‘’ Light flickered out of existence the same instant.
Wait, what? It has no relevance with history?
If it had no relation with history, then what did it have? Remembering and forgetting, what they were most associated with?
‘’Memories...if one can live inside in another‘s mind, then he/she is as good as alive. And if not, then they are completely dead…?‘’ The light reached an apex, so Ubel had to cover his eyes with his hand. ‘’Then-memories is the key.‘’ Ubel found what he was looking for.
Even as the text‘s gleam started diminishing again, he opened his mouth and buzzed.
‘’One‘s worth is determined by whether they are remembered or not. If one can redeem themselves as a memorable person, and can still make people reminiscence about themselves then they are alive. They are never gone from this world. On the contrary, if someone is forgotten, if he/she is a person with no redeeming quality then they are forgotten, hence dead.‘’
It was a quite long and meaningless nonsense but this was the train of thought the manual wanted. And as it was just a simple, yet magical, manual it couldn‘t assess whether he chose to stuck with the belief in trial or not. Still, getting that answer seemingly satisfied the piece of paper as the light exploded and a flash of darkness flew right to his forehead.
The moment it contacted with his glabella, a surge of Qi washed over his body and ravaged his meridians. Literally, not refurbished or revitalized, ravaged, destroyed. Like how waves erode a boulder, they struck again and again until his meridians tightened and shrunk. His meridians, somehow, shone after and the surge of Qi continued on its way.
As it seeped out of his meridians and delved into his flesh, Ubel let out a gasp as his face paled beyond comparison. All blood seemed sucked out of his face, and it was so pale that even moonlight had difficulty shining off his sweaty forehead. With bloodshot eyes, he kept focusing inside his body and continued the process.
The flood of Qi traveled through his muscles and flesh, and wherever it went his body felt a great amount of pain. Yet, after a time that felt like an eternity, the pain started to lessen and a strange pleasure invaded his nerves.
The Qi also disappeared and left its place to Ubel‘s Death River Qi. Then Ubel collapsed to the ground.
His head touched the tip of the cliff and his quickened breaths sent particles of dust flying under the sunlight.
Sunlight!?
He struggled to stand up as pain left his body, and looked over the horizon. Now at the place where ocean, clouds, and moonlight met was a rising celestial being. A star, The Sun. Its first rays of light captivated his eyes, and since he had no more energy left to give his attention to anything, he kept looking at it.
Though he felt that he broke through the late Qi-Creation realm, instead of mid, so he felt a tinge of happiness. But also, it felt god damn painful!