A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Hahahahahaha!

Heilam suddenly started laughing.

The sound echoed inside the sealed cave space, rough and sharp, without any joy in it. His shoulders shook as he laughed, but his eyes were cold. Deep inside them, hatred churned like a slow-burning fire.

“You say you are my sect’s benefactor,” Heilam said, staring at Aksai. “You say it was you who kept my sect running while I was gone. Haah.”

He spat to the side and shook his head.

“I might have believed your words if I hadn’t seen that vile creature under your command killing my sect members in cold blood. You sent them to their graves and sealed the only way out. You call that help?”

Grisham stood silently behind Aksai. Vines rested along his arms like coiled ropes, but he did not react. Now that he was in Aksai’s presence, he had let go of his ego as the original Grisham.

Aksai shook his head slowly.

“You are looking at the surface and missing the deeper danger,” he said in a calm voice. “Those deaths were not meaningless. They were necessary collateral damage.”

Heilam’s laughter died down and turned into a smirk before fading into a frown. His jaw tightened.

A part of Heilam had to say that Aksai was a very patient Lord. Other Lords would have either made him surrender through their brute strength or straight up killed him. But Aksai wanted Heilaim to work for him of his own accord. That way, Heilam would be self-motivated to carry out Aksai’s objectives.

“You may not know this,” Aksai spoke further, “but the fallen Dao Beast’s core is not dead. Not fully. There is still a part of its consciousness left inside. That consciousness wants to live again. It wants to build a new mortal body.”

He raised his hand slightly, and faint light gathered around his fingers as he spoke.

“It is a slow process. And because it is weak right now, it does not want to be disturbed. So it created poison ghostly beasts using poison miasma to drive intruders away. When that was not enough, it used its real trump card.”

He glanced toward the sealed cave paths.

“Poison undeads.”

Heilam’s eyes trembled.

“Each poison undead serves two purposes,” Aksai said. “They reduce the number of intruders. And they force allies to fight each other. It is a cruel but effective method. It’s both brutally physical and psychological in nature, increasing the effectiveness of the attack.”

He paused, then continued in an even tone.

“But this power has a cost. Every time the fallen Dao Beast creates a poison undead, it chips away at its own Soul Force. Whatever little it still has left.”

Aksai looked straight at Heilam.

“That means every poison undead makes it weaker.”

The cave felt quieter.

“I don’t know how strong that beast was when it was alive,” Aksai said. “But judging by its aura, its remaining consciousness is still at least at the Nascent Soul level. Even in this weakened state, without a proper body, it is still dangerous. Dangerous even for me.”

He took a step forward.

“So I let it act. Through Grisham, I allowed it to create poison undeads freely. I let it weaken itself. And then I removed those undeads before they could become a problem later.”

Heilam clenched his fists.

“I also saved your life,” Aksai added calmly. “If those poison undeads had escaped deeper into the cave or gathered in numbers, you would not have walked out alive.”

He shook his head.

“And yet, instead of understanding, you blame me.”

Aksai’s voice sharpened slightly.

“Wasn’t it your ambition to raise the Iron Mountain Sect above its limits? To stand shoulder to shoulder with the Big Five Sects? Wasn’t obtaining the fallen Dao Beast’s core your lifelong dream?”

He spread his hands.

“Weren’t you ready to pay any price for that goal?”

Silence filled the space.

“Now that you are closer to that goal because of me,” Aksai said softly, “why are you hesitating? Why are you looking at me and Grisham as if we are your worst nightmares?”

Heilam’s breath turned heavy. The veins on his thick neck bulged as anger surged through him. He raised his arm and pointed a trembling finger at Aksai, his eyes burning.

“You…” Heilam growled. “Don’t think you can do or say anything just because you are a Lord now.”

His voice echoed against the cave walls.

“You are trying to twist the truth and make it look like those sect members died because of me. I would never let my people be sacrificed so heartlessly just to satisfy my ambition.”

He took a step forward, his aura flaring.

“It is clear now. You knew about the fallen beast’s weakness from the start. You knew how it created poison undeads and how it weakened itself in the process. And yet you still let that vile creature of yours suggest splitting the forces. You used my people as bait.”

His finger shook as he pointed harder.

“If anyone should bear the blame for their deaths, it is you. Not me.”

Aksai listened quietly. Then he let out a low chuckle.

“Kekeke.”

The sound was soft, almost amused.

“You say you would never let your sect members be sacrificed so heartlessly?” Aksai said, shaking his head. “That sounds like a joke.”

He lifted his eyes and looked straight at Heilam.

“You chose to disappear from your sect’s affairs for years. That absence alone caused many of your sect members to die. They died to rival sects, hidden enemies, and forces that saw weakness in the Iron Mountain Sect.”

He paused.

“I won’t deny it,” Aksai continued calmly. “I was one of those forces.”

Heilam’s pupils shrank.

“It was your absence that allowed me to kill one of your sect’s top prodigies,” Aksai said. “It was your absence that let me deal with the elders who came to seek revenge on me. And it was your absence that made it possible for me to take control of your sect by turning many of your elders into woodland fiends.”

Each word landed like a hammer.

“And now,” Aksai went on, “you are trying to find meaning in the deaths that happened right in front of your eyes?”

He spread his hands slightly.

“Fine. If blaming me helps you calm down, then let’s make it simple.”

His gaze turned cold.

“Let’s say I killed those sect members.”

The cave fell silent.

Aksai took a step closer, his presence pressing down on him like an unstoppable mountain.

“Now what will you do about it?”

Source: .com, updated by novlove.com