Chapter 487 - Judge, Jury, Executioner (IV)

Chapter 487

Judge, Jury, Executioner (IV)

Liao Lin had no words to utter--though even if she did, she had no means of uttering them.

An invisible force had impaled her and tore open her dantian, rendering her a cripple. Now, she had to stand there and watch someone in the Imperial Realm be killed--somebody she thought was a god among gods, somebody she believed stood at the pinnacle of this world.

Shadow and light danced and mingled, but the song had come to an end... and with it the performance.

That last attack... there was no spectacle in it, she noted. No flashy lights, no mountains being rendered apart, no spatial turmoil. It was silent and invisible and felt more like an order than an attack.

As though that strange man had simply said: Die... and the Sage obeyed, dying.

The body turned to ash and smoke and disappeared in the wind as the light of the realm was restored.

Everything... was gone. Everything she ever worked for had disappeared in the blink of an eye. All her struggles, all the thousands of years of living, all the sacrifices she made... what was it for? So she could be subdued as easily as a child by some man she'd never even met before?

She glanced over at the tapestry of the dead that had piled up into a set of mounds; only a few remnants survived, though she hardly cared. These here weren't all of them--there were in total a few hundred scattered throughout the realm. Once they left and her actions were exposed, she wondered whether even the Sect Master would be able to save the Mountain.

Her eyes inevitably found little Xinya. To think she almost survived until the end. That girl truly was something special.

"You have no idea just how badly you've fucked up, do you?" an unfamiliar voice dragged her attention to the side where an ordinary-looking man appeared. But... he was not ordinary, not in the least.

"..."

"Liao Xinya," the man said. "Should not have died."

"... what do you care?" she asked, her voice hoarse. "Took a fancy to her?"

"She was incorrigibly connected to Dao of Fire," the man said. "With her death, Dao of Fire will weaken greatly. And what for? Her death, all their deaths, all of this... what for?" the way that man looked at her... it was as though he were looking at an animal. Anger surged within her, thousands of years of enduring bursting forth.

"Who are you to judge me? What gives you the right? All my life, I've done all I could to endure. The mocking words, the beasts who coveted me, the jealousy, the pity, the shame. All of that in pursuit of Dao. But Dao... Dao abandoned me. When I needed strength the most, I found an empty void. What the hell do I care what happens to anything? And why do you? Damn hypocrite pretending you are above this. If you were so holy and just, why not just prevent all of this from happening? You are more than strong enough to have stopped it from the onset. I will not draw my last breath here and be subjected to your sanctimonious judgment. These children embarked on the path of immortality; if any of them were under an illusion that they would be safely guided there... it was the failure of their Masters to teach them well."

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"I ask again: what for?" the man repeated. "You've failed. You've failed so spectacularly that if I didn't loathe you with every single fiber of my being, I'd pity you. You've thrown away everything for a chance at... what? Even more years? Weren't the goddamn thousands enough to do whatever you could?"

"Hah. Just kill me. I'd rather have my heart skewered by a blade than listen to you pontificate."

"... how come that, even in death, you're unrepentant?"

"Because I have nothing to repent for," she said. "This was the only way I could take what I was never given. Why are others more worthy of immortality than I? Why does some abstract, pointlessly vague notion even get to decide that? I tried to unchain myself from the shackles of my birth--somebody like you, who can grasp all he desires... you cannot understand that. You cannot understand what it feels like to watch a child you raised with all your heart annihilate all your achievements. To progress faster than you ever did, to understand Dao better than you do even now, to master all arts and methods in one tenth the time it took you. I worked harder than anyone, yet she... she was merely born and was gifted things I could never have. Why was her birthright so much grander than mine?

"I'm glad she is dead," Liao Lin said, feeling the weight of her heart collapse. She truly yearned to say those words out loud. "If it were up to me, I would have killed her years ago. She did not earn her gifts, and, just like you, she dared to lecture me. She dared disrespect me. You--"

"--my god, who taught you how to yap?" a youthful voice interrupted her as she felt the world twist upside down. It took her a second--the last second of her life--to understand that her head had fallen off its neck and down onto the ground.

**

Long Tao pulled back the sword and sighed, looking over at his Master.

There were a thousand and one emotions he was currently feeling and a million questions he wanted to ask... but he endured. Now was not the time.

"Were you watching?" his Master asked.

"I was."

"I won't ask why you never bothered stepping in," the man glanced over at him. "If you don't ask anything either."

"..."

"I'm out of time, Tao'er," the man smiled somewhat bitterly as the Dao-bound body suddenly became an empty, hollow husk. His cheeks sunk in, his face turned beyond pale, and it looked as though he'd aged a thousand years in a second. "You better find us a nice place to hide..."

He rushed over and grabbed him.

Long Tao wasn't surprised--it was clear that his Master had used some kind of a Forbidden Art. And not just any kind, either--probably one of the most formidable arts Long Tao had ever seen in his life. To have lasted for as long as he did was already a miracle; that he was collapsing... was more than expected.

"M-Master! Is, is Master alright?!!"

"Brother Tao, what happened to Master?" the kids came rushing from the crowd of the dead. Though weakened and brutalized in heart, body, and soul, it was as though they found energy that wasn't there before when they saw the man collapse.

"He's just tired," Long Tao said, looking over the battlefield. There were only a few survivors here, and though he was tempted to kill them all... "All of you--"

"--I swear an Oath of Heaven," that strange monk interrupted him with a faint smile, placing a right hand on his chest. "I shall not divulge what I bore witness to today to another soul for as long as I live. Your Master... saved my life. And though I am far from a saint, I will bear this grace in my heart for the rest of my days."

"I swear an Oath of Heaven," another one joined immediately after; he was beaten and bruised and missing an entire leg, yet still stood up on the one he had and placed his hand on his heart. "That I will not divulge any of what I saw or heard today. If you need a place to recover, my Sect is merely a few days west of here. I will make sure no one disturbs you."

"I swear an Oath..."

"I swear..."

All the remaining ones swore an Oath as well, like joining a choir.

Long Tao could not possibly predict the massive fallout of what had transpired in this place... but, oddly enough, he was looking forward to it. The times of chaos, after all, were also the times of opportunity, and he needed a major opportunity if he was to challenge the next barrier of cultivation.

Void Transformation Realm.