NOVEL NEXT Chapter 59: Meaning [Sidestory]
As for Dai, things remained the same as they always were: stagnant, purposeless, and hopelessly grim.
He continued to cultivate — for what else was he supposed to do? — until his growth stagnated at the apex of the Shaping Realm. He watched as those he deemed inferior rose to the Tempering Realm and positions as Core Disciple — their growth fuelled by Clan backings, while his was hindered for his origins as an outsider.
All the while, the same questions plagued his mind, incessantly asking him:
What was it all for?
He distracted himself with marital duels and monster hunts, pushing his body and skills ever further, even while his cultivation was stagnant. His prowess in battle became unmatched, saved for against the strongest of Core Disciples. His blade work was transformed into a vicious thing, honed to inflict as much pain as possible, cleaving flesh first, then bones, then organs. By the end of most duels, the majority of his opponents had to beg for his decapitating strike.
Little by little, he shredded the last of his humanity, until he forced his deadliness to be viewed in the highest esteem, even by the Elders. His origins might be unclean, but his might was without doubt, and so he earned his place in the upcoming Four Mountain Tournament.
Here, he would find his purpose, for the blood-soaked arena left no need for thoughts or questions. All he had to do was kill everything in his path. Become a murderous instrument of uncaring death…
Just like the Boss of that gang. Perhaps one day, Dai might then meet the same wretched fate, begging for his life against an opponent he thought a worm.
But until then, he would kill all, slay all, and eat all. Without thought, without mercy…
Starting with this angry slip of a Carnivore before him in the arena.
The girl stared with vicious hate and hunger, and Dai allowed her the opportunity to transform. He slaughtered all manner of beasts; what was one more? And so flesh split from the woman, and she grew…
And grew…
And grew larger still, until her form's shadow engulfed the arena.
For the first time in a long while, Dai felt panic when he saw the enormous, lumbering form of the Split-headed Carnivore dash towards him with impossible speed.
Swearing in his head, he raised his glaive.
As his blade clashed against the ludicrously powerful female disciple, the question that had hounded him for years abruptly ceased.
Because he knew with goddamn certainity that if he did not fight with everything he had, this girl named Shao was going to kill him.
~~~
Blood dripped from the stumps of his limbs. He was in pain. He was alive.
Again, after so many years, he found he was neither happy nor proud. At the apex of strength, fighting back monsters with valour and skill, with the crowd cheering around him…
Even though he had every reason to be so, he was unsatisfied.
And so, when the battle ended — as he stood battered but victorious over a blood-drenched girl too stubborn to give up — he thought there must be something deeply wrong with him.
Dai looked into her eyes — Shao, without a last name; without a Clan — and saw the depths of anguished loathing. Not just at him, but at herself. She, who fought far greater than any opponent he ever faced. Whose profoundness of cultivation must have suppressed nearly all who witnessed their fight.
She was just like him.
Someone who merely wanted to kill themselves.
~~~
"If you want to kill yourself, by all means, do so! But don't try to take me down with you, woman!"
Dai's desperate yells availed him no relief from the screaming banshee currently assaulting him.
"You!" Shao screamed, struggling to bring her claws down upon his throat. "YOU!"
Dai understood that the pride of cultivators made them sore losers, but this felt overly excessive. The girl looked utterly deranged, eyes blood-red and fangs gnashing as she pinned him to his bed.
Shao, one of those feral beauties from the Split-headed Carnivores. Even her name sounded fierce, or perhaps that was just his blood loss making him stupid.
He had just barely defeated her during the first round of the Sect tournament. The woman had fought like a monster possessed, and it had taken every ounce of strength and qi he had to survive the fight.
Strength and qi that he could not have spared for that encounter if he wanted to win the tournament, Dai bitterly thought. Even if he won, that duel was merely the first in a series of bouts. He had desperately needed to save his energy for the subsequent battles since the Sect would not support his spiritual needs, being of foreign stock outside the Clan bloodlines.
Dai had hoped to win the tournament without their aid, or at least secure an impressive enough placing such that he could attract the Patriarch's eyes. He stood at the Ninth Step of the Shaping Realm. Without the Divine viands of the Beheaded Phoenix, he could not ascend further.
And the Sect would never give it to an outsider; a village bumpkin who lucked his way into the monastery. It did not matter that he was stronger, better, or faster at cultivating than most of his peers. They have all already shot past him into the Tempering Realm years ago, thanks to their Clans' influence securing them the breakthrough catalyst needed.
Whereas he was denied his rightful meal despite being in the Ninth Step for years already.
He needed clout, something that could compensate for his lack of a Clan's backing. If he could perform well in the tournament — prove his martial worth before all the important Elders and Patriarch of the Sect — no one could deny investing in his capabilities.
But it was all for nought. Now, his goals were ruined by the she-devil before him, who could not even give him the decency to lament in peace!
Who even was she?! Her strength in the arena had been ludicrous. Dai had fought Core Disciples who had given him less of a fight!
Shao, a monster who nearly killed him. Shao, of no Clan, just like him. Shao…
A girl who was crying. Her tears fell on his lips.
She tasted beautiful.
"Kill you…" she half-hissed, half-sobbed out as she pressed down further. "I'll kill you!"
"Weren't you trying to kill yourself earlier?! Get your priorities right, you stupid— gah!"
Her claws sank into his chest, metallic razor nails parting his reinforced flesh like paper. Famished of qi as he was — and missing his right arm and left legs as well, courtesy of the wounds inflicted by the same woman in the last battle — he could not hold her off forever.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Sucking in a breath, Dai summoned the faltering dregs of his qi. The Dantian within him protested as its Spiritual engines flared and choked.
Against the scream of his preservation instincts, Dai released the hold of his remaining arm. With nothing holding back the feral woman, her claws immediately sank deeper into his chest, and her fangs went straight for his throat.
Bolstered by spiritual alacrity, Dai's left hand seized the scalpel Shao had thrown at him earlier, embedded deep in the bed. In one swift motion, he pulled the blade out and swung for her throat.
Even within the throes of despairing madness, the female disciple's battle instincts kicked in, and she threw herself back far away such that the scalpel only grazed the pale smoothness of her neck. Dai followed up with another strike, using his superior strength to grapple the nimble opponent and throw her bodily off the bed.
Though he succeeded, the woman grabbed the collar of his robes right at the last second, pulling him off the bed with her.
They landed heavily against the stone floor. Dai hissed when his head knocked painfully against the ground, though he had little time to recover before the female disciple was upon him again.
Scalpel clashed clumsily against claw strikes. The male disciple desperately executed a series of feints and parries before the woman finally slipped up. A wide swing at him missed, and Dai swiftly slashed the scalpel across her fingers, severing the reinforced tips.
Deprived of her claws, he managed to pin her against the ground, blade aimed downwards as he growled and pushed with all his might against the woman: their positions now reversed from earlier as it was she who was beneath him, struggling against the descending blade upon her heart.
Dai kept pushing, even as his remaining arm burned. The resistance against his scalpel began to fade, and just as the tip began to reach the female disciple's chest, Dai heard a sob.
The sound broke through the red haze of anger in his mind. He looked down, and saw the despairing tears of Shao beneath him.
"I give up…" She choked out, arms giving out entirely. The hold pushing against him slackened, and Dai was barely able to stop in time before he almost plunged the blade into her chest. "Just kill me… I don't want to do this any more. Why did I become like this? What was it all for? What was it all for?"
All of a sudden, her grip on his blade switched to a downward pull, and Dai could only loudly curse at the absurdity of his situation as he was now stuck resisting the woman's pull on the blade to kill herself.
"What the hell are you doing?!" He shouted, the panic in his yells evident. "Don't make me an accomplice in this— Dammit, stop!"
"What was it all for?!" She kept repeating to herself, her pitiful cries transforming into laughter as the suicidal blade met her flesh. "Nothing. Nothing… I don't want this…"
Dai gritted his teeth, pulling with all his strength to stop Shao from killing herself. It was to no avail. With only one arm, he could not compete with Shao, no matter how desperately he resisted. The blade dipped another inch closer to her heart. In her current qi-deprived state, if it stabbed her…
She would die.
"Kill yourself if you want, but leave me out of this!" he yelled. His words made no sense. He could just release his grip and let her end her life on the blade. No one would even blame him or blink an eye at her death. He knew little of her history, but she was a Clan-less outcast, disparaged by the rest of her Sect. No one cared for her. She was alone.
Alone… Just like him.
Shao looked at him. Something in his heart froze at the sight of her violet gaze.
"I don't want this…" She plunged the blade another inch towards her core even as she said that. The edge was now a hairbreadth from her heart. "I don't… want to be alone… Don't leave me…"
Don't let me die alone.
It was that last plea that undone him. Dai snarled, pulling with every ounce of his failing might. The blade barely budged, but for a single, vital second, he halted its inexorable descent.
I don't want you to die.
Mind desperate, Dai seized upon the only solution he could think of. Unclenching his teeth, he opened his mouth and bit down hard on his tongue. Without Qi to numb the pain, the agony blinded him for a moment, and he almost lost his grip on the knife.
Reeling his head back, he smashed his forehead against Shao's. The concrete ground beneath her head cracked at the impact. Dazed, her grip on the scalpel slipped, and Dai was able to find an opening.
He pressed his lips against hers, ignoring the shocked gasp of her breath as he forced his severed tongue into her mouth. The pulped meat passed from his lips to hers. Shao moaned weakly as she swallowed the lump of flesh brimming with Yang qi. Her fingers slipped off the knife completely.
Dai snatched the blade off her chest and threw it aside as forcefully as he could. The scalpel shattered against the floor. Directing the very last echoes of his qi, Dai regenerated his tongue to stem the bleeding.
Exhausted beyond reason, the man leaned forward against Shao beneath him, pressing their bleeding foreheads together. The blood in their mouths mingled, and as Dai's tired eyes stared into hers, he noted every hint of her beautiful features: her fading blush, the taste of iron in her breath, the sweetness of her scent, and the vulnerable, hopeful light in her purple gaze.
What was it all for?
Let's make it mean something.
"Live." He commanded her, furious green staring deep into bewildered lilac. "No matter how painful living is, I will help you, alright? I am with you. So live."
Shao looked at him. Something raw and tender passed through her eyes.
It took a long while before she heard her whisper. "Okay."
The moment he had her affirmation, Dai nodded.
And then he passed out.
EXPERIMENTAL LOG UPDATE - Subject: X-AB-01 "Dai", X-AB-02 "Shao"
Specialist Lucy Hayes, Lead Chirurgeon of the (blah, blah, who's going to read this anyway? Pretty sure there's no one left I'm supposed to hand these reports in to.)
Date: No idea. The Four Sect Tournament is happening now, so… About ten years since I modified that boy, Dai? Thirty years here, then.
Location: Some valley where all the four Sects meet every once in a while. There is a big ass arena here though. That's pretty cool.
Objective:
To check on the progress of the two 'Daemon Cultivators' I have grafted — Dai and Shao. The two of them had just mutilated each other in the arena (as I've cunningly arranged!), allowing me to 'treat' their wounds as the tournament's head doctor.
Time to see how the Daemon genome had changed them…
Subject 'Dai':
Subject X-AB-01, named 'Dai', has developed the following mutations that are NOT part of a regular cultivator physiology expected of a disciple of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect:
Breathable skin tissues all across his body, even on his scalp. (Accelerated qi cycling rate, approximately 204% increased efficiency over his peers at the same cultivation standing)
Three hearts: One enlarged primary, two smaller secondaries. One of them is stuffed in his skull, behind his brain. The other is close to his lower intestines (They appear aligned to his three Dantian? Interesting)
All three hearts have six chambers instead of four. (6-6-6, haha, classic Daemon fuckers…)
Significantly
increased neural activity within his spinal cord. I don't mean this in the realm of small increments in percentages — his entire fucking spine is swollen with enough neuron matter to fill a hundred baseline humans. Most of his thinking now occurs in his vertebral column rather than his brain. Meaning… He technically doesn't need a head to function anymore.
Altogether, the implications are… unsettling. Very interesting, but unsettling. It is as if the Beheaded Phoenix Communion is somehow manipulating the Daemon mutations… But for what purpose?
Subject 'Shao':
Subject X-AB-02, named 'Shao', has developed the following mutations that are NOT part of a regular cultivator physiology expected of a disciple of the Split-headed Carnivore Sect:
Photosynthesis capabilities (This goes far beyond merely absorbing Yang qi from sunlight like her Sister. Shao is able to absorb selective spectrums of Astral radiation and manufacture complex chemical compounds, including
pure
nitroglycerin
.)
Weird… organs? (Her biology is entirely alien. I can't tell where her heart begins and where her stomach ends. I don't even think she has a heart or stomach anymore. Just this… web of flesh? Almost looks like the layout of an industrial complex. She has a heartbeat, at least. Qi manipulation efficiency also appears to have increased by at least 158% over baseline.
Composite skeleton? (I have no idea what this is; her bones could not be considered organic anymore. It's some kind of self-regrowing metallic material… I think?)
A little more straightforward, this one. Her body's a fucking munition factory made to produce exotic ordnance for her transformed state. UEC would have a fit if they saw this; this is basically a Daemon-mutated war machine.
All in all, a satisfactory performance so far. The investments appear to be growing nicely. Both of them are still only in the Shaping Realm as well…
I wonder how they would turn out as they ascend further?
— Excerpt of The Chirurgeon's Research Notes 3. This particular log was conducted during the Four Sect Tournament.