NOVEL NEXT Chapter 76: Be Happy
"This world — our world — exists only for those who are blessed. Those vaulted, precious few who are chosen by fate to walk that most harrowing and timeless of roads: the Path to Mount Tai, where immortality waits."
"Do not interrupt her." The lady in his head spoke once more as Feng was about to protest. "This is a lesson that you must learn, too."
"Not everyone can reach Immortality. That distant, final goal of all living creatures," Yunjin continued. "That is why, for the very few where such a possibility exists in their grasp, they must ascend towards it. There is no sacrifice too great, no deed too vile… so long as it brings them but one Step closer down the Path. That is your priority. That is your purpose."
Feng said nothing.
"Do you understand now?" the Young Miss whispered, her fingers digging futilely into his hand in indignation. "You plague yourself with distractions of selflessness when the world permits you to commit every manner of selfishness to better yourself. The gift of Immortality, delivered to your hands when so many are bereft of its touch… and you tossed it aside like it was worthless!"
"Selfishness?"
He moved. He did not know why he did so, but Feng grabbed Yunjin and pulled her close, until their face were inches from each other.
"Selfishness?" he repeated, snarling with hate in his gaze. "If there is a world that expects me to stand by and ignore the cries of your pain, then it should not exist!"
"Idiot child," the Young Miss hissed. "You do not get to dictate how the world works!"
Feng's eyes flared. For a moment, they flicked gold. "For me to walk the Path, you would have me abuse those beneath me? For me to walk the Path, you would have me ignore the cries of those whom I can help?!"
"That is the way of the Eternal Banquet! That is the way of a true cultivator!" Yunjin shouted back, unafraid, her anger matching his. "Deep down, you already know this! And you know you cannot change it!"
Rage stirred within Feng. His Heart, silent and unmoving, twitched.
"If something like that is the hallmark of a true cultivator… If the Path to Mount Tai could only be walked with such repulsive injustice, then I would rather not walk it at all!"
Something bright shone behind the boy's eyes. Their gaze met, locked upon each other, and Feng's declaration rooted itself into the depths of Yunjin's soul.
"Such a person who walks that Path cannot be called a person at all! Where is their pride? Where is their worth?! How could they be proud of their cultivation, knowing it was done by trampling those who suffered and looked to them for aid?!"
"What pride? What worth?" Yunjin mocked. "This Empire has persisted for a thousand years! And before that, the Age of Gods had also operated on the same principle of selfishness! Hunger is not optional, Young Master! You cannot survive in this world without your greed!"
"I spit on greed," Feng growled. "My pride is not something so easily fed by such worthless, self-serving egotism. If that is the only way this world allows for one to advance, then I will break this world! I will devour the Eternal Mountain itself, rid the continent of the Emperor's Eternal Banquet, and show everyone just how worthless their Immortality is!"
Feng's breath was heavy. His eyes glowed like golden silver, like the dawn of a Morning Star. Yunjin stared, ruptured and wordless.
Then he blinked, and the glow was gone, replaced with the blue hues of sapphire from before.
"And that means I will save you, too," he whispered. "Live for me, alright? Even if it is hard, even if it's unreasonable for me to ask that of you. Live with pride. With me."
The pair of youths stared at each other, bodies mingling close and faces closer still. Feng waited for her answer, and after what felt to be an eternity, Yunjin finally whispered.
"Alright. I will. With you, I will."
Feng's relieved smile was almost as radiant as the light that had shone from his eyes earlier. "That's good. That's… Thank you."
His head bowed, almost pressing against the Young Miss's.
"Shouldn't I be the one thanking you?" Yunjin mumbled before turning away. "And get off of me already. You are too close."
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"A-ah!" Feng immediately let go and jumped back. "I-I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me! That… That was improper…"
"It is fine," she sighed. "I'm damaged goods anyway. I doubt your thoughts or intentions held any indecency."
"That's not true!" Feng protested. When Yunjin raised a dubious eyebrow, the Young Master blushed and corrected himself: "I-I meant about the part about you calling yourself damaged, not about my indecency."
"Feng, a blind person could tell I'm hideous," she bluntly stated.
"No, you're not!" The force of his proclamation took her aback. "You're strong! You do not break. Even now, despite everything you have been through and are going through right now, you are still fighting to be free."
Feng looked into your wide stare. The steel in her remaining eye shone with unyielding resilience. "Iron-willed, wrought with pain… yet whet in pride. You're… beautiful."
At his last whisper, Yunjin's pale face exploded into a blush, and she forced herself to look down with a nervous click of her teeth. "You… You are going to be a menace to women everywhere one day when you grow up."
Feng did not let up. "So… Will you? Marry me?"
Yunjin remained red-faced and unable to look him in the eye. "Young Master, I don't think you truly understand what that word means."
"This one is young, but he is not stupid," he huffed. Feng looked at her meaningfully, fingers intertwined with hers. "Ru Yunjin, Young Miss of the Ru Clan. Heiress of the Decaying Greyroots Sect. I will be honoured to have you by my side, walking the same Path with me. One that need not lead to Mount Tai."
If the Path to Mount Tai only held cruelties… Feng would find another way. His pride allowed for nothing else.
"We will forge a new way," he declared. "Together."
The wraith in his mind spoke again.
"Selfish Dragon. How many more will you ruin, I wonder? What would the toll of broken souls be when we at last reach the Devouring Mountain?"
I will not abandon those I can save, he vowed. If I did, I would not be myself.
"No. You will not. And that is why those you save are ensnared to your cause."
Yunjin's eyes were closed, but Feng felt her heart racing from the pulse of their interlinked hands.
"Fool," she sighed. "All of this is a moot point without a means for me to cultivate. Your words are pretty. You may even mean them. But reality will not change just because you speak sincere promises. Say I marry you, then what?"
"The pretty lady will help," Feng said. "We will find a way to make you ascend. It will rid you of the parasites and make you healthy again."
"You don't understand the magnitude of what you are trying to fix," Yunjin said miserably. "For a cultivator of my Sect to be awakened, the applicant must ingest the maggots of the Decaying Greyroots and reforge them into a single toxin. That toxin is used to wake the primary Dantian."
"So we just need to find a way to help you do that!" Feng optimistically said. "I know how to direct qi! I could use it to—"
"Outside assistance will not be enough," she interrupted him with closed eyes. "Not for my case… An applicant usually ingests only about ten or twenty maggots. Those that are bold may ingest around thirty to fifty. Beyond that, the chances of success are null. The maggots multiply and breed faster than you can force them to kill each other. In time, that number just keeps getting bigger… I never heard of anyone forging a Dantian once the total number of maggots reached beyond a hundred…"
Feng paled. "How many did your father feed you?"
Yunjin chuckled, a touch broken. "A hundred to start. And that was almost a year ago. Who knows how many are inside now?"
Feng looked towards the pretty lady, who was looking dispassionately at the girl.
Or so it seemed. Feng knew her long enough now, and he recognised that dim glint of curiosity in her single uncovered jade-green eye.
How many, he asked in his mind.
"... One thousand, nine hundred, and eighty-three." There was a pause. "Eighty-five now. Two more just hatched."
Feng felt his stomach drop. But… you can save her, right?
"The girl should be dead a hundred times over by now, even before we found her." The lady bluntly told him. "Half of her flesh is practically replaced by maggots, and her skeletal structure is crystallised toxin. Yet her heart still beats, and her brain functions. It's almost as if…"
As if what? He asked her.
There was a period of silence. The lady spoke: "There might still be a way to awaken her Dantian."
Really?! How? He excitedly asked.
"It would depend in great part on her will," the wraith answered. Her singular jade eye landed on him. "I would ask you to prepare yourself well for grief, Zhong. The Tribulation that awaits her is not one I would even wish upon any of our allies, save for the detestable few we once kept in company."
Feng wanted to inquire more, but Yunjin was beginning to move.
"We wasted enough time already," she said, her face now much calmer. "I can already see there's no convincing you otherwise. At least my inevitable death would serve a purpose in educating you on the ways of the world."
"You won't die," Feng stated. "I won't let it happen."
"That is not in your power to decide." She tugged at their interlaced fingers, her face blushing slightly. "A-and let go of me already, won't you?"
Feng grinned. "What, you don't like your Fiancé holding you?"
"I never agreed to such a thing, Fool!"
The two continued their trek through the swamp, their hearts lighter.
Not knowing of the nightmare that soon awaited them.