novelraw Chapter 1193 - 1192 - Sick of It
Chapter 1193 - 1192 - Sick of It
He should be dead. He should be absolutely stone dead with no hope of rebirth or his soul escaping.
Lind knew it in his bones that were currently aching all over. His body was a mess but something had protected him.
The incomplete souls he had set free had not left. That was not something a mass of souls could decide on their own. Only 1 thing could.
Heaven and Earth.
In the dark, when he assumed death had finally come, he accepted the sacrifice. He had just barely saved his sons' souls and even then, only enough to perhaps start over. They would be lucky to reach the peak of the Crystal Tier.
All their futures had been cut off barring a miracle even he could not conceive of.
Vitality was not something souls could recoup. Living was already a miracle enough.
So, when faced with destroying the Sifter at the cost of his own Immortal soul, he found it acceptable.
When he was yanked awake to find himself in the middle of his Radiant Tribulation, he did not feel panic, confusion, or any of the expected emotions.
He instead felt disgust.
[You refuse to let me die! I should be dead! Those souls were used as fodder to keep me alive!] He pieced it together and realized he was being made into a weapon. The perfect weapon to stop the Great One.
The 2 formerly banished dragons had handily faced their trial of forgiveness. He had only wanted to heal his own injuries and purge the Radiant Tier Fiend Qi in his dantain. It was all that should have happened but once more, a miracle occurred.
All he had wanted was to live his life and protect his family. He had been burdened with something so unlikely he could no longer just dismiss it.
[You are using us! You force people to be reborn in the hopes one of us has the right combination of knowledge, power, or cultivation that can stop that monster! I am not some tool to clean up your mess! All those lives that were destroyed because Heaven is supposedly fair? What about them?!] All the many generations of 6 elementals were left to die because Heaven could not be bothered to reveal even a clue that the elemental foundations were flawed.
How many entire worlds of mortals were born, lived and died with all the generations being lost? He was slammed by another bolt of black lightning but the pain felt so far away.
He looked up at the black clouds with disdain. He no longer cared. He was almost tempted to shatter his own crystal and end it.
A pair of azure eyes flashed in his mind but he dismissed it. Other pairs of eyes followed but he no longer cared. They were all anchors given to him by Heaven so far as he was concerned.
Married to multiple women? Such harmony between races just for his effort? How many impossible things had he done that others must have tried but failed? He was not so arrogant as to believe in the trillions of lives he knew to have existed, none had not tried what he was doing.
Yet, they failed. They failed entirely such that their failures were recorded in the annals of history. He had read them and learned from them.
Another black bolt, stronger than the last, shattered his right arm to dust, yet nothing even close to worry came to him. He just accepted it.
Heaven and Earth used him and he was done with it. He was done with letting people be used as tools. It was his bottomline and the ultimate power had crossed it. He was sick of it all.
All the lives lost and wars waged could have been stopped. Heaven and Earth had the spirits themselves that could reduce any cultivator to nothing, yet they stood aside! They did absolutely nothing but force the burden on innocents!
He was supposed to have died long ago but was given a new chance with most of his memories. He was not the only one, far from it, and it only told him the truth he had refused to see.
The Great One made Heaven and Earth try to balance it back out with recruitment from the endless pool of the freshly dead but native cultivators were not enough. They were too restricted.
Fresh eyes from outside the cultivation worlds were needed. He saw it all and he felt his desire to live vanish. His eyes became dull as another bolt seemed to destroy his left leg. His other arm was gone too.
Had he missed one? He did not care. He was beyond the ability to even summon the effort.
He closed his eyes as death was finally coming on his own terms. Heaven and Earth could not stop it and there was no way to save him left. A ghost of a smile crossed his face until a voice from long ago rose from his own memory.
{Why would any sane person sacrifice so much, George? I mean they are just using the hero in any story you pick. Is there one reason you can give me a good reason to watch even one of these shows of yours?}
George's large frame was so clear to him as he smiled sadly at Lind in them. He could not recall his name but George was so clear. He was always there bringing both laughter and annoyance when he went off being a fan hardcore.
His dark hair and the wire rim glasses were so clear as his bright smile showed his imperfect teeth that badly needed some work done, yet he never did it. George always took the world as it was but escaped into his various worlds and models.
{I enjoy the spectacle but if you want the truth, there was one anti-hero that crystallized it for me. He put forth a thought experiment. Would you become evil to fight evil or allow your morality to let evil win? I likely screwed it up but in either case, evil would not disappear. Yet, he had a goal he refused to bend on. He wanted a world his sister could live freely in and smile. Nothing was too much for that future, even his own death.}
Lind had rolled his eyes as it did not answer his question. It was all the same but then George adjusted his glasses as he stood up from his computer chair and looked all proud as he delivered the final blow.
{The point was, it is not that the hero is being used, but that they chose to move when others don't. They refuse to wait for the world to decide what will come. Even with all the coincidences of their success, they simply see them as tools of their own. So long as they live, they will decide what comes through their own efforts and the support of whatever offers it. Evil, good, fantastic powers, and plot armor are all the things they need but at the core of it is the basic choice. Do or do not, there is no try!}
He said it with such confidence that Lind almost missed the last line before he could not help laughing. Still, he got the point. All the things done to the main character were but things they chose to take advantage of so long as it helped them support their choice.
Lind opened his eyes as the black clouds were building to a level of power to kill him still. His body was a wreck and the area around him was smooth glass from the power of the tribulation.
[That was a low blow.] His voice was still exhausted but his eyes were not dead, just angry. It was way too convenient for such a memory to surface but there was one truth in it he could not ignore.
Death was final and the end. If he let Heaven kill him here, others would be used regardless. His goal changed.
The Great One would fall and the Heavens would answer for their crimes! He would make it clear that such things were not allowed!
Emerald flames suddenly flared as he became a dragon, at least as much as he could. He was just a head with broken horns and a partial body. He would be considered dead by most yet he no longer had such considerations.
He only had one goal, survive and wash his hands of all the coercion from Heaven and Earth.
He would live but he would not keep doing its dirty work. He would only work for himself!
A massive bolt of black lightning distorted the very air to the point even the clouds that spawned it were wiped from existence. He stared at it and for just a moment, he grasped something important. He grasped what the lightning was and how it was destroying the world around it.
It was meant to push a Crystal Tier to the very brink of death to make them leap up the qualitative step necessary. The Laws and Qi in his crystal changed at that very instant and a conjured emerald claw slapped the bolt away.
The instant of enlightenment passed and even Lind had no idea what he had just done!
A pillar of pure white slammed into him but it was wonderful. His body was not only restored but also improved upon. His meridians and dantain were stronger than ever as the crystal in his dantian began to shine.
His soul was radiating power literally into the world and he grasped what he had become. A Radiant Tier!
It was not just about control but about expressing his Laws and elements with the Dao he chose to follow. The emerald flames were so happy but Lind felt disconnected from it all.
A pull came over him and he did not resist. The sky tore open and endless peaks hidden in mists were revealed to all.
He looked down and saw a little over half the Fiends were still alive. He had but a thought and wiped them from existence. It was so easy now.
His power was that insane yet it felt like he hardly did anything. The barriers were crumbling and he could feel the bonds to his family strengthening.
Yet, nothing. His heart remained ash and cold. He just no longer cared to be tied down. He no longer cared to play the game. He would live but he would live on his terms.
He had acted one last time as the Fiends were still the true enemy of all and he still hated them. They had chosen their dark path and he would still kill the Great One but all that mattered now was power.
He would get stronger and he would kill them all. He then stopped resisting as he was pulled into the sky to wherever he would go.