Chapter 121 - Reflecting Upon Oneself (Final) (Patreon)

Inside Lucian’s soul, the moment he cultivated while actively recalling a memory, a green, tangible melody spread through the darkness of his mind, following a resonance and destroying nearby crimson fragments.

With a pull, the green melody found the memory that caused the resonance and entered the fragment. There, it perceived a garden bathed in the starlight of a night sky.

Meanwhile, Lucian recalled his younger self kissing a beautiful brunette who looked no older than twenty. They were in a palace garden he remembered almost nothing about.

While he wore black metallic armor with a red cape draped over his back, she wore a white dress and golden ornaments. The two sat on a metallic bench, illuminated by the full moon and magical light stones.

Lucian focused on the woman’s face, feeling a pang in his heart. Her eyes shifted from blue to green whenever he lost focus, and her facial features changed slightly, from her eyebrows and nose to her lips and cheeks.

I’m sorry for forgetting you, Angelica, he thought with an inward sigh.

Focusing on the memory, he recalled part of their conversation.

“My love, are you hurt?” Angelica asked, caressing the face of Lucian’s younger self.

Smiling, the younger Lucian replied, “Those old fools can’t catch me, much less hurt me.”

With a relieved sigh, she first kissed him, then entwined her arms around his neck, and stared into his eyes.

“Now that your enemies are gone, are you going to honor your promise?” she asked, biting her lip. "I don't want to lose you."

The memory froze as Lucian steadied himself. Whatever feelings he once had for Angelica were long gone, but he usually avoided dwelling on his past mistakes. Mainly the ones connected to his ex-wives and children.

Settling his emotions, he continued remembering the events.

After hearing Angelica’s question, the younger Lucian smiled, kissed her again, and muttered, “Of course. I want to be with you forever.”

“But,” she said as Lucian kissed her neck. “I don’t want to become one of those ghouls. I know you did the same to other girls. That isn't true love!”

Looking at her, the younger Lucian smiled without shame. “You are different from them. You are my wife.”

“Prove it to me,” she said, staring at him with a seductive gaze. “Prove that I mean more to you than those lowly ones.”

Lucian used all his self-control to maintain the memory. Having once been a lonely scholar, it was hardly surprising that after gaining vampiric powers, he had used them extensively to get experience in bed.

At the time, he had been blind and failed to see how others used him in return.

Even Angelica, the daughter of a Duchess, had been part of an arranged marriage meant to keep Lucian on their side. She had become his first wife, and in the past, he had believed she truly loved him, the same way he had loved her.

When she asked to become the second vampire, he couldn't help but believe in her love! After all, he couldn't grasp another reason for a woman to want to become a monster if not love. He genuinely had believed she wanted to spend eternity with him.

Of course, he later discovered that it had all been a scheme to determine whether his powers could be passed on to others.

Remembering how gratified his younger self had felt, he let the memory continue.

“Angelica, the curses are terrible to bear,” he said to her. “I don’t want you to suffer through such pain. As a ghoul, you can still eat and drink, but if I turn you into someone like me...”

“Don’t you love me?” Angelica said, holding Lucian’s cheeks with both hands. “To share our happiness and our sadness. Didn’t we promise that?”

She pulled him into another kiss, and while Lucian no longer remembered everything that had been said afterward, or all the promises she made, he remembered that by the end she had convinced him.

Until that moment, he had never turned anyone into a vampire. It wasn’t something he could do by accident.

Watching his younger self mobilize a huge amount of Blood Essence and bite Angelica’s neck, Lucian wanted to sneer.

The Runes of Greed, Gluttony, and Sloth shifted in his memory, and a crimson energy flowed out from them and into Angelica’s bloodstream.

As this happened, Lucian felt his cultivation advance. He had recognized that, in the past, he had granted grace to someone and opened a new path for her.

He wanted to end the memory there, but restrained himself. Letting the events unfold, he watched his younger self kiss Angelica’s wounds to seal them before staring at her.

Angelica’s eyes were dazed as the runes formed within her, the curses taking root.

Concerned, the younger Lucian held her hands, ready to act if necessary.

A moment later, however, Angelica pushed him away and fell to the ground.

Thinking she was losing control of her body, he stood up, only to see the terror in her eyes.

“Stay away!” she shouted, scrambling through the flattened flower field. “Don’t come any closer!”

“Angelica, it’s me,” the younger Lucian muttered, surprised by her reaction. “I’m your husband, my love. Are you okay? What happened? Is it the enhanced vision?”

“Leave me alone!” Angelica cried.

Watching the memory, Lucian felt his cultivation surge. More scenes of people he had transformed into vampires passed through his mind under his control and his Qi's guidance.

I turned her by instinct, just as I always did when using the runes during the first centuries, he thought. I had no understanding of the Seven Curses’ true powers.

The last thing he allowed himself to remember was Angelica running away while his past self prepared to make her lose consciousness and examine her body and soul.

Letting go of the memory, and after the various scenes settled in his mind, Lucian opened his eyes and felt the state of his meridians and Qi.

With a faint smile, he felt he was enlightened.

All Qi techniques must pass through the Bright Yang Meridian, he thought. And to externalize Qi, I must make it flow through it. Reverting Yin Meridian will be used when I want to externalize Qi from any point of my body.

Lucian felt he could control the Qi in his body without relying on intent, so he guided it toward his upper abdomen, where the Bright Yang Meridian originated, and commanded Qi to flow through it.

When the Qi reached his finger through the meridian, he raised his hand and attempted to project it outward. Next, invisible to his eyes but multicolored in his Qi perception, a small puff of gaseous Qi left his fingertip.

Smiling, he thought, Qi techniques must follow a specific rhythm and pass through specific meridians to work.

He had gained much from a single cultivation session, mostly because of the theory he felt he had just validated.

If I understand the role of each meridian and then recall moments of my life connected to it, I will be enlightened about its other uses and cultivate more efficiently, he thought, turning his gaze toward Wang Chen.

Watching the young man with undisguised greed, Lucian arrived at a decision.

You must live and be useful to me. I will make sure to understand what those blood vessels were, and to make you improve my cultivation even more!

With that resolution, he adjusted his plans and began considering how to rescue Bai Xiaomeng as quickly as possible. He needed a better leash for the unexpectedly talented Wang Chen, and he had no desire to resort to mind control, slavery, or other similar methods.

Lucian wasn’t being kind. He just had a feeling that unless Wang Chen cooperated, his experiments would fail. Besides, turning a man who survived every odd into his enemy wasn't very smart.

What Lucian needed to do was give Wang Chen a reason to become stronger and rely on him.

And in his experience, a young man’s desire for power was driven more by the need to protect and possess the one he loved than by anything else.

I will control Bai Xiaomeng to make Wang Chen become my tool, Lucian thought, his eyes shining a crimson light.