Chapter 123 - Ridiculous Discovery (Part II) (Patreon)

In a pitch-black darkness, Lucian saw a crimson energy materialize within a younger version of himself. Unlike the previous times he had remembered his early life, in this memory Lucian's expression was not one of excitement or happiness.

It was a bleak, depressive visage.

Stumbling through the darkness, his younger self opened and closed his mouth before sitting down and hugging his knees.

Pathetic, Lucian thought, remembering why he had acted like that.

Along with this memory, six pits formed within the darkness, shimmering with light. His younger self appeared deeply puzzled, yet remained where he was, as though unconcerned by what was happening.

I was such a fool, Lucian thought, slightly enraged and annoyed with himself. I could have avoided so much trouble if I had acted rationally.

The memory passed quickly, as little happened beyond the six pits slowly filling with crimson light. That remained unchanged until Lucian recalled the abrupt change. After the six pits had been filled, the darkness shattered, and the young Lucian appeared naked in the middle of a prairie.

His younger self looked deeply disturbed. He conjured armor from Blood Essence and muttered, “I should be dead.”

After a while, he expanded his perception and leaped upward, using Blood Essence to fly high into the sky. Then, looking below, the younger Lucian’s eyes widened in shock, and he nearly fell.

Beyond the prairie, countless mummified corpses could be seen.

As far as his eyes could reach, animals, magical beasts, mutants, mages, commoners, and vampires lay dead.

Lucian saw a giant twenty times his size reduced to a dried corpse resting atop a broken castle. Elsewhere, in a forest, he saw tens of dead earthworms, each as large as a castle's tower, all drained of blood.

Wherever his past self flew, there were corpses.

Inside taverns in what had become ghost kingdoms, inside silent villages, and among lakes, the dead remained. Lucian remembered spending days flying across the region. He searched for signs of life while traveling the way back to his castle, but found nothing.

In his memories, that period passed as a blur, consumed by doubts about whether this was the afterlife and fear of what he would find at his destination if this was the living world.

When he arrived at a ruined castle containing four headless mummified corpses in the middle of it, the young version of Lucian became convinced that he was still alive.

Each corpse belonged either to a lifelong friend or his current wife, people he had deeply trusted and transformed into vampires at their own request. They had eventually joined neighboring kingdoms and magical forces in a plot to kill him.

He recalled how seeing those he had once considered friends, but later became his enemies, had changed something inside him. In truth, as soon as he detected no sign of life in the castle, the last vestige of light vanished from his eyes.

His past self knew there was only one being capable of killing so many people by draining them of blood. And he was aware of what caused it.

“The Curse of Wrath,” his younger self muttered, remembering the rune marked by six dots. “It was me.”

The young Lucian closed his eyes as pain stabbed through his heart. He slowly walked through the castle and searched the debris of one of its towers for a ruined room. He could have searched faster, but his heart was filled with dread and grief. There was no surprise about what he would find.

It took time. He chose to do the job with his bare hands, and if not because the looming clouds blocked the sun, he would have burned right there.

When he found the dried husk of a teenager lying on the floor, the younger Lucian knelt and embraced the corpse. There were no tears for him to cry, only eyes filled with darkness.

Remembering that scene, Lucian gritted his teeth, his mind filling with rage.

Hilda, he thought, remembering his second wife and the woman who had organized the coup. Hobert’s life was in your hands as much as it was in mine. You should have told me about what you felt! I would have discovered sooner what the problem was!

He remembered exactly what happened next.

“No!” his younger self cried, clutching his dead son. “I accepted my death! This wasn’t supposed to happen! You can't take this from me! I need to die with my son!”

It was then that Lucian attempted to detonate his Blood Essence and destroy his own body.

He failed.

After this, he found himself in the darkness once more, within his Sea of Consciousness. But this time, part of him recognized why he was there.

“It can't be.” He laughed sadly, soon settling into a dejected smile. “The Curse of Wrath will make me live, no matter what? I don't have a choice about my own life?!”

Of course, Lucian at that time was wrong and didn’t understand the trigger of the Curse of Wrath yet. Much less its true power.

Turning to the darkness, the young Lucian shouted, “Trap me here as much as you can! I won’t bend for you! The moment I leave, I'll detonate myself!”

Despite his screams, nothing answered back. He was alone, with only his own mind, soul, and sense of self. And in that loneliness, the young Lucian started to see beyond the darkness.

As the current Lucian remembered doing so, he felt something click, and his cultivation surged.

However, even when he felt that he was right and that the Sea of Consciousness was indeed connected to the Greater Yin Metal Meridian, Lucian felt no happiness.

More and more memories of him entering his Sea of Consciousness passed through his mind, but he focused on the earliest one.

He focused on that resolute younger self, who had been betrayed by close friends, killed an entire domain, murdered his own son, and then was forced to live in darkness for years before finding the strength to move on.

The Curse of Wrath kept him in there until he had recovered his will to live.

Lucian could only wonder whether he would have stood up again if he had known what awaited him. With a sigh, he let go of the memory and opened his eyes, feeling that he had reached the bottleneck of the middle stage of the Qi Gathering realm.

Which meant he had unlocked the sixth meridian, the Greater Yin Metal Meridian.

“Is everything okay, Benefactor?” Wang Chen asked, startling Lucian.

The plump young man was looking at him with wide eyes filled with doubt.

“Yes,” Lucian answered. “It’s time to continue your cultivation session.”

Wang Chen nodded and moved to sit in front of Lucian with his back facing him.

Inwardly, however, he was filled with doubts. Just a moment ago, he could have sworn he had seen sadness in the depths of Lucian’s eyes before it was hidden beneath the usual apathy and coldness.

It was hard for Wang Chen to accept that he had seen the truth, but just as Lucian had shown kindness to him, he thought that maybe, just maybe, Lucian could have feelings like everyone else.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his back as Lucian thrust two fingers into his flesh and reopened his previous wounds.

“Be ready,” Lucian said in a cold tone. “We still have six more meridians to open.”