Overwhelming Arrogance

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

A teenage girl, around eighteen, shivered as she stared through the gap of a door.

The room she was currently in was very luxurious and, from the layout, appeared to be some sort of 'waiting room' for the adjacent room she was peering into. Naturally, no one else was in the room with her, otherwise, her behaviour of peering into another room would be questioned.

The waiting room itself was quite large and was floored with a large carpet with golden embroidery. Armchairs, as well as sofas, dotted the area with large and small tables in between them. There was also a station which would usually be manned by a maid or butler to serve drinks. It was obvious that this building was designed for very powerful people.

In this Universe, there were no rich mortals. When power was so readily attainable, the mask that weaklings wore to survive faded away. True intentions were revealed and with it: eternal dispute. The power granted by cultivation was nectar for the 'righteous' to uphold their values and the 'evil' to preach theirs.

Within the waiting room, there were many doors that served as entry. A few of them were ajar and long corridors could be seen. Light shone through the windows and onto the corridor, giving a comfortable feeling to whoever saw it. Overall, the room the girl was currently in and the corridors were architected with great precision and luxury, showing that this building was a home to very powerful cultivators within the city. All of these doors were on one side of the room which was behind the girl.

The girl continued to stare with wide eyes and covered her mouth. It could be heard that she was desperately trying to stifle her tears and voice while staring through the gap in the door. From time to time, light gasping which was a product of uneven breathing came from her. However, she seemed to garner no attention from the other side of the gap as she remained in the same place; staring.

Great uneasiness and nervousness plagued her bearing. The girl's long and black hair looked messy and uncombed. His delicate hands were clenched tightly as her body shook unsteadily.

The door she was peeking through was on the opposite wall to the many 'entry doors.' This one, however, was much bigger than the others. As well as being the only door on this wall, it was more than five meters in height while the others were barely three.

In fact, the room the girl was currently in was the only entry to the room she was staring into. The door she was next to was the only door leading into it. However, she didn't think about the possibility of being caught and was frozen in place.

"Aaaahhhhh-!" A terrifying scream suddenly resounded but was cut off halfway and only silence remained.

During the scream, the girl wanted to cry out but found that her voice was dry. Thus, she could only watch on without a sound; inner turmoil destroying her mind. When the scream suddenly ceased, the girl collapsed onto her knees and turned her face toward the ground. Tears fell from underneath her long and luscious hair and made quiet noises as they impacted the thick carpet.

The thick carpet that was cushioned helped the girl remain unnoticed as her knees silently hit the floor. No longer daring to look through the gap in the door, the girl could only pitifully whisper one word.

"Da...ddy." There was an intense pain and mourning in her voice as the tears fell at a faster rate than before. Her voice was so quiet that no one could hear it, but to her, the word was screamed within her mind continuously.

At this moment, she felt incredibly alone. The one father that had raised her all by himself, fed her, played with her, celebrated her and comforted her; was dead. Just the mere fact that she and he can no longer exist at the same time riddled her mind. She wanted to touch him and for him to touch her back, however, that was now impossible. That strong and caring voice will never be heard again.

The girl felt especially sad. However, this was grief. The feelings she was feeling had been felt by many others: the loneliness of life. The living were destined to be separated from all those who were dead. The concept was so obvious but so profound.

The girl's heartbeat could be heard within her ears as she couldn't stop thinking about her father's smile. She wanted to stop thinking about him but strangely felt that if she did so, she would be disrespecting him.

She wanted to be reminded of his voice, but there was no one to speak. His voice was only within her memories, however, they will be distorted with time and by her fantasies until the memory of her father's voice would be different. Thinking of this, the girl wanted time to stop so she could be as close to the time when he was alive.

However, would something as grand as the Law of Time be bent by a puny mortal? Maybe if she was stronger, a god, it would be possible. Maybe there was a being out there that could bend time and forever be with their loved ones. However, the girl knew such a thing was unattainable for little her.

The strong reigned supreme. If one became strong enough, absolutely anything was possible. Manipulating space and time, creating life and anything one could dream of. This was the beauty of cultivation: it was a gateway for dreams.

A lonely boy could create friends if he was strong enough. A mourning widow could go back in time to when her husband was alive. With strength, desire could be satiated.

However, how many people were the same when they were strong as when they were weak? How could they be sure that they could stay true to themselves over the course of time? Maybe the boy got so strong, he decided no friend was worthy of himself. Maybe the widow found a new man within the expansive Universe.

The minds and wills of beings are corroded and distorted by time.

The girl found herself unable to stop thinking about her father out of adoration. Her pure daughterly love for her father stopped the girl from comprising herself. She lay sobbing, reminiscing about her father and his dreams. All of a sudden, the girl found herself valuing her father's dreams so much more now that he was unable to fulfil them himself.

"Aa-!" As the girl was lost in her grief, another deathly scream came from the room but was much shorter than before.

Raising her head to reveal a beautiful face stained with tears, the girl looked through the gap once more. Darting her sapphire-blue eyes around but making sure to avoid a particular corpse, the girl only mourned harder.

'Uncle!' This time, the pitiful girl's uncle met his pathetic demise under the hand of the same person who killed her father. The girl saw her father's corpse not far from her uncle's. However, the image became unclear as her sight went blurry because her eyes were clouded by flowing tears.

Wiping away the tears and turning her head to look at a certain person in the centre of the room, the girl's expression turned ferocious as she stared with immense hatred and disgust. The girl directed murderous glances that went unnoticed toward this certain person before making a move.

She picked herself up from the tear-stained carpet before turning around to flee the scene. Directing one last glance at the corpse of her father through the gap, she turned around and ran out of the waiting room.

She had enjoyed her last breath within this cage of beasts. She wanted to escape and reunite with the rest of her family outside of it.

Thus, Qing Chu Hua left with a determined expression upon her face.

...

Watching the last shred of life leave Meng Ai's dead eyes and the rapid breathing finally cease, Qing Fang turned his gaze from her and toward his surroundings. He needed to make sure everything was in order before he vacated the scene. After all, carelessness would be the death of him now that he was a mortal.

Before him, Meng Ai's body lay pathetically at his feet. She was curled up into the foetal position while laying on her side and clutching her abdomen with a pain-filled expression and dried tears on her face.

The blades of grass seemed to gently hold her dead body as those near her mouth were died a bright red. Since her internal organs were crushed and she was left to bleed out without a fatal blow from Qing Fang, she coughed up a lot of blood before finally dying. Her body was still warm as blood was still fruitlessly flowing through her veins with any residual strength her heart had left. Even though she was dead, there was a colour in her cheeks that were stained with tears.

Looking at the grass that seemed to have changed, Qing Fang became interested. It seemed that nature was mourning the loss of Meng Ai as the wind gently blew with a mournful feeling. Breathing in deeply, Qing Fang laughed. This was the world. There was no fairness simple because such a concept did not exist. Innocent children like Meng Ai die beneath his feet and there shall be no repercussions so long as he is alive. Of course, apart from Qing Fang's fellow human beings who judge others and execute them like they are the gods of Hell.

Such arrogance was far behind his, in his eyes. Not only that, the essence of the Dao is to "live in balance with everything that exists." To take the role of the gods of Hell, who judge if dead souls are worthy of reincarnation, is to abandon the binds of their purpose. To do such a thing is to disrupt the balance of the Universe, violating the Dao. Qing Fang would never "judge" someone but would happily send someone to Hell in line with his and their fate.

People like Qing Fang lived in concert with the Dao while those that believe they have the right to decide who is "good" and "evil" will suffer in the Hell of Godly Impiety as they blatantly disregard the Dao which preached balance.

Not at all surprised by the sudden change in the environment, Qing Fang looked at Meng Ai. Her eyes were wide-open and stared with no focus.

His interest peaked, Qing Fang knelt down and reached out his steely arm, wrapped in muscles, and clutched the face of Meng Ai. Holding her limp face by the chops, he then turned her eyes in his direction. Locking eyes with the corpse, Qing Fang saw no hate, no regret, no malice, no vengeful intent; only pitiful sadness and a trace of fear.

Looking deep into the emerald eyes, Qing Fang thought. 'This girl is just too pitiful.' Even Qing Fang could not help but think so. After all, Meng Ai was so innocent and naïve that she didn't even have the will to blame anybody, even himself, for such a cruel death. While many people would feel touched and sympathise, Qing Fang only disdained such a pathetic being.

From this, Qing Fang realised why nature took pity on Meng Ai. Simply, she was a person destined to die. People like this never had any ambition; any yearning for strength. Due to this, Qing Fang could feel nothing but pity and disdain at the death of such a pathetic person.

Looking at the unending sadness in her eyes for a second too long, Qing Fang suddenly felt strange.

He felt his rationality slipping away into darkness and replaced by a wave of unending anger and arrogance. His expression suddenly turned from impartial and slightly amused to rage and anger. Qing Fang's eyes looked like they belonged to another person as his skin turned a shade of deep red.

With red skin and an arrogant look on his face, Qing Fang looked like a demon incarnate.

Using the methods of martial artists, Qing Fang stared into the pitiful and lifeless eyes of Meng Ai as he suddenly squeezed. With a sound similar to crushing fruit, the forefront of Meng Ai's skull was crushed into powder as the skin of her face and whatever lay beneath was violently ripped off.

An aloof and arrogant look appeared in Qing Fang's eyes as he raised his head. Moving his eyes to look down on the still-recognisable face of Meng Ai on a slab of flesh within his hand, Qing Fang slowly exerted more strength, intending to crush this mortal who dared to lock eyes with him. It wasn't only this, he was angry that nature was responding to the death of this insignificant mortal. She was weak, she deserved to die, she was born to die. Why should the Universe take pity on her death? Because she was kind? Innocent? Undeserving?

'Unacceptable!!' Qing Fang cursed the Universe. How dare it take pity on one of his victims? He was a force of nature! The Universe should be impartial, like him! Disdain for the Universe was apparent within Qing Fang as he sent out unending curses.

In spite, his hand erupted with the strength of a peak Stage 5 cultivator as the beautiful face of Meng Ai was crushed into red mist. With a sneer on his face, Qing Fang held contempt for nature for taking pity on such a weakling. Only the strong mattered! In his eyes, this itself was a Law of the Universe. To violate it, the Universe is committing heresy.

Standing tall with the bearing of an emperor, Qing Fang looked down on all that surrounded him. He gazed upon the Law fragments within the air and snorted. Unending Law fragments filled his vision as the world was suddenly filled with strands of colour.

He looked down at his bloodied hand and saw Law fragments of the Law of Blood. Out from the blood, a menacing wisp of blood-red floated and seemed particularly attracted to himself. He could sense their reverence. Feeling the worship of the blood itself, Qing Fang smiled with a content look on his face.

"Good. This is how it should be."

Standing there for no more than ten seconds, a sudden change in Qing Fang's expression occurred. His prideful expression turned to one of solemnity. With the change in Qing Fang, there seemed to be a change in the environment. Like...balance was restored. Still standing tall, but not appearing as big as before, he threw away the sludge of flesh from his hand.

'Sigh. It's getting worse.' What Qing Fang was referring to was his sudden bursts of emotion, just like when he killed Qing Jinfeng and now. His arrogance, which he normally suppressed, surfaces and takes over his mind. Although he doesn't become a different being, it's as though countless subconscious suggestions are planted in his mind, causing him to think a different way.

Although he could summon unholy strength, Qing Fang knew he could not afford to think or act in such a way. Within this world, he is currently one of the very weaklings he disdains. If he acted the way he truly felt and didn't restrain his emotions, however, he would soon be killed.

Due to this, two sides of Qing Fang were born. That of an emperor and that of a sociopath. The constant battle for control plagues Qing Fang every second. However, even when he tried to suppress it, his true nature reveals itself. For example, just now.

Previously, Qing Fang surmised that he could use the strength to kill a Stage 4 cultivator in a single blow at the cost of his life using the muscle-strengthening technique of martial artists and his unlocked soul. In Stages, the strength he would be able to unleash would be equal to quasi Stage 5.

However, just now, Qing Fang used the strength of a peak Stage 5 cultivator to crush Meng Ai's face. Not only that, he was uninjured. Using his restored rationality, Qing Fang remembered how the Law fragments reacted when his true nature was unleashed. They seemed awfully ...submissive. Almost like they were scared of him.

'Maybe the Law fragments required to enact the punishment on my flesh were restrained and could not act, leaving me unharmed..?' As absurd as it sounds, Qing Fang had no choice to accept this conclusion. He saw how the Law fragments, the Law of Blood more so than others, held a sort of fear and reverence toward him.

'Could this be a feature of my unlocked soul? The gap between Stage 6 and Stage 7 is insurmountable by even the greatest genius. Maybe this, as well as an unlocked soul, is why?' Dedicated to theorising about why such a thing occurred to him, Qing Fang's ears suddenly perked up as he turned around.

He was still on the grass plateau that served as the entrance to the sacred garden. Not much of the scenery had changed apart from a few cracks in the ground caused by the charging Meng Chuan and small rivers of blood, tributaries and all, dying the grass red.

No longer waiting like before, Qing Fang walked from the centre of the plateau-where Meng Ai was-to the end of the mountainside trail that led down the mountain. Approaching the abysmal drop down the the city, upward winds assaulted him as he neared the cliff.

Standing at the top of the wide trail that was carved out of the mountainside, Qing Fang had the plateau and the entrance to the sacred garden to the right of him. Glancing down the trail, Qing Fang saw a figure rapidly climbing the trail and approaching him.

Directing a gaze onto the body of this person, Qing Fang saw a voluptuous girl, around eighteen, with a hate-filled gaze. However, the hate wasn't directed his way.

'Sigh. Another child. Why must so many people appear? Can't I head down the trail and enter the city easily?' Seemingly exhausted of all the conspiracies, Qing Fang decided he would try to avoid this girl out of pure unwillingness to be caught within another mess. After all, he was used as a pawn in a Stage 6 elder's plan. Then, after he escaped, he waltzed right into a huge conspiracy involving Meng Chuan. If, by chance, this girl was at the centre of some huge matter as well, wouldn't his luck be too bad?

However, thinking about it, Qing Fang was currently at the sacred garden. This location was the centre of a large conspiracy, to begin with. It wouldn't be strange if it attracted others, right? But even so, Qing Fang was tired of being used and manipulated like a pawn. He had no idea whether killing this girl would benefit someone or sparing her would help another. He would rather just turning invisible.

Now that he was a mortal, fatigue had a raised effect on him. Physical as well as mental. He was just tired and needed to rest. However, he was unsafe right now. He had to enter the city and make sure the Temple will not be able to trace him before restarting cultivation. With so many things at the forefront of his mind, fatigue was bound to build up.

Smoothening out his robes and removing any dirt and bloodstains to the best of his ability, Qing Fang stood waiting with his hands behind his back.

Once the girl had gotten closer, Qing Fang could see tear streaks down her cheeks as well as a vengeful expression. 'So, I was right.' Confirming that this girl had come from some incident he did not want to involve himself in, he spoke to her.

"Excuse me. The entrance to the sacred garden has been closed by the Temple. Any access is denied." Qing Fang spoke with confidence and clarity as he pieced information he had gathered together to impersonate a guard. After he spoke, the girl who was still approaching only directed a murderous glance his way.

Qing Fang had long sensed her cultivation which was at peak Stage 2. Although she was strong, he had no worries about being able to kill her. Even if she turned out to be a genius like that Meng Chuan.

The reason Qing Fang said this instead of allowing her entry was due to the rivers of blood and the body of Meng Ai which was still on display just a few tens of meters to his right. He could impersonate a guard and allow her entry before escaping while she was occupied, however, she knows his face. He could always kill her, but he didn't want to be involved in whatever conspiracy surrounded her by doing so. Thus, he would turn her away before descending the trail himself.

"Excuse me." Qing Fang called out a second time with an intimidating expression-worthy of a guard-on his face. This was because the girl ignored him the first time he spoke. If he didn't appear irritated and insulted, wouldn't that be strange?

Seeing the girl still not respond and approach closer, Qing Fang had an extremely stern tone as he viciously snapped. "Halt!" However, instead of a response, Qing Fang watched as the girl before him manifested jets of water around herself before shooting them to impale himself.

Realising impersonation will not help him in this situation, Qing Fang took a low stance and awaited the arrival of the water jets. Although he did not want to kill this girl due to reasons stated before, he would have no choice if she was this unreasonable. If he escaped during battle to still avoid killing her, the result would be the same if he allowed her entry.

Waiting until the jets of water were too close to have their direction changed by a mere Stage 2 cultivator, Qing Fang adeptly twisted his body to avoid them. His movements were graceful and showed his extremely high attainment in fighting techniques.

Seeing her attacks fail, the girl had an irritated expression filled with impatience, frustration, indignance and wandering thought. Seeing her strange temperament, Qing Fang quickly surmised that she must have recently gone through some trauma. As for what it was? Qing Fang did not care.

Qing Fang looked his opponent's body up and down. She was out of the range of his divine sense by several meters so he wasn't confident of quickly killing her by seizing her soul. However, when analysing his opponent's body from head to toe, Qing Fang was suddenly lost for words.

On the robes of this young girl, he saw an emblem in the form of a blue lotus with golden streams of water on either side of it.

*Another long chapter. 3,868/3,000 words*