To Me, You Are Good

Ga Shu and Yaan moved on.

Their only purpose in coming here, was to find a place for Yaan to slaughter powerful opponents. When they found beasts, Yaan killed beasts. When they found people, Yaan killed people.

His mental condition was becoming increasingly unstable, but now and then, Yaan had rare moments of clarity.

"Ga Shu, do you not feel that the things I have done are unforgivable? Evil, even?" Yaan spoke in a dream-like tone as he stared into the distance, not looking up at the immortal by his side.

Ga Shu immediately stopped what he was doing when he saw that a hint of clarity had returned to his lord's eyes.

"Evil?" Ga Shu asked with a soft smile. "My lord, I do not believe that you are evil. In the first place, I don't think that actions can be so easily defined as such. Is peace inherently good? Is suffering inherently evil? Is it good to help others? Is it evil to harm others? Who decided what is good, and what is evil? And if these ideals were decided by someone, or something, other than ourselves…then why should we care?"

Ga Shu's answer left Yaan feeling dazed for a moment, but Ga Shu had more to say.

"My lord, to me, you are the kindest person in this entire world. You gifted me a medicine that I was unable to obtain on my own back then. You gave my wife another few decades of waking life. You allowed me to spend those few decades by her side…so no matter how many others call you evil, no matter how others label your actions, to me, you will always be my saviour. To me, your actions back then were greatest 'good' in my entire life. To me, you are good."

Yaan turned his head to look upwards and smiled at Ga Shu, but before long, his smile became twisted with malevolence and bloodlust. Seeing this, Ga Shu sighed.

"Lord, I hope that once you cultivate this technique to its peak, that somehow, your sane mind will return. But if you reach that peak and you are still lost…I promise that I will help you to find your way back."

Yaan flew up from the peak of this inactive volcano, flying in a seemingly random direction. Somehow, he always managed to find large groups of relatively powerful living beings though, so Ga Shu always just followed after him.

Scattered all around the base of this volcano that the pair had been idly chatting on moments ago, thousands of corpses were littered messily. They were the corpses of dust serpents, ash-grey serpents with meagre strength, rarely surpassing Rank 3. However, these snakes always travelled in enormous packs.

Of course, Yaan had killed those thousands of snakes without any difficulty.

Some time later, Yaan once again suddenly dove down into a volcano. Ga Shu sighed, but then became tense when he realised that for the second time, this was a nest of volcanic pythons!

He rushed in after Yaan and reached out for his leg, but his eyes widened as his hand phased through where Yaan's leg had just been.

It was only an illusion!

Unknowingly, even though Yaan's mind was affected, his combat senses remained. He recalled the last time that he was stopped by Ga Shu and used this move to prevent the same thing from happening again!

BANG!

Instantly, an explosion of lava flew in all directions as Yaan crazily attacked the various volcanic pythons of all sizes and strengths. He cut through tens of Rank 1, 2 and 3 pythons with a single swing, before the larger Rank 4 and Rank 5 pythons emerged from lower down.

Ga Shu tried to intervene, quickly slipping past the snakes, but he found that Yaan was diving deeper and deeper. As an immortal, Ga Shu found it absurd that he could not instantly catch up to the descent speed of Yaan, a mortal, but the truth was right before him!

As Ga Shu focussed his gaze, he saw that Yaan was using the footwork of his sword arts to traverse downwards, allowing him to quickly bypass the various obstacles. Combined with this phasing style of illusions, he was like a ghost, moving wherever he pleased, wild and unhindered!

The heads of Rank 4 and Rank 5 volcanic pythons began to fly, catapulting upwards towards Ga Shu as Yaan continued to accelerate his flight downwards.

These python heads were the size of elephants, they were grey and orange in colour.

Splash!

Yaan actually emerged from the molten lava, exiting the bottom of the thick fluid and entering a hot, black cave. The lava was suspended above his head, held in place by some unknown force.

When Ga Shu landed and looked around tentatively, he found that strangely, the ground beneath his feet was quite slippery.

Ga Shu felt chills pulsate through his body.

The dim cavern was previously almost pitch black. The only source of light came from the faint orange glow of the floating lava far above their heads, but after Ga Shu took a step back, the entire area became illuminated by a deep, piercing red light.

Yaan's head whipped around and his eyes narrowed as the two red slits entered his field of view.

Both Yaan and Ga Shu froze. They both realised it at the same time, but they could hardly believe that they were actually so unlucky!

It was a Rank 7 volcanic python!

Ga Shu frantically turned towards Yaan, worried that he would recklessly charge forwards and attack, but the immense threat and danger to his life managed to snap Yaan out from his slaughterous mindset.

His desire was to slaughter, not to be slaughtered!

"GO!" Ga Shu roared.

He didn't need to say it twice, they both flew upwards at the same exact moment.

They could faintly see the black serpent unwinding itself down below. It didn't seem to be moving all that fast, but the pair felt as if they weren't increasing their distance from the reptilian monster at all!

It was in this moment that they realised…this was no ordinary Rank 7 beast, it was likely a Rank 7 beast in its later stages of growth!

Those two red slit eyes, each were as large as an entire cathedral tower.

Every single scale dwarfed the gardens back at Yaan's temple.

Its body was so thick that even 100 grown men would not be able to wrap their arms around its girth if they linked hands and formed a human chain!

No, this was a serious monster!

"GURAHHHHHH!"

A sound unlike that of a snake echoed out from the beast below. The deafening sound waves collided with Yaan and Ga Shu, but also with the other pythons, the countless rocks and boulders, and the entire contents of this volcano. As this overbearing shockwave slammed into everything all around the beast, its entire surroundings were forcibly pushed upwards all at once!

Yaan was thrown into disarray, he barely managed to recollect himself as he was thrust upwards. Whilst he was tumbling about chaotically, doing his best to avoid being crushed to death, the monstrous serpentine beast raised its head from the volcano pit, staring up at him with those piercing red eyes.

In an instant, the volcano erupted. Yaan, Ga Shu and everything else was thrust into the ash-filled air.

As Yaan looked back at the beast, his mind rushing, trying to find any possible way to survive this, Ga Shu lightly touched his shoulder…

Yaan turned towards Ga Shu in bewilderment, not understanding why he seemed so calm, and why his actions were seemingly unhurried.

However, when he saw that gentle, peaceful smile on the face of the Aztec man, he understood immediately.

"Ga Shu, don't you dare-!"

"Let us meet up later, my lord."

With those short few words, Ga Shu quickly moved his hands, then exerted a tremendous force into the side of Yaan's body.

The world blurred before Yaan's eyes. He was flying past countless mountain ranges and volcanoes before he could even feel the pain of his completely crushed ribcage. He span around thousands of times, such that when he finally pulled himself together and managed to come to a stop, he was not even sure which direction he had just come from!

Yaan looked around, sharply moving his head and narrowing his eyes in every direction as his fists became increasingly clenched due to his realisation.

"Damnit!" Yaan roared out loud, releasing his helpless growl towards the ash-ridden sky.

Ga Shu didn't just push him, he placed two talismans on Yaan's body. These were disposable treasures, and when used together, the effect was quite substantial.

The first catapulted and propelled the target for thousands of miles. The second completely disoriented the target, making them unable to find their way back to their 'attacker'. The combination of these two talismans ensured that Yaan had no possible chance of returning to Ga Shu's side right now.

In the end, Yaan slumped down in defeat. There was nothing he could do, he didn't even know where Ga Shu and the giant serpent were. He could only hope that Ga Shu had procured enough of those talismans to preserve his own life also.

"Yaan, you should return to the Bloody Totem Province and wait for Ga Shu there." Rui's voice was transmitted into his mind.

In this Volcanic Wasteland, there were not many distinguishable landmarks. But even if there were, Yaan and Ga Shu had never decided on a place to meet one another in case of their separation…Ga Shu was an immortal and Yaan's strength was unmatched below the Immortal Step…they hadn't expected to encounter something that would force them to suddenly separate like this.

Since it was like this, the only logical place for them to reunite, was back at Yaan's temple in the Bloody Totem Province.

Yaan wanted to kill everything in sight right now, even after that near escape…no, perhaps it was those heightened emotions following his near-death escape that led to the slaughterous desires becoming even stronger!

And slaughtering to cultivate his soul had been his objective all along…

But Ga Shu was an invaluable asset, he was an immortal with unquestionable loyalty towards Yaan. Ga Shu could guard him, both against immortals, and against himself.

Rationally, it made far more sense to return to the Bloody Totem Province, to reconvene with one another there, then to set out once again.

Yaan took a deep breath, forcing his rational mind to prevail. He withdrew a compass and a detailed map from his spatial ring, then began navigating his way home…

Only, he became distracted constantly, drawn in by every living being in sight. Whenever he saw life, he wanted to kill. Whenever he saw something to slaughter, slaughter enveloped his mind, and he was simply unable to think of anything else!

And so, Rui took on the role of navigator. She guided him, constantly speaking, acting as the voice of reason in his ear. She did not get frustrated when he went off track, nor did she show any joy when he regained hints of clarity.

She was clear, calm and consistent, the very embodiment of rationality and reason.

Finally, Yaan made his way back to the Bloody Totem Province…

Only now, things were not as he had left them.