Hidden Motivations (2)

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After deceiving Echidna once again, Icarus calmly begins to tell her a story.

This story is about a young man named Lei Zhi! Lei Zhi had nothing special when compared to others his age. He wasn't the most intelligent, nor the richest, let alone the strongest. Even his appearance was as common as possible, neither handsome nor ugly!

Despite this, Lei Zhi still had a very strong will. Since, despite growing up in an environment full of crime and poverty, he was still able to live his life as honestly as possible.

Unfortunately, life was not very fair to him. He was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up dying in a very tragic way!

As he died and felt his thoughts deteriorating and being consumed by a darkness that seemed to be infinite, Lei Zhi regretted it!

He not regretted it by way he lived, no; instead, he regretted it for all the things he couldn't live from then on!

Thus, full of regrets for a life that he could no longer live; Lei Zhi had his conscience seized by darkness and the eternal emptiness that is death!

However, Lei Zhi's story does not end there, because unexpectedly, shortly after his death, he found himself waking up in a different world, in the body of a young man with the same name as him!

This world was completely different from the one he used to live in, in this world there were extremely strong people, who fought against the will of the heavens and cultivated the energy of the universe, in order to rule their own destiny!

These beings were known as immortals, they were able to do several fantastic things like travel through the skies in flying swords, cutting mountains in half with a wave of their hands and even boiling oceans with a single thought.

Faced with such greatness, Lei Zhi is obviously amazed by the possibilities that this new world presented him, and even imagines himself walking in the clouds as if he were a god.

However, despite the dream being beautiful, the reality was cruel!

Examining the memories of the previous owner of the body, Lei Zhi realizes that it is useless to harbor these wild ambitions! For he was not only born into an extremely poor family, but also since he as a young he was branded as garbage, for having no talent for following the path of the martial arts and cultivation.

Devastated by this, Lei Zhi wanders aimlessly through the streets. While walking despondently through the streets, he comes across some men kicking a beggar who is on the ground covering his head with his hands while desperately asking for help.

When he looks closely, he realizes that everyone else ignores the beggar and simply passes him by.

Faced with such a scene, Lei Zhi is outraged by this injustice and decided to intervene! Of course, the men do not like his intervention at all, and they go out to fight. Thanks to the intense struggle, Lei Zhi ends up getting full of injuries. Even so, in the end, he still manages to successfully expel the aggressors.

With that done, he helps the beggar to get up. And then after giving some advices, he tries to leave.

However, the beggar stops him and says that he needs to reward him for his kindness.

Imagining that the beggar is trying to give him the only thing of value left to him, Lei Zhi feels bad and tries to refuse. Despite this, the beggar insists and he ends up accepting it. Then, while speaks a strange enigma, the beggar hands him a medallion.

After that, the beggar suddenly disappears, as if he's never been there since the beginning.

Seeing this, Lei Zhi is confused, but soon recovers and full of fear decides to throw the medallion away.

After doing this, Lei Zhi roams the streets a little more and then goes home.

On the night of the same day, while he has difficulty sleeping, because of his injuries, Lei Zhi suddenly hears a mysterious voice in his head. At first, he ignores and thinks that tiredness is playing tricks on him.

However, he soon realizes that it is not that simple! Lei Zhi realizes that although he threw it away earlier, without him noticing it, the medallion appeared on his neck.

He quickly tries to remove the medallion, but soon realizes that he can't. At that moment, the voice from earlier speaks to the Lei Zhi again.

The voice then says that the medallion on his neck is very special, as it contains another dimension where it is sealed!

The voice also says that Lei Zhi was chosen to be the new guardian of the medallion and as the medallion is linked to him, the only way to remove it is by dying.

After overcoming the shock of this revelation, Lei Zhi is curious and somewhat frightened, about the identity of the owner of the voice. Shortly afterwards he discovers that the voice belongs to a specialist who is sealed in the medallion.

This expert says he is extremely powerful and the only reason for being sealed was that close friends who feared his strength and knowledge betrayed him.

Hearing this, instead of getting excited or scared, Lei Zhi becomes sad, as he remembers that he has no talent for cultivating.

Seeing this, the mysterious specialist hesitates a little and after a long internal struggle, he decides.

The expert then lets out a long breath, and tells to Lei Zhi that he will help him to fulfill his dream of being a cultivator.

However, only on one condition... in the future when Lei Zhi is strong enough, he must break the seal on the medallion. Thus destroying the prison that holds him, helping him to return from the other dimension!

Hearing this rather suspicious proposal Lei Zhi does not give his answer immediately, but remains silent as he lost momentarily in thoughts

After weighing the pros and cons, he still ends up losing to his desire of become a cultivator. Then, while gritting his teeth, Lei Zhi reluctantly accepts the proposal of the mysterious specialist, thus becoming his disciple!

Coming to this part of the story, Icarus suddenly stops and after clapping twice to get attention and says

"Okay! That's it, let's stop here for today!"

[Huh? Why did you stop just when it was getting interesting? Now I was curious to know what will happen! Like...

What is the beggar's real identity?

Why did he choose Lei Zhi as the guardian of the medallion?

What is the medallion?

Perhaps... an Ancient Era Artifact?

If so, how the hell did such an item end up in the hands of a mortal?

Besides that... is the mysterious specialist, who is sealed in the medallion, good or bad?

Is he really able to help Lei Zhi become an immortal?

Answer me! I need answers, now!]

Upon hearing something interesting in one of Echidna's doubts, Icarus squints his eyes and think: 'Ancient Era Artifact? What is that? Hmm... regardless of what it is, from her reaction I'm sure that is something extremely powerful... well, whatever!'

Icarus doesn't get too deep into it and quickly puts that issue at the back of his mind.

Then, with a gentle smile, he calmly explains

"Calm down, calm down... Don't be like that, my dear! When you talk like that, it looks like I'm being mean! You know, I'm just valuing my own work!

What I did now is a technique, known as... Cliffhanger! The Cliffhanger serves exactly to hold the attention of the interested parties!"

Echidna is silent when she hears this, but quickly recovers and full of reluctance she says

[B-But, but... I still want to know what happens next!]

Seeing that his words do not form enough to convince, Icarus sighs and says

"Sigh! Okay, listen... If you want to hear, more you will have to wait until I think about what will happen next! Since, even though I already have the central plot and the ending, I can't just skip the whole development of the story, don't you agree?"

After hesitating for a second, she responds in an almost unyielding voice

[Y-Yeah...]

Satisfied, Icarus nods and then continues

"Besides, the "free trial" is over! Now, if you want to hear more, you'll have to pay!"

Icarus raises his arms and as open his fists, he says

"This is how it works: you give me your coins..."

He closes his right hand and brings it close to his chest, and at the same time that he pushes his left hand forward, as if he were delivering something, he says

"... and in return I will tell you another part of the story!"

[Ohh...]

"That's my dear friend, is what we call... a give-and-take situation, and this simple and wonderful exchange is what keeps the beautiful system known as capitalism working!"

After saying that, he stops for a moment as if remembering something

"Ohh... Just so you know, I love capitalism!"

Icarus then smiles and whispers to himself:

"...After all, using this system, I can fool a lot of idiots out there! Huehuehue!"

[Huh? What did you say?]

"N-No, it was nothing important, please don't mind me!"

[Nothing important, huh...]

Hearing her suspicious tone, Icarus coughs and quickly tries to change the subject

"Ahem! Anyway, that's what I had to say! I particularly find my offer quite fair! So... what's your answer?"

[Yes, I understand! I'll save all my coins, so...]

Icarus' reasoning really makes sense, and Echidna readily agrees with him, but then she realizes that something is not right

[Wait a minute]

"Shit... it looks like she finally figured it out! Huehuehue!"

The moment Echidna realizes the situation she is in, she screams angrily

[Icarus you bastard! What exactly was that?]

Hearing this, Icarus casually puts his hands behind his head and with an amused smile, he asks

"What's it? Didn't you like my story? "

[Y-Yes, I liked it!]

Not expecting this question, Echidna ends up answering involuntarily, but she quickly recovers and says

[Wait... that's not the point here!]

While ignoring her subsequent words Icarus continues

"Glad you like! It seems that the time I spent reading that book was not in vain!"

[Huh? A book? Which book?]

"Ohh, that? It's simple, a few days before I die, I read a book with a very interesting title! It called... <Chinese Stories in a Nutshell>!

In this book, with this very specific title, explains how to create and structure a good chinese story! By the way, I recommend you to read it, if you have time, it is very interesting book!"

[...]

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