Her Story

When Mayton opened his eyes he saw the strange room of Leyzhen and Leyzhen herself who was drawing something on a parchment sitting on her simple chair. He was lying on a crystal bed that didn't exist in the room previously. This bed gave him a soothing feeling, it was so comfortable, he thought that it wouldn't be too bad to stay in this bed forever.

''You are finally awake. Your situation is worse than I first thought so it seems like I can't avoid explaining a few things to you. I'll answer some of your questions later but let me tell you a story first...''

Leyzhen started to talk without lifting her head from the parchment she was drawing on.

In the distant past, there was a world of flames, named the purgatory world because the worst criminals were banished to there as a form of punishment. If the criminal managed to leave the purgatory world alive, then all of his or her crimes would be forgiven. No one knew how this tradition started or why anyone bothered with it, but it was going on for so long, no one was even questioning it anymore.

Because only a few of the criminals left the purgatory world alive, it was almost like a death sentence but there were always exceptions. A few lucky or perhaps unlucky people survived. They were people who lived in different eras with vastly different backgrounds. Some were old, some were young. Some were strong, some were weak. They only had two common traits.

All of them were people who suffered damage to their souls before, and all of them saw the same lofty mountain standing tall, unaffected by the destruction flames wrought in the purgatory world just before losing consciousness, and finding themselves out of the purgatory world. They couldn't forget this mountain no matter what.

At first, they saw it occasionally while meditating. Then it started to appear at their dreams. At that point, it was already impossible for them to continue cultivating. And, finally, saying that the mountain was calling them, they returned to the purgatory world, never to be heard of before.

When Leyzhen started to talk about the mountain, Mayton was feeling a fiery rage rise up in him, but the crystal bed shined for a brief moment as Mayton's flames of rage subsided like fire getting ice water doused on it. As for Leyzhen, she didn't mind him except for glancing at him for a moment before continuing her story.

Then, an unknown amount of time passed, and the flames of the purgatory world died down, with the intense flames dying down, the tradition of banishing the criminals to this place also ended. The whole world was now a piece of colossal rock, visited by only some adventurous cultivators who were hoping to find remains of the criminals who were banished to this world in the past or trying to find some rare ores refined to an unimaginable degree by the flames of the purgatory world.

One of the cultivators who went to the purgatory world for adventure was the wife of an important figure from an influential divine cultivator clan. But she, herself, was an itinerant cultivator who valued her freedom greatly. All the rules of the high society were suffocating her. Thus she went to the purgatory world to spend some time alone just like she used to do before her marriage as a form of vacation. There were occasional fights breaking out between cultivators while vying for treasures in the purgatory world but it was mostly safe. Especially for rich people like her who had countless treasures at her disposal to ensure her safety. That was why she was able to convince her husband of her safety.

Unfortunately, disaster still struck her. In her youth, her soul had suffered damage when she was trying to cultivate but it has been a long time since then, and only an insignificant residual damage was left after using countless panaceas. But many years later this insignificant damage turned out to be fatal.

She, while adventuring, came across the mountain from the legends. Despite the passage of time, the mountain still stood tall, as if defying the effects of time. Strangely such a huge mountain wasn't seen by anyone else for countless years except for her. There were even some who started to doubt it ever existed in the first place.

But, it stood right in front of her, in all its magnificence. She knew that everyone who encountered the mountain suffered a terrible fate, but wasn't she here for the sense of freedom and excitement she had before her marriage? Was there a bigger excitement than exploring a place she heard about only in legends before?

Thus she went towards the mountain after sending a message to her husband specifying her situation and her decision to explore the mountain. This message was also the last thing anyone ever heard from her.

While listening to Leyzhen's story, Mayton's rage was becoming more and more uncontrollable. It was obvious if this went on even the crystal bed won't be able to rein his rage in. But Leyzhen still ignored him and continued with her story. The only visible difference was the longing in her eyes...

When the husband of the adventurous cultivator got her message, he immediately went to the purgatory world in a bid to stop his willful wife, but he couldn't even find the mountain let alone his wife. It was like her wife and the mountain she saw disappeared into thin air.

Even though his clan advised him to forget about his wife, he was adamant to find her, dead or alive. With his mind made up, he proceeded to occupy the whole purgatory world. He bribed those who could be bribed and fought those who couldn't be, and in the end, the control of the planet fell into his hands. But since he defied the clan and used its resources for his own purposes, the clan cut all their connections with him and erased his name from the clan register. Now he was alone in his hopeless task except for his servant whose fate was bound to him.

After a long time, defying all odds and garnering the envy of his clansmen, the purgatory world was already rife with life as the husband settled the planet with all kinds of living beings while defending it from all dangers, putting his life on the line repeatedly. It was now a rich planet with all the people living on it producing pure qi. But the husband was not interested in any of the wealth. He just used all of it to ensure the safety of the planet and finding more ways to search for his wife.

One day, his persistence was finally rewarded. He, for an exorbitant price, purchased a clue about the mountain from an ancient devil who consumed the soul of one of the survivors from the purgatory world back in the day before the survivor went completely mad and returned to the purgatory world. This clue was a map and a special technique to locate the mountain when used together with the map.

At first, the man wasn't sure of the validity of the map and only bought it because of his desperation, but when he tried it, the map combined with the special technique really helped him locate the mountain. So he, together with his most trusted servant, immediately set off to find out the truth about his wife disappearance.

Two people went to the mountain, and two people returned, but the husband was not one of the two who returned. Only his servant littered with wounds wearing a tattered robe, indicating that he survived a dangerous encounter, and a little girl in his embrace whom he claimed to be his master's daughter returned from the mountain.

According to the servant, his lady was already pregnant when she left for the purgatory world and the child survived because of the special technique she got subjected to, which slowed her aging but damaged her soul. As for his lady, he claimed that she was nowhere to be found.

When asked about the fate of his master, the servant said that he, in a bid to save his daughter, fought against the mountain which was in fact, an ancient demon with a wounded soul hibernating to heal its soul. After an earth shaking battle which partly devastated the purgatory world once more, his master was getting the upper hand because he targeted his attacks on the ancient demon's yet to heal soul. Seeing that it was going to lose the fight, the ancient demon used a double edged technique to banish him to an unknown space. The ancient demon did succeed but paid a terrible price for it as its soul shattered to three pieces.

'' And that ancient demon was named Mayton.''

Just when Leyzhen finished her story, Mayton who was in a half conscious state for some time, snarled at her as a prison made of ice materialized around the crystal bed and stopped Mayton from attacking Leyzhen.

''Seal!''

Leyzhen shouted and made an incantation gesture. With that, all the parchments on her desk flew up at once and gathered above Mayton. After all the parchments gathered above him, they began burning as Mayton thrashed around in the crystal bed while an illusory mountain appeared behind him. All the burning parchments rushed over to the illusory mountain like moths to the flames and got destroyed immediately on contact, leaving the strange drawings of Leyzhen marked on the mountain.

An unearthly howl of rage came from Mayton's mouth as the mountain started to shrink until it disappeared into Mayton's glabella, leaving Mayton on the crystal bed panting heavily, blood seeping out from his facial orifices.

''Swallow this to heal your soul and then you can ask your questions.''

Said Leyzhen in a tired voice as she threw a medicinal pill to Mayton.