The shine of the moon’s rays lightly shined upon the clear surface of the water. Light clouds were spread across the night sky. A star-less sky that could be seen in the water. Along with that peaceful view in that pond, a man’s figure could be seen sitting in front of it. His legs crossed and a pink fishing rod in his hands.
This man didn’t have overwhelming beauty, a figure radiating with power, or an aura of youthfulness around him. It was like he was one with nature itself. Indiscernible by the naked eye. At least, until he placed the first worm on his fishing hook. Taking a closer look at the worm, the man realized that the face seemed kind of similar. Orange hair, pretty skin, and a fierce disposition. But regardless, he threw the worm with the strange face into the pond to see if he could catch any fish.
“How many lives will be taken and ruined before I gain enough strength to begin changing the world?” He asked. Not a single fish came near his hook.
“Will the world truly be better if I forced my ideals upon others?”
“Spreading kindness, forgiveness, and good throughout the world. Will this truly help anyone or anything at all?”
“What if they refuse to change? What if the world prefers this cruel way of living?”
“Is it right of me to force them to conform to my way of thinking? I don’t know for sure if having everyone act the way I'd prefer would be better at all.”
“But my thoughts don’t matter. My strength is too weak to make an impact on this world.”
“Even my allies, are not people I can affect with my ideals.”
“What gain is there to being righteous, kind, and fair? In comparison to being wicked, cruel, and selfish.” Lei Zhi felt a tug on his line and once the fish took the bait, he swiftly pulled on his rod and fished up a red fish.
“Unless you force everyone to act the way you like, I don’t see how you can reform anyone. Only those with the strongest fist can make demands of others.” Ying’s voice said to him.
“Relying on force instead of words isn’t what I'd like to do. The pen is mightier than the sword but the pen by itself isn’t enough for anyone to change anything.” Lei placed the fish to the side of him before throwing another piece of bait inside the pond.
There have been more than a few occasions where both Bing and himself tried to use words to save themselves from dangerous situations. Out of all of those times, it has worked zero times. As the two known lovers of peace and non-violence in Heaven’s Angels, they don’t ever start conflicts with others. It was a known fact and accepted by everyone in the group.
But it was only because of the fact that they defended themselves to protect their own lives that they are still alive today. They don’t care if you beg. They don’t care if you are maimed or disabled. And they don’t care about what you say. Unless it involves something that speaks to their innate cultivator desires. This usually being treasures, martial skills, and other objects that can increase a cultivator’s strength.
Lei Zhi has tried countless times to try and reason with cultivators in situations where death and bloodshed could easily be avoided. Cultivators being greedy, selfish, and uncaring beings only change when forced on the brink of death. And even then, it's still a stretch to say that they would change or face their faults as human beings later on.
“Facing your own faults...? Isn’t that the same as a Heart Demon?” Lei muttered.
“Your goal is entirely idiotic and impossible in my opinion but I don’t really care either way. Do as you like. With enough strength, anything is possible.” Wan Qing’s voice spoke to him as he fished up a beautiful fish that radiated nobility and pride.
“Once again it comes to strength... but what if I didn’t need to rely on raw strength?”
“Instead of trying to force people to become better humans, why don’t I make them see the error of their ways by using something similar to Heart Demons?”
“If people had to see the darkness and evil festering in their hearts, would they be fine with such a thing? Being forced to see the type of terrible human they’re becoming and realizing that they don’t want such a thing would be perfect.”
Lei suddenly stood up. While he realized that making people see their inner selves isn’t a 100% foolproof plan to make them become better people, it is a good start. If they can handle or withstand the same thing that they put others through, and still be a horrible person, then at that point, they are beyond redemption. Unfortunately, Lei Zhi will have to use force when it comes to these types of people if they want to continue doing evil.
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“Hahaha. So, are you going to try and reform me? I can’t wait to see the day, Old Man. I’ll let you know ahead of time, if you make me wait too long, I might just kill you for bringing my hopes up. Hahaha!” A grinning fish that was too large to fit inside the pond was fished up. Covered in metal-like scales, spiky white hair, and sharp teeth that could shred through steel and metal alike.
“That boy...”
Lei Zhi knew Hu Tao was a lost cause. Reforming him was going to be a nigh-impossible task. His reformation process was most likely going to going to lead to his own death or Hu Tao’s death. Even if Hu Tao has to relive what he put through probably the hundreds of victims he has under his name, he would still come through fine. But there was a chance of Hu Tao actually changing for the better albeit, not actually changing at all though.
If he made a deal with him before the start of their fight, Hu Tao might stay true to it. As that was the reason why he was Jing’s slave in the first place. He lost in their fight where he proposed that he would become the slave of whoever managed to beat him. So, if Lei managed to beat him in their fight, he may start doing more positive actions for the world because of it but inwardly, he wouldn’t have changed a bit. Eventually, this would come to a breaking point, as Hu Tao isn’t the type of person to restrain himself for long. Even now, he still fought against his slave status with Jing.
Hu Tao promised that if she lost to him in a fight, he would be her slave no longer. So, unless Lei Zhi could find a way to satisfy the chaotic and natural troublemaker, Hu Tao, just defeating him isn’t enough. He didn’t want to kill the boy as he could still do a lot of good for this world. By making the world a better place to make up for all those he has wronged in the past, would lead to a better afterlife for the youth. But at the end of the day, Hu Tao was more trouble than he was worth.
All these hypotheticals and what-if scenarios just to avoid killing the boy that both he and the heavens above knew deserved such a thing. Deciding to kill him for the better of the world was a simple but difficult matter as Hu Tao was a strong cultivator. Even if Lei summoned an army of spirit beasts with his fishing rod, he still doubted that would be enough to finish Hu Tao. There was also the matter of Jing. How would she react to this?
“With the way she freely allows the boy to run free and indulge himself however he wants, I doubt she would be willing to allow me to kill him. If I can do such a thing in the first place.”
Lei Zhi would need to have a talk with Jing as well. He didn’t know if he was willing to place his ideals over his friends. If worse came to worst, he might need to leave the Heaven’s Angels in pursuit of his own goals. But that would only be running away, wouldn’t it? In his reformation plan, everyone was involved. Jing, Ying, Hu Tao, Wan Qing, Bing, Jie, Runt, and everyone else in the world. Just trying to start his reformation plans with his friends was hard enough, how could he think that he could influence the entire world with his view?
‘This is difficult...’ Lei Zhi always knew how impossible his goal was but thinking on it with a critical view made him see just how unfeasible it really was.
“I have to accept, that my goal is impossible as I am right now. Weak, alone, and doubtful.” Lei Zhi realized.
“For now, I have to build my strength until I'm in a position where I can practice what I preach to more than just a few individuals. Perhaps I won’t be able to start my goal until Heaven’s Angels have completely taken over the Golden Serpent Sect.” He sighed.
“Well, a start is a start. Haste makes waste. The world isn’t going anywhere after all. I can wait for a little while. I also don’t think the world is going to change significantly in a few years anyway.” Lei Zhi found himself at the top of the giant set of steps.
“Took you long enough, Lei.” Ying snickered.
“It was very enlightening, to say the least.” Lei responded with a small smile.
“That’s good. I think my Heart Demon just played a trick on me and that’s it.” Bing shared.
“Hahahaha! What the hell, Fatass? How lucky for you, huh?” Hu Tao said.
“I guess so?” Maybe his experience with a Heart Demon wasn’t normal.
“Your great luck is at play once again.” Ying shook her head.
“I’m envious.” Lei added.
At this point, Bing couldn’t say anything about his luck being bad anymore. He was officially the luckiest person in the group according to everyone else. And the worst thing about it was that he couldn’t deny it!