"Ain't no way in hell that I'm letting you just leave me here. I'm not missing the confrontation between the two of you, so if you're gonna accept his invitation then you'd better stuff me into that ring and get me a front-row seat."
Shen Fei didn't even give Liang Chen the chance to say anything, making his stance clear the moment Liang Chen's gaze turned towards them. He had specifically come to Purgatory's Cradle to see what sort of chaos Liang Chen would wreak in a place that went against his entire ideology. To drop out at the very end, with the grandest show right in front of him? There was no way he could stomach that.
"Father said I was forbidden from fighting, Lao Ye, and I can't very well leave without first seeing exactly what's supposed to make him so great. Let's hope he's as nuts as this weakling here, at least that way I may still have a chance of learning what's supposed to be so fun about battles."
Li Zhao Xu had just about the same opinion as Shen Fei, gesturing towards him with her thumb. He cringed a little at the nickname she used for him, but she had summarily smashed him in the past so it really couldn't be helped. He was the weaker party so he could only do his duty as the clown and smile somewhat foolishly.
"Alright, it's your own choice so don't blame me if anything happens."
Liang Chen simply shrugged his shoulders and pulled the two into his interspatial ring, using his control over it to tweak it so that they could at least look at the outside from within. He knew he could bring them along after storing them in his ring even if Purgatory rejected them, he had been able to move ahead even with all the disciples in his interspatial ring after all. With them taken care of, he stepped towards the inviting entrance of the mausoleum.
At first, Liang Chen thought that the soft herbal scent that drifted out from the entrance came from the tea that Lao Ye had supposedly put over, but he realized his error the moment he passed through the gate. A tranquil garden, that was the best way to describe the inside of the mausoleum.
Green grass, various herbs that could be used for tea, even some berry bushes and fruit trees were scattered about. It was a peaceful little slice of paradise, there wasn't even a single house present to break up the verdant landscape.
There was however a simple stone bed tucked away amidst some of the bushes, a round stone table and two chairs placed a short distance from it. Lao Ye was slowly strolling towards the table, heading for the small kettle that rested above a fire burning within an indent in the table.
"I'm sorry if you expected something grander. I used to be a monk so I really only have experience with chambers like this."
Lao Ye still spoke very casually as he took a seat, plucking a small flower from a bush next to him and tossing it into the steaming kettle. He spoke politely but not cordially, calm to the point that it almost felt indifferent. Liang Chen had torn down everything he had built up over the years so it was a tone that felt a little incongruent with the relationship they should have.
"Purgatory, I take it she's beneath us?"
Liang Chen sat down on the chair that had been prepared for him, his eyes gesturing towards the ground beneath them. He could feel it beneath them, buried deep but not forgotten, a fury-filled gaze directed at the distant and endless sky.
"Indeed, but for you, it's more correct to say he. It takes a form quite similar to whoever gazes upon it...albeit a bit more twisted."
Lao Ye didn't try to trick Liang Chen or the like, it was already pointless when you thought about the point they had reached. He gazed quietly at the steaming kettle for a bit, the small bubbles rising to the surface of the light red liquid dancing in his eyes.
"To be honest, I'm actually a little surprised that you accepted the invitation. You ruined the other sects so thoroughly that I expected you to launch an attack right away. May I ask why you didn't?"
How much death had Liang Chen reaped in this land already? How many souls had returned to the embrace of the Sphere under his hand? Merciless, unstoppable, unrelenting, that was the type of beast he was when he killed. But here he sat, quietly waiting for tea while sitting just an arm's reach away from a target to kill.
"Because I want to understand."
It was a simple, if somewhat cryptic, answer. He wanted to understand Lao Ye and the wrath sects he had created. Why did they act the way they did, what made them tick, why did they struggle to nourish Purgatory? He didn't know any of it, but he wanted to know. The world was filled with misery, but why was that? There were countless people he had to kill for his goal, but why did they exist, what did they gain from their actions?
Lao Ye raised his gaze from the kettle, his head tilting for a second as he digested the meaning behind Liang Chen's words. And when he understood what he meant, he also realized where those words might have come from, his lips forming a somewhat bleak curve.
"Understand...? Ah, you must have spoken with Ze Ruan. That's good, she always liked talking, she would have made a better teacher than sect leader... She was always a fool, always ending up in danger and harm's way. You could warn her a thousand times and she'd still charge ahead... even if you told her that you were going to a land of unending slaughter. Really, why did she have to be so foolish?"
His gaze lowered again, settling on the bubbles in the tea. Born at the bottom of the kettle, the warmest place, they all rose desperately. But their struggles, their ascent, it was all short-lived. In the end, they all popped at the surface, some never even got to see it before they faded. But he didn't allow himself to gaze upon the bubbles for too long, locking eyes with Liang Chen as he raised his head.
"To understand... Should I perhaps find it a bit funny that the two of us have the same goal right now? Very well, then let's understand each other, Storm Lord. Can you tell me, why did you kill them all? From Wyvern to Land, why did you trample on their dreams and massacre them?"
Liang Chen wanted to understand why they acted how they did, but wasn't the opposite true? Why did he kill them, why did he seek them out and butcher them all without remorse? They didn't know, perhaps only in their final moments would some of them realize the truth. Now it was Liang Chen's turn to tilt his head fractionally, he needed a bit of time to organize his thoughts so that he could word things properly.
"...Because I am angry, Lao Ye. When good people die, why do the heavens turn a blind eye? When a bad man kills and walks free, why do the heavens turn a blind eye? When innocents drown and sinners form rafts with their corpses, why do the heavens turn a blind eye? As a child, I was taught that the heavens rewarded good deeds and punished sinners, but that's not true, is it? No, that's just a kid's tale to make them behave. So I am angry, Lao Ye, angry at the heavens that don't exist. But I am not a kid's tale, I am not a fantasy that turns a blind eye. I am unable to reward good people, but killing sinners, oh, I am far too good at that. That is why I killed them, Lao Ye, and why I spared some others."
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A fantasy, a story told to children, that was the righteousness of the heavens. But from that fantasy came Liang Chen, and while he was more of a destroyer than a saviour, he could at least fill one of the roles that the dream-like heavens were supposed to have.
Lao Ye listened quietly as Liang Chen spoke, occasionally glancing down that the tea. But when he heard Liang Chen's reasoning he couldn't help but smile a little. It wasn't a soft or gentle smile, no, it was more akin to a smile that was between exasperation and amusement, a smile that only existed because he didn't have any other expression that fit.
"So in the end, it all boils down to wrath. Fitting, very fitting. It's... a shame, that we didn't get to meet earlier. If you had been born here then you may well have ended up joining us in the end. The wrath that the heavens didn't deliver, the lament of a loss that was never avenged, I suppose you would have been our 10th wrath. Heaven's Wrath, yes, that would have been a good 10th one."
Lao Ye's eyes turned a bit distant, gazing past Liang Chen as if he wanted to peer straight into that future, a future where they left Purgatory's Cradle and accomplished their goals. But alas, the river had split and that particular branch had been lost to time. And thus they ended up here, around this small stone table where they shared their last drink.
"Ze Ruan said something very similar in the end. But I'll tell you what I told her. No, I don't think that would ever happen. We are both wrath, but our ends are different, our ideologies branch away from each other. In the end, we are bound to face each other, to kill each other."
Liang Chen's answer was set in stone. They may both be wrath, but wrath came in many forms and travelled many paths. And it just so happened that their paths branched away and then crossed each other, erasing one branch forever. But the small smile on Lao Ye's face still remained as Liang Chen rejected him.
"Ah, so that's why she spoke of understanding."
Now he understood why Ze Ruan had spoken to him about understanding, she may have even told Liang Chen to come here and talk, it certainly seemed like something she might do. Very well then, perhaps things would change if there was understanding.
"Tell me, Storm Lord, do you know what Purgatory really is?"
Purgatory, some saw it as just a consciousness that guided you towards rewards, a blood-soaked god hidden away from sight. Others saw it as a mass of energy that could help them ascend, energy that could fulfil all their wishes. But Liang Chen knew what Purgatory really was, where it had come from.
"Heavenly Punishment, the flame that burns you for all the sins you've committed. Once it struck all who grew strong enough to take over a universe, or those who committed sins."
The great law set down by the multiverse consciousness. Breach it and die, that was what Purgatory was, an ancient law, a bygone punishment lost to time. The multiverse consciousness had died after the Bloodwind Emperor and Qiao Xingmei fought, but that ancient law, the power that drove it, that still remained right here in this very land.
"Exactly, you're quite learned. So, Purgatory falls in line with your wrath, it accomplishes what you desire, which I imagine is why you've decided to seek it out. But tell me, Storm Lord, do you know why we are nourishing it?"
Lao Ye nodded his head slightly, still carrying his smile. He picked up the kettle, two stone cups forming on the table so that he had something to pour the tea into. He pushed one to Liang Chen and took the other for himself, taking a sip of the warm and somewhat bitter tea as he spoke.
"Because men are weak. They may boast about their strong wills, but time grinds all things to dust, even kindness and determination. Friends become enemies, determination becomes fear, anger becomes apathy."
People changed, locations changed, lives changed, everything changed with time, everything was ground down to nothing. That was the mercy of time, but at the same time, it was the cruelty of time. And it was especially cruel to those who feared what the passing of time might rob them of.
"And in that weakness, lies the misery of the universe. Men will do whatever they can to ease that weakness, they'll kill, they'll steal. Monasteries will be robbed, cities will be burned, kingdoms erased, monks tortured for just a glimpse of power that can push back the weakness. As long as we are men, we will have that weakness. And as long as we have that weakness, there will be misery and cruelty."
That was Lao Ye's truth, misery and weakness. To be weak was to be miserable, to be strong was to fear weakness and spread misery. You could not escape it, you could not hide from it, you could only accept it. But what then of those who did not want to accept that world, that misery?
"But Purgatory is not a man, it is power, eternal and pure. Determination that will never be worn down, wrath that will never burn out, that is Purgatory. If either of us ascends to power then we will eventually crumble just like all other men. But Purgatory will never crumble. Once we manage to nourish it back to full health, it can once again return to the multiverse and take up its rightful position, its duty."
Liang Chen wanted to become the prime evil, the one source of fear and cruelty in the multiverse. All who sinned would be struck down by him, and that would become fear that would prevent others from sinning. But to Lao Ye, such a thing was impossible. Because man was not eternal, only Purgatory was. And of course, Lao Ye was not so foolish that he didn't understand what awaited him at the end, should he succeed.
"We will burn. You, me, the sect members that foolishly followed me for so long, all of us will burn in the fires of Purgatory for our countless sins. But so too will the rest of the sinners, our journey to the yellow springs will be so crowded we can stack ourselves up into the thousands and still be cramped. And the innocents will smile, for the heavens have returned. They will have what we can't offer them ourselves. Peace, eternal and guaranteed. What's the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions so the road to heaven must be paved in sins?"
He would burn for eternity, and he'd doom all those who followed him to that same fate. But he was fine with it, that was a price he was willing to pay. If that was what he had to do to make his fellow Muni smile happily then he would do it a thousand times over, even if he will never attain Moksha thanks to it. That was his Wrath, the wrath that had attracted thousands of others to form seven new wraths, that was the wrath that had attracted the ninth wrath that was resting beneath them.
"Now that you understand, Storm Lord, allow me to ask you. On this path to eternal damnation and unending flames, will you join me, will you prosper with me in hell for eternity?"