559 Karmic Burden

Meng Qi sheathed Heaven Inflicted Pain into its scabbard and closed his eyes. He could feel the strands of Karma weighing on his body break away and return to the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven. Together, they were obliterated.

However, one strand remained. With obstinate stubbornness, the densest and heaviest strand of gossamer was still firmly attached to him. Unable to be severed from him, it seemed to have become a part of his karma.

The scenes before him changed with a flash. He saw a young beggar reeking of unbearable stench and filth. Every day, the young beggar was bullied by others from the Beggar Sect and seldom did he eat to his heart's content as hunger seemed to linger around him. Nothing but ceaseless pain and suffering tormented the young beggar throughout his pitiable life.

Until one day, a carriage came hurtling down the road. The carriage rolled upon a dirty puddle and drenched him with a huge splash of muddy water. He wore a dumb and blank expression, still perplexed of what had befallen him when the carriage stopped. A lovely woman with her hair tied into a tall bun came out of the carriage and with an impressive figure, the woman was gentle and gorgeous in her flowing white dress.

She strolled gracefully to the young beggar and stopped in front of him. Instead of scolding him, she was sympathetic to his plight and dismal state of health, appalled by the scars and bruises that lined across his thin and frail body.

With no sign of a condescending demeanor, the woman held his dirty and dusty hand and led him into the carriage, vowing to the young beggar that she would save him from a life of torment and hardships.

In the eyes of the young beggar, the woman was a true fairy, the Bodhisattva of Compassion who had come to rescue him from bitter hardship.

For her, he had dedicated himself to an intense regimen of training and practice of martial discipline. For her, he looked after and nourished himself adequately. Until one night, under the dim illumination of the flickering flame of a red candle, she removed her white dress and revealed to him her body of unparalleled beauty... That night, the woman gave the young beggar his most beautiful and unforgettable memory. A memory that he would thereafter reminisce with sweet tenderness, imprinted deep into his soul.

Still, all good things eventually came to an end when the young beggar anguished to find his happiness short-lived. The young beggar came to learn of her many male companions: that all men were but tools for her to replenish her Yin and Yang energies. Frequent was her lustful lovemaking with other men. Her moans of ecstasy rang incessantly through his lonely nights, bringing indescribable pain to his heart.

The misery from his jealousy and suffering tore mercilessly at his spirit. He understood that he would only earn the lady's favor if he put in more the effort in his training and practice, knowing well that he would have to gain remarkable influence and become a pivotal figure to make her solely his.

And one day, an opportunity soon presented itself before the young beggar: he had been accorded the opportunity to meditate on the legendary Extinctive Blade of the Overlord.

In the order of the Method of Mistress Su, those who were able to demonstrate their potential were free to meditate upon the aura and the mysticisms that the blade held in order to reawaken the powers of the blade.

Despite his high hopes and earnest, the young beggar returned empty-handed like everyone else who attempted to reawaken the fabled weapon. Still, all hopes were not lost. In his most desperate and depressed moment, the young beggar mysteriously stumbled upon an arcane dimension where he had received a portion of the Purple Thunder Force: a preliminary to the entirety of the martial discipline that would then allow him to claw his way back into the graces of Mystic Fairy and Bliss Bodhisattva. They misunderstood his achievements to be his own and began to shower favors upon him. He was given an unprecedented amount of support in terms of resources and was allowed to savor the carnal pleasures that Bliss Boddhisattva gave him.

Power, status, respect, and women. All the possessions that a man could hope and desire were heaped upon the young beggar. He came to fully comprehend pleasures and the true benediction of being truly alive. Addicted and intoxicated in the privileges and pleasures that he was showered upon, the young beggar began to lose the purpose that had once driven him. The loyalty and devotion that he once reserved for the Fairy withered, only to be replaced by a possessive desire to have her for his own.

Still, the young beggar was well aware that the pleasures and bestowment that he was drenched in came only from the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord - by which grace he was mistaken as the successor and heir to the Thunder God and the Overlord. He realized that if the truth about his skills was exposed, he would find himself replaced with another who commanded greater potential. He would plummet down into the abyss from whence he had clambered from, only to be one of men who were mere tools for the female disciples of the order to harvest natural energies and replenishment from.

With the luxury of tasting sweetness, came the fear of losing it. Seeds of doubt and fear were sowed deep in the heart of the young beggar. Deep throbs of unease and fear troubled his rest and he began to actively seek and practice the Purple Thunder Bladesmanship in hopes of fully mastering the martial disciplines and to fully embody the elements of Thunder in order to truly gain the recognition and approval of the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord, eventually becoming its true successor.

Despite the hidden risks of the Eighth and Ninth strokes of the Purple Thunder Force that would drain his lifespan notwithstanding their simple possession, the young beggar has had to tread on a knife's edge to acquire the mastery of both skills even though he was then a warrior of the Exterior Scenery. To his delight, when he had finally grasped a cursory command of the two strokes, the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord began to exhibit a faint but definite connection to him.

The revelation of his had him fainting with delight over the fruits of his labor until grim tidings knocked upon his door once more: the true successor to the Thunder God appeared!

Assuming the persona of the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven, he had long considered the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord and its legacy to be his and his alone. Hatred and jealousy, birthed by his unwillingness to relinquish his claim to them, pestered him, giving rise to the murderous intent that he harbored for all that dared dispute his claim, including Meng Qi. That was how the subsequent events came to be!

The tale of this Karmic burden played in Meng Qi's mind, allowing him a glimpse of the burden that was now his to bear.

"Meditate upon Extinctive Blade of the Overlord once again and master its legacies!"

The obligation of Karmic burdens of these nature did not explicitly entail fulfilling the wishes of the other party. It was sufficient for Meng Qi to meditate upon the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord once. The success of claiming its legacies would be a matter of further inquiry.

There were also Karmic obligations similar to that of the Patriarch of the Wang Clan - ones that wished for the triumph of his clan to weather through woes and adversities, and some that prayed for blessings of prosperity and peace for one's family and household. Much complexities and unknown abounded the elements of Karmic obligation and burden that would hardly be explicable by mere words.

Meditate upon the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord in the Mistress Su's Fairyland... Meng Qi sighed. Grave indeed was the price of using the Fruits of Karma technique! Through fire and steel, Meng Qi would have to traverse to complete the obligation of the Karmic burden which he had shouldered, lest the penalties of the obligation would visit him and reap his life!

It was indeed the Blade of Utter Destruction where only Karma mattered, not the strength of one's foes!

The technique provided Meng Qi with the prowess to slay foes which were levels above him. Foes whose levels were not overly ahead of him - without the powers and strength to completely overwhelm him - could potentially suffer death in the face of this technique!

Meng Qi opened his eyes and stared at the corpse of Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven, which was devoid of any wounds or scars. His corpse had been restored to its intact self upon their exit from the seal dimension. Wearing a grim expression, Meng Qi whispered,

"With your life that I have taken, I have shouldered your Karma."

The deceased: the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven of The Myths, a warrior of the Exterior Scenery of the order of the Method of Mistress Su.

Conditions of death: no visible injuries, complete loss of life.

Cause of death: unknown.

Slain by: Su Meng, the Killing Blade

...

The eyes of the Nirmanakaya incarnation of Mystic Fairy met Jiang Zhiwei's. A slight shift occurred in her expression as her hands clawed into the empty space before her and the black fabric of a handkerchief suddenly flew out. In the empty space of the courtyard, the silhouette of a corpse on the ground and a figure subsequently appeared.

"Howling Lunar Hound is dead? How is it possible?"

"Su Meng is the only one still alive!"

To think that two warriors with unparalleled skills who have powers over the First Celestial Ladder have failed to slay an inexperienced foe of the Exterior Scenery with the use of secret artifacts!

Meng Qi looked up from where he stood and saw both the Nirmanakaya incarnation of Mystic Fairy and Jiang Zhiwei. He instantly reached for his saber, channeling his powers in preparation of another skirmish, his eyes gleaming of the stars reflected from the dark night around them as he shouted,

"Like I once said earlier, My Lady, you bear a most burdensome and strenuous Karma!"

With a clang, Meng Qi unsheathed his saber.

The eyes of the Nirmanakaya incarnation of Mystic Fairy quivered in horror as she beheld the sight of Thunder God's intact corpse. Looking as if a revelation had dawned upon her, strands of energies in the form of ethereal mists swirled around her as she escaped into the void. Swift and speedy was her flight that Jiang Zhiwei had not even the time to react.

The Yin-Yang Separation Handkerchief floated slowly and fell gently to the ground. Nobody retrieved it.

During such a frenzy, Mystic Fairy rushed to escape that she had abandoned a magical artifact with such a unique and rare ability, shedding even her usual elegance and grace as a divine fairy!

With such strenuous and heavy Karmic burdens, Meng Qi would only need to sever but a handful of them to trigger the heavy penalties of the Karmic obligations in order to inflict damage to her. The devastation would be so great that her Nirmanakaya incarnations would surely suffer death even if the Fairy managed to evade her demise!

Most importantly, any drawbacks involving Karma that would have been exacted upon Mystic Fairy's Nirmanakaya incarnation would surely visit Mystic Fairy herself too. After all, they shared the common origins of the burden of the Karma.

The retribution dispensed upon the present incarnation of Mystic Fairy would have crippled her severely even if she managed to survive it!

Thus after her Nirmanakaya incarnation had fled, Mystic Fairy tried her best to use her divine weapon -which was in the guise of a bamboo rod - to dispel the conjurations of the Golden Crow and the aura of Jiang Zhiwei's blows, as well as all other conjurations cast by Immortal Yunhe to force his retreat. The dimension of Mistress Su's Fairyland that she summoned into reality earlier shrunk rapidly as it enveloped her whole in swirling mists and vanished into thin air!

Immortal Yunhe saw no need to pursue her as he stared thoughtfully at Mystic Fairy who faded into the void, with untold thoughts.

"You've once again frightened the enemy into retreating." Jiang Zhiwei's gleeful gaze danced knowingly between Meng Qi and the corpse of Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven on the ground. She, who knew Meng Qi closely, understood that it was a deception of Meng Qi's devise that had driven Mystic Fairy away. The corners of her lips curled into a knowing smile in jest of Mystic Fairy.

Meng Qi laughed. "One would hardly need to fear the blade of Karma if one has committed no evil."

With his present strength and powers, Meng Qi could only shoulder the burden of one single Karma. Without the opportunity to meditate upon the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord, the use of the Fruits of Karma technique would only lay upon his shoulders the grave cost of his foes' Karmic burdens - which might even bring about his doom. Still, with the Heavenly Golden Script that Meng Qi was training in and the Form of the Immortal Primogenitor that he cultivated, Meng Qi attained a cursory grasp in the ability to harness the Seed of All Karma. This allowed Meng Qi to sustain the burden of two Karmic elements without putting his life at certain risk. He would have really unleashed the Fruits of Karma technique upon Mystic Fairy if she had indeed chosen not to flee!

With Immortal Yunhe being present, Meng Qi gave only a brief account of what had happened to Jiang Zhiwei, sparing her of the gravest details of his encounter.

Jiang Zhiwei landed in the courtyard and gave the body of Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven another glance. "I fear I would only be able to cripple one and would have to try my best to eliminate the other at the cost of my own life if I have been attacked by two enemies in the same time," Jiang Zhiwei admitted. "Not even the exhaustion of my skills and artifacts would have spared me the pain of death."

The Sword Washing Pavilion showered Jiang Zhiwei with rewards following her ascension into the Exterior Scenery. They imparted to her more and more skills and techniques of increased potency and difficulty in addition to other bonuses. Thus, with definite surety, Jiang Zhiwei admitted that her skills now paled in comparison to Meng Qi's.

"Nor would I be able to survive if I didn't experience such fortuitous encounters," Meng Qi said with a smile. He took the Yin-Yang Separation Handkerchief and the Space Rings of both the Howling Lunar Hound and the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven into his keeping. He then removed the mask from Thunder God's face.

His face was pale in shade and gnarled in appearance with faint whiffs of his former grace amidst his grotesque features.

At the exposure of his appearance, an enchantment came into effect. Flames erupted and engulfed the corpse, swiftly reducing it to ashes and cinders.

Immortal Yunhe joined them on the ground and stroked his beard, saying, "What a perilous world indeed. To think that I'd meet the present Mystic Fairy at one of my first few ventures beyond the Gate of Plenitude."

He then grinned at Meng Qi.

Meng Qi's eyelids twitched. Immortal Yunhe was showing off his accomplishments, indicating he had exerted the most effort in this battle and the outcome would have been entirely different otherwise!

"Is... Is he demanding his cut of the loot?" Meng Qi wondered with a stabbing pain in his heart.

Immortal Yunhe sighed. "The Primordial Charm of Purity is unlike a Divine Weapon. Its use diminishes each time it's used."

Meng Qi exchanged looks with Jiang Zhiwei and she nodded to him, indicating her trust in the Immortal's claim. Suppressing his reluctance, Meng Qi replied, "Many thanks for your assistance, Master Immortal. We shall divide the spoils according to the portions as agreed."

"That will not be necessary. I'll pick just one item and you can have the rest," Immortal Yunhe said with a grin.

How can you be so brazen as to 'vie' for the spoils of your juniors? Meng Qi scoffed to himself before he asked, "And which item does the Master Immortal have in mind?"

Immortal Yunhe pointed at the black handkerchief. "The Yin-Yang Separation Handkerchief seems to serve my needs well. It will do."

The artifact had great supportive abilities but Meng Qi had no immediate need for it. He heaved a sigh of relief and handed the handkerchief to Immortal Yunhe, before casually asking, "How many more times can your Primordial Charm be used, Master Immortal?"

This information could be integral to his upcoming plans.

Immortal Yunhe grinned as he stowed away the handkerchief. "Several hundred times, I suppose."

"Several hundred times..." Meng Qi instinctively twisted his head at Jiang Zhiwei and saw a similarly dazed expression on her face.

Deep within their eyes was the evident thought that they shared,

"What a wretched and cunning old fox!"

Putting aside his emotions, Meng Qi took the Plenitude Gate from Jiang Zhiwei and 'stowed' Immortal Yunhe away. Only then did he rummage through the Space Rings of his fallen foes in search of his spoils.

Sadly, there was hardly any bounty in the Space Ring of the Thunder God - only a green elixir with healing properties. Only the saber that had lightning bolts of purple dancing and crackling along its blade and the Blackwater Thunder made up the rest of the Thunder God's possessions.

Contrary to that of the Thunder God, the Space Ring of the Howling Lunar Hound held many treasured items!

Meng Qi glanced at Jiang Zhiwei while sorting out the items. "Take the first pick."

Even though it was he who had slain them both, Jiang Zhiwei had also played the crucial role of holding off the reinforcements of his foes. It was a group effort that resulted in their triumph.

Zhiwei shook her head. "It's fine. You've expended a great portion of your resources while mine are still mostly intact. Furthermore, the Mahant of my order has sent word: he has summoned us to return to the lair of our order. He has decided that the Sword Washing Pavillion will interfere in the matter no more, thus I won't be able to assist you any further. Well, you should have more artifacts and items at your disposal for your safety."

"Sure." Meng Qi nodded as he took into account the present status quo.

He was most moved by the kindness of his companion. "This is true camaraderie! So unlike the cunning and calculative old man of that Immortal Yunhe!"