The ground rumbled, and Cade’s vision swayed. A huge pressure descended on his body, threatening to squash him like an irrelevant bug.

  Despite his toughened physique, he was forced to cough up several mouthfuls of blood as his flesh ruptured and his organs started to liquefy, eyes and ears bleeding profusely. Fortunately, the spirit’s hand on his shoulder held him steady, otherwise he would’ve collapsed.

  Still, the terrifying pressure was relentless, and it kept rising. He could feel his brain drowning in blood. Just as his joints popped dangerously, their cartilage beginning to burst from the immense crushing forces, the presence abruptly vanished.

  Cade had been in many situations where his life was on the line, but never did he actually believe he’d die. His heart was steeled, and he was absolutely convinced of his capability to survive anything life threw at him.

  Until now.

  He was totally convinced a couple more breaths under this pressure would have been enough to send him back into the reincarnation cycle. In front of this unknown force, his life was like a candle flame trying to withstand a raging storm. He momentarily forgot all about the guardian spirit’s revelations, overcome with intense relief at surviving this ordeal.

  The spirit offered him an apologetic smile, and he felt the same kind of life force enter his body as back when Master Lao Ren had healed him. In a matter of moments, Cade found himself fully recovered, yet his knees still trembled.

  “The first heavenly punishment can be considered a warning. The universe—or the heavens, however you call it—doesn’t like it when forbidden lore is shared. Fortunately, the Divine Realm is well protected. With repair cycles only nine years apart, its spirit has mostly recovered. At least now you’ll know exactly what makes you unique. I have to be very careful with what I share with you from now on, lest I bring a true calamity down on both of us.”

  This was a fucking warning?! If I was a little weaker, I could have died.

  Despite sweat dripping from his forehead, his body continued to quiver, freezing cold on the inside. Is this what experiencing the chilling touch of death feels like?

  “Apologies, Senior, but I need to sit down,” he said, collapsing onto the stone floor and breathing heavily.

  “My name is Day Night, but you can call me Night. It’ll be nice to hear it spoken after so long,” the spirit said in a voice traced with longing. She sat in a cross-legged position mid-air—like it was the most natural thing in the world—then floated down, halting a few inches above the ground.

  Still shaking, Cade tried to rise and offer a salute before introducing himself, but Night gestured for him to stop.

  “Sit and recover. The first time is an eye-opening experience.”

  No shit.

  Sighing, he simply cupped his fist while sitting with his back against the stone column.

  “Senior Night, my name is Cade Ward. Thank you for your guidance,” he said in a serious tone, his voice a little strained, bowing as much as he could in this position.

  “It’s great to meet you, Cade. Allow me to officially welcome you to my Master’s mausoleum. I don’t know if your name means anything, but it sounds good. Staunch,” Night nodded. “Are you feeling any better?”

  “I am, actually,” Cade said, surprised by how quickly he regained normal mental clarity. He couldn’t help but think the sense of dread he had just felt wasn’t entirely natural. In fact, it greatly resembled what he had experienced when he first looked into a spherule floating in his bloodstream—except many times more intense.

  Prismatic spherules… They must have something to do with this godseed I’m supposed to be carrying.

  “Good. I will gladly answer whatever questions you have, but first I have a small request. Can you tell me a little about what your world is like?” Night asked curiously, resting her chin on her fist in a very humanlike gesture.

  Cade smiled and began speaking. He’d only meant to give an overview of the world, but somehow ended up sharing his full story—minus a few private details he decided to keep to himself.

  The spirit listened to him with full attention, her focus palpable and sharp as a blade. He imagined her carving his every word into her memory. Night’s concentration was complete, likely a side effect of her immense cultivation.

  Although he couldn’t tell exactly how strong she was, he suspected she was more powerful than Master Lao Ren—or at least his wisp form. Guardian spirits like Night belonged to the Ghost Dao, but unlike Legion, she was a fully independent being. Despite not having a physical body, she acted very human-like.

  “I see,” Day Night said thoughtfully after hearing him describe how strong the automatons were—even on the lowest difficulty. “But is it regression—or suppression?” she mused aloud.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Cade wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but thought it would be rude to interrupt.

  “Whatever the case may be, you’ve been through a lot for being reborn only recently. I’m afraid this won’t change anytime soon, seeing as you have what you have,” she sighed.

  “So… it’s not some weird Asura curse?” Cade asked.

  “No,” Day Night laughed softly. “How to explain it best… the object isn’t from here. It shouldn’t exist in this world. But it can camouflage itself very well as a part of you. It’s currently dormant, which only helps. But there are still times when the heavens catch a sniff of it, and then weird things will happen. Not necessarily good things. You have to stay on your guard at all times,” she warned.

  Cade’s heart dropped. Well, that’s just great.

  He hesitated for a moment, but since his sixth sense remained silent, he decided to risk it.

  “I have these… things inside me. Thousands of them. Are they part of it?” he asked anxiously.

  Night nodded. “These little buggers have a name, but I’m afraid if I start explaining their function, we might get wiped out, taking the whole Realm with us,” Night answered, her lips forming a resigned smile.

  Cade frantically waved his hands. “No, no, please! I don’t want to know.”

  The spirit chuckled upon seeing his reaction. “Don’t worry, I promise to be careful with what I say. What I can definitely tell you is that these little… presences—they could be bad or good, depending on your perspective. For those who are afraid to seek out opportunities and would rather cultivate in peace, they could be considered a huge hindrance. But if you’re willing to accept the risk in order to claim the reward, know that everything has a price, and if you’re bold enough to walk… less orthodox paths, they will be a blessing. Mostly.”

  The Asura understood exactly what she meant. Spherules drastically slowed his cultivation, devouring a large part of all incoming energy. But it was as Night had said—if he was willing to search for opportunities, he could get around these limitations, leaving him to enjoy the substantial benefits they offered.

  He noted how she had accented the word presences to bring it to his attention. Not objects, not things… I already suspected the spherules weren’t made of solid matter, and it seems I was right.

  “Senior… is it very rare? Is it something others will covet?” Cade asked after a moment of silence.

  “It’s not just rare; it’s unique. I’ve only ever met one person in its possession—my Master. Never admit that you have it—not to your friends, your wife, your disciples, not even your children, if you ever have them. You’ve been careful so far, and as long as you don’t talk about it, you’ll be fine. It’s not something that can be easily detected, not even when directly used. Like I said, it’s not a thing belonging to this world,” she said, before leaning in. “If there is one piece of information you take away from our conversation, then it should be this: normal rules don’t always apply to it,” Night added with a meaningful expression.

  Cade stared into the spirit’s golden eyes, before his pupils widened in a sudden stroke of comprehension.

  Normal rules… laws? She’s saying heavenly laws might not apply to it!

  What puzzled him was the object's name—Day Night said it for a reason, despite knowing it would bring down a warning from the heavens.

  All cultivators knew about a myth in which achieving the so-called peak of cultivation meant reaching godhood. He had once asked Master Lao Ren about it but received the same cryptic answer about karma. At least this suggested there was more to it.

  Could it be that it does what its name suggests, making becoming a god possible? Or much easier? Hold on… Night said her Master carried the godseed as well!

  He felt like slapping himself in the face—the best way to understand what he was dealing with would be to simply ask Night about her Master and the purpose of this place.

  “Senior Night, would you be able to tell me your Master’s story?” he asked politely.

  The spirit’s ageless visage lit up with joy, as if she’d been waiting for this question all along.

  “Gladly! But before I do that, tell me—what do you think about revenge?”

  It was such an unexpected thing to ask. He pondered what exactly to say for a moment before speaking in a calm voice tinged with nostalgia.

  “When I was a boy, my father told me a story about a pair of birds. One of the vintners from my village destroyed a bird’s nest made by a couple of large crows. Their unending cawing was driving him insane. There was an egg inside the nest, and the old man ate it without much thought. Bad move. From then on, both crows would attack him in broad daylight, and nothing the elder did could stop them. Eventually, the man asked a fellow from the village, who was good with a bow, to help him kill the crows.”

  Cade brought out a jug of blood essence, taking a big gulp.

  “The archer took one of the crows down, while the other one escaped. The old man gloated, happy that his days of misery were over and the crows had finally gotten a taste of their own medicine. Lo and behold, a murder of crows arrived the next day. Now both the archer and the old man could no longer work or even leave their homes without being at risk of having their eyes pecked out. Eventually, the old man starved to death, and the archer was forced to leave the village.”

  He took a slow, deep breath.

  “My father told me that revenge leads to a vicious circle that rarely has a good outcome for anyone,” he continued, smiling faintly, right before his face hardened into steel. “He was wrong. I love my father, but vengeance is every creature’s natural right. If you’ve been harmed and take revenge, people will only nod their heads. Vengeance requires no explanation. If you don’t avenge your loved ones, what does that make you? Even birds understand it. Revenge isn’t optional. It’s necessary!”

  He drank another mouthful from the jug. His throat was weirdly dry.

  “After I kidnapped my mother’s murderer, I let him go after severing his cultivation. I thought I’d just come back later to claim another pound of flesh. But then I learned he had managed to recover, and I deeply regretted that I didn’t kill him outright. I can feel it weakening my Dao Heart. But then my in-name Master told me that revenge tastes best when it’s unexpected and utterly ruinous. When I’m strong enough, I will claim their souls regardless of who shows up to defend them. Then I will slowly refine them, stretching their torture to ten thousand years if possible, or until all traces of sane thought are erased.”

  Cade clenched his teeth, his voice drowning in killing intent as his fists shook from barely restrained lust for violence.

  “So if Senior asks what I think about revenge, I can say that I wish I could kill these men ten thousand times, and even then I wouldn’t be satisfied.”

  Cade looked at Night, who hovered over the ground, her golden irises burning with a fervent gleam.

  “Now I understand,” she said slowly, nodding to herself. “You are without a doubt the destined inheritor of my Master’s legacy. But before we talk about that, let me tell you about Ang War, widely known as the Red Reaper—the most feared Asura of his era, whose quest for vengeance drove him to become a god.”