644 Mortal Dust ( III )
Inside a medium wooden house, a woman had dinner ready as she waited for her husband. She sat in a chair, waiting for at least a few hours before a man entered the room. After seeing someone waiting for him, the man’s face became stiff: “Honey–”
“Where have you been?” asked the wife.
“I went to Shi Yaozu’s house to help him on his farm.”
“It’s been more than hours since the sun has set.” She looked at the food on the table. “And the food is already cold.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t pay attention to time. And when I realized how late it was, it was already dark outside.”
The wife did not immediately reply. She stared at the food she had spent hours cooking before sighing out loud: “Who is she?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t treat me like I’m stupid! I know you’re cheating, and I want to know the other woman’s identity.”
“No, no, honey. In the name of the Death Controlling King, I swear there is no other woman.”
“I don’t believe you,” replied the wife. “I want a divorce.”
“Nothing but this,” said the husband as he knelt before his wife. “Please, forgive me. I won’t do it again.”
“I’ve forgiven you three times already. And each time, you promised me you would not do it again. But then?”
The husband did not know what to say.
“It’s because you know I’ll forgive you that you keep doing it. Well, I’ve had enough,” continued the wife. “Tomorrow, I will apply to the magistrate to annul our marriage.”
After saying that, the wife stood from her chair to walk toward the bedroom.
“No, no, no,” muttered the husband. According to the kingdom’s law, he would lose more than half of his property(farm) because of his infidelity after the divorce. Then, there is the stigma associated with a divorced man; he did not want to live his life like this, shunted by his community.
The husband’s eyes suddenly turned red, and he lost his mind. He took one of the knives on the table and rushed straight into his wife’s back, stabbing her more than a dozen times.
When the husband regained his mind, he found blood all over his clothes, and he was holding a knife. His wife of 7 years was bleeding heavily on the ground. The husband took a step back, questioning what he had done.
However, before he could think properly, something magical occurred. The wounds on his wife magically healed, and her pale complexion returned to normal. The scene scared the husband, so he instinctively stabbed her again. However, a magical shield manifested out of nowhere and protected her.
The husband watched the fear and dread in his wife’s eyes, and a new realization dawned on him. Without wasting time, he rushed outside the house. Unfortunately for him, people from the kingdom’s public security had already surrounded his home. And when they saw the blood on his clothes, they took their weapons.
Then, the leader said to the husband: “We have detected an attempted murder in this location. And according to the law, killing is an illegal act.”
The husband did not resist since he knew it was pointless. The patrolman from the Public Security Bureau arrested him before taking the wife’s statement. Attempted murder is one of the highest crimes in the Empire, so the husband will probably spend the rest of his life in a dark cell.
Undying Kingdom, Royal Palace:
The Death Controlling King, Li Wei, sat on his throne, overlooking his ministers.
“Is this necessary?” he asked.
“Yes, your majesty,” replied the Prime Minister. “These people have committed the greatest sins and must be executed. Furthermore, our prisons are getting too crowded: we must either eliminate some people or build more.”
Li Wei did not immediately respond. A few minutes later, he sighed before waving his hand to manifest a black talisman that would release a strange black-and-white light. All the citizens of this kingdom are immortal, but only the king has the power to strip this immortality from them.
“I need you to supervise the entire thing,” ordered the King.
“As you wish.”
Li Wei dismissed everybody and stayed in the Throne Room. He sat for hours, alone with his thoughts. He was only disturbed when Queen Wang Hong entered the room with today’s dinner.
“Are you alright?” she asked as she checked his forehead for temperature. “You’ve been distracted–even dazed–the past few days.”
“You remember how this kingdom started?”
She did remember. Back then, they were struggling to feed themselves and survive. So, her husband took a job as an executioner since it was good pay, and few people wanted to do this dirty job.
However, after being forced to kill a family that was most likely innocent, he began to question things–including his sanity. Then, one day, an immortal came to see him and offered him the power to create a kingdom where everybody was undying; a kingdom where only he could decide a person’s fate–including life and death.
“Ever since that day, I’ve been thinking about why the Immortal chose me for this mission. I wonder if there is a reason.”
“We’ve had this conversation before: we cannot fathom the Immortal’s mind. So, for the sake of our family and this kingdom, don’t think about these things,” pleaded his wife.
“If only things were this easy,” argued the husband. “I can’t sleep peacefully if I don’t think about it.”
Queen Wang Hong sighed. “Alright, I’ll indulge you. Did you find a reason?”
“I thought the Immortal wanted to test me. Well, not me but mortals in general. Test whether we would succumb when given absolute power. So, in the past 15 years since the establishment of this kingdom, I’ve done my best not to let power corrupts me.”
The Queen knew it was not an easy task. Her husband is the only individual capable of granting death to people in this kingdom. And with such power, he has done an excellent job of not abusing his power and becoming a ruler dedicated to serving the people.
When things do not go his way, when he loses control of his emotions, or when confronted with the vilest part of the human mind, it takes a lot of Willpower not to abuse such power.
“I’m sensing a but?” asked the Queen.
“Yes. I feel that this is not the correct conclusion.”
“What exactly do you expect to achieve?” asked the Queen. “You yourself are nothing but a mortal with no real power. So, how would you be able to identify the purpose of such an unfathomable being as the Immortal?”
The King did not reply.
“I understand how you feel,” continued the Queen. “I also want answers. But I care more about our survival. So, please think twice before you do anything stupid.”
The King followed her advice throughout his entire reign. Whenever he had to make any decisions–especially regarding his powers–he would think twice. Nevertheless, he never stopped trying to figure out the purpose of his existence; why he had such power.
At 93 years old, the king lay in bed, death approaching him. The old Queen stood by his side, also ready to journey into the afterlife with him.
“I’ve figured it out. Well, I figured something out.”
“What is it?”
“What if Fate wanted something from me–just like the Immortal wanted something from the king? What if my desire to become free and unfettered was an objective granted to me by fate because it wanted something from me.”
“Wanted what?”
“Someone to control it. Or someone to create it. After all, time is not linear.”
“I believe you called such phenomenon Temporal Causality Loop,” added the Queen.
“Yes. Fate created me so I can create it,” muttered Wang Wei as his eyes became more brilliant. “Although this might be a nonsensical idea, I need to watch out for this possibility.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
Wang Wei did not answer her, but he muttered to himself: “Grand Dao’s River of Fate…My River of Fate.”
As he regained his memories, power, and youth, he felt something had changed because of his enlightenment. He raised his hand to manifest nine small magnificent buildings in the palm of his hand. There was one in the middle and four on the left and right that orbited the central one.
“Are those your Fate Palaces?” asked Wu Hong as she sensed the power fate these things emanated.
“Yes,” he replied. “Something seems to have changed with them after my enlightenment, but I can’t tell what it is.”
Wu Hong looked at them: “The Fate Palace is a form of Spiritual Foundation connected to your cultivation realm. The reason you only have nine is that you are still a mortal. After proving the Dao, you can condense the tenth and know what the change is.”
“Do you know something?”
“No, but I have some guesses.”
Wang Wei did not continue asking, but his intuition told him the Fate Palaces became more than tools he used to achieve 5-Root strength in his Nine Extremity Dao Foundation.
He dispersed the Fate Palaces before looking at his wife, “Couldn’t you let me have a harem during my Mortal Dust?”
“If you want to lose access to Little Wei, you can try.”
“I won’t argue with you. I’m better than that.”
Wang Wei then left for his other persona. He became an assassin tasked with dealing with corrupt officials. This person involved the concept of being the Sword of Fate. After spending his life as an assassin, the king ordered his execution once he was no longer helpful. He learned of his possible eventual fate if he was not careful in his path of controlling fate–especially if his theory was correct.
The following persona was a person who controlled a kingdom from the shadow. Despite not being the Sovereign of that dynasty, that person could control the fate of every individual in the kingdom–including the Sovereign and other royal family members.
Ultimately, he died after someone close to him betrayed him. Wang Wei learned how fickle fate could be. A person might think they are controlling or playing with fate, but fate is also playing with them.
Finally, Wang Wei decided to use the Science and Technology World for the remaining of his Mortal Dust.