Chapter 223: …is to regret
“I mean… I know it’s been a long time-”
“At least three decades, seven sons and seven weddings,” Zhen Hua pointed out, “I’m honestly surprised we never had any daughters during that time frame…”
“My point is,” Zhen Shi reasserted, “we left behind a lot of family and friends back in Roaring Tide. I know we did our best to pass on our culture to children, our heritage, but…I still think it would be good for the family if we brought them to homeland. See where the two of us came from, bury hatchets, you know? I will not lie dear, I always did regret not telling anyone what we were planning.”
“Well we did elope, can’t exactly tell others about that…then again, no one would believe me if I said I planned it.”
(Un)surprisingly, the idea to run away together did not originate from Zhen Shi, rather it was all Bai Hua’s idea. She was surprisingly thorough about it.
Zhen Hua paused and thought over the suggestion her dear husband had presented her.
It was a hell of a prospect, going back to the motherland, especially since they unfortunately pissed off a lot of people by running away. Then again, it had been several years and some of the people who would be the most angry about the incident were probably dead by now…hopefully…
She mulled it over for a few more seconds before letting out a dramatic sigh.
“Well…I suppose now is as good as a time as any, and you are close to breaking through…Once you get back from the ruins and I get better, we can go plan our return trip home. I’m not a big fan of it myself,but we should think of sharing our ancestry,” Zhen Hua conceded.
Zhen Shi let out a sigh of relief, happy that his wife agreed to the trip.
“Thank you,” he said as he walked over to his wife’s bedside and kissed her on the cheek. She only rolled her eyes in response, the expression of “what a dork” plain on her face.
A second after doing so however, a knock came at the door.
“May I come in, patriarch, matriarch?”
“The door’s unlocked Moka, please do.”
Moka slid the door open and lightly nodded to the couple, evidently, he had news to share.
“Patriarch Zhen Shi, we’re just about ready to depart. Awaiting for your orders sir.”
“Of course, I’ll be with you in a moment.”
“Sir.”
Moka nodded in understanding before leaving the room.
Zhen Shi and Zhen Hua shared one last look of understanding, before the latter got up to leave.
“Well then… I’ll be back soon, my love. Make sure to get better, alright?”
“Of course, you old eel. I still need to serve as your reason for strength, right?”
“Hah! I suppose so…”
Unbeknownst to either of them, this was going to be the last time either would talk with one another.
________________________________________________
As the memorial playback faded away, Zhen Shi could only silently stare at the ground. He had almost forgotten that little detail before her passing.
That their last interaction with one another was so…ordinary.
There was a no build up to incoming tragedy, no fiery argument that made him regret ever having open his mouth, there was no perfect one last day together, it was just so…ordinary, and that made it worst.
“By the time you came back from the ruins, you had reached the peak state of Grandmaster and only needed a little bit more to breakthrough, right?,” the giant asked.
Zhen Shi was a tad numb at this point but he still answered for some reason.
“Yes…I did.”
“However, and unexpectedly, your wife died a day before you returned. The disease that took her, somehow overpowered the medicine she was given and became worst,” the giant followed up.
“Yes…that’s right…,” Zhen Shi answered again, but his tone grew darker.
“And so, to this day, you regret not being there.”
“WHAT’S YOUR POINT?!,” Zhen Shi screamed as he tried to vain to lunge at the giant, but the chains of ice holding him down suddenly grew even stronger and slammed him back down to the platform.
“Argh! What are these fucking chains?!,” Zhen Shi yelled as he pulled against them. Everytime he knocked against this time around though, he swore he could hear whispers coming off them.
“Why can’t I break them?!”
“To be able to become an Aether Lord, to be able to impose one’s ‘creed’, one must have a strong ‘conviction’ to serve as an anchor,” the giant siad as he changed his position so that he could look down at Zhen Shi. All of these decades, you had always been at the very peak of Grandmaster, been able to breakthrough at any moment. But you never did…let me ask you: whenever you tried to focus on breaking through, you always seemed to get distracted about halfway through, right? Because in the back of your mind, you heard a whisper? Telling you what, ‘what’s the point?’, right?”
Zhen Shi stopped his struggling when he heard the giant’s questions. Whoever this giant was, he somehow knew things about Zhen Shi, that he never told anyone.
“Why are you doing this?,” Zhen Shi asked, no more curious than angry.
The giant looked up at the streaks of light above him as he answered Zhen Shi’s question.
“To grant you power.”
“What?”
The giant looked back at Zhen Shi.
“If you hadn’t notice yet, we’re inside of your ‘heart’, your ‘soul’, the place where your cultivation is made real, and up above is the proof of your power, your rings,” the giant explained, “and those unbreakable chains of yours are your own ‘regret’ and ‘guilt’. They’re the reasons why you haven’t been able to breakthrough years after her death, understand?”
Zhen Shi was shocked at this sudden and strange revelation…but it made sense.
How else would he be able to see his own memories play out?
Why else did those streaks of light look so familiar to him?
If this place, this void, was his heart, why else would these heavy and frozen chains be so comfortable yet heavy? Because they were a part of him.
But that lead to even greater question to Zhen Shi.
“What do you mean by granting me power?”
“Those chains are what’s preventing you from reaching the Lord stage. Your pain, your regret, your guilt over your inability to be there for your beloved when she needed you, is what’s keeping you down. However, I can remove the chains and make your stronger. In exchange for granting you the power necessary to breakthrough and then some, I want those chains and their source,” the giant explained, “give me the memories associated with them and you’ll be free to ascend to a higher state of being. What do you say?”
Power in exchange for the sources of greatest pain? This deal should be a no-brainer to Zhen Shi, and he was all set to say yes.
However, before he did so, the ball of fog before him began to flicker once more, and a new moment began to play.
One he had never seen before…
‘Wait…is that…Bai Hua?’
