Chapter 225: The thing about Regret
The giant watched on, perplexed by the man’s actions, so much so that he had to ask what he was doing.
“What are you doing?”
“Breaking free and fixing that damn ring myself,” Zhen Shi replied while pulling on his chains even harder. The chains didn’t budge an inch or showed even the slightest amount of stress as Zhen Shi pulled, but he didn’t appear to care.
The giant looked on, amused at the man’s struggles at trying to free himself. Evidently, he was so amused at the sight, he failed to notice that the part of the chain anchored to the ice platform was starting to wobble.
“Why are you trying so hard to break free when I so easily have the key to it? All you have to do is hand over the source of your regret, your chains will disappear and you’ll be able to-”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU GIANTIC SMOOTH TALKING SON OF A BITCH!,” Zhen Shi shouted before stomping the ice beneath his feet. Sizeable cracks could be seen spreading throughout the ice platform when he did so. When he realized what had happened, an idea formed in Zhen Shi’s head.
“You want me to give up the ‘source’ of my regret?”*STOMP!*
“My memories of her, is that right?” *STOMP!*
“Well fuck that and fuck you!”*STOMP! STOMP!*
“I’ll hold onto these regrets, and these memories of mine, but I won’t let it hold me back anymore.” *STOMP!*
“I’ll keep my promise to her! And I’ll live the life she couldn’t!” *STOMP! CRACK!*
“What?!,” the giant proclaimed in shock.
Zhen Shi’s last stomp didn’t free the chains from their anchoring to the platform, rather it caused the entire platform of ice to crumble into pieces and allowed the chains to swing about freely to their respective chunks of ice like flails.
Now that he was free of his restraints, Zhen Shi flew upward like a rocket and right pass the giant’s head and towards the rings above, his chains trailing behind him, dangling in the air like the tail feathers of a giant bird.
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As Zhen Shi flew pass Frosttusk, a smile appeared on the latter’s face. He was hoping for this reaction, but he couldn’t stop just yet.
‘Hmm… I can’t make this too easy for him…perhaps some obstacles…’
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“What the hell?!,” Zhen Shi cursed as he saw that his flight wasn’t going to be entirely smooth.
As Zhen Shi got closer and closer to the broken ring above him, massive chunks of ice, boulder-like coral and giant demonic piranhas suddenly manifested in front of him and began to fall/rush towards him.
“Outta my-“*Slam!* “-huh?”
Zhen Shi had attempted to swing out a fist and blast away the encroaching obstacles with a blast of aether. He might have been inside his own head, but it didn’t affect his ability to use the stuff. However, when he swung his arm out in an attempt to use aether to attack, the giant chunk of ice still chained to his arm lashed out first and pulverized an approaching piranha to pieces.
“Well that worked won-whoa!”
Zhen Shi was impressed by the sight, until he realized the swinging motion of his new weights caused him to fling himself off to the side. A blessing in disguise as it allowed him to avoid an incoming chunk of ice.
Once he stabilized his position in the air, it took him all of two seconds to realize what his next course of action was going to be.
‘Using the chains that held me down to propel myself forward? Ain’t that poetic,’ Zhen Shi mused as he held the chains on his arms tightly and began to spin them around, in order to build up momentum and get a feel for their weight.
When he finally got the feel for them, he threw this chains forward and slammed them into more encroaching obstacles, and using the forward momentum of his throws to move even faster than before.
This pattern kept going until he reached the very top of this “void” and finally arrived at the rings above. The chunks of ice at the end of his chains broke into pieces, revealing massive rune covered spikes that were used to hold them in place.
“Whoa, wasn’t expecting that to be at the end of these things. No matter, now I just need to…wait…why is the ring already repaired?”
Zhen Shi had a bird’s eye view of his rings at this point, so now he could clearly see every detail and dot of his cultivation progress.
On his way up towards these rings, he could clearly see that one of the rings were broken, cracked open as if someone took a pair of clippers and sliced the loop. But now that he was above it, he could see it was now whole. Additionally, the giant that was beneath him was now gone.
“Wasn’t I supposed to-”
“You did well.”
“Gah!”
His confusion mounting, Zhen Shi was caught off-guard when the voice of the giant appeared behind him. When he turned around to see this giant face to face, he made a startling realization.
“Whoa, you are a lot small-wait…aren’t you..no, you’re supposed to be-”
“How does it feel to use an Armament?,” Frosttusk interjected.
This question threw Zhen Shi for a loop, because he hadn’t manifested an aether Armament yet…or so he thought.
He was just about to fire back that he didn’t use an Armament yet, until he noticed that the chain-stake combination that was attached to his arms suddenly started to glow and coil around them like a serpent. When the chain was fully coiled, the glow dispersed leaving behind a pair of gauntlets that carried the visage of a sea serpent.
“Weren’t these supposed to be the manifestation of my regret?,” Zhen Shi asked, “why did they…”
“Because you realized it’s a part of you,” Frosttusk answered, “Many see regret as a fetter, something that will cause stagnancy out of fear, pain and failure. Few realize that it serves better as a coolant, a brake and a fuel. Regret shouldn’t be something that stops you from living life, rather it should help you learn when to slow down, to use it as a means to keep a level head, and something to keep the fire in your heart burning bright without having to fear of burning yourself out…or something like that.”
“…”
Zhen Shi stared at his grandson’s puppet(?), confused at his words for a moment, but as he kept staring, he swore that for a flickering moment, the strange mammoth-like warrior appeared very human. Like a man who lost everything, and had the tragedy of having survived it.
“Who are-what the?”
The next thing Zhen Shi knew, his body and Frosttusk’s body began to glow in unison.
“No time to answer any questions, I’m afraid,” Frosttusk said as he stroked his trunk like a beard, “mi-you are about to get skewered, you still need to get revenge for your beloved’s death, and I’m supposed to help facilitate that. I hope you don’t mind the viking asthethic.”
“Viking wha-bah!”
Before Zhen Shi could even ask what a “viking” was, the one known as Frosttusk merged with him.
