Chapter 47

  Antechamber (III)

  Winds whipped against his clothes as soon as he stepped on the insular island. Long Tao craned his neck and looked at the vast majesty of churning Qi, a bit stunned. He'd seen many things in his life before, so he knew perfectly what the thing in front of him his--it was actually kind of funny, in a way.

  This was an array... that he set up.

  He'd completely even forgotten about it as he set it up after he broke through to the Sovereign Realm. At the time, he was helped by a small demonic pup that he'd met in a forest and set up the array in order to nurture the thing into eventually becoming sentient.

  However, after he Ascended, he completely forgot about the place as well as the pup, continuing on with his life.

  And now... now he stood beneath his creation, wondering just how indulgent the machinations of fate were for him to end up here. He named the array 'Thousand Wills Array' as it had neither offensive nor defensive function--its sole purpose was to use one's 'fallen' nature and convert it into pure energy.

  The idea that he had was to turn the demonic pup's demonic nature into its opposite, thus propelling the little thing into potentially becoming a Divine Beast. No, that was merely the potential of the array--the pup itself could, at most, become a mimicry of one if it got lucky.

  It was no wonder that they mentioned time spent inside was calculated in the seconds, as they likely didn't even understand that it was an array and instead considered it a natural wonder. There was also a good chance that they thought it was best used as a whetstone for one's will, as the first thing the array did was pulse out the demonic parts of oneself.

  'Demonic', however, was used rather loosely there, as there was no objective measurement; it was merely a mirror of self-reflection. Whatever the person themselves considered to be their demonic acts, those things would be displayed.

  This, however, was a byproduct of the array, an accidental thing that he never intended. Again, the entire thing was built specifically for demonic creatures; in their case, the first thing Array did was pull that demonic nature from them and then slowly help them refine it and purify it.

  He glanced back at the partly worried face of his master and sighed; this here thing was as useful to him as was a random pebble in the street. And, in fact, it was even less useful to Dai Xiu. She probably wouldn't even feel anything if she stepped in aside from a slightly more pure Qi.

  Ultimately, this was just the case of a small corner of the world worshiping something they did not understand. In fact, if they understood the true function of this place, they would have likely destroyed it by now, as anything meant to accelerate demonic things was seen as a taboo deserving of death, as back then, so today.

  He stepped inside regardless; winds whipped further, and he found himself trapped in a dark place. Motes of Qi began to surge from his surroundings, aglow in gold and silver, soon turning into misshapen faces thieved directly from his memories.

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  His sins.

  There were many.

  Before long, literal tens of thousands of motes were swarming around him like stars against the night sky, but he didn't really pay them any heed. Because, the very next moment... all but three were gone.

  Long Tao believed, within the depths of his heart, that he only ever committed three acts in his life that could be considered 'demonic'. Looking at two faces and a misshapen palace, his expression mellowed out and he sighed; chances were that there was likely nobody alive in any of the realms that remembered any of the three... nobody besides him, that was.

  But sins of the heart were as such--transcendental.

  His cultivation loosened momentarily as he got a flash of inspiration--he could break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm here.

  First, however, he had to rearrange the array a little bit; there was a slight temporal component that could be activated, slowing the time here so that about an hour equated to about a second. He'd already been here for two, and time was running out.

  The issue was that activating it would damage the core of the array, and if done one too many times, it would completely destroy it. It was unlikely that it was activated before, however, as he mostly did it as a challenge.

  It took him less than half a second to rearrange it, as the bond between the array and its Master was one of soul--he linked with it as soon as he entered, and it recognized him immediately.

  Sitting down cross-legged, he calmed himself further and slowly began the arduous process of breaking through. He'd already made all the preparations a long time ago and was confident he'd be able to break through in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half at worst.

  The first step to the journey... he was finally taking it.

  **

  It's been three seconds.

  Why isn't he coming out?

  Oi, old man, did you forget how to count?! Why do you look so relaxed?

  "Ho ho, your disciple is quite marvelous, Elder Lu," instead of panicking and near-shitting his pants like me, Elder Qin seemed more... curious and agitated, but in a good way.

  "H-huh?"

  "Ordinarily, when somebody becomes incapable of enduring, the veined tendrils turn aglow with red; they are a representation of one's mental state. Your disciple... they merely glittered for a moment with red and returned to normal. He has the heart of a lion."

  "..." No, he has the heart of an ancient monster who probably does not give a rat's ass about his 'sins'. Yeah.

  Why was I panicking again?

  I don't know. I'm becoming more and more of a worrywart, just like my mother was--oh God, no! Nope, no, no--of all the people to turn into, it will not be my freakin' mother!

  "It looks like he'll be able to endure all those ten seconds in one go. Say, Elder Lu," the old man spoke, and from the tone of his voice, I immediately recognized where he was going. "Would you be willing--"

  "No."

  "I didn't finish."

  "Nor do you need to."

  "But for the sake--"

  "I only know this one language, Elder Qin, so I can only offer the same word yet again: No."

  "... tsk."

  "..." I glanced over at the literal pouting expression of a dude who was centuries old.

  ... was this sort of like those vampire stories where there were a bunch of centuries-old monsters, but they all behaved the age they looked? Or, in this case, subtract about four decades from the age they look.

  "Do you play chess, Elder Lu?"

  "... why?" I had a really, really bad feeling about this.

  "I've been looking for a chess partner recently."

  "No. I've never played chess in my entire life, not even once."

  "No worries--it's easy. I'll teach you."

  "I don't want to."

  "It'll be fun."

  "I disagree."

  "No, no, you'll see," yeah. There was no way he wasn't coming daily to 'play chess' with me. Fine. You know what? Fine!

  As a matter of fact, I did play chess! I even almost got to IM rank when I was just nineteen! Granted, I hadn't touched it in almost fifteen years of my life, but I'll be damned if I don't wipe the floor with this guy every time we play. I'll destroy you, old bag of bones, greedy for something that I'd sooner die than give up!