Chapter 26: The Beauty Of Harmony
*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*
The night was dark and silent as the crickets chirped.
In the slums of the caged city, shacks were inconspicuously buried amongst hundreds of others just like them.
The shacks were built haphazardly with lumps of hardened mud and thin sheets of redwood for their walls. For the roofs, heavily-leaved branches lay atop one another to form a thick canopy that kept out all rain and most of the cold.
Although they were all built using the same materials, the degree of craftsmanship on each shack differed terribly, making for an environment with a massive amount of scenery that would attract one's gaze.
Most shacks stood at most three meters tall and were only one story. However, a few shacks dotted around the slums had a height reaching up to seven or eight meters and even had three stories.
Amongst the slums were hundreds of alleyways and tunnels, making for a wide-connected area. However, the inhabitants of the slums kept away from them even in the day, let alone at night. All manner of violent and thuggish people dwelled in the cold and dark alleyways of the slums.
Even if one with great strength were to traverse the alleys, they would be shocked at the horrors within.
Trafficking of humans; elders, adults and children alike. Sex trafficking of humans, once again; of elders, adults and children alike. Some babies were even bought regularly to use in sexual activities. However, no one is judged here in the slums.
Within the alleys, one could even find deformed demi-humans from the forced breeding of humans with all manner of animals. Dog-human hybrids were the most common, but also the most terrifying.
Although dogs were adorable domestic pets that would defend their master to the end, when bred with humans, a hideous beast would be produced. When buying a dog-human, it was customary to put a hood over their head so as to not disgust all around them.
Without saying, the alleys were a terrible place to find oneself at night. If you were not a known customer when traversing them, you would be quickly snatched up by various traffickers, either be used to produce demi-humans or to be sold.
Sex trafficking was not limited to women and girls. Young boys would always take the fancy of a few particular individuals. The most profitable age and gender were naturally and adult woman, closely followed by an adolescent girl.
However, to one's surprise, the next best selling age and gender were that of an adolescent boy, preferably a thin and hairless one.
The side of humans that was usually hidden beneath a veil of appropriation was on full display with the alley markets.
...
Within an average shack amongst the thousands in the deepest parts of the slums that was farthest from the 'rich' area of the city, a youth sat in a meditative position.
The inside of the shack was unremarkable, with no furnishing apart from two sleeping mats made from straw. The shack only had one room and no bathroom, just a wooden pail in the corner of the shack that had a few wet towels covering its contents at the moment.
Sat in the centre of the shack on the hard floor consisting of dirt and stone, the youth seemed to have sent his mind elsewhere. His expression was blank as if there was no soul housing the body that sat here in this shack.
His palms were open and spread outward as they were placed on his knees, emanating a posture that welcomed the answers to the mysteries of the universe.
Underneath the youth's closed eyelids, his eyes could be seen moving around all the time, seeming to be searching for something with all his might.
Watching this scene with keen eyes was an old man, leisurely laying on his straw mat behind the boy that was in a deep meditation. Within the wrinkled eyes of the old man was a malicious excitement. It was an excitement that stemmed from thoughts pointing toward the future; and a malice that stemmed from staring at the centre of his thoughts: the youth.
'Oh, Wan'er, you are indeed talented. More than this old man could ever hope to be. With you, I can finally get justice for your father, my son. My son... My...' Thoughts of his son swirled within the old man's mind and a visage of pure rage overtook his face.
With an expression like that, one wouldn't be surprised if the old man suddenly took up arms and strived to slaughter all that came into his view. It was a pure rage that had no other emotions within but thick hatred.
The disgusting face of the old man, transformed by his rage, mellowed out substantially as his eyes fell onto his pious grandson, trying with all his might in his meditation. Although it had mellowed, the old man could still scare any young child that came his way with his expression.
'Wan'er, you are my only hope. Only through you can I achieve what I could not due to my weakness. If you can do that, I can die at peace once my time comes.' Within the resolve to make use of his grandson for his own gain was a mass of sadness and guilt. However, it was overshadowed by the indignance he felt about his son.
Indignance that can only be paid for with the blood of the transgressors, by any means necessary.
The youth, Wan'er, was absorbed in achieving ascension, the first stage of cultivation. It was the process of transforming from a regular mortal into a mortal that could sense and see the building blocks of the universe: Laws.
With or without talent, no cultivator was born with the ability to see laws. They had to achieve that through painstaking meditation and aligning themselves with the world. In other words, to achieve a state of resonance through meditation.
Cultivators usually achieved this at sixteen years of age, and then they would embark upon the road of cultivation. However, geniuses had a chance of awakening earlier and thus can embark upon the road of cultivation at an earlier age.
With regards to ascension, the word "genius" in this context did not translate to a high affinity with a path. It translated to spirituality and the comprehension of the dao itself, although at a surface level. It was something every cultivator needed to be able to see laws and thus cultivate.
Qing Fang had achieved ascension through meditation when he was sixteen, which was also when he started his cultivation journey. This age was a good age. Any later, and one was deemed to be lacking spirituality and comprehension.
And while it was possible for people to have an absurdly high affinity but a low spirituality, it was the same as having a big sword but tiny hands. Although your means and raw talent was indeed extraordinary, you could not make use of it due to incompetence.
The youngest child that had ever achieved a state of ascension in the Qing Clan was but twelve years old. This child also had a massive amount of affinity and went on to take the helm of the Qing Clan and lead it to colonise its first planet, Qingpu. Today, this child was known to Qing clansmen by another alias: Founding Father.
The youth, Wan'er's, the mind was fixed on the visualisation of the world around him. Following his grandfather's advice, he pictured a serene forest. However, this image of serenity didn't seem to be compatible with him.
And thus, without consulting his grandfather first, Wan'er started to visualise his definition of serenity.
What was a luscious green forest with the sunlight sliced by the canopy and eventually falling down onto the beautiful flora and fauna transformed into a night sky.
The sky was a blend of black, blue and purple; making for a colour that portrayed an unending abyss of profundity and grandness. Within the sky were hundreds of small stars, shining with white light that permeated the heavens and lit up existence.
The sky was peaceful and unmoving for a moment before a blinding flash of light tore through space and parted it with its might! The stars, planets and existence itself were cleanly sliced by the terrifying bolt of light!
The light eventually parted into many tributaries that formed a net of heavenly lightning. Stood within a plain while feeling the midnight breeze and witnessing the pure beauty and incomprehensible nature of the universe just before him, Wan'er felt at peace.
It was a peace that came from a revelation.
An uncountable number of things happen within the universe every day. Things that could cause the end of trillions of lives and things that could bring about the happiness of just one. Instead of trying to pry into the secrets of these things and swarming his mind with frustration and stress, Wan'er just watched them happen.
He had no lust to figure out why the lightning was taking the exact trajectory it did nor how many stars it had crushed beneath its might, he just basked in its beauty.
He was letting the universe take its course and acting as a spectator, with no lust to partake, just the contentment that stemmed from being able to witness it.
This was it, Daoism at its core: existing in harmony.
Right at this moment, a multitude of colours flashed past the boy's eyes as the entire universe he had just imagined to encapsulate "serenity" exploded into infinite strands of colours. The colours intertwined with one another to dance on the stage that is Space and to the music that is Time.
Within his mind, the projection of Wan'er's eyes widened at this scene and almost cried due to the pure beauty of it. The indescribable nobility of the purple encapsulated the lightning as it was painted across the deep canvas of blue. He watched these laws speak to each other, make relationships and break relationships. The whole process was unimaginably beautiful as thick streams of tears flowed down the deeply appreciative eyes of Wan'er.
He was grateful. Grateful that he could witness such beauty and even exist with it. The gratitude he felt from just existing at this moment was something that he would soon forget, but treasure whenever he felt it again.
"This... Is this cultivation..? It's so beautiful." Wan'er managed to whisper as he gazed at the product of his ascension.
...
In the shack, the old man was watching his grandson meditate before he felt a grand feeling wash over him. It was a feeling of immense deja vu that brought him back to that scene. That scene that he had long forgotten but yearned to remember.
The old man's eyes widened as he travelled back to that forest. The forest within his mind where he had first felt the harmony of the universe.
Tearing up at the scene of pure crystal droplets of water that shimmered in the sunlight falling from leaf to leaf before eventually dripping onto a pretty little yellow flower, the old man remembered that feeling.
The profundity of the dao, its power, the emotions it could evoke. It was all so mesmerising that it could make one forget they were even alive.
"Grandfather." A voice that seemed to have matured several years called out to the old man as he was childishly reminiscing about the time he had first seen laws.
Shocked out of his stupor, the old man looked up and emotionally responded to his grandson. "Wan'er! H-" Starting to speak but cutting himself off, the old man stared at the face of his grandson.
With tears still fresh in his eyes and a smile that could turn even the most nihilistic of people into sentimental fools, Wan'er looked at his grandfather with newly replenished appreciation.
"M-my boy... Did you see it?" The old man stuttered, caught in the moment and lost for words.
With a goofy smile on his face, Wan'er spoke.
"I saw i-"
About to finish his sentence, Wan'er suddenly froze as a confused look appeared on his face. He knew something was wrong, he could just feel it.
Looking down with a pondering expression, Wan'er finally knew what was wrong. He seemed to feel as though he was falling.
'What is happening?' He thought before that bolt of lightning painted across the sky welcomed him once more.
"No!!!" A scream, shout and a cry sounded as the old man exclaimed at the death of his grandson. He looked upon the headless body of Wan'er and the bodyless head that still had a goofy smile and felt a harrowing sadness.
This feeling that the old man had once before felt at the death of his son was felt once more by the poor soul. Looking at the eyes of the head slowly turn dead and soulless, the goofy smile that was heart-warming turned into a smile that gave the impression that it was fake, that it was forced.
The sudden twitching of the body's fingers and facial muscles horrified the old man into insanity. For just a moment, he thought his grandson had turned into something else in death: an uncaring demon that put on a fake smile while a torturously apathetic face lay behind. The fact that the legitimacy of his grandson's spirituality was tainted by this one scene greatly pained the old man into physical heartache.
Finally looking away from the dismembered corpse, the old man looked up to see a figure towering over his seated bearing. Looking at the Law of Strength blend with the Law of Death and combine into the corpse of his grandson, the old man knew that this was the man-the demon-that had killed him. Karma told him it was so.
"You!!! Demon, you will die!!!" The old man screamed before his head was swiftly caved in by a powerful fist. The shape of his head had turned into a bowl, with the contents of his skull pressured out of his nostrils into two lines of bloody purple mess. The eyeballs of the old man were unnaturally squeezed out of their sockets and dangled from them on small strands of flesh that looked disturbingly thin.
Adorned in ragged robes, the body with the now-deformed face befitting some disgusting creature fell to the floor and died. However, there would be no peace in death for this old man. Only more torture awaited when he was judged in Hell.
Looking down on the deformed corpse and the dismembered corpse, the figure of the vicious and demonic slaughterer only showed anticipation.
...
Turning his eyes away from the corpses not a moment too late, Qing Fang turned his body to face another figure that was just behind him.
There, he saw Chu Hua who stood three meters from him. She looked at him with an aghast expression that showed she had never encountered such a ruthless evil that was within Qing Fang. Although his current expression showed that he attached little importance to the act he had just committed, that was where the terror that struck Chu Hua originated from.
The fact that someone could be so heartless was deeply upsetting Chu Hua. So much so, that she almost cried on the behalf of the old man and the youth purely because they had to die to a being that would soon forget them.
"H-how could you do something like that..." Chu Hua's voice eventually turned non-existent before she could finish her sentence as she was met with the deep gaze of Qing Fang looking through her.
"Hmm? Why can't I?" Qing Fang responded absentmindedly as his thoughts were elsewhere. His voice contained a genuine question that made Chu Hua quiver. The fact that a fellow human existed who sincerely believed that doing such a thing was just made her head shrink back into her neck as she made herself seem as small as possible.
"B-because...it's cruel." Looking to the floor, Chu Hua managed to respond as trickles of sweat dripped off of her forehead and onto the floor before her. She knew that the being before could use means beyond her understanding. Back when they were near the plateau, her entire body, even the manipulation of the law fragments she had conjured, was completely seized by the man before her. Then, she witnessed her body moving on its own and follow him all the way to this shack where she had suddenly regained control.
"Hahaha! Cruel? We are all cruel, little girl. It's just that you can't see your cruelty but mine is clearly on display. Cruelty is, in fact, more human than anyone might think." Qing Fang laughed at the naïvety of Chu Hua, which was a little unlike himself. However, this was all a part of the process of turning Chu Hua into his slave.
If he could make her morality a little more...malleable, then a lot of stress could be avoided on his part.
"You're w-wrong." Listening to the strange monster rant about how everyone was cruel, Chu Hua felt there was some truth in his words, but that he was ultimately wrong. Good people do exist, she thought.
"Oh? How is me killing these people any different from the thoughts you had about those... "insufferable peasants" ...was it?" Qing Fang lectured in a haughty voice. He was aiming to expose Chu Hua's hypocrisy and make her lose faith in her own judgment, making her overly reliable on himself.
"What?" Chu Hua's eyes suddenly shrank to pin-size. Her mind wavered and abruptly drifted to that time. She was walking through the main marketplace within the city when a young boy, clearly poor, ran up to her and begged her for some money, food, anything. In doing so, the boy had dirtied the dress she was wearing, a dress she had only bought the previous day. In that moment of rage, she had done some things, said some things and thought even worse things than she'd like to admit.
When Qing Fang had seen this scene in the forefront of Chu Hua's memories when scouring her soul, he was a bit shocked. Shocked at how similar she was to him and shocked about how similar the event was to the time when he took his first human life. Knowing this, Qing Fang knew that Chu Hua had the potential to abandon petty things like the morality that she clung to desperately.
The horrified look of the other pedestrians and the crying face of the boy flashed past Chu Hua's mind as she was filled with guilt. 'I didn't mean to do it! I didn't! If only...if only...' Her thoughts slowly drifted as she visualised the poster she couldn't scrape from the depths of her mind.
It had said: "Public Execution Today! Five Bronze Coins For A Viewing!"
"You see? You and I, we're the same. We both act in our own interests. Me: to gain power. You: to protect your image of beauty. But, there's nothing wrong with that. Being selfish is part of the natural order. Animals don't share the prey they had to hunt, do they? Furthermore, if other predators die from hunger, they don't feel guilty, do they? Get it? Acting in pursuit of what you, and you alone, want is not a crime, it's nature." Qing Fang professed with enthusiasm that was totally unbefitting of himself. Never had he imagined that he would say such a thing in such a way. However, it was all for the furthering of his cultivation, nothing more.
Hearing his words, the mental picture of an aloof killer, looking down on the world, transformed into somebody that was willing to justify themselves. It made him seem less evil and more human, knowing that he still acted on justification, ignoring the severity of his crimes. Not everybody feared a villain that believed he was right, but everybody feared one that knew he wasn't.
"Forget revenge for your family, forget sentimental attachments; what do you, Qing Chu Hua, really want? What do you truly desire?" Qing Fang's voice awakened the dazed Chu Hua and created many questions.
'So he does know about my family's massacre. In that case, who is he? Since he knows about it on such short notice, he's either a member of the Temple or someone with very high status. I can't help but feel that I must not trust his words, no matter what.' Chu Hua thought.
Seeing Chu Hua still be resistant, as one would be, Qing Fang set her aside for the time being. Turning away from her and taking out the bodies of all of his victims up until now from his spatial bag, Qing Fang lay them around himself within the shack. Including the sudden addition of the old man and his grandson who were just killed, Qing Fang now had a total of five bodies as his resources.
'Perfect.' He thought. He had cast Chu Hua's presence to the back of his mind. Even though he is not paying attention to her, she will not leave. She knows that the only safe place for her is with him at this given moment. Although inexperienced, she is aware of her own inexperience.
Placing the bodies at five points surrounding himself, Qing Fang sat onto the floor and opened his senses to the world.
It is time.
*3,602/3,000 words*
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
PSYcho_72
PSYcho_72 A little bit of a shorter gap in between chapters this time, I think.
Thanks for reading and voting with power stones, it really lets me know that people are anticipating the next chapters and helps me to get off my arse and write.
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