章 269: Mortal Dao Oath
Multiple summers, autumns, winters and springs passed Des by as he continued to live within the village.
The time passed by far too quickly. He felt like it was only yesterday that he had been brought to the village as a 12 year old boy, but now, he was already 25.
Des was now a young man in the prime of his life. His previous childish features were nowhere to be seen, though his skin was still pale, and his hair remained almost as smooth as when he was young. He wasn't quite as large as most men in the village and his muscularity did not develop very far, as if he lacked the vitality to properly develop. Even so, he was now very much a man, and not a child.
If he were not blind, and if he possessed the memories of his former life, then he would certainly feel complicated upon seeing his reflection, finding that his appearance was now very similar to a certain ancestor whom he had known in the past…
But Des was blind, and he knew nothing of his past. As far as he was concerned, he was an ordinary cripple with poor vision, a missing arm and amnesia.
Life was quite simple for most villagers. They worked their jobs to earn enough money to fill their stomachs, fix their clothes and pay for their housing. It was monotonous and repetitive, but it was life. What was the alternative? This was simply the way of life.
The hospital was now a thriving business, allowing Leah to finally achieve his family's long-held dream of purchasing the land beneath their home.
Of course, not everything was good. Over the years, a few of the villagers had died. Most of the deaths were amongst the elderly folks, but there were also unfortunate incidents, including younger people dying from illness, and hunters dying in the dangerous wilderness.
When Des thought back on a certain man's death, he sighed internally as a complex feeling filled his heart.
The man, whom Des found himself thinking about often, was called Eagle. The two of them had never gotten along, but even so, Des did not wish death upon anyone…
A few years ago, Tiger started truly worrying about Flora's future. Flora's sister had married, and even her much younger brother had an arranged partner! But Flora still refused to show any interest in such things.
Eventually, one day, Tiger realised something; he was getting older. He was no longer as agile and nimble as the younger hunters - he was starting to struggle to keep up. He would not be able to look after Flora forever…
After thinking it through carefully, Tiger decided to set Flora up with Eagle. Like all men named after animals, Eagle was a hunter. He was a capable man who was rapidly rising to prominence in the village. Flora was only average looking, and yet, Eagle had shown a keen interest in her. Even though Flora had no interest in marrying Eagle, Tiger became firm in his stance, deciding that he would force his daughter to marry!
He felt bad about doing this to her, but he knew that he needed to think about his daughter's future. She wouldn't remain young forever, and if he waited until she was much older, there would be no men of her age left to marry, leaving Flora alone in this world, unable to look after herself.
Des had naturally been swept up in Flora's matter, for a simple reason…
The two of them had always been quite fond of one another, and over time, their relationship had slowly grown deeper. Now, after all these years, it had reached the extent that the two of them were truly in love, and they decided that they wanted to marry!
There was no instant spark between them, unless you counted their peculiar interest in one another from the moment they first met. Although seemingly insignificant, the seed of their love was planted during that strange meeting. This seed eventually sprouted, steadily growing larger and stronger, until eventually, the pair were inseparable…or at least, that would be the case, were it not for Tiger, who continued to limit the time they spent together.
Naturally, Des did not want Flora to get married to another man, and naturally, Eagle knew about Des and Flora's relationship. This led to various confrontations between the Des and Eagle, resulting in their relationship becoming quite terrible.
Des still remembered many of the things that Eagle had shouted at him whenever he found Des visiting Flora at Tiger's manor…
"Bastard, are you trying to steal my future wife?! I know that Tiger lets you off because you saved Fauna in the past, but do you really think it's acceptable for you to continue exploiting his feelings of gratitude and debt?"
"Look Des, even if you do love Flora, can you really make her happy? You're a blind cripple, whilst I'm a hunter! You might get along well as friends, but in the long term, who do you think will make her the happiest?"
"Des…I don't understand why everyone in the village admires you so much…I swear, there's something off about you. It's not just me being paranoid, I'm sure of it…"
Des found it hard to refute Eagle back then, and honestly, he didn't disagree with anything he said. Even when Eagle confronted Des about there being something 'off' about him…Des found that he was unable to argue. It was as if Eagle had pointed out a certain truth that even Des himself did not want to admit…
This situation went on for quite some time.
Tiger refused to allow Des and Flora to marry, but at the same time, he maintained his promise from back then. Out of his gratitude towards Des for saving Fauna's life, Tiger allowed Des to visit Flora once each week. This had been ongoing ever since Tiger made that promise, and Des made sure to visit her every single week, not once skipping their meetings.
Tiger, aware that Flora and Des were falling deeper and deeper in love with every passing week, became increasingly forceful as he pressured Flora towards the marriage with Eagle, even going so far as cutting off his financial support. Flora could no longer rely on her father, making it such that she was truly pressured towards marrying Eagle. She wanted to marry Des, but unfortunately, in this village, people could only marry if they gained the blessing of their family…
Three years into Tiger's attempts at wedding off his daughter, tragedy struck. Eagle was terribly injured on a hunting mission, and by the time he was brought back to the hospital, it was too late to save the situation.
That said, Des had tried his best to save Eagle when he was brought to the hospital…
For a brief moment though, Des had actually considered letting the man die. This thought, this self-serving, malicious thought, caused Des to feel deeply shocked at himself. He did not know that he was capable of such terrible thoughts, and it caused him to feel a sort of pain in his heart that he could not explain. This pain was so terrible that he could not stand it, it was worse than anything else he had felt throughout his life in Namuh Village!
In an attempt to suppress this horrendous pain, Des gave it his all in order to save Eagle. Unfortunately, it was simply impossible, Eagle's injuries were far too severe. The man died whilst crying out in agony, as the other hunters held in their tears, before leaving without a word.
Some people blamed Des for neglecting Eagle, saying that he deliberately let the man die in order to destroy Tiger's marriage arrangements, but Tiger was actually the one to silence those people. He knew that Des was not such a selfish person, he would never neglect a patient for his own personal gain.
After this event, Tiger reluctantly came to accept Flora and Des's relationship. He originally wanted his daughter to marry a hunter, but the incident with Eagle made him realise that maybe, making his daughter marry a man who could die young might not be the best way to ensure her stable future.
It had now been over a year since Eagle's death. The spiteful rumours about Des neglecting a patient had faded away into obscurity. It had also been long enough for everyone to get over their grief regarding Eagle's death, with the exception of the hunter's parents.
And most importantly, it had now been long enough that Des was finally able to marry Flora, without people speaking ill of Flora for moving on from Eagle too easily.
And finally, today was their wedding day.
Perhaps it was strange that Des found himself thinking about Eagle on the day of his wedding. However, when Des saw Flora's blurred figure being walked through the alley of flowers, her arm held by her oversized father, he couldn't help but think that it was strange how things had turned out.
Des smiled, dispelling these thoughts from his mind. Today, he wanted to focus on Flora, and only Flora.
He faced his beloved fiancé, doing his best to watch her as she walked through the valley of luscious plants, even though he could not really see what was going on. At the very least though, Des could easily identify Flora. He could not see her well, but he knew that she was beautiful…no matter what she actually looked like, to Des, she was truly beautiful.
Everyone that Des had come to know was attending this grand wedding on this day. In the past, Tiger was reluctant to accept their relationship, but when he finally came to acknowledge them, he didn't hold back at all. Tiger spared no expense on this wedding, inviting everyone he knew to attend his eldest daughter's big day. Combining the people invited by Des, Tiger and Flora, this wedding ended up having over one quarter of the village in attendance!
This wedding was being held at Tiger's own manor, after all, he was a rich hunter with large, well-kept lands. His own manor was as good a place as any for a wedding!
Over the past few months, Tiger had paid many people to transform his garden into the perfect setting for the wedding. The plants and flowers that Flora loved so much could be seen all around, even forming an aisle for her to walk down, creating a tunnel of nature between the people on either side of her.
Flora's own wedding dress was woven from fine silk. It was adorned with flower petals of all sorts of colours, giving her the appearance of a rainbow flower field, swaying in the spring wind. Although Flora's looks could only be considered average, when she decorated herself with the flowers that she loved so much, and when she walked through the scenic planted gardens, she exuded a certain natural charm that could not be found on other people.
Des could sense her happiness in this moment. He could tell that she felt truly at peace, and that she was experiencing a unique kind of serenity as she approached him.
As she drew in closer, Des became able to smell the sweet scent of the various flowers adorning her small body.
In the past, this girl had been larger than him, but now, they had both grown up. Although Des was not large for a grown man, he was still much bigger than Flora.
Even though Des was not a large man…even though he had only one arm…even though he was practically blind…Flora did not look down on him at all. In fact, she knew that in truth, her soon-to-be husband was a being the likes of which those 'strong' hunters in her village could not even begin to comprehend.
And yet, Flora did not care about that. As she gazed at Des's pale face, as she looked into his hazy brown eyes, she didn't see the blood-thirsty immortal who stumbled upon her in his desperation 13 years ago. No…she saw Des, the kind-hearted mortal man who she had known ever since she was young.
This was the person who gave up his arm to save her younger sister. This was the person who devoted so much of his time to helping his aunt and uncle to improve their quality of living. This was the person who had saved so many lives over the last 13 years, whilst improving the quality of medical care available to everyone in the village…
This was the man she loved.
Suddenly, after Tiger let go of his daughter's arm, Flora turned towards Des, leaned in, and planted her lips upon his. Des's hazy eyes widened in surprise, completely caught off-guard by this unexpected act!
Her lips were soft and tasted faintly sweet, like the nectar plucked from a blooming flower…
This was his first kiss!
It was quite typical for romantic relationships to remain reserved in Namuh Village until after marriage. As such, despite having decided to marry one another years ago, Des and Flora were yet to kiss like this. In fact, it was exactly because of these marriage customs, that Flora's actions completely took Des by surprise…
"…Flora, could you really not wait until the end of the ceremony?" Tiger asked helplessly, staring at his daughter who laughed unapologetically as she pulled back from the dazed Des.
"Nope." She shook her head with a bright smile.
Tiger sighed and scratched his head. Well, to be honest, it was already quite amazing that she had actually adhered to the village's customs until now. Of course, this was entirely thanks to Des, who insisted on doing things properly to ensure that they gained everyone's blessings.
And so, the ceremony went on.
Namuh Village had developed its own traditions over the years. As was typical for a marriage, both Flora and Des were presented with a wreath of beast teeth attached to a circular vine, which was placed over their heads and hung from their necks for the remainder of the ceremony.
Finally, it was time to make their vows. Marriage vows in Namuh Village tended to be short and to the point, but these vows were also binding by law; if you broke your marriage vows, you would be punished by law! That said, there had never actually been a case of this happening in the village, or at least, nobody had ever been caught breaking their vows.
As was customary, Des went first.
"I, Des, swear to love and protect you, Flora, from now…until the end of my life."
After saying this, the entire region became silent. When the village elder remained silent, not proceeding with the ceremony, Des felt confused…what was going on?
Eventually, the people seemed to recover and the ceremony continued, with Flora taking her own vow.
"I Flora, swear to love and care for you, Des, from now…until the end of our lives…"
Des could feel that Flora's mood was unusual right now. That tone of voice was happy, but it also contained a hint of melancholy, before finally becoming firm, as if she had come to understand something important.
Des again thought back to earlier, wondering why it was that everyone fell silent after hearing his vow.
He didn't realise that when he spoke those words, a strange, illusory golden glow spread across his body. It was so faint that the villagers all thought they had imagined it, but the invisible golden wave which spread out across the region caused them to become fixated on Des as he stood there with a gentle smile on his face.
Somehow, they could tell that Des truly meant those words. Those words came from the depths of his heart, to the extent that it felt as if he would be unable to take them back…
The villagers didn't understand what had happened, but the three hidden individuals watching 'Des' as he lived his mortal life understood it all-too well.
Unknowingly, Des had sworn a dao oath. Naturally, it was impossible for mortals to swear dao oaths, and even Foundation Step cultivators struggled to do it. A dao oath could only be sworn when a person truly meant the words they spoke, from the bottom of their heart…
Of course, there were ways around this, such as being deceived into believing your own words.
Whether or not Yaan, the heart demon cultivator, truly believed the words spoken by Des, his deceived mortal self, was a mystery. Perhaps, Yaan simply did not care anymore, since he was fated for an early death regardless…perhaps it was because of his unavoidable, impending death, that he willingly allowed himself to fall so deep into this mortal life.
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