章節 3: "Yes, yes fall TO THE DARKSIDE! MUAHAHAHAHAH-COUGH WHEEZE"

A few years had passed since and Lee was doing well for himself. He had wealth, status, power, and influence. Even the seven major powers of New Moon city do not dare risk offending him for fear of his retribution. He had beaten nearly every cultivator in New Moon city save for the extremely young and weak ones or the sect masters.

Tales of his fighting ability had started to spread throughout the Blue Wind Empire. A cripple capable of fighting and beating earth profound cultivators? No one had ever heard of such a concept before and many had passed it off as exaggerations or myth. However, time after time and victory after victory Lee's name spread further and further.

Sadly, all this success did not come without its drawbacks.

Lee was walking back to his mansion from the Black Merchant's Guild outpost. He had just finished selling another Earth Profound beast core. Lee looked at the passerby's as if they were beneath him. Anyone his gaze went over squirmed uncomfortably. Just when he was going to enter his property gate a person suddenly cut in front of him.

He was quite dirty with stains and dust covering his clothing. His ribs were visible and his eyes sunken with bags around them. He had a sickly pale skin tone and was slightly shaking. He immediately bent down and started kowtowing.

"Please, senior, my daughter is very sick and starving! Please spare some money! As a fellow cripple please find it in your heart to-" The man was cut off when Lee walked past as if he was air.

"Don't bother me with your problems, worthless mongrel," Lee said as he walked into his property.

Lee's success and power had gone to his head. He had fallen into the vices that other inhabitants of Cultivation worlds had before him, arrogance, selfishness, and judgementalism. He thinks of himself above the common people thanks to his knowledge and power. He thinks of none but himself and doesn't care for others, considering them savages and himself superior.

This change in personality was a considerable change from how Lee used to act before. While Lee could be mean at times it was never out of true malice and he could've been considered to be a relatively normal man. No one could seem to pinpoint why he changed so rapidly. As a matter of fact, many other people also had a rapid change in their demeanor and character. From a slightly mean individual to a sociopath in a year, it was perplexing.

__________

Murong Yi did not have a good past few years

At first Murong Yi - despite being a bit of a prick - got over his loss and moved on. However, over the years jealousy and contempt grew in his heart. Before Lee arrived to steal the show he was New Moon city's golden boy. A genius. A star. As the mayor's son, he was blessed with high talent, wealth, charisma, and looks. But now the only reason the mayor is even still the mayor is that Lee wasn't willing to deal with the responsibility. He had lost much respect and reputation over the years and he was at his breaking point.

At times a voice in the back of his head whispered to him, filling his head with more hatred and breaking down his sanity. Tonight the voice had come back but this time with a vengeance. Murong Yi kept twisting and turning in his bed, trying his best to tune out the voice but failing miserably.

'Look at you, a sniveling weak coward. You were never like this before. What happened to that proud and talented young master that would sweep heaven-defying beauties off their feet?' Murong Yi covered his ears with his hands and grit his teeth in anger. After a few more minutes of berating the voice asked a sudden question.

'Do you want power?' He took his hands from his ears and listened closer. 'The kind of power to obliterate your enemies and ascend into godhood?' He was entirely captivated now. His eyes glazed over.

"Yes," he said in a low voice. You could almost hear the smile in the following response.

'Then follow me, to acquire what your heart truly desires.' Murong Yi entered a trance. His movements became unnatural and robotic as he left his home in the middle of the night. The guards for some reason didn't seem to notice their young master leaving the premises. Murong Yi walked farther and farther into the wilderness, not bothered or attacked by anything until he came to the entrance of a cave. He walked into it, going deeper and deeper until he came to a stop.

The area was glowing a dark red with big rusty steel doors with many designs and patterns on them, written in some dead and forgotten language.

'Open them.' He obliged the voice and opened the doors. It was a grueling task but after using every last bit of his profound strength, he managed it. He walked in and was met with two cage doors. Where the lock should be between the doors there was a paper with the word for 'seal' written on it. A pair of pure glowing blood-red eyes stared back at him. A Cheshire grin showing razor-sharp teeth was exposed. The entity began to talk.

"Do you want power?"

"Yes."

"Do you want respect?"

"Yes."

"Do you want your pride back?"

"Yes."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes." The grin became wider and the eyes glowed a bit brighter.

"Then give me your being, your vital essence, your soul," Murong Yi fell down to his knees and his top clothing opened revealing the front of his torso, "And I will rescue you from your pain." A mark appeared on his midsection which then opened up. A pure black liquid ooze poured down from the mark, spilling down to the floor and flooding the room.

"Good, you're doing wonderful. Come here and rip this accursed seal off so I may fulfill your wish," The Entity said. Murong Yi took lumbering steps forward, the black ooze still pouring out. He walked up to the cage and with one swift motion, ripped off the seal. The Profound Runic barrier seal slowly broke apart. When it finished the gates creaked open. The last thing Murong Yi saw that day was darkness.

__________

Lee was going about his day, eating dinner in his estate when a feeling of sudden clarity overtook him. The glazed over and apathetic look in his eyes was all gone, replaced with confusion. Lee felt like he had just woken up from a dream. The last few years were quite fuzzy but at the same time not. To get over his confusion Lee decided to rest so he sped up dinner and went to his bedroom.

As he was brushing his teeth in preparation for bed, he heard several explosions in the distance. Interested, he rinsed his mouth and peered out of the window to get a view of the commotion. He noticed a speck of dust on the window glass so he tried to wipe it off only to realize the speck wasn't wiping off and was growing bigger.

"Oh, Shit-" Lee managed to squeak out before dodging. Lee waited for the dust cloud to settle a little pissed. Lee peered into the crater and saw what looked like some random guy positioned face down. He poked him with a stick to see if he was dead or just knocked out. He hoped he was alive so he could get this guy to pay for damages to his property.

The guy stirred and started crawling and stumbling out of the crater.

"Hey listen man you better cough up a few hundred purple profound coins right now or we're gonna have problems," Lee said with his arms crossed. The man suddenly attacked. He dished out wild and uncoordinated swings. Lee dodged easily but this time got a good look at his face. The man's eyes were completely blacked out with what seemed to be rot forming all around his face and hands.

"What the fuck? A zombie!?"