Cultivation Fever

I turned around and saw that I was completely surrounded by water. I was standing on a long wooden pier. Twisted red trunks supported it on either side.

At the end of the pier was a pavilion. Smooth pillars rose up into six points, topped by a sloping terracotta roof. The pillars were joined by a low, ornate guardrail.

A figure sat kneeling at a round table. I felt a tug and started walking over. I looked down and saw that familiar scars marked my hands.

I was in my old body. After spending so long in my new infant body, it felt strange. I walked with an uneasy gait, stumbling every so often.

I reached the pavilion and walked up the shallow steps

"Sit."

I felt compelled to kneel opposite the figure. A young man with flowing black hair observed me from across the table. His eyes were black, and his pupils were a deep, sickening red.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"You have visited a similar place before." His voice was so smooth and sweet it was almost sickening. "You put on my Band of Trial…"

"You made that f.u.c.king death trap?!" I interrupted.

"Yes. I"m sorry for that. I needed to test your strength of will. Now you are in my soul s.p.a.ce."

I paused and looked around.

"It doesn"t look like his did."

He laughed, but it sounded insipid.

"You mean that weakling Sirius? Tell me, how dull was it?"

"It was less… red."

The man sighed and stood up. He turned around and placed his hands on the guardrail, looking out at the lake.

"It"s a by-product of my cultivation technique. It wasn"t my favourite colour but… I"ve come to like it." He turned back around to face me. "As I"m sure you will too."

"Are you gonna give me your inheritance or something?"

He gave me an empty smile. His eyes were motionless.

"Something like that. But first, I must test your apt.i.tude."

He pointed out his finger into empty s.p.a.ce and seemed to touch something. His finger sent glowing red ripples towards me.

When they touched my forehead, my consciousness was pulled from my body. I could see myself sitting at the table. I looked at my hands and saw my familiar golden aura.

Thrashing tendrils stretched out of my hands. They had grown stronger than last time and whipped the air around me. The man looked at me, confused.

"That aura… I"ve never seen it before." His confusion turned to l.u.s.t, and he muttered something, but I couldn"t hear it.

He seemed to snap out of a trance, and all emotion left his face.

"Good luck!" he called out, but his words were shallow.

Before I could respond, a force shot up into the sky. Aura tendrils streaked behind me as I rocketed up and above the boundless lake.

The world curved beneath me, and the horizon line faded into a red haze. The pavilion shrunk to a pin p.r.i.c.k, then disappeared.

The whole world could fit in my field of view now. I kept climbing higher and saw the moon rush past me. It went by in a flash, and I knew I was speeding up. But where was I going?

The world and the moon became two red smudges in the distance, then disappeared. I was floating in empty s.p.a.ce. There was nothing around me.

I felt a rush of wind, and my stomach dropped. I was falling through a tunnel towards a light. The light grew as I fell, then flooded my eyes as I emerged.

When my eyes adjusted, I looked around. I was high up in the air above a forest of lush greenery. Great mountains broke the horizon of an unfamiliar world.

"Explore. Understand." I could just about pick up the man"s voice, but it sounded distant.

I heard a roar from behind me and I spun around. Two monstrous apes towered over the forest, locked in a fierce battle. One ape was pummelling the other into submission.

Its fists seemed to move slowly, but each hit sent out a wave of pressure that stripped the trees bare. The other ape was struggling, its arms raised in defence, but they were being warped and snapped with each punch.

Finally, its arms fell. The winner bared its fangs, then sunk them deep into the neck of its victim. It thrashed in pain for a few seconds, then lay still.

The winner let out a b.l.o.o.d.y roar and thumped its chest. A ma.s.sive shock wave hit me, and I was sent flying back. As I flew, the world seemed to shrink, and I felt myself falling again.

I fell through another tunnel, into a different world.

It was dark and there was a torrential downpour. Beneath me was a city, the only structure in sight for miles. Huge towers of varying heights pierced the sky.

Between two towers were two floating figures. They wore tattered cloaks and drooping wide-brimmed hats. One was dressed in grey, the other in white.

The man in grey was covered in a veil of arcing lightening. He yelled a strange word and raised a staff to the sky. A great thunderbolt shot through the man in white and smashed into the tower behind.

The man in white fell towards the ground, and the tower seemed to buckle. Large stones shot out, crushing buildings in the city below. I could hear many faint screams, m.u.f.fled by the rain.

Again, I fell backwards into to a new world. A small group of well armoured soldiers were in a circular formation, their backs to a shining gold standard.

But they were surrounded by a huge rag-tag army. The army were dressed in tanned leather and furs, and most of them carried rough clubs.

They swamped the small group, and the gold standard fell, trampled into the mud.

I fell again, and yet another world unfolded beneath me. This time, I saw a man slice a woman"s throat in a dark alleyway. She gargled on her own blood, screaming for help, but no-one heard or saw her.

I fell again into another world. It was a one-sided battle.

I fell again, another world. A slaughter.

I was dragged through countless worlds and witnessed countless tragedies. I became numb to the sight of cruelty. I was sick and tired of it. What could I gain from seeing this?

Another world. More cruelty.

Another world. More suffering.

Another world. Death.

Another world. Another world, another world another world….

"So, what did you learn?"

The man"s voice startled me, and I realised I was lying down with my eyes closed. I slowly pulled myself upright and opened my eyes. I was back in the pavilion.

"That you"re a sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d," I replied.

"I simply showed you everything as it is," he said, without missing a beat. "So?"

I sighed and told him.

"The weak beat the strong. The many beat the few. Wherever you go, horrible things happen. You can"t escape it. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Is that it?" he asked, putting his hands behind his head.

"What else do you want me to say?" I replied.

"Is that really all you learned from seeing thousands of battles across thousands of worlds?"

When he put it like that, I was ashamed. If I was a cultivation protagonist, I would have learned some mystical power from such an experience. Self-doubt filled my mind.

"Am I… weak?"

The man stood up and wandered over to me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and whispered in my ear.

"Yes. You are."