Chương 36: Golden Finger (Part I)

Xu Hua, controlling Lucian's body, turned his head to stare at his younger self.

"That name only brings misfortune," Xu Hua said, controlling Lucian's body. He then pointed at the corpses with his chin.

"What kind of spiritual technique is this? Why are you showing me the death of your wife and daughter?"

"I'm not showing you anything," Lucian said, his tone colder than usual. Xu Hua frowned at Lucian's cold expression.

"I know how you felt when you killed her," he said, pointing at the young woman on the ground.

"There was sadness, pain, and powerlessness, alongside a deep regret. You don't need to pretend she meant nothing to you. Well, this could all be an illusion, and you're merely playing with me. Sick bastard." Glancing at his daughter's corpse on the ground, Lucian's eyes softened a bit.

"I felt regret. But it wasn't about killing her." Next, he looked at the dead older woman on the bed, his expression turning more serene. Watching it all from the side, Xu Hua kept silent, searching for a way out of this mess.

"I regret being unable to save Giuliana's daughter from a cursed fate," Lucian said, sighing. Then, he turned to Xu Hua.

"Glenda. That's her name. She felt nothing but disgust, hatred, and envy toward me. You felt her gaze. After her mother's death, she wished only to die while trying to kill me. I gave her what she wanted, that's all." Hearing Lucian's cold words, Xu Hua seemed visibly disturbed. He scowled, his eyes burning with rage.

"You are a disgraceful father. You should have died instead of killing her. Was it not your fault that she hated you? Demonic scum!" Hearing this, Lucian laughed loudly, the sound echoing until the chamber's walls trembled. The world couldn't handle the pain and wrath in the laugh, and if not for his weakened state, it would have dissipated by now.

"I do not expect a mortal to understand me," Lucian said, shaking his head as the laughter faded.

"But you are correct. It was my fault. My sins tainted her." Noticing Lucian bringing his small hand to his own neck, Xu Hua's expression twisted. He felt a sense of crisis! His Sword Heart, honed through endless hardships, alarmed him about imminent danger.

"It is time to accept your death, Huoxing Huang," Lucian said.

"I assure you, your death will help me greatly." Before Lucian could finish speaking, Xu Hua moved with explosive speed. Using Lucian's body, he moved in a blur, seizing a decorated longsword from the wall. Meanwhile, Lucian grasped his own neck, and his perspective shifted. In an instant, he was controlling Xu Hua's body; in the other, he stood in his old body, a sword in his hands. The young Xu Hua stumbled backward, eyes wide and filled with shock at the sudden change.

"What did you—" A metallic sound rang through the air, interrupting Xu Hua's shout and cutting him in half. His body dissolved into crimson energy, fading away through the chamber's wall. Then, Lucian closed his eyes. The crimson world trembled, collapsing into fragments and then dissolving into energy. Everything began to rise and swirl into a vast crimson typhoon. Taking a deep breath, Lucian felt his body dissolve as well, merging into the typhoon. It hurts to see their faces after so long, he thought.

You better have knowledge worth the trouble, Village Head. Within the typhoon, scenes from Xu Hua's life flickered in crimson light. It all surged in sequence, swirling to form a sphere. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Next, a giant hand emerged from outside the sphere's periphery, grasping it and drawing it toward a massive mouth.

Lucian, within his Sea of Consciousness and through a special activation of the Rune of Lust, seized decades of Xu Hua's life and devoured them whole. Scenes unfolded in rapid succession. They covered Huoxing Huang's birth, his early training, his love for the sword, the fall into the pit, training under a mysterious teacher, and returning home to find his parents dead.

Then came his time within a minor sect, loving his junior sister, fathering a daughter, the betrayal of his sworn brothers, his forced flight, and the abandonment by his wife. He later encountered his mysterious teacher once more. She sealed portions of his memory and altered a few others, leaving him clueless and hoping for a better future.

Later, he lost his daughter, descended into madness, changed his name, adopted a young boy, forged a true Sword Heart, became the head of a small village, was attacked by a stronger cultivator, fought Lucian, and died within a strange room. All the knowledge, the pain, the forgotten fragments, the ignored details, the assumptions, and the emotions he had once carried were taken by Lucian. Unlike the Rune of Gluttony, there was no side effect, mostly because it was a kind of trade.

If Lucian didn't resolve Xu Hua's regret and, somehow, the deceased Village Head resolved his, then Lucian would be the one to have his memories taken. Moments later, in the real world, Lucian opened his eyes. He moved his head back, away from the chest he was biting. Then, he stared at Xu Hua's lifeless body before him. The remnants of Blood Essence circulated through them, connecting their minds for another instant before flickering out of existence along the Rune of Lust in Lucian's brain.

The residual Blood Essence flowed back into Lucian's body. It was too little, just enough to reactivate the Rune of Lust or the Rune of Greed once when necessary. Staring at Xu Hua's peaceful expression, Lucian adjusted his own position and closed his eyes, organizing his thoughts and the devoured memories. Dealing with such an influx of information brought no pain to his mind or soul, as he was accustomed to handling far more than that. There was, however, a huge amount of foreign knowledge he had to analyze.

Understanding Xu Hua's sealed memories was what challenged him the most. After ten minutes, Lucian opened his eyes, his pupils trembling. Human Sage, he thought in surprise mixed with excitement. You were not the one who sent me here! Within Xu Hua's memories, or rather, throughout Huoxing Huang's early years, Lucian had seen magical creatures known as demonic beasts invade villages, devour people, and, in some cases, demand sacrifices to spare most of the population. You would never allow this to happen.

Lucian tried to control his erratic breathing. He understood the Human Sage's philosophy more than anyone else. Creating a place like this, for a human supremacist like you, would be worse than death! The Human Sage was a mage who later became an Archmage, and afterwards broke through realms beyond what magic was known to achieve. He reached the same realm as Lucian, the one called Beyond the Supreme. All of that before his thirties.

Throughout the world, it was a well-known fact that he despised any being that preyed upon, enslaved, or threatened mankind. After all, he had lost his parents to a mutant creature that invaded his homeland. He alone idealized and built the Human Sage Domain, expanding it and eradicating every threat to mankind. He created spells to merge with other domains, making sure no other creatures could threaten mankind under his watch.

Arthur would never allow this place to exist, Lucian thought, remembering the blond man he had fought and talked with through millennia. He might not care about humans killing one another, but for these demonic beasts to live, he would have to be dead. Lucian finally accepted that he was in an unknown place, that he knew nothing about how he arrived here, and which rules this world followed. If he hadn't lived long enough to encounter other unique and disturbing situations, he would've lost his mind by now.

Taking a deep breath, he changed his line of thought. He didn't want to dwell on endless questions about his situation. There were more important matters that would affect his short-term safety! Xu Hua was a name the Village Head had taken after losing his daughter, Lucian thought. Only his adopted son, Xu Duan, who fled the village, and his teacher knew his true identity. Thinking about Xu Hua's teacher, Lucian's mood soured. She was the woman in green, playing a golden zither inside his mind.

His mysterious teacher, the one who had sealed and altered part of his memories and left behind a split soul within him, is known as the Resonant Sea Ancestor, one of the nine Nascent Soul cultivators in this world, he thought, a dangerous glint deeper in his eyes. Through the stolen memories, Lucian had discovered that he had killed a disciple of one of the strongest cultivators throughout the four regions. And he also learned that cultivators were famously vindictive.

The stronger they were, the more grudges they held!