Sitting domineeringly on the horizon was a tall mountain with a scarlet hue, tainting the clouds with its glaring color. It invited countless souls to strive for a greater fortune and invoked fear, weakness, a sense of loss, and a promise for a future.
Wei Wuyin experienced once again the first time he saw the Scarlet Solaris Sect's grandiose mountain that overlooked the world. He was exhausted, his eyes dry from lacking tears, with Du Ling walking beside him with a jug of water, a bag of recently picked fruits, and hunted game. Their clothes were dirty, and their bodies stank.
After escaping the mad pursuit of his enemies, the duo traversed a thousand miles to the Scarlet Solaris Sect. While his mother and father had left without explanation, his father had left a token of acceptance from the Scarlet Solaris Sect, a gift from the Saber Wolf Sect that was bestowed to him after he became a Grand Elder of the Sect.
It was originally meant for his older brother, but after the disappearance of his parents, his brother took it upon himself to raise him while attending to clan matters, forgoing even his Saber Wolf Sect's enrollment. If he hadn't done this, how could his brother not rival those who hunted them with ravenous teeth and malicious intent?
Wei Wuyin's soul stared at the scarlet oval-shaped token that symbolized his only hope for revenge at the time through the eyes of his past self. His journey for vengeance had started.
The rest of the events were incomparably familiar to Wei Wuyin, the hectic struggle to enter the sect, the arduous effort to cultivate with every piece of free time he had, and the vast disparity between him and others who were here since they were young, granted resources by their families.
He started as an honorary disciple, forced to sweep the grounds, fetch water for the outer disciples, empty the latrines, clean the floors of buildings, and cook for others. While he didn't need to do all these tasks, every task offered contribution points that could then be turned over for resources, opportunities, and even materials of knowledge.
He worked eighteen hours a day, slept for four, and meditated for two, all while never neglecting his cultivation, finding time between breaks or meditation to give it his all. He was relentless. He was driven. He was left with nothing else.
He rose slowly but surely from an honorary disciple to an outer disciple after breaking through the Qi Condensation Realm after acquiring one of his first Karmic Luck events, obtaining an essence stone after seizing a dangerous opportunity away from thieving bandits. Looking back, he knew that from the beginning, he was an Exploitative Blessed, tested by the Heavenly Daos with opportunities needing willpower, intelligence, and patience.
He had helped an old man, a former legendary blacksmith who was at the end of his life, and after some discussions, received his first custom-made saber that followed him for a decade as he rose from an honorary disciple to a core disciple. It was hard not to feel nostalgic and saddened seeing his many battles with that saber.
"Join me, okay?" The voice that sent waves of emotion down Wei Wuyin's soul once again resounded in his ears. After his hard work and outstanding will began to show their fruits, he was approached by a young woman with freckles. She wasn't beautiful or ugly, simply slightly above average, but there was a unique quality about her that drew Wei Wuyin in.
She was a leader that fought valiantly for her subordinates, valuing loyalty above all else, and carried a unique charm that was hard to describe. The Wei Wuyin before was snagged without understanding why, but the Wei Wuyin watching this all unfold knew why he decided to acquiesce to her, serving her as one of her subordinates—she reminded him of his older brother.
Mei Mei was steady, stern, and commendable. She existed with established boundaries, principles, and morals that heavily reminded him of his brother. She lived by her word, and should she grow hostile, she would be filled with endless resentment in her pursuit of revenge.
Moreover, she had started as an outer disciple and rose with her own effort, with no massive backing to her name, and was well-regarded by all her subordinates. Thinking of Mei Mei, his soul lost itself slightly.
"You want revenge?"
"...Yes."
"You'll get it."
After he became an Inner Disciple, the rivers of blood, the piked skulls of his enemies, the panicked cries of children, their elders' heads rolling with widened eyes, and fearful screams echoed endlessly in Red Dove City. It was painted red with blood, truly deserving of the 'red' in its name.
Wei Wuyin satisfied his greatest wish with Mei Mei and Du Ling by his side, his saber drenched in the blood of his enemies. He had returned and slaughtered until his face was painted red with the mournful blood of others. He had even found his brother's skeleton, defiled and rotting…
He got the burial he deserved.
After this, Wei Wuyin ventured his way up the demon's mountain and met their clan leader, paying his respects to Dai Lyn, and was ready to end it all then and there. He had completed his greatest and only wish in this life.
What else was there?
When the blade plunged into his body by his own hands, he was extremely resolute in his will to die, but a firm hand stopped the edge from penetrating deeper, a mere centimeter away from his heart. It belonged to Du Ling's chubby arm, his eyes covered in a waterfall of tears, and standing behind him was Mei Mei, solemn and angry.
"Don't, okay? Don't…I'm still hungry, Young Master….I'm still hungry! What am I-what can I do without you?" Those words shook Wei Wuyin to his core, and for the first time in his life, after losing everything, he realized that he wasn't as alone as he thought.
Time flowed on. Wei Wuyin found himself embroiled in all sorts of schemes and plots, faced with assassinations as numerous cultivators began to speak of whispers of his talent and hard work being the result of a cultivation treasure. He became a Core Disciple and, on the same day, met Su Mei and Bai Lin.
Their hunger fueled his will to live. So did all his subordinates, and Mei Mei's dream of one day becoming Sect Master of the Scarlet Solaris Sect was the main propellant for his continued existence. He cultivated like mad, acted to push her ahead, and stole away the attention of her enemies.
The rumor of the cultivation treasure had been started by them after much planning, intending to lure those other Core Disciples into traps, have them slip, and eliminate competitors. The day it was conceived, Wei Wuyin shared Mei Mei's bed, and a part of his heart that had been closed off from loss was slowly pried open.
Then, he became twenty-six—the age when everything changed.
The hunt of the Violet Moon Sect by order of the leadership commenced, and Wei Wuyin was ordered to lead it. A ploy by his enemies to end his life, obtain the treasure, or eliminate him began to form. Fortunately, he met Na Xinyi, his cultivation rising from the Third Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm to the Fourth Stage, Yin Form Phase.
Before absolute power, all schemes were useless.
After reaching this stage of Cultivation, Wei Wuyin was whooping with happiness, intending to dual cultivate with Mei Mei and sacrifice a portion of his cultivation to push her to the next level, even if it harmed his core foundations. As for Na Xinyi, he had made her a promise, and he kept it.
Unfortunately, after he returned to the sect, the Core Disciple Competition was unfolding, and he had no chance to communicate his intentions to Mei Mei.
During the hunt, he met the silver-haired and black-eyed man trapped in a cage of froststeel. He was a captive of the Violet Moon Sect, and when Wei Wuyin investigated, he was attacked and received a bite wound to his neck. Wei Wuyin ended the man's life as he spouted some philosophical words.
"Good. Evil. Moral. Immoral. In our world, the Good gain karmic luck. In our world, the Evil gain infernal sin. The moral is just. The immoral are condemned. This world is one where the strong prey on the weak, the weak are evil and immoral, the strong are good and moral."
"In my life, I have done no wrong, yet I was deemed wrong. In my life, was I good or evil?"
The unwillingness of those words still shook Wei Wuyin's soul. However, the 'him' at the time was merciless, taking this deranged prisoner's head without a second thought.
Wei Wuyin suspected that this man was the original Bloodline of Sin holder, bestowed it to him, and made him an Inheritor of Sin, but he could never confirm it. While those words felt as if they could verify his existence, how could a Bloodline of Sin holder be killed with a single slash of his saber?
So when the flow of time approached this moment, Wei Wuyin focused the entirety of his soul.
Yet…
After he entered the cage, he discovered nothing. He soon left, not a single wound on his neck, and walked back to his camp as he gave the same orders as before.
What was happening?
It wasn't just that…
As time flowed on, as the Core Disciple Competition went on as it did in his memories, Mei Mei suffered from the scheme of his subordinate, causing him to lose her trust, and for her to lose the status of Core Disciple, everything else remained the same.
From the Haven Heart Qi Method to Lin Ziyan's multi-marriage proposal and entering the task force sent to investigate the disappearances at Lake Muu with the two other top-tier sects of the Wu Country, they were all the same. But shortly after Wei Wuyin felt the maddening call of sin, he rushed off and found a place to calm down, eventually locking into an area of fortune with Meadowlife Wood Essence.
There was no Black Skeleton.
There were no discussions regarding the Bloodline of Sin.
It was absent in the most natural manner as if none of that existed.
"The tribulation can't reveal details of the Bloodline of Sin!" Wei Wuyin's soul trembled slightly as this had inadvertently revealed that the silver-haired prisoner was indeed related to the Bloodline of Sin! The omission of his existence was all he needed.
Wei Wuyin soon relaxed. Now, the rest would be his spontaneous rise through the cultivation world. He would traverse beyond the Scarlet Solaris Sect's Domain, experience the Wall of Heaven, suffer from the escape, enter the Eden Earth Sect, and leave.
The events went off without any deviation, only visual changes and outright exclusions. The Wall of Heaven was a disastrous hurricane of epic proportions, not an invisible Wall that reaped all life on contact, and Wei Wuyin hadn't experienced any Calamity of Hell before entering the Eden Earth Sect.
Eventually, he arrived at the Myriad Monarch Sect under the guidance of Xiang Ling, otherwise known as Fairy Blessed Spirit, and became a Sky Noble outright due to his talents in alchemy.
"..."
"..."
Wei Wuyin relived every moment of his life in the Myriad Monarch Sect. He wondered what would happen should he reach his present life; what would the tribulation show him?
"Wait…"
Something was wrong.
After Wei Wuyin accepted the Alchemist Association's challenge to an All-Alchemic Clash, he started to…
No.
That wasn't right.
Wei Wuyin's soul shook violently.
During the Alchemic Clash against Qingye Ying, he hadn't won!
It was a tie!