Chapter 43 - 43: First Calamity
Prrrshh!
Wei Wuyin, in his slovenly appearance, was standing next to a lakeside. While whistling, he urinated without a care in the world.
The current Wei Wuyin had no memories of his past or the dire circumstances of his future. Therefore, in this rare moment, he felt free and happy. He traveled where the wind blew and ate what he wished.
The earth became his bed and the sky became his roof.
Giving a little wag, he gave a sigh of relief. "Hehe, where’s all the women at? With this thing’s size, I can have any and many! Maybe I should find some," as this thought entered his mind, he started to wag his ’little man’ like a dog would wag its tail.
He laughed, his tone cheerful and childish. As he whipped it back and forth, another idea came to him. With a little motion, he started to spin it rapidly around.
"Look! No hands!" Letting go of his grip, he started to twist as if showing everyone around him.
However...
There was no one around him. The world was silent and not even a peep from the wildlife or wind. It was eerily silent.
Wei Wuyin didn’t notice this, and continued to have fun. When he got tired, he decided to dive and entered the lake.
Surrounding the lake were trees of black wood with leaves of crimson that dripped sanguine liquid that gave the smell of blood. The sky was grey, dull and gloomy. The atmosphere was as if the world was no longer the world.
The lake that Wei Wuyin dived in was exceptionally clear and blue. One could see the very bottom, but when they did, all sorts of images would emerge.
Wei Wuyin floated in this lake, his eyes closed as he felt the refreshingly cold temperature. This continued for a while before he felt a twitch in his leg. He looked downwards and saw images.
These images were of his past, of his future, of alternate pasts, of alternate futures. They displayed a variety of things, with people who should elicit all sorts of responses from him.
Wei Wuyin felt like his mind was immersed, unable to be drawn away, and all the things he saw was the undeniable truth of the world. They have happened or will happen.
The first image he saw was of a young man, his eyes brilliant and his aura noble. If Wei Wuyin had his memory, he would recognize this figure as his relative - his older brother. It displayed his brilliant achievements, and even Wei Wuyin who had lost his sense of self, felt his blood boil by these events.
He silently cheered on this man with gusto, but then an event happened. It led to his death. The death was gruesome, portrayed horrifically.
Wei Wuyin winced, not out of fear, but pity. "A hero dies yet again, when’s the next show?" Wei Wuyin asked nonchalantly. He had seen these images thousands of times over, sometimes the events changed, sometimes the people changed, sometimes it was their ages but the events remained the same in terms of ending - gruesome and dark.
Wei Wuyin often saw this ’guy’, he had silver eyes, black hair, slightly dark skin, incredibly handsome, well fit in form, and exuded a calm genius. He had glory and he had failures, sometimes those glory would coincide with those failures.
Wei Wuyin found this ’guy’ to be the most interesting as the stories were particularly vivid.
While he patiently watched these images, he would sometimes get bored and did stuff like dive into the lake. He tried to leave, but this lake surrounded by black trees and blood leaves seemed to form an inescapable maze. No matter where he went, he would come back here and the images would become more vivid.
After awhile, he just stopped trying to leave and watched these shows for his own entertainment. They were a decent way to pass the time.
In fact, Wei Wuyin could’ve said to have been here for seven years and seven months exactly. This was just one of the forty-nine areas that led to various forms of remembrance. They came in all forms, where he would take the form of others, or he experienced several groups of people beg for their lives, asking him to kill himself to save them.
"Pfft." When Wei Wuyin thought of those people, he broke out of his immersion and laughed. As if he would give his life for a bunch of strangers, he’ll see them in hell! He chuckled softly, but was immediately drawn into the lake’s shifting images once more.
No matter how graphic or terrifying the images, he could only wince in pity and even sometimes laugh. Some people just died in a hilarious manner, and it amused him to no end.
He also saw some that caused him to question females. There was a man who had his head within a woman’s crotch, only to have his head pop like a shattered watermelon from her thighs.
It truly made him reconsider some things.
"Pitiful bastard," he kept breaking out of the immersion. However, the images kept trying to draw him in further and further, but continued to fail.
A gigantic figure, a shadow, stood above in the gloomy skies. It had multiple, seemingly infinite amounts of eyes and arms, and they all looked as if they were grasping the world above and below.
Two smaller figures were standing below this shadow, they were both sporting a pair of wings on their backs. One had bright silver wings, they were full, healthy, and filled with brilliantly dazzling feathers. The other had dark crimson wings, thin, dry, and lacked any forms of feathers - like a bat. Their faces or bodies weren’t clear except for their wings.
"He actually passed the entire Calamity of True Loss without a single failure...this is...is he the First Sinner reincarnated?!" The figure with silver wings said in a rough and gruff voice. That voice trembled slightly as it spoke.
"..." The figure with dark crimson wings remained silent, but his figure was visibly trembling, obviously disturbed by what he had just witnessed.
"This Calamity is to have the chosen ones experience the choices of loss, the past of loss, the future of loss, the loss of will, the loss of life, the loss of sanity, and the final loss. With each failure to retain these aspects, they should slowly have their soul deteriorate, until it dissipated within the Calamity itself." The silver-winged figure stated, his voice filled with utter disbelief.
"With each failure, they lose something, but for each success, they gain something. With Calamity comes fortune, one who overcomes the challenge of Hell shall be benefited by Heaven." The silver-winged figure gave a soft sigh as he said.
The dark crimson-winged figure abruptly spoke, "Out of the seven stages of loss, including the final stage, there has never been any wielder of the Bloodline of Sin who has passed all seven stages of the calamity flawlessly..."
"Until now," the silver-winged figure finished his sentence.
"At most three, and the holder of this record had the Bloodline of Wrath. Filled with rage, he cared not for his past, his life, and had already lost his sanity. There’s no way they could affect him, yet he still failed in the others. However, this person has the Bloodline of Pride. They’ve never passed more than one before. Of course, all you need to do is survive, some even fail all of them, but their souls are strong enough.
"This one hasn’t even entered the Realm of Sages nor possesses a Soul of Sin to resist the Calamity. How did he resist all seven trials?!" This baffling aspect left both of them reeling in almost abject fear, and they had some aversion to even interacting with Wei Wuyin, like he was the plague of biblical proportions.
To them, Wei Wuyin had traits only the First Sinner could or should have.
"He’s finished." The figure with multiple eyes and arms that loomed like a giant shadow declared. The two winged figures looked downwards to see Wei Wuyin doing a carefree backstroke in the Dark Lake of Temporal Disaster. They trembled once more and gave a simultaneous sigh. Whether it was one of relief or still induced by fear, no one could tell.
"Send him back," the shadow said, shimmering until it vanished. The two figures nodded, held hands, and emitted a jet-black and bright-white light. The world became immersed in light and Wei Wuyin opened his eyes to witness this.
The light felt warm and peaceful, cold and chaotic, but before he could analyze further, he felt his body shift.
"Oh?! Finally!" Wei Wuyin had felt this feeling once before, and that was when all these strange things started happening. He didn’t know if he would return to wherever he came from, but this lake was already becoming boring.
In that light, he felt his body had landed on solid ground and the ambient sounds of nature welcomed him. He realized his physical body wasn’t wet, but he was naked.
"Where’s my clothes? Wait! Shit! I forgot it!" Recalling taking off his clothes to go for a swim, he cursed. Whoever sent him here stole his clothes! After cursing until he was tired, he rose and looked around him.
"Oh? Mousey, you’re still here?" Wei Wuyin noticed a white rat-like creature staring at him with curiosity. It could’ve been an actual mouse, but it was larger than a beachball. Wei Wuyin could ride it, if he tightened up a little.
This creature had been here when Wei Wuyin was ’abducted’. He thought with how long time seemed to pass, the creature would’ve grown old or died, yet here it was. It even had the unique birthmark on its right side that looked like a taco-shell.
In truth, Wei Wuyin had been sent elsewhere, but only seven seconds had passed since he left. Only seven seconds.
Shrugging, he didn’t put much thought into it as he lifted himself up and picked a random direction. With a nonchalant gait, he left completely unaware that his mishap with his memories had allowed him to overcome the Calamity of Hell!
On his right arm, the various characters on it shifted rapidly until it stopped.
Karmic Luck Value: 652.5.
First Calamity: Survived - 7/7.
Second Calamity: Suppressed - 49 Years.