In a remote village in an unimportant lower realm,
" Get ready, Gula, it is your big day. " A middle-aged woman urged a boy of five to get ready soon lest he misses the carriage that can earn him a chance to enter the 'Heaven Sect' meant for the cultivators. He was the youngest child of his family of 8, his parents and 5 siblings.
He was an average boy, in ... literally everything. Looks, there isn't much to see. Physique, please, he is a 5-year-old. Brains, just enough to survive. Brawn, well, he is just a little, skinny brat.
Gula went along with all other 5-year-olds for the Dantain awakening ceremony. If he succeeds, he can enter the Heaven sect and become a cultivator. Else, he shall simply return and become what his father teaches him as a livelihood. The ceremony was performed at the shrine on a mountain.
He was the last one to undergo the ceremony and the only one to fail as well. Distraught, he returned home. There, he spent years learning how to make pots for a living.
While two of his siblings failed just like him, they were at least talented enough to learn their father's blacksmithing and became famous blacksmiths famous even in the nearby villages as well.
But among the potters of the village, Gula was ordinary. No special skills, so to speak.
15 years flew past.
Now 20, Gula was a potter who made pots to sell at the market, his average pottery skills keeping him just above the poverty line. He had no significant savings or the foresight to have so.
" Hey, did you hear that our children who went to the Heaven sect are returning? "
" Are they? It is a huge cause for celebration. "
" Cook the best dishes after cleaning and decorating the entire village, it stinks like cattle dung. "
" Yes, Chief. "
The entire village got into a festive atmosphere and everyone celebrated, except for Gula. He was annoyed and sad by the piece of news he just received. It just hit his nerve for some reason.
The cultivators were welcomed in the grandest manner possible to the rundown village and praised beyond anything. They were given everything they asked for.
WHY ARE THEY THE HEROES EVEN WHEN THEY DID NOTHING FOR THE VILLAGE? WHY DO WOMEN AND MEN FLOCK TO THEM? WHAT'S SO GOOD IN THEM THAT THEY ARE SEEN AS ANGELS WHILE I AM JUST A PEBBLE ON THE ROAD? IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME WHO DESERVED ALL THIS FAME AND LOVE, NOT THEM. NOT THEM AT ALL. THEY ARE UNWORTHY.
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THEY ARE UNWORTHY.
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THEY ARE UNWORTHY.
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THEY ARE UNWORTHY.
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Gula, who was fed up being an unknown potter, got angry at the villagers praising cultivators.
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He was absolutely disgusted by them.
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He was enraged by their antics.
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He prayed for their destruction.
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He hated them.
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He 'envied' them.
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That very instant, something jolted in his lower back. A peculiar sensation ran all over his body. Gula awakened the sin, 'Envy'. That day marked the birth of the worst opponent one can ever have.