Laude had never experienced a crisis quite like the one he was facing today, and he had dealt with many a crisis over the last year.
He had dealt with dirty politicians who had tried to imprison him, assassination attempts on his life, people who tried to blackmail him, and a couple of criminal organizations who had expressed their "dislike" of him...
Suffice to say, as an Imperial Delegate, he had dealt with situations ordinary people would have never been able to handle, let alone meditate. And even with all of his experience, Laude still found himself stuck at an impasse.
He did not know how to move forward or even begin reconciling what Alnus had told him several days ago. Like an idiot caught in a pit of quicksand, the only thing Laude had done was idly stand in place to avoid sinking any further... into the pit of despair.
He wasn't alive and had become... something else. A bizarre being, a creature caught betwixt two different worlds: the land of the living and land of the dead.
The way Alnus explained it, when Laude was brought to White Dew Society's Mountain-Sanctuary, he had been infinitely close to the brink of death. Far, far closer than Laude could imagine. And although they had mended his injuries and dragged him back from the brink, they failed to fix the fundamental problem with Laude.
"We can't describe the state you are in terms of 'life' or 'death' anymore. To be perfectly honest, we aren't sure where you stand now. You've got one foot in the land of the living and the other in the afterlife. That's why we think you are exhibiting characteristics from both sides of the field, so to speak."
Unsurprisingly, Laude did not feel hunger or thirst, nor did he need to breathe. His heart had also stopped beating, resulting in him not having a pulse. Laude was, in many ways, corpse-like...
At the same time, his skin had retained its softness and elasticity. He was even warm to the touch. And despite not being alive, he had not decayed at all. He also did not possess a trace of the typical cold and gloomy Spiritual Qi that most corpses possessed.
"You have been forcibly removed the Wheel of Samsara, the great cycle of reincarnation by the Heavens," said Alnus solemnly with a contemplative frown, "And as such, you are a danger to your village. You cannot go home, Laude."
Alnus revealed that in all likelihood, the lightning bolt that nearly killed Laude had likely been a "heavenly tribulation," a supernatural phenomenon that typically only occurred in the world of cultivation and not in the ordinary world of mortals.
He explained that the Heavens would send down heavenly tribulations to test cultivators and determine whether or not they were worthy of remaining on the path of cultivation. If they failed this esoteric trial, the Heavens would strip a cultivator of their connection to the stars as punishment, ending their journey.
They would never be able to perform Immortal Arts for the rest of their lives, rendering them mortals once again for the rest of their lives.
On the other hand, passing a tribulation would endow cultivators with the authority to establish a deeper connection with the Heavens, naturally increasing a cultivator's powers.
Nevertheless, the path of cultivation was an onerous one. The further one progressed down the path of the cultivation, the fiercer the heavenly tribulations would become — and failure to pass these harsher tribulations could very well result in death...
Truth be told, Laude had been extremely fortunate that a cultivator from White Dew Society had found him. Had another Society or Sect encountered him, Laude might not have been treated so kindly.
A Society that was even slightly more superstitious would have probably imprisoned him for the rest of his life, reluctant to let someone with his alarming condition leave. Not out of goodwill, but out of dread for what Laude was and might become if he was left unchecked...
And the Cultivation Sects that served Janusphere Empire? They would have tried to exterminate him and continued to do so until they were sure he was truly dead. And they would not have hesitated in doing so, either...
"But I'm not a cultivator!" said Laude in protest, "I'm just a normal person! A simple farmer! A nobody! Why did this happen to me of all people?! It makes no damn sense...!"
One of the Head Elders beside Alnus, a gloomy man with a dark scowl on his face, said, "Which is why we're so concerned — we've never heard of a mortal being subjected to a heavenly tribulation. Not in the last three thousand years has such an event ever been recorded in our archives. This is unprecedented."
The old man stared at Laude warily as if he were the Grim Reaper himself and whispered, "First the Great Exodus ensued and all the Heavenly Immortals left our world. And then, the Gates of Heaven began to close... Then, the stars started to flicker out of the night sky, and the world's Spiritual Qi began to vanish!"
He pointed a bony finger at Laude and said, "And now, this happens! A mortal who has eluded death! It is as the Departing Prophecy foretold...! The world is beginning to unfurl at the seams before our eyes... and there is naught we can do to stop it. The end coming for us all..."
"Have you taken your medicine today, gramps? I'm pretty sure you've got the wrong person," said Laude with a polite smile. "I cultivate apples, peaches, persimmons, wheat... not world-ending cataclysms."
The Elder scowled at thought of being treated as a fool by Laude, but before he could even get a word in edge-wise, Alnus deftly intervened and said, "Now, now, dear Fraxinus, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's leave the difficult topics for another day. And surely we must all agree that it is harsh to label this poor boy a sign of the end times just because of one... unforeseen event."
Alnus said, "It was fate that brought you here to White Dew Society, little Tellstar. And fate is the providence of the Heavens. Seeing as how you cannot return to your village, you are more than welcome to stay here with us as an honored guest. Your safety here is guaranteed, that much I can promise you. So please make yourself at home..."
And so, about a week had passed since Laude had arrived at White Dew Society.
Alnus had explained to him that it wouldn't be long before other Societies and Sects ventured to Haalo in search of clues. They'd scrutinize every stone, blade of grass, and cow turd for whatever had incited the mysterious heavenly tribulation that had occurred over the village.
There was no doubt that they'd thoroughly scour the village and eventually find the substitute corpse that had been planted in Laude's grave. And therefore, it wouldn't be long before Laude's name and face ended up in every Society and Sect's persons of interest list in the Janusphere Empire...
For the first time in his life, Laude was completely lost. His entire life had been uprooted in a single stroke, and it wouldn't be long before it'd become impossible for him to even show his face in public. In short, not only had he lost his home and family but even his identity, too.
Why?
Why had he survived?
What did the Heavens want from him?
And where was he supposed to go from here?
He had so many questions and zero answers.
...For what it was worth, though, daily life at White Dew Society was not as awful as Laude had initially imagined it was going to be. Although his new lifestyle was plain and a little frugal, he had been given a private room of his own to sleep in. Hell, he had even been given three hot meals a day, despite having nothing to offer.
And despite Laude's insistence to pay White Dew Society back for the medical treatment and food they had given him, Alnus had refused outright.
"What do you think we are, lad? Devils? How could we ask for anything from a poor soul who has just lost everything? Not that we'd ever ask for repayment for an essential duty that all cultivators are beholden to uphold — charity for the downtrodden. You owe us nothing. End of story."
It was unlike anything Laude had ever heard of. The entire time Laude had lived in Alora, he had been treated as nothing more a tool by the cultivators there, but here... he was being treated as if he were a celebrity. Needless to say, it was quite a bizarre experience being treated with so much respect...
During the span of his first week at White Dew Society, Laude had also toured the central Mountain-Sanctuary that belonged to Alnus. Polite smiles, generous acts of kindness, and friendly people greeted him warmly wherever he went. He received the same kindness in the other four Mount-Sanctuaries too, after visiting them as well.
Laude was baffled. It was clear that these cultivators were undoubtedly not the same as the tyrants he had been forced to serve as an Imperial Delegate. So, where did the difference lie? How could one group be so compassionate and another so heartless and cruel?
Weren't they all practitioners and followers of the Seventh Mandala?
It was all so confusing, so Laude decided to go to the one place that might be able to give him some answers.
After climbing a lengthy set of mountain steps, Laude arrived at the summit of Alnus's Mountain-Sanctuary. A tiny, wooden shack of house lay before Laude amidst a vast field of what seemed to be a miniature forest.
A unique collection of trees — acacia, oak, ash, cypress, cherry, yew, gingko...
There were even exotic trees that even Laude could not identify. This, of course, was not counting the seemingly endless amounts of colorful flowers, shrubs, herbs, and smaller plants sprinkled across the summit.
"Oh my god..." said Laude in awe.
He made a mental note to come back here later to explore this little forest. As much as he was interested, right now the only he wanted answers, so he walked over to the tiny shack. But before Laude knocked on the door, he stopped himself. He could faintly hear the sound of people conversing.
It sounded like Alnus was talking to someone, so Laude hesitated on knocking on the door. He didn't want to intercede on a potentially important conversation, so he hovered in front of the shack like a fool until...
"Oh? Is someone out there? Please, come inside and join us!" said a muffled voice from within the shack.
Laude entered the shack and found Alnus and a young man sitting across from one another. The young man was a good-looking fellow — light brown hair neatly tied up in a knot and strong, courageous mein that spoke of someone tough at heart. Laude was sure that he was probably eye-candy for ladies who were holed up in White Dew Society...
At first glance, the young man seemed like a tough-looking soldier rather than a mystical cultivator.
But to Laude's surprise, the fellow to a single look at him and cheerfully said, "Ahh, you must be the guy my little brother saved! It's good to finally meet you!"
The young man stood up and shook Laude's hand and said, "I'm Shorea Ingel, a lowly disciple here at White Dew Society. If you ever need help with something here, you can always come to me."
Laude introduced himself and took a seat with Shorea in the cramped room before he said, "I didn't mean to intrude if you two were talking about something important. I just... well, I had a couple of questions for Sir Alnus."
Alnus smiled, stroked his long beard, and said, "My meager wisdom and knowledge is yours, little Tellstar. What questions might you have for me today?"
"Well, for starters, why are all of you so different? Forgive me if I sound ignorant, but the experiences I've had with your lot — cultivators — have not been, well, rather... pleasant."
Laude explained his troubled history with cultivators in Alora as an Imperial Delegate, the disgusting things he had been forced to clean up on their behalf, and how he had quit his job and had returned home rather than work another day as a glorified nanny in Alora.
Shorea was utterly incensed when he heard Laude's tale and said, "Those despicable wretches! They aren't real cultivators; they're just oppressive brutes who serve the royal family! I'm sorry you had to deal with them, but you should know that real cultivators don't behave like them at all."
Alnus sighed deeply and said, "To think that the Royal Sects have stooped so low. They've grown so drunk with the power they have been granted by the royal family that they've lost their way. The oath that those old fogeys gave us all three hundred years ago was for meaningless, after all..."
Then, Laude learned a bit about how the world of cultivators functioned.
In general, there were two different major types of cultivation organizations: Societies and Sects.
A Society was created when a group of old experts decided that it was time for them to pass on their knowledge and wisdom to the next generations. Just as they had been taught how to tread the path of cultivation by their masters back in their youth, the obligation now fell on them to repay the kindness that had been bestowed on them in the past.
Societies are often built in secret, hard-to-reach locations, hidden by Immortal Arts to keep them out of the reach of the secular world of mortals. This, of course, did not mean that cultivators were completely detached from the mortal world. If anything, they were drawn to the mortal world as it was crucial for their growth.
On the other hand, the term "Sect" was a relatively new word created only a couple hundred years ago. It was used to describe a society that had controversially meddled in the world of mortals beyond what was acceptable for orthodox societies. A sect was a society that had wholly integrated itself into the world of mortals...
There were several critical duties all Societies taught their disciples to perform and all of them required them to enter the mortal world.
One of the most important duties cultivators had involved hunting and subduing rogue cultivators — cultivators who betrayed the Heavens in pursuit of a different and often destructive path of cultivation. These rogue cultivators were almost always amoral people that operated on inhuman, alien principles far removed from what anyone could consider even remotely normal...
Another duty cultivators had involved the exorcism of the impure. When a dying person held a deep grudge or had powerful emotions about something that they regretted, there was always a small chance that they would turn into wandering ghosts, wraiths, or even demons.
Although most of these lost souls were generally not hostile to the living, some lost souls — fueled by the rage of some terrible injustice they experienced — were unable to distinguish friend from foe. If they were allowed to fester in their own wrath, it was all but inevitable that they would one day harm innocent people.
Either way, it fell on all cultivators to help these lost souls pass on to the other side, by freeing them of whatever grudges and emotions were shackling them to the land of the living.
If not attended to regularly, lost souls had the potential to adversely affect the world. When malevolent spirits grouped up en masse, they tainted the land they inhabited, infecting villages, towns, or even entire cities with horrific effects. There were usually major red flags that alerted cultivators when impurities brought on by evil spirits reached a critical threshold.
Cursed farmland would often have poor harvests for multiple seasons on end, resulting in widespread famine and death Cities that grew too impure would often have people become ill for inexplicable reasons, influence the populace to fall into vice, and have a digesting foulness about them that only the spiritually-sensitive could detect...
And the final major duty a cultivator had was to slay and hunt Demonic Beasts. These were extremely intelligent animals that possessed sapience and could cultivate and perform Immortal Arts just like humans.
Although Demonic Beasts usually resided in the Great Wilderlands, sometimes they would trespass onto human territory and wreak havoc in the mortal world. Many of these Demonic Beasts regarded humans as prey to be hunted and devoured; others thought of humanity as mortal foes, enemies of all Demonic Beasts that deserved death for all the atrocities they committed against Beastfolk...
Suffice to say, the duties cultivators had were numerous. While armies of mortals defended the Janusphere Empire from other humans, it was Societies that defended the Empire from supernatural and exotic threats that mortals had no way of handling themselves.
"But all of that changed three hundred years ago," said Alnus as he reminisced about the distant past.
"The five largest Societies in the Janusphere Empire at the time had been petitioned by the Emperor of that era to formally join forces with the Empire in the name of national defense. And as compensation for joining the Empire, the Emperor declared that the spiritual ley-lines and spirit stone mines these Societies were built on upon would belong to them in perpetuity under Imperial decree."
And so, these former Societies became the Royal Sects. Protected and given special powers by the state, these Sects ousted all of the former Societies that they once called allies and took it upon themselves to handle all threats supernatural in the country by themselves...
Alnus sighed.
"But it seems that these days, the prestige of the Royal Sects has all but disappeared. They've lost their way and have become a sad, bloated abomination of their former selves. A truly saddening turn of events. This is exactly why I told those old fools not to join the Empire three hundred years ago! But, alas... they did not listen to me."
Alnus, like anyone with a shred of common sense, had realized that one day the power the Empire had given them would corrupt and turn them rotten. For this reason, he had advocated that although Societies were naturally connected to the fate of the mortal world, it was not their place to actually join it.
"To be a cultivator means to be a servant of the Heavens," said Alnus as he gazed at his teacup absentmindedly. "We are not beholden to mortal kings, for they and their powers are transient; the only thing we are beholden to are the Heavens, which are everlasting. Be sure to remember that, you two..."