Chapter 6 - No reason to live.

[Zhao Clan]

...

Zhao Yao didn't know how long he knelt on the ground.

After Elder Zhao Jiang and Zhao Ping left, the crowd didn't disperse right away. Some clan members even came forward and beat him.

"Hey, stop. What are you doing?"

"Leave this place at once, he got his punishment." One clan guard took pity on him and scared away attackers and tried to disperse the crowd.

People didn't leave, their number kept increasing.

The fingers pointed at him, whispers looking at him, jokes made about him, mockery aimed at him, burning heat of the noon sun didn't faze Zhao Yao.

As the midsummer sun glared at the crowd with ferocity, many chose to concede and leave.

Zhao Yao knelt there unaware of the passing time.

"Muaahhh."

The Merp pulled Zhao Yao, making him fall forward and gain a bit of consciousness. The stronger Merp continued to move forward, pulling him and making him slid on the ground.

Zhao Yao got up from the ground and passively followed the Merp.

They soon arrived at the hilly pastureland owned by the Zhao clan. Seeing the Merp who was happily immersing itself in feeding, Zhao Yao felt he lived a life of a domesticated low-level beast.

Like the beasts, he had nothing to worry about. He got food and clothes to wear. The security provided by the clan didn't let him face any danger. Other than the constant bullying and mockery he faced due to his crippled body, he lived uneventfully.

Maybe he was more useless than this Merp. This Merp provided its fur every month, and when it gets killed, it provided meat and demonic crystal. But, he wasn't useful at all, a complete piece of trash. The only thing he was useful for was to get abused which provided the clan members with some entertainment,

He brought bad luck to his family with his birth.

His father, Zhao Tong, was on the path to succeed the Clan Leader of Zhao clan, and everything changed with his birth. His mother ran away with another man after throwing the baby him down a cliff.

His father was never the same afterward, neither was Zhao Yao. He survived the cliff miraculously, but the crippling injuries he suffered, barred him from cultivating.

The shame caused by his mother pushed his father away from taking the Clan Leader position.

Whenever he went crying to his father, he was told that crying does not solve any of their problems. Even his father, who said that, resorted to wines to drown his sorrows.

Not long after, he lost his father to an accident caused by his own drunkenness.

He had completely become an orphan. Living in a clan full of his relatives, he always felt that he was alone.

He didn't have anything to strive for. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't increase his strength. He wasn't wise enough to become a scholar nor strong enough to become a cultivator.

Su Rou was the only reason he continued to live, the only girl Zhao Yao loved in this world.

The gentle girl treated him well, and she was the only good thing that happened to him.

Zhao Yao knew that he didn't deserve her, but Su Ruo's father and his father were bosom friends. They made this marriage arrangement right after their birth.

Uncle Su treated him like his own son despite knowing his uselessness.

Zhao Yao didn't know if he could ever explain the truth. He wasn't sure of his ability to overcome Zhao Ping's lies.

Zhao Yao continued walking with his eyes focused only on his target, the tallest hill of Zhao clan's pasture. Merp resisted at first but soon started following him. It had become familiar with Zhao Yao.

The largest forest of the continent, the Grand Demon Forest, shared borders with Zhao clan's hilly pasture. Even though the forest was inhabited by powerful and brutal Demonic beasts, the Zhao clan didn't face any danger from it. It was rumored that Zhao clan's ancestral palace scare away strong demonic beasts from entering the clan grounds.

Another reason was that a high cliff range that separated the Zhao clan's hilly pasture from the Grand Demon forest.

The hilly pastures ended in a high cliff.

Zhao Yao climbed the tallest hill of the pasture and stood at the highest point of the cliff.

The Zhao clan members called it the 'The Hell Point.'

Even Master cultivators couldn't survive a fall from the cliff; if they somehow managed to survive, they had to face demonic beasts of the forest.

When he was a kid, Zhao Yao came here once with his father. Since then, he always wondered how deep was the Hell Point cliff.

Now could measure it himself.

He took a peek below. Nothing had changed down there, even though many things had changed in his life. The endless forest appeared like green dots below him.

He then looked up. Clear blue sky untainted by clouds, birds migrating from the North, and there was even a 'Big' grey bird among them. The sky was serene, unlike his mind.

"Muaaahhh." The Merp behind him cried.

He removed the leash tied to his hand and didn't look behind.

He had no reason to live.

Zhao Yao, with his eyes closed and a slight smile, walked forward.

And when the gravity pulled him down, he felt relief.

The tiny bit of subconscious alive in Zhao Yao finally embraced death.