165 years of existence, 153 years of cultivation. Though in a celestial's eyes, this barely qualified as adolescence, for the mortal-born Harun, those 165 years concealed too many events to be recounted in a few minutes. Thus, Harun dove deep into his memories to seek the most defining steps of his existence. With his Dao in one hand and his trials in the other, Harun could build his Holy Foundation—completing the second step of his plan.
Drifting through the memories, Harun's Divine Sense located a suitable starting point, and focused on it.
…
"To think that after 1,500 years of prestige, the Erdewan clan would produce a worthless freak of your caliber. If I didn't carry you for nine months, I'd question your parentage," said an indifferent woman with a variety of tattoos covering her arms, legs and cleavage.
"Mother, you can't say that. Aren't you afraid of breaking my heart? I think my eye just makes me unique. You should be proud of giving birth to the one and only Double Pupil owner. As for cultivation talent, it's overrated. I can just find a job. Don't worry, with the knowledge of square roots, complex numbers and integrals, I won't become your burden," a 16-year-old looking boy laughed off the cruel words. With heterochromatic black and golden eyes, he would have looked handsome if not for the double pupils in his left eye.
In the Noxious Flame World's history, such a mutation had never occurred, and instantly marked him as a freak.
"When will you stop calling me mother? I threw you into a snake pit at birth. If not for your father's persistence, you would no longer be of this world. So if there's one thing I'm not afraid of, it's breaking your heart," the indifferent woman said and stood up from her honor seat, stepping toward the boy who kneeled before her.
"Cultivation is overrated? Spoken like a waste. It's been three years since you started cultivating. Three years your father and brother used to supply you with resources. But when even an average talent only needs one month to reach the first-level of Purification, you took three years to complete that step. Harun, you're hopeless. My clan can no longer afford to waste precious resources on you, so I will give you two options," said Harun's mother.
An established clan of the Noxious Flame World, although the Erdewan clan didn't rank at the very top, they still controlled vast lands and resources—wielding substantial prestige. Mortal rulers bowed to them, hoping to marry their juniors into the clan and receive mighty backers. All elders were at least at the Daoist Realm, with the strongest few in the early levels of Nihility.
In such a clan, someone like Harun who cultivated at a crippled tortoise's pace would have been kicked out or executed a long time ago. However, because of his mother's status and father's backing, many restrained themselves. Little did they know that the one who, above all others, dreamed of his death, was that good mother of his. But Harun didn't care. For his father and brother's sake, he would be the better man, endure it all, and find his way in life. Or so he initially wished to. But this day twisted all plans—forever wrecking his life and path.
"I have consulted the elders and gained an opportunity for you. If you can reach the end of the Desolate Abyss and stay there for six days, we will keep supplying you with resources. If you can't or won't, I will kill you now," Harun's mother offered. And back then a naïve child only wanting to live in peace, though he knew that cave hid a myriad of poisonous substances, Harun still dove in—the move sealed his fate.
...
"As you can see, the boy succeeded. His resistance to poisonous substances defies all cognition, as if he were a reincarnated Plague God. With such a marvelous medicine slave, the Golden Cicada sect can experiment many of those brutal poisons whose effects you couldn't fully comprehend before. You can even refine him into an unrivaled anti-poison artifact. My Erdewan clan is willing to gift him to you. We only hope that you take good care of my son, Nujen," Harun's mother told several Golden Cicada protectors who, alongside her, watched a projection of Harun's trial.
"Our Golden Cicada sect has already accepted Nujen as an elite disciple. Several elders are now competing to make him their legacy successor. You don't have to worry about his future. The Golden Cicada sect will remember this gift. From now on, your clan can always count on our support," one of the protectors said. Unlike what some might expect, Harun's mother was the clan master of the Erdewan clan. An outsider, his father joined the clan in his youth as a potential son-in-law, and quickly spotting his talent, Harun's mother used him to cement her position and snatch the clan master seat.
But as the years went by, he became increasingly more difficult to control. His relentless sheltering of the face-losing Harun was the best example. Using a clan war as an excuse to send him away, the Erdewan clan mistress formed an agreement with the Golden Cicada sect, using Harun's life as a tool to secure their support.
Harun's father returned to witness the truth, slew the Golden Cicada protectors in a rage, and was in turn cornered by the Erdewan clan. Grievously wounded, he couldn't resist their Nihility Realm experts' combined assault and perished under their blows. As Harun desperately ran for his life, his clan offered his father's head in apology, buying themselves time to hunt him down.
Little did Harun expect that when all seemed desperate, like a guardian spirit from folk tales, his elder brother would drop from the sky and unleash his poisonous arts to protect him. Cleaving a bloody road through the Erdewan clansmen, Nujen took Harun to safety and died from his mother's wounds. All sacrifices soon proved useless. Golden Cicada elders caught their trails, tracked Harun down, and turned him into the sect's prime medicine slave.
…
"You...how can you so eagerly eat all that trash? Don't you know they're using us to test poisons?"
"If I don't eat, what should I do? Starve? A man cannot blame injustice on fate and must strive for the tiniest hope to turn the tables. I will eat anything they throw at me and beg for more, because I know that one day I will leave this place, come back, and screw them all to the last bitch," Harun told a fellow medicine slave and carried on with his toxic meal.
The Golden Cicada sect took its name from a legend of rebirth and immortality and aimed to create an elixir of eternal life through their poisonous arts. They controlled thousands of medicine slaves—most couldn't survive one month. But while the average medicine slave couldn't resist their grasp, the elders underestimated Harun's physique. To be more accurate, they didn't comprehend it.
Poison didn't harm Harun. On the contrary, it strengthened him. By consuming a myriad of organ-damaging substances, Harun reached the peak of Purification and created his Organ-Melting Palm. By doing the same with soul-crushing poisons, Harun reached the peak of the Hallowed Realm and condensed his Soul-Eroding Flame.
Burying dreams of skyscrapers at the back of his mind, Harun escaped the Golden Cicada sect, using his left eye to track down treasures, recipes, pills and chances scattered across his world. And since gluttony enabled him to survive, he took gluttony as his Dao, and swore to live his life to the fullest so that the two that died for him could...at least rest in peace—the rest is history.
…
Eyes still shut close, Harun joined his hands in a mudra. A formless energy of harrowing plight surged, coating Harun in an unapproachable aura:
"Vicissitude Domain: Eternal Starvation," Harun cast his once-strongest ability, the last skill he mastered in the Mortal Path: the Vicissitude Domain. Combining his Dao of Gluttony with the decades of starvation he went through to reach Crossed Vicissitude, that Domain forced anyone in its range to experience starvation at its worst. After using it to destroy the Golden Cicada sect, Harun rarely displayed this ability.
But as the Domain of Eternal Starvation rippled, in an inexplicable change, Harun's Heavenly Qi reserves shrank. Though his four Divine Blood Drops remained, Harun's Qi dropped at an alarming pace. His celestial foundation collapsed, and stretching out his hands, Harun released his past and Dao Foundation, all he'd accumulated in the mortal path, to condense a black-white seed in his heart.
The seed, Harun's Incarnation Seed, morphed into a golden cicada that seemed in harmony with life and death. Golden light flashed around Harun's heart—marking the completion of his Holy Foundation.
Thus, Harun officially deviated from the Divine Path, becoming a Quasi-Saint. While this was nothing but a transitional stage, his strength didn't shrink, instead growing further.
"Step two complete. Third and last, the Heart of Reincarnation," Harun inwardly said, but at that time, Dilnaz appeared at his pagoda's gate, and without announcing herself, walked in.