"Is she going to be okay?" Zhou asked, staring up at the clouds and lightning. Amos tried to put his hand on Zhou's shoulder but his hand passed straight through. Amos sighed as he looked up, watching as the lightning grew angrier.
"She'll be okay. She's knocked down everything in her path, so there's no way she'll be knocked down now," Amos praised. The woman raised an eyebrow at Amos, choosing not to comment on how his eyes clearly showed his worry under the confident facade he held.
"What does the woman mean when she said that Ju's cultivation is irrational?" Zhou asked.
"As she said before, the cultivation techniques before the war were very dangerous for anyone to cultivate with, so only the ones who were willing to risk their lives were cultivators. Many died, and the ones who survived were legends."
"Spiritless couldn't cultivate these techniques because they have no spirit, so they had to make their own. No one knew better than them about how to carve their own paths and since there was about a handful of them in every city, kingdom, and empire, lightning tribulations were never a surprise."
"Are spiritless really that powerful?" Zhou asked.
"Naturally, they are destructive. Their luck is something that even the gods don't have. At the peak of the spiritless, lightning tribulations were happening almost every day, and it wasn't unusual for them to breakthrough multiple bottlecaps in one month."
"Isn't that dangerous? Breaking too many bottlecaps in a small amount of time puts you at risk of spirit backflow, or worse, crippling your Dantian,"
"That's where their luck comes into play. They suffer nearly no consequences by cultivating fast, so eventually, it was a race between them to see who could become the strongest the fastest," Amos explained. Zhou nodded, looking up in awe.
"How powerful was Ju?" he asked.
"Ju was the strongest, but she was also the most reckless. Her cultivation techniques reached the thousands. She played with death regularly. At her peak, she could rival hundreds of gods by herself and win. She could have even taken a seat with the major gods and killed them all,"
"But she still died, didn't she? How does someone whose power is on par with a major god be defeated by a mortal? Shouldn't she have been nearly immortal at that point?" Zhou asked. Amos shrugged.
"I left long before she died. I don't know how or when the spiritless started their war,"
"I sense someone else's presence up there," the woman said, peering up at the sky. Amos also looked up, trying to see through the dense clouds.
"Can you tell who it is?" Amos asked. The woman shook her head, but she had no intention to go up and figure out who it was. Amos looked at the woman and noticed, walking over to her.
"You don't have any intention to go help her, do you?" Amos asked quietly. The woman looked back at him, nodding in reply.
"What do the prince and princess want you to do?"
"That's confidential," Amos stared at her, anger itching under his skin.
"Even if I do not have as much power as before, you are still only a spirit ghost. I can easily kill you if I wanted to," Amos warned. The woman took a deep breath, floating closer to Amos.
"You can not kill me in a way that matters, Amos," the woman replied, unfazed by Amos's threat. Amos clicked his tongue and backed away, retreating to the background.
"Geez, I forgot how long it takes for a lightning tribulation to get strong," Ju muttered, lounging on her sword. What was worse was that her brain refused to create any cohesive thoughts- only segments of thoughts slipped through her mind, too fast for her to grasp them.
'So bored,' Ju groaned, sitting up on her sword as she hummed. The melody ceased as she felt a presence coming up to her. More accurately, shooting straight at her. She reached out her arm, closing her fist. An arrow was in her hand, caught in mid-air.
"Who's there?" Ju asked, tossing the arrow away.
"I didn't think you'd ever be able to break out of that little prison," a person emerged from the dark clouds, flying on a sword, hands behind his back.
"Oh, it's just you. How have you been?" Ju asked.
"I've been well, older sister,"
"You've grown stronger since I last saw you. But there's the aura of a human on you,"
"Yes, I have linked myself with a human," Xia Fang confirmed.
"What are you planning to do? There's nothing for you to conquer. What, are you still trying to prove you're better than me?" Ju asked, getting up. She looked at her younger brother, crackles of tension between them.
"I already proved I'm better than you. You couldn't even stop me from wreaking havoc,"
"You starting that war was equivalent to a child's tantrum,"
"It's your fault that war even happened. You had so many opportunities to stop me. If you were to fight me, I wouldn't be able to fight back,"
"Then why are you back? Are you here to fight me? To prove that you aren't in my shadow anymore?"
"I plan to recreate this world, a world where nobody has spirit. A fair world," Xia Fang finally revealed. Ju scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Do you really think that the gods will allow that to happen? Not even Yin and Yang would allow you to continue this,"
"So join me, older sister. You can become even stronger. You're the strongest person I know. With you, we would be unstoppable,"
"Who says you won't backstab me as soon as you achieve your goal?"
"Oh come now, just because I killed you doesn't mean I don't love you. I mourned your death for years,"
"Why do you do this?" Ju asked, a polearm appearing in her hands. "You have no reason to do this."
"I need to show you that I am strong. I want you to finally tell me that I am a worthy opponent," Xia Fang replied, a polearm also appearing in his hand.
"You try so hard to prove you're better than me, but you copy everything I do. How about you get good before you come and challenge me?"
"Older sister, you've only acknowledged Amos as your equal. It hurts me that you won't even acknowledge me,"
'Whiny ass child,' Ju rolled her eyes.
"Amos is my equal in a way that you don't understand. You made a deal with a human that was equivalent to a demon. You took all the shortcuts when cultivating. You don't understand what it means to risk your life. You care for nothing but your own success. For as long as my soul exists somewhere, I will never acknowledge you," Xia Fang glared at her, spinning his polearm.
"When I destroy this world, you'll have to acknowledge me then, right? When I create a new world, you'll acknowledge me, right?" Xia Fang asked. Ju's figure flashed, disappearing from sight. Xia Fang went into a defensive position, trying to pinpoint where Ju was.
Clang!
His polearm went flying, feet holding down his wrists as the business end of a polearm was pointed at his throat.
'How? How can she be so powerful even after all these years?' Xia Fang clicked his tongue, annoyance crawling up his throat.
"I will not allow you to destroy this world. No matter how much I disagree with the ways of this world or how corrupt humans get, I will have faith that the world will survive together,"
"Why wait until the humans grow corrupt? Just remove the root of the problem. We can rebuild a pure, clean world,"
"Why do you only see the ugly in the world? The world has so much beauty in it," Ju asked, tears pricking at the edge of her eyes.
"Why are you so weak? Why do you fight against me? You couldn't kill me back then, what makes you think you can kill me this time?" Xia Fang asked.
"I swear to you, little brother, that if the time comes where you try to destroy the world, it will not be me dying. I will make sure your soul can not come back or go to a different world," Ju swore. A wide smile spread on Xia Fang's face, his eyes crinkling eerily.
"Older sister, you're so much more beautiful when you're angry," Xia Fang said. Ju's nose scrunched up in disgust.
"Fuck off," the tip of the polearm glowed pink as she pierced his neck, the body and the sword disappearing in a puff of smoke. A single tear fell down Ju's cheek as she summoned her sword to stand on. She reached out, grabbing a lightning bolt that was about to strike her.
'I am back in this world without knowing my purpose. Is my fate to kill my brother?' Ju opened her mouth, swallowing the lightning bolt. She winced as she felt it stab against her organs in protest, trying to destroy her from the inside.
'If my fate really is to kill him, then so be it,' Ju grabbed all the lightning bolts that struck at her, trying desperately to destroy her. She swallowed them all- as if she was a ravenous beast who hadn't eaten in days.
'I want your acknowledgment, older sister,' Ju grew angry as Xia Fang's voice echoed through her brain.
"If you wish to defeat me, train for another 700,000 years little brother," Ju shouted, swallowing the entire lightning tribulation. Blood streamed out of her mouth, dripping onto the ground that was far below her.
'Killing my brother. A fate crueler than a tribulation,'
"Did... did she just swallow it?" Ye asked, turning to the woman. The woman, whose face was made out of spirit had seemingly become paler.
"Well, I've never seen that method of defeating a lightning tribulation," the woman said, her voice shaking. She watched as Ju flew back down, wiping away the blood with her rags.
"Oi, I defeated your stupid tribulation," Ju said. The woman stared at her before nodding.
"I will uphold my end of the deal," the woman replied.
"I'll teach the kid," Ju said. The woman looked up at her in surprise.
"I'll teach the spiritless kid. Although I can only teach him methods from before and I have no intention of altering it for his safety,"
"Any other requests?"
"How long are they going to be in this forest?"
"Around three years,"
"I'll teach him for those three years. But once that is over, I'm leaving,"
"You're leaving so soon?" Amos asked, handing her a handkerchief. Ju took it and wiped the remaining blood from her face.
"I'm not sure whether this is my purpose for being brought back here, but there is something I want to protect, even if it means I have to put my life on the line,"
"I just got you back and you're already planning on leaving," Amos commented.
"We've waited for more than 700,000 years. We can wait a couple more,"