"Ultra Killing Fist"
There was a shudder and smoke, and on its dissipation, there was a hole in the previously undamageable arena.
"Your attack names are way worse than your ugly muck, which is horrible, second only to your martial arts itself," the seer mocked Ai Zu's father.
It was true that the seer was very against cultivation, but he was never against martial arts itself.
Remove the crappy naming scheme these Murim folks have going on, and the seer had nothing but respect for the base arts themselves.
And like all forms of art, the seer had a strong theoretical knowledge of most martial arts that he has ever come across. He can deduce and predict most of the attacks and movements of martial arts, whether he had personally studied those specifics or not.
After all, most martial arts are variations, combinations, and adaptations of other martial arts. Very much like chemistry.
The fierce man's barrage continued. His attacks got more and more mindless; at this point, he was just spamming attacks.
"Omega Killer Fist,"
"Hard Steel Leg of Iron Spider,"
"Cloud 9 Strides,"
"Ultimate 5 Movement Dark Cavern Sword Technique,"
"Ultimate Nirvana Fist."
I won't even get into what those martial arts do; it's obvious by the names. The seer continued to effortlessly dodge all the attacks and even countered when he could.
There was no denying that the man was very strong, almost too strong for the seer to handle, but luckily he was an idiot who used idiot martial arts. The seer managed to find gaps in his attacks and kept piling minor chip damage by making shallow cuts all over Ai Zu's body.
After a few minutes, the man succumbed and fell onto his knees. As the seer prepared to chop his head off with his sword...
"INSOLENCE..."
"Stop at once, you coward, using such shameful tactics," yelled an old man at the top of his voice; he was none other than the patriarch of The Ai Clan, Ai Yulan.
"Your saying using poison is not? And unofficially interrupting a match is not? You, sir, are a hypocrite."
The ultimate insult... An insult people rarely ever use in Murim. It is a spoken rule to never call anyone a hypocrite in Murim. No one says that to even their worst enemy. People would rather die, kill, and drag thousands with them than utter that word.
Whispers ran across the entire stadium, and the buzz in the air was mixed up with the intense bloodlust of the old man.
"Why don't you bring your ass down here, old man, so I can clap your cheeks as well?" The seer continued to provoke the old man.
The old man, however, was scared. He put on airs as if he would rush him, but he did not step out of that caped VIP box; he only pretended to show that he would. People were starting to catch on.
As much as the seer wanted to kill all those people that stood there, he possibly could, not when all charged him at once. No, he could not. But even if he could, the seer realized that it would not matter. Nothing he does would matter; there was no hope for this world. His friends were just exceptions.
"Am not done yet..." and hardly audible whisper fell on the seer's ears, as Ai Zu crawled his way up to the seer's feet. He struggled, but he got up...
He got back up, smiling with his bloody face, with something held between his teeth.
crunch
A huge pulse of golden ki pushed the seer back and slammed him against the pit's walls. The strong wave penetrated his skin and messed up his internal organs as the seer's mouth filled up with blood.
The man had gotten the classic illegal pill power-up, and the seer would have expected something like this if not for his rage. As rational as he tried to say, some things just got to him.
"HAHAHAHAHA, you piece of shit, go kill him, Ai Zu, finish that bastard," the old man exclaimed.
A fierce golden aura surrounded Ai Zu as he approached the seer, with the weight of the ki so heavy that the almost undamageable arena began to crack under its pressure.
"I will defeat you, I will reclaim my honor, I will make my Ai family the greatest, and I will be stronger," the man rambled as he drew ever so close to the seer.
The seer, too, in response, approached Ai Zu, limping. It was a rather hopeless fight. He got nothing if he won, and he got nothing if he lost. Nothing had meaning to it. The seer was a wanderer, with no goals, and no motives; he just tried to live his life the best he could. Amidst all this chaos came to the seer a strange realization.
Even if a genius, the seer was still a kid. He had lived no longer than 17 years, and both of his lives combined.
"..Is this what it feels like to attain maturity?" the seer thought to himself as he limped towards his Ai Zu, who himself paced ever so slowly, barely managing the weight of the ki.
The seer's entire life flashed by within a matter of seconds.
"I see it now... What I refused to see before... I had that too... That look... Only I was aware..." The Seer stretched his hand forward towards Ai Zu.
The seer had grown. An epiphany had hit him.
And in a burst, all the qi had suddenly left Ai Zu.
"Wait... What... No... No... No" Ai Zu squirmed.
"It's alright; you don't need it," the seer explained as he pushed closer to him.
"Ah, get away!" the guy tried to step back, only to realize that he could not move; he raised his dagger only to find his hand shivering and unable to stop. His body had completely given out on him.
To his surprise, the seer did not attack him. He simply threw his arms around and gave him a hug. Forgiveness was not something the seer did; he held grudges always.
The seer had always wondered that if a child is taught the values that cannibalism is good and it increases your lifespan, then isn't it natural for that kid to continue to grow up and follow what he has been taught? How can one say the child is evil? But at the same time, how can one say he is good?
But in Murim, where this line is even further thinned because of the constant power shifts, conflict, and chaos, there is no set rule of standardized ethics. They change on whims and change constantly. All that don't are considered heretics and cultists and are immediately eliminated.
But the problem here, however, was control! Ai Zu broke into tears almost immediately, tightly grabbing onto the seer. Every single person not born into greatness, including the overpowered transmigrators and reincarnators, is subject to the same singular fate.
The seer of the past saw all and understood nothing. But what he had now was like an upgrade. All the extremes of emotions he had been feeling got him an epiphany.
There was now a "why" that the seer understood to all that happened.
"It's alright... I see it now... What I did not before."
The seer, still very angry, rose up to face the crowd. As Neon's eyes shined a brighter glow than ever before, his soul sank further. For even though he knew what and why, the "how" remained to him oblivious. The feeling of tiredness and exasperation once again sank in.
"What is wrong with you, mongrel? Take the dagger and stab him already!" the old man in the seats yelled once again, completely disgusted with the pathetic state Ai Zu was in, crying in front of an entire crowd.
On command, Ai Zu immediately got up and shoved the dagger onto the seer's side; his face whiter than the arena they stood atop.
"It's alright; you don't have to listen to that bastard anymore. It's not your fault... just don't be part of this demented cycle," the seer comforted Ai Zu as he pulled the dagger off.
"AI ZUUU...."Screamed once again the old man.
"OH, SHUT UP!" the seer yelled. "Shut up you Fucking old man."
Ai Zu was a complete mess he could not tell left from right even anymore.
"That's just how it is, ain't it? That's how all of you fuckers sitting here are. Fucking little pussies. And you fucking old men, you are the absolute worst. It's fucking need for power. Amma be the strongest, and by the time you fucking are, you realize, hey, I spent my entire life in a closed room and did fucking nothing. Oh well, maybe I will make my grandson do it all, and then you fucking die, and guess what? Since your grandson, thanks to you, did not get to live his own life, he now does the same fucking thing you guys do. Oh but how dare they oppose you, who would be powerful enough to resist your influence and authority? By the time they are... Oh wait, they are the fucking geezers now; their turn to play puppeteering. And the younger generation, they are like, 'Oh look, what's that on the side? It's a pretty-looking bitch. Life sucks anyway, and I have nothing going on; might as well go fuck with people.' And then all of a sudden, this powerful youngster shows up, and you are like, 'Oh shit, I can't play fucking puppeteer anymore; I wasted my life. How dare he live his? He better respect my fucking gangster who lived 20 years in a fucking cave doing something absolutely meaningless! Who the fuck even knows what relationships are? All I know is my ki is fucking fire! Oh look, a pretty lady; she'll be mine. Does she wanna be here? Who gives a shit? I am the powerful one here; I do whatever the fuck I want... Oh, wait. It's the geezers who are the powerful ones; guess I don't get to do whatever the fuck I want. Let's go find some insects to crush to make myself feel better about my horrible fucking life." It felt like the seer's loud Insults would never end.
It was the life of every single person that the seer talked off. And it offended everyone.
The seer offended every single fucking person in the arena that day. Royals, sect leaders, elders, and all. But what he said made sense.
"You insolent fuck, prepare to die!" yelled a royal.
"That's just how you guys are, fucking apes. Don't like something? Just fucking kill it. I am tired of this shit, and I am tired of you fucks" The Seer continued to yell as he removed his hermit hat and slammed it onto the ground. "I am retiring; feel free to send fucking assassins behind me to kill me and prove me right!"
"That insolent fucker!"
"That bastard!"
"Who does he think he is?"
The crowd threw rocks, and the crowd threw anything it could get its hands on at the seer as he slowly and still limping found his way out of the stadium. It was This day when The Seer disappeared from Murim and no more tales of his deeds were told.