'...What happened to my younger sisters?'
The scholar, who could fully predict their tragic end, asked in a self-mocking tone.
[Your first younger sister died with her limbs torn apart after encountering an ancient demon while hunting down evil forces, trying to restore even a bit of the family's honor. Your second younger sister, after losing her twin sister like that, lost her mind and wandered the streets until she froze to death one stormy day.]
'I see...'
Yes.
That's how it should have been.
With the family torn into several factions and essentially destroyed, those children couldn't have been safe.
[But fortunately, your youngest sister is still alive.]
The scholar brightened.
'Really?! You're saying she is alive? Where is she now?'
[Your youngest is addicted to drugs. Probably to escape reality. She works as a courtesan in a Luoyang brothel to pay for her addiction.]
The voice gently consoled him.
[But at least she's alive. That's good. I'm glad I can finally deliver some good news.]
"Kheuheu..."
The scholar burst out laughing, as if coughing blood.
No, he wailed while appearing to laugh.
Each time his body shook, the chains bound tightly to his shoulder blades screamed mournfully.
The chains, as thick as a strong man's arm, had a deep ink-black color.
It was undoubtedly the metal called ink iron, known for its unmatched hardness.
After shedding blood-mixed tears for a while, the scholar made his excuse to the voice.
'I... I had no choice.'
That was their chosen path and its result.
'I had long ago decided to sever all ties with the world.'
[I already know. Your decision. And the process that led you to that decision.]
The scholar fell into reminiscence for a moment.
He recalled memories submerged in deep darkness.
Though they were memories from long ago, they were as vivid to him as if they happened yesterday.
[The human world is undoubtedly filthy and ugly. Humans themselves undoubtedly created such a world. The end of the mythical age and the beginning of the historical age with civilization was humanity's great corruption.]
'...I wanted to be like Laozi.'
[You wanted to remain as a passing figure like him. Though he founded the great philosophy of Taoism, he left barely any trace of himself and ultimately transcended to immortality and disappeared.]
'I just wanted to live without action or desire. I didn't want to be involved in the mundane world.'
[So you lived as the Swordless One. Though you were the eldest son of the Sword clan, you never held a sword, instead finding joy in reading books locked in your room. Your wife understood that too, didn't she?]
'...Come to think of it, what about my wife? What happened to Yunqing?'
He and his wife Mu Yunqing never truly shared their hearts.
But she never treated him poorly.
Despite suffering from having a useless son-in-law, she showed him much consideration so he could live comfortably.
Though they were spouses in name only who never shared a bed, she was one of the few people for whom he felt deep gratitude.
[She ultimately lost in political strife. All her forces were expelled.]
'...Did she lose her life?'
[It happened recently. While serving in the Fearsome King's bedchamber, she bit and tore his manhood to shreds. Even at the execution ground, she laughed boldly. Truly an extraordinary woman. Had she been born in chaotic times, she would surely have become a great ruler.]
The voice laughed heartily.
'...Though she lived without a single shame under heaven, heaven ultimately did not help her.'
The voice scoffed.
[Nonsense. What she needed wasn't heaven, but you. You were the one who abandoned her.]
'...I once divined my own fate.'
The scholar raised his sightless eyes to look at the sky.
'I was born under the influence of the Star of Heavenly Death. If someone like me got involved in worldly affairs, many would bleed because of me.'
Then the voice answered.
[You still don't understand? That fate has already been realized.]
'...What?!'
The scholar suddenly realized.
All those he cherished were wounded, tortured, and killed.
Though he tried to do nothing for them, it was because he tried to do nothing that they all fell into the abyss.
'...In the end, as a mere mortal, was I unable to escape the bonds of my solemn fate?'
The only tiny, insignificant difference was that he didn't directly get blood on his hands.
[Do you understand now?]
The scholar lowered his head.
'...Then now I can only leave everything to heaven's will.'
[How foolish!]
It was an unprecedented boom, loud enough to burst eardrums.
[You still don't understand?]
Unlike the tone until now, the voice was clearly agitated and angry.
[Heaven and earth are not benevolent, they do not care for weak humans!]
The voice criticized the scholar relentlessly.
[Then shouldn't humans at least help humans? Even sages are not benevolent, they say, and looking at you, how fitting!]
The scholar confronted the voice.
'But it is also said that heaven's net is vast but lets nothing slip through. Even without my intervention, those who committed evil acts will surely be judged according to the law of cause and effect.'
[Cause and effect, you say?!]
The voice, repeating the words "cause and effect," burst into maniacal laughter.
The scholar, forgetting his pain, covered his ears with his arms that had lost fingers and wrists as the laughter split his head.
The ink iron chains vibrated with the laughter, resonating through his very bones.
[Since you speak of cause and effect, let me show you an old tale.]
Light appeared before the scholar.
A strange landscape suddenly spread out vastly.
Though he had lost his eyes, he could see everything the voice showed him.
In ancient times, in the age of myths, there were those who lost everything to humans.
Even then, humans were cruel and selfish.
Finally, a few who turned away from the horrible human world devoted themselves entirely to cultivation.
They believed in karma that transcended time and space, and believed there would be a great order that would someday make those who committed evil pay their dues.
One day, they gained enlightenment and became immortals.
And they came to realize the truth of the world.
Karma,
The absolute order they believed in,
Was merely an illusion.
Those whose time came simply returned to a handful of dirt.
Their hun and po souls simply returned to nature.
There was no afterlife, no hell, no inescapable judgment.
Evil people committed evil acts, lived in luxury, and died.
Sometimes they died before their time because of their evil acts.
But those were just a few cases.
The majority of seemingly good people lived in extreme suffering and died before their natural lifespans.
Those who squeezed out their blood and pus lived enjoying the blessings meant for others until death.
It was terribly unfair.
There was no heaven to right the tilted scales.
There is no great karma.
***
[Do you understand now.]
The voice asked again.
[Have you seen the truth.]
The scholar didn't answer.
The truth he faced was too cold and harsh.
Divine punishment, judgment - these were merely 'fiction' created by those living without a shred of hope.
There was no salvation for them.
It never happened that all evil people, each and every one of them, paid the price for what they did.
If only humans can save humans,
Then only humans can punish humans.
'Then, then...!'
The voice asked him.
[Do you want power? Do you want the power to judge them? Do you want to make them pay the true price?]
'Yes.'
[Do you want a chance? Do you want a chance to change everything again? Do you want to save everyone?]
'Yes.'
[Even if the price is that your soul will suffer eternally with nowhere to go?]
'Yes!'
A horrific cry burst from the scholar's throat along with blood.
'I will take that power! I will seize that chance!'
The ink iron chains screamed as they rattled from his violent struggles.
A monstrous cry erupted from his throat.
'I will make those ruled by mere desires pay the price! I will bring down the hammer on those who take pleasure in others' pain!'
The scholar's monstrous cries grew louder without cease.
'Using all abilities given to me, I will control their fate!'
And proportionally, the voice's presence grew ever larger.
[Now you understand! Now you can face yourself! Then behold me!]
That voice grew so loud it could shake even the scholar's soul.
Though feeling his soul shake like a leaf in a typhoon, the scholar stared into the pitch darkness with his empty eye sockets.
[I- We can give you power. We can give you a chance.]
'It' was in the deepest darkness.
It was watching him from the unfathomable bottom of what could only be described as an endless abyss.
It was a book.
It was a scripture.
A scripture whose cover was made from the skin of one who held grudges against humans,
Whose contents were written in the blood of one who held grudges against heaven,
And bound with the tendons of one who held grudges against earth.
[Though your goals differ from ours, our paths are the same, so contract with us and we will give you a new chance!]
'I will contract!'
[You will never again walk proudly in the light, never again raise your face to look at the sky. Will you still contract with me!]
The scholar never considered any other answer.
'Yes. I will entrust my soul to you.'
The voice- the scripture seemed satisfied with his answer and burst into thunderous laughter.
[O fate-bound one. This scripture is named the Dark Scripture, a scripture of heaven-defiance that will burn away all darkness in the mortal world in place of the indifferent and lazy heaven!]
Darkness surged from the scripture.
The scholar's soul was instantly consumed by that darkness.
As his consciousness faded away, the Dark Scripture's thunderous laughter shook his ears.
[From now on, you shall breathe in darkness, swing the sword of judgment in darkness, and become the Dark Lord who punishes all karma in the world!]
***
The next day, the guards found the scholar dead, having bled from his entire body.
Strangely, the corpse was unnaturally light for a human body.
As if,
Something important had completely left it...