Chapter 262: A World Without Happiness
Listen While Reading: White Tiger-----
As the Heavenly Empress talked, the Domain of Hope changed. It wasn’t just her hopes that were being shown, but her memories and emotions. It was incredible; I had no idea that the power of Hope was capable of this.
The images changed; it showed a young crane girl; her beak wasn’t that long yet; her body was small and delicate, with beautiful white feathers and little blue eyes; she only wore a brown and dark brown colored dress; she looked a lot like another country girl to me.
“I had grown sheltered by my parents, even if it was a simple life, modest even, where we only ate seeds, rice, and sometimes fish,” she said. “It was a much better life than anybody could have hoped. My parents never starved me; they loved me and gave me anything they could possibly do—my own room, my bed, even toys made of wood. They weren’t wealthy, but they had learned to live on their own and prosper.”
The imagery changed; the crane girl walked inside of the village in the distance, smiling happily as she ran inside, large houses everywhere, all kinds of people walking everywhere, in every street.
It was so different than anything she had ever seen before.
“My first impression of the outside world was beautiful nonetheless; I saw and met many people,” she said. “They were kind, mostly. I searched the village for medicine, and they gave me directions. A medicine seller, an apothecary, the only one in that small village…”
People interacted with the girl; they talked and even laughed. Pointing at a certain street, the girl nodded, walking towards the apothecary.
“My first impression was good… I thought the world was bright and beautiful—no suffering, just people living their lives! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Yet…”
She quickly stopped, the white crane girl gasping as someone appeared in front of her. Someone covered in drags, dirt, and filth. A young black cat boy, missing an eye, and looking starved and sickly.
“Please… food… Someone… My sister, she’s starving… She hasn’t woken up… Someone help me… please…”
The boy talked to her, asking for help; he grabbed her dress and supplicated, barely capable of standing up.
“I was flabbergasted back then; I didn’t know what to do. It was too impactful for my foolish and childish mind,” sighed the heavenly empress. “The filth, the drags, the dirt, the smell… the misery—I felt alienated with it, afraid. I ran away.”
“S-Someone…”
The boy fell to the mud, his face splattering with filth as she ran away.
But why did she run away?
“Why did you…?”
“I was a child; I was afraid, stupid, dumb,” sighed the empress. “I ran around the streets and ended up walking into a more dangerous zone, one riddled with poverty. Beggars were everywhere, starving people, supplicating for mercy and food. The commoners only snickered at them, kicked them away, or spat on their faces.”
The crane girl looked around herself, the great contrast of the world and of society; for the first time ever, she didn’t exactly feel empathy but fear.
She had thought it was a world of happiness and peace.
“I learned in that moment that the world… Was two-faced. There was a face of peace and happiness, prosperity, and food. And then there was the other face, of poverty and hunger, of filth and death.”
“That sounds a bit harsh…”
“It is harsh, the world, perhaps all worlds; they’re all harsh, my disciple,” she said. “I realized in that moment how lucky I was to have been given the love of a family even when they adopted me… and I also learned about the power that moved the world. Cultivation.”
The scene changed; the girl walked through the streets, and in that moment, a battle broke out.
A panda beast man clashed against a weak-looking rat man; the rat ran away as fast as he could, but the panda followed him.
His steps, despite his large size, were quick. Ki flowed through his body.
In mere seconds, he caught the rat carrying his purse and smashed his entire body into the ground with a single swipe of his hands; an explosion of blue Ki erupted.
BAAAM!
“A-Ahh! W-Wait, why are you harming someone?!”
The little empress back then was afraid; a fight was not something she thought she would ever see, and one so mercilessly.
“P-Please mercy! T-Take it back; please don’t kill me! Mercy!” The rat man cried; he looked old, very old, and wrinkly.
“You stole my purse, and you think I am not going to make you pay tenfold for it?!” the panda roared, his claws blazing with Ki.
“I-I have grandchildren…! T-They’re starving; we don’t have money or food… Nobody would ever contract me to do any job; please spare me… I did it for them; I am not a thief because I am evil!” cried the rat man.
“And do you think I care about your motives?! A crime is a crime!” the panda roared.
“W-Wait! Please don’t hurt him!” The empress ran to stop them.
“A white crane?” The panda looked at the girl who was trying to stop him. “Do you plan to divide the punishment between the old man and you, foolish brat?”
“N-No, I mean… He gave you back the purse; p-please don’t-”
CRASH!
“Uuaaagghh!”
But before she could argue or say anything, the old man was killed at cold blood, in front of the entire crowd, mercilessly.
The claws of the bear caved through the old man’s spine and tore it out of his body, including his skull, blood, and organs splattering everywhere.
It was the goriest scene she had ever seen and the first ever.
A horror of indescribable terror for a child.
“It was in that moment that I learned the nature of the world,” the empress said. “Might makes right. The strong decide the fate of the weak. And as long as there’s not someone equally strong defending the weak, there will never be a chance for the weak to live or fight back.”
“T-That’s so horrible… I’m so sorry for you, master… I-I didn’t know that-”
“There is nothing to apologize for, my disciple. Your heart is too delicate,” she sighed. “This world, this life, I’ve gone through countless scenes such as those. The horrors did not stop; I tried to run away and buy the medicine and escape…”
The girl continued walking, finally reaching the pharmacy shop.
However, the monkey-beast man that attended it immediately had ulterior motives for a young, defenseless little girl.
“But I was still too stupid; the world needed to teach me a lesson.”
The man offered the girl the only medicine he had for her parent’s disease, but asked for her budget first.
“I-I only have ten spirit coins…” the girl meekly muttered.
“That won’t do; this medicine is very expensive and only bought often by royalty, girl,” said the man with a smirk. “You’ll need thirty spirit coins for only a droplet; the whole bottle, which is the only way to save your parents, would be one thousand!”
“Of course he was lying,” the empress sighed.
The girl sighed, asking the man if he could give her a discount or something, or only a tiny droplet.
“Please, my parents are going to die if I don’t do something…!” she cried. “I-I need the medicine… t-this is all I have…”
“Well, I suppose you could pay in other ways, lass,” the man smiled creepily, holding the girl's arms and then pushing her into the wall.
“Eek! Ouch, what are you doing?!” she cried.
“You can pay with your body, for example… Become my slave bride for a day, and I will give you the medicine, and you can save the lives of your parents. A fair deal, isn’t it?” the monkey laughed.
His disgusting hands slowly touched the girl’s thighs, squeezing them.
“W-Wait, I don’t want to! Nooo!” The girl screamed, but the man held her tight, using his tail to close the door.
He then looked at her with the eyes of a psychopath.
“You’re not going anywhere; it’s really rare to find a beauty such as you! White cranes sell for a lot too! I’m going to have my fun with you little shit, and then I’ll sell you! I’ll make such a huge sum, kahahah!”
“L-Let me go! No…! NOOO!”
The girl screamed as the monkey tried to touch her more, yet he underestimated her sharp beak and her wings.
Desperately, she pecked as hard as she could at the man’s groin when he was about to do something disgusting; the pain made him scream.
“Gyaaaaggh!”
As the man recoiled and fell to the ground in pain, the girl used her wings to fly through the window and escape.
Her wings were too small back then; she tried her best but ended up falling into the mud and running back home however she could.
Tears fell from her blue eyes.
The first time she saw the world outside, it was a traumatic experience for her.
Anybody would have become someone different after that; the world was ugly.
“I sometimes think how wrong things could have gone if that man would have knocked me out fist… What it could have been of me…” she sighed. “I was so close to having a much horrible life, one that could have made me become like him.”
“Like the Heavenly Demon?” I wondered.
“Indeed,” she sighed, the domain’s scene changing.
There was a girl crying in front of her parents, the couple of old doves.
Their bodies were covered in mantles, cold and lifeless.
“My parents died two days after that…” she sighed. “I was unable to get them the medicine, even though I later learned it was sold for only one coin. That man tried to trick me, obviously…”
“I-I’m sorry…” I sighed.
“It is fine; this was… over a hundred thousand years ago; I have long ago overcome this, all of it,” she smiled. “But this was the beginning, only the start of my journey. I cannot show you everything; too much to show for such a long life… But at least, I can show you the first steps. And the origin of the Heart of Hope.”
I nodded without saying a word.
I honestly wouldn’t mind watching her whole life… but I know it wouldn’t be possible.
“It was in that moment where I had lost all hope—for the world, for my own life, and for everything… That I found it,” she explained, waving her hands.
Visions changed, showing her living her life alone after having buried her parents.
She barely attended her farm and fished the fish from the small river.
Her parents left her their house and their farm, and with that, she could have lived and survived, perhaps.
But was that all?
“As I ate, slept, and lived… I began to wonder how they were doing,” she sighed. “The children and the starving. I had plenty of seeds, plenty of fish, and plenty of water. A large house… I had become stagnant; three years passed since my parent’s death, and I never did a single thing to help anybody or change my life.”
The girl walked across her farm, looking at the blue sky with eyes filled with sorrow.
Every day felt monotone; every day felt the same.
Meanwhile, she knew…
Outside of her house, outside of her little shelter from the ugly world outside.
People were suffering, people were starving, and bad people were only making their lives worse.
She recalled her parent’s last words, shown in the scene in front of me.
“Hue Xian… You were… the best child we could have ever asked for…”
“Please don’t die… I don’t know what I will do without you!”
“You’re… strong…”
"No, I’m not; I’m weak and meek…”
“Our dear daughter, please…”
“Even if a little… makes the world a better place…”
“We love… you.”
“Don’t leave me!”
Make the world a better place, even if a little.
Those were the last words of her parents.
The Heavenly Empress looked at me in the eyes.
“Yes, that was it. It might be foolish, but it took me three years to realize what they meant,” she laughed. “I realized that if nobody was going to make a change… to make this ugly world a better place, a place I had once imagined it was. Then I was going to do it myself.”
“And how did you start? How did you even begin cultivating?” I wonder.
“Before even becoming strong, I grabbed the food I had and decided to do a little good, even if small,” she said. “And I feed the starving children.”
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