989 Memories of that Day

Alex put away the remaining pill and the cauldron before moving toward the old man. He reached close to him, and even then he couldn't sense the death aura that well.

However, his eyes could see the black aura that drifted downward from all over his body. So, when he tried to sense it, he easily found it.

He went behind the old man and placed his palm on the old man's back. The old man flinched a bit and Alex moved back.

"I'm sorry, does it hurt?" he asked.

"It's fine, do what you need to do," the old man said as he gritted his teeth. Alex touched his back again, and despite the pain, the old man didn't flinch. Still, Alex could see the struggle.

"There's a lot of death aura," he said. "It might take some time."

"Time is all I have," the old man said through his gritted teeth.

"I will start then," Alex said and slowly started taking away the death aura. He started off very slow as he wasn't sure if the death aura of a pseudo-immortal was too much for him to handle, so he had to be careful.

'It's quite strong,' he thought when the aura came flowing into him. It was a bit too strong. So much so that, Alex started wondering if his dao was enough to handle it efficiently.

"Give it to me!" Godslayer said. "I wish to consume the death."

"You won't act up, right?" he asked.

"Don't worry, it won't be nearly enough for me to regain the same strength that I had before you found me," Godslayer said.

"Alright then," Alex said, and using his Dao of Death, he started sending the death aura he gathered to Godslayer.

Godslayer ate it all up as if he hadn't eaten in a long time. He seemed incredibly hungry, but even then it would take a while before Alex could bring the death aura out of the old man.

"That's weird," Godslayer said. "Something is odd with his body."

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"Not sure, I can't really sense it all that well. I need more time," Godslayer said.

Alex nodded and decided to speed it up a little. He had only just increased the rate at which he drew in the death aura when the old man instinctively moved forward in pain and the absorption ended.

"I'm sorry. I should have let you know I was going to speed up," Alex said.

"Don't go too fast. My body cannot handle the pain as well," the old man said.

"Okay," Alex said and restarted the process. But with how slow he was going, it was going to take over half a day for sure.

"I'm surprised to see that you have such an obscure dao. I thought you only learned the dao related to artifacts in the last 8 years" the old man said.

Alex's eyes narrowed. 'I knew it,' he thought. The old man had in fact been keeping an eye on him while in closed cultivation this whole time. Even if not for him, he had to make sure that the others didn't come and take him away, or worse kill him.

'Good thing I didn't learn the dao immediately. He would've tightened the security even more,' Alex thought.

"How many dao do you actually know?" the old man asked.

"I know a few related to fire and metal," Alex said. " And this Death dao."

"Fire and Metal... why those?" the old man asked.

"Fire just because I'm used to making pills with them or working with artifacts. Same reason for metal. I have worked with them so much that I learned about them a bit. Although visiting the Ancient Battlefield did help quite a lot," he said.

"Yes, it does," the old man said. "What about the death Dao?"

"That... was something I had known for a while. I came incredibly close to dying multiple times and the memories traumatized me. At the same time, I also understood what it was like to die. After thinking about it for a while after reaching the Saint realm, I learned the dao."

"I see, you're lucky to have learned so many Dao," the old man said. "And incredibly unlucky as they will only make things worse for you."

Alex was a little confused. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"The Dao you learn is not for free," the old man said. "This is an enormous debt you incur when you learn it. And when you try to break through to the immortal realms, the heavens come to ask for its payment. And it makes you pay with interest."

'Oh, that's what he's talking about,' Alex thought. Still, having the old man speak up about anything was a good thing.

"What do you mean exactly, senior?" he asked.

"You don't know? I'm talking about the lightning tribulation," he said. "The stronger the dao you learn the stronger the lightning will be. If you cannot withstand the lightning, you will..."

Alex looked at the wounds that crept up the old man's left side. "Senior must have learned a very strong Dao to be wounded like this," he said.

"Hah!" the old man shouted. "What strong dao? I couldn't even pass the normal 9 bolts of lightning."

He shook his head and felt the pain along his right side again.

"Senior, if you don't mind, can you tell me what happened that day? Was there someone that interfered with your breakthrough? Or was it just an accident?"

The old man stayed quiet and thought back to the day he lost it all. He didn't want to remember but the memories didn't follow his sentiment. They flooded his mind as he remembered every single aspect of that day clearly.

His eidetic memory was a curse for him at this moment.

"It was neither an interference," the old man said finally after staying quiet a long time. "Nor was it an accident."

"All it was... was a goddamn mistake made by a young, stupid me," the old man said.

"I was young. I didn't understand much. They told me I had the talent and the potential to reach the heavens. They told me I could one day become as strong as everyone ever had in history."

"I took that to heart. I thought I was truly gifted and I did not need anything else. I started off slow with my teacher and elder's teaching, but at some point, they weren't there anymore and I was all alone, and I could do whatever I want."

"I thought since I am so gifted, why do I have to worry about taking my time with my cultivation? Wasn't it good enough that I could just reach the next realm?"

"I was also in some part motivated thanks to the founder's story about the Immortal worlds. Even the trashiest of trash there had a great chance at becoming immortal, just because of the concentration of Qi in those worlds."

"If even trash could do so, what about me? I had the greatest of talents, so if I were to go there early, I would be able to reach the higher realms early too. Immortality is too enticing after all," the old man said.

"And... in doing so, I made the gravest mistake a cultivator could make before any major breakthrough. I had built myself a very weak foundation and there was no one there to correct me."

"So, when I started my breakthrough, that was when tragedy struck," the old man said. "I do not know whether it was my stupidity or my courage that took me past the Inner Demon. Some days I wish that I hadn't been able to. At least... the lightning wouldn't have arrived."

Alex continued taking in the death aura while hearing the old man's tale.

"The first lightning bolt was strong, but I was prepared for it. I knew they would be strong, and I handled it. But the second was even stronger, much more than I had thought it would."

"The third and the fourth ones were very much stronger and I was already suffering through them. When the fifth bolt fell, it hurt me so much, but I survived. However, I knew I could not survive the next one."

"So, when the 6th lightning bolt fell... it destroyed me. It charred the right half of my body, leaving it bleeding in the storm," the old man said. "That was the moment I knew I was going to die."

"So when I did, I couldn't help but run away. How stupid of me to think the lightning would stop. No, it followed me, right onto the main mountain of my sect."

"The elders came to help me, to heal me, and that was what the heavens considered interference. The next moment, thousands of lightning bolts fell from heaven, killing everyone around me, leaving only me alone."

"I... I didn't even feel anything when they died. I was too occupied with my own survival. I... if only I hadn't been so thoughtless, I might have been able to save them," the old man said. "or maybe... even just die, rather than live this painful life."

Alex didn't know what to say. The old man seemed to be in more pain than ever, but none of it was physical. He grieved his sect members that died due to his failure, and Alex was considerate enough to let him grieve.

However, there was someone else that wasn't as considerate.

"Holy shit!" Godslayer said after hearing the old man's recollection of the events from the past.

"What? What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"I think... this old man is actually not a False Immortal."