Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"AHHHH!" Diyi shrieked in pain and horror. Her back had one long line of sheared flesh that went bone deep.

"When you sentenced me to 500 years in hell, did you hope I’d die?" Yan Zaizen’s calm voice resounded in the surroundings.

Another whip was lashed viciously on Diyi’s back. Her painful shriek echoed within the air once more, causing the myriad of lifeforms beneath the skyship as it passed by to shiver and feel uncomfortable. Many felt complex emotions, like pity, indifference, or fear.

Despite his question, Diyi refused to answer.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Another whip lashed out violently.

"Did you hope I would jump into that deep, dark hole in despair and regret? No matter. I did not, but your father is dead. Your family is dead."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"It was because of your choice that day. Your indifference towards my life. Your indifference towards my innocence."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Each whip was lashed out harder than the last, viciously removing flesh, blood and bone. All of Yan Zaizen’s two years of grievance and anger empowered each and every swing. However, Yan Zaizen didn’t have a smile or happiness on his face. Instead, his facial expression had a calm solemness to it.

"Did the me then deserve it? Do you even regret it?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"If I was in your shoes, and I made your choice. I wouldn’t. I would blame myself, sure. However, I would never regret a choice I made."

This continued until 26 lashes resounded, one for each month of his life taken by the Deep Mines. Afterward, Diyi’s back held very little flesh or bone, being drenched in blood and filled with sweat. Her breathing wasn’t steady, and her lifeforce was at an all-time low.

He handed the whip drenched in her blood to Tao, and walked in front of her to see her dim eyes. When their eyes met, he could see those eyes filled with hatred and anger. Yan Zaizen shook his head and sighed softly. "Choices are what we live by, and as long as we live, our choices determine our fate."

He felt himself fall into remembrance as his words sounded out, even Tao beside him felt emotional. It was true, choices are what we all live by.

Tao chose to voice his opinion and reaped the consequences, a life, and a death in the Deep Mines. Bai Lufeng chose to stay loyal and his morality kept being pushed until he couldn’t make that choice any longer but was punished after. Diyi chose to sentence him to 500 years into the Deep Mines, knowing that even if he could survive ten years, he would never be able to escape alive. This was a death sentence which would’ve likely lead to his suicide in hopelessness.

As for Yan Zaizen, he chose to be Han Genji’s disciple. If he had refused, his life might have been reaped or perhaps Han Genji would’ve left him alone. Who knew what could’ve happened on that day? However, that choice of his lead him to here, to this time, to this place, with these people.

"I’ve given you two punishments to relieve my hatred. Killing you would only be a caveat to end all roots, but it is not necessary or required." Yan Zaizen stated, his voice filled with a soft calm. Diyi trembled hearing about his desire to kill her. She didn’t want to die, otherwise, how could she get revenge for all this? Her hatred for Yan Zaizen could reach the heavens and back!

"So, I’ll give you two choices. You can die by my hands or become my slave for five hundred years." He offered.

Diyi was shocked but then turned incredibly angry. She gritted her teeth fiercely and bitingly declared, "Hahaha! Slave?! For you?! I’d much rather die!!!" Her body trembled in her anger. Yan Zaizen simply looked towards her and slight nodded in understanding.

"Understood." If he was given the choice of being a slave for five hundred years or die, given her circumstances, he felt that he would choose five hundred years instantly. He would never give up because as long as he held an ounce of breath in his body, he would always try to conceive of a way to victory. This would’ve been his decision in a heartbeat, even in anger.

He slowly reached his hand outwards, preparing to grasp her head and send her on her way. Of course, he wasn’t going to make it fast. She would most certainly die slowly, very slowly, but die nonetheless.

Seeing this hand reach towards her, she became incomparably terrified. As it moved slowly towards her, she could see her life flashing before her very eyes. The life she led, the things she did, the choices she made, and the fate she caused her father. She felt truly horrible and intense regret welled up within the pit of her stomach.

Would she have done things differently had she known it’d end this way? Of course!

Could she? No.

Memories of her father flashed in her mind, and it stopped at a moment when she was younger. Her father was there, holding her shoulders as she cried, and he looked at her with powerfully fierce eyes. "Crying is useless. What does it do for you? Reveal your weakness? Make you feel slightly better? Does it change the reason you’re sad? No. As long as you have the will, anything that makes you sad can be upended and reversed to bring you happiness. Remember this young one. Only you can change your reality."

Her father’s voice resounded in her mind, and she looked towards the approaching hand with a different resolve. She spoke up suddenly, "Wait! I’ll do it!" Her mind was clear at the moment of life or death, as long as she was alive and had the will, what couldn’t she change? A slave for 500 years? Let’s see what she can do in those 500 years!

Yan Zaizen, however, looked towards those resolved eyes and shook his head softly. "I gave you a choice. You made it." His hand grabbed her forehead, clamping on it powerfully. Realizing her situation, she pleaded loudly and looked at Yan Zaizen’s arm with fear. "Wait! Wait! I’ll do it, 500 years! I’ll do 1,000 years! I can do it!"

She didn’t want to die!

As long as she lived, she could change her fate! She could determine her reality!

With a soft sigh, "When you made your choice on that day, it couldn’t be turned back. When you made your choice today, it still can’t be turned back." A stream of soul energy tunneled into her soul form, ravishing it thoroughly. The pain of soul caused her to shriek like never before. The sound caused Bai Lufeng and Tao’s hearts to grow cold suffusing with terror, but no shock at these events.

It continued for a full hour before suddenly going silent.

Yan Zaizen untied Diyi’s corpse from the posts and carried it to the railings at the edge of the skyship. Bai Lufeng couldn’t help but see Diyi’s bloodied and disfigured corpse and feel a little pain in his heart, but he could only shake his head in pity. All the time he was beside her, he kept trying to give her advice to change her ways, but she believed herself invincible. Unfortunately, in this world, Gods can die, even Buddhas can be tortured, and even the heavens can shatter.

No one’s invincible.

"I gave her a chance; her fate was decided by herself. If you make your choice, you must be willing to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. That is how we live. There is no place for regrets." His voice was filled with absolute calm, he threw Diyi’s corpse overboard. As she treated life beneath her like trash, her final fate will be the same.

A sudden weight lifted from his body, and he could feel a little bit of himself before the Deep Mines resurface, the light-hearted, naive, curious and humor-filled self. A slight smile appeared on his face. He may never be able to return to the him before after being exposed to so much darkness, but that didn’t mean he would be consumed by this darkness.

His dao aura manifested instinctively, shrouding him with a tyrannical ferocity filled with unyielding confidence in oneself, but now it had a trace of decisiveness and warmth. Slowly, it was giving shape and form to something heaven-equalling.