CHAPTER 6: Paths
Ren Tie's shout tore through the wooden cage like a crack of lightning.
The whole carriage shook again from the heavy bump on the dirt road, thud… thud… thud, but the sound of Ren Tie's voice was louder than all of it. His face glowed like a lantern in the dark, and a faint pulse of energy wrapped around his body, buzzz!!!. like sparks dancing on dry wood.
He had broken through.
He fully reached the 8th stage of the Root Awakening realm.
Wen Chong gasped first after realizing this. His voice came out shaky. "what the… h-how… you really broke through?. In a crappy place like this?. While being Inside a wooden cage?" He pressed both hands against his chest like his heart was trying to jump out. "Ren Tie… you… you're something else… a true genius"
The others stared with wide eyes. Even Bao Zi had frozen like someone paused with a remote.
But Yin Zhe?.
Tsk... Yin Zhe didn't even glance at Ren Tie's breakthrough glow.
He kept banging his forehead against the bars in pure frustration.
thud!!.
thud!!.
thud!!.
The wheel pointer had stopped at the wrong place.
"sob… why… why is my luck like this…" he whispered. His voice sounded like it came from someone who had lost his last hope in the world.
He sighed hard. "sigh…"
Then he hit the bars again. "Hpmh… I swear my life is really cursed…. I am... I truly am... A curse!!!."
Meanwhile, Ren Tie sat straight inside his small wooden cell as the faint glow faded back into him. The air felt intense for a brief moment, like it carried a new type of aura. His expression stayed calm, but his breathing was heavy. Like Ren Tie was out of breath.
Wen Chong stepped closer to his own bars. "Ren Tie… you're a real genius. I mean it. I've been stuck at the fifth stage for almost half a year. I'm talking about Half a year! I thought I would stay there forever…" He lowered his head and let out a weak laugh. "Compared to you, I'm nothing…"
Ren Tie lifted his hand slowly and waved him off. "Don't downgrade yourself."
Wen Chong blinked. "Eh…?"
Ren Tie spoke again, his voice low and controlled, like someone who had lived through storms. "Everyone has their own unique path. If you admire my path too much, then your own path won't have any meaning." He rested his back against the wooden planks. "You can't abandon your path for mine. This is the rule of the great path. Although the matter about the great path doesn't concern us as low level cultivators. Just keep that in mind for the future"
His tone felt heavy and deep filled with wisdom.
The kind of tone that made even the weakest person think of his destiny passionately.
The other captives felt something rise in their hearts after the speech. They felt like they had just had an apifiny. Their eyes moved as if the entire world had just widened in one breath.
Tian Zuo muttered, "So… each path belongs to the person walking it…"
Bao Zi whispered, "I never thought about it that way."
Wen Chong had placed a hand on his chest and said, "If you admire someone too much, you forget who you are…" he felt like he had realized something big.
For a brief moment. Everywhere was quiet. silence filled the cells. It was something like quiet understanding.
Bao Zi held the bars of his cell tightly, his forehead resting on the wood. "One must choose their own path…" he whispered to himself. "I… I understand now…"
Yin Zhe slowly turned his head. He's eye were white out of frustration. The vein on his forehead twitched. He stared at them with white eyes and a blank expression. His left eyebrow twitched.
Then he muttered under his breath, "Are these people really serious…?"
He looked at Ren Tie. Then he shifted his attention to Wen Chong. And over to Bao Zi. Lastly he stared at Tian Zuo.
They all had faces filled with enlightenment.
As if they had just touched some ancient truth or secret. They were acting As if Ren Tie had spoken the secrets of heaven.
Yin Zhe stared harder. In his head he screamed:
"These people are idiots!!!... How dare they say that something is wrong with me when they look like they got enlightenment from such a crap spoken by a co-prisoner"
He dropped his forehead gently against the bars and exhaled.
"damnit…"
He rubbed the spot he had been hitting for minutes.
"Is everyone here stupid?" he whispered.
He couldn't stop the words from forming inside his mind.
"They're all locked up in wooden cages, on a trafficker's carriage, probably about to be sold or killed… and they're busy talking about paths… PATHS !!!."
He clenched his teeth.
"Shouldn't they be thinking about escaping?. Or better still. Shouldn't they scream for help or something? Shouldn't they cry or panic?. Shouldn't they do anything other than sit here and admire that Ren Tie guy?."
He stared at Ren Tie again while Ren Tie kept breathing calmly after his breakthrough. It looked like he was trying to get used to this new level of power slowly.
Yin Zhe's thoughts snapped like a twig.
"This place. These people.. they're all insane."
His fingers tightened around the wooden bars. Which made a low crack came from the old wood.
He didn't even look like he cared. Then he glanced at the others again. Ren Tie was sitting at the side while closing his eyes with pride.
Wen Chong looked like he had just witnessed a divine sign. On the other hand Bao Zi quietly repeated Ren Tie's words like they were divine scriptures. While Tian Zuo was nodding his head like he was a monk in training.
Yin Zhe sighed again.
"sigh…"
"It isn't necessary to pick a path," he thought to himself. "Not for me. And not right now."
His eyes sharpened, and something cold formed in his chest.
"If paths limit you… then I don't need one path." He thought.
He closed his eyes and breathed in slowly. Completely forgetting about the system.
"For I, Yin Zhe… will take all the paths in one go."
His heart slammed inside his chest. thump… thump… thump. as a new determination spread through him.
He wanted to get stronger and survive by all means. To not die as a villain.