CG Chapter 151: The Serpent Nourishes the Flower
Some say a road is walked with the feet. Yet, that couldn't be further from the truth, it was walked with the heart.
The road only stretches as far as one is willing to walk it. Without a heart, the road does not exist, only an endless, gaping pit of despair and suffering.
A truth Aretius deeply understood was that one must be willing to be more ruthless than the heavens to surpass them and reach a higher realm of existence.
This ruthlessness, however, was not only directed at others. A person who is only cruel to others is but a coward to oneself. A person who is only ruthless to himself is a fool.
One who is ruthless to himself and ruthless to others… such a person embodies both an immortal and a demon. Immortal, when soaring through the clouds, carefree above the mortal realm. Demon, when his wrath descends upon the earth. For the two are but two sides of the same coin
Looking at his dried hands, Aretius allowed a shadow of a smile to appear on his face for less than a second.
"Reverse the heart!"
"Turn my blood into a sea of tears!"
"Defy the heavens!"
"Defy! Defy! Defy!"
To Aretius, the birth of the serpent alone wasn't enough. Walking the road built by others was not different from bowing beneath a false deity.
He did not just want to walk his own path, but also take all the knowledge of others to create a supreme path. To combine. To devour. To reach the status of an immortal.
He did not waste any time. He didn't give himself even a moment of rest, to heal his tired body before continuing.
Bam!
A single loud clap shook the room, its echo spreading throughout the building and reaching the lower floors of the inn.
This sound alone was enough to make the people eating and drinking merrily on the first floor turn their heads, wanting to check on the cause of such noise.
Yet Aretius did not seem to know or care about any of that.
For one, all of these people were stopped by the fat-bellied owner, who had been promised a handsome payment by Aretius.
And as this was somewhat of a regular occurrence with wealthy customers who brought girls to play, the owner did not care as long as they paid, even if they destroyed a bed or two. In fact, he wished for them to break more. They could even break the whole inn if they wanted, as long as they paid.
More importantly, Aretius's current state simply did not allow him to care about anything or anyone but himself.
His nose was bleeding violet.
His eyes were tearing; they were not tears but blood.
His nose. His ears. His mouth.
Every orifice in his body leaked a strange liquid.
At that moment he truly looked like the bloodied corpse of a grieving soldier returning from the dead.
Still, the blood was the least of his worries, as his focus was completely on his inner veins.
He was not merely channeling the energy of the serpent inside him. Instead, he was exploring and creating a whole new martial art, a dual inner and outer martial circulation. These steps, which would normally take generations to master, were now being shortened to mere minutes by him.
And as such he needed to suffer the pain of the years, the torment of the generations, all on his own.
Ahhh!
The pain that he was experiencing now was not something that could be described. His veins were continuously stretching and contracting, his bones were suffering under the pressure, and his whole body was screaming for help.
When Heaven is about to bestow a great responsibility upon a particular person, it will first subject him to bitterness.
Distressing his mind, exhausting his sinews and bones, starving his soul and body, making him suffer poverty, and thwarting his actions. Thereby increasing his patience and strengthening his nature.
That was Heaven's generosity. Only by walking through barren lands and drinking from the filth of the lowest of ponds can one taste the suffering of the mortal realm, and only then can the heart grow vast enough to bear all pain.
What made it even worse was that the age of this body and the lack of any kind of foundation simply did not help. His body felt like it was about to break at any moment.
Yet even with all that pain and pressure, he held it in, focusing on finding the correct circulation channel from his Dantian into his body.
His goal was to birth the flower that would flourish in the Putrid blood of the serpent.
Tick-Tock!
Tick-Tock!
Tick-Tock!
After a while, the room was filled with the smell of his blood and sweat, the air seeming damper than before.
Suddenly, Aretius smiled, thinking, Success!?
The feeling of power surged within his body, and for a second he felt like he was about to reach the sky in one step.
Unfortunately, that happiness did not last for long, as in the next moment he felt his whole body was about to burst from within. He felt like his heart was about to explode, his eyes, ears, and nose were pierced with pain, and something was about to rip his intestines from the inside out.
In a moment, he went from supreme bliss to the depths of hell.
If someone were there to witness the transformation he was undergoing, they would be horrified, thinking that a demon had possessed him, or that they were hallucinating, because the scene would not make sense to any rational person.
At that moment, Aretius's body went from its dried and malnourished state. A state that would appear to many like a wretched vagrant who had not eaten in weeks, into that of a grotesque bloated corpse.
His whole body swelled to several times its original size, looking like a corpse that had been filled with a huge amount of wheat and barley, its surface covered by black and blue arteries bulging like cracks across his rotting flesh.
Appearing as though he was about to rupture at any breath from the sheer pressure, dragging the inn and perhaps the town into ruin with him.
This commotion made the fat merchant stand up happily as he laughed, offering the guests a free round of drinks. This liquor was, of course, the cheapest type that he would otherwise have thrown away.
Still, this showed his generosity, the merchant thinking that he would receive a hefty sum soon.
He was not stupid. If anyone had the thought of reneging on their debts after having their fun, he had his two brothers who would make them pay before leaving, with a wide smile on their faces.
As for Aretius, he did not care. He believed that he had reached his utmost. His eyes grew heavy, while his body threatened to fall down at any moment.
The thoughts of needing to restart crossed his mind for a second before he rejected them. This world was too interesting not to experience.
There were still too many hills and rivers he had not visited. And, more importantly, he had not had his fill of the world's energy.
He didn't plan to go anywhere before he devoured the essence of the world in great gulps leaving nothing behind.
At that moment, his mind raced a thousand times faster than before. His heartbeat synced with his breath, and his entire body froze in place.
The pain surged like a torrent, while an itch crawled beneath his skin, as though countless ants gnawed at his flesh without end.
His veins seemed to come alive, writhing and pulsing beneath his skin.
His body shifted into a deep shade of crimson, before paling toward a lifeless gray.
His heartbeat spiked, then slowed again.
Gradually, his swollen body began to shrink, returning to its normal size.
In that instant, it felt as if the world itself had stopped.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Opening his eyes, Aretius smiled before coughing out a dark, viscous substance.
Once this sticky liquid fell to the ground, it began to corrode the wooden flooring below emitting a vile, decaying, and rancid smell.
However, Aretius did not care about any of that at the moment. He sensed in his Dantian the violet flower that had started to bloom and grow inside.
He then turned his attention to the serpent coiling around it, and for a while, he felt like the serpent was looking at him.
Instead of fearing it, he smiled back at it, knowing that his efforts were not for naught and that he had finally taken his first step as a young rising Jianghu hero.
This was all thanks to the 'Heaven's Opening Chapter of the Celestial Fiend Canon!'
May the petals of the violet lead my people to divide the world and return the true order once more.