CG Chapter 192: More Beautiful than the White Lotus
A single masked man stood in front of An Ku, his posture carefree, as if nothing in the world meant anything to him, yet to An Ku, this man's terror was more dreadful than that of anyone he had ever seen in his life.
Being able to sneak up on him so easily was not even a fraction of what made him dreadful. But that aura of viewing life and death as if they were nothing but a lie.
He sensed a strange aura of calm, gentle Death Ki. It was unlike anything he had ever witnessed in the Li Clan. To him, Aretius was akin to someone who had been through death and back.
Meanwhile, Aretius did not flinch at the piercing yet fearful gaze of An Ku, as he carelessly stepped beside the stacked coffins, specifically the one An Ku's resting mother was in.
His hand stretched forward as he held the face of the rotting corpse. Seeing this, An Ku wanted to reprimand him, but his guts told him that his new master would not mind sending him to accompany his mother if he dared to say anything in that moment.
Nevertheless, he could not hold his gaze as he witnessed the facial expressions of Aretius. And although he could not see under the mask, he could clearly tell from those twin pupils what Aretius was feeling.
Being a lowly servant in such a clan, An Ku did not have many things, nor did he hold many connections to the people around him, and to a person who nearly had nothing, the corpse of his mother was more beautiful than the White Lotus of the Patriarch or a thousand taels of gold. It could be said that his mother was his reverse scale.
When he was still unaware of the emotions of his fellow men, he had asked one of the servants for help with refining a corpse. However, once that servant realized that the corpse was An Ku's own mother, his gaze toward him and the corpse turned into a heavy sense of disgust.
He did not mind the gazes of disgust or ridicule toward himself. Glimpsing that gaze toward his own treasured possession, An Ku could not hold himself. As such, the Li Clan had one less servant on that day, and An Ku's coffins had a welcome addition.
Now, seeing those deep, abyssal pupils of Aretius, he sensed a peculiar sense of familiarity, and an unnoticeable seed of loyalty started to grow.
This was not because of anything, but because in those eyes there was no disgust, but simple and genuine appreciation, the look of a blacksmith scanning another sword, or an alchemist analyzing the process of a pill.
Suddenly, and in the middle of his excitement, he heard the voice of that man calling. "Till death do us part, they say. But what does a lord care for the opinions of commoners he rules over, and what does a giant hold for the ants below? Death shall not do us part, for I command it to withdraw, and so it shall."
Aretius remained silent for a short period before he removed his hand from the face of the corpse, his gaze calmly switching toward the kneeling An Ku.
"What is your substance in life? Is she your dream?" A simple question that hit An Ku's heart like a heavy hammer or heavenly tribulation lightning. He felt that what he said next could change the trajectory of his entire life: to live as a servant or to reach for a higher place.
An Ku remained silent. His lungs felt heavy in that moment, and before he could think, his mouth moved as he voiced a single word: "No!"
Once this word was uttered, An Ku felt shocked, but it was as if he had just said it, as if it were spoken by another. Some might think that this was but another trick from Aretius, yet it had no effect on An Ku's choice.
He merely pushed him throughout their short interaction to voice his most genuine desire. His following words were aimed at sealing this desire completely and completing the psychological seal he was placing.
"I will give you one chance. State what you want, and follow me to the end, and not due to fearing death, but genuinely follow me. Or, die."
Thud! Thud! Thud!
An Ku wanted to kneel and beg, yet he held himself in that moment with his whole willpower. His heart pounded and felt as if it were about to explode in its place. What did he want? Why didn't he just say that his mother was the desire? What did he want?
When asked about their desires, people often diverge: wealth, family and friends, or authority. Yet, those all boil down to one simple word: power.
Power is the ultimate pursuit of all living beings, and once one attains enough power, everything else will naturally follow, be it wealth and authority, which are but lesser forms of power, or family and friends.
As such, according to the records of the tower, power is the purest form of desire; in a way, it is the primordial dream of all who walk through the grand expanse.
An Ku's following words stemmed from this same desire. For once he opened his heart completely. He realized the grand lie he had been telling himself since the very beginning.
His pupils dilated, and a sense of excitement overflowed through his entire body. "I want it all. I want power to awaken my mother. I kept on telling myself I wanted to see her, to hold her for a final time. But that was a lie. No, it is just a fraction of my dream."
As he said this, tears flowed freely out of his eyes, but these were not the salty tears of sadness; instead, they were the tears of breaking free from a shackle, from the one thing holding him back.
"I want to see her, to know I can do it. I want to see the west and the south, to witness the Great Empires, to discuss with the scholars of the Three Supremes as an equal. I want it all and much more."
As he finished with those words, An Ku's gaze was frantic as it locked onto the standing Aretius.
To this grand and seemingly absurd proclamation, Aretius did not laugh. For only by having desires and wants can the fiend control his subjects. And the greater the want, the greater the seal and its weight become.
"So it shall be."