Chapter 247 - Heavens Bane (1/2)
It was a voice, echoing across the room towards him. Its cascading reverberation bounding between the walls with pangs of sadness and age that the fabric of Time and Space around him were resonating in concert to it. Xiao Chen turned at once, looking at the voice and found that it came from the little black box that he tossed unto his table. The flickers from the lamp on his table cast a glow, eerie and wavering, upon the walls around him that he felt himself slowly filling with dread.
“Did the voice really come from within the box?” he asked himself as he slowly crept to his table. He stared at it for seconds. But nothing came from the box. It remained still and silent. “Is there something, or someone, sealed within the box? A powerful demon perhaps? Would it kill me if I were to inadvertently set it free?”
He shook himself, expelling the horrors of the old wives’ tales away from his head. Slowly, he took the box into his hands and looked at it closely. Despite a few tries to open it, the box would not bulge.
Not even his Divine Sense could penetrate the confines of the box, he realized. There was something about the material which stopped him from trying to find out what was locked within. Then he saw the crevices which might conceal traps or hidden mechanisms. “How about trying to penetrate from this small slits? My Divine Sense might be able to get in from here to find a way to unlock the box.”
He sat down and calmed himself, keeping his thoughts clear. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated on using his Divine Sense and slowly reached into the tiny clefts on the box. They were small, but elaborately designed like a labyrinth that he would have to start all over again whenever his Sense made a wrong turn inside.
It took an hour’s worth of delving and crawling until Xiao Chen finally reached the core of the box. There, he was welcomed by a sorrowful, mourning that resounded in his mind suddenly, “Between Heaven and Earth, my remains were left to be defiled, under the Sun and the Moon, under the glittering stars of the Night…”
Xiao Chen’s eyes sprang open. He was no longer in his room, but in limbo at the middle of the galaxy with the Sun, Moon, and all other celestial bodies around him. Despite the stars twinkling at him, he felt himself gripping with cold.
“Wait! The words I heard earlier… ‘Between Heaven and Earth, my remains were left to be defiled’, have I stumbled upon a great demon’s ancient barrow?”
Just when he was trying to fully comprehend the words he heard, a hulking figure appeared before him. The image was shimmering, obscured beyond recognition, but Xiao Chen could feel an imposing and indomitable presence radiating from the unknown figure.
“Y-you! Wh-what are you! Who are you! Why am I here!? What is this place!?”
Panicking beyond his wits, Xiao Chen had blurted everything all at once.
“I am the Seventeenth Apostate of Heaven. This is where my remains rest after my doom,” the powerful voice rumbled.
“What in the world?! The Apostate of Heaven?!”
Xiao Chen felt his back becoming wet. A cold layer of sweat drenched his back as he remembered Fengxi’s tale about the beginnings of the Annihilation Times.
According to the legends, the mortals were tired of the ruthlessness of the Natural Law that the first great demon who had reached the levels of the Supreme Realm, the Heaven Exterminator, had led the first rebellion against the forces of Heaven. The invasion turned out to be a massive failure and the soul of the Heaven Exterminator was utterly destroyed. He was henceforth known as the First Apostate of Heaven.
As the legends slowly fade from memory to be covered by the sands of Time, mortals began dismissing the story as mere fables and myths. No one today realized that it was true, and Xiao Chen could not believe his ears at another revelation: the figure had announced himself as the Seventeenth Apostate of Heaven. This would mean that there have been seventeen attempts to overthrow the rule of the Natural Law upon mortals, but all had failed miserably.
“Urm… Senior? Can you tell me the purpose of the rebellion? Why were you waging war against the Natural Law?” The revelation was so shocking that Xiao Chen was still reeling with confusion and disbelief.
His question seemed to somehow annoy the gargantuan figure. “Humph!” The figure snorted indignantly. “The Natural Law has long outlived its purpose since the lapse of innumerable multitudes of ages! It is nothing but malice, seeking to subjugate all that draws breath and trample over everyone! This was why we fought; for our own freedom!”
“Subjugate all that draws breath?!” Somehow Xiao Chen found it hard to believe; he had never heard of such heresy before!
“Your ability to awaken my soul by using your Divine Sense is proof that you are no ordinary person, young one. Here lies all that remains of me following my downfall. Hear me well!”
“Pray continue, Senior,” Xiao Chen remarked with a bow. As one of the most powerful figures in history, this person must wield great powers in the past, even though his conquest of Heavens had ended in an ignominious defeat. There could be merit in his advice and he would do well to pay heed.
“The Natural Law rules supreme, because it dictates the mortality of every being across all domains. Neither even Immortal Kings nor God-Kings could fully unravel the secrets of mortality and escape death. But if and once you have completely uncovered the mysteries of mortality, you are fit to overthrow the rule of Natural Law!”
Xiao Chen’s head lowered as he pondered those words. Man had been trying to harness arcane knowledge and skills to become immortals and achieve the rank of God-Kings, not knowing that even God-Kings were bound by the unbreakable rules of mortality. No one escapes the rule of the Natural Law. But what was wrong with everything having the life and death of its own? Would the domains not be in anarchy and chaos if the rule of the Natural Law were to crumble?
“What is your definition of immortality, Senior?” Xiao Chen asked suddenly.
A huge slab-like hand slowly rose and its fingers snapped. Immediately, one of the stars near them exploded in a huge supernova, startling Xiao Chen. “Is this man not dead!? What sorcery is this that he wields dominion over the galaxy?! Or is this an illusory domain which he holds full control over?”
“This is no illusion,” said the figure, as if reading his thoughts. The giant hand opened and flexed its fingers, and snapped again. The star which had exploded earlier was once again in place as if nothing had happened before.
“What you saw, happened in mere seconds. But what happened at the star system, was a complete cycle of rebirth. That is the significance of it. Do you see it now? Nirvana.”
“Nirvana?!” Xiao Chen fell into deep thought again. To achieve Nirvana, one had to experience Death, Samsara, Rebirth, only then one must discover the key to mortality to fully achieve eternal life. “Does it mean I have to first experience death?!”