465 Virtues and Sins (1/2)

The human world once had three holy trees—”Fate Tree”, ”Time Tree” and ”World Tree”.

The pixie race was a special lifeform born from the ”World Tree”. The maturation of every fruit of the World Tree meant the birth of a pixie.

Pixies were known to be beauty incarnate since ancient times. Not only was it because pixies were mostly beautiful, but because every pixie was given the blessing of the ”Seven Contrary Virtues” by the World Tree at their birth.

It was a debatable question whether humans were innately good or evil. To probe the inner workings of human nature at its most nascent stage, the actions of infants were used. It was debated if humans were corrupted by society as they grew up or not, but there was no conclusion to this debate even after thousands of years. Due to different angles and points of views, the explanations given by both sides were reasonable. No one was able to conclusively retort the other, so no one could prove that they were absolutely correct.

However, there was no such awkward debates for pixies. That was because pixies were given the grace of the World Tree to be 'born perfect'.

Pixies were born with the seven precious 'Virtues' — Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility.

Although pixies were born with these virtues, they had to undergo the baptism of worldly affairs. In their growth, changes would slowly develop. For example, a particular pixie might not need to work because she was born with a silver spoon. The virtue of 'Diligence' would slowly be ground away by neglect on a daily basis.

Pixies that could maintain the seven virtues all their lives were extremely rare. They almost never existed. Only in the legends were there 'Holy Pixies' who truly maintained all seven virtues. However, 'Holy Pixies' were a legend after all. It was impossible to discern if they were fiction or a true existence.

Typically, a well-educated pixie would only be able to maintain two or three virtues. The other virtues would gradually disappear as they grew up, making them not much different from ordinary humans.

However, to pixies who were born with the virtues, there was one thing that was forbidden. It was even abhorred—Virtues could disappear, but it absolutely could not become a Sin.

For example, 'Diligence' could disappear, but it absolutely could not become 'Sloth'.

'Chastity' could be lost, but one could not indulge in 'Lust'...

Pixies could connive the virtues given to them by the World Tree disappear, which they would view it as their incompetence, but they would never taint themselves with the corresponding seven deadly sins of the seven virtues. That was because it was the most serious of betrayals to the World Tree that gave birth to them.

However, if pixies tainted themselves with an 'evil' from any one of the seven deadly sins, be it a pixie commoner or pixie aristocrat, or even the pixie queen, they would become 'fallen pixies' upon being tainted by 'evil'. They would be exiled at the very least, or even vanquished.

'Fallen pixies' were the most forsaken species to the pixies, but unfortunately, the World Tree had buried in them the seeds of 'corruption' at the same time it gave them the seven virtues.

That was because as long as they destroyed a particular 'virtue' of theirs and take the initiative to 'corrupt' themselves with 'evil', they would be able to trigger the seed hidden within them. It would give pixies a temporary burst of strength.

The ability to exchange power for 'corruption' was the gifts with the best of intentions while simultaneously being the cruelest of tests when the World Tree birthed the pixies.

That was because there were times when even pixies who yearned for peace would have no choice but to bow down before power. At that moment in time, they would have to make a choice of acquiring the necessary strength at the cost of tainting themselves with 'evil'. This was pertinent when it came to facing the hunting of greedy humans. Their lives, chastity, and dignity were threatened, so these things would become a very difficult choice for them when compared to the 'virtues'.

Most pixies would choose to 'corrupt' themselves in their greatest time of need to resolve the danger. Although it meant betraying the World Tree, it was much better than betraying themselves.

These were the origins behind fallen pixies and corruption. They were pixies born with the seven virtues from their very beginnings.

...

Ten thousand years ago, the first apocalypse befell the human world.

The strongest destroyer of the apocalypse—the Original Sin of Calamity—prioritized destroying the three holy trees that acted as pillars for the human world. The World Tree naturally failed to escape the calamity.

Following that, as the 'clean-up crew', the Seven Deadly Sins began slaughtering the remaining living beings left in the human world. As a result, the pixies faced the threat of genocide.

During that calamity of genocide, there was only one pixie that luckily survived.

The only pixie that survived was Kali, an adolescent who still maintained the seven virtues. She was chosen by the World Tree to become its successor.

Without the World Tree's procreation, Kali became the last pixie in the human world.

From that moment on, Kali realized her fate and her mission. She once secretly swore to maintain the final bloodline of the pixies and to absolutely not trigger the strength in the 'corruption seed', never to become a 'fallen pixie'.

Thankfully, inheriting the powers that the World Tree had bestowed upon her made her nearly invincible in strength. Furthermore, in her travels through different planes of existence, she always took the form of an 'ugly old woman'. Therefore, she never fell into a dire state where she needed to activate the 'corruption seed' during the past ten thousand years.

Although in the ten thousand years of travel, she had lost her 'Kindness' because she ruthlessly killed her enemies, lost her 'Humility' because of her overwhelming strength and lost her 'Diligence' because she no longer needed to walk to traverse large distances, but there was no inclination towards corruption. She did not encounter a dire state that needed her to trigger the corruption. It was already considered quite a fascinating miracle.

But not long ago, due to the self-sealing required to enter the Nine Revolutions Transcendental Tower and how she was trapped by the four Level Lords in the God Slaughtering Formation, she fell into a desperate situation of having to trigger the 'corruption seed' in order to save Shi Xiaobai, who was on the brink of death.

When 'sacrificing Shi Xiaobai' and 'sacrificing herself' was placed on the same balance, Kali would not hesitate to choose the latter.

She destroyed the virtue known as 'Patience', and took the initiative to take in the evil known as 'Wrath'. In order to save Shi Xiaobai, she had violated her sworn oath and betrayed the World Tree by turning herself into a 'fallen pixie'.

She did not regret her actions. Even if she had to do it again, she would make the same choice.

Although compared to the ten thousand years of her life, the amount of time she knew Shi Xiaobai was so short that it was like a grain of sand in a desert, to her, that short period of time was even more precious that the long span of ten thousand years.

In the ten thousand years, not only was her life seemingly long and endless, she was also accompanied by loneliness.

And in the recent short span of time, she had secretly observed Shi Xiaobai's interesting escapades. While watching him, she would at times burst out laughing, at times be infuriated, at times tear up with sadness, at times having boiling blood flow through her veins, and at times disregard everything...

Although he never noticed her ever-watching eyes, nor did he know about her knowing smiles and slight frowns, she did not feel a tinge of loneliness at all by being a lone observer.

What she could get from Shi Xiaobai was far greater than what one could imagine.

As such, how could she watch by the sidelines the person who filled her 'emptiness' be destroyed?

How could she let the youth that possessed the loftiest of ideals die at the beginning of his journey?

Even if she needed to use a lie of 'how it was a trivial matter as she was only betraying herself if she became a fallen pixie even though she was no ordinary pixie and that she was equivalent to the successor of the World Tree', she would absolutely not allow that youth to fall into an eternal slumber.

Therefore, she chose 'corruption' in order to complete 'rescuing' him.