Chapter 14 : Peace Behind the Legend
1734 Words
"Do you still want to take what does not belong to you, Lin Xue?" Han Ye asked.
He stood in the center of the small room. The silver light from his chest made the walls look bright. Lin Xue stood in the doorway. Her golden dress was very expensive. It did not belong in this simple hut. Her eyes were wide. She looked at the silver glow with a hunger that made her face look old.
"It belongs to the world, Han Ye," Lin Xue said. "And I am the one who rules the world. You are just a man hiding in the mud. Give it to me."
"I did not take this light," Han Ye said. He held up his hand. The silver glow was soft. It felt warm on his skin. "The world gave it to me because I chose to be nothing. If you take it to be a queen, it will turn into ash in your hands."
"You always thought you were better than us," Lin Xue said. She pulled a small jade dagger from her belt. The blade was sharp. "You think you are a hero now? You are the monster who almost destroyed everything. Everyone in the Capital knows your name. They call you the Void Demon."
"I know," Han Ye said. He did not move. He did not raise a weapon. "And they are right. I did things that can never be fixed. But I am not that man anymore. I am just Han Ye."
"You are a threat!" Lin Xue screamed. She lunged forward. The dagger moved toward his heart.
Han Ye did not dodge. He simply reached out and touched the blade with his index finger. The moment his skin touched the metal, a silver ripple moved through the air. The dagger did not break. It did not melt. Instead, the metal turned into a long, thin vine with tiny green leaves. The leaves grew fast. They wrapped around Lin Xue's wrist.
Lin Xue dropped the vine. She stepped back. Her hands were shaking. "What is this? This is not cultivation!"
"It is life," Han Ye said. "The Emperor gave me the power to erase. The world gave me the power to grow. You cannot fight life with a knife, Lin Xue."
"I will send my army!" she shouted. "I will burn this entire valley to the ground!"
"If you do that, you will be the one who destroys the future," Han Ye said. He walked toward her. His steps were quiet. "Go back to your palace. Be a good ruler. Forget that I exist. That is the only way you will find peace."
Lin Xue looked at him for a long time. She saw the silver light in his eyes. She saw that he was not afraid. She saw that he did not hate her anymore. That was what hurt her the most. He did not even care enough to hate her.
"I hate you," she whispered. Her voice was full of tears. "I hate that you always find a way to win."
"I did not win, Lin Xue," Han Ye said. "I lost everything. And that is why I am finally happy."
Lin Xue turned around. She walked out of the hut. She did not look back. The golden carriage lifted into the sky. The sound of the horses' wings faded until the valley was silent again.
Mo Ran stepped out from the shadows of the kitchen. She looked at Han Ye. "Is she gone?"
"Yes," Han Ye said. He sat down on a wooden stool. He felt very tired. The silver light in his chest dimmed. "She will not come back for a long time."
"You showed her mercy," Mo Ran said. She sat on the floor next to him. She rested her head on his knee. "Why?"
"Because killing her would just start the cycle again," Han Ye said. "I want the cycle to stop."
*
Three years passed.
"Master, tell us the story again!" Xiao shouted.
The boy was sitting on the grass with four other children. They were all wearing simple clothes. Their faces were dirty from playing in the fields. Han Ye was sitting under the big oak tree. He was sharpening a wooden hoe.
"Which story, Xiao?" Han Ye asked.
"The story of the Void Demon!" a little girl named Meiling said. "The one with the hundred eyes!"
Han Ye stopped sharpening the hoe. He looked at the children. "Why do you want to hear about a monster?"
"Because the book says he was the strongest man ever!" Xiao said. "The book says he could make a whole city disappear just by blinking. Is it true, Master?"
Han Ye looked toward the small hut. Mo Ran was hanging laundry on a line. She looked at him and smiled.
"The book is mostly right," Han Ye said. "He was very strong. But he was also very foolish."
"Was he really a demon?" Meiling asked. She looked a bit scared.
"People called him a demon because they were afraid of him," Han Ye said. "And he acted like a demon because he was angry. He wanted to hurt the people who had hurt him."
"Did he ever find them?" Xiao asked.
"He did," Han Ye said. "And he hurt them. But it did not make him feel better. It just made the world darker."
"My brother says the Void Demon is still hiding in the mountains," Xiao whispered. He looked around as if someone was watching. "He says that if we are bad, the demon will come and erase our shadows."
Han Ye laughed. The sound was warm and light. "Your brother likes to tell scary stories. The Void Demon is gone, Xiao. He realized that being a demon is very lonely. So he decided to become a human instead."
"Can you do that?" Meiling asked. "Can a monster just stop being a monster?"
"It is the hardest thing in the world to do," Han Ye said. "But yes. If you are brave enough to lose your power, you can become anything you want."
"I want to be a great cultivator!" Xiao shouted. He stood up and waved a stick like a sword. "I want to have a gold root and fly on a sword!"
Han Ye looked at the boy. He felt a small pang in his chest. "Being a cultivator is not about flying, Xiao. It is about balance. If you only look at the sky, you will trip over the roots on the ground."
"You talk like an old man, Master!" Xiao joked.
"That is because I am an old man," Han Ye said. He stood up. His knees made a clicking sound. "Now, go home. Your mothers will have dinner ready."
The children ran away, laughing and shouting. Han Ye watched them go. He felt a sense of peace that he could not describe. He walked toward the hut. Mo Ran was waiting for him at the door.
"The children are getting curious," she said.
"They will always be curious," Han Ye said. He put his arm around her waist. "But they are safe. That is what matters."
They walked inside. The sun was starting to set. The sky was a deep shade of orange and purple.
"Han Ye?" Mo Ran asked.
"Yes?"
"Do you ever miss it? The feeling of the world bowing to you?"
"Never," Han Ye said. "I like the sound of the crickets. I like the smell of the soup you are making. I like that my name is just a name."
They sat down to eat. It was a simple meal of rice and vegetables from their garden. They talked about the roof and the fence. They talked about the new flowers by the river. It was the conversation of two people who had lived a thousand lives and were happy to finally be on their last one.
After dinner, they walked out to the porch. The moon was high. The valley was dark and quiet.
"It is a good night," Mo Ran whispered.
"It is," Han Ye agreed.
He looked at his hand in the moonlight. For a second, he thought he saw a flicker of black energy under his skin. It was just a shadow. Or maybe it was a memory. He closed his eyes and breathed in the cool night air.
Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate. It was a very small movement. Most people would not have felt it. But Han Ye felt it in his bones. It was a rhythmic thumping. A heartbeat.
He looked toward the horizon. Far beyond the mountains, where the Great Abyss used to be, a pillar of red light shot into the sky. It was thin, but it was bright enough to see from hundreds of miles away.
Han Ye felt a cold shiver go down his spine. The silver light in his heart pulsed once, very hard.
"Han Ye?" Mo Ran asked. She was looking at the red light too. Her face was pale. "What is that?"
Han Ye gripped the wooden railing of the porch. The wood cracked under his fingers. He felt a familiar voice whispering at the very edge of his mind. It was not the Emperor. It was something older. Something that had been waiting for the silver light to wake up.
"The cycle did not stop," Han Ye whispered.
He looked at Mo Ran. He saw the fear in her eyes. He realized that the peace he had built was a wall made of sand.
From the shadows of the forest, a figure stepped into the moonlight. It was a young man. He looked exactly like Han Ye did when he was eighteen. He was wearing the black robes of the Void. In his hand, he held a shard of a broken mirror.
The young man smiled. His eyes were not brown or black. They were silver.
"Hello, Architect," the young man said. His voice sounded like a thousand echoes. "Did you really think you could just walk away?"
Han Ye stepped off the porch. He felt the silver root in his chest begin to burn. He looked at the intruder. He knew that the story was not ending. It was only changing shape.
"Mo Ran, get the children," Han Ye said. His voice was cold and steady. "The past has finally caught up."
- Writer
