I’d Rather Be an Ordinary Mortal!
Fairy Yin's sweet and innocent look was a stark contrast to her manner of questioning. Qin Wu You had long treated the girl as someone more senior than him, despite her toddler-like appearance. Now, even her manner of speaking was no longer cutesy.
The air around her had changed. She was emitting a pressure that wasn't related to her level of cultivation, but her disposition, her frame of mind. It was as if Qing Wu You found himself being questioned in front of his lofty Imperial Grandfather. Perhaps, she was an even greater existence.
He was scared. Very scared.
Though he was famed for his eloquent tongue, the little boy in royal robes found himself unable to answer, drenched in sweat. He wanted to kneel.
"Why are you hesitating?" she asked mildly, but it was as if her words were drilling inside his chest, squeezing his heart and knocking air off his lungs. "Isn't power something you yearn for? Isn't it your obsession?"
Her voice might sound like music to most people, but for the current Qing Wu You, it slithered around his frail body like a frightening venomous boa. Cold sweat dotted his forehead as her words continued to sink in.
The high upon hearing the good news was offset by the brutal sight in front of him.
'What is he willing to give up to be a cultivator?'
'Is he ready to give up anything...for power?'
"Fairy, do you mind if I ask for time to ponder about your questions? In the meantime, shouldn't we leave this array? Also, what happened to these injured people?" he asked while confusion and disjointed thoughts swirled within his mind. "Who are they? Were they attacked by assassins from the Demonic Faction?"
The little girl laughed. "What if I tell you I attacked them?"
"Fairy, what is the meaning of this? Why would you--"
"They are nobodies. We will leave after you are done with your initiation ritual. I want you to kill them, and only then will I teach you how to cultivate."
His heart skipped a beat. Qing Wu You dared not move. "B-But, those robes...they're Ye Sect disciples…aren't they your allies? Will this not upset the Tenth Elder?"
At this moment, Fairy Yin looked so innocent and fragile in her flowery pink robes, that a third party would have berated anyone for thinking of harming her. Only, this girl was a real crouching tiger, an authentic dragon under the heavens, and a person who obviously did not fear bloodshed.
"So, what? What friendship? What life-saving grace? Benefit is king," she replied with another sweet smile. "You're not going to follow my instructions, You'er? You are not going to kill them?"
A devil.
She had to be a devil.
Since young, Qing Wu You had lofty expectations about cultivation. Being a powerful cultivator was his lifelong dream. He dreamed of riding clouds and slaying monsters and hearing the common people cheer his name as a hero. He even fantasized that within a few years, he would surpass the feats and legends created by his Lord Father.
Ever since he learned he was doomed to never ever step into the road of cultivation, all these dreams were shattered, and he became obsessed with finding his rightful place in this world.
He might be a Qing that could not cultivate, but he wanted to prove that he's not useless!
That even as a mortal, he could still surpass his Lord Father!
Now, Fairy Yin had told him that he could become a cultivator; she even guaranteed that he's no cripple, that he's in fact a genius with a Spiritual Body! His hopes had been rekindled, and he couldn't wait to start his cultivation journey and prove his worth to everyone who had looked down on him.
However, reality smacked him in the face.
The little girl that the Ye Sect's Tenth Elder picked up, this mysterious girl with cheeks so plump they look like white buns asking to be pinched, was now waiting for his response.
To kill or not to kill?
Staring at the unconscious people on the forest floor, Qing Wu You's mind felt slow, like his thoughts were trudging through mud. Icy dread embraced his entire body. Although he was more mature than his age, he was still an eight-year-old boy. With his mortal body plus his young age, at most, he had only hunted and slain an ordinary beast.
Of course, Fairy Yin's would not take him in without anything in exchange; it would be suspicious if she were to do that. There was no free lunch in this world.
If Yin asked him to kill someone, would he dare to?
Although he did not know the entire story of what occurred inside the illusionary array, as a smart boy, he immediately understood what Yin was hinting at when she showed him the two unconscious bodies.
This was a test for him. A test of courage. A test of loyalty.
How crazy was Qing Wu You?
How desperate was he?
What's the price he was willing to pay in order to cultivate?
If a man was a criminal, surely, Qing Wu You would gladly volunteer to take on the task of killing him. But what if Fairy Yin asked him to execute someone innocent...like the young disciple on the ground? What if she asked him to torture one of her enemies or the enemies of her so-called Church even though he's an ordinary human? What if she asks him to side with the Demonic Faction?
If he were to call her boss, if he were to be her loyal underling, would he be willing to be an unthinking puppet or a bloodthirsty blade in her hand?
No! He's unwilling!
Extremely unwilling!
"I-I…" Qing Wu You gritted his teeth, and his gums were bleeding from the force. "I apologize. I cannot do it. I cannot kill the innocent."
When he raised his head, he found the little girl in the cute pink garb watching him emotionlessly. He gulped, trying to lubricate his dry throat with his own saliva.
"Fairy Yin," he started with a hoarse voice, his eyes turning bloodshot. He had long abandoned the polite speech he had learned from his upbringing and was talking to Yin as if she was a peer.
"I do not mean to disrespect the sincerity you have shown towards me. I am grateful that you are willing to teach me the secret arts of your Church, but I am first and foremost a proud person belonging to the Qing Clan. Although my clan is also the ruling family of this empire, for thousands of years, our family's cultivators have been the main protectors of humankind here in the northern region of the continent. My ancestors, even the ancestors of my ancestors, all of them have fought for freedom and peace so that humanity can thrive despite the constant havoc of our enemies.
"Within the Qing Blessed Lands, we are fighting the Demonic Faction, which are human cultivators practicing evil arts that harm the common people. These are internal affairs. But outside our empire, there are also threats that are more powerful and more dangerous than them.
"There were the demons formed from living, non-human beings; the fiends formed from living humans; the ghosts formed from dead humans; and the ghouls formed from dead, non-human beings.
"What is a cultivator? Why do I wish to be a cultivator? Although I do wish to earn the respect of other people and to make my parents proud, the main reason why I want to become a cultivator is so I can join the war!
"I wish to be a cultivator who protects his people!
"I wish for strength to protect my people!
"Because I am a Qing!
"Therefore, as a Qing, I must have a bottomline! I cannot let my greed corrupt my heart. If I must blindly follow your orders even if it's against my beliefs, if I must harm innocent people, what's the use of being a powerhouse? Why did I even become a cultivator? I'd rather be an ordinary mortal!"