I'M DONE

"Did you hear? Lady Clarea had caught while plundering Red Castle's treasury."

"Plundering? Haah! I heard she had successfully stolen Great Ancestor's sole blood essence from the treasury, but caught in a trap formation when she was on the run."

"Why would she want the Great Ancestor's blood essence? They say after the Great Ancestor's death, all the bloodline experiments had failed. All the subjects had died."

"Looks like the rumors were true. She might have thought that the blood essence of the Great Ancestor could work on her trash son. Hmph! What a joke!"

"You guys are still discussing old news. I heard both of them had already executed this morning."

"Lord of Red Castle is a merciless man. He had given the order of execution for his main wife, the most beautiful lady of the Western Region. He should have given her to us instead of executing her! Wha ha ha ha!"

"I suggest you to stop talking about it, as you say, the Lord of the Red Castle is a merciless man. Everyone knows how he had dealt with rumors in the past, so shut up! Don't bring unnecessary trouble to my place!"

In the Western Region, this matter was the general conversation topic in the taverns.

Some of the westerners have been laughing at the events, joking about it with each other. Some of them were happy about that a specific rumor has ended.

However, the westerners wasn't able to talk about it much. Martintor announced martial law and forbade them talking about yesterday's incidents. Now, every gathering location for people had an observer who continually reported to Red Castle about gossip mongers.

After dozens of executions, the gossips died down in just a day.

Humans were surely strange creatures. Due to the emotion of fear, they might do anything. Even face value might make them do anything. Jealousy, greed and so on 'instincts' can be counted as other examples.

Due to the fear of death, the people stopped gossiping. Martintor had killed his wife for the sake of his face value. Castilla had framed Clarea due to her jealousy… And due to their greed, humans had stolen our sun all those years ago.

Even now, nothing has changed. In the entire history of the universe, the existence which has killed the most humans is again humans. No matter how much time passes, it will always be humans.

Due to their ugly nature, the number of the deaths will continually grow. Even us... The Darksiders won't be able to kill humans more than humans themselves.

…

In a remote corner of the Western Region, a place known as Jagged Forest

In the middle of the forest, there was a cart pulled by two horses. The road could be considered as rough, so it was a shaky journey.

The coachman was a middle-aged man with reddish-black hair. He was unexpectedly Vikrice himself!

Yulian was sitting at a corner in the cart, hugging a bloody sack with his two hands. The light of his eyes were dim.

An acephalous corpse was lying in the middle of the cart. Looking at the body, one could understand that the body had belonged to a female. The body wore a tattered blue dress.

The acephalous body's owner was none other than Clarea Rosencoffen, Yulian's mother.

On the other hand, the bloody sack contained Clarea's beautiful head!

When Yulian had woken up from his unconsciousness, he was in the cart. His head was still aching. Before long, he had discovered the body and bloody sack. His body has started to tremble wholly upon seeing the bitter reality in front of his eyes.

Yulian had cried until his eyes bawled out. Tears had soaked him up to his chest. The headache replaced itself with an endless buzzing feeling.

'Didn't you say that nothing will happen to you today?! Didn't you say that you won't die today?! Then why?! Why… WHY?!!'

He had continuously screamed from the inside until he lost his mind completely.

Right now, Yulian just hugged the bloody sack, sat there silently and looked into the void. His mental faculties were like stuck in the mud, even producing the slightest of thoughts was hard for him. Otherwise, he would question many things, like why was the coachman Vikrice himself?

"We arrived, Yulian." Vikrice's voice came from the front of the cart, and the cart came to a stop.

Vikrice came down from the cart and walked at the back of it. "Come down." He said calmly.

Yulian didn't give a response. He didn't even move a muscle.

"Sigh…" Vikrice reached Yulian with his hand, grabbed him from the top of his hooded robe and slowly put him down on the ground. Yulian was still hugging the bloody sack, unwilling to let it go.

Vikrice looked around and started to talk.

"There is a small town in that direction. Its name is Jagged Town, same as this forest we are currently in." Vikrice pointed the southwest direction with his forefinger. "You can reach there in thirty minutes on foot. I heard the people of the town are good people, always looking after their own business." He started to give information to Yulian about the Jagged Town.

"The people of the town earning their lives mostly by hunting the magical beasts residing in The Jagged Forest. The beasts are quite weak, almost all of them are in the Qi Gathering Realm. The town has a few cultivators, so hunting the beasts are not a problem for them."

Vikrice pointed the opposite direction of the town with his hand. "At the opposite direction of the Jagged Town, there is a cliff. Actually, there are many cliffs in the Jagged forest. I guess local people called the forest as Jagged Forest, due to these cliffs. The deepest ones have around thirty meters of depth at most. It is not enough to kill a decent cultivator, but for you, it is more than enough. Don't go that way."

Vikrice stopped for a moment, looked at Yulian with a complicated gaze.

He produced a small pouch out of nowhere and threw it beside Yulian. "Take this. There are two hundred gold coins. It should be enough to support you for the rest of your life."

Yulian didn't give a response.

"Sigh…" Vikrice sighed again and reached out to the bloody sack. "I need that. You should give it to me now." He said with an expressionless face.

Yulian again didn't give a response first, but when the bloody sack was about to leave his hands, his pupils fiercely contracted, and he roared like a mad beast while gazing at Vikrice like an embodiment of hatred at the same time.

"NOOOO! DON'T TOUCH HER!!!"

Vikrice abruptly took his hand back, as if he had come into contact with magma! His heart beats quickened instantly.

Silence took place between the two. Yulian was still looking at him maliciously while Vikrice was in a stunned state.

Vikrice, someone at the pinnacle of the continent, a Venerable Realm expert had backed off from a yell which had come from a crippled young man. As if he got afraid of Yulian.

Vikrice came to himself a moment later. "Fine! You can keep it if you want it so much. I have to leave now." He said. Slight anger was obvious in his voice. As being a Venerable Realm expert, he was carrying the pride of his cultivation after all.

He hopped onto the coachman seat at the front of the cart like a normal coachman would do, and was about to give a lash to the horses.

"Were you the one who had executed my mother, uncle?" A dead-pan voice came to Vikrice's ears.

"I wasn't the one who had killed her, but I was there at that time. She is dead. You should live a peaceful life as your mother wanted to." He said and gave the lash to the horses.

Vikrice didn't give another look at Yulian. The cart accelerated on the rough road in the Jagged Forest, leaving behind a broken young man.

Time passed. Yulian continued to sit on the cold ground for a long time. His thoughts started to get colder as well as his body.

Yulian got up slowly and started to walk. He didn't give a single glance to the small gold pouch. He didn't walk toward the town. His legs carried him in the opposite direction, to where the cliff was.

Ten minutes later, Yulian arrived at his destination. The cliff was a part of a small and steep canyon. At the base of the canyon, there was a small stream which filled with rocks.

Yulian had spent five minutes to find the most deadly part of the small stream, took a deep breath and jumped down head first without waiting a single moment.

'I'm sorry, mother, I'm done. You had not kept your promise, so I won't be able to do what you wanted from me. Even if I tried to, I would not be able to live a peaceful life without you. I would rather come to your side immediately. Please don't be angry at me when we see each other next time.'

That was his last thoughts before he gave himself to the hands of the nothingness.

…

Was it really?