Karma Induced Despair

"Uh… Hi?" Not knowing exactly how to respond to the random save, Mateus said, "Thanks for stopping, um… Whatever that was."

"You don't know?" The woman holding Lunabelle's limp body asked before quickly adding, "Actually, it makes sense, seeing as you dared to make contact with her."

Mateus couldn't help himself as he retorted, "Well, it's not like I went out of my way to talk to her."

"About that," Aiden interjected, unphased by the fact that he dared to talk back, and asked, "How exactly did you meet our daughter?"

Trying his best to not grow completely pale in the face, Mateus started, "I went to the Alchemy Department to sell some pills and needed someone to appraise them. After my business with the Alchemy Department was over, she approached me and offered to give me all her old alchemy gear along with a spatial ring so long as I followed her home and practiced alchemy under her supervision for a month."

"I didn't expect her to suddenly go crazy and attack me a couple hours later..." Mateus concluded with a sigh.

"Honestly, after the first hour passed, I didn't think so either," Aiden said. He added, "Unfortunately, you managed to tilt the delicate balance keeping her emotions in check."

"You can't be serious," Mateus frowned. "You mean to say that I managed to impress her to the point where she just couldn't help but commit assault?"

"Your Yang Affinity and biological designation as a male didn't exactly promote her stability," Lunabelle's mother snorted. "Given the purity of her bloodline and her Inborn Sanctified Yin Body, it's a miracle she didn't try something sooner."

"Bloodline—" Mateus bit his tongue before he could ask something about a "limit."

"Do these ears and nose look normal to you?" Lunabelle's mother snickered.

"Uh..." Mateus didn't know how to respond.

If he affirmed that demihuman features were normal to him, then clearly he'd be lying and or viewed as mentally ill. Then again, if he denied it, and called them abnormal by proxy, he would effectively be directly insulting the person responsible for instantly knocking out the Cultivator that he himself had nearly instantly lost to.

It was a double-bind; a lose-lose situation.

"Wow, you really don't know do you, kid?" Lunabelle's mother smirked at him.

"I can't say I do..." At this point, Mateus just wanted to leave and never come back…

"Well, let me enlighten you, then." Kingston rose up to the occasion and began to explain, "You are currently standing before the Clan Head of the Sinking Moon Clan, and his wife."

"As intimidating as that title sounds, I'm still missing a lot of context..." Mateus grumbled under his breath.

"Er..." Kingston looked over at Aiden, and only after confirming a lack of even the slightest killing intent, did he continue on to say, "The Sinking Moon Clan is one of the three Great Clans of the Ephemeral Slipstream Sect. The owner of the Frigid Moon Subdimension, and greatest Cultivators of Ice in all of the Sect."

"Really? I would have guessed you guys would be more into Yin than Ice, all things considered," Mateus shot the unconscious Lunabelle a look.

"Yin would be the domain of the Black Sin Clan," Kingston said, pausing just long enough for Mateus to think, 'A little on the nose, isn't it? Black Sin and Yin… Like, did they even try to be original?'

Oblivious to Mateus' thoughts, Kingston continued, "Our young heiress was just born too perfect for the heavens to accept her. With her Jade Rabbit Bloodline of a purity not seen for tens of thousands of years, she was cursed on the day she was born by the Laws of Yin to have an Inborn Sanctified Yin Body."

Mateus couldn't help but snort. 'Cursed? She's got an exploit that will carry her through to the Immortal Realm without a hitch and they call it a curse? The nerve of some people,' Mateus shook his head, oblivious to how close he was to certain death... once again.

Lunabelle's parents, however, weren't above reminding him as they tossed him into a sea of murderous intent as Lunabelle's mother said, "You better have just now recalled something really funny, or I'll make sure it's the last thing you ever remember..."

Shrugging his shoulders without a care, Mateus said, "Transcendent Purification Pill. Why haven't you just given her a Transcendent Purification Pill? To me, the problem has a simple enough solution..."

'Seriously, these people supposedly own an entire fucking Subdimension. How can they be so incompetent?' Mateus thought.

"Do you think we haven't thought of that?" Aiden narrowed his eyes on Mateus' form.

"Seeing as she still has problems with Yin Mania, yeah, I do. I mean, we're talking about a Spirit Grade Pill here, not an Immortal Grade Pill," Somehow, Mateus failed to flinch in the face of the terrifying intent that only seemed to grow with his every sentence.

"So you're not just talking out of your ass," Lunabelle's mother said. "You must know then, that to refine such a pill, only Alchemist of Grandmaster ranking could achieve such a feat."

"Do we not have any at our Sect?" Mateus looked at her oddly as he said, "I'm pretty sure one would only need a Cultivation Base at the Core Stages of the Spirit Realm to get there..."

Teetering on the edge of crippling Mateus forever, or worse… Lunabelle's mother said, "And how many of them do you think have the necessary Affinity and Understanding of Yang to refine a Transcendent Purification Pill?"

"To mitigate the effects of an Inborn Sanctified Body produced by possessing a Yin Affinity of Consummate Tier, only someone at or above the Core Stages of the Spirit Realm with a Universal Insight level of Understanding into Yang could possibly refine the pill my baby girl needs," she concluded.

"Tch," Matues clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Of course, it comes back to this shitty dimension's lack of Yang Cultivators. Fuck," he would have kicked at dirt if not for the fact that he was still very much indoors.

Suddenly, before Mateus, the worst possible thing happened.

At the moment of recognition over the facts pertaining to Lunabelle's case, Mateus' dormant soul suddenly came to life at the chance to pay back his extreme karmic debt. He couldn't help it as his body instinctively responded to his Level 50 Water Cultivation Method and took the opportunity to open his Soul Land without hesitation.

Before Mateus, a translucent writ of karma manifested.

[!Status!

Name: Soul Land Opening Writ of Karma

Grade: Irrelevant

Description: Manifested at the opportunity to repay the great karmic debt of receiving Lunabelle's leftover Mortal Grade alchemical equipment. Solidified after you accepted the Writ of Karma to open your Soul Land and materialized an Affinity Representation for Water.

Bound Condition: Before breaking through past the last of the Core Stages in the Spirit Realm, and before she passess the point where it would be effective, you must refine a Transcendent Purification Pill for Lunabelle.

Penalty For Failing To Comply: Severe karmic backlash from the Yin Laws when attempting to complete Nirvanic Rebirth.]

"NOOOOOO!!!" Mateus cried out in despair as the translucent contract dispersed into nothingness.

'Why, Essence of Water, must you backstab me so?!' Mateus had never regretted something more than he now regretted having chosen to cultivate a Triple System Cultivation Method. 'Fucking Triple System Cultivation Methods,' he cursed internally with phantom tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

He could almost literally see his chances of leading a relatively peaceful life fly out the window.