Revenge

I'm about to die. My life is flashing before my eyes.

I was a supreme monarch of the cultivation world. I established an imperial family there. I razed countless clans to the ground.

I ravaged countless maidens, made them all a part of my grand imperial harem.

But my memories... why are all of them so... depressing? Didn't I do everything right? Why am I still not content? Why am I still not satisfied?

I was filial to my parents, I was loyal to my friends, my subjects were loyal to me, where did it all go wrong?

Memories flash in my mind, making me aware with a start that my heart has already been drenched in the cycle of reincarnation.

Images appear, I see a 7-year-old boy, being beaten by his father mercilessly with a wooden sword.

His face is blurred, perhaps because I don't remember him anymore, perhaps because I had tears in my eyes back then.

I look down at my body, it's full of bruises and cuts. My mother looks at us from far away, I persevere.

Scene changes, now I'm a 17-year-old teen with my hair drifting in the wind. I'm looking at the towering mountain of a famous sect. I want to hone my sword there.

A flash of light strikes the corner of my eyes, it is a cultivator, standing on a sword flying straight at me.

I hear a booming voice, "WHO ARE YOU, TRASH?"

The scenes continue to change after that, the stunned faces of the spectators when I won the sect tournament, the elder presenting me a trophy, and the Foundation Establishment pill.

Then I'm kneeling over the corpses of the disciples that tried to rob me of that pill, heaving, and panting, resisting my urge to vomit.

Then, I move on to the inner sect, where people kept coming to challenge me. They forced out all my trump cards, but I continued acquiring new ones and beating them again and again.

Next, I'm clutching my injured chest, there's a wide gash that shows my ribs. I'm gaping at the sight of a burning mountain, our former home. The sect encountered an enemy we couldn't overcome.

That sight haunted me in my dreams till much later.

Then, I'm looking at the grand capital city of the continent, overflowing with riches and cultivators in awe. Someone tried to bully me, calling me country bumpkin and all back then, it was another tough fight but I became the victor. My reward: becoming a fugitive.

The clan of that guy kept trying to capture me while I kept warding them off, sometimes even killing those pursuers. Our enmity ran deep.

Next, I'm looking at my new master. This is the master of that rich and powerful city. He took me under his wing when he saw my talent and saved me from the truly powerful cultivators of that clan.

He's teaching me everything he knows, he doesn't have long to live. More enemies have been directed my way.

Next, I'm holding my dying master in my arms, he asks me to take revenge for him. I take an oath. My eyes flicker.

Next, I remember running some more, escaping from the city that became a trap for me after my master's death.

I go back to my backward home. I destroy that sect that had destroyed my sect back then. It was my duty. I was supposed to be satisfied, but I remember I only felt heavy back then.

Next, I remember being slapped and humiliated by a guy.

Some super-strong cultivators from another world had come and held a ceremony, to recruit people into their sect. The one that antagonized me was arrogant and disdainful. I was saved by the most perfect fairy maiden that came along with him. She was the epitome of kindness. She saved my life. I was in love. I swore revenge on that bastard back then.

Next, I see myself being recruited into their sect by their master. That guy who slapped me back then was now weaker than me, but he still didn't stop. He kept sending waves after waves of his friends after me.

After beating him, his boss came to find trouble with me, then his friends, then his boss, then that big boss' family, then their clan.

I killed every one of them.

Next, the only scene that doesn't fill me up with regret comes. I'm holding the hand of the fairy maiden that had saved me back then. We're smiling and then we're spending the most memorable night of our life but our happiness was short-lived.

Her fiancé from a stronger sect sends people after me.

The next scenes were mostly just life-and-death battles and my counterattacks. After that, her fiancé became involved in the attacks. I couldn't kill him. I wooed his sister. It was pretty easy.

I face slapped him in a series of competitive battles, thoroughly beating him in every aspect of life, breaking down everything he took pride in until he became a raving fool that died under my sword.

The heaviness I was feeling back then was even more profound now. I was feeling suffocated.

The next few images are of me roaming various worlds, with beauties flocking to me, attracted by my achievements and power. I didn't refuse any of them and used them to alleviate my stress.

After that, there's nothing else but scenes involving more fighting, pillaging, conquering, taking revenge, and meeting new beauties. Perhaps, there was something wrong with my sight. After all, if all of my wives and concubines were perfect, then what would perfect even mean.

In the eyes of the world, and perhaps the generations after me, I would be their role model, the ancestor that defined the world but truthfully I was just... sad and angry.

I picked up a sword for my father, I joined the sect for him, then I fought for my sect, then I fought for revenge, then I fought for women, then I fought for land. Never did I fight for anything I believed in. I never stood up for myself.

I remained a hollow man, without any dreams of my own, just driven here and there by revenge and battles.

Perhaps the worst of it was, I fought so many battles that I didn't have to. I didn't even like fighting, but I spent my whole life doing nothing but that.

Every place I had been, I met so many people that wanted to use me as their stepping stone. It didn't bode well for any of them but wasn't I affected too?

Now that I recollect, for my entire life, never once did I feel... happy. I hate it, I want to change it but sadly it's too late for that.

The images have stopped flashing, now everything is going blank. The void is consuming me.

I swear... I'LL TAKE REVENGE FOR THIS HAHAHA...

Author's Note: Revenge is a path that keeps narrowing down the further one walks down that road. It is not the path of a hero, and a hero that still is dictated by it is a very sad one, and frankly, it gets lame pretty quickly too.