Chapter 4: Patience, Distractions, and Time (2)

Xun didn't bother responding to any of them and instead closed his eyes.Fights weren't the only reason I failed. I was distracted. I started a family, I built a sect, and I spent time enjoying the finer parts of life that were unrelated to cultivation. All for nothing. I thought that having others would protect me and allow me to build a legacy. But the moment I stopped being the Earth Sky Sword and became another old man on the verge of death, they all abandoned me. They probably didn't even bury me when I died.The thoughts left a bitter bile in his mouth, washing out the taste of iron. With a renewed vigor, he heaved forward.Four steps.All he wanted to do was to curl up into a ball and sleep, letting the sweet darkness take him. Before the defeatism could seep any further into thoughts, he bit down on his tongue. The new pain cleared his mind and gave him energy to drop another step.Three steps.It didn't even feel like he was moving his own limbs anymore. His mind was sending signals that his body sometimes didn't obey. Luckily, that was something he was intimately familiar with. In his past life, age had robbed control over his own body. He had worked around that. He could work around this, too.After two centuries at the Copper Roof, the highest stage of the Consecration Realm, Xun had reached the end of his life. He had only a few months left to live. The only two ways to extend his life were to either find a hundred-year lifespan pill or to finally advance to the Lord Realm.He couldn't afford the pill, especially when he was supporting his entire family and sect's cultivation. So he chose the riskier path of undergoing the Second Thunder Tribulations and breaking through to the Broken Lord Stage.At that point, he no longer cared about the power or fame that would come to those in the Lord Realm. All he wanted was to live longer, to watch more sunrises, and to inch further along the path to eternity.More than the fights and the distractions, the reason why I failed was because I didn't have enough time. I could have succeeded if I had more time to gather spirit stones, formations, runes, and more. In the end, I was pushed to the tribulations because I ran out of time.That thought was enough to breathe new life into Xun as he counted to five and mustered all of his strength into throwing a giant backward punch.The white thunder soul had flown lower and lower, thinking that Xun wasn't a threat. Xun's punch caught it right in the center. Pressing the attack, Xun found the energy to rip the thing to shreds before he tumbled down another step.Two steps.Xun laid on the stone step, breathing in the air of his new life. Elemental souls were difficult opponents in that their attacks were powerful. But they had very little in the way of intelligence. The thunder soul had let its guard down and now, Xun was the victor.It was going to be a great second life.Because his eyes were closed, Xun didn't see a second cloud zooming forward. It was the same one that had shot out the purple bolt earlier. Its edges were still frazzled but its color was still a dark black. After charging for a few seconds, it shot a pale violet bolt out at the human who had killed two of its siblings.As the thunderbolt sped toward Xun, he felt every hair on his body stand up. Instinctively and without opening his eyes, he rolled into a ball with his arms held up. Somehow, he finished his motion before the bolt landed.All he felt was a massive blow that crushed him into the ground. Every organ in his body simultaneously gave up under the immense pressure and stopped functioning.Xun's arms fell limply by his side. He knew that they were damaged in some way but didn't have the energy nor the desire to understand how they were hurt. He couldn't even feel his legs. It was like they weren't a part of him anymore.The only part of his body that was even remotely close to operational was his mind. The first conversation he heard after being reincarnated played back in his thoughts. They had talked about how the thunder soul was beyond the Foundation Realm.The thunder soul… it's Consecration Realm. Is this some kind of sick joke? No mortal can survive this. What kind of cursed place did I fall into? Against the onslaught of negative emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, he found a glimmer of his past self. The person that he had been before the years washed away his edges and made him dull.I'm Xun. The genius of the Xun clan. The founder of the Violet Mirror Sect. The sword prodigy in the Eastern Continent. I'm not going to fail here. My life is not in the hands of heaven. I will choose my own fate.Xun tapped the anger within the thought to crawl forward and dropped down another step.One step.He could see the grass in front of him, so close he could smell the sweet and sharp scent. Calling upon every bit of energy he had, he crept his hand forward and struggled to slip out of the final step.Another strike landed on Xun. This one was weak, like the ones before, but it was the final nail in the coffin. Xun's outstretched hand dropped to the stone. It was the end, he had nothing left.A bitter smile formed around Xun's lips as he opened his eyes for one last look at the world. His second death place was a pretty one. It wasn't stuffy and cramped like the bed he had first died in. There were endless blue skies, green flowing grass, and pretty white clouds.The last thing Xun saw before darkness took him was a slim, pale hand reaching for him.