A PURPOSE OUT THERE?‽..

***Coastal Clan's Territory.. (South-West Region)..

Urus looks at the warm surface of the water for a moment before slowly sitting down on the floor as he slowly lowers himself into the tub.

*SIZZLE*..

*SIZZLE*.

 The herb filled water hisses spitefully with a bit of foam as Urus lowers his slimy skin into its warm embrace and then sits in such a way that only his head, neck and parts of his shoulders were above the water level.

 The thin layer of slime on his skin is mostly gone and his skin feels a little better. His head clears up a bit and depresing thoughts started rolling in.

The reason he is able to live so comfortably despite his father's demise is because of the harsh yet logical decision his mother had made just months after his father's bloody head has been brought back home.

 He was just four years old at the time and didn't understand much then but he still remembers crying his soul out as his father's bloody head gets unwrapped from a silk fabric. His father's eyes were still open at the time and his still expression showed a great degree of fear and unwillingness to die.

 His father was obviously killed before he even had the chance to properly react to the feeling if bring killed,.. just like an insect. Urus remembers his father as a man of power and pride with an imposing figure, a scarred face and yet a gentle smile..atleast to him.

 His father was a mercenary and unlike the other Eighty percent of the cultivation population, his father was monogamous.

Urus doesn't know enough to garantee his father's complete faithfullness and his father may probably have had some fun outside but his mother was the one and only permanent woman in his father's life.

 Urus remembers having three older siblings but now he doesn't even know where they may be anymore as they all left their mother's and father's nest one after the other in hopes of finding their own ways.

 Perhaps his siblings were dead by now. The last time one of his brothers visited was five years ago and this visit has for no other purpose but to celebrate with his mother the fact that he had broken through to the second rank.

Urus doesn't blame his siblings for anything because he have grown enough to realise that time is gold to cultivators of lower ranks because their life spans to advance is limited and their resources are even more limited. Opportunities especially limited ones wouldn't come knocking, they had to find them.

 His brothers and sisters would have to fight for resources, putting their lives in danger each time and gaining enemies and allies after every small battles they win or rather survive through.

They would have to go on risky adventures as they move further and further away from home each time with fiery hopes of gaining something that would determine them as more than ordinary.

 Family bond in the cultivation world is feeble without strenght and a leader to point a path they could move through together to greater heights. Its just him and his mother left from the family he used to know but the family he has now has a lot of unwanted additions for him.

 Just three months after his father's death, Urus mother remarried as a Concubine to a peak level Rank Three warrior who's serving the Coastal Clan!.

His mother's decision was painful and illogical for the immature four year old Urus to watch at the time.

 He cried,.. a lot. He threw tantrums misread the room and he even hated his mother. He saw her as a betrayal, he believed or convinced himself that his father is loyal and his mother just happened to show her true colours after his father had died.

 Growing up, his relationship with his mother soured till he slowly began to realise the truth. To advance to the second rank, his father pulled together his life savings and sold some more things and luckily he succeeded and advance though his success didn't change the fact that the family were now in debt but it did gjve certainty that they would be able to get out of debt.

Despite this possibilities, the family were all happy as his father can now take on better missions and complete others faster with a higher pay.

 It opened room for a lot more possibilities for his family. His father started taking on better missions but the most of what he earned went into stabilising his breakthrough.

 Everything would have been fine after a while but then for the first time, Urus's father joined a hunting team going to raid an infected cave that has judged to be tier two. His father died in that cave but his debt didn't die with him.

 Not only with the debt as a driving point but at that time, the conflict in his(Urus) bloodlines begun to manifest. His family were deep in trouble with no evident way out and his own condition made matters much worse.

 Lucky enough for them, his family was pulled out of rock bottom as his mother somehow caught the eye of a Coastal Clan's Captain and remarried to him.

 His stepfather isn't a bad person as he cleared their debts and even allowed Urus to keep his father's name. Unlike most men, even though he didn't have to and was in a position of absolute advantage, the man(Urus's Step-father)held a funeral for his father and paid his respects before ever being intimate with his mother.

 That man Urus hates so much is the only reason he isn't dead and is able to live a decent life despite his condition. Now, Although Urus still dislikes the fact that the man by his Mother's side is not his father but still he has come to term with reality enough to accept it.

 With this thoughts in mind, Urus lowers himself completely into the water with *SIZZLE* sounds going off as his face and head gets completely cleaned.

 Sometimes whenever he goes into a dip like this, he feels like just drowning himself to death and ending his miserable life. His mother would probably mourn badly for a while but his younger step-siblings would be a adequate distraction to her pain.

 Death hurts but it isn't much of a big deal in the cultivation world and this is why polygamy is very common to high levelled cultivators who don't know if they would lose half of their offsprings overnight.

 Eventually, after a silent and long minute with bubbles escaping silently to the surface, Urus head resurfaces back into the air as he gives a deep gasp and pants before leaning his hunched back backwards as he manages to sit back up again in the water.

No matter weather death is a big deal or not, he cannot do such to his mother and especially not after all the pain she has been through in this lifetime as a wife to his now late father.

Call it an excuse for a pathetic Coward but another reason Urus cannot ever find the courage to just end it all is because he has never truly felt that he is living the way he should.

 He have never truly felt that he belonged in this setting,.. he have never felt complete and this is not just in the sense of his body. He feels like he hasn't ever met his true purpose and he feels empty without this purpose.

 Crazy right,.. someone in his condition feeling there's a purpose out there for him.

 Even he laughs at this idea yet his mind keeps steering him back to it. He feels a faint connection reaching out to him out there and whenever he's lucky enough to feel this connection, this weird instinct from his very soul takes over.

 Urus shakes his head thinking of this. It seems his bloodline conflict isn't just limited to his body but is also playing games on his mind.

 But is it?.