Han Yimu was... befuddled. That was perhaps the best word he could think of at the moment to describe the pool of scrambled thoughts in his mind. As he sat on a somewhat uncomfortable, stone bench without any cushions, and sipped away at the ever-cooling tea, his eyes wandered between the trio sitting on either side of him.
He couldn't quite figure out which one was the strangest.
Was it the woman? An affable Empress whose countenance was an utter contrast to the few other Emperors and Empresses he met, her tone of voice warm and oddly soothing, though the regality of the crown still very much made his lungs compress.
Or was it the strange bird sitting on top of the man's head? It was clearly a juvenile phoenix, and a female from the sounds of it, yet he had never heard of any Divine Beast staying so intimately close to a human ever. It was the opposite--they'd kill any human who dared even look them directly in the eye.
... and then there was him, the man.
A completely average appearance, a woefully unimpressive cultivation realm--tethers of void lashing out of him, an indication that he'd just broken through into the Void Transformation Realm--and utterly nothing that stood out. Despite that, however, he had a Divine Beast nesting in his head, and he had an Empress address him with courtesy, and he spoke to her so casually it was as though she were his equal.
Was he a fool? A hidden master? A child of some powerful figure from the Upper Realm?
"So, what do you think, young Daoist?" the woman broke somewhat lengthy silence. "Can it be done?"
"... why would you think I can do something that even you can't?" the man asked, taking a sip of the tea.
"A hunch."
"A hunch, huh?"
"Hm. When you live as long as I do, you begin to unravel the nature of things," she said. "Peek behind the curtain, as it were. Little Yimu, do you know what he did?"
"H-huh? N, no," Han Yimu replied quite awkwardly.
"He fed the little phoenix Dao of Fire," she said as he felt thunder crack like a cannon in his mind. "Instead of selfishly keeping it for himself, he fed it to the little one."
... no wonder the Divine Beast sat on his head.
A fool, for certain.
Han Yimu now knew that the man was a fool. Only a fool, after all, would give away Dao to another. It was not the matter of selfishness or selflessness at that level--it was stupidity.
"And, someone who can help a Divine Beast, can help a struggling boy, too."
Though Han Yimu remained silent in consideration of the Empress' status, there was no faith in him. The ails of his heart were something only Dao itself could cure. Those far more talented and far more mindful had failed to overcome the Demons, and he would be no different.
Inevitably, there will come a day where he will no longer be able to suppress his breakthrough, and when that day comes... he will die. It would be a grueling, painful, long death. And he will suffer it in the agony he was destined for.
"Why would I?" the man asked.
"... because you can. And because, if you do, our little Yimu here will become your Disciple. You should know well enough that, his current circumstances notwithstanding, he has the utmost potential of becoming an Emperor."
"... why do you think it was your fault?" the man suddenly spoke to him, and Han Yimu felt the resonance of something greater for the first time since meeting the man. The look in the man's eyes was... confounding in more ways than even the Empress'. While the depths of her gaze revealed amusement and aloofness, his simply revealed... gentleness.
"What do you mean, Senior?" he asked politely.
"Why do you think you were at fault for the tragedy that befell your Sect?"
"!!!" Han Yimu had just been about to draw out a sword and strike when he felt the fire of damnation press into his soul. As such, he stopped about four inches of the chair, his hand halfway to the scabbard, body leaning forward ever so slightly.
"And you want me to help him?" the man turned toward the Empress and said with a faint smile.
"That's unfair, little Daoist," she sighed. "How did you know?"
"A wild guess," the man shrugged, taking a sip of tea.
"A wild guess?"
"Well, not so wild," the man glanced at him, a strange look in his eyes. "Someone this young, talented, and capable of being in the presence of an Empress largely unbothered, there are only few things that could cause a Demon to develop. I don't think he's particularly evil, as you would not have wanted to help him in that case, so the Demon must stem from the guilt. A tragedy, thus, on a grand scale must have occurred. I merely rolled the dice that it was his Sect rather than his Family, and I got it right."
"Ho ho ho, extremely insightful," she chuckled. Even Han Yimu felt his heart stir; the man had concluded so much from so little. Perhaps... he was one of those legendary Sages who were not strong individually, but every Emperor wanted as a teacher because of their brilliance? "What if I didn't interfere and I let him do what he wanted?"
"... worst case scenario, I would have died," the man said, taking a sip of tea. "As would this place, one day."
"..." Han Yimu felt his heart freeze. Did... did he just threaten an Empress?! However, even more harrowingly, there was no trace of anger on her face, merely... a smile.
"You have a lot of faith in them."
"The most."
"I will forgive you just threatening me if you help him. Quite a nice little exchange, eh?"
"... it's not that easy," the man said.
"What do you need? I'm willing to provide it," Han Yimu didn't know why either the man was pretending he could cure a Heart Demon, nor why the Empress so firmly believed him. Or why she was willing to go so far for him, a complete stranger until less than a day ago.
"I don't need anything," the man said, looking over at him. "But he will have to sacrifice a lot."
"Oh?"
"He will have to abandon his current cultivation method," the man continued. "Forget all martial arts, renounce his Daoist Title, and regress to the Spirit Manifestation Realm, enduring every hell in the downward spiral of agony."
"... hoh," even the Empress exclaimed softly. It was a sacrifice beyond sacrifices; no, just one of those things would be a sacrifice beyond sacrifices. "Is that your price?"
"No," the man said, shaking his head. "It's the weight of his guilt."
"... can you swear that you can do it?" Han Yimu spoke, still in the frozen motion. Not because the Empress was holding him, but because he was holding himself.
"Even if you don't do it," the man said, looking him directly into the eyes. "You can live for another forty thousand years without needing to break through. I will teach you the method to do it. Of course, you will never become any stronger than this, but... it will be a long life, nonetheless, and you can make something great of it."
"Can you swear?" Han Yimu insisted.
"... I can."
"... do it." Han Yimu closed his eyes, surrendering.
It was stupid--it went against everything he was ever taught--but he surrendered to that phantom of hope that was spawned in his heart. This all could be a ploy between these two, means of perhaps taking over his body and having an undercover agent in the Upper Realm. Perhaps the Empress was hunted by the Court and she needed someone to be her eyes and ears, so the two of them devised this plan.
Perhaps they were part of some cult that needed young, talented bodies, and they'd take over his already cracked mind and create a puppet.
But on the faintest hope that it was true, that this entirely ordinary man from the backwater corner of the cosmos had the means to do something even God-Emperor could not... it was worth it. He could not live a life of mediocrity, being buried further and further into the sands of time.
Either he would be like that phoenix, reborn from ashes, or... he would perish.
"It's done." the voice startled him awake.
It was... seconds, was it not?
Angered that he had been played, he was just about to summon a storm of Qi and fight--all else be damned--when he realized... it was empty. Barren. Pathetic.
"He was just about to attack me again, wasn't he?"
"Ho ho, he's young and hotblooded. I--"
"Master!" Han Yimu shot to his knees and pressed his forehead into the hard soil. "I swear I will never allow anyone to dishonor your great name, and will fight until my last breath to defend your name!"
"... goddamit. Another one of these."
"W-what?"
"Nothing. Welcome. You'll fit right in."
A short tale of my monitor-getting adventure: so, I ordered a new monitor last week (an incredibly cheap one since all I'll ever use it for is second-screen dopamine addiction shit, like youtube & movies). It arrived yesterday, and my excitement went to a pooper because, well, it only had HDMI & VGA outputs. Would not be an end of the world, except my main monitor is also using HDMI output, and I've got no DP cables. And my graphic's card only has 1 HDMI port, with the remaining three being DP.
So, whatever, I'll just get an adapter, right? Except, it's like some treasure from Indiana Jones. I drove around like six stores today, and none of them had it. So, I figured--hey, monitor also has a VGA out, I can just buy the cable! And so, I did.
... and it did not dawn on me 'till I came back home that VGA is older than kids who are having kids, and that my lovely little PC has no VGA ports. Finally accepting that I'm the stupidest thing in the world, I'm just about to order the adapter online and wait when I decide to look at the back once again, and notice a small HDMI port at the top.
My motherboard had an HDMI port. That I could have used from day one.
My mom swears she didn't drop me on the head when I was a baby, but I'm starting to have some doubts. Thus concludes the adventure of a man who is struggling to keep up with the times.