Chapter 182 - The Tragedy of a Broken Heart [1]

Cale fell into a weird dream, and it was the kind of dream he hated the most.

Ones that were related to his past life.

"Again?" he sighed.

Whoever it was pulling pranks on him had a thing or two coming!

Or maybe it was related to the inheritance after all.

Who knows?

The scenes kept unfolding like a 5D movie in front of him, visceral and inescapable.

There he was, younger. Being kicked out of his family.

His father - couldn’t care less;

His uncle - didn’t care much either.

His said fiancée Fiora? Oh, she did stop him, asking him to spend a few years in neighboring kingdoms while matters here settled down. But he... as he was, his filthy pride had already taken over him. So he shoved her aside too.

She was the reason he was being kicked out in the first place!

"Hehe... would you look at that."

He spent two years roaming around in the three kingdoms nearby, earning himself some money as a soldier, an adventurer, even as a weaponsmith. His hands learned to forge steel, his blade to cut through enemies.

But who knows how, the past still clung to him. People started recognizing him eventually, making fun of him everywhere he went.

A noble cast out by his own family, what a fall from grace.

Irritated beyond measure, he decided to leave the continent and live in the desolate wastelands for some years, hoping to get a few beast cores of higher-level beasts and finally start cultivating.

He didn’t even have a core formed yet.

Beast grades were determined by the amount of essence or qi a beast possessed. But that alone did not truly reflect its actual strength.

A beast with a higher grade might possess a greater reserve of energy, yet that did not necessarily mean it was stronger than a lower-grade beast. Combat prowess depended on numerous factors — the purity of its qi, the refinement of its body, its innate abilities, its mastery over its own power.

Some beasts possessed extraordinary physiques or bloodlines that allowed them to surpass the limits of their grade. Others relied on cunning, instincts, or unique abilities to overcome opponents far stronger than themselves.

In the end, a beast’s grade merely represented the depth of its accumulated power, not the extent of its true combat strength.

After all, in a battle where life and death were decided in an instant, the beast with the greatest reserves of qi was not always the one that emerged victorious.

Spending eight years alone in the desolate lands, he eventually formed a core.

Eight years. Yes, that was how pathetic his talent was.

Why?

Because all his bloodline blood was already extracted by Emma’s mother!

So even the bit of talent he had due to his family’s history — that wasn’t there either. It was like a curse, being a rare child among many, only to be drained by another of his family.

She had kept him imprisoned for more than a year, yet he didn’t show it to anyone. How would he? And even when he did, no one believed him.

Even his father, who likely knew what was going on, didn’t care much about it.

Why? Because he always said, that he provided them infinite resources. They could do all they wanted, but if they can’t even survive at their house, they’re of no use to him.

Many of his older siblings lived at the borders with the other kingdoms, ruling their own territories. Some had even died.

Other than the younger ones, who respected him solely because he was older, none of them were in a good relationship with each other; unless both siblings were born of the same mother.

***

While living in the desolate wastelands, Cale encountered a group of cultivators - Demonic cultivators.

Right as they saw him, they captured him as a slave.

Taking him back with them, Cale found out this world was far more of a xianxia than he had ever expected. Cultivation clans and sects? Chinese names? Well, most of them did.

Great Dao and whatnot? It blew his mind.

The cultivation technique of his family, or rather, the imperial family was quite good too, compared to most. But a few of them here could easily surpass that.

The last thing he wanted to hear was that this world was called Blue Star or something.

After learning a bit of their common tongue (easy to learn since it was only slightly different than what they used back in Vaeloria), Cale was told he would be released if he did labor for the demonic sect for two years, since many higher sects were at war.

Why were they at war? Yes, this was the purge. Hunting many races other than humans, making pills and elixirs out of them and other things.

Hundreds of sects were doing this, so why would the demonic sects stay silent?

Cale agreed. What choice did he have?

As a slave, he worked. He met his master, learning a few things from him here and there.

"Sigh... I didn’t want this kind of memory recap."

***

The time limit for his slavery had already passed, but they didn’t let him go.

The worst he was thinking had already happened.

But maybe because he was becoming more and more depressed every day, one day, Xanthos proposed a plan of running away.

And in just two weeks, both of them ran away from there.

Most people knew who his master was and what kind of backlash they would get if he was released. So instead of following Cale, they shifted all their forces on Xanthos, helping him run away.

Cale ran away and settled down in a village months later.

A few months went by in peace. He cultivated slowly, gaining strength.

What he did not — or never ever expected, was to one day enter his house and see his father sitting on the chair in front of him.

He almost wanted to laugh.

In his own way, his father tried to convince him that things were settled and he could come back to live with them.

"Of course, this man has always been like this."

He denied right away.

His father stayed at his house for three days, doing nothing, not even eating food. That was the most he had ever talked with that man.

Then, he finally got to know the situation. Sirius had gone missing — maybe just run away.

Most of his siblings had died due to the constant attacks on the entire continent.

Now that he thought about it, why the hell was this world’s continents so weird?

The world had eight plains or landmasses. The planet itself was many times larger than Earth.

One of them was the continent in which Vaeloria and the other four kingdoms came from.

All the seven others were away, divided by sea.

But theirs was likely the smallest, given that 118 others were there too.

But then Cale discovered why there were 118.

Most of them were floating continents!

How the hell did that even work? But then again, it was a fantasy world, so of course.

His father left, showing no emotion till the end.

Cale continued his life until one day, the righteous sects attacked the village.

Yes, the righteous sects.

Why? Because they needed slaves to do all the tedious work in the warring times.

Cale ran away, but most of those who resisted were killed right away. The women were violated and then sold as slaves.

While running away, he saw two children, barely even two years old, in the embrace of a dead woman. He took them too and ran away.

He settled in a mountain, making a small house.

Unknown to raising children, he hired an old woman to help him while he went out to work as an adventurer, hunting and selling beasts.

The pay wasn’t much, but good enough.

Eventually, the children grew to ten, calling him father.

He was anything but...

He treated them like his younger siblings.

He had fallen for many women throughout this time, many even liked him back too.

***

But maybe because the times had changed, or maybe because of his nature, many women — not just one or two, many, had rejected him in the past years.

"Ironic, isn’t it? Right now, women fall for me like flies, yet back then, they didn’t."

Was his previous face not handsome? Oh yes, it was.

Because his face had remained the same other than his hair color changing and some changes in his physique.

But rejection was never the problem.

What hurt him was cheating.

The first two cheated on him, mainly because he was poor.

The next one, because he didn’t have any position, or any big aim in life.

Seeing that, the original Cale laughed in a bitter, broken sound.

"Hahaha, what more did I ask in life? A good, happy, ordinary life... a wife, a kid or two, living peacefully for a few years, seeing my kids grow, eventually having a life of their own, living a few more years if I cultivate enough. Once I wished to make a name for myself, but it wasn’t that much of a goal... ah, but then life hit me back..."

The vision continued.

Another woman. A young lady who had been with him for three years, even living with him and the kids. One day, she left.

And to think that she blamed it all on his poor strength and cultivation?

Was that how this world worked?

Wasn’t love a mutual thing? Maybe not. Who knows?

It wasn’t a small matter, he had met her family before too. They liked him, they’d even agreed to let both of them settle down together, having a life of their own. Cale would work in a good position in their clan.

What was the problem here?

Obviously, it was strength, position, money... everything else.

And what would help get all of those in this world of dog eat dog?

It was strength.

Cultivate and get stronger, strong enough to not let anyone dictate your choices in life.

Eating a bitter pill in life, Cale took a break.

For the first time in his life, he drank alcohol.

He went to bars every day. The kids had grown up well enough to manage themselves, but still they were worried.

He didn’t stop. Drinking, lusting, eventually taking on small-time murder requests to make money.

Every person possessed demonic aura, though its concentration varied from one individual to another. Whenever a person was killed, the resentment they left behind had a chance of condensing into demonic aura. It was not guaranteed to form, but this was one of its primary origins.

Even the slightest trace of demonic aura could influence a person’s mind, giving rise to violent impulses, an increased desire to kill, and even an insatiable lust for pleasure. The more it accumulated, the greater its influence became, gradually eroding one’s rationality and self-control.

However, for ordinary cultivators, this was rarely a serious problem. With sufficient control over their minds and cultivation, they could easily detect and expel the accumulated demonic aura during a single cultivation session, preventing it from taking root within their bodies.

But demonic cultivators instead used that aura to form demonic qi. That was why their cultivation speed was a bit faster than others.

As the years passed, Cale finally stopped, realizing his life had become shit.

He started to work again, settling back at his ordinary life.

Things were going good.

Until one day...

His son — whose name he couldn’t even remember in this life, was taken away by a cultivation clan because they didn’t have enough troops to fight their enemies.

Cale was left helpless.

To think he couldn’t even protect his kid. What right did he even have to criticize his father?

He should’ve just left with his father. Such thoughts erupted like poison in his mind.

In the next few years, his son barely ever visited home. Eventually, he died one day.

Ah, it was such a pathetic reason.

The young master his son worked for saw Cale’s daughter, eventually wanting her as his concubine.

But due to being rejected multiple times and then changing his living locations many times, both his kids were killed right in front of him — a reminder of his foolish mistake of defying the orders of a rich and powerful person with a strong backing.

Cale wanted to die, to strangle himself.

But he also wanted revenge. He wasn’t strong enough, he needed to be strong.

He wanted to become strong to take revenge, even if he had to kill hundreds of thousands. Hence, he finally joined the demonic sect.

And from that moment on, the ordinary Cale who had wanted a simple life died.