“Since you already know who and what I am, why asking?” said the other Wang Wei whose only difference from the original was his red hair and eyes.
“As I said, I guess who you are, which implied that I’m not sure if I’m correct,” replied Wang Wei.
“Fair enough. I’m your Heart Devil.”
“That’s not really an answer, is it? What exactly is a heart devil?”
“What’s with all the demands?”
“It’s not that much. After you put me through that terrible illusion, you owe me at least some explanations.”
The Heart Devil paused for a moment before saying: “Fine. I’m the physical manifestation of all your emotions, thoughts, ideas, and desires. So, I know all your secrets; you can say that in this world, no one knows you better than me.”
“Know all my secrets?”
“Yes, all of them,” replied the Heart Devil while giving him a deep look.
“Okay, So negative me, why are you here?” asked Wang Wei calmly; he knew that the latter was not lying since he had read about Heart Devils appearing in physical form before.
Although it is very rare, it does occur for some people when entering the Primordial Spirit Realm.
“I’m here to have a little chat,” said the devil, who manifested a table with tea and cushions to set on inside the Sea of Consciousness. After the two took a sip of their tea, the heart devil asked: “How did you see through the illusion?”
When it comes to Heart Devil Tribulation, it can come into two forms. The first one is that cultivators will hear tempting and luring voices; these voices will magnify the negative emotions inside their minds, and they have to withstand the temptation of these words to pass the tribulation. If succeeded, then their state of mind will sublimate and complete the process of entering the Primordial Spirit Realm.
If fail, they will either be driven mad by these voices until they do drastic things like killing themselves or hurting themselves. Or worse, their Primordial Spirit will collapse and they could either die or their breakthrough fail.
Although these people can also try again if they survive the ordeal, however, after each failure, the intensity of the tribulation will at least double, thus reducing the chances that people have at entering that realm.
Another form of the Heart Devil Tribulation is the Illusion World; a perfect world designed to also intensify the emotions and desires of the cultivator. Because of perfect the world seems, it became even more difficult to pass the trial.
In that Illusion World, cultivators have to process their emotions and desires, recognize and control them. If succeeded, they can wake up. For a person like Su Ya, this trial is as easy as breathing, however, for others, not so much.
The Heart Devil Tribulation comes from the inside, from the mind. So, it does not matter how powerful your soul is, you still cannot resist.
Of course, there is another way to pass this trial: realized that this was an illusion world and break free from it: this is what Wang Wei did. Few people used this method because of how difficult it was.
This is the reason that the Heart Devil asked him how he saw through it.
Thinking about this question, Wang Wei could not help reminisce about what just occurred. Everything was so real. Many of his emotions were amplified beyond measure and turned him into someone he could not recognize.
Whether it was arrogance, lust, wrath, pride, or the desire for power; a slight imbalance in these emotions completely changed his personality. After this experience, Wang Wei finally understood why the Seven Emotions Six Desires Physique is rated third in the list.
“It was the battle with Li Jun that made me aware that I was in an illusion,” replied Wang Wei.
“Oh? How so?”
“You may know me very well, but this is not the same for Li Jun, plus, you underestimated his intelligence.”
“Please elaborate.”
“If I did something wrong, Li Jun would never confront me on it; this is one his biggest flaw. Instead, he would either try to hide it or take the blame for me to ensure my reputation.
“By then, I already my suspicions. But when he raised his spear at me, I knew for real that something was wrong as he would never willingly attack me. By then, I knew for a fact that something was wrong.
“Although I could not control myself during the confrontation, afterward, I pondered deeply about the situation and realized the problem.
“If I was acting out of character, Li Jun would never use brute force to stop me, not only because he was smart enough to know that his strength is not enough to do so, but because there was a better solution: go contact my grandfather that is outside this world.”
“Indeed, it seems that I underestimated him,” said the Heart Devil with a smile. “However, I think the greatest reason for your success has to do with the Pagoda Trials.”
“That may be true,” nodded Wang Wei. In the trial, he was used to being placed in Illusion Worlds that was perfectly crafted, and without any flaws: so, he did have the advantage.
“Something tells me that this is not the only reason for you to come chat with me,” said Wang Wei.
“As you can guess, your tribulation is not yet over as you have some things to answer for,” said the Heart Devil with a cunning smile.
“Answer for what? For whom?”
“Your conscious, of course,” he replied.
Wang Wei squinted his eyes. In the path of cultivation, the state of the mind is very important. So, if a person has guilt, anguish, or regret in their conscious, then their path forward will be cut off.
Without a pure spirit or mind, it is impossible to comprehend the laws of Heaven and Earth.
Of course, the so-called “guilt’ is not based on some rules established by society but set by the cultivator itself; it is based on their ideologies, mindset, intentions, and whether they continuously followed them throughout their life.
“Let me ask you this, do you think that the “you” on earth would recognize your current self? Do you think he would agree with many of your actions?”
As he said this, the heart devil waved his hand and many pictures suddenly appeared in front of the two: it was pictures of Wang Wei’s life; it began with Spirit Road Trial, showing all the people he killed.
“Look at you, a young man from the republic who underwent 9 years of compulsory education and learned the concept of right and wrong, killing people as if they were nothing but animals,” sneered the Heart Devil.
Then, he showed an image of what happened to Han Li.
“For your benefit, you treated a fellow disciple of your sect-like nothing but an experimental mouse; destroyed his future for your own.”
Wang Wei remained silent as he watched all of these, meanwhile, the heart devil continued. His words seemed to be able to echo deep into people’s hearts and slowly affect them.
“And there is more. I know that you can find ways to justify many of your actions. However, what about this one?”
He showed an image of Wang Wei taking the Fate Lines of many people to refine his Proving Dao Weapon.
“To refine a unique weapon, you killed 13 million innocent mortals. What excuse do you have for your actions this time? And do not say that you repay these people by taking care of their families for hundreds of years.
“These mortal lives are full of hardship. Although your actions appeared to have given them a choice but did you really? Given their circumstances, why would they not sacrifice their lives to give their families a better tomorrow–especially when the alternative is death by either starvation, natural disaster, or even at the hands of cultivators.”
The Heart Devil looked at Wang Wei, waiting for his explanation. However, the latter remained quiet. Shaking his head in disappointment, he continued:
“What I hate the most about you is your hypocritical nature. You often talked about the transmigrators that started to kill right and left right after arriving in another world; you labeled them psychopaths and unstable, yet you do the same thing as them.
“Now, do you think that slowly becoming a psychopath makes you better than those who immediately displayed their psychopathic tendencies right after transmigrating?
The heart devil once again looked at Wang Wei, then sneered after seeing the latter remained quiet.
“And this is not even the end of the list. You committed genocides of an entire race,” the devil showed what happened during the Qi Luck Trial when Wang Wei ordered almost all the demon races to be executed.
Then, he showed the image of Wang Wei refining Ji Song’s body.
“What you did to him can even be called cannibalism.
“I truly wonder. Do you not feel any remorse for your actions?”
Wang Wei looked at the image in front of him and sighed. He then looked at the heart devil and said: “I do feel remorse for a few of my actions.”
“But you would still do the same given a choice.”
“That’s right.”
“That’s not remorse.”
Wang Wei took a sip of his tea, not affected by the latter’s words. People are complex by nature and there are no single ways to completely describe one person.
And if you add god-like powers to them like cultivators, their complexity reaches the level of an improvable mathematical formula.
“Since you know me so well, do you remember what my ultimate objective in cultivating is?” asked Wang Wei.
“To become free and unfettered.”
“What exactly do you think that means?” asked Wang Wei.
“Not to be restraint by anyone,” replied the devil.
“That’s just an oversimplification. I want is the ultimate freedom of the mind and body. I want to be able to do anything I want, and nothing should be able to stop me–not even my mind.
“What I pursue is that if one day I decided I want to be the greatest devil that ever existed, then, I will be so. I will slaughter every living being in this universe and not even bat an eye.
“And if afterward, I want to, I can wave my hand to return everything to the way it was as if nothing ever happened. If I do not want to, then said universe will remain destroyed.
“If I want to be the greatest Buddha the universe has ever seen, then I will save all living beings from their suffering, create the perfect utopia where all living beings are happy and satisfied with their lives. And afterward, if I desire to, I will revert everything back to the way it used to be.
“What I want is the choice: the choice to be able to do as I please without being hindered by power or strength, and morality.
“I want the ultimate freedom.”
The Heart Devil was silent for a moment as he realized that his tactics would not work; he was trying to place shackles of morality on a person who pursues to break off this shackle.
He looked at Wang Wei, “You do know that your pursuit is very dangerous and could lead to disastrous consequences, right?”
“I’m fully aware of this.”
“Alright, you pass the tribulation,” said the devel as he smile. “However, this is not the last time you will see me.”
He then disappeared. As for Wang Wei, he finally woke up for real this time. He immediately checked his Primordial Spirit inside his Sea of Consciousness and nodded in satisfaction.
After a thorough check, he frowned a little. He discovered that of his 1.269 trillion spirit particles, a few hundred of millions of them were brightly lit while the rest seems dim.
He absorbed the little amount of incense left from his breakthrough and many of the particles lit up like the others and he was instantly relieved. So, he finished absorbing the rest.
Immediately, Wang Wei felt a sense of fullness and he knew that he had instantly reached the peak of the Yin Soul step in this realm. Next was for him to reverse Yin and Yang and enter the Yang Soul step.
Finally, he checked the ability of his particle. And as he expected, they could each think independently of one another as if they were different from him; this ability greatly increase his already heaven-defying comprehension.
While checking his cultivation, Wang Wei’s intuition suddenly activated. His body seemed to move on instinct as he instantly appeared outside of his retreating room where Li Jun and the others were acting as his protector.
Without explaining anything to them, he opened a tear in the space and sent all three of them outside of this world.
All of this happened so fast that Wang Wei felt that his body was acting on its own. He then raised his head to penetrate in the distance where he saw someone floated in the air, looking at him.
A great sense of danger unlike anything else he has ever felt suddenly overcame; his intuition told him that he might really die on this occasion.
After seeing the person who arrived, he frowned as he said: “It’s you.”
END OF VOLUME
NEXT VOLUME—»NEXUS OF FATE: DEATH
Tomorrow is my birthday, so I will likely not post another chapter, and will most likely take a week break.