Freedom, but at What Cost?

On Mount Thundersea.

The sun was close to rising once more, and Wu Zhen had still not exited.

Chu Feng still held onto hope, perhaps he was just caught up with something? Still, deep down, he knew that Wu Zhen had probably died. Was he now all alone in this place? He called out for Wu Zhen.

"ARE YOU OUT THERE? WU ZHEN! ARE YOU ALIVE?"

No response. Could he just be unconscious? Yeah, that must be it. Should he go in? Maybe he'd find him!

He couldn't. Even though he believed that Wu Zhen was still alive, he was still too scared to go in. He didn't want to die yet, he still had a future ahead of him! He had already made it Qi Condensation 3! Surely, if he was to survive a bit longer, he would be able to rise to greater heights? Right? He knew that wasn't true either.

Now that Wu Zhen was already dead, why would the snake even bother keeping up the charade?

He ran out of the cave as fast as he could, perhaps he could still make it out? He looked behind him, to see the blake snake right behind him.

"H-how did you get here?! You couldn't have possibly caught up this fast!"

"Ask King Yama in the afterlife, idiot!"

The snake opened its gaping maw, dashing forward at Chu Feng, who was paralyzed with fear.

"Shit! No! Someone, please help me! This snake is going to kill me! Help! Help me!", Chu Feng yelled as his face distorted with fear. His vision went black, and his thoughts went blank. He was dead.

[Chu Feng has failed the second trial.]

At the Staircase of Sanity.

Wu Zhen stood there, stuck at the 82nd step. He could see the end of the staircase, it was right there, yet he couldn't bring himself to step forward.

Still like a statue, he struggled to even close his eyes. Suddenly, a loud voice appeared in his mind. GO! GO! STEP FORWARD!

Who was that? It certainly wasn't him. Still, the voice was so powerful that it drowned out all the other voices. If the other voices were whispers, this voice would be like using a megaphone. He could finally move. He ran as fast as he could, arriving at the 97th step before stopping once more.

The voices were no longer drowned out, rather they were the ones drowning out the once loud voice. If before they were whispers, now they all had megaphones and were shouting out the same thing. He was so close, only 3 steps forward until he could get out of here. He felt like a lone man against the tides. How could he possibly step forward against such immense pressure?

Then, everything stopped and the loud voice appeared once again.

"Meet me at the 99th step."

Wu Zhen climbed to the 99th step easily with no illusions to bother him.

In front of him, a man stood. He wore blue robes, and from his appearance alone, Wu Zhen didn't remember ever meeting him before.

"Who are you?", Wu Zhen asked.

"I'm you.", the man answered.

Wu Zhen looked confused, "You can't be me, I'm me! Did you go insane after climbing up here or something?"

"No, I'm perfectly sane. My name's Wu Zhen, what's yours?"

Was this man copying him to make fun of him? No way they could both be the same people.

"My name's also Wu Zhen. Now, who are you really?"

"Hello, Wu Zhen. I'm your past life, or perhaps it'd be more accurate to call myself Freedom God-Emperor?"

"Freedom God-Emperor? What a pompous name?"

"If you knew anything about me, you wouldn't dare to say that. I can't believe my next life would be such a waste. 19 years old and only at Qi Condensation 3, do you not have a brain or something? You're about as powerful as a 5-year old toddler."

"You don't know how hard I worked to get here, do you? I didn't choo-"

Wu Zhen was suddenly interrupted by Freedom God-Emperor.

"Just shake my hand. Let's get this over with. I don't want to argue with you either."

"Alright, sure, I guess?"

Wu Zhen shook the hand of Freedom God-Emperor, who promptly disappeared. What happened? Wu Zhen had no clue, and he didn't want to know either. He had to get back to the living world and check up on Chu Feng.

He stepped forward once more with ease since there were still no illusions.

Words once again appeared in the air.

[Wu Zhen has passed Secret Trial: Awakening of the Soul]

[Your soul grows stronger.]

Soon, he found himself waking up in the same cave he had 'died' in. He got up and ran out as quickly as he could. He quickly ran into the other corridor and arrived at the glowing lake, where the snake was meditating. It immediately awoke, how had this human survived entering that passageway? He knew that going in there was certain death! No one he had seen go in there had ever returned alive!

"Where's Chu Feng?"

"Well, I got a little hungry while you were gone, so... I ate him!"

Wu Zhen froze.

Did he hear that? Chu Feng was.. dead? Dead? Deceased? The words echoed repeatedly in his mind, again and again. Wu Zhen felt no sadness, nor fear, he only felt an uncontrollable rage swelling up from the darkest recesses of his mind. He didn't even try to stop himself, he let it all explode.

"You are dead."

He could feel a ball of light in his mind that was amplifying his power to tens of times beyond what was possible.

His palms lit up with thunder which was so vibrant that it was practically blinding. Wu Zhen closed his eyes, but he could still see. This was the power that he had gained, the power of Soul, and he was going to use it to slaughter this demon!

He kicked the ground, propelling himself like a bullet straight into the snake's head.

"Splat."

The cave's walls were covered in blood. The snake's carcass fell to the ground, motionless. In one move, he had obliterated the 'Snake Lord'. He didn't feel accomplished, he didn't feel satisfied with his revenge. He felt nothing. His friend, his only friend, was dead. What was he going to do now?

He immediately left to search for Chu Feng's corpse, so he could at least give his friend a proper burial.

With his heightened senses, it was quite easy to trace the smell of blood back to Chu Feng's corpse. He dug a small hole using his own hands in which he laid to rest his best friend's body. He covered it up with dirt before using a small stone slab from the cave as a grave marker. He managed to carve two sentences on it.

"Grave of Chu Feng, 9925-9941"

"May you have a peaceful next life."

He sat, kneeling in front of the gravestone. Chu Feng could've been saved if he was quicker at completing the trial, or strong enough to defeat the snake in the first place. That's right, he had to get stronger. If he was strong, this would've never happened. He wanted to be the strongest in the world!

"Chu Feng, I promise to you, I will become the world's strongest!"

He wiped away his tears before returning to the cave. Before leaving, he would use the lake and the dantian of the Snake Lord to reach at least Qi Condensation 7 before leaving. He swallowed the Snake Lord's dantian in one gulp. The Qi inside of him rose explosively, propelling him through straight to Qi Condensation 6.

The rest of his cultivation went more smoothly than expected as his soul also seemed to amplify the rate at which he absorbed qi, although it was not as huge as when he had killed the Snake Lord. Within one month, he had already broken through to Qi Condensation 7. Since starting, it had been close to 5 months. He only had 7 months to make it all the way to the peak if he wanted to break through to the second stage of his body refining.

The journey was going to be tough, but if he wanted to keep his promise, he had to do it. Even if it would cause him pain, even if it'd be something he would regret, even if it killed him, he had to keep going. He'd come so far from that day. It was almost half a year ago that he first stepped foot in this place. He had attained immense fortune, but he had also lost something he could never replace. He wasn't just climbing Mount Thundersea, he was climbing all the way from hell to heaven, from the bottom to the top. He was on a journey, to become an immortal, to be free, and most of all, to be the world's strongest!