45 Epilogue 2

''Why isn't the Heavenly Merit Acquisition over yet? It's obvious that he has already died.'' a confused voice resounded, taking everyone's attention to the mysterious screen on the sky.

''Because the Heavenly Merit Acquisition doesn't end with just one life, it should start showing another life now.'' Elder Mojang said, making everyone nod their heads in understanding.

The screen flashed black and white and it started showing more pictures.

Everyone craned their heads in anticipation, waiting to see what extraordinary life they will see. Many beings had obtained great benefits in the form of knowledge in the first showing, who knows what more they would see?

Soon, everyone's eyes slowly widened in surprise.

''W-what?''

''How?''

''Power of love!''

''Bullshit! It's just the Heavens giving him an easy way out again! Damn the unfair Heavens!''

What they saw was baffling and shocking at the same time, because Wang was still... alive?

Actually, nobody could tell if he was alive or not.

He had a ghostly appearance. His colorless body was floating above the crying Li Jing making it look as if she was haunted.

To be fair, he looked better than before since all his injuries were gone and his body looked healthy again, he could even be called handsome at this stage, unlike his previous near-death appearance which could scare away even the ghosts.

Ice Empress looked behind her in shock and used all the prying spells she knew, even using her blood essence along the way to enhance their effects, sending deep shivers down the spines of every being around her.

''W-ha-wh-ho-wh?''

She looked like a lost girl as her head bobbed around in desperation. She looked so sorry that even some old monsters with deep grudges momentarily forgot their hate and wanted to help her before remembering what kind of heartless and terrifying existence she was.

Seeing that she couldn't find anything no matter how hard she tried, she turned her eyes to the screen once again, looking for the answers she desperately sought for.

Screen continued, showing everyone the past of Ice Empress who was crying rivers.

Soon, her red eyes which were shaking from sadness turned straight and looked at the direction of the Empire with rage that couldn't be quelled even with thousand massacres.

Her fist tightened so hard that her delicate hands started to bleed from her own nails as she suddenly rushed towards the Empire with full speed while swallowing down any pill she could find in the space ring her brother gave her.

Her weakened and dimmed aura shone brightly once again, it didn't only recover back to its peak form but also grew beyond its past limits.

Wang, who saw all of this, looked behind her with worry and rushed behind her.

Strangely, it seemed like his appearance got dimmer and dimmer every time he moved or did anything, making it look as if he was going to disappear at any moment.

When she reached the Imperial Capital, she didn't even spend a single second to breakthrough the capital's protective barrier.

There weren't even any guards to stop her attack too abrupt for being at their levels to react properly, her icy aura that threatened to kill anyone that got close to her didn't help either.

Immediately, thousands of being died from her presence alone, not even knowing what took their lives.

Some of the more courageous guards tried to scare her away, ''Do you even know where you are?!''

Some of them tried to reason with her, ''We don't know who offended you, but isn't it too much to take your anger on these innocent people?''

But they all fell on deaf ears.

''Frozen Tomb.'' she whispered under her breath.

Ice, almost as cold as absolute zero, spread in all directions from her.

Guards and living beings of all levels slowly fell one by one as the Ice took their lives.

5 seconds.

10 seconds.

1 minute.

Gradually, 5 minutes passed and the entire capital was left silent, frozen, and dead.

Li Jing, who didn't move a single step from the place she cast the spell, finally made a move.

She sighed.

Her head hung low and tears fell down once again.

''What is even the purpose of revenge if it can't bring you back?'' she whispered to herself.

Wang, who was watching everything above her with complicated eyes could only shake his head.

His feelings were complicated, but what was done was done. He couldn't bring back the innocent she murdered, he couldn't come back to life, he couldn't do anything anymore.

''A-''

Just as Li Jing was about to continue her lone monologue, her words were cut short as her head whipped to her right.

She felt life in this dead city.

She flew down without an ounce of hesitation and broke through the Imperial Palace, stopping at the treasury.

''My brother would like to loot this place with me... He would be so excited to- to'' she sniffled once again and touched the gate absent mindedly.

Her arm recoiled back in shock as her ice cold arm was as hot as magma.

The golden red doors shone brightly as they registered the touch of an intruder.

*Boom*

Doors shook open and let out ten golden armors came out before closing down once again.

Li Jing's brows twitched from anger as she swung her arm to destroy the destroy the armors.

The armors raised their shields and they started shining with golden auras themselves.

They shrugged off the blast of ice with their shields easily despite Li Jing's anger.

They were the last protection the First Emperor of the Glorious Yang Empire made. Together, they had power rivaling an Emperor, their only downside being their range as they couldn't even move 10 kilometers away from their core inside the treasury.

Her arms shook she gritted her teeth, showing uncharacteristic anger on her elegant face.

''JUST DIE ALREADY!''

She slapped her hands together and a sharp ice slate shot forward from the tip of her fingertips.

They once again came together and shielded themselves from the attack.

After repelling the attack, they took a step forward.

Jing left all the strategies and tactics her brother taught her at the behind of her mind and started attacking them left and right like an animal as frustrated tears fell down her face.

''Why can't you just let me loot your-no MY treasury? Me and my brother deserve it after everything we went through! This is just how things work! You lost, just fuck off!''

'Ice Dragon's Breath!'

She opened her mouth and channeled all the rage and spiritual energy that was left in her.

Seeing her in this state, Wang could only sigh.

He was basically non-existent at this point as his body could barely be seen.

He shook his hand for the last time.

The golden armors got together again and shielded themselves from Jing's attack.

But, miraculously, their shields got shredded to pieces before even Jing's attack reached them.

The Ice Dragon's Breath went through them and turned them into beautiful ice statues.

Li Jing, who was breathing like a dog at this point, walked forward and went past them.

Her delicate white hands turned blue as if she was wearing a frozen gauntlet.

''A-cough-absolute Zero Touch.''

The moment she touched the door, the entirety of it froze before shattering into billion pieces, turning into nothing but some extremely expensive dust.

Jing finally smiled with victory as she stepped into the treasury with uneven steps.

''Finally.''

--

Yeah, Ice Empress isn't the most benevolent being around... There is a reason why all those old monsters are scared of her.

The chapter came out late because of the last part of the chapter. I deleted and rewrote it 2 times and it still doesn't feel right. Specifically, the fight part. I really didn't want to add that but I felt like showing her anger, mental instability, and vulnerability at the moment would be better. Idk, I'm tired and it happened.

When in doubt, just say: it is what it is, and move on.

I was gonna make this chapter about 3k words but its only about 1.5k, but it's already 30mins past the regular posting time sooooo...

This author's note is worthless to the readers who only care about the story, its just me ranting about how stupid I am, you can skip it without any worries.

An: People who have read my first ever fanfic would know, when I was writing this stuff in Microsoft word, my fucking cat tripped a gigantic water bottle with like 2 liters of water in it and completely destroyed my laptop in seconds. Motherboard burned and it was worthless afterward...

Since that shit happened, I have been writing on an internet page that automatically records everything I write, and even if something happens to the pc, I can recover all my data from that website, but I made a retarded mistake and deleted my internet history (along with cookies and everything) because there was like 2 years worth of worthless backlog and I was trying to open some space (255GB fills faster than you expect).

Fuck me, I lost all the data, all my notes, all my plans and shit about the novels because of that (deleting everything about the internet backlog deleted my records on the website as well). To be honest, I don't even remember what I lost. There were 300 words of notes and plans, but I just trusted this place (not their fault, I am an idiot) and didn't bother remembering any of those 'brilliant plans' in my mind after recording them here. I seriously don't even remember 10% of the shit that was deleted.

It was kind of disheartening at first but I kinda don't care at this point lol, you can't live on the past you know? I have the general direction of the story in my mind anyways.

Yeah, that's about it.