Idle Immortal

"Huh!?"

The man was seemingly startled by this abrupt question.

"What do you mean?" He tilted his head in confusion. "You already know me."

"No." It was a short yet direct response. After a few moments of silence, Yang Ze shook his head while his eyes narrowed further. "I don't."

"I am your friend." The man spoke as a matter of fact. "Have you lost your goddamn mind?" 

He repeated the very words that Yang Ze said to him.

"..." His reply was met with a long silence.

The two of them just stood there in silence, looking at each other. Neither side wanted to be the one to speak first. This stalemate lasted for a good ten minutes before Yang Ze finally let out a cold snort.

"I don't know what this is..." His eyes darted around the familiar room before he narrowed his eyes. "If I have to guess, I would say it's an illusion." 

"....." There was no change in the man's expression as he silently listened to Yang Ze. 

"I don't know who you are or why you did this." Taking a deep breath, Yang Ze narrowed his eyes before adding further. "But I can assure you that you are going to deeply regret it."

Even though his voice was soft and calm, one could feel the monstrous anger hidden in it. 

"Am I thought?" The man standing behind him abruptly stopped Yang Ze before shaking his head. 

"I merely showed you bits and pieces of your life and what it could have been." His voice was still calm as if he was talking about something insignificant. 

"Isn't it beautiful?" The man took a step forward, passing Yang Ze before standing in front of the window. 

"This place... bustling with life... With people. Every single person plays their role here. From the lowest of the low to the highest of the high. And yet, there isn't chaos. People here are equal... regardless of their age, their sex, their social standings." The man's fingers slowly caressed the window as if wanting to reach the city in front of him and holding it in his hand.

"Why wouldn't you want to live in such a beautiful world?" With a heavy sigh, he slowly turned around and for the first time looked Yang Ze in the eyes with a desolate tone. 

"Even if it is an illusion... a dream... at least it is a million times better than your current situation?" His voice was slow, but it completely cut off any and all noise coming from the outside. It was as if at the moment, there were only the two of them in this entire world.

"Traveler..." His voice finally had a hint of solemnity in it as he looked at Yang Ze.

"Why struggle in a world that isn't yours in the first place?" 

"Why live in a world that rejects your very existence?" 

"Why not live here?" The man waved his hand and with it, the surroundings blurred before the two of them were standing in the middle of a small village.

"You can have everything..." As the man spoke, his eyes darted into the distance with a slight smile on his face.

"....." Following his gaze, Yang Ze turned slowly turned around. But the moment he did, his breathing almost stopped. Looking at the familiar figure in the distance, he felt like his heart was about to jump out of his throat. 

Clenching his fists, he struggled fiercely before closing his eyes. Even though he tried hard, one could see that he was trying hard to suppress his riling emotions.

"What do you think?" It was at this moment, that the voice of the man echoed in his ears once again, bewitching him like the devil.

"You can have everything once again... Your regrets... your longings... your happiness... and all you need to do is to accept my offer. Let go of everything..."

"....."

"..."

"...."

"...."

"Heh..." After a brief moment of silence, his offer was met with a mocking smile. 

Slowly relaxing his fists, Yang Ze opened his eyes which had now a trace of fatigue in them as he shook his head with a bitter smile. 

"No matter how beautiful or convincing a lie may be, it remains a lie." 

Controlling his emotions, he turned around to face the man once again. "If you had offered me a way back home, I would have taken it in a heartbeat..."

"But this..." Yang Ze looked around with a smile as he shook his head. "This is not what I want."

"Sigh..." As if expecting his answer, the man let out a heavy sigh.

"You will regret it, traveler." With these words, he waved his hand before disappearing completely. 

The moment the man disappeared, the scene in front of Yang Ze changed once again. This time he was standing just outside the house where he had delivered the letter.

Confused, Yang Ze looked around, but there was no sign of the man. 

With a frown, he took a step forward, but the moment he did, the sky above him suddenly darkened.

"I see..." Looking at the pitch-black sky, Yang Ze suddenly let out a bitter smile. "You want me to show me the scenes of my own death?"

Before Yang Ze could finish his sentence, the sky roared with thunder as a bolt of lightning struck him, flooding the world in blinding white.

---------------

"Ugh...." When Yang Ze opened his eyes again, he felt a splitting headache as memories from the past and present overwhelmed him. For a moment, he couldn't discern whether he was alive or dead. The only thing he felt was indescribable pain that was overwhelming his senses.

"AAAGGHHH...." The only thing he could do was to groan in pain. He wanted a way to relieve his pain and suffering and the only way his muddy mind could think of right now was to howl like an animal.

*Snap

A few moments after he let out the painful groan, the door to the room suddenly opened and the figure of the woman and an old man came inside the room.

"MASTER..." Wan'er looked at her master anxiously, hoping for him to do something. She just couldn't understand what went wrong for the boy to suddenly cry out in such pain.

"Umm..." Furrowing his brows, the old man took a step forward before placing his hand on Yang Ze's chest, trying to find out the cause of this sudden change. Unfortunately for both of them, they were bound to end in disappointment.

Seconds turned into minutes as the old man just sat there, trying to find the root cause to no avail. Thankfully, the painful groans of the boy were growing weaker with every passing moment. 

Ten more minutes passed like this and just when the old man was about to give up, the unconscious boy lying in front of him slowly opened his eyes in confusion

"Ugh... Where..." Groning in pain, Yang Ze looked around in confusion. "Where am I?"

Now that his headache had subsided, he could remember things rather clearly. He remembered that after the battle with that old man in the Innate realm, he was walking around, aimlessly before feeling a stinging pain in his chest. It felt like someone lit a fire in his chest. 

To quench this burning, he made his way to the river, hoping to get some relief, but instead of relief, the pain only intensified. In the end, he lost consciousness. 

Now, judging by the roof above his head, the quilt on his body, and the presence of two people beside him, he could already roughly guess what happened.

"Thank you for saving me." Yang Ze's voice was rather hoarse as he spoke these words. With what he had just gone through, it was hard for him to make sense of anything around him. He was still not sure whether it was just another illusion.

"You should relax." Though surprised by the rather calm demeanor of the boy, the old man quickly patted him gently. "Although your injuries have improved a lot, you are still a long way from recovering completely." 

"Other than the pain, is everything okay with your body?" The old man asked while taking his pulse. 

"My sight..." Yang Ze replied softly. "I can't see clearly... It's all a blur."

"I see." The old man wasn't surprised by this. "You were in the water for far too long. That, coupled with the injuries and your time of unconsciousness... it is normal."

"You should take some rest first. We will have plenty of time for chat later on." After making sure there was nothing else wrong with the boy, the old man nodded before leaving the room.

"....."

"....."

Even though the old man had left, Yang Ze could still see another blurry figure standing beside him silently. 

"Thank you." Even though he didn't know who it was, he still thanked them. Without their help, he didn't even know whether he would be still alive or not. This time he was truly careless. He had grown way too strong way too fast. This resulted in him being careless. This time he was lucky that it was other humans who found him, otherwise...

"What's your name?" Just when he was lost in his train of thought, he was interrupted by the pleasant voice of a woman.

"Yang Ze." Yang Ze replied absent-mindedly. 

"What happened to you?" Her voice was soft with a hint of worry. Even though her master had already told her this, she still couldn't believe that someone would do such a cruel thing to such a young boy. 

"I..." Yang Ze didn't know how to respond. He couldn't just tell her that he accidentally foiled the plan of some evil guys and got injured during his battle with an innate expert. Not to mention how ridiculous that sounded, just the fact that a mere sixteen-year-old was able to step into the ranks of innate was something that was like a sword hanging above his head. If words got out, he was sure he would die the very next day. 

And there was still the matter of that guy he saw while unconscious. Judging by the illusions and his way of talking, Yang Ze was certain that the other guy knew almost everything about him. He was in a passive situation now and the only thing he could do was to hope for the best.

The more he thought about it, the more he found himself at a loss. 

"It's fine if you don't want to talk about it." Seeing his long silence, the woman just shook her head with a smile. "Take a rest. We will have plenty of time to talk later."

After glancing at him one last time, she slowly turned around before walking out of the room, leaving behind the uncomforting silence along with the figure of the boy who was seemingly lost in his own world...