"What is faith? What is belief? Is it tangible? Or is it intangible? If not, how can I sense it, if so, why can't I see or grasp it? where does it come from? Why do I sense it? What are the conditions of gaining faith, and what does it entail, what are its cons and pros?" Many questions bombarded my mind as I tried to understand the reason behind this sensation.
Yet I was once again drawn into the key, as it showcased another vision of the past.
The Water Key had separated itself from the rest and plunged into a dark deep sea that seemed to be endless and bottomless. The sea raged on, its surface trembling as waves the size of mountains rose and collapsed. While in its deep darkness, no life could be grasped.
The Key sat at the bottom of this dark sea for ages upon ages, soon, the sea's waters subsided, and what seemed to be an endless sea at one point, completely evaporated. Leaving rich soil and dirt for savages to cultivate.
These people plowed the new lands and made barricades and straw-made homes.
Soon, one of the savages discovered this key. Mesmerized by its beauty, he took it and made it into a pendant around his neck. The Key accepted him. And gave him a bountiful long life. He was able to make water to water his lands and was able to grow in the village all thanks to the key.
Greed then appeared, and soon many people wanted to obtain the Key as it represented immortality and longevity.
The people of the village tried to kill the owner, but all their attempts were met with failure. The key protected its owner.
Once the owner realized the power of this key, he appointed himself a leader, then soon all began bowing at his feet thanks to the miracles he could make. The key's power was able to bring rain and give birth to life. Making the village prosper into a city, then into a metropolis where life gathered from all over.
The city was built around a massive mountain, where the peak was where the owner of the key rested. For hundreds of years, he used the Key to bring miracles and slay his foes. And thus he was worshiped.
Worshiped as a deity, unbefitting his status. Yet, the Key rejoiced in this worship as energy seemed to be fueled into it.
The Key was the one that was giving the man all of this power, yet they worshipped the owner.
But the Key had no will of its own, it only attached itself to this person… for now.
One day, the man woke up, and the first thing he did was to check upon the necklace on his chest. Finding nothing there, he panicked.
"My treasure!" The king shouted, looking high and low for it, not finding any trace of the key.
In his rage at losing what was nothing but the path to immortality, the king went insane.
He called upon massacres after massacres, to slay those who he doubted, those who were close and those who he believed stole his key.
The mountain was washed in blood in a single day. And due to this transgression against life itself, the Heavens themselves moved.
The receding sea roiled once more, as the ground that was dry and fertile broke apart revealing endless natural made water fountains.
The water was full of salt, and the moment it touched the land it killed it.
The water rose, and rose, and then rose some more.
Waves began moving and crashing against the high mountain, bringing homes and houses to the depth along each crash.
People knew the heavens were angered. And they knew that the preparator was the king and thus they sought to kill him to appease the heavens.
And without the Key's protection, he was slain in a matter of a day.
But, the heavens' wrath didn't end there.
As the sea kept rising, and rising.
Claiming more of the mountain until nothing remained afloat.
The whole civilization was consumed and destroyed in a couple nights. As for the key, it laid without an owner at the depth of the mountain far from human greed, for ages upon ages. Unperturbed.
Until one day, the submerged mountain range shuddered and shook, as three cultivators entered it.
They key sensed the three, and awoken from its slumber.
One cultivator managed to reach all the way to the bottom of the drowned mountain to find the key.
Yet the key sensed something from this man, endless carnage and destruction, endless death and suffering. Agony, pain and suffering is all that awaits if the key was to bound itself to this man. Thus, it didn't choose him.
Angry, the man cursed as he tried to control the key without avail.
But soon, two more cultivators came over. One calm as the rain itself, and the other sage and peaceful. The two were a good match to the key, but it could only pick one. Thus it picked the first to approach it.
A man wearing a full set of blue robes, young in appearance but wisdom shines clear from his sky blue eyes.
"Old Blue, it seems it had chosen you," the first man spoke.
"I thought it was first come first serve, Du Shen… after all, it's still calmly sitting in your hand."
"The Keys choose their owners, it may sit on Du Shen's hand, but that doesn't mean it had given him its approval. At most it's using Du Shen as a tool to reach its true owner," the third man said.
"You know a lot about this Lu," Old Blue spoke.
"I've had the luxury of seeing one of them in action. Try touching it, it may bind itself to you," Lu spoke.
Old Blue hesitated, "How about a bet," he said.
"What sort of bet?" Lu asked.
"I've been eyeing your Dragon Breath Liquor for a while. And since you mentioned that I'm the reason we're slow in reaching the bottom, we'll race, the first to leave this mountain gets to keep the key and the liquor?" Master Rain said.
Lu thought for a moment and said, "Fair enough."
"Are you joining Du Shen?" asked Old Blue.
"I have no reason to, the liquor is pointless to me, so is this thing," Du Shen spoke in disgust.
"Well, then be the judge," Master Rain said. "Let's go!" he said and the two of them flew up as fast as possible.
Bypassing tunnels and labyrinths of obstacles.
Lu was moving using almost all of his energy knowing that if he were to mess up once, he'll be overtaken.
And Old Blue was closely following after him.
At the end of the tunnel however, a massive crack in the mountain wall happened causing a boulder to fall on top of Old Blue.
He didn't use much energy to break it, but that was enough for Lu to overtake him and reach the exit first.
Du Shen, the person still holding the jewel spoke, "Why did you lose on purpose?" he asked.
"Oh. You figured that out," Old Blue said.
"Yes, your domain is water, and we're underwater, if you wanted you could have left this mountain in the blink of an eye.
"Yeah, that's why knowledge is important," Master Rain said. "The history of this civilization is written on the walls of this tunnel, and the problems caused by them all stem from that thing in your hand. I don't want to own it, only to use it. Owning a Key with that much power can do nothing but bring endless misery to its owner…" Old Blue said as the two of them left the area.
"I suppose it's my win," said Lu.
"I suppose it is," Old Blue said.
Du Shen then threw the key to Lu and it immediately stuck itself to Lu's palm, shining brightly for a second then a powerful feeling of connection and link was made between them.
Soon, the Key began telling stories of its ventures with Lu, and how the stagnation of Lu's cultivation once again caused the Key to leave him.
My vision returned to me as I finally was able to understand the purpose of the key.
First things first, I'm like Du Shen, I never became the owner of this key, it will leave me the moment it finds someone worthy.
It only left the librarian because he stagnated.
And stagnant water is pungent and stale. Dead.
The key's currently using me as I'm not in stagnation, and still moving, it wants me to take it away from this place, and once I do that. It will find another person who is more worthy.
"So I'm just a ride in your journey," I sighed as I looked at the key.
"Not that I'm against it, you're nothing but problems. But the fact that you're one of the keys to the Beyond is reason enough for many to seek you, though I have no intention of obtaining immortality from you, if I have the chance to use you to open the Beyond, I'll do it."
I stood up and clenched my fist around the Key.
The pagoda remains standing despite the complete submerging of the inside of the serpent in acids. Though I don't know how long this will remain, I have to make use of the time I'm here.
The Key showed me how it was able to harvest the power of faith from the civilization that perished.
They worshiped the owner as if he was their lord, and that energy seemed to help the Key obtain something within it.
It is a type of energy like no other, I've never seen it before. It's something on a level that's a realm higher than Saint Qi itself. Yet, I cannot cultivate it.
Even if I self proclaim myself lord over these people, the power of their faith is negligible, and even if it was of value, I have no idea how to use it.
"Faith… interesting. But, it's meaningless. I need to climb, climb higher in the path of cultivation. Though my resources here are limited, if I can't climb through the ranks of cultivation, I'll learn all that the Poison God's heritage has to offer. I'll learn its laws and its teachings, I'll learn its alchemy and its inscriptions, even its paths of carnage, devouring death and the sword. I need to grow stronger, much stronger, only then can I escape, and only then can I have the right to hold my head high…a world of cultivation isn't too gentle after all…the strong prey on the weak, and the weak prey on the weaker…the law of the jungle, the truest most honest law…"
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