Chapter 540 Intruder
"What I see from you is nothing but a lack of understanding of the world itself, it surprises me how you managed to reach the rank of Emperor when your knowledge of what's around you is so subpar. No, perhaps it was not subpar for you," I said as I looked her in the eyes.
The difference in stature between us, my sheer current size, and her minuscule human like size were a great contrast, this was also good to apply psychological pressure.
"It was subpar but for you, it wasn't simply because, the understanding you reached, was all that you had, it was mediocre, faulty and without any wisdom behind it, but for your peanut-sized brain, it was probably the truth, and you deluded yourself into believing what you reached was the world's truth, thus you ascended, you ascended on nothing but a lie you told yourself…"
"Shut up!" Madam Zha shouted cracks started appearing on her face.
But there was no reason for me to shut up, the seed of doubt is a nasty thing, especially when planted in a strong heart because the stronger the heart, the more brittle it becomes, and that seed will soon start tearing it apart to grow into more and more doubt.
"You dare say the heavens are unjust, the mere thought of that is absurd, the heavens never give one more than they can take, and if one fails in the challenges of the heavens, it wasn't because the heaven was too merciless, but it was because the person was too weak-willed. Blame not the heavens that birthed you into existence, that had given you a reason to be when you were nothing. Blame not the very heavens that created an entity in you, a soul, then a living breathing body. If you say the heavens are unjust, then how about you? What did you ever do to receive such a blessing of being born into the world."
Madam Zha's expression tightened and then she said, "Then what about the children born in times of war and strife! Misery and famine! If the heavens were just why would it birth them in such pains!"
"You still foolishly accuse the heavens of what you yourself had done. Who made wars? Was it the heavens? It was nothing but the greed of man itself that brought existence to war, man's greed and jealousy, their will and wish to obtain more of what they have or some of what they don't have brought existence to war, and thus those who were born during a war have not the heavens to blame, but only those who caused the war itself. All are free of will, and all are free to either fight or not, but they still choose to fight, thus why blame heavens for the mistakes of oneself?"
More cracks began appearing on her face and soon on her body, she shuddered and shook and began recoiling, trying to come up with words to rebuke me but clearly failed in doing so.
"This tells me one thing, not only do you lack understanding of what's around you, you don't even understand yourself. However, you were gifted with riches and knowledge, power to rule over the Vast Expanse's wealth, you still don't understand the little things, then let's talk about you shall we, Madam Zha? Birthed from wealth into wealth, you never had to wish or work for anything as you grew up, all you needed to do was ask, and you obtained it. And now thousands of years later you're sitting on the throne of wealth and power, only subdued by the Fire Lord himself, yet your greed for earthly desires is so great that you wish to usurp the Fire Lord. So tell me, being gifted with so many things, given so many things, why seek more? Are you not satisfied with what you currently have?"
"Irrelevant!" she shouted
"But it is relevant since you were given birth, you never sought to understand what it is to be destitute. You never had to feel the coldness of the night, where all you could use to heat yourself is your ever-so-cooling breath as you blow on your frozen fingers. Where you're covered with nothing but a torn rag that smells of dog's piss. Where you feast on nothing but the trash and chewed-away food of others. Where you don't know if you'll wake up the next day, or be brutally abused that very night as you sleep, you know not the worry and pain of the poor, yet you speak of their injustice? All you're doing Madam Zha is talking, all you ever said were just words, empty without true meaning, since the only meaning to the words you spoke can come from experience, and you never experience that, thus what you speak of is invalid."
More cracks appeared on her face and it started falling off like brittle porcelain.
"Your greed toward life is so absurd I cannot seem to fathom it. You have all one could ever hope for and more, yet you're not even putting in the effort," I said.
With those words, her eyes sparkled as if she had found a great "I would not deny that, but even if you had failed into achieving the seat of the lord of the Black Tower, you'd still be better off than the timing to counter.
"You don't know how much effort I made! You think obtaining all of this was easy! I had to fight against hundreds of siblings for the throne of the Black Tower, my effort, wits, and genius were all efforts and hard work!"
"I would not deny that, but even if you had failed into achieving the seat of the lord of the Black Tower, you'd still be better off than the absolute majority of the people in the vast expanse. What I'm talking about isn't your worldly achievements, but that," I said as I pointed at her face.
She covered her face with both hands "Don't look at me!"
"I'm all too familiar with that, your wealth and splurging are absurd since you're using the Stone-Aged Milk to keep your skin from turning to dust, instead of actually putting in true effort in cultivation. None of your muscles have an ounce of effort in them, but still, they're brimming with Saint Qi. Why is that?" my question was rhetorical.
"Elixirs, divine pills, Receptarism, and heavenly treasures of all kinds, you're using those to substitute for effort, you never, sought to improve yourself, though your cultivation had risen your body is so far lagged behind it's nothing more than the body of a prettied-up corpse. And instead of ingesting the Stone Aged Milk, you're covering the fractures of that corpse-like body of yours with it."
"What would you ever know about the Stone Aged Milk, it's nothing a human can consume, it's a treasure of the world but can only be used by a few races," she said
"But I do know," I replied, "I know all too well since I literally swam in it and drank more of it than you'd ever see in a lifetime. I know all too well of the pains, after all, aren't I a poison God's Disciple?" I said
Instantly her eyes widened.
"Yes, you finally understand, every Poison God's disciple has to break their meridians, all of them, then dive into a pool of Bone and Body Grinding Poison, only when they survive can they begin their journey, and you speak of the pain of ingesting the Stone Aged Milk? That's nothing but child's play. After all, when you consume the Stone Aged Milk it helps your body grow, but when you're inside a pool of the Bone and Body Grinding Poison, all you have is destruction, deconstruction, and death… so tell me, do I not know pain?"
More cracks appeared on her face and body, more than she could cover even with her hands.
"With all that, with all these riches, you never put any effort, and you were still rewarded with a life greater than many, and what did you offer the heavens in return? Nothing. Nothing that you can buy with gold will ever equate to a life. And your existence itself, though disgusting to look at, is still a treasure of the heavens, now tell me, who is truly unjust? Is it you wo complains about the heavens or the heavens that had given you without you even asking."
"But if it had given me, why not giveth others!"
"In case you forgot, it had given you the same as others, only others received dirt, and you got gold, to you gold has more value, but to the heaven's eyes, both are dirt, since only man gives value to what they have and what they don't. So where is the injustice?"
Shaken and about to lose her cultivation base.
"If you know so much, how come you're still stuck at the King's Realm, there must be something wrong with your logic! Yes! It must be otherwise you'd be at the Emperor Realm, so all you spoke was nothing but lies! Yes!" she said as a deranged person trying to find any way or reason to justify their ignorance.
"It is clearly not my lack of understanding of what's around me that's holding me back, because I know enough to say I know nothing…" I spoke as I sighed.
"What is holding him back is himself…" I heard from behind me.
The words were calm and confident and brimmed with power
Without turning back, I said, "Indeed, what is holding me is nothing but myself, since I know not who I am, isn't that right… Fire Lord."
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