Outworld Liberators-Chapter 211: Opening Mortal Eyes to Right and Wrong

Handlefiddler did not choose at once.

For his part, he had taken every word those esteemed masters spoke to heart.

Not only because their advice made sense, but because he could see a simpler and far crueler truth beneath it.

These people did not seem to care much for how high a method could reach.

Their eyes were lively enough, yes, yet he had seen something else in them as well.

Weariness. A kind of erosion that came from cultivating for too long without ever arriving at the answer in one’s own heart.

What were these people fighting for?

Would they one day be nothing more than cannon fodder with lofty names?

Why were such methods being given away so freely?

Around him, the other new disciples had also grown curious about what Handlefiddler had received.

Some wore thoughtful expressions. Others frowned and sank into silence.

To Radeon, those expressions were simply the stupidity the cultivation world had woven into them.

To kill a man with a sword, a spear, or a bow was called righteous.

To absorb an enemy into one’s own body for strength was condemned as taboo.

The hypocrisy of it lay plain enough once seen.

Radeon noticed Almsgiver nearby, still wearing that same pure and curious look, his hand raised without hesitation.

Radeon walked over, patted the boy on the head, and gave him a nod to speak.

"Boss Radeon," Almsgiver asked, "aren’t some of these evil techniques? Who needs that much speed except to steal? And isn’t absorbing the bodies of others wrong?"

Radeon only smiled.

He picked up the crystal Path Preview of The Hands of Heaven’s Thief.

It showed an obsidian figure with purple, red, and blue bolts arcing across its body, all of it formed in crystal.

With a casual motion, Radeon began to change it.

The thief’s assassin-like appearance melted away. In its place, he gave the figure the bearing of an immortal, clothed in flowing white robes.

He changed its posture as well, from a low running stance to one of composed dignity.

Then he placed a sword in its hand, held with effortless grace.

At the end, he restored the colored bolts around the body.

He turned the crystal slightly so all of them could see it.

"Does that make the cultivation method good now?" Radeon asked.

No one answered.

"At the end of the day, arts and methods only support your journey through cultivation," he said. "They are still external things."

Then he reached out and tapped Almsgiver lightly over the heart.

"This is what truly decides good and evil."

Radeon let the words settle before he continued.

"Let me tell you a short story."

"A corrupt king sat on his throne and taxed away four-fifths of the harvest in his land."

"Then a band of outlaws struck the grain caravans and returned the food to the people. Now tell me, who is good and who is evil?"

The new disciples answered almost as one. Even Fay, Lifara, Thaddeus, and Oswin leaned toward the same conclusion.

The bandits, of course.

Radeon looked at them and said.

"You are all wrong."

At once, he called upon the Ghost Realm Fragment.

The disciples crashed to the ground as though the sky itself had fallen on their backs.

Breath turned heavy in their lungs. Their chests strained.

The pressure was so overwhelming it felt less like force and more like suffocation.

Some could not even lift their heads.

Radeon’s voice fell over them like judgment.

"The right answer is power in my hands. If both sides knelt before me, then I would decide who was just and who was corrupt." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Then the pressure eased.

Air rushed back into their bodies. Several of the disciples trembled where they lay, and most of them knew, with sudden clarity, that they would never forget this moment for as long as they lived.

That, of course, was exactly what Radeon intended.

"I am not trying to frighten you," he said. "I want you to think for yourselves. The world is vast, and its scourges have no bottom line."

He raised one finger.

"First, protect yourself."

Then a second.

"Second, think of what benefits you."

Then a third.

"Third, decide whether something is right or wrong for you."

"If it will steal your sleep at night, then do not do it. And even that returns to the first rule. Protecting yourself."

The disciples listened in shaken silence.

Protection. Benefits. Outcome to self.

The words lodged themselves deep.

Radeon went on.

"Why do you think the Ossuary Necropolis has endured for millions of years? Its name may have changed, but its legacy has stood firm since the ages of beginning and antiquity."

No one answered.

"It is because we never chained ourselves to shallow words like right and wrong."

"We offered protection, benefits, and the choice of power. Rules are made by the mouths of men who already hold power."

"And what do rules give them in return? More power. More control. More resources."

His eyes moved across the room, calm and merciless.

"When you grow old in cultivation, when age and experience finally strip the softness from you, you will understand how much of your life was spent being controlled."

"When that day comes, will you resent us?"

A faint smile touched his face.

"You will. Absolutely. Do not doubt me. No one grows old in cultivation and remains a fool."

The disciples sat stunned.

His words were sharp. Dangerous, even. Rebellious in a way that cut past doctrine and straight into the marrow.

Yet that was exactly why they struck so hard. For all their severity, they felt truer than anything the disciples had heard before.

"Now what do we gain from all this? Nothing. We are gambling."

"Gambling that one day, somewhere, somehow, when you uncover the truth of this world, you will not stand aside and watch."

"Not because of righteousness. Not because of morality. But because beyond the heavens, above even the sky we know, there is another earth waiting."

"I want you to reach it. And if you do, perhaps us old folk can taste a little of that soup as you climb."

"Master Radeon, you said there is soup out there? If I get that soup, I will bring you meat to go with it. Don’t worry," Almsgiver said, patting his chest with his chubby hands.

Laughter rippled through the room at the boy’s wholesome answer.

None of the others took him for a fool.

They understood his meaning well enough. Gratitude ought to be returned in equal measure.

"If your mouths are only good for gawking, then I may as well shut them forever. Pay your respects to the ancestor. Thank him, jeez," Calyx said, rolling his eyes.

The disciples quickly gave their thanks. Tabulae, however, did not look fully convinced.

"Senior Calyx, should we not offer a formal bow or salutation?"

At once, several disciples pricked up their ears, but Fay answered before anyone else could.

"The masters here do not care much for ceremony. They think it wastes time. Sincerity is enough for them, especially when they can already hear your thoughts," she explained.

Calyx then added, his face settling into a look of open mockery for the way cultivators liked to carry themselves.

"Also, anyone at the Gilded Core realm and above can vaguely sense thoughts. Most cultivators are just putting on airs in front of mortals. A waste of time, right?"

Radeon looked at the royal wraith, now behaving more like a street hooligan than a noble spirit, then quietly turned his face away.

The disciples were shaken again by yet another revelation.

So much of what they had once taken for solemn grandeur now sounded like little more than posture before the weak.

"Enough of these world-shaking truths," Calyx said. "Listen carefully."

He swept a hand toward the vast library around them.

"This place holds hundreds of thousands of cultivation methods. Even I could not examine them all in fourteen days if I were only mortal."

"So what you must do is simple. Think carefully about what you want, then say it out loud. There is no need to shout like fools. Let me show you."

He drew himself up and declared, "Everything that can help me become a Fire God, something that will let me blaze through heaven and earth, come out."

At once, Path Previews tore free from their shelves of their own accord.

Thousands gathered around Calyx.

"I also want a strong body to go with it," Calyx said. "I have no desire to stay skinny."

At once, the Path Previews that no longer matched his request flew back to their shelves, leaving only the methods that suited both fire and bodily strength.

"It is that simple," Calyx said, glancing at the disciples. "Like I told you before, we have mouths and can give advice. Go on."

Thaddeus, who still had no cultivation method of his own, also called several sword Path Previews over to himself.

Even so, he had no intention of following any of them directly.

The reason was simple. Radeon had already told him that his path could not be borrowed whole from another.

He would have to cultivate something of his own and only draw from other methods where useful.

When Thaddeus had first asked why, the answer had been enough to silence all doubt.

He possessed the Body of Humanity Incarnation.

Radeon had never told him the other name for it.

The Human Emperor Physique.

He had no wish to let the boy grow arrogant too soon.

Even so, the truth of it showed in practice. Anything humanity had ever wielded, from ages long buried to the present day, Thaddeus could turn to his use.

He had tested that truth himself with swords, spears, halberds, knives, and more.

Once he gained even a little mastery in them, he no longer had any reason to doubt Radeon’s words.

Radeon did not teach him to cling to one weapon.

He guided him instead in the growth of vitality, qi, and soul power, trusting the rest to take shape from Thaddeus’s own nature.

As the disciples continued choosing methods and reading through the floating Path Previews, carriages bearing ornate markings began rolling into the Radeon Terraces.

They were drawn by majestic beasts, and each arrival carried the weight of notice.

Invitations had been sent far and wide.

Radeon wanted the Radeon Terraces known across the region, and with help from Jekyll and the Five Emperors, invitations had reached schools and sects within ten thousand miles.

That had also stirred the interest of the Four Courts, who wanted their disciples to gain experience.

Most notable among them were the Netherdemon Sanctum Court and the Infernal Warfiend Court.

Both walked paths aligned with the demonic way.

Even so, since the invitation had been offered and the Ossuary Necropolis had long stood as a friend, they sent some of their finest disciples to enter the Preta Lurienna Labyrinth.