Chapter 11: A Path to Loneliness is Inevitable
Soon, Wang Wei and Li Jun appear in front of the Pagoda. There were many disciples already standing there participating in the Second Trial.
Wang Wei enters without hesitation, followed by Li Jun and the others.
Wang Wei found himself in a very dim and grey space. The earth underneath his feet lacked vitality, the air he breathed became stale.
He stood there alone. He tried to talk. Although he could hear sound coming out of his mouth, there was no noise after his voice traveled less than a meter from him.
The whole space exudes a bland, desolate, and lonely atmosphere. Wang Wei knew that this trial tested a person’s ability to bear loneliness.
After checking the environment, Wang Wei sat on the floor, and started to meditate. In an instant, nine days passed by.
Wang Wei started to behave radically. In the past few days, he was alone in this deserted place without anyone to talk to or without seeing anything beside this desolate earth.
After a while, Wang Wei began to panic. In this eternal silence, he heard the beating of his heart, he heard the sound of his blood flowing through every vein of his body, the contraction and relaxation of his muscle. He even heard the elasticity of his skin bouncing on the muscles underneath.
After hearing all these phenomena that almost made him go crazy, Wang Wei decided to sing out loud to pass the time.
Soon, five years passed.
Wang Wei sang a song everyday before going to bed. In this desolate place, only sleep can give some sort of comfort.
Unfortunately, sleep soon became Wang Wei’s nightmare. The past few days, Wang Wei became afraid of sleeping. He feared that once he slept, he would never wake up again. That the embrace of death would slowly envelop him setting him on a journey of eternal sleep.
So, he never sleeps again.
As time passed, his state started to deteriorate. His voice was gone due to long term abuse, he never slept due to fear.
Another ten years passed.
Wang Wei was on the verge of madness. After spending more than 15 years in this place, he had enough.
His clothes were all broken, his hair disheveled, and there were countless bruises on his body, particularly his arms.
A few months ago, Wang Wei started disfiguring his body in order to feel his existence, in order to feel alive, in order to feel something. Every time he felt lost and lonely, or wanted to take away his own life to end his suffering, he would plunge his long nail on his body until blood gushed out.
He knew that this was not a long term solution, but that was the only way he could think of at the time.
Meanwhile outside the Pagoda. Although 15 years had passed in the Pagoda, only a few hours had passed by outside.
All the people outside watched the testers slowly being driven to madness. People started to wonder whether these tests were too cruel.
Another five years passed in the Pagoda.
At this point, Wang Wei was lying on the floor dying. It has been more than 15 years since he had a good sleep. His body’s function had deteriorated beyond repair. He has long lost any grasp of his mind.
Now, even his memories are slowly fading away. He started to forget who he was. He forgot where he came from, what his grand aspirations were. The memories of his past life and his present life were slowly merging, yet slowly disappearing at the same time. He tried very hard to remember the face of his parents--from both lives. Unfortunately, all he could remember were blurred images.
Now, he was dying. Maybe, all these things were no longer important.
At his last moment before dying, Wang Wei started asking himself: "Why do I fear death so much? Since I decided to embark on the Path of the Emperor, then death will be a common thing for me. I will bestow death to all my enemies and to all my competitors. Also, I should expect these people to try to bring death to me. In the end, the victor will be crowned Great Emperor, achieve longevity and escape the Cycle of Life and Death, while the loser will enter an eternal slumber, leaving all the pain and worries to the world of the living."
"Maybe in this world, death is nothing but another beginning, another journey. Whatever may be the case, there is no need to fear it. Life is already so painful, how worse can death be?"
After Wang Wei had an epiphany, a wheel suddenly appeared on top of him. The wheel was half white and half black. You could see many souls standing in front of the wheel; their life and death being determined.
This was the Wheel of Life and Death. After being materialized, the wheel entered Wang Wei’s body and slowly healed him. Afterward, Wang Wei fell asleep peacefully.
Wang Wei’s sleep lasted for three whole years. After waking up, Wang Wei felt young and vigorous, he felt refreshed and like a brand new self.
Wang Wei also realized that he had an epiphany and understood a little bit about the Dao of Life and Death. Although this epiphany would not bring any benefit in the early stage of cultivation, it would greatly benefit him later on.
Especially when he enters the Supernatural Realm and acquires his Innate Supernatural Power. That’s when his understanding of the Dao of Life and Death would manifest itself.
In fact, the Second Trial Test of the Pagoda is designed with the purpose of allowing the disciples to understand the concept of Loneliness.
The path of cultivation is a long, arduous, and lonely one. Many times while cultivating, you have to spend hundreds, thousand, and even hundred of thousand of years secluded by yourself in meditation in order to understand the laws of Heaven and Earth.
During those times, people who could not stand the loneliness will not go far in their path of cultivation.
Additionally, the Loneliness of the Path of Cultivation is more than that. As you grow more powerful, you will have to watch the people you know and love slowly leave you one by one. It may be because they are killed, or maybe their lifespan came to end before breaking to the next realm.
As a cultivator, you may go into seclusion, wake up a thousand years later, then realize that all your friends, family, and loved one have passed away due to limitations of life span.
It is as if someday you wake up and find out that you are all alone; everyone and everything you knew suddenly disappeared. You are the only person left in the world.
This is one of the reasons that cultivators usually do not make friends with mortals. A hundred years is a very short time for a cultivator, but a lifetime for a mortal.
Imagine being a good friend with a mortal. One day, you went in seclusion for a few decades. When you come out, your friend is already old and decrepit, while you look exactly the same way when you first met. All you can do is watch your friend slowly dying.
This is the reason that most cultivators will not intertwine with mortals thus giving the impression that they are cold and indifferent.
Another example of loneliness in the cultivating world is when the people you are close to give up cultivating because they could not stand the long and painful process. While you are slowly moving forward on your own path, your friend or relative has already given up. Now you are walking forward alone on your own.
After Wang Wei woke up from his long sleep, he realized the true purpose of the trial. So, he started meditating every night, trying to reach a realm of replacing sleep with meditation. In the morning, he would review all the knowledge he had previously learned. He further fine tune the plan he had prepared for after the Spirit Road Trial.
The Second Trial of the Pagoda involves both Illusion and Time domain. He wanted to use this to his advantage.
After spending exactly a hundred year in the Pagoda, the trial ended and the remaining people were sent outside.