In a majestic mansion with a 10-foot gate at its entrance, a man and woman were in a heated argument.
"You told me it'd be fine Mengxu! Is this your fine? I this something we can let slide? Dozens, dozens of our family members have been injured and some even died. My uncle died dammit!" Captain Zhou screamed, his eyes wide as a saucer and red as a chili pepper.
"It is fine. I'm sorry for your uncle's death, but I can't risk my lifespan for such a thing, not to mention if I die this clan of yours won't take long to join me!" Mengxu retorted, her hands clutching her green corset.
'Dang it, this idiot, does he really have no qualms about getting me closer to death if it means saving those ungrateful leechers?' she thought secretly, to a time when he wasn't so clan-focused and focused more on her.
"Foolish! Lifespan? Sure you'll lose some, but it'll be manageable. Soon you might even break through to the next realm, by then the lifespan reduction would be much less." Zhou Feng shot back, slumping down on his chair to continue.
"I'm sorry okay. I know I'm asking alot of you, but we've built this clan together, it's like our child. I don't want to see it die." He admitted, finally shedding a long held back tear.
Mengxu's mind went blank, this, was sudden. Could it be all this time he had done all of this for her, because she used her precious lifespan to fuel the Clans growth!?
Her aged heart seemed to beat with the fire of youth, and unbeknownst to her Zhao Feng broke into a nasty grin seeing her reaction.
"Okay" Mengxu crouched down to look at Zhao Fengs face clearly, reaching out to caress his face.
She jolted back when Zhao Feng suddenly grabbed her hand like a crab grabbing onto it's prey.
"I'm sorry for worrying you. Let's go, we've got much to do." a radiant smile blossomed on his face.
Soon, the two tided themselves up and left the room.
Elsewhere, a similar meeting was taking place, albeit this one wasn't limited to two people.
"We can't kill, we rob. Take from the rich what sets you apart from them, don't take away life, that's not something we have a right over." An authorative voice rang out amongst the crowd.
"Why don't we have the right to kill when our loved ones have been killed by them?" One of the boarish like men asked, his eyes telling tales of an unwanted sorrow.
"It's because...." Alex blanked, although it was a clone giving the speech it still had his thoughts in synced. But he still didn't have an answer, not one that seemed acceptable.
Born in a law abiding society, he naturally didn't have the concept of an eye for an eye, atleast not to the murdering someone degree. Regardless, these ideals engraved into his head from birth, were they wrong or right?
One could argue that nothing in the world was wrong or right, only people dictated what was acceptable and what not. An example would be the difference in relationships, in some parts dating was considered normal while in others it was taboo. Either side claimed they were right, so what should one choose?
Well those were petty love talks, this was about a person's life. If he agreed with the burly man, he'd become pro revenge, extremely pro revenge. And if he didn't...well he might get surrounded by the people Infront of him and lose a clone.
Nonetheless, was he someone who would kill another if they killed someone he knew? Mhm. Although he couldn't do it back then, every human had the innate desire to take revenge. Or maybe he was just a vengeful person.
Either way, too much thinking was bound to end in nothing but a headache.
"Kill, kill those who have killed your loved ones. I will turn a blind eye, but do not harm the innocents that surround them." Alex suddenly announced.
The crowd, previously puzzled at his strange request to remain non murderous in their revenge were now overjoyed and broke into cheers!
Alex, focused his eyes. Instead of seeing the people Infront of him he seemed to see strings of karma, stretching in different directions. These strings, at his words seemed to have been pulled by a tug and some had grown black.
White represented a weak connection, red was a strong one, like the one he had with Liam, as for this new black string. He could guess, it was most likely a life and death connection.
Karma was like a rulebook, it had very wide rules. Like one of those middle schools that said "No boys can wear caps" this was a rule that affected baseball caps, those things you wear on top of a thob, bandanas if you counted those and etc.
According to that, this life and death connection doesn't have to be one of true lovers swearing to be together in life and death. It can also be two people whose souls are linked like in those fantasies, or two people in a life or death struggle, like many of these people Infront of him.
The layers upon layers of strings seemed to tell of the many bonds they forged with others, their grievances and their joys.
Strangely enough, these strings seemed to flow like a river, but unlike the river of time that flowed straight, this river was a mess, unreadable to the normal man.
If karma was a vague rule presiding over all of existence, then fate it's little brother was the knots that strung the different strings together, forming a cobweb of interactions and outcomes.
In a snap, Alex felt his mind implode. Yet no pain hit him, he only felt a shallow relief fall on him, as if he received a heavenly massage.
[+10 Fate Qi!]
Alex flashed a smile, a dashing soul decree appearing before him.
Name: Alex
Race: Human
Class: Abyssal Doppelganger (II)
Class Skills: (Adaptive Clone), (Attribute Clone)
Realm: Path Genesis Realm (11 Karma Qi, 10 Fate Qi)
Supreme Path: Karma [Beginner], Fate [Beginner]
Talent: Clone [D Rank – Growth Type]
Strength: 55
Defense: 20
Mana: 60/60
Mana Recovery: 0.07/S
Stamina: 22
Agility: 20
Comprehension: 100
Available Paths: 7 Remaining
"Beginner in the Path of Fate! 55 strength, great googly moogly! 100 comprehension? Could comprehension be upgraded by insight into Paths? Perhaps another perk of the Supreme Paths." Also joyfully said, the crowd below gossiping about the scene ongoing Infront of them.