Absolute Choice

Chapter 465: Virtues and Sins

Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon

The human world once had three holy trees—"Fate Tree", "Time Tree" and "World Tree".

The pixie race was a special lifeform born from the "World Tree". The maturation of every fruit of the World Tree meant the birth of a pixie.

Pixies were known to be beauty incarnate since ancient times. Not only was it because pixies were mostly beautiful, but because every pixie was given the blessing of the "Seven Contrary Virtues" by the World Tree at their birth.

It was a debatable question whether humans were innately good or evil. To probe the inner workings of human nature at its most nascent stage, the actions of infants were used. It was debated if humans were corrupted by society as they grew up or not, but there was no conclusion to this debate even after thousands of years. Due to different angles and points of views, the explanations given by both sides were reasonable. No one was able to conclusively retort the other, so no one could prove that they were absolutely correct.

However, there was no such awkward debates for pixies. That was because pixies were given the grace of the World Tree to be 'born perfect'.

Pixies were born with the seven precious 'Virtues' — Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility.

Although pixies were born with these virtues, they had to undergo the baptism of worldly affairs. In their growth, changes would slowly develop. For example, a particular pixie might not need to work because she was born with a silver spoon. The virtue of 'Diligence' would slowly be ground away by neglect on a daily basis.

Pixies that could maintain the seven virtues all their lives were extremely rare. They almost never existed. Only in the legends were there 'Holy Pixies' who truly maintained all seven virtues. However, 'Holy Pixies' were a legend after all. It was impossible to discern if they were fiction or a true existence.

Typically, a well-educated pixie would only be able to maintain two or three virtues. The other virtues would gradually disappear as they grew up, making them not much different from ordinary humans.

However, to pixies who were born with the virtues, there was one thing that was forbidden. It was even abhorred—Virtues could disappear, but it absolutely could not become a Sin.

For example, 'Diligence' could disappear, but it absolutely could not become 'Sloth'.

'Chastity' could be lost, but one could not indulge in 'Lust'...

Pixies could connive the virtues given to them by the World Tree disappear, which they would view it as their incompetence, but they would never taint themselves with the corresponding seven deadly sins of the seven virtues. That was because it was the most serious of betrayals to the World Tree that gave birth to them.

However, if pixies tainted themselves with an 'evil' from any one of the seven deadly sins, be it a pixie commoner or pixie aristocrat, or even the pixie queen, they would become 'fallen pixies' upon being tainted by 'evil'. They would be exiled at the very least, or even vanquished.

'Fallen pixies' were the most forsaken species to the pixies, but unfortunately, the World Tree had buried in them the seeds of 'corruption' at the same time it gave them the seven virtues.

That was because as long as they destroyed a particular 'virtue' of theirs and take the initiative to 'corrupt' themselves with 'evil', they would be able to trigger the seed hidden within them. It would give pixies a temporary burst of strength.

The ability to exchange power for 'corruption' was the gifts with the best of intentions while simultaneously being the cruelest of tests when the World Tree birthed the pixies.

That was because there were times when even pixies who yearned for peace would have no choice but to bow down before power. At that moment in time, they would have to make a choice of acquiring the necessary strength at the cost of tainting themselves with 'evil'. This was pertinent when it came to facing the hunting of greedy humans. Their lives, chastity, and dignity were threatened, so these things would become a very difficult choice for them when compared to the 'virtues'.

Most pixies would choose to 'corrupt' themselves in their greatest time of need to resolve the danger. Although it meant betraying the World Tree, it was much better than betraying themselves.

These were the origins behind fallen pixies and corruption. They were pixies born with the seven virtues from their very beginnings.

...

Ten thousand years ago, the first apocalypse befell the human world.

The strongest destroyer of the apocalypse—the Original Sin of Calamity—prioritized destroying the three holy trees that acted as pillars for the human world. The World Tree naturally failed to escape the calamity.

Following that, as the 'clean-up crew', the Seven Deadly Sins began slaughtering the remaining living beings left in the human world. As a result, the pixies faced the threat of genocide.

During that calamity of genocide, there was only one pixie that luckily survived.

The only pixie that survived was Kali, an adolescent who still maintained the seven virtues. She was chosen by the World Tree to become its successor.

Without the World Tree's procreation, Kali became the last pixie in the human world.

From that moment on, Kali realized her fate and her mission. She once secretly swore to maintain the final bloodline of the pixies and to absolutely not trigger the strength in the 'corruption seed', never to become a 'fallen pixie'.

Thankfully, inheriting the powers that the World Tree had bestowed upon her made her nearly invincible in strength. Furthermore, in her travels through different planes of existence, she always took the form of an 'ugly old woman'. Therefore, she never fell into a dire state where she needed to activate the 'corruption seed' during the past ten thousand years.

Although in the ten thousand years of travel, she had lost her 'Kindness' because she ruthlessly killed her enemies, lost her 'Humility' because of her overwhelming strength and lost her 'Diligence' because she no longer needed to walk to traverse large distances, but there was no inclination towards corruption. She did not encounter a dire state that needed her to trigger the corruption. It was already considered quite a fascinating miracle.

But not long ago, due to the self-sealing required to enter the Nine Revolutions Transcendental Tower and how she was trapped by the four Level Lords in the God Slaughtering Formation, she fell into a desperate situation of having to trigger the 'corruption seed' in order to save Shi Xiaobai, who was on the brink of death.

When 'sacrificing Shi Xiaobai' and 'sacrificing herself' was placed on the same balance, Kali would not hesitate to choose the latter.

She destroyed the virtue known as 'Patience', and took the initiative to take in the evil known as 'Wrath'. In order to save Shi Xiaobai, she had violated her sworn oath and betrayed the World Tree by turning herself into a 'fallen pixie'.

She did not regret her actions. Even if she had to do it again, she would make the same choice.

Although compared to the ten thousand years of her life, the amount of time she knew Shi Xiaobai was so short that it was like a grain of sand in a desert, to her, that short period of time was even more precious that the long span of ten thousand years.

In the ten thousand years, not only was her life seemingly long and endless, she was also accompanied by loneliness.

And in the recent short span of time, she had secretly observed Shi Xiaobai's interesting escapades. While watching him, she would at times burst out laughing, at times be infuriated, at times tear up with sadness, at times having boiling blood flow through her veins, and at times disregard everything...

Although he never noticed her ever-watching eyes, nor did he know about her knowing smiles and slight frowns, she did not feel a tinge of loneliness at all by being a lone observer.

What she could get from Shi Xiaobai was far greater than what one could imagine.

As such, how could she watch by the sidelines the person who filled her 'emptiness' be destroyed?

How could she let the youth that possessed the loftiest of ideals die at the beginning of his journey?

Even if she needed to use a lie of 'how it was a trivial matter as she was only betraying herself if she became a fallen pixie even though she was no ordinary pixie and that she was equivalent to the successor of the World Tree', she would absolutely not allow that youth to fall into an eternal slumber.

Therefore, she chose 'corruption' in order to complete 'rescuing' him.

She did not regret her decision at all.

But the developments that followed made her filled with regret up till the present moment.

Shi Xiaobai did not let down the sacrifices she made. He even returned the favor in a way she did not dare imagine.

He 'snatched' her 'corruption'.

She was somewhat uncertain of the process of how the 'snatching' worked. All she remembered was that she was suddenly 'pushed down' by him. She fell into panic and was worrying how she could reject him when he gently reciprocated her sacrifice.

However, this 'reciprocation' was like a heavy sense of 'retribution' to her.

Shi Xiaobai had snatched away the evil of 'Wrath' from her, making her return to becoming a pure pixie that was untainted by evil. For that, he had to correspondingly pay the great price of the possibility of being controlled by 'Wrath' or lured by 'corruption'.

Kali felt a great deal of blame for her carelessness, but she felt mostly touched.

True love was just like how she 'selflessly' sacrificed herself.

And true love was repaid by him in his 'selfless' manner.

The first thing Kali did when she left the Nine Revolutions Transcendental Tower was to search through all the information regarding 'corruption'.

The Seven Deadly Sins reviled in the extermination of life, but they did not have the practice of burning books. Therefore, she had managed to luckily retain a portion of the pixie's canonical collection.

However, as she flipped through thick tomes, Kali turned more confused when she understood more about 'corruption'.

That was because the books that described 'corruption' all had a premise that could not be omitted—the identities of the fallen were all pixies.

Yes, there was no description of humans that had the seeds of evil buried in humans due to 'corruption'!

For humans, virtue and evil stemmed from human nature. They were just two sides of human nature, so it was an extremely ordinary matter. Therefore, when the 'seeds of evil' exclusive to pixies were scattered in the spiritual fields of humans, there had been no precedence to the kinds of 'flowers of evil' that would bloom.

Without any precedence, this resulted in the greatest dilemma at present.

Shi Xiaobai had snatched the seed of evil known as 'wrath', so it was a complete unknown what sort of changes or repercussions would happen.

When Shi Xiaobai fell into despair once again, she smiled wryly as she wondered how many times he would have his life threatened despite him having begun cultivation only recently. She was also nervously waiting for the final moment she needed to make a resolute choice.

It was rather different from what she previously faced. She was also unable to make a decision with absolute calmness. Due to the meticulous machinations of the Infernal Queen, she ultimately could only save one side. The moment she saved Shi Xiaobai, it would mean abandoning the other seven rookies that fell into a dire situation in order to save Shi Xiaobai. Even though she no longer had the habit to fuss over 'moral principles', it was still a violation of 'moral principles' to return kindness with ingratitude.

Therefore, the perfect ending was that he and them, who were on the brink of danger, could proceed together was to save each other or save themselves.

However, the ninth level's Level Lord, 'Shadow Wraith' had grabbed the shadows of the rookies. There was already no possibility of them to resist any further.

Shi Xiaobai, who was running desperately while carrying the girl, no longer seemed to have the strength to stand up again after falling for the sixth time.

With the situation progressing into such a state, logically it would be a situation of despair, if not for the 'evil seed of fury' that Shi Xiaobai had 'snatched' away from her.

The 'evil seed of fury' produced its reliable and formidable power.

Shi Xiaobai once again received the powers bestowed unto him from 'corruption'.

Kali never expected this because this was the first time such a situation happened.

Pixies could destroy their 'virtue' and expedite the corruption of 'evil' in order to obtain strength, but they could only do so once in their lives.

If they could limitlessly obtain power that far exceeded their strength, it was no longer a gift of the World Tree, but something that broke the laws of the natural world.

But with the precedent of a human obtaining the seed of evil, the laws were pulverized as well.

Pixies could only obtain strength during their first corruption. If the aspect they corrupted was 'fury', they would easily lose their temper in the future. It was equivalent to being tainted with a pernicious habit of being easy to anger.

But Shi Xiaobai had obtained strength that far exceeded his strength because of 'fury'!

What was going on?

Another corruption?

What sort of price would he have to pay to obtain strength once again after falling into fury?

Kali was alarmed but she forced herself to calm down. She carefully observed Shi Xiaobai, who had lost his reason due to 'fury' as he slaughtered the monsters in the array world.

He was still as cold and powerful as when he slaughtered the four Level Lords. He still used his bare hands to tear apart his prey in a brutal manner. He was still the silver-haired devil that allowed blood to dye himself red...

There did not seem to be any changes from the first incident, but one would discover that as Shi Xiaobai tore apart his prey, he appeared even colder and more decisive than before, that is, if one observed him carefully. He was like a 'devil' that was adhering to his instinct of indiscriminate killing.

This meant that, compared to the previous time, Shi Xiaobai's remaining clarity of mind in his rage was even more fuzzy.

Although he had paid a terrible price, Shi Xiaobai had at least completed the act of 'saving himself'.

Just as Kali consoled herself in such a shoddy manner, the plot reached the nadir of the grim situation.

That was because Dawn had awoken and called out. She had made the 'Shi Xiaobai', who was no different from a demon, realize her existence.

This silver-haired demon that only abided to its instincts of indiscriminate killing finally reached out its blood-stained hands towards the frail and warm girl's body that was just inches away.