“Congratulations on passing Stage 16 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 17.”

Mira felt bittersweet when she heard this. Fighting for a year nonstop takes a toll on the mind and body. She hasn’t eaten much and only slept when she couldn’t stay awake anymore. She would focus on healing her wounds in between battles and only really relaxed when she was breaking through to the next stage. She was overly exhausted, both mind and body. The only reason she felt bitter about the stage ending was that she won’t be able to have this kind of opportunity again. Mira wanted to advance in her cultivation more and this stage was amazing for that.

“I can’t believe I made it to Stage 7 Qi Condensation! That last enemy was just barely enough to get me there. It sucks that I wasn’t able to fight some more after advancing though. Oh well, being this much stronger feels amazing! Every part of my body was also tempered before this as well. I wonder how strong I actually am after reaching Stage 7?” Mira thought for a second as she was very happy with this progress. She would also be done with the Trial soon.

“Welcome to Stage 17. This is the Heart Demon Stage. In this stage, you will face 1 Heart Demon that you currently have, if you don’t have a Heart Demon then you will simply proceed to the next stage. Overcome this Heart Demon to proceed to the next stage. Begin!” The mechanical voice said as Mira was now in an empty room.

Mira soon felt something tugging on her soul, mind, and heart. In this empty room, orbs started to appear around her. Mira walked up to one of them and found that these orbs are all of the things that she is unsure of, deeply regrets, or can’t seem to get out of her mind. Mira then looked around and saw a bunch of these orbs.

“I see. So I have to pick one of these and face it. I hear that a Heart Demon can affect the potential future of someone and can prevent them from rising through the realms if it is not dealt with. It’s not surprising that I have so many. I haven’t exactly lived a fulfilling life, not to mention this is my 11th. Fuck it, I’ll just pick one at random!” Mira thought and walked towards a random off and put her hand on it.

Her mind was then forced to focus on and recall the events that caused this heart demon.

This was Mira’s third life. She was in a normal world that didn’t have cultivators or Qi, but it also wasn’t earth. It was a world that was a bit less advanced and more primitive. There were a few major cities in this world, but where most people lived were either in villages or towns. Mira lived in a small town in this life and was living decently well. Her parents made plenty of money and had plenty of food to support the family. They weren’t rich but weren’t poor either.

One thing that Mira noticed though was with each life she lived, she got progressively more attractive in her future lives. This was her third life, so in this primitive world, she could be considered a beauty. Now, this is very subjective, because the way she looked in this life could barely qualify as a commoner in the cultivation world.

Apparently, the city lord of the town she lived in took a liking to her one day. She was almost 20 at this time and had refused any marriage proposals before. But, the city lord told her parents that he wanted to make her one of his concubines. He offered all kinds of benefits for the whole family and was an offer that pretty much nobody would refuse. After hearing all of the benefits that the family would gain from the city lord, they decided to bring this up to Mira. Mira was very aggressive when it came to marriage proposals or talks about it. She would often either tell the person proposing that if they brought this up again that she would cut off their dick and feed it to them or just kill them.

Mira’s parents went to bring up what the city lord told them with a very careful but joyful attitude. They wanted Mira to do this for them, but they also figured it wouldn’t be a bad deal for her either. Human greed is hard to control, no matter what world or time period.

Her parents brought up the point of her becoming his concubine and tried to entice her with all of the benefits and good things that would come, but Mira’s face turned black as soon as she heard concubine. Mira found herself being consumed by rage at this point. The person that she referred to as ‘god’ had a bit more interaction with her at this point because the lives she lived prior weren’t very long, and this was the only thing she thought about.

Overcome with intense thoughts of rage and death, Mira’s thoughts and surroundings seemed to go blank. Mira took out a small knife that she always carried with her and slowly approached her parents with the knife in hand. The only thing on her mind was wanting to kill the being that had done this to her and everything she heard out of her parent’s mouths only sounded like that ‘god’s’ voice.

Her parents didn’t know what Mira was doing until they were already dead. She had killed her dad first and before her mom could even scream, she was lying on the floor, dead. Mira kept stabbing holes in their bodies until she passed out from exhaustion.

When Mira woke up the next day, Mira saw what seemed to be her parents lying on the ground in a pool of blood. They had tens if not hundreds of small holes in them from the stab wounds. Mira’s eyes widened as she started to crawl over to them, not knowing what happened. She then felt something in her hand and saw that it was a small bloody knife. The events soon started to play out in her mind as she remembered everything that she did to them.

Her whole body was trembling and she couldn’t move. She didn’t want to believe it, Mira didn’t want to believe that she could do something like this. Mira could barely look at their bodies. It was a disturbing sight, one that’ll make your skin crawl. Mira started throwing up and bawled her eyes out.

“I-I-I-I’m S-S-Sorry! I’m sorry! Come back, please! I don’t know what came over me! Why? Why did this happen?! I didn’t want to kill them! Please, tell me I’m dreaming! A joke? This is a joke right!? Something that asshole god is playing on me! God? Yes! HIM! He’s the one that caused all this! I wouldn’t be here if not for him! I wouldn’t have done this if he didn’t put me in this situation!” Mira started screaming as she continued crying. Even she didn’t believe her own words, but how could she go on living knowing that she did this and there was no one else to blame but herself? Well, she had to. Even if she died, she would still remember this. Nothing would even change.

Mira cried for a week straight. She hadn’t eaten anything and only drank enough to live. She was barely able to sleep as the sight of her killing her parents played over and over again in her mind. After a week went by, Mira started to calm down a bit. There was also a clear difference in her eyes. The eyes of someone dead, yet they are alive. A cold pair of eyes that seemed they could even freeze over the pits of hell. Her eyes lacked determination and will, but had the need for revenge in them. A bud sprouted this day, Mira wanted to find a way to get stronger and free herself from this fate of hers.

Mira burned down her house and ran away from the city. The city lord then caught wind of her disappearance and ordered people to chase her down. This life would be filled with nothing but running away, searching for ways or techniques to get stronger or increase her battle prowess, and grief.

The scene then finished playing out and the real Mira had tears running down her face. This was one of her deepest regrets throughout her many years of living.

“Fuck! Why did I have to choose this one? You’re telling me to get over this?! I had nearly forgotten about this moment too! I don’t want to get over it!” Mira said out loud, but the scene only started to replay.

Mira was just forced to watch this scene over and over again! The scene had replayed so many times that she was starting to become numb to it, almost like it was surreal.

“I see. I really did kill them. No matter how many times I want to forget or try to look away, I can’t. I know it was an accident and I wasn’t fully conscious, but it was still me who did it. I didn’t have anyone forcing me… Mother, Father, I hope that you are cursing at me in your next life. Even in that primitive world, you still respected my wishes and tried to make me happy. I won’t say anything stupid like I’m going to live for you, but I will remember you. It may sound cold, but your deaths are what sparked the need for revenge. When I killed the two of you, I remembered that my fate was sealed and there is no way of escaping it unless that ‘god’ dies. I hope that you two have a better daughter in your next life, but as for me… I realized that this was a necessary and inevitable event. If it wasn’t you, it would’ve been another person that I care for. It’s time I come to terms with me killing you and realize that it was necessary for me and that me punishing myself won’t do the three of us any good. I love you and… Goodbye.” Mira said as more tears rolled down her face.

Mira then felt something in her heart and soul clear up. It was like a part of her was reconnected.

“Congratulations on passing Stage 17 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 18.”

​ ***

“Congratulations on passing Stage 16 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 17.”

Maria heard this voice again after she killed the final beast. It honestly surprised her as she had lost track of time and almost forgot that she was still in the trial She was cultivating the energy she got from the last enemy and finally spoke up when she was finished.

“WOAH! That last guy brought me close to Stage 8 Qi Condensation! I’m currently at the peak of Stage 7 Qi Condensation! I wonder what stage Mira got to? Hehe, I wonder if I could crush her with my strength now?” Maria started to fantasize about days when she would be on the winning end of spars. She then shook her head.

“Haha! Yeah right! Mira probably fought like a maniac to get as much benefit from this stage as she could. Her cultivation wasn’t that far from me, to begin with. I wouldn’t be surprised if she surpassed me either.” Maria said again as she thought about things realistically.

“Welcome to Stage 17. This is the Heart Demon Stage. In this stage, you will face 1 Heart Demon that you currently have, if you don’t have a Heart Demon then you will simply proceed to the next stage. Overcome this Heart Demon to proceed to the next stage. Begin!” the mechanical voice said as Maria also felt a light tug on her heart, mind, and soul.

Only a single orb popped up in front of her. It was the time of her first kill.

Maria walked up and touched it with her hand and her mind was forced to recall the scene.

She recalled the time at the bandit camp when she had killed that man. Honestly, she didn’t care about the man and knew he was a terrible person. There was also nothing tragic that happened or anything special. This normally wouldn’t be a heart demon, but Maria didn’t have the time or thought process to deal with this. She had just killed the man out of instinct as she and Mira had been killing a lot of magical beasts before that to train. When she felt a little bit of threat from the man, she just reacted and removed his head.

Maria finally had time to deal with this now. She started to think about killing other people and death itself. She also thought about what Mira said, and how she was reincarnated.

“I knew that someday I would have to kill someone and I thought it would be fine. I don’t really like death or being the one to cause it, but being with Mira I have seen so much of it. We have caused the deaths of countless magical beasts and Mira walks on a path filled with corpses. Killing and death are only a part of nature. Even if I don’t want it, if I want to be Mira’s friend then I will need to walk on a path that is filled with corpses as well. This also seems to be the path of cultivators. If I want to walk down this path and aim towards higher realms, then I need to come to terms with killing anything that stands in my way. I don’t want to kill people if I don’t have to, but I must steel myself to do what’s necessary for me and the people around me. I’m glad that Mira told me to kill a bandit in that camp so that I could understand this point before it was too late. Thank you for giving me that opportunity, Mira!” Maria said as her heart and soul felt whole again and a weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

“Congratulations on passing Stage 17 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 18.”

***