I Don’t Want To Court Death!

On Yang Yang’s warship, the former members of the Sacred Cult were sitting in front of him. Yang Yang sat on a chair and looked down at them with wise eyes. 

 

“Listen, you three. As followers of the Scion of Life, I will teach you the five mandates of the Life God. Although your grimoires are based on necromancy, it does not mean you can not live as proper Overworld beings.” Faithful flowed to and fro around him. Similarly, the trio were benefiting from the circulation of the faithful energy, though, they did not know. “There are more moral codes in the Life God’s teachings, but these five are the most vital. Follow these five mandates and you will live a virtuous life.”

 

“The first mandate: One shall not allow evil to exist.”

 

“The second mandate: One shall be fearful, but not cowardly.” 

 

“The third mandate: One shall take, but not commit thievery.” 

 

“The fourth mandate: One shall abstain, but beware thy limits.” 

 

“The fifth mandate: One shall not kill, unless they are deathly.” 

 

The Bone Squad listened closely and their eyes stared blankly and intensely at Yang Yang. “Any questions?” 

 

Bone Three raised his hand. “Uh, yeah, all of them. What do they exactly mean?” 

 

“Hm? Is it not self-explanatory?” 

 

“No, it is. But, it’s also ambiguous. Is it not a matter of perspective on the way to live by these mandates? Seems like there’s a loophole in all of those.” 

 

“Ho? Explain.” Yang Yang looked at Bone Three with curiosity. It had been many years since someone had questioned the Life God’s teachings. 

 

“Say the first one. What is evil? Say a man killed another man, and that is evil. However, what if the second man killed the first man’s father? Since it is revenge, is the murder justified?” 

 

Without missing a beat, Yang Yang replied, “No. All life is valuable, even a murderer’s. The second man may have sinned, but the first man sinned as well by killing. The second man will be sent to Purgatory or to the Ghostly Domain if his sins towered high enough, while the first man will be sent to Purgatory for purification. In the end, not all evil can be eliminated. If you see evil, crush evil. Got it?”

 

“Okay, then what separates being fearful and being a coward?” This time, Bone Two spoke up. He was a reserved, proud individual. He would have never asked if Bone Three or Bone One did not talked first. 

 

“All living creature is afraid of something. However, nobody should ever submit to fear. One should be aware of fear, look at it in the face, and proceed forward in brave strides. Never be passive, always be active. To be a coward would be to run away from what you fear. There are many things we fear such as poverty, mediocrity, hunger, loneliness, disgrace, meaninglessness, rejection, and death...” Yang Yang voice trailed off at the end of his speech. 

 

Not noticing anything odd, the Bone Squad continued their questioning. Bone One raised his voice."I understand the concept of taking and not stealing, but from what are we abstaining from?" 

 

"Dark desires. The desire over another person. The desire over a person's property. The desire to overeat. The desire for comfort instead of challenges. The desire to hoard. The desire to harm. The desire to lie. The desire to confuse. The desire to bring others down. Any and all desires that result in the defilement of character are dark." He paused to let them comprehend. 

 

"However, we are creatures with complex cognition and emotions, and the chaotic nature of the universe will always give birth to these desires. We will always desire bad things. Dark desires can not be stopped from existing, but it can be suppressed from manifesting. There will always be uncontrollable things in our life, but we can at least control our reactions to the uncontrollable." 

 

The Bone Squad fell silent. Yang Yang's words contained insights of Life Magic that he had pondered in both of his lives. As followers, the Bone Squad naturally felt effect of the sermon and even gained insights into breaking through the next few levels of Manifest Aspect. 

 

Bone Three spoke once again: "Lord Yang, then is the fifth mandate contradictory? If we can not kill any life, then why is anything 'deathly' an exception? What is deathly anyways?" 

 

"All things that are deathly refer to the beings of the Underworld. Whether they are demons, ghosts, dark angels, fallen angels, desolate beasts, corrupted souls, or Underworld gods, anything and everything from the Underworld is vile. Their existence is formed by malice, evil, sin, corruption, desolation, depravity, and all else that is wicked. They only serve to kill and ruin the Overworld. They have no life, only death. Such beings completely go against the teachings of the Life God." 

 

"But Lord Yang, do they not have their own consciousness? Demons have sense of kinship and loyalty, no? Ghosts were once living creatures, no? How can we treat them as though they are lower than us?" Bone Three's tone changed very slightly, but his companions noticed it. Yang Yang ignored the shift in his tone. 

 

"True, but they only have a consciousness for sin and destruction. In other words, complete nonsense. They are lower than us. We of the Overworld are naturally superior with greater minds and deeper compassion for living beings, not like the deathly beings who seek even the destruction of their kind along with ours. The teachings of the Life God promote mercy for all living beings, and deathly beings do not, and will not, ever apply to his teachings. Such beings can not be saved from their damned existence, other than by purifying them out of it." Yang Yang's boundless voice rang in their ears. 

 

"We are holy and virtuous, and they are immoral and sinful. That is an absolute truth." 

 

Bone Three furrowed his eyebrows, but did not retort. Yang Yang sent down three streams of energy that transmitted information into their sea of consciousness. "This the rest of what you need to know. Although reading it won't give you as much insight as my personal explanation, you may gain further insights. This sermon is now over." 

 

The Bone Squad bowed and left to their own warship. Along the way, Bone One and Bone Two berated their junior. 

 

"What was that? Why are you challenging the lord so much? Don't you feel your cultivation base becoming stronger and firmer? You know, I can tell he was irritated with those last questions." 

 

"My bad. It's just... the five mandates did not sit well with me." 

 

"So what? We live by the Life God's teachings now. Just deal with it. Follow the Scion of Life, and we'll become eternal. Besides, demons and those other deathly creatures are evil. It's fine to crush them." 

 

"Indeed, you shouldn't have gotten so worked up. We made mistakes, but at least we can atone it by following the Life God's teachings, unlike Underworld creatures that follow the Death Goddess." 

 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Life God's teachings are good and all, but that last one... leaves a real bitter taste in my mouth. It just feels off, compared to the other mandates, but I can't put a finger on why though." 

 

A few hours after Yang Yang's sermon, his group and the legacy students departed from the Fourth Layer and descended deeper into the Arcane Abyss.