I am the Main Character? No thanks!

“Stop it! Doing this won’t achieve anything!”

“No. it will achieve something. Specifically, it will rid this world of both me, and you for at least some time.”

“You fool! Why do you wish to sacrifice yourself for these weaklings??”

The young man who was forcefully absorbing the Qi from a few dozen Spirit Stones in an act of suicide did not even pause to answer the man while furiously absorbing the Qi, causing his body to begin breaking down at a cellular level.

“I am not sacrificing anything for anyone. I don’t have anything in this world to live for. But, if I simply commit suicide, I have no doubt that a demonic bastard like you would easily take control of my body and commit acts that I can’t even begin to imagine, that is why, I must destroy the body first.”

“Damn it! Why are you so insistent on this? I promise I will not cause any trouble for the mortals. Stop this right now! If you continue doing this, even the bead will not be able to heal you.”

The man did not say anything but continued to do what he wanted to do. When nearly half of his body had already started turning into a shriveled corpse, the demonic cultivator stuck within the Heavenly Reversal Bead could not delay anymore and acted.

“Fine! Fine! I swear upon the Heavens that I will never attempt to take over your body unless you give me permission. Now stop killing the both of us!!”

Immediately, a heavy pressure fell upon the surrounding areas while lighting flashed in the sky with dark clouds suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

It was a sign that, while rare, was something that most cultivators were familiar with. It was a sign that showed that the oath made was acknowledged by the heavens and that the consequences of breaking this oath would be very severe.

It was only once the oath was made that the man stopped absorbing the Qi from the Spirit Stones, causing him to collapse to the ground, knowing that he did not have much time left.

“You foolish boy. Was I really this stupid and self-righteous in the past?”

“I refuse to acknowledge you as me.”

“Yeah, yeah. You made that very clear with this action of yours. But, I must ask, why do you care so much about others?”

“I do not care about others. I care about my morals and values. And what you did and will do given the chance, is not something that I will ever tolerate, especially with my body.”

“Not like I can do that anymore. You did a really good job of killing yourself. I can’t even begin to describe how I am feeling right now, watching my foolish and naïve younger self dying due to his stupidity. Now, I have to stay with your corpse for who knows how long in this random forest between the nearest city and the Great Wilderness until someone finds the bead. Seriously, why couldn’t you do something stupid like this after reaching a settlement close to the Great Wilderness?”

“So that you could trick some innocent boy or girl into becoming your puppet immediately after my death? No thanks. If someone is unlucky enough to find the bead after my death, I can only call that fate, but if you ended up causing trouble to someone because of my negligence, I cannot handle that on my consciousness.”

“How hypocritical.”

“What can I say? I am a human, after all. Not like a demon like you can understand.”

The demon fell silent with frustration, and a tiny amount of pride at his younger self, waiting for the foolish boy to die. He prepared himself for a long wait and started trying to see if he could fall asleep in this bead.

However, before he could do that, something strange started to happen when the man’s blood came in contact with the bead.

Instantly, the demon within the bead felt a pain the likes of which never experienced in the thousand years he had lived. But, beyond the pain, he felt something strong, the presence of someone else, as his soul was involuntarily connected to another.

He tried his best to try and sever the connection, but the bead would not allow it as a lot of the demon’s memories flashed through his mind, including his most intimate and personal details along with all of his skills and techniques.

But that was not all. His grudges and his gratitude. His thoughts and laments. His joys and sorrows. His everything was laid bare for whoever was connected to his soul.

It was only through sheer willpower that he managed to trace the connection to the soul of his younger self. The only theory his jumbled thoughts could come up with was that the bead had somehow caused a resonance between his soul and the soul of his younger self, a sound theory because bar a few differences and their levels of soul cultivation, their souls were nearly identical in every way that mattered.

Then, just as suddenly it had appeared, the pain disappeared, leaving the demon reeling in relief, terror, and confusion. A state that did not last long as a gargantuan amount of power flooded out of the bead and assaulted the unconscious boy’s body, repairing and strengthening the body at a fundamental level.

Something that it had never done before even in his past life. The only thing it was ever capable of was storing his secrets and providing adequate regeneration and immunity to poisons, the same way it functioned before for the boy as well.

Then, he heard it. A deafening roar of a monster that he could not identify, originated from deep within the bead. Its very existence caused the demon’s soul to shake in fear and awe. However, it swiftly retreated back into the depths the moment it detected that the boy’s body was completely repaired.

It would take a few more hours before the boy would awaken and ask the demon about what happened and why he was healed. The demon stayed silent.

It was only when the boy was attacked by a turtle-type Demonic Beast within the Great Wilderness a few days later, that the truth would come to light, leading the boy to develop a ‘cultivation technique’ based on the bead’s abilities.

The children embraced me, whether it was the smaller ones or the teens, and I could not help but laugh fondly at their actions.

The selection held by the various sects and forces of the empire went very smoothly. Of course, I managed to spread rumors anonymously about the Alchemy Guild’s plans, causing an all-time low number of disciples being accepted into the guild, much to their anger if the way they sent high-level cultivators to find the source of the rumors was anything to go by.

In the end, all the children decided to stick together and accepted the offer from my former sect, the only sect within the recruiters that did not have requirements for specific spirit roots.

Of course, I did not fail to warn them about who to watch out for and all the necessary steps that they needed to take to protect themselves.

This is what led to the current scene just outside the city gates.

It was time for the children to leave with the sect’s people and they were told to say their goodbyes.

“Remember, watch out for each other, no matter the circumstances. The people of the sect will try to divide you, try to sow discord among you for their own gains and politics depending on your talents. You must never allow such acts to divide you.”

“We know, Big Brother.”

“Good. Then, the final lesson. What is the best action to take when faced with arrogant cultivators or cunning people?

“To stay humble and get out of their way as quickly as possible.”

“What is the best kind of behavior in a Sect?”

“To stay low key and quietly advance.”

“What is the best course of action when confronting your enemies is unavoidable?”

“Go for overkill, always. Be very thorough and leave no traces of our presence or anything that implicates us behind.”

I nodded in satisfaction as the children whispered all the things that I taught them back to me while looking around wearily for eavesdroppers.

“And what if your enemies as stronger than you?”

“Run away and hide ourselves, or convince them that we are dead while increasing our strength. Only when our strength is at least ten times higher than our enemies should we make another tentative attempt at getting rid of them. Even then, the attack should be swift with the intent to kill while making sure to throw the blame on someone else in account of the possibility that the target would escape this attempt.”

“….Those young masters and the arrogant core disciples in the sect are done for.”

I ignored the demon’s words and nodded at the children’s words before embracing them once more and motioning them toward their future sect.

“Be careful. Don’t forget, should you find that life in a sect is not for you, you can always come back to the village.”

The younger children had tears in their eyes as they nodded while the teenagers nodded and escorted the younger ones to the carriages of the sects.

“I truly hope that they can have a bright future.”

“Then, you have learned nothing from what happened to us. Those bastards will never allow a cultivator from a mortal background to achieve greatness within their sect.”

“It does not matter. From what I gathered, the children don’t intend to stay in the sect forever. They have their own goals and ambitions and a single sect can never hope to accommodate those lofty ideals.”

“Having ambition does not mean that they can achieve them.”

“…Can you stop being so cynical all the time?”

“Can you stop calling me a demon and use my name?”

“No.”

“Then, I won’t stop either.”

This bastard.

Shaking my head, I watched the carriages swiftly disappear into the distance. Only when my enhanced eyes could no longer keep up with the carriage and it disappeared into the distance did I turn around and head back into the city.

I need to head back to the village tomorrow, might as well take the time to see if I can find something interesting in this place.

“That thing is completely useless, boy. There is a reason why I am selling it at the same price as the raw materials used to forge it.”

“I know, but like I said. I want it.”

“Fine. I’ll say this beforehand, I won’t take it back even if you want to return it in the future.”

I laughed at the old man’s annoyed face before placing a hundred spirit stones on the counter which the man quickly swiped and placed into his storage bag.

I took the staff made from Green and White Jade with Spiritual Gold rings adorning the entire structure and placed it into my ring.

While it is indeed a failed product and completely useless to other people, that is not the case for me.

“Please don’t tell me you are going to use it as a blunt object and hit your enemies over the head with it.”

“Do you take me for a barbarian? Of course, I won’t do something like that. I am going to make a spear with it.”

“But why? Aren’t you already using those Winged Tiger claws? Why switch your weapons so quickly?”

“The claws were a temporary weapon for me to fight beasts. If I am to fight cultivators, I will need a proper weapon.”

“True, but still-“

I waited for him to finish his words, but even after an entire minute, he said nothing which made me wary of my surroundings.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

“..Kill her. KILL HER NOW!!”

“…What? Did you lose your mind-“

“KILL HER BEFORE SHE KILLS US!!”

I ignored the demon’s raving and warily looked at my surroundings, trying to spot this ‘her’ that he was going on about.

But, all I saw was regular mortals that were slowly starting to inch away from me in fear due to my stance.

“IN THE ALLEY! SHE ESCAPED INTO THE ALLEY! GO!!”

Whatever it is that is causing this guy to panic like this cannot be normal, so I decided to follow his advice and ran into the alley.

Just in time to see a shadow flash towards the end of the alley, heading deeper into the place.

I immediately bumped up this being’s threat level once I realized that it was much faster than a mortal should be.

Flooding my body with Qi, I shot forward like a bullet, chasing after the shadow.

Even if it was faster than a normal human, it was not as fast as a Cultivator, especially a body cultivator like me, so it did not take me long to catch up to it, spotting a long black cloak covering a tiny figure that was desperately running away.

Immediately, doubts started to rise in my heart.

“Hey, why is this being so small?”

“DON’T LET HER APPEARANCE FOOL YOU. KILL HER IMMEDIATELY!!”

What is happening?

As the doubts in my mind started to increase by the second, I finally caught up to the being and pulled it into the air by grabbing onto its cloak.

Revealing a girl that was probably only 11 or 12 years old.

Her red eyes shone with terror as her body shook in the air. Whether it was due to fear or due to cold since her clothes could only be called rags at best, I did not know.

“…What the hell? It’s just a child!”

“DON’T WAIT!! KILL HER NOW!!”

“SHUT UP!! I AM NOT KILLING A CHILD TO SATISFY YOUR SICK FANTASIES!!”

“….You don’t understand. Take a good look at her, doesn’t she remind you of anything??”

I once again looked at the girl hanging in the air with a closer look. Still, I did not find anything strange. Sure, her ruby red eyes are quite rare and possibly the reason for her current situation since red eyes are considered an omen or a curse by the mortals. But, it is nothing worth noting for a cultivator, the same goes for her scarlet hair since there are many people with- Hold Up!!

Red eyes, check. Scarlet hair, check. Orphan? Highly likely given her current state.

Tentatively, I sent a sliver of my Qi into the trembling child that was on the verge of sobbing and received a backlash almost instantly with Fire Qi invading my spirit roots. Fortunately, there was nothing in there that the Qi could destroy so I ignored it for now given the groundbreaking revelation I just received.

“…Holy shit!! It’s Yan Ling!!”

“The very same Yan Ling that kills us in the future! So kill her already!!”

“Dude, not cool. She is just a child-“

“DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT HER BEING A CHILD-“

“Yeah, I’ve heard enough. Take some time to calm down.”

I cut off my connection to the demon and slowly lowered the girl to the ground, but I still kept a hand on her trembling shoulder, not enough to hurt but enough to make the point that she would not run again.

Shit! This is a tricky situation. How do you talk to someone that you know will kill you, a version of you anyway, in the future?

“P-Please Forgive me! Master Cultivator. I-I’ll return the fruit that I stole. S-so, please let me go. I’ll never d-do something like this again.”

“Calm down, kid. I am not going to harm you. I just want to ask a few questions.”

Clearly, this girl did not trust my words If the way the fear in her eyes multiplied exponentially was anything to go by.

I couldn’t help but sigh as the girl nearly broke down crying when I stared at her for too long.

Why is my life so complicated?