MTL - Holistic Fantasy - ~ 058 changed and never changed

A striking man of mysterious origin and peerless talent, he looks back at the world, in all its entirety, with utter disdain. And yet, in the treacherous and unpredictable ultimate formation of the Boundless Secular World, he guards a breathtaking ancient qin with broken strings, waiting silently for the destined one to arrive!

A boy encounters him, and knows for the first time that the world beneath the Heavens is a fickle place. Not even demons, devils, ghosts and monsters can match the frivolity of human nature!

A slender physique, and jade-like beauty, but the sword that strikes between heaven and earth is not unlike a streaming rainbow!

The vastness of the starry sky, the seven emotions and six desires! Greed, anger and ignorance! The teachings of Buddha will grant you boundless strength!

A sea of blood will come, at the cost of all mortal beings full of honest hope!

The ghosts wail as the gods roar, but the sea of blood has no end!

Where, pray tell, is the path I should take?

Since there is no path, no matter how bitter and bloody the sea, even if my boat is made out of bones, I will soar to the heavens above!

- Description from Novelupdates

I smile. I know I smile. I just don't know when.“Entropy?” After all, the blood in my veins dried up decades ago, only dust remains.“Ephemera?” My begging longingness—all of my dreams, devoured by void. Left is but an empty shell—hollow inside.“Life?” Paradox.“Death?” Cold, but equal for all. Just like the blood in my heart's arteries and veins— frozen—time immemorial.“Universe?” Its fabric—time and space, wrapped around like some illusion, a grand simulation—just like that dream...faint, but there.“Dream?” I couldn't tell...very...disorderly like chaos, like silhouette in the mist, hard to capture, it's memory very faint.“Home?”“Home?”“Are you there?”...***Reality fiction.

Xueyue's life was filled with nothing but unfortunate events. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father abandoned her for another family, her stepsister stole her beloved, and she was framed for a murder she didn't commit.
Sentenced to death by beating, Xueyue thought her horrible life would finally end.

“In a world where the strong climb, the weak are thrown to the depths. I didn’t climb, I was thrown… and I kept falling...until the Abyss stared back.”When the world ended, the tower rose from the earth, and humanity was forced into a game of survival against nightmare-fueled monsters. Machines stopped working and amidst the chaos, Xior Arden, a broken orphan boy with empty eyes was cast into the lowest depths of the Abyss.There, the weak don’t die quickly. They suffered and so he did suffer.But the Abyss chose him.With the power to absorb runes from fallen monsters, evolve his body into higher forms, and steal the essence of the creatures he kills. Xior begins to climb the tower, not as a hero. But as the thing which the Abyss itself fears:A Monarch born in the dark.***Additional Tags: TowerClimbing, Anti-hero, System, Revenge, WeakToStrong, MorallyGreyProtagonist, CunningProtagonist, ArrogantProtagonist***