Dancing on the golden ashes-Chapter 205: Played like a fool again...

I could see the confusion and panic written all over his face. His eyes were locked onto mine, as if searching for some shred of humanity, or maybe pleading for me to spare him. But not today, I thought with a quiet, twisted laugh.

"I-I!" he stammered, his voice trembling, "I don’t actually have any information on the beast... that was all a lie to draw you out... p-please spare me, I was foolish." The emperor, who had once commanded the respect of so many, now dropped to his knees, begging for his life. Stay updated with novelbuddy

My rage flared up instantly. There was nothing I despised more than being lied to, nothing more infuriating than someone playing with my emotions. The intensity of my anger sparked something inside me, and before I even realized what was happening, my soul energy began to spiral wildly, pushing me to the edge of control.

I’ve been played again… again and again, people pushing my buttons like it’s some damn game. I lost everything—my friends, my chance at peace—and I have no time for this anymore. So why do they keep doing this to me? Why do people insist on messing with me like this? Had I sinned so much that now anyone can just trick me however they please? This is unacceptable.

I haven’t even had my revenge yet. The CEO of that damn Sun Gaming team is still out there, somewhere. I hope he’s alive because I will skin him alive when I find him. But now...

Now, this piece of shit thinks he can lie to me, drag me out here to the middle of nowhere and waste my time, when I could be hunting for serious clues? No. No, no, no… this won’t do.

I have to kill him.

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"You can’t! Calm down, Gaon," the eerie voice interrupted, but I shoved it away. I locked it deep in my mind, finally able to push it back. The rage, the overwhelming anger, was what had given me the strength to do it.

My palm rose into the air, and the red lightning crackled violently around it. With a swift motion, I swung my hand down and slapped Khalid so hard that it sent him flying through the air, crashing into the palace walls with a deafening thud. I couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead—honestly, I didn’t care.

I didn’t waste another moment. I turned and launched myself into the sky. If I stayed any longer, I might’ve killed him for real, but something told me the fact that I didn’t get a system message meant he was still alive. He’d pay for this insult one day, but not today. There were more pressing matters, more urgent things to deal with.

I needed to find the demigod-level beast. Time was slipping through my fingers, and with every passing second, the fear in my chest grew stronger. What if I was too late? What if my friends were already gone?

In mere hours, I found myself flying over the vast ocean, frantically attacking the water with strikes of my power, hoping for a reaction—hoping something would be drawn out. But I was being foolish. I knew it. This ocean was endless, a boundless expanse that stretched far beyond my reach. Where the hell was I even supposed to start?

But I needed to release this anger, or else it would consume me. If I unleashed it on the people in the city, it would be nothing but ashes by now. I couldn’t afford that, not with everything still left undone. I felt so damn lonely, so helpless. And as time dragged on, another ten years slipped by without me encountering a single demigod-level beast.

The world had changed, empires had risen, and life flourished where once there was none. But me? I felt detached, numb even. What was the point anymore? There were no more challenges, no more enemies worth facing. The demigod beasts had all but disappeared, and even if they did exist, those who sought them rarely returned. They died, their stories lost to the void.

When I reached level 200, I stopped hunting them. It was pointless. The thrill of the fight, the chase—it had all faded. I didn’t care about my rank anymore. I didn’t care about anyone’s opinion. I found a secluded mountain far from civilization and shut myself off from the world. When I ascended to the Soul Lord stage, there was no hunger for power, no burning need to fight. All I craved now was peace—hunting a few beasts now and then was just enough to keep me busy.

I hadn’t changed at all. I should be around forty by now, but I looked the same, felt the same as I did in my twenties. Time seemed to have completely frozen for me. It was a strange, fleeting sensation—a weird kind of stasis. The world around me moved forward, but I? I stayed still. How fascinating and strange soul energy was, almost capable of making someone immortal.

In all this time, I had reached the very end of the Soul Lord stage in my cultivation. I was closer to the Soul Fusion stage than ever before. But life... that was where I still struggled. The laws of life were too difficult to grasp. I needed more time, more learning.

Learning. That’s right, I could still learn, but it would take time. A hundred years, perhaps. During this time, could I truly understand life? I had nothing left to lose, nothing else to do.

Then, a realization hit me. I hadn’t used this skill in forever. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it. Superior Space Distortion had evolved into a new skill—[Space Control]. With this, I could do more than just move through the air like a fish in water. I could hide myself within the folds of space itself, watching the world from a distance, observing without being seen.

A thought sparked.

"I’ll watch people live and die in this endless circle. Only then, when I truly understand the laws of life and death, will I be ready to advance to the next level."