The Jester of Apocalypse

There was a large library within the inner circle of the capital. The Emperor owned this library, and the most extraordinary collection of publicly available knowledge was held within. Well, the knowledge was technically publicly available, but the monthly fee for using the library totaled over a million platinum coins.

A handsome, tall young man was reading books on the library's first floor, in a corner dedicated to alchemy. His pink hair, streaked with red locks, washed over his shoulder like a majestic sunset waterfall, and his face was the picture of perfection.

The robes adorned his slender yet muscular frame and folded in ways that invited one’s imagination.

He picked up yet another thick book, flipped it so fast that the pages flipping sounded like a fart, and then put it back on the shelf. Then he picked up another book.

Neave was rather salty. He had spent around a day or so experimenting and had already hit a massive wall.

Given that he wanted to leave golem creation for later, Neave flipped a coin to decide on whether he would be doing alchemy or blacksmithing first. The decision fell on alchemy. He did his best to attempt brute forcing his way into learning how to do it, but that was a complete failure.

He could sort of get things to work by combining his life force tendril with the potential of experimentation trick, but the results were limited. The core issue was that his knowledge of alchemy was simply too weak.

He burrowed through the walls with his worm form and sought libraries in the capital. There were many, but none were publicly open for free. When he paid the entrance fee for a few, he quickly learned that while the knowledge was decent, it wasn’t entirely satisfactory.

If he was going to go after knowledge, he may as well find the best source he could.

He was bounced from one library to another until he ultimately learned of this place. The greedy fuckers that ran this library wouldn’t allow for a one-time entrance payment but only accepted either a monthly fee or a yearly fee. There was even a lifetime fee for the low value of a hundred million platinum coins!

He had to pay a million platinum coins just to be able to enter. That was almost all of the money he had on his person. Both the money of the sect master and the elder he had liberated from their dimension rings wasn’t enough, even when put together.

He knew they must have more money hidden in their sect, but he wasn’t willing to resort to thievery.

He sold a massive bag of monster cores he had collected to gather the missing funds. Now he was broke.

Neave could yet again sell another rounded core, but if possible, he wanted to avoid doing that. The last one he sold wasn’t fully rounded, and even that was extremely valuable.

He wouldn’t want anyone to get suspicious of the cores too early. He had learned his lesson in Pavarrie. Neave wasn’t willing to deal with another pain in the ass hunt. If he ever had to get stuck in a chase again, he would prefer not to be the one being hunted.

Now that he was robbed like this, he would get every bit of value out of this forsaken library he could.

His perception ability allowed him to see the text, his enhanced cognitive skills were excellent for speed reading, and his dexterity surprisingly came in quite handy for flipping the pages at an incredible speed.

He was doing a smooth version of the pinch-and-fold method for flipping pages. Usually, he wouldn’t even be able to see all the text as the pages flipped too quickly or the bend made it impossible to see the inner part of the book, but his enhanced perception took care of both of those issues.

He was also doing a bit of a sneaky boost to his cognitive abilities with thunder nerves and reinforcing it with life force.

There was something Neave had realized about life force as he was doing his alchemy experiments. He already knew this before but realized it might be a problem.

Life force held an impression of a person's age. He could tell roughly how old someone was by perceiving their life force. It just never hit him that others could do the same thing. He didn’t have to think about that until now since it was only from platinum rank onward that cultivators could perceive life force.

This was a big mistake. If Neave went around trying to disguise as persons much older than himself, he would eventually be busted. He tried changing the impression of age within his life force, and while he could do it, it proved incredibly difficult.

He could only change the impression by around a year back and two years forward. He didn’t understand why it was easier to do it forward than backward, but that suited his persona just fine for now.

He could also eliminate the impression of age altogether, but he didn’t want to default to this since it would be far too suspicious. His veil over his life force and spirit would likely raise eyebrows, but he could at least justify that by claiming he had a dedicated spirit power.

Neave picked up another book and scrolled through it. At this point, he was already hundreds of books in, but he hadn’t even made a dent in the sheer volume of knowledge on alchemy. He had covered many of the basics and was confident this would be enough to tackle the everyday stuff he was dealing with.

But there was no way he would settle for anything short of squeezing this greedy library dry for every penny they took from him.

His unique combination of spirit powers allowed for an impossibly fast reading speed, but even with all of this playing into his favor, he still had to stop for a bit every twenty books or so.

It took a while for the knowledge to settle properly, and he felt it wouldn’t fully integrate into a comprehensive skill for some time.

Now that he was hundreds of books in, a rough headache started clinging to his head. This couldn’t be healed or brute-forced through, so he may have to take a longer break.

Neave turned around. The room he was in and every part of this library had a lot of open space littered with tables. These tables had quite a few disciples, surprisingly so. The capital's center must be immensely wealthy if so many could afford this brutally expensive library.

Neave walked over to one of the tables and took a seat. He noticed that quite a few people around him were giving him scornful looks. Neave didn’t understand why. After a few minutes of sitting there, a strange individual approached Neave’s table and sat before him.

It was a handsome young man with glittery green hair and stupidly ostentatious robes. Neave hated this person just for their shitty fashion sense. This young man was roughly fifteen years old, judging by what Neave’s spirit senses told him.

This was very strange, given that he was on the second step of the golden path.

Neave wondered whether he had ever met anyone so advanced at such a young age. Not even while running around the streets of the capital's center had he come across anyone so impressive.

It was so jarring that Neave wondered whether this person was somehow faking their age or cultivation.

The young man smiled pleasantly and spoke after a short pause.

“Greetings. I do not believe I have ever seen you around here before. Do you belong to any of the major sects?”

Neave just wanted to ignore him, but he couldn’t miss the opportunity to mess with him a bit. He mirrored this young man’s pleasant smile and responded.

“No, I am not. I have arrived with my master in the capital just recently.”

The young man’s eyebrows shot up a bit at that.

“Oh, really? Are you from within the Yixine empire?”

“Yes, I indeed am.”

The two young men smiled pleasantly at one another. Neave contemplated whether to play the fool or keep up his dignified young master shtick. After weighing his options, he settled on continuing the dignified persona.

He smelled an opportunity here. Whoever this was, he must be incredibly important. Whether they became friends or mortal enemies, Neave wouldn’t mind, but he would regret having the young man dismiss him as an idiot.

Just off the top of his head, he could think of countless benefits of having a connection in the form of some haughty young master.

The young man asked Neave another question.

“What is your name?”

Neave used his thunder nerves ability to completely paralyze his face so he wouldn’t grin like a goofy idiot.

“My name is Deeze.”

“Lovely to meet you, Deeze. My name is Dukean.”

Neave was surprised that this young man had neither asked for Neave’s sect name nor given his own. The young man continued.

“I have a bit of a question for you. Please, put your pride aside and answer honestly. Were you reading those books at that speed, or was that just a show?”

Neave nodded with a proud smile on his face.

“Indeed, I was truly reading those books.”

“Hmm. I dislike doubting others, but such a feat would be beyond incredible. Do you mind if I test you a bit?”

Neave nodded. The young man handed him a book from his dimension ring. It was a very dull record of the history of a minor sect that existed seven hundred years ago. Neave repeated his speed reading trick, flipping through the entire book in seconds. It was a genuinely uninteresting book.

“Alright, can you tell me who elder Ioken was?”

“He was the alchemist of the clan rivaling the Polien sect. His concoction crippled the young mistress of the Terrgo clan seventeen years before their downfall.”

The young man’s eyes shot up a bit, and he nodded.

“That is incredible. If this weren’t the only surviving record of this sect, I would have assumed you had read it somewhere before. Just to confirm, did you read it somewhere before?” He asked in a joking tone, to which Neave politely giggled and slightly shook his head.

Neave continued.

“I must admit, this book stood out as exceptionally boring. I have read plenty of books, including records of long-gone sects, but this one stands out as particularly uninspiring even among them.”

“You aren’t wrong, but that is precisely the point. The vast majority of records about the downfall of long-gone sects tend to be boring. The downfalls of sects tend to be boring in general. But that is exactly why they are so important. The problems that tend to bring about the downfalls of sects are rarely spectacular. The greatest danger lies in those uninteresting details. The failing of a single disciple, poor financial management, terrible choice of sect premises, disagreeable trade policies. These things are all simple, mundane, but far too many cultivators fail precisely because they overlook the mundane.”

Those words felt like a slap to Neave’s face. He was a little ashamed. He had assumed far too much about this young man. It seemed that this might be someone capable of holding a proper conversation.

“I fully agree with that opinion. There is just one thing I would like to ask. How do you feel about cannibalism?”

The young man blinked.

“I’m sorry? Cannibalism? That is… A rather unusual question, if I have to say so myself. But alright.” He chuckled awkwardly and continued, “It is often dismissed as barbaric and even inherently evil, but as far as I’ve read, it seems a bit more complicated. Take, for instance, the consumption of spirit beast meat. It is done frequently and even normalized among humans. But spirit beasts can attain a humanoid form at higher ranks. When killed in their human form, they revert to their bestial form. But what if they didn’t? Would it still be acceptable to consume their flesh if they appeared human? Humans often reason that only evil spirit beasts get consumed, so it is alright, even if they are sentient. But what about spirit beasts consuming evil humans? That is frequently shamed, and spirit beast sects get declared demonic if caught doing it. The only reason why spirit beast sects tend not to care about humans eating spirit beast meat is that there are so many different forms of spirit beasts. Why would the canine care if someone ate a feline? If anything, assuming that they should care could potentially be seen as a form of speciesm. From a practical perspective, eating high-rank human and spirit beast meat has similar benefits for humans and spirit beasts alike. Perhaps that is precisely why cannibalism is taboo in the first place. Maybe it is fair to fear it since the benefits of doing it could incentivize killing members of one’s species. But on the other hand, by logical extension of that proposition, would it not make killing any sapient creature for their flesh immoral? It is a tricky subject, but there are certainly cases where I could see it as at least not being completely unethical.”

Neave merely smiled and nodded at the answer. The young man lifted an eyebrow and smiled in return.

“I have to admit when you asked me this question, I thought you were perhaps a little unhinged, but after answering it, I can admit that one’s opinion on the subject is a great measure of how one deals with complex problems. I apologize for my prejudice. I would like to hear your own opinion as well.”

“I am personally rather pragmatic about it. Naturally, one shouldn’t go around killing anyone for personal benefit. But if someone must die anyway, their flesh should be consumed so they may atone for their transgressions.”

“Hmm… I must say, I am a little disappointed at how simplistic your view on this subject is. There is no nuance to it. Everyone should be eaten upon death by logical extension of your belief.”

“No. Only those that deserved death.”

“And who exactly deserves death? This isn’t something that can be judged objectively.”

“I highly disagree.”

“And what exactly is your objective measurement for this?”

“Take, for instance, a young woman. She falls in love and wants to start a family. She marries and has seven children. Now take a mass murderer that has killed dozens of people. On paper, the woman is worth more than the man, from a purely mathematical perspective.”

“Those situations are pretty clear cut, but what about more complex scenarios? How would you judge the value of the life of someone who has killed seven people and has seven children?”

“I wouldn’t and couldn’t judge the value of a single life. Every life is worth the same, but not everyone is worth the same amount of lives. In this situation, under the assumption of neutrality of those who had been born and killed, this man deserves death.”

“That makes no sense. You are contradicting yourself. You claim that all lives are worth the same. In this case, his numbers add up to a zero. Why would he deserve death?”

“His numbers only add up to a zero if you don’t finish the equation. It would be easier to know the numbers of those he killed, but if we assume neutrality, the man must die. His children had already been born, but their worth in lives would keep reducing for as long as he was alive. Not only would his parenting influence the way his children treat the lives of others, but others would also likely want revenge for those he has killed by targeting his children.”

Dukean sighed and continued.

“Again, even if we use this method of ‘objectively’ evaluating someone’s worth, there is simply no way to calculate someone’s value in lives reliably. It’s far too complicated a subject to be treated so haphazardly. Who is to say that killing the man won’t send his children down the wrong path? Perhaps they will go down a path of slaughter and revenge. If we take the logic of more lives being better and push it to the extreme, doesn’t it mean that the only moral way to live one’s life is making as many children as possible? Wouldn’t a society that lived by these principles have something of an overpopulation problem?”

“It may seem complicated, but it truly isn’t. Your argument rests on the premise that we are only deciding on the fate of this one man. If we decided the fate of everyone everywhere, the math would be much more straightforward.”

“Alright, but what about the whole giving birth thing?”

“Okay, I admit that was a bit of a stupid argument.”

“I wouldn’t say stupid. Let’s just say the analogy has reached its limit.” Dukean chuckled.

“But it’s well, okay yeah, just omit that part.”

“Either way, your last point is fair, but it has a massive practical problem.”

“And what problem may that be?”

“Who could possibly have enough power to judge the lives of 'everyone everywhere'? As far as we know, not even the gods can do that. If you wanted to live by such a moral paradigm, you would have to be able to put it into practice first, even just theoretically.”

Neave grinned.

“Well, now… That is indeed an excellent point. Let’s just say that my opinion stands only if that hypothetical criterion is satisfied.”

Dukean raised an eyebrow at that and smiled.

“Well then… I should probably get going. This was an excellent conversation. I hope I see you around in the library these days.”

Dukean got off the chair, bowed a little, and walked away. Neave looked around only to see the entire hall staring at him in shock.

These rich brats are so fucking weird, I swear to the heavens.

Well now. It was time to continue his reading.