Against Heaven's Will

Xuefeng's sudden outbursts caused the crowds to slowly quieten down. 

"This world has already so much brutality. You leave the Safe Zone and you risk getting robbed or killed. Why do we add more death knowing how hard it is already?" Xuefeng questioned unhappily, not liking the current trend. 

No one dared to utter a word, giving Xuefeng the chance to speak. 

"I'm not against killing. If someone threatens me or my wives' life, I will kill them without hesitation, but this is something else. Top experts of the Land joined the Tournament with a reward that no one would reject. And the results? Tens of dead bodies all over the arena," Xuefeng displayed as he pointed at the arena. 

"I'm guilty of it too. I was tempted by the reward but I didn't wish to win like this. I don't kill for fun, so you all can enjoy the show. I kill because I have to. I was forced to kill else I would be killed instead. Everyone already accepted such a cruel reality but I won't. I hate it." 

Xuefeng took a deep breath as he collected the Elemental Core. He wanted to continue when Sir Liu appeared next to him out of nowhere.

"Life and death have a very thin line in the world of Cultivation, but I partially agree with you. We shouldn't feel joyful from the death of our fellow experts but at the same time, what is wrong with celebrating a victory?" Sir Liu questioned. 

He didn't let Xuefeng reply as he continued, "Just as we shouldn't feel joy from death, we shouldn't take away the choice everyone has. Anyone who joined the Tournament knew the risk. Instead of training patiently, they decided to risk their lives for a quicker path to success with only a little chance of winning. This teaches us that gambling your life is not always the best idea, but we can't take away such opportunities."

Sir Liu glanced at Xuefeng and displayed his Storage Ring. 

"With that said, Xuefeng turned out to be the strongest and I'm happy to announce, he is the winner of this Tournament!" Sir Liu called out excitedly and suddenly thousands of Upgrade Fragments flew out from his ring.

"Whoa! Look at all those Upgrade Fragments! Let's give a round of applause for our winner!" the Commentator followed up immediately, causing the crowds to cheer once again.

It seemed like everyone forgot what Xuefeng was saying just now, his speech ruined by Sir Liu. 

"Why…?" Xuefeng asked confused, knowing Sir Liu did it on purpose. 

"Don't ask questions. I will explain later," Sir Liu replied quietly before sucking in all the Upgrade Fragments back into the ring and passed it to him. 

"With that, the Finals of our Tournament ends! Thank you all for coming and enjoying this afternoon with us. Goodbye, and take care!" Sir Liu announced loudly to everyone and grabbed Xuefeng's shoulder, teleporting them away. 

Xuefeng thought he would take them to the Platform but instead, they appeared in an office. 

"You shouldn't have done that," Sir Liu immediately scolded. "You don't realize how important controlled deaths are."

"Huh…?" Xuefeng paused, not expecting this. "Controlled deaths?" 

Sir Liu rubbed his forehead as he walked up to a cabinet to pour himself some liquor. 

"What do you think is the main point of this Tournament?" Sir Liu questioned before replying right away. "It is only because of you that it became such a mess. The rewards went up which caused higher desperation from all the Participants even though you were bound to win. Normally that wouldn't be the case and there would be fewer deaths." 

Xuefeng frowned.

"That doesn't explain Controlled Deaths. Was I meant to kill everyone?" 

Sir Liu gulped down his glass. 

"I will tell you a secret. Do you know why there are still so many deaths even though we have Safe Zones?" Sir Liu began. "There is only one answer and that is resources. There are too few resources for the number of Cultivators that live in the Heaven Realm. Without any deaths, the Heaven Realm would simply become overpopulated. We create those Tournaments and encourage Cultivators to explore on their own to filter the weak that wouldn't survive in the long run anyway."

Xuefeng's eyes widened, not expecting that. 

"That's…." Xuefeng muttered, unable to find a correct word. 

"Inhumane? Unfair? It's nothing like that," Sir Liu shook his head. "It's the necessary evil and the natural selection at its finest. If we sheltered all of our young experts, the competition for the resources would become even more deadly than it is now. Only the strongest survive and it has always been like this. You cannot break this balance. With the number of years we can live and the safety of the Safe Zones, random deaths are necessary for the Heaven Realm's future." 

Sir Liu sighed and approached him, patting Xuefeng on the shoulder. 

"No one is forcing you to kill if it's not necessary, but don't try to ruin a perfectly working ecosystem." 

Xuefeng didn't get the chance to reply before Xuefeng's surroundings changed and he saw four familiar figures in front of him. 

"Xuefeng! Are you okay?" 

All the girls exclaimed at his sight as they ran up to his embrace. To squeeze him tight. Xinyu hesitated for a moment but in the end, she stood on the side, sharing only a gentle hug with them. 

"I'm fine, don't worry," Xuefeng assured, despite being confused. Sir Liu's words were still stuck in his mind but the more he thought about them, the more sense they had. 

People will always fight for limited resources and if he tries to stop it, others will replace them. It's the never-ending cycle that was impossible to break. 

"What was that speech? If you don't feel like killing, you can always leave that to me. I don't really mind since I don't care about other people," Nuwa suggested, causing another thought to emerge. 

'I guess focusing on oneself and not caring about others is really a go-to mindset in this world…' Xuefeng thought as he leaned to kiss Nuwa on the lips. 'I will just focus on myself, my wives, and our future. Improve, protect, and enjoy. A new path to happiness.' 

"Xuefeng? Why are you staring at me like that?" Nuwa asked but Xuefeng only smiled as he hugged them all closer. "Thank you." 

They all tilted their heads confused but he didn't say anything else. 

'Is Tianshi alright?' Xuefeng asked in his mind and as a response, Tianshi and Mona appeared behind him, momentarily stealing all the show. 

"Mona!" Yiren exclaimed as she skipped towards the pretty fox and the girls follow suit, surrounding Tianshi. Since Ling let her leave, it could only mean she was alright so he stopped worrying. 

"Congrats on the win~" Xinyu chirped as she finally approached, patting him on the chest. "I knew you can do it." 

"Thanks," Xuefeng replied casually as he took a look at the platform. "Where are all those experts who were after me? I thought they would be here." 

"I told Uncle Liu to find another place for them since Nuwa would easily start a fight with them but it seems my parents were the ones who handled it," Xinyu replied as she glanced at Sir Liu. 

"We already predicted there would be conflicts so my brother decided to send them off as you are under his protection now," Sir Liu explained when they heard footsteps. "It seems like they are coming back already." 

They looked at the other exit and saw Golden Queen walk into the Platform but Sect Master Liu didn't accompany her. 

"Is everyone ready? I'm supposed to escort everyone to the Palace," Golden Queen announced, causing the petting session to stop. 

"Are we in some danger?" Nuwa wondered. 

"Well, I can't promise there will be none. Xuefeng's performance caused a major uproar and it seems more and more Powerful Cultivators are coming to the Capital to target him," Golden Queen said as she gave Xuefeng a look over. "The safest solution would be putting you on house arrest for at least a week till we calm down the situation."

Xuefeng's expression paled. That was exactly what he was worried about. Displaying too much power just drew even more greedy eyes to his Elemental Bracelet. 

"Brother-in-law, you will protect the girls, while I will take care of Xuefeng," Golden Queen continued as she extended her hand to him. "It is better if we move now and prepare before it's too late." 

"What about Master?" Xuefeng asked, realizing the seriousness of the situation. 

"Well, he is currently talking with some of his old friends. I left before any battle broke out but I can tell they were eager to test their skills. I'm not planning on fighting any old geezers so I decided to protect you directly," Golden Queen replied with a shrug. "Don't worry, we promised to protect you guys so we won't let anyone touch you. Are you coming?"