Hearing Adam's question, the old man instantly had a reminiscent and sad expression that made Adam slightly regret asking such a question that wasn't really important to him.
"I am sorry, master. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to" said Adam.
"No it is fine, I will be dying soon anyway, so I might as well tell you all you want to know," said his master, who despite being sad, was ready to face his past and his regrets.
"While I was trying to form my own family in New York and was trying to leave behind my past with the ancients and everything that happened with me, I found someone that I clicked with. She was beautiful, kind and caring, which made me feel as though she was my salvation and the good in my life, but she was very frail and also didn't have the talent for cultivation"
"However that wasn't a problem for me and I didn't care about what she was capable of. My entire life before her had been all about cultivation, power resources and emotions were forgotten by the ancients. They would never take time to become real friends or lovers with others, and would mostly only become friends or lovers based on their own benefit. Having children had become more like breeding and that woman helped me realise that life can be happy if one spent it with those they cared about"
"We lived happily and I spent a lot of time with her whenever I could, but would be busy cultivating or dealing with the disciples that I had taken in. She would always cook for me and it broke my heart to find that her frail body made it so that if we had kids, it was almost guaranteed that she would die in the process. Even with the cultivation resources and knowledge that I had, I had no way to strengthen her body that rejected most energy and was decaying internally"
His master's story was so touching and sad and it was clear that he genuinely loved that woman, which was why Adam tried his best to reassure his master and take his story seriously.
"She was willing to die for the sake of us having a child, but I couldn't bear to lose her and also wasn't ready to have a child. I loved her and wanted children, but with the longer lifespans of cultivators, it was normal for ancients to have children after they are in their senior years"
"Time went so quickly for me and her and we enjoyed all of it, but over the years, I looked the same while she was slowly becoming older and older. I didn't care and still loved her, but she slowly began to push me away, not wanting me who looked young to be with her who was old"
"I told her everything about my past and she was my wall to lean on despite her frail body. Even compared to an ordinary person, her body was weak and her lifespan was short, which was why I tried so hard to search for any treasure or method to increase her lifespan"
"I left for years in search of a way to increase her lifespan and heal her body that suffered from a rare condition that I had never come across before and I finally found the method to do so, I found it in an underground tomb that was being excavated by some young ancients. I didn't kill them or alert them of my presence, as that would shock the entire ancient world that thought they were untouchable and managed to get the technique before them"
"It was a Negative Cultivation Technique, but it didn't need necessarily require me to harm anybody. Although that could be used, it could also be used by using one's own lifeforce, blood and cultivation to increase their own lifeforce or somebody else's"
"I was going to use it to give her some of my lifeforce, but when I returned, I found a note and found that she had already died. I hated myself and wished that I had decided to spend the last moments of her life with her, but the note said that she was happy and that made me feel slightly better"
"The time with her was the happiest in my life and when she died, all I felt was loneliness. When I was with her I was starting to be able to cultivate again, despite the scarce energy and hardly any resources when compared to the ancient lands, but after she died, my cultivation reached a halt again"
"Not long after that, I was betrayed by my disciples and their subordinates that I had been nurturing and supporting for decades and since I was already feeling low and they had the element of surprise, I was severely wounded by them and had no chance but to escape"
"I lost the will to fight and with the loneliness, hate and regret I was feeling, I almost fell into negative cultivation. There is something known as an Evil Ghoul and they are humans that had been consumed by negative energy and they lose their mind and all they can do is kill and consume others"
"I almost became an Evil Ghoul, but managed to suppress myself using the memories of her, and the rest you can figure out. I was too unwilling to die and let go of my life, despite all the physical, mental and emotional pain it caused me to do so"
"Master, have you destroyed that method?" asked Adam.
"Why? Do you want it?" asked his master.
"No, I want to destroy it. Death from old age is mercy and should be a peaceful event, as long as one lived their life to the fullest. Extending one's life is merely causing them pain and suffering or doing so to others. That technique, unless it can be turned into a useful healing technique, should be destroyed" stated Adam.
Hearing that, his master smiled and was proud of his disciple.