William accepted none of the invitations.
Not a single academy.
Not a single sect.
Not even Andrew's recommendation.
For the first time in his life, he had no destination.
No enemy.
No tournament.
No trial.
No family waiting for him.
His revenge was complete.
His training had reached heights that few beings in existence could comprehend.
Yet every morning, when he opened his eyes, the same question echoed through his mind.
"Why am I still moving forward?"
He began wandering across Earth without any particular destination.
He deliberately chose not to fly.
He could cross continents in moments.
Instead, he walked.
Step after step.
Village after village.
Mountain after mountain.
He wanted to experience the world as an ordinary person once more.
Perhaps...
somewhere along the journey...
he would discover the answer.
One afternoon, he arrived at a peaceful village.
Children laughed as they chased one another through the streets.
Their smiles were genuine.
Their joy was simple.
William quietly sat beneath a nearby tree and watched them.
Hours passed.
He expected to feel warmth.
Hope.
Perhaps even happiness.
Instead...
he saw memories.
His younger self.
Victoria.
Their father calling them home before sunset.
Their mother smiling as she prepared dinner.
The children's laughter slowly faded.
Reality returned.
The village was no longer the one in his memories.
His parents were no longer waiting for him.
William stood silently and continued walking.
Several weeks later, he entered a bustling city.
Merchants shouted.
Blacksmiths hammered glowing steel.
Families argued over prices.
Musicians performed in the streets.
Life continued exactly as it always had.
William purchased food for the first time in years.
He sat among strangers and quietly ate.
Halfway through the meal...
he stopped.
He wasn't hungry.
His body no longer required ordinary nourishment.
He realized he had only eaten because he remembered that normal people did.
Not because he desired it.
He quietly left the untouched meal behind.
Months passed.
William began helping wherever he traveled.
He rebuilt bridges destroyed by floods.
He repaired homes damaged by storms.
He eliminated dangerous beasts threatening isolated villages.
He healed wounded travelers without asking for payment.
People thanked him.
Children admired him.
Entire villages prayed for his safety after he departed.
At first...
he believed helping others might become his purpose.
But eventually he noticed something.
For every village he saved...
another one suffered elsewhere.
For every criminal he defeated...
another appeared.
For every house he rebuilt...
time slowly destroyed it again.
The world never stopped suffering.
His existence changed countless lives.
But it never changed the world itself.
Perhaps...
teaching would be different.
William visited several academies in secret.
Not as a student.
Not as a master.
Simply as a wandering cultivator willing to share knowledge.
He explained cultivation principles.
Corrected flawed techniques.
Answered questions patiently.
The students admired him.
Some even called him the greatest teacher they had ever met.
Yet when he left...
the emptiness remained.
Teaching was meaningful.
But it was not his purpose
Someone else could always take his place.
High above the clouds, he returned to the mountains.
NOT because Cultivation
Not to grow stronger.
Simply to think.
Days became weeks.
Weeks became months.
He searched every corner of his own heart.
Every memory.
Every dream.
Every desire.
The deeper he looked...
the less he found.
Eventually...
all that remained was silence.
A vast, cold emptiness stretching farther than he could perceive.
One year after ending his training...
William returned to the graves of his parents.
He stood before them for a long time.
The wind gently carried fallen leaves across the ground.
Finally, he spoke.
"I kept my promise."
"I avenged you."
"I became stronger than I ever imagined."
"I obtained the Infinite Body."
"My soul transcended."
"I surpassed the World of Life and Death."
He smiled faintly.
A smile without happiness.
"...But I don't know why anymore."
No answer came.
Only silence.
He lowered himself to the ground.
Like a son speaking to parents who could still hear him.
"Father..."
"If you were here..."
"What would you tell me to do?"
Nothing.
He turned toward his mother's grave.
"Mother..."
"Would you tell me that simply living is enough?"
Again...
only silence.
Night slowly covered the sky.
For the first time since their deaths...
William broke.
Not in battle.
Not under pressure.
Not before an enemy.
He simply...
collapsed.
Years of grief he had buried beneath endless cultivation finally surfaced.
He cried without restraint.
Not because he regretted becoming stronger.
Not because he regretted his revenge.
But because he had reached the end of both paths...
and discovered that neither answered the question that haunted him.
He had gained unimaginable strength.
Yet he still woke every morning without knowing why.
William slowly rose to his feet.
His eyes were empty.
The tears had stopped.
Not because the pain had disappeared...
But because there were no tears left to shed.
He looked once more at the graves before him.
"I searched for a reason to live."
"I searched for happiness."
"For peace."
"For purpose."
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"I found none."
Silence answered him.
After a long time, he finally whispered:
"Then I have only one option left."
He slowly clenched his fist.
"If I cannot protect the people I love..."
"If the world can still take them away from me..."
"Then I simply wasn't strong enough."
His aura spread unconsciously across the entire mountain.
It wasn't filled with ambition.
It wasn't filled with pride.
It was filled with fear.
Fear of losing again.
Fear of arriving too late again.
Fear of standing before another grave.
William closed his eyes.
"I don't care about becoming a hero."
"I don't care about ruling the world."
"I don't care whether history remembers my name."
"From now on..."
He slowly opened his eyes.
"I will become strong enough that nothing in existence will ever be able to take away what remains precious to me."
He looked toward the endless sky.
"If that path leads to the summit..."
"...then I will climb it."
"If the summit demands that I become the strongest..."
"...then I will become the strongest."
Not because He desires strength.
But because He fears weakness.
And from that day onward...
William begun walking on the path of the strongest
Not because he had found his purpose.
He walked it because it was the only thing preventing him from drowning in the grief he could never overcome.