The glowing rune on the girl's chest faded away, and soon her skin returned to normal as if the rune never existed. A slightly surprised expression appeared on her face as John had correctly identified her power.
"How do you know about the Dao of Time?" the girl asked curiously. "It's a power almost no one has experienced in this world."
"Ahhh….it's a long story," John replied sheepishly as his finger scratched his cheek. He couldn't explain the source of his knowledge.
"So that's how you stopped that creature!" John chimed up in realization. Back when they fought the skeletal creature, the girl had yelled "stop!" and the creature seemed to be frozen in place for the briefest moments.
"Yes," the girl replied, hiding nothing. "But using my Dao of Time is very taxing on my body, and it's even more so when I use both my Dao of Life and Dao of Time at the same time, like I did when I revived your friend. Its lucky that I made it in time, as if I was even thirty seconds late I would not have been able to save him then."
Her words explained it clearly, but John could tell that there was more to what she was telling. His questioning gaze continued to linger on the girl, a silent way of telling her he knew there was more. The girl stared at him for a short while in silence, before a sigh escaped her lips.
"My father explained something to me when I was young, after he realized the extent of my powers and what they could do," the girl said as she started to answer John's question. "While I was learning to control my powers, a close friend of mine…"
The girl stopped speaking for a moment, as if the situation was a hard topic for her to speak about. However, she quickly regained her composure and started once more.
"One of my close friends got gravely injured, and died before anyone could help them. I arrived just a moment too late to heal her, but the thought of using my Dao of Time coupled with my Dao of Life to revive her appeared in my mind. However…just as I started, my father appeared, and stopped me from doing so. He explained to me that to reverse death was to go against the natural order of the heavens, and that doing so would incur the wrath of the heavens, resulting in me being cursed by the heavens itself," the girl explained.
John raised an eyebrow upon hearing her words, but remained silent as he allowed her to continue.
"I never believed him, but I followed his words and never attempted such a thing again. Your friend was the first time I tried it, and even I didn't know if it would work, but thankfully it did, but at the same time, I confirmed my fathers words were right. When I brought your friend back to life, I felt an incredible pain, as if the world itself had rejected me, and the love it once felt for me was replaced with a curse" the girl said, her gaze locked onto John's, whose eyes widened slightly in surprise at her words.
"You…why would you do such a thing for someone you don't even know?" John asked, not understanding her actions at all.
"What good is remaining in the good graces of something that refuses to allow me to save lives, and instead consider me cursed if I do so? If the heavens are like this, are the heavens worth respecting?" the girl replied, her gentle voice turned slightly icy.
"Is that truly the real reason?" John asked as he raised an eyebrow. He could tell the girl didn't like the heavens, but also could tell that she was revealing the full truth.
The girl remained silent for quite some time as she sat on the ground, while John sat opposite her. Her gaze lingered on the ground before her before eventually returning to John's eyes once more.
"So…now that you know all this, do you have a way out of this trial? Or perhaps you would choose to venture out alone, knowing that I've become cursed by the heavens?" the girl asked. She would not be surprised if John left immediately after hearing what she just said.
Almost no one associated with one cursed by the heavens, as it would only bring bad luck and deathly life-threatening tribulations to them non-stop. Even if the tribulation was not a lightning tribulation every time, the heavens would throw dangers as the one cursed over and over until they eventually succumbed. Those nearby would also eventually be swallowed up by death, and so being cursed by the heavens was a taboo of the cultivation world.
John's serious gaze lingered on the girl's face, as he truly couldn't make out any of the reasons for her actions. Her talent was beyond heaven defying, and she surely would have been able to live a life beyond anyone's wildest dreams. However, she threw that away for Adam, and didn't even explain her reasoning afterwards.
His serious expression faded away as a smile appeared on his face. Surprise appeared on the girl's face as she saw John smile, that smile soon turning to boisterous laughter. It was as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, and couldn't contain himself.
John's boisterous laughter continued for quite some time, as he struggled to contain it. The girl stared at him in a daze, unable to understand what was going on. After quite some time, John's laughter finally died down. He wiped the tears of laughter that had formed in his eyes, and his gaze shifted back towards the girl who stared at him in confusion.
"What's so funny?" the girl couldn't help but ask, as his reaction was completely unexpected. "Are you laughing at me becoming cursed?"
"No…not at all," John replied, still recovering from his recent bout of laughter. "It's just that you mentioned me avoiding you due to you being cursed by the heavens. That's like a stream warning an ocean that it could get wet if it stays close."
A questioning look appeared on the girl's face, as his analogy seemed to indicate that her curse from the heavens was like a stream compared to his ocean.
"Are you not afraid of being cursed by the heavens?" the girl asked.
"Fuck the heavens," John replied immediately, not concerned at all. Surprise appeared on the girl's face as she heard John's words, as no one would dare say such a thing unless they were mad.
Boom!
A thunderous sound exploded overheard, causing the girl to shift her gaze upwards. Her eyes widened as she noticed clouds start to form high in the sky, becoming blacker and more terrifying by the moment. The aura emanating from the clouds was as if the heavens had personally arrived, with the only intention being pure destruction and annihilation.
The clouds lingered for a moment before they slowly faded away. John had pushed his cultivation to the very edge of breaking through for a brief moment, attracting the wrath of the heavens. However, he stopped at the last moment before breaking through, returning his cultivation to the Peak of the Meridian Forging Realm.
"Was that…your heavenly tribulation?" the girl asked, almost too stunned to speak. She had experienced only the initial formation of the clouds, and it was already more than anything she had felt before in her life. She could tell the heavens despised John more than anything, and compared to him, her curse was nothing more than a triviality.
"Now you should understand why I was laughing," John said as he stood up. "Now, my answer for getting out of this trial is to undergo my heavenly tribulation, but I'm not fully confident in being able to survive it. With your help though, it just may be enough to ensure my survival. So what do you say, do you want to face the full wrath of the heavens together? Or do you want to venture out alone, knowing that I'm cursed by the heavens?" John asked in the same manner that she had asked him.
The surprise on the girl's face slowly washed away as a look of determination appeared on her face. She stood up and stared at John for a moment, before a smile appeared on her veiled face.
"Mhmmm...I'll join you. Let us face the heavens' wrath together!"
