I Refused To Be Reincarnated

Gripping the last sect leader's soul by the neck, Adam soared. A mana platform met his feet mid-air as he towered over the Verdant Peak sect's grey tiled houses.

Through the windows, he noticed two types of disciples. The vast majority leaned over the windowsills, chatting with mocking grins, probably about how their elders had already felled him.

The other group—just over a hundred youths hiding in the smallest cottages—gnawed on their thumbnails. Eyes darted everywhere, hushed whispers passed between them, and trembling hands patted shoulders trembling even more.

Those... he would give them the benefit of the doubt. The first group, however...

His face hardened, and the sect leader's soul throbbed in his grip. "Y-You can't kill them all. They are the future of this province: the ones who keep villages and cities safe from magical beasts, bandits, demonic cultivators, and..." He bit his lip, his voice cracking. "Mages. We sinned, but what you're about to do is far worse. You'll doom hundreds of thousands to die—millions to live in misery."

Adam raised his palm. Mana roared in his magical circuits, the unholy quantity causing the leader's pupils to constrict. Could a human being hold this much energy? No! What mattered now was to stop him from shattering the balance of power. After all, even if his sect wasn't among the most powerful, its influence kept the surrounding ones at bay. Once gone, territorial wars would ravage this part of the Western region.

"Don't!" His roar reverberated through the mountain. "You'll become the public enemy of the cultivation realm, hunted by every sect, every cultivator. All for what? A vengeance that's not your own. Our dao ancestor won't sit idly, either. Can you bear to offend one of the three most powerful cultivators in the realm? You—a rogue mage whose ancestors were banished from the mages' archipelago?"

Adam raised a brow, his palm pausing beneath his chin. He observed the leader's soul, noticing how the corner of its lips curled. "I guess you're right."

The leader's tensed cheeks relaxed, only for his teeth to sink into his spectral lips at Adam's answer.

"I would have agreed sixteen years ago." Adam's palm picked up, reaching his blazing sky-blue eyes. "My little brother wouldn't have compromised. I won't either. The family you're trying not to think of, your concealed stash of wealth, even your granddaughter hidden in the very chamber she had used to torture children—nothing will escape a vengeance that isn't my own. Do you know why?"

The leader's breath caught in his throat, mouth opening and closing, but his voice refused to come out. It couldn't, when Adam's question wasn't one.

"Because I'm already the public enemy of the realm's central region, because I don't fear any of you, and because..."

Shadows danced on Adam's twisted lips. "Mages or cultivators don't matter. I can't even begin to fathom how you can live with all the children you've tortured for months, then killed in cold blood. That's not how humans should act, and therefore, I won't consider you as human beings—not even as magical beasts. You are parasites who believe you have a moral or intellectual edge on me after I crush the strength you prided yourselves on. You pathetic fool, I have no ancestors, and never relied on the archipelago for protection."

The mana condensed in his stretched-out palm erupted into blinding beams of pure light as his voice thundered. "Now watch what you've built on the blood of others turn into smoke and ashes. No one will remember your name or legacy, not even me. Total oblivion, that's what you deserve."

The leader tried to speak, to at least roar his name one last time, but soul threads made from mana pierced his lips, instantly weaving them shut. Hate, rage, and despair melded in his mind, but spite spoke louder. He couldn't give satisfaction to his killer—he couldn't stomach it even in death.

In a final act of defiance, he bit his lip, cursing Adam's lunacy as he tried to snap his eyes closed. Simultaneously, sky-blue mana fingers crawled on his cheeks and forehead, their tips forcing his eyelids wide open.

"MHHH!" Muffled wail escaped his lips, and tears trailed down his cheeks as Adam forced him to see the first beam collapse on one of the five grandest buildings: his pavilion... where his daughter and granddaughter hid.

BOOM

A raging pillar of light engulfed it, vaporising stones, metal, and flesh in the blink of an eye. More explosions followed, and more pillars reached for the sky, turning night brighter than day.

Adam towered in their midst, sighing. "That's not even one percent of how your victims felt. They lost their trust in their parents, who sold them because of you. They've starved and lived in faeces until you extended them a hand they hopefully grasped, only to turn them into potions or toys for your amusement."

He smirked as the leader threw him a deathly glare. "If anything, you should thank me for showing mercy you do not deserve. Now, disappear with your cruelty, guilt, and regrets."

His fingers crackled with soul mana as he crushed the leader's soul. It exploded into gray wisps, drifting amidst the chaotic blasts of light before they dissolved into nothingness.

The grime-covered children beneath extended their emaciated fingers, catching a few. Eyes sparkling, they raised their fists overhead, straining their throats with victorious roars. "The bad adults are all dead! We're really free. Free!"

The others echoed, legs buckling in relief and tears carving clean tracks down their cheeks. "Free!" They clapped their hands, chanting. "Adam! Adam! Adam!"

Even Wei joined them. He cupped his palms over his mouth, roaring. "You missed a few houses!"

Adam dismissed his mana platform, chuckling as he fell before Wei. Before he could even answer, twenty wide-armed children rushed at him into warm hugs. Their stench damaged him more than the battle, so he waved his hand. Warm water cleansed the yelping children, giving them a sweet scent of rose and smooth skin.

Then, he nodded at Wei. "I spared the young ones and those who showed little affiliation to the sect. I might be wrong, but I believe most are innocent."

With a snap of his fingers that made the children gasp in awe, the light pillars vanished, and the night's darkness returned to claim what was once its own.