Extra's Death: I Am the Son of Hades - Chapter 789

Chapter 789: Land Of Hope And Despair [2]
Neo took a shaky breath.

“Then… just stop burning the Life Flame… before it is completely used up.”

It was a risky gamble.

But he had no other choice.

The Heavenly Record began the process.

The Cracked Sword—Neo’s Life Flame—started trembling.

The cracks widened slowly.

Neo shuddered and fell to the ground.

Burning his Life Flame and consciousness was nothing small.

It felt like his entire mind caught fire.

The pain tore through him, so sharp that he almost reached up to tear his own hair out.

He suffered under than pain for hours before he fainted.

Everything went dark.

In that darkness, he felt hands lifting him.

Someone was carrying him.

Soft, blurry voices reached him.

“Is… cultivator… it?”

“Help… village…”

“Could… danger… shouldn’t…”

He couldn’t understand the rest.

His body hurt too much.

The technique was healing him, but the cost was brutal.

Burning his Life Flame and consciousness to heal was like eating your own flesh to survive.

Even if someone accepted the idea, the efficiency was extremely low.

Neo drifted in and out as someone placed him on straw mats.

Everything around him felt like a blur of sound and darkness.

Time passed without shape.

Seconds, minutes, hours, he couldn’t tell.

But he knew someone was placing wet cloth on his forehead.

Someone fed him warm soup with slow, careful hands.

Someone stayed beside him.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Record kept healing his wounds bit by bit.

Hours passed.

Or maybe it was days.

It could have even been weeks.

Neo didn’t know.

But slowly, his strength began to return.

At last, his eyes opened.

He stared at a mud ceiling.

His body felt weak.

Very weak.

It reminded him of when he still had a Awakened Demigod-rank body.

He took a deep, slow breath.

Even that made his chest ache.

He looked around.

He was lying inside a small mud hut.

A thin, torn blanket rested over him.

Cold air brushed his skin.

‘Cold? I can feel cold?’

This world was too strange.

Neo couldn’t tell if he had grown much weaker… or if the world itself was simply stronger in some unknown way.

He glanced at the bed beneath him.

It wasn’t a real bed, just straw piled on the ground.

His “pillow” was another bundle of straw tied together.

He pushed himself up.

A sharp pain cut through his chest.

“What… is this…?” he coughed, blood spilling from his lips. “Is… healing not… completed?”

[This is it, Master.]

[Anything more, and your Life Flame will reach critical level and you will die.]

Before Neo could respond, someone opened the door.

A young girl, maybe eight years old, peeked in.

She stepped inside and looked around.

Her eyes met Neo’s.

She froze.

They stared at each other for a moment.

Neo gave a small nod.

“Hello. Were you the one who helped—”

“Kyaaa! Brother! The strange uncle is awake!”

Neo blinked.

“Hey, wait. I’m not an uncle,” he called, but his voice was too weak to be loud.

The girl didn’t listen.

She dashed out of the hut while shouting those words to everyone nearby.

Neo sighed.

A few minutes later, a boy around fifteen stepped inside.

The girl hid behind him and peeked from the side.

The boy looked nervous.

“How are you feeling now?” he asked.

“I’m much better. Thank you for taking care of me until now. I’m Neo Hargraves,” Neo said.

“I’m Dara,” the boy replied.

He still looked uneasy.

His eyes studied Neo with a mixture of caution and curiosity.

The girl tugged on her brother’s sleeve.

Then she asked, “Uncle, are you a cultivator? What Dao do you follow?”

“Gina! Is this how you talk!?” the boy scolded.

The girl’s face twisted.

Her lips trembled.

Then she burst into tears.

“Waaah! Why are you scolding me? I was just asking! Waaah!”

“Wait—wait, stop crying,” Dara said in panic. He had scolded her only for her safety. Cultivators were known to be eccentric and would kill anyone if they believed they were disrespected.

Dara tried patting her head.

That made her cry harder.

He tried wiping her tears.

She howled even louder.

Neo watched the entire scene from the straw bed, unsure whether to laugh or sigh.

After a few long minutes, Dara finally dragged the crying girl out of the hut and sent her away.

He returned alone and stood in front of Neo.

Neo could already tell the boy wanted something from him.

There was a reason he saved Neo instead of leaving him to die.

Dara hesitated.

“Uh… are you a cultivator?”

Neo blinked.

“What’s a cultivator?”

The boy’s excitement drained from his face.

His shoulders dropped.

Whatever he was hoping for clearly collapsed.

Still, he tried to explain.

“Cultivators are people who breathe in the Qi of Heaven and Earth. They cultivate a Cosmos inside themselves. That is what I heard. But this is just common knowledge. I don’t know much more.”

Neo stared at him.

A Cosmos inside themselves?

That was… familiar.

Too familiar.

Cultivators here created Cosmos inside themselves.

Heavenbreakers did that too.

And yet…

The way the boy spoke, it sounded like this was normal here.

Neo asked carefully, “How many Heaven— Cultivators are here?”

“Huh? I… I don’t know. Only people in the Heavenly Sect would know,” Dara replied.

Neo felt something twist in his stomach.

“Heavenly Sect?” he repeated.

“It’s the big sect. The one where cultivators train. You don’t know even this?” Dara asked, confused.

Neo’s fingers tightened around the straw beneath him.

Something felt wrong.

Very wrong.

This world had Laws that crushed him.

A technique that burned his life barely kept him alive.

The people here spoke of Cosmos cultivation like it was normal.

His heart gave a slow, heavy beat.

‘What is this place?’

He pushed the question aside and lowered his head.

“Thank you for helping me,” he said again.

“Oh— it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” the boy replied.

He didn’t leave after that.

He stayed there, standing in silence, watching Neo with an unsure expression.

Neo noticed it.

He asked, “Is there something you wish to tell me?”

The boy hesitated for a moment.

Then he spoke.

“You should leave.”

Neo nodded.

He pushed himself up.

His legs trembled, and his body felt weak, but he managed to stand.

It made sense that the boy wanted him gone.

The children seemed to have very little.

Taking care of another person must have been hard for them.

They had spent their time and resources on him.

Neo wanted to repay them somehow.

But right now, he could barely walk.

And he had far bigger problems.

Loan had affected his Cosmos.

His body was unstable.

He didn’t know the rules of this world.

Still, he wanted to help the children before leaving.

“Is there any wild animal troubling your village?” Neo asked.

They lived in a forest area, and from what he had seen, everyone here was a normal human.

Dealing with wild beasts would be dangerous for them.

Even if he was weak, he believed he could hunt at least a monster or two.

It would be enough to repay their kindness for now.

The boy blinked and nodded slowly.

“There is a bear in the north forest. But it’s quite dangerous. So be careful to not leave through that direction.”