Obsessed to Madness

Do you really think humans can cultivate themselves, ascend to heaven, and become immortals? Could it be that they merely struck a bargain with some force of nature, perhaps unknowingly or without realizing it, yet arrogantly believed they deserved all the credit? Just think: in ancient and primordial times, were any of those who held power human? And how did those rulers’ words and deeds ever measure up to being pure-hearted, humble, loyal, filial, compassionate, or defenders of the weak?

So those are all just stories, born of the envy humans have accumulated and suppressed after yearning in vain for what they could never attain. They are tales made up and spread with spite as an outlet.

And that clan, long accustomed to being slandered, even giving you free rein to slander them, was wiped out long ago.

Do you know why? They were gluttonous, but not indiscriminate eaters. That clan was obsessive: not only insatiably greedy, but exceedingly particular. And their hypersensitive bodies meant that even when they swallowed the dead, they felt every trace of their past: hatred, pain, and grief, all clear as day. What person could bear such a tangled mass of memories and emotions?

Now that clan has died out, leaving no stain behind. Their two causes of death were both bleak and almost laughable.

Because...

They either ate themselves to death or starved to death.