In an unknown location:
"I'm... Am I... alive?"
Lan Rudong sat up from a lying position and observed his surroundings.
Clean, white, hard ground and a seemingly infinite horizon filled with snow-white clouds. A pure blue sky, with even more white fluffy clouds, blocking almost all of its blue luster.
It was a beautiful place, that was for sure. A place beautiful enough to lose yourself in it.
Where am I? Lan Rudong thought.
"This is the land of gods," an ethereal female voice answered.
"Land of the gods? Why am I here?" Lan Rudong spurted out in surprise.
He tried to spot the being that just spoke but couldn't find the source. The voice had sounded like it came from every direction at once.
"Why? Well, what do you think?" The voice asked in a somewhat amused tone.
"Why?" Why? Lan Rudong thought long and hard to remember how he got here until his last memories suddenly surfaced within his mind.
He had fought Michael. Well, fought was an overstatement. Michael had simply carried him away with an irresistible force, a crushing force, an unavoidable force of nature. And then there was nothing.
"I died? Am I dead?! Tell me! Am I dead?!?!" Lan Rudong suddenly realized the probable truth.
"Silence!" The ethereal voice spoke calmly yet with unshakeable authority.
Lan Rudong's knees instinctively bent, he knelt down, and his mouth started to bleed from the incoming pressure of the voice itself.
"You are not to command me, a true god," the goddess spoke, letting Lan Rudong feel the pain for a few minutes before stopping.
After seeing that Lan Rudong stayed in his kneeling position, without daring to look up and speak, the goddess spoke again.
"You learn quick; that's good. Let me explain your current situation. You died indeed, but being the graceful goddess of earth, I will grant you a second chance at life. You will become the pioneer for a new world of mine. A world rich in Qi and without any disturbances, you will be the foundation of a new civilization."
Lan Rudong, not really sure how to fathom what was happening, asked in surprise, "Why me? And what if I'm not willing?"
Laughter echoed from the heavenly horizon: "If you are not willing, you can go back into the wheel of Samsara for all I care. Shall I send you back now and let you be reborn as a snail?"
"No, no. Please forgive me. I will follow your command. What do I need to do to satisfy your wishes?" Lan Rudong asked in desperation. Bargaining with God was truly a stupid idea.
"Don't be mistaken. You will not be my slave, as you are unqualified. Instead, I will give you close to infinite freedom and lifespan; you only have to follow two simple rules.
Rule 1: Never mention your past life.
Rule 2: Do not kill any humans.
Otherwise, you are tasked with spreading certain spiritual plants across this world. Sacrifice your harvest and you will be rewarded."
Lan Rudong, hearing the voice of a god promising him such a proposition, wasn't sure how to react. He just died but got revived and even offered the promise of infinite power, just for planting some plants, not talking about his past, and not killing people? Hell, he could even continue his hobby, only without killing this time.
Still in a kneeling position, Lan Rudong bowed down deep. "Blessings to the earth goddess. I, your loyal servant, will be at your command. Your loyal servant has one final question, though. Why did you choose me?"
A melodious, otherworldly laughter rang through the open air. "Chosen? I never chose you. Well, you are my chosen now, but the process was without any specific target in mind. You just got lucky. Well, now that I take a closer look at your soul, I can sense deep resentment; it seems like you got killed. Hmm, if you fulfill your duties well enough, I might even let you kill the mortal that killed you. It all depends on your output."
"Thank you, Goddess." Lan Rudong bowed once more. "I am ready to fulfill my duty."
"Good, but there is one last thing. After death, I only saved your soul, not your body. That's why I constructed an entirely new body for you. It is a new life after all. Depending on how you behaved during this conversation, I would give you a better or worse body.
In the end you did decently, but the earlier transgressions warrant punishment. Your body will have one random mutation. I don't know what it will be, but you will find out soon enough. Any last words before you begin on your journey to create a new civilization?"
"I am ready to begin," Lan Rudong simply answered. One dysfunction within my body. As long as it doesn't hinder my cultivation, there shouldn't be any problems.
"Good."
The scene went temporarily black, as Lan Rudong's head started to hurt like someone repeatedly hit it with a rock. The pain was almost unbearable, but Lan Rudong persisted. He knew it wouldn't be easy and that it could take longer than he could ever imagine. At some point though, he might be able to take revenge on Michael. Something he needed to accomplish.
The pain stopped as abruptly as it started, and Lan Rudong returned to his senses. He was in a huge hall, with massive rows of empty storage and only a single wooden door, ten meters high and five meters wide.
Looking at the impressive stone floor and walls, he suddenly found a mirror as well as seeds and small papers lying next to the door.
Taking a look into the mirror, he could only feel excitement as he looked young and handsome, a perfect appearance to continue his hobby. Then he looked at various seeds and papers that contained instructions on how to plant each separate seed.
He casually took them all with him and was about to head out before remembering something important.
Wait, what is the malfunction regarding my body? He checked the mirror, but everything seemed to be in place. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms, legs, feet, toes, hands, fingers, Wait!
Lan Rudong hastily took off the white robes his handsome body wore and soon felt like he had become a ghost and died once again.
The malfunction within the body was indeed a body part. The missing piece was his penis.
...
Lan Rudong's new life was simple. Receive plants and an instruction, follow the instruction, wait for the plants to grow, harvest, and deliver.
In his free time he would cultivate the heights he never knew even existed and praise the goddess for his new life. Well, he kind of hated the goddess deep down, though, due to personal reasons...
What on the surface seemed like a dream, though, had turned murky as time had continued to pass.
It became repetitive, almost boring. He felt like, right now, he could've been the king of his old world with his abilities, but in this world, nobody was there.
He felt like Michael wouldn't even be worthy to lick his shoes, yet he was nowhere to be seen. Completely out of reach.
He had prayed to the goddess to send someone else in for a long time now. Someone who would finally give him a feeling of superiority. His new obsession after anatomically having to close off his last obsession. And someday his wish became a reality.
Out of nowhere the doors to the palace of the goddess opened, and an unknown figure walked out with slow, measured steps.
It was a woman, seemingly in her early twenties, wearing the same robes Lan Rudong had started his new life in.
She had a slim frame and glowing red eyes. In contrast to her black hair, these eyes were the most notable feature in her face.
The first impression was villainous rebel, as she looked around the place with wonder and at the hut in the distance with contempt.
But that was no issue at all.
As a newcomer, she was exploring the place; that was clear, Lan Rudong thought.
A fine subordinate indeed, he mused before stepping out of his hut and introduced himself.
His new body had already begun to age to a certain extent, but he was beyond content with that. He had lived far longer than he would've ever imagined and still had a lot of time left.
Time that would finally be spent on something more meaningful than in the past. Time of ruling an entirely new world.
"Welcome to the holy land. You may call me Xuanze the chosen," he started and showed off just a tiny sliver of his power.
Naturally, though, it was enough to bring the newcomer to her knees and establish the clear dynamic he desired.
...
Time passed, and Lan Rudong enjoyed his time much more than before.
He had someone to command, to teach, to impress.
The woman, or rather Cui Zhaoyang, was obedient and frugal. She worked hard and let Lan Rudong command her as he needed.
Surprising indeed. No fight, no words of hatred, no time to get used to her new condition. Like a robot, she would follow his commands like a robot, but just with enough emotion to make him feel something.
Lan Rudong himself sat back and let her bring back the rewards of the goddess. She would always bring the rewards to him first, and he would distribute the rewards as he deemed appropriate: The best for him, and leave Cui Zhaoyang with what was left.
He would be the strongest of this world; as more people would come, he would command more might. Naturally, he needed to use these tactics to stay the strongest.
Being a leader, a king. I will be the emperor of this world! Those were his prospects.
Michael and anything else had grown irrelevant. He could achieve whatever he desired. Maybe as the plants grew more exotic, he would even be able to heal himself...
But as the flow of time continued to advance from future to present, a sudden problem emerged.
Lan Rudong had controlled Cui Zhaoyang's cultivation every step of the way; he had given her worse cultivation techniques, worse martial techniques, and worse spiritual plants. He had hoarded everything he desired for himself, yet slowly but surely the gap in cultivation had closed.
Cui Zhaoyang was suddenly only a step behind him.
How? Why? Lan Rudong had no idea. He had lived at least 100 times longer than her, yet she was almost on par.
She would surpass him! That's what Lan Rudong realized, and that's when the voices started appearing within his own mind.
What will she do once she surpasses me?
She is a kind girl; I can control her.
No, she isn't properly groomed, she will escape.
No, I am enough to hold her in check.
They started tame, and Lan Rudong could calm himself down. But they just kept coming back stronger and stronger.
She will have her own free will.
No...
She will do what she wants.
No...
She will control this world.
No...
She will take your place.
No...
And after some time they controlled his very existence.
And she deserves it.
She is better than you.
She is the chosen one, not you.
She will not only take your place, you will take hers.
She will enslave you!
No!
She will humiliate you!
No!
She will control you!
No!
She will do what you did to those children!! She will do exactly that for the rest of your insignificant life until you fuckinnhg kksriiiiiezesgllllll YYYYououuourrsefdlgjhlllf!!!!!!!!
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The wind blew across the wide, endless land as Lan Rudong looked around franticly.
Cui Zhaoyang was peacefully picking finished spirit flowers without any reaction. She didn't seem to notice his outburst as she was too far away.
Lan Rudong knew he had to act; he needed to do something. He could no longer keep going like this.
Suddenly everything around Lan Rudong turned still until a single coherent thought emerged from his brain once more:
I need to cripple her and everyone else that ever comes to this place. MY PLACE!
...
The night was about to come. A rare occurrence. Here, night and day were not supported by the sun, moon, or stars. Instead, the sky itself somehow emitted light in the day and darkened at night.
It would not always take the same time cycles, though; it would vary. Night was generally shorter than day.
Lan Rudong had already tried to fly up high to investigate this phenomenon, but he ended up discovering a literal invisible wall. A wall he could not break. A wall, he deduced, was probably placed by the goddess, a wall that made this place inescapable.
As he waited for Cui Zhaoyang to walk into his foolproof setup of multiple layers of traps so he could cripple her cultivation and make her his slave, he somehow thought about this wall, this place.
Essentially we are slaves too, or are we not? He wasn't sure.
They would, or rather Cui Zhaoyang would, blindly follow the orders coming from the goddess's chamber.
They would do it for rewards, but what do these rewards actually accomplish? What was the actual goal of this world?
He had no idea.
Lan Rudong shook his head. Why would he think about it now? The solution, the goal, didn't matter at all.
He was about to ensure his goal. He was about to solidify his infinite rule of this world. What more could he want? All he needed to do now was wait for Cui Zhaoyang to arrive.
But Cui Zhaoyang never came...
Months had passed, and Lan Rudong could no longer wait. Thoughts on why Cui Zhaoyang suddenly no longer arrived to his yearly meeting fizzled through his mind in loose strings, yet no definitive answer emerged.
The best he could come up with was, "She has just forgotten our agreement to meet."
Something that had never happened before, yet what else could it be?
Lan Rudong decided to take things into his own hands. Time was not on his side on the minuscule off chance that Cui Zhaoyang had noticed his plan and planned to surpass him.
So he moved out of the house, passed by his set formations, and flew towards the open when he suddenly felt Cui Zhaoyang's presence.
It was far away from any vegetation. Far away from their home.
In a barren, rocky, yet flat environment with a ground of stone, Cui Zhaoyang stood silently like a statue, waiting for something or someone.
Lan Rudong arrived shortly after and saw that Cui Zhaoyang had her back still turned to him, although she had heard and felt him arrive.
From the back she looked like a celestial beauty. Untouchable and undeniable as the wind fluttered through her snow-white robes. The exact same robes she had arrived in. During the time she had spent here she hadn't aged at all. She had only followed Lan Rudong's orders and cultivated in her free time.
Lan Rudong, feeling somewhat inferior for some reason, could no longer hold back and spoke with real anger.
"Zhaoyang! What are you doing here? Why didn't you come to our yearly meeting?!"
Cui Zhaoyang didn't seem to hear right away, but just as Lan Rudong was about to scold again, she started to turn around slowly.
She looked the exact same as she always did, but something felt off.
Her outfit, her frame, her expression, all the same, just these red eyes... they seemed to gleam just a bit stronger than usual.
And as she started to speak, suddenly the eyes weren't the only difference.
"Xuanze, you are not only a horrible human being, but you are also an idiot. The former quality is acceptable; the latter, though... is not."
Lan Rudong was stunned. Cui Zhaoyang had never spoken to him in this tone and manner. She had always looked up to him, but now, was she looking down?
"Cui Zhaoyang! How dare you? Get to your house immediately! We will speak about your punishment there!"
"What a farce." Cui Zhaoyang sounded almost bored. "Old man, there is no need to keep pretense. Even a blind person would spot every formation you laid out. I know what you intend to do. I have been wondering why you wouldn't do so sooner. In fact I've been waiting for you." A dangerous smile flashed across her face.
"So you knew?! Then you know you will lose. I am still stronger. Now be good and cripple yourself so I don't have to do it!"
"How selfless... I fear, though, that crippling myself isn't an option. You will have to do it yourself. If you can, that is."
"Then so be it."
Two auras emerged at the same time. Two auras from different people, of different cultivation levels, strengths, and experiences. They had one thing in common, though: they were both full of killing intent, full of cruelty. One thing both of them had in common was:
They are both evil.
"How is this possible?!" Lan Rudong nearly cried as he felt the slightly superior aura from the opposition. Cui Zhaoyang had a lower realm; how could her aura be stronger?
"Old man. I don't know how, but your talent has to be terrible. You are a slow cultivator and a slow learner. You are stupid and naive. You couldn't even keep me in check and control the rewards properly.
You may have taken the best I've brought you, but that was only after I took the best for myself."
Lan Rudong nearly spit blood in anger before calming himself and preparing to fight.
No more words were spoken as the fight began.
Lan Rudong quickly gathered Qi into his palms and shot it towards Cui Zhaoyang, who nimbly dodged to the left.
The rocks where she had just stood were gone, not rubble, just vanished from existence, creating a massive crater.
Lan Rudong wasn't done though, as he had prepared another blast before even waiting for the first two to land, aimed directly at the spot where she had emerged.
Cui Zhaoyang, though, dodged again and again without any trouble, even finding the time to laugh as the destruction around her unfolded.
"Old man, you almost got me. Keep going, you will get me!" She mocked while dodging multiple waves of Qi blasts in succession.
Lan Rudong screamed and continued to fire before changing his approach in the face of failure. But no matter what he did, the result was the same.
He moved closer; Cui Zhaoyang moved away. He fired attacks; she would dodge. He changed moves; no problem for Cui Zhaoyang.
There was nothing he could do to hit her. And his Qi reserves slowly but surely dwindled. Something he realized only after it was already too late. His mind was still in a complete state of disarray; he couldn't control himself; he had gone borderline insane.
"Oh, already exhausted?" Cui Zhaoyang laughed almost manically. "I bet you never satisfied a woman in your life with your poor stamina."
"Shut up, whore!" Lan Rudong spoke for the first time during the fight that had become more of a game of catch.
The weakpoint of Lan Rudong was found, and insults continued to fly. Each more degrading than the last.
"AAAHRHHRHREAHHRHRHGGGRSGHHREGHGR" At some point Lan Rudong could no longer take it. Cui Zhaoyang needed to stop; he no longer could hear a single word of her. He could no longer live in the same universe as her.
Another roar sounded out of Lan Rudong's throat as he continued to throw attacks without regard for his own cultivation base.
But the only thing he faced was a constant stream of laughter and more insults.
And then, after around two days of "fighting," Lan Rudong could no longer muster an attack and simply fell.
By now, the place was not a smooth, rocky environment anymore. Craters were everywhere. It was like someone had carved mountains out of stone into the world. Just that all of the mountains were deep in a single valley within a 100-mile radius.
Lan Rudong had spent his blood essence; he had destroyed part of his cultivation; he could no longer fight.
And all of that without landing a singular hit.
Cui Zhaoyang, seeing Lan Rudong's state, stopped dodging and walked towards him at a leisurely pace, without any signs of exhaustion.
"That was fun; let's do it again sometime. Well, if you can that is, old man."
Then she gave Lan Rudong a clasp on his head before walking by him without looking back.
Just as she passed him, though, Lan Rudong had been given his final wish.
She had let down her guard and was too close to dodge.
With blood streaming down from his eyes, he mustered up his most destructive attack yet. Still a pure Qi blast, but with the power of his entire existence. In fact, he wanted to die right now. He wanted to die, but he wanted to take Cui Zhaoyang with him.
And just before he fired it, he saw Cui Zhaoyang's face. It was no longer a face of mockery; it showed genuine fear. The fear of what fate would await her.
And that moment alone made him happy. Even happier than he ever was while in this world.
Lan Rudong, with all his anger and resentment, fired his final attack, his first hit.
BOOOOOOM
The explosion happened right before his eyes. The already destroyed ground was torn apart once more, more drastically than before. Pieces of rocks were sent into the sky and into the far surroundings.
It hurt, hurt so much. Lan Rudong could barely feel his body, though. He thought he would die; surprisingly, though, he didn't. The pain was intense, yet Lan Rudong welcomed it all.
The more pain he felt, the more Cui Zhaoyang would feel. Living suddenly felt so good.
Seeing the broken-down Cui Zhaoyang lying on the ground, crippled and in pain. That was his wish.
The dust settled, and with the last of his abilities, Lan Rudong opened his eyes to see Cui Zhaoyang's broken body, sprawled on the hard ground, unconscious but breathing. He would torture her further. Forever, until the end of time.
But that was not what he really saw.
"Oops. I forgot to tell you something." A playful voice sounded.
"The holy earth goddess told me that to keep a friendly relationship between the chosen, we will not be able to seriously harm each other unless an official duel request from both sides is permitted by the goddess."
Cui Zhaoyang walked closer, completely unblemished and with an invisible barrier around her.
"So this fight was kind of useless."
"What?"
Lan Rudong simply muttered with his last might.
"Yes, weird, right? And she also said that whoever does break this rule is no longer immune to the attacks of others. What an odd world we live in, don't you think?" She said with an innocent smile.
Lan Rudong collapsed on the ground.
Lan Rudong had fought without the possibility of winning or losing since the very beginning. Yet he had still lost, played by the woman he thought to be his subject.
Lan Rudong had crippled his cultivation through overexertion.
Lan Rudong had later decided to end his life. That's when he found out no matter what he tried, he would not die. Not by hunger, not by thirst, nor by falling or anything else. It was like his body was made to be kept alive no matter what.
Lan Rudong, later, had tried to get killed by the goddess for talking about his past life, but before the first word was even fully spoken, his vocal cords had been destroyed.
Lan Rudong tried to destroy the fields but was apprehended and brought to a part of the world that was so far away that it would take 100 days on foot to return.
Lan Rudong could only continue to spend his life in this world. A world many called a gift of God, but he called an eternal prison.
The world's name is subjective in nature; some call it this or that. The person closest to it calls it "Iris", or "Siri" if in a mischievous mood. I myself, though, call it by the name bestowed by its creators. I call it:
Immortal Spirit Farm