The Siege of Beijing
Slouched on his imperial balcony overlooking the smoldering ruins of Beijing, Tao Yu Xin gazed upon the fallen city with a chilling indifference. His eyes lost in the flames and ashes, he recalled the warning of his master, Zhao Wunjin, once whispered in a breath of exhaustion. But the screams, the weeping, the death rattles of the ten thousand metahumans sacrificed for his cultivation had erased all trace of humanity within him. This chaos, this offering, was slowly leading him to a new divine stage.
— Hmm...? Tao uttered, barely intrigued.
His gaze fell upon the column of the first condemned. Among them, a woman with eyes burning with hatred met the gaze of the new emperor.
— You don't deserve to live! You're nothing but a monster, a mass murderer! she shouted.
Tao Yu Xin did not flinch. His sovereign calm even unsettled his most loyal assassin.
— Your Majesty Yu Xin, shall I execute her? she asked curtly, her blade already drawn.
— She'll die anyway, he replied in a neutral tone.
But suddenly, he noticed a child among the crowd. A little girl, her face frozen, her eyes void of emotion and inhumanly cold. Intrigued, he vanished from his throne and reappeared before her.
— Child… what do you feel?
— Nothing. I feel nothing, she whispered.
— Not even for your own life? Don't you have a survival instinct, like every living being?
— I want to live. I want to win. But I accept my karma, she said softly. I'm too weak to defeat you.
Tao Yu Xin gave a false, sympathetic smile. With a wave of his arm, he pulled her from the crowd.
— Very well. I offer you an opportunity: to become strong. To conquer. To walk beyond your mortal life and reach omnipotence. Do you accept... or do you die with them?
He placed in her hand a blade forged from dark Qi, gleaming with unholy light.
— Xu! Don't let this man corrupt you! Xu, come back! Please, it's mommy! cried a pregnant woman, her tears mingling with the dust.
— I want to live… whispered the girl.
With a precise motion, she raised the blade. And in a scarlet flash, the crowd was decapitated. Heads, arms, entrails, screams… pure carnage. The ground now ran red with blood, organs, and human remains.
Tao Yu Xin watched, unmoved.
— From this day forth, Xu Yin, you are my disciple. And you will walk with me to conquer the universes.
He clapped his hands. And the two vanished into a dark light.