The climb was a whirl of howling wind and trembling stone.
I was a spear, hurled from the heart of the earth, pointed towards the heavens. The darkness that had confined me for eons, so it seemed, stripped back, layer by layer. The gentle luminescence of the plants in the cavern gave way to a black so profound, so impenetrable, that I could hardly bear it. And then, suddenly, I noticed it. A pinprick of light. The entrance. The world of the living.
It expanded, and expanded, until it was a searing ring of blue.
With one last, tremendous BOOM, the rock column I was standing upon exploded upward from the earth, blasting dirt and broken stones in all directions. I jumped clear, setting down softly on the grass as the pillar of stone, its mission accomplished, collapsed and dropped back into the earth, closing the abyss forever.
I breathed deeply. The air. It was light, not rich as the abyss, but it was home air. Air of the Azure Sky Sect. The sun's warmth on my skin. It was pleasant. I was home.
I stood just behind the living quarters of the outer sect disciples. A location of crumbling shacks and shattered dreams. My old shack stood there, its door on one hinge, exactly as I had left it. A bitter smile found its way to my lips. Nothing here was different. But I was.
My unexpected appearance had not escaped anyone. A few outer disciples who were engaged in chores gazed at me, their jaws agape. Their eyes were wide with fear and disbelief.
"Long. Long Chen? That you?" one of them stuttered, releasing the water bucket he had in his hand.
"I thought. I thought you went into the Demon-Sealing Abyss!" another one whispered, stepping back.
I didn't reply. I simply walked. My gait was even, my back straight. I walked towards the inner sect square, the site of my humiliation.
Rumors spread quickly. By the time I hit the periphery of the square, there was already a crowd gathering. Murmurs trailed behind me like a swarm of flies.
"It's him for real! The garbage Long Chen! How did he escape the abyss?"
"Look at him. he looks different. There's no fear in his eyes."
"Hmph, different? Garbage is still garbage. He most likely just got lucky and landed on a ledge. Now he has returned to die."
I ignored them all. My gaze swept the square, looking for him. And then I spotted them. Wei Kun's minions. The very same group of inner disciples who had laughed loudest when I was kicked into the shadows. They were huddled together, boasting about something.
I altered my course and headed straight towards them.
One of them, a tall boy called Zhao Feng, noticed me first. His smug grin stiffened on his face. "You! How can you be alive?"
I halted in front of him. I was near enough to notice the alarm in his eyes.
"Disappointed?" I asked calmly. It was so calm it was frightening.
"Hahaha!" I tried to laugh, to pretend that nothing was wrong. "Disappointed? Why should I be? A piece of filth surviving is only a postponement of the inevitable. You've returned just in time for Brother Wei to kill you properly this time!"
"Brother Wei?" I stated, ice flashing across my eyes. "Is he your lord? Or your father? You invoke his name so obediently."
Zhao Feng's face went red. "You're asking to die! A piece of trash like you has the audacity to insult Brother Wei!"
He punched me. It was quick, fueled by his third-level Body Refining training. To the old me, this punch would have shattered my nose.
To the new me. it was pitiful.
I didn't even flinch. I let the punch hit me right in the middle of my chest.
Thud.
It was a soft tap.
Zhao Feng's eyes widened with shock. He stared at his fist, and then at my chest, in complete disbelief. It was as if he had struck a mountain of divine iron. The shock of the blow coursed back up his arm, and with a ghastly CRACK, his own bones snapped.
"AaaaaHHH!" he shrieked, grasping his shattered arm, his face white with pain and fear.
The onlookers gasped. No one could believe their eyes.
"Throwing fists at me?" I whispered, my voice loaded with contempt. I lifted my hand. "Let me show you what a proper fist looks like."
My fist darted forward. It wasn't quick. It was relaxed. But it had the power of a dragon. It struck his abdomen.
BOOM!
Zhao Feng's body crumpled like paper. His eyes popped out, and he spat out a mouthful of blood with what appeared to be chunks of his internal organs inside. He flew back like a defunct kite, smashing through a wooden fence before he collapsed in a heap, unconscious. Or perhaps dead. I didn't care.
The rest of the lackeys were paralyzed with fear, their faces white as sheets.
"Who's next?" I said, my icy stare scanning them.
They all backed away, tripping over themselves to escape. They gazed at me as if I were some monster who had just emerged from hell.
"What is the cause of this disturbance! Who is brave enough to make a disturbance in the inner sect!"
The arrogant voice, powerful and loud, cut through the silence. The crowd dispersed. Wei Kun was striding over, his handsome face creased in a frown. And on his arm, looking at the tableau with a tangled expression, was Su Mei.
Their eyes fixed on me.
Wei Kun's frown deepened into a look of unadulterated amazement. "You! You're alive?"
Su Mei's gorgeous face turned white. She gazed at me, and then at the corpse of Zhao Feng, and there was a fleeting look of fear on her face.
"Hahaha!" Wei Kun suddenly laughed loudly. It was a condescending laugh. "Hahaha! I must be dreaming! The trash indeed crawled out of the abyss! Did you miss my foot on your chest that much and climbed all the way back up for another bite?"
I simply glared at him, a thin, chilly smile on my lips. "Wei Kun. When we last saw each other, you said you were a dragon and I was a worm. Today, I will demonstrate to you that you have it all wrong."
I then directed my eyes towards Su Mei. She winced, not able to look at me.
"And Su Mei," I said, my tone gentle but each word a slicing knife. "The 'phoenix' who flew to a higher branch. Tell me, is the view from above good? You left behind a real dragon for this. barking dog. Your judgment is as cheap as your promises."
Su Mei's face paled, then reddened deep, fiery red. She was humiliated. Shamed. Her body shook. "You. Long Chen. don't be absurd."
"Absurd?" Wei Kun bellowed, his face contorted in rage. He had been publicly disrespected. The woman on his arm had been insulted. "You scum! You have the nerve to speak to me and Mei'er like that! You are inviting death!"
Pffft!
He was so enraged, so completely taken over by fury at my temerity, that a small trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He vomited blood, actually, because of rage.
"Good. Very good," he spat, cleaning the blood away. "I was going to give you a swift death. Now, I'm going to shatter every bone in your body, one piece at a time, and get you to beg me to kill you!"
He burst with strength. The presence of a ninth-level Body Refining master erupted, weighing down on the crowd. The weaker disciples fell backward, their faces ashen. This was the strength of one of the inner sect's leading geniuses.
He charged at me, his fist radiating a soft white glow. It was the sect's hallmark martial art, the 'Piercing Light Fist'. It was an advanced technique.
But to me, it was a tantrum of a child.
I held firm. My blood was buzzing. The energy of the Primordial Dragon was awakening in me.
"Master, he's just a bug," Xue'er's teasing voice echoed in my head. "Don't use a dragon's claw to slay a chicken. Just hit him. Hit him so hard his mother won't know him."
An evil grin spread on my face. She was right. He wasn't worth my fist.
When his radiant fist came flying towards my face, I dodged.
To everyone else, it would have appeared that I had disappeared. I was simply. missing from my position.
Wei Kun's punch connected to thin air. His eyes widened in shock. Where did he disappear to?
I materialized beside him. My steps were silent, as a specter.
And then I slapped my open hand.
SLAP!
The noise was not deafening. It was sharp. Like a firecracker.
But the impact was devastating.
Wei Kun's head jerked to the side with so much force that the neck bone crackled like a whip. His body, which had been charging forward, was spun sideways. He soared through the air like an abandoned ragdoll, a spray of blood and shattered teeth flying through the sunlight.
He smashed into a stone statue in the center of the square, destroying it on impact, before landing on the ground as a broken, bleeding heap. He was out cold before he reached the stone.
The whole square was completely silent.
You could have heard a pin drop.
Everyone gazed. First at Wei Kun's spasming, shattered form, then at me. I stood there, serene, lowering my hand, not even a particle of dust on my clothes.
One slap.
One solitary slap.
The lower-quality outer disciple, Long Chen, had bested the prodigy inner disciple, Wei Kun, with one, degrading slap.
The shock was so immense it was tangible, suspended thick in the air.
I turned my head and looked at Su Mei.
Her face was a mask of sheer, unadulterated horror. Her body was trembling so violently that she could hardly stay on her feet. Her mind just refused to accept what she had witnessed. The man she had referred to as a dragon, a prodigy, a way out of her misery. had been swatted aside like an insect. And the man she had referred to as a worm, rubbish, a waste of space. had turned into a monstrous creature.
She gazed at me, her eyes pleading. Perhaps for forgiveness. Perhaps for mercy.
But she didn't find either in my eyes.
All she found was the cold, empty space. The indifference that is colder than hatred. It's the glance you reserve for a stranger on the road, for a pebble on the highway. For something that no longer exists.
"You see, Su Mei," I told her, my voice a low whisper that everyone could hear. "You were right. We are from two different worlds. I just happen to be in the upper one right now."
I didn't wait for an answer. I turned my back on her, on Wei Kun, on the whole stunned crowd.
"Xue'er," I thought, a smile playing on my lips. "That felt good."
"Hee hee! Naturally, it did, master!" her melodious voice cooed inside my mind. "But slapping garbage is only an appetizer. Now that you've demonstrated your power, you need to find an actual woman. A lovely fairy with a special physique, ideal for you to. you know. dual cultivate with. Your Myriad Flowers Dao Physique is famished!"
My cheeks flushed slightly at her taunting words, but my heart was peaceful.
She was correct. Revenge was sweet, but only the start. My true enemies were waiting for me out there, in the Heavenly Demon Palace, in the central Long Clan. I required power. Ever more power.
And my transformation into a real immortal had only just started. I departed, leaving behind a legend that would rock the Azure Sky Sect to its foundations. The garbage had come back. And he was a dragon.