BOOM!!!
The sound of an explosion ripped through the air as a towering building began to collapse. Its walls, seemingly aiming to crush those below.
In this chaos, a boy happened to look up to admire the sky, only to be met with the horrifying sight of a building collapsing before his very eyes. His ears rang while his pupils dilated as he watched the walls come crashing down.
"So this is how I die, huh?" he thought, his body frozen in place."I don't want it to end like this. I haven't even begun to live."
"Please, it can't end like this!"
'I don't want to die,' as his thoughts raced, his will to live grew more intense.
"Come on! Move, goddamnit! MOVE!" he screamed for his body to move, but it wouldn't budge. Seeing that he had no control over his body, he looked at the wall that came to seal his fate.
As the question 'Why?' echoed through his mind one last time as the wall crushed him.
Boom!
As his consciousness faded and his soul started to disperse, the air quivered as a low hum echoed, seeming to resonate with the universe.
Space rippled, and an eternal hand reached out, piercing through the fabric of nothingness. Its fingers clung to his soul before pulling it into the void with a soft whump! before disappearing.
K-k-khh..
Cold— that was the first sensation that he felt. Goosebumps prickled across his entire being as he gasped for air; each breath came out in pale puffs, vanishing into the icy air. As he tried to open his eyes, his eyelids felt heavy and his vision blurry and unfocused.
As his vision cleared, what he saw wasn't a wall on top of him. But a vast, cavernous hall with pillars that soared into a shadowy ceiling, carved with images of serpents locked in eternal struggle.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the dim, ethereal lights stretching into the gloom, and he saw a path of jet-black tiles, each one gleaming like a shard of obsidian. At the end of that path, on a throne carved from a single, massive snake-like skull, sat a figure.
As his gaze fell upon the figure, his entire being began to tremble uncontrollably, his breathing became ragged and fast, his mind swirled and spun, while his heart felt like it wanted to leave his chest.
'Run!' Running away was his only thought as he stared at the being.
For what he saw was a man, but every fiber of his being was shouting that what he was looking at wasn't human.
The being was wrapped in robes of profound black that seemed to drink the light from the room. His features were sharp and ageless, his skin ebony, and he had beast-like eyes that shone like a distant gleam of ancient stars.
A simple, dark crown rested on his head as he held a scepter of polished bone. The being's presence was like a mountain, pressing down on his soul, demanding reverence, demanding fear.
"So you are awake, mortal."
The voice was deep and soft, yet it filled the entire hall. The being's mere voice caused him to fall to his knees, his mind reeling, as he tried to process everything. 'I have to run. Why can't I? No, this...this can't be real. Where... where am I? Who is he? No, what is that thing? The explosion... didn't I....'
The being on the throne tilted its head, responding as if it knew his thoughts.
"Yes, mortal, your pitiful, insignificant life has come to an end."
The being's words, though rude, seemed to carry some kind of power, causing him to accept that this was real.
"Long Huang, your life... truly unremarkable. Neither great sin nor great virtue marks your name."
"Now, a new life, a clean slate, to begin anew."
Reincarnation?
"N...No!"
The word was a ragged whisper filled with bitterness as it echoed in the silent hall.
"No? Haha, haha!"
"You, A mere mortal human, think you can refuse the celestial cycle?!!!" The being laughed as he pointed, amused at this mortal's answer.
"Why do you mortals fear the end so badly? It is but a point in the endless cycle of reincarnation."
"I... I can't accept this."
"It... it can't end like this. I had... things I needed to do. A life I needed to live." Long Huang said as he staggered to his feet, his legs still trembling.
"The dead do not make demands,"
"The path is set! This is your fate!" said the being, his voice like thunder.
"FUCK FATE!" Long Huang shouted.
And in that moment, a faint, almost imperceptible tremor ran through the realm. A hairline crack, no wider than a thread, appeared on one of the massive fangs on the being's throne.
In the profound stillness of the void, the sound of splintering bone could be heard as an explosion wrung out.
Boom!!!
"Demon bastard, you dare!" the being shouted, its voice filled with anger that shook the hall and even the void itself.
"That's funny coming from an actual demon."
"Thank me later, kid."
Those were the last words Long Huang heard before being sucked into the rift. He felt that the voice was strangely familiar, but that was a story for another time.
.....13 years later....
"Ahh! Now this. This is life," said a boy lying on the grass, seemingly lost in thought, gazing at the night sky
The moon and the stars hung low, illuminating the misty western mountains. The scene was a breathtaking mixture of beauty and tranquility that enveloped the landscape, free from the presence of humans.
Except for him.
But he did not break this beauty, but seemed to blend right in with his long, wavy, black hair, amber eyes, and handsome face.
That boy was none other than Long Huang.
Upon awakening, he found he was reborn into the body of an abandoned infant, and his memories were fragmented.
Throughout his childhood, he slowly regained them and realized that this world was vastly different from his own yet similar in some ways.
He learnt he was on the Eastern Sun Continent, in a city called Blossom City.
A city nestled in a protective mountain range on the border of two powerful kingdoms, it was a place of beauty.
Though this world was filled with wonder and beautiful things, Long Huang had never seen. The thing Long Huang mostly pondered about was 'why didn't he have a true family, why was he thrown away like trash?'
Even as he looked to the beautiful night sky, he couldn't rid himself of these thoughts.
"Am I really that unwanted to be abandoned in both worlds?" he asked himself as he stared at the sky. The sting of abandonment too familiar.
Long Huang sighed, memories washing over him like the gentle night breeze. Memories of a cold, rainy day that soaked through clothes, leaving the streets shimmering.
Young Long Huang, around six years old, stood alone at the school gate, watching as other children rushed to their waiting parents, their laughter echoing in the air.
His small hand clutched tightly to his drenched backpack while the rain became a curtain, isolating him from the warmth and safety others embraced. That day, he had walked back to the orphanage alone, his tiny shoes splashing through puddles, feeling utterly invisible in a world filled with love he couldn't touch.
'Cold.'
And now, even in this new world, he felt that pain once more.
In the first 11 years, he lived with a loving family who took care of him.
But as he slowly regained his memories, he grew more and more distant.
Even though he was cared for by them, he still felt empty, for he didn't have parents to call his own.
And by an even more cruel twist of fate, Long Huang was informed that he most likely wouldn't live past 16.
Luckily, there was a way he could survive. But when the young Long Huang heard about it, he felt no relief. He cried for days, repeating the same words.
'I'm cursed,' the words were a mantra of despair. The path before him was impossibly steep. To survive, he had to cultivate to the peak of the Body Tempering Realm.
Cultivation was a brutal ladder of power and status: it first started with the Body Tempering realm. Just this realm alone contained the skin, muscle, meridian, bone, blood, and viscera tempering realms.
Cultivating to the Peak of the Body Tempering Realm usually took 6 years without pills or herbs and 4 years with.
While for the top geniuses of the continent, it still took 3 years with the help of the best resources.
So to him it was nigh impossible.
It had to be known that even the strongest experts of Blossom City were in the Qi Condensing Realm, barely one major realm above the Body Tempering Realm, and they were all in their fifties.
Long Huang, with so little time to live, isolated himself to avoid any attachment.
And for the past two years, he had lived in solitude near the sect in the western mountains.
But he still hoped and dreamed of being a super genius to survive, for he wanted to live.
Not wanting to rely on luck, he spent most of his days training in calisthenics to lay a solid foundation because if he wasn't a genius, he would work extra hard to make up for the lack of talent.
"Can't have bad thoughts if you're exercising now, can you?" He said to himself, pulling himself out of these draining thoughts as he started his usual calisthenics routine.
He practiced for 8 hours before stopping. Sweat dripping from his body as he lay on the cold training ground floor, looking towards the morning sky, and mumbled,
"If only I had a camera to capture these scenes."
He then got up and headed to his house, not too far from the training ground. As Long Huang approached, he could hear the footsteps of someone pacing back and forward ahead.
Long Huang continued walking, not at all startled by the fact that someone was on this remote mountain at this time of day.
For he knew who it was without even seeing them, and sure enough, a tender, childlike voice cried out.
"Junior Brother, Father is looking for you."