In the dark depths of a karst cave sat an elderly man dressed in black robes that contrasted sharply with his moon-white hair.
His face was weathered with deep wrinkles and scars, and his eyes were cloudy from the many years he had seen pass.
He held a jade slip, his hands trembling slightly as he finished reading it.
Gripping the jade slip tightly, his eyes narrowed with resolve.
He gritted his teeth as he recalled painful memories from his youth, when he had been betrayed and left for dead by people he had trusted the most.
The man then performed a double-handed incantation, pointing to nine statues of strange idols that surrounded him in a circular formation.
As he completed the incantation, the statues began to shine with multi-colored light, and the air started to vibrate slightly, becoming heavier.
He focused on the area in his abdomen where his lower dantian was located.
Spiritual energy within his body then began flowing into his dantian.
The statues around him shone brightly, emitting nine colored lights that surrounded him as he forced his spiritual energy to condense.
Time passed, and as the man's energy concentrated, an illusory core began forming in his dantian.
His face twisted with pain; pearls of sweat ran down his forehead as he forced the core into being with this ritual.
It did not take long for the core to become halfway solidified.
However, once that milestone was reached, a strange change occurred: normally, cores were golden in color, but the man's core materialized in a purple hue.
Enough time had passed to burn through a stick of incense as the man's core reached eighty percent completion; at this point, another change occurred!
The space around the core started to distort; the air rippled with a low, guttural thrum.
The man caught a mouthful of blood as sharp pain spread through his body, as if thousands of needles pierced his flesh.
His eyes turned red, burning with fury as he recalled the many years of injustice he had lived through and the little time he had left.
He spat out another mouthful of blood before performing a double-handed incantation, pointing at the statues again.
The statues shone brighter as the atmosphere became heavier with thick spiritual energy.
The man continued the ritual, but as the core forming in his dantian neared completion, another unexpected change occurred: his core, almost completely materialized in a deep purple hue, started to thrum violently.
The resulting vibration brought pain to the man as his bones and flesh began to shatter under the undulating pressure emanating from the core.
Blood forcefully spilled from all his orifices as his body expanded and contracted under the influence of the core.
Bit by bit, his body became a pile of mangled flesh and blood as the man screamed in pain: "I'm unwilling to let it go! If there is an afterlife, I will still find you and kill you! No!"
Purple light flashed around the cave as screams echoed while the man's body collapsed.
A faint soul remained circling around the purple core, getting stretched and twisted under its gravity and pulled in.
The last memory the man had as his soul began to fragment was that of the purple core absorbing him violently.
===
At the base of Heavenly Path Mountain lay a young man on the ground, sweat dripping from his brow as he breathed heavily.
He had been carrying heavy boulders all day to clear the area for a path to be constructed.
As he lay down, he heard rustling in the grass; a tall man with a long face like that of a horse clad in gray robes approached him.
"Xiao Shan, how many breaks are you going to take before finishing your task?" asked the stern voice of his senior and supervisor, Bao Tie.
Xiao Shan stood up, apologizing.
As Bao Tie turned to leave, he felt a cold chill run down his neck, quickly glancing back as his pupils narrowed.
However, he only saw Xiao Shan deeply bowing.
"Look," said Bao Tie as he frowned in contempt, "if you don't finish clearing this area up, I'll assign you to clean the latrines tomorrow." With that, he left.
Meanwhile, Xiao Shan collapsed onto the ground, folding in pain.
Though tired from moving boulders all day, his pain stemmed not from his body but his soul.
He felt as if his soul was being torn apart, a crushing pressure within his head.
His face alternated between expressions of pain and anger as he looked at Bao Tie, his eyes flashing with a dim purple light.