Two boys, with identical features, around the ages of five or six, ran around a middle-aged man who was seated on a wooden wheel chair.
They all seemed to enjoy the soothing breeze of the grassy plains.
The boys giggled as they ran around the man, throwing stones at each other and sometimes hitting the man on the wheel chair. Some pebbles got stuck within the thick black beards of the man.
Despite being hit, the man gave no reaction, it was as if his gaze was locked in place and the soul in his eyes had been seized.
One would think he was an empty shell if they observed properly.
While playing, one of them tripped in front of the man. Looking up, the little boy felt as though the man seated on the wheel chair was glaring at him.
This glare came with a pressure that seemed inappropriate for a child to bear.
Gripped by fear, the little boy hiccupped as he struggled to get on his feet.
"Mom!" He cried out as he ran towards his mother with tears in his eyes.
"What is it, Hollis?"
Standing by the edge of a stream, his mother turned with worry in her eyes as she looked at her son. Seeing that he was fine, her worry subsided.
"Mommy, the mad man glared at me."
Hollis' mother frowned at her son's choice of word. "Don't call your uncle a mad man again."
"But, but… he glared at me," Hollis rushed to clean his tears.
"And what exactly does that mean?" She asked.
"Ha ha! Hollis is a cry baby!" Silloh chanted from the side of the wheel chair, sticking his tongue out and making fun of his twin brother.
"Why are you so scared of a person that can't speak or move?" Silloh turned his butt towards his brother and began wiggling it at his direction, only to realize that the man on the wheel chair was looking at him too.
As though he was caught red-handed doing a bad act, Silloh froze with fear.
Unlike before, the eyes of the man had become clear and full of life. Within his dark pupils was a sharpness that could cut through one's soul.
"Un…cle." Silloh managed to utter as he shook in his shoes.
"Un…" Luan found it difficult to speak. It felt as though his throat hasn't been put to use in a long while.
He began wondering why the mocking child had called him uncle.
Did terror scramble his brains?
No…
Is this hell?
If it's not, then… is this another world?
Luan wanted nothing more than to die and end his misery.
Even though the last thing Luan could recall was dying.
Two thousand years ago, he awakened in a world different from his birth world. After struggling to accept reality, Luan slowly adapted to the world.
Unfortunately, it was not a peaceful place.
Born into a family of farmers in a world filled with beasts and monsters in the form of humans, his life was anything but peaceful. Pursued by bandits, living in caves on top mountains.
Becoming a bandit himself.
Killing for a living, and killing to live, Luan had gone through all of that.
Though it took a while, he became a cultivator in this world. As time went on, Luan became stronger, and stronger; approaching the peak and making a name for himself in that world.
And by the time he was past his fifteen-hundreds, he took in two disciples, a boy and girl. At first he accepted them out of curiosity, after all, people avoided him as he wasn't known to be the friendliest of all.
Then his curiosity slowly morphed into warmth for his disciples.
As time went on, his disciples were no different from his blood relatives, Luan loved them very much. Only to find out that they were murdered by a so-called righteous person.
A self-proclaimed hero, one who claimed to be Luan's rival, making it his life goal to defeat Luan.
A man who had continued to request duels from him, wanting to prove himself to the world.
But this man made a mistake and killed his disciples…
It was a mistake.
Or at least that what was what he claimed during his final moments.
Luan had hunted him down.
He killed everyone related to the man, destroyed the sect the man came from, even people who were his friends weren't spared from his wrath.
He was soon given a nickname; Old Demon Luan.
And because of this, he soon became a general enemy to the entire world, wanted dead by many powers.
None of this concerned him.
All he knew was that he was furious and lonely. His disciples reminded him of the familiar love he used to receive before coming to this world, and when that was stripped from him, something deep within his mind broke.
For another five hundred years, he fought against the entire world, surviving every battle and killing so much that he tainted entire rivers with their blood.
And when it came to the end, when he couldn't endure the heartache and loneliness anymore, he chose to ingest poison.
Luan was expecting to wake up in hell… and yet, here he was, watching a kid shake his ass at his brother.
Looking up, he caught sight of a pretty woman who looked like she was in her early thirties.
The woman looked like she was already on the verge of tears as her hands rose to cover her mouth.
As if she was trying to reign in her sob.
She looks very much like Liana… it been two thousand years, would she still look so young?
"Brother," The word escaped her mouth and verified Luan's guess.
Rather than being overwhelmed with emotions, Luan frowned.
His mind was still trying to wrap around the fact that he was meant to be dead…
There was a possibility that what he was seeing was an illusion. It could also be that he was being shown a glimpse of paradise before being thrown into hell.
Just so his punishment could sting some more.
"Luan!" Liana cried out.
It was also hard for her to believe what she was seeing.
Over the past twenty years, her elder brother had been confined to a wheel chair in a somewhat vegetative state.
Though he had episodes where he flared out like a madman, they were few and in-between.
The family had even been considering ending his life to put him out his misery, but she had fought hard to keep him safe.
Despite her struggles to preserve her brother's life, the family had come to the conclusion that he would be put to death silently in a few days from now.
And now, right in front of her eyes, her brother whom she loved dearly showed some semblance of life and clarity in his eyes.
Liana couldn't help but wonder if she was dreaming. Forgetting that her kids were around, she ran like any little sister would when they see a brother who had protected her from bullies, return.
Is this an attack?
No, she's crying…
Is this truly Liana? Luan shook his head. Even if she isn't, would it hurt to comfort her? I haven't seen her in over two thousand years. I've missed her. Even if this is a dream, I wouldn't mind comforting her.
Luan had always been one to dote on his immediate junior sister.
His family was a big one, and he had grown up with quite a number of siblings and cousins, many of which he disliked. But when it came Liana, she was like a daisy he almost always protected from the storms of his siblings.
With a sigh, he opened his arms to embrace his sister, half expecting the illusion to end at any moment.
And yet…
It didn't.
Rather, reality seemed to hit him harder as her weight crushed his weak body, sending a sharp jolt of pain up his brain.
"Brother!!" Liana began sobbing harder.
The moment Luan opened his arms, she knew that he was back.
Hollis and Silloh remained confused, the former ran behind his mother, but stopped next to his twin brother.
This uncle of their, in their eyes, was no different from a living toy. One that they had played around and even roughened since forever.
"Are we going to be flogged?" Hollis whispered to his brother as a certain memory of setting their uncle on fire ran through his mind.
They had done a lot of mischievous things for their age, and with Luan back, Hollis was scared that this uncle of his could recall the things that had been done to him.
"Act like nothing happened," His brother whispered, even more terrified because he was almost always the one with the ideas.
Liana cried like a child on her brother's body, while Luan kept on feeling like his bones would break at any point.
But he didn't have the mind to tell her to get off him.
As much as her heart ached, his heart endured more.
After a while, Liana calmed down. She cleaned her tears and got off her brother, staring into his eyes.
"Brother, are you truly… back?" It was still hard for her to believe that her brother had somehow miraculously healed and returned to his senses.
"Did I ever leave?" He said hoarsely.
This was a question he asked himself rather than his sister.
While she was crying, Luan tried to make sense of what was happening, and though the memories he had of this world had become somewhat vague, he was able to recall a few scar on his body.
Secretly, he touched them.
An unexplainable bubble of joy filled Liana's heart as a wide smile graced her face. She wanted to return to the clan's mansion quickly so she could announce to them and retract her brother's execution.
And then it suddenly hit her, she was a mom.
"Boys! Come quick, come greet my big brother." Liana called out with excitement.
It was as if she had been waiting for years to introduce her kids to her brother.
Hollis and Silloh ran to her side and hid behind the fabric of their mother's gown, too scared to meet their uncle's gaze.
"I really am an uncle?"
Confused, but at the same time, his heart was filled with something he had longed for, familiar love.
Luan began laughing softly.