BOOOOOM!!!
An explosion ripped through the air, causing a building to collapse instantly.
"So this is how I die, huh?" Long Huang thought, frozen in place. His ears rang as he watched the walls of the collapsing building next to him come crashing down.
"I don't want it to end like this. I haven't even begun to live."
"It can't end like this!"
"Move!" he screamed in his mind, but it was too late. He was crushed, his soul slipping away as his cries faded into silence.
Cold, that was the first sensation that crept through Long Huang's mind as his eyelids fluttered open.
His vision swam, blurry and unfocused. He wasn't buried under rubble. He was... lying down. On something hard. Smooth. The air itself felt different, heavy, carrying a profound silence that pressed against him.
"Ughh!!!!"
With a groan that felt alien in his own throat, Long Huang pushed himself up onto his elbows. The movement sent a wave of agony through a body he was sure should have been pulp.
He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the dim, ethereal light. He was in a vast, cavernous hall with pillars that soared into a shadowy ceiling, carved with images of serpents locked in eternal struggle.
And in front of him, stretching into the gloom, was 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 raven skull, sat a figure.
As Long Huang's eyes landed upon the being, his body began to shake uncontrollably, his breathing ragged and stiff.
It was a man, or something that wore the shape of a man. Clad in robes of profound black that seemed to drink the light from the room. His features were sharp and ageless, his eyes holding the cold, distant gleam of ancient stars.
A simple, dark crown rested on his head as he held a scythe of polished bone. His presence was a weight, pressing down on Long Huang's soul, demanding reverence, demanding fear.
"You're awake."
The voice was not loud, yet it filled the entire hall, resonating not in Long Huang's ears but deep within his consciousness.
Long Huang stared, his mind reeling, trying to process everything. "Where... where am I? Who are you? No, what are you? The explosion... I was dead."
The being on the throne tilted its head, responding as if it knew Long Huang's thoughts.
"You are dead."
"Your cries of regret were the last echoes of life."
The finality of the words crashed down on Long Huang. This was real. The being's starlit eyes peering into him.
"Long Huang. Your life was brief, a flicker. Your record is... unremarkable. Neither great sin nor great virtue marks your name."
"Now, a new life, with no memory of this one, to begin the cycle anew."
Reincarnation? To forget everything? The regret he felt in his final moments surged back, 'I haven't even begun living.'
"No."
The word was a ragged whisper filled with bitterness as it echoed in the silent hall. The being hummed slightly, amused at his answer.
"No?"
"Haha"
"You, a mere mortal, dare refuse the celestial cycle!!!"
Hearing this, Long Huang staggered to his feet. His legs trembled, but his voice grew stronger, fueled by a defiant will that had survived even death itself.
"I can't accept that," he said, his gaze locked on the being.
"It can't end like this. I had... things I needed to do. A life I needed to live."
"The dead do not make demands," the being said, his voice a low thunder.
"The path is set. Your fate is sealed."
"FUCK FATE!"
As he spoke, a faint, almost imperceptible tremor ran through the realm. A hairline crack, no wider than a thread, appeared on one of the massive fangs. In the profound stillness of the court, the sound of splintering bone was as sharp as another explosion.
Boom!!!
"Thank me later."
Those were the last words Long Huang heard before being sucked into the rift. He felt that the voice was strangely familiar, but it was too emotionless and cold.
13 years later....
"Hugh! This is life."
It was late at night, the moon and the stars hung low, illuminating the misty western mountains. The scene was a breathtaking mixture of beauty and tranquility that wrapped the landscape in its embrace, free from the presence of beats or man.
Except for one- a boy lying on the grass, lost in thought, as he gazed at the vast night sky. This boy had striking features and long, raven-black hair; he appeared to be 16 or 17 years old, tall and muscular, but in reality, he was just a 13-year-old.
That boy's name is Long Huang.
In a twist of fate, a sudden building collapse claimed his life. Upon awakening, he felt he had forgotten something important, but he found himself in the body of a lone infant in a world that was vastly different from his own, so he didn't dwell on it for too long.
Throughout the years in this new world, Long Huang often pondered why he had no true family, why he always ended up alone, and even in this beautiful moment, he couldn't rid himself of these thoughts.
"Am I really that unwanted to be alone in both worlds?"
The sting of abandonment felt familiar.
Long Huang sighed, memories washing over him like the gentle night breeze. Memories of a 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. But that was all in the past.
Thirteen years had passed since Long Huang was reborn in this new world, a world known as the Ancient Divine World. He found himself on the Eastern Sun Continent, in the North-Northwestern Province's Blossom City.
A city nestled in a protective mountain range on the border of two powerful kingdoms, it was a place of beauty, but it was far more dangerous than its citizens ever realized, rife with schemes with the Azure Lotus Sect at its center like a venomous spider in a web.
Now, even in this new world, he again felt the sharp edge of solitude, left at the entrance of the sect, a child without a family once more.
It would not be right to call him an orphan, for he hadn't always been truly alone. But for the past two years, he had lived in solitude near the sect in the western mountains. He didn't have many friends, and the reason was as simple as it was cruel: he was born with a disease.
A physician had coldly informed him that he would not live past the age of sixteen unless he could cultivate to the peak of the Body Tempering realm.
Hearing that verdict, a young Long Huang felt his fate was sealed once more. He had cried for days, the bitter words a mantra of despair:,
"I'm cursed, there's no other explanation."
The path before him was impossibly steep. The stages of cultivation were a brutal ladder: the Body Tempering realm contained the skin, meridians, bones, blood, and viscera tempering realms. Followed by the Qi Converging, Qi Condensing, and Profound Xiantian Origin Realm, and higher realms beyond.
The strongest experts in all of Blossom City were in the Profound Xiantian Origin Realm, and they were all individuals in their fifties who had cultivated for decades.
And cultivating from the Skin Tempering Realm to the Peak of the Viscera Tempering Realm usually took 6 years without external help, but 4 years with, and only 3 years with help for those geniuses.
So it was nigh impossible for him.
Long Huang knew this, and with such little time to live, he isolated himself to avoid any attachment to the world since he wasn't from it in the first place. But he still hoped to be one of those geniuses to survive, because even though he had already died before and felt nothing towards death, he wanted to live.
So he spent most of his days training in calisthenics at the abandoned training ground because even 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 as he started his usual calisthenics routine.
Long Huang continued his practice for two hours. Sweat dripping from his body, lying on the cold training ground floor, he looked towards the night sky and mumbled to himself,
Fww!
"If only I had a camera to capture these scenes."
He stopped and went towards a modern-type tiny house not too far from the training ground.
At this moment, Long Huang heard footsteps coming from the direction he was headed. Not startled by the fact that someone came to this remote mountain. Long Huang continued walking because he knew who it was without even looking, and sure enough, as he guessed, a tender childlike voice cried out,
"Junior Brother, my dad is looking for you."
Long Huang looked ahead and saw a lovely and cute little girl who looked 16-year-old girl with bright blue eyes and her hair braided into long braids, standing in front of his house. This little girl was his senior sister, Huang Min, and his only friend.
"Why is the fifth elder looking for me?" Long Huang asked.
"I don't know." Huang Min's voice was innocent and sweet.
"Let's go back. If we take too long, then Dad will scold us!"
When Long Huang heard this, he smiled and pinched Huang Min's cute little cheeks before saying,
"Let's go then."
Huang Min pouted, then said angrily,
"Hey! I'm your senior, have some respect."
"I told you before, don't pinch my cheeks, damn it!"
Huang Min chased after him, screaming.
"Come on, take your beating like a man for once!"
"I'm a boy, not a man!"
"Junior brother, don't run, I promise I won't kill you!" she said as she cracked her knuckles with an agitated facial expression.
"Get over here, you bastard."
"Try and catch me, old lady!"
"Now you've done it."
"Haha"
The two frolicked down the mountain, laughter and the muffled sounds of someone being punched could be heard. This continued until they had made their way back to the sect situated at the foot of the mountains.