BOOOOOM!!!
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 just happened to look up to admire the sky, only to be greeted by the horrifying sight of a building collapsing before his very eyes.
"So this is how I die, huh?" He thought, his body frozen in place. His ears rang while his pupils dilated as he watched the walls come crashing down.
"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, god damnit! 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 Long Huang's soul before pulling it from the void with a soft whump before disappearing as if it was never there.
K-k-khh..
Cold— that was the first sensation that Long Huang 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.
As his eyes adjusted to the dim, ethereal lights stretching into the gloom, 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 Long Huang's eyes landed 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 Long Huang's 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. His presence was a mountain, pressing down on Long Huang's soul, demanding reverence, demanding fear.
"So you are awake, human."
The voice was not loud, yet it filled the entire hall. Long Huang fell to his knees, his mind reeling, trying 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 Long Huang's thoughts.
"Yes, human, you are dead."
"Your pitiful cries of regret were the last echoes of your insignificant life."
The being's words, though rude, seemed to carry some kind of power, causing Long Huang, who was still trembling and trying to process everything, to accept that this was real.
"Long Huang. Your life was brief, a flicker. Your record... unremarkable. Neither great sin nor great virtue marks your name."
"Now, a new life, with no memory of the last, to begin anew."
Reincarnation? To forget everything?
"Nn...No!"
The word was a ragged whisper filled with bitterness as it echoed in the silent hall.
"No?"
"Haha!" The being laughed, amused at his answer.
"You, a mere mortal human, dare refuse the celestial cycle!!!"
"I can't accept that," Long Huang shouted, his voice fueled by a defiant will that had survived even death itself.
"The dead do not make demands," the being said, his voice a low thunder.
"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 trembling.
"The path is set. This is your fate."
"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 on the being's throne.
In the profound stillness of the void, the sound of splintering bone was as sharp 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.
"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 that was a story for another time.
.....13 years later....
"Ahh! 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 enveloped the landscape, free from the presence of humans.
Except for one— a boy lying on the grass, seemingly lost in thought, gazing at the night sky.
This boy was tall and a bit muscular with long, raven-black hair, stunning amber eyes, and a handsome face, though he appeared to be 16 or 17 years old, in reality, he was just 13.
That boy was Long Huang.
Upon awakening, He found he was reborn into the body of an infant who was abandoned. Thirteen years had passed since Long Huang was reborn in this new world.
Throughout the years growing up, he found out that this world was vastly different from his own, but similar in some aspects.
He also found out he was on the Eastern Sun Continent, in the Northwestern Province, 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, but for those who knew it was far more dangerous than it was beautiful.
Though this world was filled with wonder and beautiful things, Long Huang had never seen. The thing Long Huang mostly pondered about was 'why he didn't have a true family, why is it that he always end up alone?'
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 felt 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 again felt the sharp, cold edge of solitude, left at the entrance of the sect, a child without a family once more.
Though it wouldn't be right to call him an orphan, he still felt he was one, for he didn't have parents to call his own.
Through the first few years, other than the sting of abandonment, Long Huang felt that a part of his memories, whether before or after his death, were missing.
But before Long Huang could even linger on these problems, Su Yan and a physician had both informed him that he would not live past the age of sixteen.
Though Su Yan assured him he could survive if he cultivated to the peak of the Body Tempering Realm by then.
But hearing this, a young Long Huang didn't feel relieved but felt his fate was sealed once more. He had cried for days, the bitter words a mantra of despair.
"I'm cursed,"
The path before him was impossibly steep. The stages of cultivation were a brutal ladder: the Body Tempering realm contained the skin, meridian, bone, blood, and viscera tempering realms.
Cultivating from the Skin Tempering Realm to the Peak of the Viscera Tempering Realm usually took 6 years without external help, 4 years with, and only 3 years with help for those geniuses.
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 such little time to live, isolated himself to avoid any attachment to the world since he wasn't from it in the first place.
And for the past two years, he had lived in solitude near the sect in the western mountains.
But he still hoped to be a super genius to survive, because even though he had already died before, 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 then continued his practice for two hours before stopping. Sweat dripping from his body as he lay on the cold training ground floor, looking towards the night sky, and mumbled,
"If only I had a camera to capture these scenes."
He then got up and headed to a modern tiny house not too far from the training ground. As Long Huang approached his house, 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 the night.
For he knew who it was without even seeing them, and sure enough, as he suspected, a tender childlike voice cried out.
"Junior Brother, my father is looking for you."