A jagged crack tore through the fabric of reality, and from the void, a body was hurled violently onto the hard ground.
It was a boy no more than thirteen so grievously injured that he could barely hold himself up. His hands were mangled scraps of flesh, dangling uselessly at his wrists. The pain was unbearable, his knees buckling as he crashed to the earth.
But the strangest thing wasn't the agony. It was the absence of blood. Despite the horrifying wounds, not a single drop flowed. It was as though every last ounce had already been drained from his body.
His name was David, the son of Matilda, a powerful Universe Strong Lord, a child once hailed as a genius among his clan. Yet his mother had never cared for him, treating him as though he were a stain on her existence. Still, David had clung to a desperate hope: that one day she would acknowledge him.
From an early age, he pushed himself to the brink. Every breath, every drop of sweat, was a plea for her recognition. When he broke through to the Star Realm, that hope flickered anew.
A few years ago, Matilda had briefly returned to the ancestral home. As she departed, she had tossed him a small token absentmindedly, almost as if remembering his existence at the last moment. David had treasured it, believing it to be a protective charm and a lifeline she had bestowed upon him.
He never imagined that the lifeline would betray him.
During what should have been a routine hunting event a yearly contest for cultivation resources ambushers struck. They surrounded him, shattered his arms, and drained his blood into cold, metallic tubes. As his life ebbed away, David clutched the token, praying for salvation for his mother's protection.
But nothing happened. The token remained still a worthless stone. His last hope crumbled just as death reached for him.
Then, the air itself fractured. A spatial crack yawned open, swallowing him whole and spitting him out here on this strange, unknown land.
Too weak to stand, David knelt on the alien ground, vision swimming. Then he saw it.
A colossal carcass, its head like a mountain, its body stretching beyond sight. A pool of dark, potent blood flowed from a wound on its neck, forming a pond the size of a lake. The very air trembled with the beast's lingering might.
Something inside him stirred an instinct older than reason. Dragging himself inch by inch, David crawled toward the pool. His consciousness blurred. When he finally reached the edge, his strength failed, and he collapsed into the dark, viscous blood.
As he sank, peace claimed him. In his fading dream, his mother smiled at him for the first time, introducing him to the sister he had never met. His father—a shadow he had only heard of stood beside them. For the first time, they were a family.
But reality was far crueler. The blood of that universe-rending beast was poison anathema to all life. It should have vaporized him instantly. Yet as it seared his flesh, something deep within him awakened.
From the core of his bones, a faint green luminescence pulsed—liquid light that mended what the monstrous blood destroyed. A dark force intertwined with it, both destruction and creation bound in a chaotic dance.
The blood pond began to shrink, drawn into his body. The aura surrounding him darkened and expanded, devouring the colossal beast until even its bones vanished. Only crimson-stained soil remained.
Meanwhile, at the Human Association Headquarters...
A woman sat beside a six-year-old girl, guiding her through a lesson. The child laughed, but the woman Matilda, the Universe Master, suddenly froze.
A tremor rippled through her soul. The token she had once given David had stirred. She reached for it, but before she could act, a voice transmission echoed in her mind:
"Do not interfere in the trials of the younger generation."
Matilda frowned. She would never have guessed that at that very moment, the last thread of her bloodline bond was being severed. A chilling instinct pierced her heart; her son was dying.
Ignoring the warning, she tore through space.
She appeared above the hunting ground to find four men laughing, holding tubes filled with dark red blood. Her gaze fell upon the discarded token at their feet.
Rage threatened to consume her, but first, she needed the truth. Manipulating time and space, she rewound the moment the ambush, the brutal beating, the machine that drained his blood, his cries, and finally, his despair as he hurled the useless token away and vanished into the spatial rift.
Her heart shattered. The deepest wound her son had suffered wasn't physical—it was her silence. Her rejection.
Matilda turned her gaze upon the men. Without a word, she invaded their minds, peeling through their memories like paper. The truth was vile: her own family had ordered the attack.
Their reason? To "motivate" her to visit more often. And one of the elders had coveted David's unique bloodline genes, plotting to extract them for his own descendant.
A cold fury took hold. The four men didn't even have time to scream before they ceased to exist.
As her wrath swelled, Matilda prepared to annihilate her entire family estate. But before she could unleash her fury, an old man appeared ancient and calm. His words were few, his tone quiet, but whatever he said stayed in her hand.
She tried to sense David, but his existence was veiled, hidden behind powerful interference. Defeated, burdened by a regret she had never known, Matilda turned and left.
She failed to notice the unseen pair of eyes watching from afar before vanishing without a trace.
Back in the Forbidden Realm...
David gasped, consciousness jolting back with a surge of agony. His eyes snapped open.
His body once mangled and bloodless was whole again. More than whole. It thrummed with power. His cultivation, once at the 3rd level of the Star Realm, had soared to the 9th level.
"I... I'm alive?" he whispered, voice trembling. "How? My blood... it was gone..."
He looked around. The monster's body had vanished entirely, leaving behind only dark crimson soil and the twisted remains of ancient starships.
Then, a voice deep and resonant echoed within his mind, each syllable striking like thunder.
"Successor."