Before time had a name long before humanity learned to pronounce its own there was Him.
A Supreme Entity, too vast for the narrow vocabulary of mortals. Whatever word humans tried to use would always fall short; like attempting to pour an ocean into a clay cup.
Humans called His realm Heaven. But Heaven wasn't a location; it was more like a frequency of light the mortal eye could never catch. There, He kept a Garden vast as His mind, magnificent as the universe's first breath. Among colossal trees not born from soil but from His will, one ancient source pulsed the strongest: a primordial tree that bore fruit only once every two thousand years.
A single fruit.
One… yet powerful enough to shake the entire Garden each time it ripened, as if its spiritual energy exploded from within and forced creation itself to hold its breath. Humans would later name it the Fruit of Immortality Good & Evil.
In the earliest age, humanity remained neutral. Like stone untouched by a sculptor full of potential beauty, full of potential fracture. They lived in harmony within Eden, tending the Garden as children safeguarding their father's inheritance.
But humans multiplied.
And where many gather, ego is born.
Some were cast out not because the Entity was furious, but because Eden could no longer contain hearts infected with Desire. They left carrying anger, envy, and bitterness. Outside, they formed a dark cult and called themselves the Cult of Demons not because they worshiped demons, but because they believed the world had cursed them… so they chose to become the curse.
Meanwhile, those who remained created sects to "protect" Eden… or so the official story goes. Shaolin, Wudang, Mount Hua, Tang names echoing blades, discipline, scriptures, and secrets. They built the Orthodox Faction, supposedly for unity. In truth, each sect harbored its own agenda. Eden wasn't guarded out of love, but out of the hope of one day claiming the Tree for themselves.
Zhang Elia of Wudang and Tang Henokh of the Tang clan once endured the Heavenly Tribulation of Lightning an ascension trial to the Immortal Realm. They succeeded, crossing the boundary between life and death, becoming legends for millennia. But glory crumbled when humanity began coveting the Fruit of Immortality. Rebellions, betrayals, shadow wars behind sect walls… all pushed Eden to seal itself. Spiritual energy was suppressed, as if the Entity had begun withdrawing His breath from the world of men.
Ages rolled past.
Song, Ming, Qing revolutions, electric bulbs, machines, circuits, algorithms.
And now: the year 2045.
Earth's age, according to human reckoning: 4,543 years.
The sects still exist. Their names sound like museums no one bothers to dust. Shaolin has three elderly monks left. Wudang hides as a modern martial arts school. Tang reinvented itself as a private security corporation. Mount Hua… no one knows. Some say they're just a legend, surviving in obscure forums and conspiracy blogs.
And Eden's whereabouts?
Gone.
Or perhaps… deliberately hidden.
But tonight, in an urban city whose heart beats with neon and fumes, that tremor appears again.
The same tremor that once shook Eden when the Fruit of Immortality neared its ripening.
A tremor that should be impossible.
On the balcony of a 72nd-floor apartment, a young man his name we won't reveal yet feels the air pulse with a subtle wave. Streetlights flicker. Birds that should be asleep suddenly scatter in panic. And in the distance, beyond the haze of city smog, a thin vertical beam of light flashes for half a second before vanishing.
The young man furrows his brow.
He has no idea what he just witnessed.
But the Entity knows.
And Eden… is beginning to awaken.