"Wu Dao, you monster! You've plunged the world into misery and brought civilization to its knees! Don't you feel the slightest bit of guilt?"
"If it weren't for you, you demon, this war would have never started! You deserve to be torn limb from limb!"
"Humanity doesn't need the Essence Devouring Art! Eliminate the Extraordinary! Destroy the source of all evil! The world belongs to mortals, and justice will prevail!"
"The entire city is flooded with a newly developed super-toxin. Even at 100% Potential Release, it will turn your bones to jelly!"
"You have only your arrogance to blame! You forbade the Heaven-Stealing Alliance from getting involved and walked right into this trap alone!"
"In one more minute, the Biological Gene Annihilation Bomb will be here. Savor the wrath of mortals!"
...
In the center of the city ruins, a green, toxic fog held sway.
Wu Dao lay on a shattered plaza. The all-pervasive chemical toxin ate away at him, his flesh melting and running like snow under a scorching sun, a sight both hideous and terrifying.
A series of cold, robotic rebukes, condemnations, and jeers, filtered through modern machines, rang in his ears.
Under the dim, setting sun, it was the desolate picture of an overlord at his end.
But his heart was preternaturally calm. There was no fear, no sorrow for a life about to be extinguished.
He simply stared with two crimson eyeballs, now exposed from their sockets, gazing hauntingly at the iron-curtain sky, burned red by the setting sun.
Sixty years in the world of men, fleeting as a flowing stream.
He had seen and experienced it all.
As a child, he'd looked up at the vast Star Sea and felt as insignificant as an ant. Unwilling to remain ordinary, he resolved to become Extraordinary, to ascend to the highest heavens and take his place among the legends of myth.
In his youth, he trained diligently, honing his body and strengthening his physique until his fame spread across the world.
However, the world was too mundane, and the human body had its limits.
Natural disasters, human calamities, the erosion of time, sickness, and pain could still easily snuff out a life. The myths of Immortal Gods remained forever beyond reach.
Thwarted in his ambition, he descended into a seeming madness.
Ten years he spent wandering the world; ten years he spent buried in books, both ancient and modern.
At forty, he experienced a sudden enlightenment!
He created the Essence Devouring Art, a technique to unlock human potential, shatter the body's limits, and usher human civilization into a new, Extraordinary era.
Unfortunately, even before the advent of the Essence Devouring Art, the world's class disparities had reached a dangerous tipping point. With the appearance of this technique—a veritable gold-devouring behemoth—the conflict only intensified.
The rich grew ever stronger, while the poor grew ever weaker!
When the conflict between the new and old guards of humanity became irreconcilable...
At the age of fifty, a war that would engulf the world erupted, just as he had anticipated, plunging the world into misery and bringing civilization to its knees.
But...
Wu Dao felt no remorse for this.
Nor any pity.
His ever-growing, inhuman strength...
...had long ago elevated his thinking, his perspective on the world, raising him to a higher plane and transforming him in ways he hadn't even realized.
'The root of civilization is order, and the essence of order is class...'
'When you cut through all the rhetoric and get to the heart of the matter...'
'Whether you accept it or flee from it...'
'In the end, you still have to face nature's one and only truth—'
'Survival of the fittest!'
'This was especially true for humanity, a collective of desires that had never known true equality.'
'The superior enjoy ample material and spiritual resources.'
'The inferior languish in mediocrity.'
'From ancient times to the present day, the gap between the superior and the inferior, born from the internal competition of human society, has never once disappeared!'
'War and peace, death and rebirth—they are all part of a repeating cycle.'
'Who wields the knife, and who becomes the hero that slays the dragon? It has happened time and again.'
In the great torrent of evolution, the wails of the weak and the fury of the strong, their ugly brilliance...
...meant nothing to Wu Dao.
To him, the true meaning of life was to endlessly transcend the self, to evolve and adapt to any environment, to climb until he stood at the very apex of the food chain!
Even if the path was one of utter darkness!
He would burn himself to ash to illuminate it!
He would rather die in the light he created!
He would never stagnate, never fall!
For this, he had waited five years. Remained silent for five years.
Whether he was a moth to a flame or a carp leaping the Dragon Gate...
...it would all be decided today!
BOOM—
A streak of light appeared in the sky—the Biological Gene Annihilation Bomb, like a spear of judgment hurled by a Celestial God. Its long trajectory ripped through the burning iron curtain of the sky, and a deafening, continuous sonic boom shattered the dead silence of the twilight.
He let out a long, turbid breath.
Under the watchful eyes of billions across the globe, the source of all evil, the man who had nearly destroyed human civilization, slowly rose to his feet.
Blackened blood poured from his body. Chunks of melting flesh dripped from him like rain.
"You think I walked into this trap willingly, out of arrogance?"
His hoarse, calm murmur traveled across the world, broadcast by the surveillance drones.
THUMP THUMP THUMP!
A heartbeat, fierce and loud as a War God's drum, began to pound.
As countless people watched in stunned terror...
...Wu Dao's grotesque body, eroded by the toxin to the point of melting off his bones, began to miraculously regenerate. Flesh grew back over bone, new blood replaced the old, and in an instant, his magnificent, steel-like form stood tall and whole once more!
He spread his arms, embracing the world!
"The very essence of the Essence Devouring Art is to be forged in the crucible between life and death, to shatter one's shackles, unearth one's potential, and constantly break the limits of the human body."
"Five years ago, I had already unleashed 100% of my potential. But no matter what I did, I couldn't advance another inch. I had once again hit a wall!"
"If that weren't the case, do you think I would have allowed you to grow so strong? Allowed you to develop a Biological Gene Annihilation Bomb specifically to use against us?!"
His powerful, resonant voice boomed like Celestial Thunder, rumbling across the world and echoing long after.
There was no trace of mockery in his tone.
Only boundless anticipation, excitement, and a madness so profound his voice trembled with it.
"Only the profound terror found on the true brink of life and death can shatter my shackles once more!!
Thank you for forging this key for me!
After today!
If I live, I will show you what a True God looks like!"
BOOM!!
The moment he finished speaking, the ruined plaza cracked as if struck by a meteor from the heavens or trampled by a Primordial Fierce Beast!
With an explosive release of Power, the city center cracked and collapsed. The ground heaved as if a great dragon turned in its sleep, and waves of earth and stone surged outwards, washing over the entire city.
BOOM!
A violent sonic boom tore through the air.
Bathed in the crimson light of dusk, a magnificent figure, like an Ancient God opening the heavens or the sky-propping Mount Buzhou itself, shot through the sky like a comet, making no attempt to dodge or evade the ultimate weapon of biotechnology—
—and slammed into it head-on!
"Madman!!"
Cries of fear, shock, and utter disbelief erupted across the globe.
The world watched as one, its collective gaze stunned into silence.
In the fiery sky, two trails of vapor—one from above, one from below—rocketed toward each other. One represented the pinnacle of modern technology; the other, the ultimate limit of biology.
Until...
they met.
BOOM!
In that instant, endless light and heat filled the world. A sound like the very Heaven and Earth Creation echoed to the highest heavens, and a roiling, destructive shockwave flattened what remained of the city ruins.
At the brilliant core of the explosion, a deep, fundamental annihilation on the genetic level suppressed all resistance.
Time and space fell silent; all things dissolved.
Yet one thing remained: a world-shaking roar, filled with boundless, heroic spirit, that overpowered the celestial boom and echoed long after—
"I was born wild, a soul that can't be tamed! Heaven and Earth may bind my form, but never my true name! Today I wake from this long dream and to the heavens fly! In another world, I'll turn the tides and reshape sea and sky! Hahaha, I'm away!"
'So he would rather die seeking his path than stop and stagnate?'
There were no cheers, no jeers. Only an indescribable, soul-deep shock that left every person watching that sky lost in a daze for a long, long time.
...
「Dali Year 644, Xuanwu Year 74.」
Within the borders of South Border Guangqing Prefecture.
Deep in the Black Stone Desert, the starlight was as bright as day, cascading down like a waterfall.
Red Fire Mine!
The mining slaves, numb and exhausted after a day of labor, lay in their low, filthy hovels. Their listless eyes stared up at the brilliant Star River, empty and dead, without a spark of life.
From a dark corner, hair-raising whispers arose.
"Is he dead? I can't wait much longer."
"Almost. From the looks of it, he only has a few breaths left."
"A pity he's so skinny."
...
Cold! Hunger! Darkness! Chaos! A splitting headache!
His soul and body felt as if they were trapped in a bottomless Abyss where darkness and fire mingled. The faint spark of his life threatened to go out at any moment.
The instinct to survive made Wu Dao cling desperately to that last glimmer of light, struggling to swim up from the Abyss. His chest heaved as he greedily gulped in fresh air.
"This is... a final burst of life before the end?"
"Doesn't look like it. I think he's coming back."
"Strangle him!!"
A pair of shriveled, grimy hands squeezed down without mercy, choking off his airway. The boy in the corner immediately began to thrash like a fish out of water.
"Ghk... ghk..."
Amid his labored gasps, the inhuman will that had been forged through countless brushes with death erupted with a dazzling light, instantly shattering the darkness and piercing the Chaos.
His eyes snapped open!
SWISH!
His skeletal right hand shot out like the talon of a celestial eagle—fierce, precise, seemingly crossing the distance in an instant to lock onto the throat of his attacker in the darkness.
"Ugh... cough cough..."
The tables had turned!
Wu Dao's ragged breathing gradually settled into a strange rhythm. His three fingers clamped around the man's windpipe like iron hooks, his voice as cold as chips of ice. "I ask. You answer."
GULP...
The sound of others swallowing nervously could be heard, but no one else dared to move.
The imperious aura he had cultivated over sixty years of storms erupted, like a Primordial Fierce Beast opening its eyes. The air grew thick and stagnant as a swamp, and the stench of urine filled the corner.
Facing life and death, the man's voice, choked with sobs, held no hesitation. "I... *cough*... I'll answer..."
"Hah... What country is this?"
"The... the nation of Dali. Guangqing Prefecture. The Black Stone Desert."
"Dali? What year is it?"
"I... I don't remember exactly. It should be the seventy-fourth year of Xuanwu."
"..."
Silence.
"Where am I, and what's my situation?"
"The Red Fire Mine... You're a Mining Slave, just like us. Tricked and abducted by the Four Seas Gang."
'Dali, Xuanwu Year, Four Seas Gang, Mining Slave...'
'Another world? Transmigration? Possession?'
Huuu...
He let out a long breath.
After understanding his current predicament, Wu Dao's heaving chest finally calmed. Under the regulating effect of the Essence Devouring Art, the Chaos in his splitting head subsided, and some clarity returned.
"Last question. Killing in the mines... does the Four Seas Gang not get involved?"
"N-No, they don't. They don't see us as people. If one of us dies, a new one just takes their place."
"Thank you."
CRACK!
The sound of crushed cartilage echoed in the dark.
THUD!
A shadow fell in the darkness, followed by the desperate, gurgling gasp of a broken bellows. "Ghk... gurgl..."
A moment later, the struggling ceased. The thick smell of blood filled the air.
No one cried out in alarm. In the low, filthy hovel, aside from a few uneasy glances, there were only numb, empty, deathly stares.
Overcome with a profound exhaustion from having pushed his potential, Wu Dao narrowed his eyes and gazed at the hovel's ceiling, staring through a crack at the starry sky of this strange new world.
'A little welcoming party to put me in my place? How exciting.'
The corners of his lips curled into an excited arc. His expression was one of eager hunger as he ignored the many eyes watching him from the darkness.