January 19th, 8275
It was 4pm in the afternoon; when the sun slowly cooled from its searing heat, rolling down the western skies.
The great City of Guangzhou was filled with hustle and bustle.
Guangzhou was one of the Great Cities left in the Eastern continent, its high-rise buildings blocking the rays of the sun.
Down in its shadows, cars, buses and pedestrian passengers moved through the orderly roads like clockwork.
Amongst these pedestrians, a young man with dirty but handsome features, a smooth chin, sharp brown eyes that bordered on golden and a pair of thick rimmed clear glasses over his nose.
His face looked soft, but mostly splotched with dust and some blood marks.
His hair was hung low, with bangs covering his face, somewhat obscuring his features and making him seem normal.
He wore a rough white jacket with red, blue and some golden accents.
A badge with two eagles facing each other and holding a yellow sword was profiled on his left breast. He wore black pants that looked roughened and dirty.
His brown eyes turned towards a large screen showing advertisement, which then suddenly changed into a documentary that all could see.
He was a student of the prestigious Shuangying College of Cultivation, a well known school that trained the young and upcoming generation in the ways of Martial and Immortal Way.
His school emblem popped up as the one in charge of shooting the film and also narrating the story to the walking passerby.
No one turned to look, no one.
Except the young man.
The Bleed!!!
Guangzhou was a great city, and one of the great cities left in the Eastern continent.
'Left'
The world has gone through many eras, many changes, and many revolutions.
The era of cultivation started over thousands of years before, during the Times of Desolation.
But after so long, peace came.
It came until 700 years ago, when the barrier between the human realm and the Spirit Realm began to fracture.
This fracture caused the influx of excess Spiritual Energy to flow into the world, saturating the world with life and most of all…
Qi…
Heavenly Qi… At its purest and finest.
Bai Chi nodded, this advent brought the world forward in not only its Cultivation advancement, but even technologically.
Everyone celebrated its entry into the world.
Everyone did.
Until something changed.
A year later, the first crack opened.
It was like a red mark tore open the sky, making it look like a bloody wound, giving it its name; The Bleed.
"Like the ancients used to say, one day of good luck, a hundred months of bad" he muttered as he followed on with the documentary.
Then, they came…
The Demons…
Not the Yaoguai that were enlightened beasts from the human world.
No, these were worse.
Monsters that came in grotesque shapes and forms that couldn't be explained.
They entered the world and ravaged it.
Soon, most of the United States disappeared.
South Africa was annihilated.
Northern Europe vanished.
And the Fatherland was deeply ravaged...
At this point in the documentary, a solemn tune was played for sorrowful effect. But no one seemed to care in this traffic, no one except this young boy.
Just then, a soft buzzing noise came from the boy's pocket, dragging his attention back.
He pulled what seems to be a flat rectangular band, which he strapped into his left wrist like a watch.
A blue holographic screen popped up, a call symbol with the name She-Hen written as the caller.
The young boy sighed, tapped the earpiece in his ear, braced himself and spoke.
"Hello… Bai Chi speaking…"
-Don't Hello me young man, you should be here an hour ago- a shrill scream that could put anyone to shock.
"I'm sorry, I closed late from class today"
-Class? You know well that you're wasting your time at school, I have customers hounding me all over town and I don't see my delivery boy- The voice yelled in a matter-of-fact voice.
Bai Chi sighed. Those were words he expected.
"I'm almost at the bend on Kongkong Lane, just get the order ready and I'll deliver them before you know it… trust me mum!"
The voice over the line froze for a second before sighing.
-Just get home quick you little rascal-
Bai Chi hummed in affirmation and hastened his steps.
His mind was no longer bothered by the advertisement.
In fact, nothing could bother him at all.
***
8:45pm
Bai Chi had just made his last delivery of pastries.
It was at a small restaurant who was a regular customer to his mother's pastries and hot buns.
Bai Chi jumped on his scooter and prepared to start it, when he saw a group of young men and a few girls walk out of an expensive mall just across.
He recognized these persons as his classmates in Shuangying College, still in their uniform.
Their leader, a young handsome youth with long dark black hair and grey eyes, was quite popular in his class.
He ignored them, focusing on starting his mini scooter.
Just as he did, he saw the same young man turn his head towards him from across the street with a questioning gaze, and then a smile.
Bai Chi couldn't help but sighed and think within himself
Oh really! What were the chances of him just noticing anything wrong with a delivery guy?
The young man brought his friends across the road and with a yell called.
"Hey, Wastrel! So this is what you do with your wormy existence? Haha"
I still don't get this. Must we trade insults so quickly? He sighed.
A laugh, and then another followed. Soon, Bai Chi was surrounded.
He turned to see three guys by his side and even one rummaging at the empty box on his scooter.
"What do you want Lou Feng?" Bai Chi asked calmly, his face rigid as he looked at the time in the band wrapped around his wrist.
He'd definitely get home late.
Lou Feng flicked his long hair and reclined on Bai Chi's handle bars, before grasping at his shirt and tossing him towards an alleyway to the side.
Bai Chi turned his body slightly, cushioning his fall swiftly.
He rolled and got to a knee, before a force knocked him into the air.
Lou Feng stood below him, his right foot planted in the ground, whilst his left foot was stretched into the air in a perfect split.
He kicked Bai Chi as soon as he landed.
"Seems like trash like you don't still understand. All your classmates are at the sixth to tenth tier of Foundation Establishment. And yet, you, a flawed piece of shit that can't even fully refine his Qi, thinks he can survive when you talk back at me, of the Lou Clan?" Lou Feng spoke as Bai Chi fell over again, grasping his bleeding jaw.
His body looked broken and bleeding, but his eyes, his eyes were lit in defiance.
Lou Feng hated those eyes.
Those were eyes he wanted to pluck out of their sockets so much.
He soon waved for his three henchmen, who railed blows and kicks on a defenseless Bai Chi.
Even the girls didn't seem perturbed.
This was a quiet street, and most people wouldn't want to mess with students of School of cultivation, especially if his surname was Lou.
Lou Feng was part of a Clan known as the Lou Clan of Binghua, an old fashioned type clan with elders that had reached the heights of the mortal realm.
A small named clan nonetheless.
He always was known as one of the greatest young talents of his generation, a 'heaven touched' as they were called.
But he had a very imperialistic temper that made him pick on anyone weaker than him.
And for some odd reason, he'd always had it against Bai Chi.
After ten minutes of consistent beating. Lou Feng turned to leave, tossing a blob of spit over Bai Chi's bruised and battered body.
"Quit while you can trash. You're better as a mortal ant" he called from the alley entrance as he turned the wall.
The other chuckled as they followed him out, leaving Bai Chi to nurse his wounds.
The young man sat up and looked towards the dark star filled night sky, his swollen face unshaken and unwavering.
He shook the dust off his body and clothes, jumped on his fallen scooter and started it.
Not a thought went through his head as he drove home.
Not a single one.
An hour later, he was home.
A small house in the general residential area made up of government approved 2- bedroom flats with a kitchen and living room.
Just as he parked his scooter at the communal garage, a middle aged woman with dark greying hair walked out of the house after hearing the engine rev.
The smell of pastries and flour filled the air as she opened the door.
Her brown eyes were dim, a hint of weariness and fear with some relief stained her gaze.
She saw Bai Chi's demeanor and her wrinkled face shuddered.
She rushed to him and grasped his body with her tired hands.
"Xiao Chi, what happened again la? Did you get run over? Are you hurt? Did you break any bones? Come take off your clothes let me get some bubble tea on the stove"
"Ma! Don't worry… it's just, I fell off"
The woman, Bai Chi's mother, was named Bai Han. Bai Chi had lived with her and his father, Bai Wei, who was currently serving as an active cultivator in the military.
It was the reason he was even able to enroll into the school of cultivation in the first place.
But his parents knew something was wrong with their son…
He fundamentally had no talent in cultivation.
None at all.
He wasn't like this when he was younger.
He was such a talented child.
Special grade draconic meridians
And even his root core was found out to be profound.
But one day, at the age of 14, he got into a cultivation accident.
His life wasn't endangered,but his cultivation talents;
His meridians…
His root core…
All were ruined in one fateful freak accident.
Both his parents had tried everything to cure their son, every method, every alchemical solution.
Even Heavenly materials and earthly roots were bought at huge sums, all for nothing.
Even till now, their son still fought and trained his body and mind hard, hoping that one day, his heavenly luck would shine upon him.
His talent that was high above was despised by classmates, who didn't shy away in eating the corpse of his downfall.
He became the biggest mockery of his peers.
And yet, even after all this time, he never seemed to shake or falter.
Even his mother worried about her son's non-chalance.
She rushed to the kitchen to prepare his food whilst Bai Chi went into his room.
He locked the door behind him and took off his clothes.
His body was thin but heavily muscled. His chest and abs seemed to have been sculpted out from the finest jade.
He picked the bangs covering his forehead and flicked them to the back, forming a neat slick back, revealing his features.
He took off his glasses and his face changed, almost as if he was another man.
His body squirmed as his wounds began to slowly mend, his swollen bruises began to glow as drops of black liquid leaked out of his very pores.
Then with a chuckle, he spoke
"I have done it!!! I am now the only EARTHLY VESSEL!!!"
He then looked to the skies outside his window and took a deep breath.
My hour is coming, and they will not be ready!!!