"This is the end, huh?" Tai Ling said with a pained sigh. A second later, he coughed out red blood, staining his fake butler's uniform.
Across him stood Lin Zhou, dressed in the same fake butler uniform.
This night, both men were going to steal the Divine emerald from the Imperial sect, dressed up as butlers to avoid suspicion and arrive in the sect leader's room and take the emerald.
The Divine emerald — a gem known to grant a huge boost in Qi, taking a nameless cultivator to a supreme cultivator.
That was every peasant's dream. And now…
"You've decided to take it all for yourself," Tai Ling said in another fit of coughing blood, straining himself to keep standing, though the slowing beating of his heart was more than enough to tell him he was about to die.
"What happened to peasants sticking together?"
Lin Zhou didn't reply, narrowing his eyes at his best friend. After some moments he sighed.
"Well it wasn't always you, you know," said Lin Zhou whose emotionless expression flickered ominously under the bright piercing moon light.
Upon hearing this, Tai Ling staggered back coughing up more blood, staining his fake clothes as the weight of being betrayed pressed on him so much like a heavy boulder.
"I don't understand."
"Why would you?" said Lin Zhou.
"You see, my dear boy, when it comes to stealing food from the store because of hunger, outrunning the guards when in trouble or stealing bronze coins from stingy rich fellows,... That's when we peasants stick."
"But when it comes to things like stealing the Divine emerald to increase your Qi beyond your imagination…"
Lin Zhou then bent a little further towards Tai Ling as he finished his sentence to the bleeding figure
"...that's when it's a one man do-or-die thing."
"Bastard… after everything I've done for you," Tai Ling seethed, the next second he ran to tackle Lin Zhou, to which the latter simply sidestepped and smacked the former at the back of his head.
Tai Ling fell face first onto the cold, polished floor. He let out a pained groan, his body weakening by the second.
Lin Zhou lightly laughed. "I'm sorry old friend, but what has to be done, has to be done."
Tai Ling struggled to turn his head towards Lin Zhou, then he grinned. "Lin Zhou, you are one hell of a bastard."
Lin Zhou smiled, then walked towards the Imperial Sect leader's office table and opened a special drawer, and brought out a small wooden box.
"Humans are such vile things, aren't they?" Lin Zhou said while slowly opening the box. Then the next second, his mouth was left wide open.
"What…how…can this be?" Lin Zhou stuttered with a puzzled look on his face.
Tai Ling laughed then immediately groaned, regretting his earlier decision.
"What's so funny, bastard?" Lin Zhou furiously asked.
Tai Ling didn't reply, staring at his best friend with a grin on his pale face.
Suddenly, Lin Zhou's eyes widened in realization. "You…you knew about this?"
"Ah, sure I did," Tai Ling replied in a hoarse voice. "I couldn't risk sharing my reward with my backstabber of a friend."
"Where is it?" Lin Zhou seethed, pointing his Qi revolver at Tai Ling.
"What's the point in telling you? I'm already a dead man anyways, and I can't have you reaping the benefits while I'm in the grave now can I?"
Lin Zhou was left speechless. After some moments, he grimly smiled. "So be it."
POW!
The world turned black for Tai Ling, all his senses disappeared — except for sight — but seeing a world of black could count as seeing too… right?
'That bastard actually killed me, after everything I've done for him… damned Lin Zhou! I hope you die a stupid death yourself!'
Suddenly the world of black got pierced by a flash of white light that kept growing larger and larger, forcefully ejecting Tai Ling from its space.
Opening his eyes, Tai Ling was hit with a wave of chilling breeze, his body shivering in response.
In front of him were buildings of relatively tall heights, with one in the center, extremely tall with a large bronze clock.
'Hell is this place?' he thought with a frown. 'It's so big yet I can see it clearly, it's like I'm on the same level with it.'
Looking down, Tai Ling did everything possible to not fall back from shock.
Down below, he was standing on a rusting iron pole that stretched out from a tall unfinished construction project.
His eyes widened in horror. 'W—why… the hell… am I so far away from the ground?' he thought, refusing to close his eyes, afraid that he may fall.
"What is this hell?" Tai Ling stuttered, carefully turning his gaze to the other side. "Is this some kind of punishment by the gods?... I have been a good kid dammit… oh wait… I just tried stealing from the Imperial sect, I'm done for.'
Pushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, Tai Ling looked around him, trying to find a way to leave.
Tai Ling saw the start of the rusting pole and heaved a sigh of relief. Luckily, the pole wasn't breaking anytime from now.
Collecting himself, he slowly but steadily, repositioned his body, then walked slowly towards the start of the pole.
With each step taken, his breath kept hitching.
'Just one more step,' he kept repeating in his head, as a form of encouragement.
Tai Ling was just a few meters away from the main building, when the pole creaked.
'Curses!'
Trying to keep his composure, he steadily continued his pace. Then the pole snapped at the starting part.
'To hell with the gods!' he thought, as he sprinted towards the start of the pole. The more he ran the more it creaked.
The next second, he jumped. At that same moment the rusted pole finally gave in, breaking and falling into the abyss.
He roughly landed on the main building, gasping for air. A second later and he would've fallen with the pole.
'Now what sort of bastard would choose this kind of death?' he thought, slowly standing up.
'Come to think of it… didn't I die?' Tai Ling frowned, searching his body, finding unfamiliar things that he couldn't describe.
'Foreign clothes, funny shoes, slick hair, wait…' his eyes widened in realization. '...did I transmigrate?'
Then his eyes caught a glimpse of his reflection on a glass pane. Staring back at him was a young man in a styled suit that resembled farmer's wear. His black hair was gelled back, with the sides trimmed off.
His emerald eyes seemed to glow slightly with every breath he took. He looked like a man in his early twenties - and that he was.
Just beneath his left pocket, was a tag. Tai Ling picked up the tag an
"Sower." He murmured.
Tai Ling frowned. "Did this guy sign up for some Farmers' Sect?"
Suddenly, he felt a mind splitting headache, causing him to tightly grip his styled hair in pain and let out a scream of agony.
Floods and floods of memories reawakened in his mind. From the day the one he took over gained sentience to the day he grew up to what led to this very event.
If he didn't know who he was… well now he did.
Some minutes later, the headache subsided, giving him a chance to think normally again.
"So his name—my name is… Lucas Von House," Tai Ling whispered, his face contorting into a grimace.