Woosh~
"Huff... huff... just how long has it been ? Three months, maybe..."
A hoarse voice echoed across the desolate battlefield, barely audible over the wind.
"I wonder how many more days I can keep walking like this. There's no end to it... I'm trying my best to escape this graveyard, but everywhere I turn, there's only blood and rotting flesh."
A lone boy wandered through a sea of corpses. His face was pale, his robes in tatters, and his eyes dull like dying embers. He looked no older than sixteen, yet there was no trace of youth in his expression—only exhaustion and faint, flickering willpower.
His every step sank into blood-soaked soil. The stench of death clung to the air, thick and suffocating. Not a single living soul could be sensed for miles.
And yet—he walked.
Plop—
The sound of thick blood hitting the ground drew his attention.
"Huh... what's that...?" he muttered, looking toward a crumpled corpse half-buried in shattered earth.
His eyes narrowed.
"Ohh... it's you. The sect leader. So even you shared the same fate as your 'noble' elders..."
He laughed.
"What was it that you were clinging to so desperately... that you sacrificed your entire sect? To protect what?"
After staring at the lifeless body for a while
His gaze shifted to his right hand. A scarlet ring pulsed faintly on his finger, as if sensing something.
Cling~
A flash of crimson light burst forth.
In his hand now rested a sleek, eerie sword—its blade faintly glowing like frozen blood. He flicked it through the air,
Slick!
With a clean swipe, he severed the sect leader's arm from his corpse. And sent it flying in the air, Blood spurted weakly. A dull thud echoed.
Among the limp fingers of that severed hand was a storage ring.
Fhuss~
The boy reached out and plucked something from the air.
It was the scarlet ring.
"So this is what it was all about..." he said, with cold voice . "The cause of the slaughter. The treasure of your 'Blood Moon Sect'..."
He channeled a wisp of Yuan Qi into the ring—his energy feeble, but enough to awaken it.
The jade stone came out of it
By the looks of his expression it was clear that he knew what it was
"They say this thing has been within the Blood Moon Sect for over eons . and believed that it holds some kind of Devine cultivation art. No one knew where it came from, nor could anyone cultivate its art. Supposedly, it possesses its own will—and chooses its inheritor. They called it a sacred art, believed it came from the Sacred Forests…"
He scoffed.
"Fools. It was nothing more than a cursed stone. If you can't use it, why die for it? No fortune—only ruin. Your 'treasure' destroyed your entire sect."
Suddenly
Drip...
A drop of blood leaked from the wound on his chest and fell onto the jade.
The instant the blood touched the jade stone, it erupted in blinding scarlet light.
WOOOOOM—
The entire battlefield trembled.
Light swallowed him, the corpses, and the earth beneath his feet.
"W-what...!?"
Too weak to resist, the boy clenched his teeth in terror as the light engulfed him. His vision blurred. His breath caught.
There was nothing but darkness after the the blinding light disappeared .
---
Ughh...
A groan escaped his lips as he stirred.
He lay in a pool of blood, unmoving.
"I… passed out?" he muttered. "Must've…"
His eyes fluttered open.
And what he saw froze the breath in his lungs.
"W-where am I...? Where did everyone go!?"
Gone were the corpses. Gone was the battlefield.
He stood now in a vast, endless sea of blood. Above him, a starry sky that defied all reason.
Thousands of moons hung suspended in the heavens, each brighter than sun. The sky was radiant, divine. But the world below was deathly still.
He looked into the blood at his feet—his own reflection stared back.
This place… it wasn't the world he knew.
"Is this... the afterlife? Am I... dead?"
Confusion overtook him.
Suddenly out of nowhere
A voice echoed across the void, ancient and unearthly.
"Well well... would you take a look at that. Someone actually made it into my domain after all this time."
"That old dragon actually pulled it off... hahaha. But you... you're not what I expected. You look nothing like the one I was told about."
"Could it be the seal's weakened after all these years? And it brought someone else, No... that old beast was the best in his work, even those supreme beings couldn't break his arry . Only 'HE' could trigger the sacred heart of that Devine beast, after all it was meant for 'HIM'....hahaha.!"
"Well i suppose I should do my part now. It's not like i should be conserned about anything else, that old coot would be so made at me if he knew I doubted his sealing hehehe..."
The voice boomed like thunder—yet carried a strange warmth, almost playful... and immensely dangerous.
The boy stood silent, blood dripping from his brow.
He had no answers.
Only more questions.
The voice echoed again "boy what's your name"
His heart skipped a beat then he answered
"Lin Ye..."
His face looking pale
Slowly sinking to the ground, Lin Ye's consciousness began to fade.
"Huh... Are you dead, kid?"
A deep voice echoed through the void.
"Don't die on me just yet."
Out of nowhere, a man in his sixties appeared beside him. His long beard swayed gently in the wind, and though worry lined his face, a flicker of curiosity shone in his eyes.
"Ohh... I see. You've lost a lot of blood and slipped into unconsciousness. Well, let me lend you a hand."
Placing two fingers on Lin Ye's forehead, the old man gently channeled a stream of energy into his body.
Crack.
The energy suddenly trembled—wild and unstable.
"Now that's interesting…" the old man muttered, eyes narrowing. "Why does this kid possess two spiritual roots?"
He pulled his fingers back, the intrigue in his expression deepening.
"I was hoping to have a little chat, but I guess we'll have plenty of time for that later."
Then, moving his fingers swiftly through the air, he formed a series of mysterious signs. A azure glow radiated from his body and flowed into Lin Ye like a soft tide of starlight.
"Kid… we shall meet again. I look forward to it. Hahaha…"
As the light faded, silence returned. The mysterious man vanished without a trace, leaving only the boy unconscious among the corpses once more.
---