CHAPTER 1: THE END
Everything felt hazy and blurry to Chi Ye through the cloud of dust in front of him. He struggled to open his eyes and grasp the situation. Every part of his body screamed in agony and so did he.
"Umphhh."
He let out a groan, failing to force it down. His bleary eyes finally managed to open slightly as the cloud of dust settled, revealing a scene of absolute carnage. A battlefield filled with corpses. Blood-red land with smoke and dust rising, and fissures big enough to swallow houses dotted the landscape. It was a scene of horror.
"Heh..." Chi Ye let out a mirthless laugh. He had failed. Even after all the sacrifice, he had failed to stop that man.
"Hahahah…." His laugh rose in a crescendo as he threw his head back despite the pain. The physical pain he felt was of no consequence to him at the moment.
"I did everything I could. Still, why?" His laughter stopped abruptly, replaced by a shout filled with unwillingness.
He lay on the ground, his back against a boulder, too injured and weak to do anything. His clothes resembling rags and the previously spotless skin ravaged by wounds. Even the heavy aura surrounding him at all times before had vanished, signaling the end of his cultivation journey. Which meant the end of his struggles. He was destined to die here, mentally if not physically.
"Arghh." He groaned again, the pain flaring as he tried to stand up. He needed to see what his failure had wrought upon his people.
Chi Ye stood up shakily, his eyes still not fully focused. The boulder behind him became a support as he took a staggering step forward onto the scorched land.
It was absolute destruction. He was probably the only one alive from his side. And that man had been….. alone.
Chi Ye had known about the futility of this attempt. But they had no other choice than to fight. This fight was their last chance of survival. And they had lost.
"Cough." He coughed drawing blood to his lips, struggling to remain standing or even look at what remained of the battlefield. His eyes finally focused, and what he saw threw him into despair.
His broken body shook and his bloodied mouth opened slightly, but no sound came. His brain froze despite him already expecting this outcome.
A vortex of ether stretching hundreds of meters, surrounding a man.
"Yuan Tianxuren." Chi Ye finally spoke, his eyes boring holes at the figure floating in the middle of the vortex. His white hair and robe flowed wildly due to the vortex of ether around him while his eyes remained closed, bathing in a white light that seemed to flow like a river around him. He exuded an aura of a true immortal.
"He is preparing to breakthrough to the… Eternal Realm." Chi Ye muttered, defeat lacing his voice. There was nothing he could do to turn the situation around. He knew what becoming an Eternal entailed. The Eternal would become the absolute ruler of their world, the whole world becoming their domain, breaking the balance that kept the ecosystem of a world alive. This also meant that the world spirit would die, refined by the cultivator while breaking through to the Eternal realm.
"So, you have awakened. This Yuan has long awaited you."
Suddenly, a voice resounded through Chi Ye's surroundings like a shout filled with agitation. But the tone was anything but an agitated shout. Utter calmness, as if all the destruction he had caused couldn't affect him.
Chi Ye clenched his fists and remained standing, too powerless to do anything and too tired to argue. He just listened.
"You shall bear witness as this Yuan ascends. This world shall be righted from its wrongs and order shall be bestowed upon it. Bear witness, Childe as this Yuan becomes... an Eternal." The voice continued, disregarding his feelings, but Yuan Tianxuren remained unmoved in the middle of the vortex, which started getting bigger. As if the voice that seemed to echo everywhere wasn't him talking.
The winds picked up as the ether inside the vortex became more saturated, and the force of it nearly knocked Chi Ye down, but he stood firmly, fists clenched and his eyes never leaving the figure bathed in white light in front of him.
He might be defeated and powerless, but he was still the Chosen One of the Spirit of Xuheng. He couldn't watch as this man ascended and destroyed the balance of this world, even if it meant his effort were bound to fail.
"No, I can't." Chi Ye finally broke his silence and took a step forward. He circulated what little ether he had in his body. His Mahayana Realm cultivation was destroyed, but he still had this broken body. He would do everything in his power for one last attempt, no matter how impossible the odds seemed.
His shaky steps turned into a full sprint, his breathing jagged. Every step he took, his body decayed. He was using his life force as fuel to push forward. His hair turned white while his skin sagged, but he didn't stop, using the minuscule strength that his life force provided.
Throwing oneself into a breakthrough vortex of another, especially someone of higher cultivation realm, was absolute suicide, but Chi Ye continued, his mind filled with the images of his fellow cultivators. The kind Sect Master, the brothers and sisters who he fought with, and even the Bloodborne Sect Master who he hated but even he had given up his life here. Chi Ye had never been a hero, but the situation had forced him to become one. He needed to fill that role to save this world, Xuheng from what was about to come.
"Arghhhh." Chi Ye's aged body barely reached near the spinning vortex, which continued to increase in size. He then flung himself forward, in his hand a ball of light condensed from everything left in his beaten body. This would be his final stand against Yuan Tianxuren.
But as he made contact with spinning mass of ether, it devoured him and his final attack like nothing. He just vanished. Into nothingness. The light that was supposed to brighten Xuheng had been extinguished.