The Infinite Ascent
Chapter 0: The Day the Sky Broke
Before the heavens shattered, our world was whole.
The Nine Great Dynasties ruled with iron and splendor, their banners stretched across continents. Cultivators walked the land like living legends, their sects carving palaces into mountains and fortresses into the clouds. The common people looked to the sky and believed it eternal — an unchanging dome of blue, beneath which generations were born, lived, and died.
It was a world of ambition and fear, where mortals prayed for scraps of protection from powers vast and cruel, and where even the gods themselves were bound by the laws of heaven. Life was fragile, yes, but it was certain. There was order. There was balance.
Until the day the sky broke.
In a moment that redefined the very essence of reality, the world met its catastrophic end not in the stillness of quiet resignation or the gentle whisper of fate, but in a cataclysmic eruption of sound, a tumultuous cacophony that reverberated through the very fabric of existence itself. It was not the low rumble of thunder rolling across the horizon, nor was it the wailing of the wind as it howled through the trees, but something far more profound, something greater: the anguished sound of creation itself fracturing under the weight of its own hubris. The heavens, which humanity had once held as unchanging and steadfast, shattered like fragile glass, splintering into a thousand shards that fell like stars against the cold, unyielding stone of reality.
Above me, the vast celestial canopy that had stretched like a protective blanket for millennia began to break apart, cleaving into countless fragments that spiraled through the air. No longer did it promise the permanence of a nurturing sky; instead, it revealed a gaping void an infinite abyss, dark and inscrutable that lay hidden behind the comforting illusion of blue. Through this grievous wound in the firmament, an unfathomable emptiness stared back, vast and eternal, as if it were somehow alive, thrumming with the pulsing rhythm of an ancient and terrible heartbeat. From its unfathomable depths, a presence loomed above, immense and cold, its gaze both intimate in its clarity and terrifying in its implications, as though all of existence had maniacally shrunk into the singular fragility of my own heartbeat.
In that transformative instant, the great empires of man crumbled to dust, their once proud banners of the Inner Dynasties turning to nothing but ash in the cruel winds of fate. The divine armies that had marched confidently into battle scattered in abject terror before the onslaught of a calamity they could neither face nor understand. The grand sects, those proud institutions that had claimed dominion over the profound mysteries of cultivation for centuries, fell apart as their formidable ancestral wards evaporated like morning mist before the relentless sun. The legendary Sea of Verdant Eternity boiled, its tranquil waves transforming into nothingness, while the majestic Mountain of the Ten Thousand Gods fractured, causing the ancient shrines to collapse as the very idols that had inspired reverence wailed in horror and fled, consumed by the abyss.
Amidst this monumental unraveling of reality and the despair that gripped the hearts of billions, I stood alone, a mere boy, unremarkable and nameless in a world filled with chaos. Yet, when every voice around me fell into a profound silence, I remained; I was the sole witness to the sky's unimaginable demise.
And it was in that harrowing moment that I first heard the voice of the system, cutting through the chaos like a beacon amidst a storm.
You have touched the Boundary.
A path has been opened.
The voice, calm and unwavering, echoed with an otherworldly clarity, piercing the tumult as though the collapse of worlds was little more than a gentle whisper brushing against the fabric of my consciousness.
In that transcendent instance of clarity, my reflection became something entirely unrecognizable. Where once there had been a fragile skeleton of hunger and frailty, a flicker of something greater ignited within me. Snow-white hair framed my sharp and angular features, forming a stark contrast to my eyes now transformed into molten gold, glowing with a predatory intensity that seemed to hold secrets of the cosmos itself. My robe, once little more than a simple cloth stitched together with care, shimmered with divine embroidery that was intricately woven, as though the very heavens sought to adorn me in their celestial fabric. Upon my waist, a sigil of black and gold pulsed faintly, resonating with a rhythm akin to a heartbeat, marking me as one who had crossed an irrevocable threshold into the realms unknown.
Yet, the voice that had intertwined itself with my fate did not offer praise or comfort. Instead, it presented a question, an ultimatum that resonated with the weight of eternity.
Will you walk the Path?
Even as the very continents crumbled into fire and despair, even as gods themselves clawed desperately at the veil of reality, howling in anguish as they fled into the yawning chasm, the voice provided me with no sanctuary, no escape from the chaos surrounding me. I found myself begging for oblivion, a plea swallowed by the vast emptiness, but the voice remained resolute, demanding a choice a choice that echoed in the hollows of eternity.
That singular question has lingered in my mind ever since, leaving an indelible mark on my soul. Even now, after traversing countless lifetimes of ascents, after stepping foot in realms and heavens no mortal has ever laid eyes upon, after standing upon the precipice where no being has dared to tread, its weight persists like a haunting echo.
The day the sky broke was not merely the day I witnessed the end of the world; it was the day I was irrevocably torn from the grasp of mortality. It was the day of my unmaking, a day when I was dismantled only to be remade anew. It was the crucial moment the Path itself chose me, yearning to unfold the secrets of existence.
The road revealed before me stretches infinitely, a mesmerizing tapestry woven from both brilliance and shadow, woven with threads of promise and peril. It is no ordinary destiny, but rather an odyssey that transcends the very limits of eternity itself, a journey fraught with challenges that would test the essence of my being.
And so, I continue to walk it, step by arduous step, bound by the allure of discovery and understanding.
The Path of the Infinite Ascent beckons me onward.
The road without end stretches endlessly before me,
The curse and the blessing that all worlds shall ultimately come to dread.
To be continued...