BOOOOOM!!!
An explosion ripped through the air, a deafening roar that shattered the boy's world in an
instant.
"So this is how I die, huh?" Long Huang thought as the walls of the collapsing building next to him fell on him.
"I don't want it to end like this. I haven't even begun living. "
"It can't end like this!!" he screamed in his mind, but his soul had already slipped away, his cries
fading into the silence.
Cold, that was the first sensation that crept through Long Huang's mind as his eyelids fluttered
open. His vision swam, blurry and unfocused. He wasn't buried under rubble. He was... lying
down. On something hard. Smooth. The air itself felt different, heavy, carrying a profound
silence that pressed against him.
Ughh!
With a groan that felt alien in his own throat, Long Huang pushed himself up onto his elbows.
The movement sent a wave of agony through a body he was sure should have been pulp.
He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the dim, ethereal light. He was in a vast, cavernous hall with
pillars that soared into a shadowy ceiling, carved with images of serpents locked in eternal
struggle.
And in front of him, stretching into the gloom, was a path of jet-black tiles, each one gleaming
like a shard of obsidian. At the end of that path, on a throne carved from a single, massive
raven skull, sat a figure.
It was a man, or something that wore the shape of a man. Clad in robes of profound black that
seemed to drink the light from the room. His features were sharp and ageless, his eyes holding
the cold, distant gleam of ancient stars.
A simple, dark crown rested on his head as he held a scythe of polished bone. His presence
was a weight, pressing down on Long Huang's soul, demanding reverence, demanding fear.
"You're awake."
The voice was not loud, yet it filled the entire hall, resonating not in Long Huang's ears but deep
within his consciousness. Long Huang looked up and saw a being beyond his comprehension.
Long Huang stared, fear, folding every inch of his body. "Where... where am I? The explosion... I was dead."
The being on the throne tilted its head.
"You are dead."
"Your cries of regret were the last echoes of life."
The finality of the words crashed down on Long Huang. This was real. The Judge's starlit eyes narrowed, peering into him.
"Long Huang. Your life was brief, a flicker. Your record is... unremarkable. Neither great sin nor
Great virtue marks your name."
"Now, a new life, with no memory of this one, to begin the cycle anew."
Reincarnation? To forget everything? The regret he felt in his final moments surged back, 'I
haven't even begun living.'
"No."
The word was a ragged whisper, but it echoed in the silent hall. The being hummed slightly amused at his answer.
"No?"
"HAHAHA!"
"You dare refuse the celestial cycle!!!"
Hearing this, Long Huang staggered to his feet. His legs trembled, but his voice grew stronger,
fueled by a defiant will that had survived even death itself.
"I can't accept that," he said, his gaze locked on the being.
"It can't end like this. I had... things I needed to do. A life I needed to live."
"The dead do not make demands," the being said, his voice a low thunder.
"The path is set. Your fate is sealed."
But as he spoke, a faint, almost imperceptible tremor ran through the realm. A hairline crack, no
wider than a thread, appeared on one of the massive fangs. In the profound stillness of the
court, the sound of splintering bone was as sharp as another explosion.
Boom!!!
"Thank me later."
13 years later.......
"Hugh! This is life."
It was late at night in the misty western mountains, where breathtaking beauty and tranquility
wrapped the landscape in its embrace, free from the presence of beats or humans.
Except for one- a boy lying on the grass, lost in thought, as he gazed at the vast night sky. This
The boy had striking features and long, raven-black hair, he appeared to be 16 or 17 years old, tall
and muscular, but in reality, he was just a 13-year-old.
This boy was Long Huang.
In a twist of fate, a sudden building collapse had claimed his life, and upon awakening, he found
himself inhabiting the body of a lone infant in a world far different from his own.
Long Huang's heart ached as he pondered,
"Am I really that unwanted to be alone in both worlds?"
The sting of abandonment felt familiar.
Long Huang sighed, memories washing over him like the gentle night breeze. Memories of a
A rainy day that soaked through clothes, leaving the streets shimmering.
Young Long Huang, around six years old, stood alone at the school gate, watching as other
children rushed to their waiting parents, their laughter echoing in the air.
His small hand clutched tightly to his drenched backpack while the rain became a curtain,
isolating him from the warmth and safety others embraced.
That day, he had walked back to the orphanage alone, his tiny shoes splashing through
puddles, feeling utterly invisible in a world filled with love he couldn't touch. But that was all in
the past.
Thirteen years had passed since Long Huang was reborn in this new world, a world known as
the Ancient Divine World. He found himself on the Eastern Sun Continent, in the North-Northwestern Province's Blossom City.
A city nestled in a protective mountain range on the border of two powerful kingdoms, it was a
place of beauty but it was far more dangerous than its citizens ever realized, rife with
schemes with the Azure Lotus Sect at its center, like a venomous spider in a web.
Now, even in this new world, he again felt the sharp edge of solitude, left at the entrance of the
sect, a child without a family once more.
It would not be right to call him an orphan, for he hadn't always been truly alone. But for the
past two years, he had lived in solitude near the sect in the western mountains. He didn't have
many friends, and the reason was as simple as it was cruel: he was born with a disease.
A physician had coldly informed him that he would not live past the age of sixteen unless he
could cultivate to the peak of the Body Tempering realm.
Hearing that verdict, a young Long Huang felt his fate was sealed once more. He had cried for
days, the bitter words a mantra of despair,
"I'm cursed to live a short and lonely life. There's no other explanation."
The path before him was impossibly steep. The stages of cultivation were a brutal ladder: the
The Body Tempering realm contained the skin, meridians, bones, blood, and viscera tempering
realms. Followed by the Qi Converging, Qi Condensing, and Profound Xiantian Origin Realm,
and higher realms beyond.
The strongest experts in all of Blossom City were in the Profound Xiantian Origin Realm, and
they were all individuals in their fifties who had cultivated for decades.
And cultivating from the Skin Tempering Realm to the Peak of the Viscera Tempering Realm
usually took 6 years without external help, but 4 years with and only 3 years with help for those
geniuses. So it was near impossible for him.
Long Huang knew this and with such little time to live, he isolated himself to avoid any
attachment to the world since he wasn't from it in the first place. But he still hoped to be one of those geniuses to survive, because even though he had already died before and felt nothing towards death, he wanted to live.
So he spent most of his days training in calisthenics at the abandoned training ground because
even if he wasn't a genius, he would work extra hard to make up for the lack of talent.
"Can't have bad thoughts if you're exercising now, can you?"
He said to himself as he started his usual calisthenics routine. Long Huang continued his practice for two hours. Sweat dripping from his body, lying on the cold training ground floor, he looked towards the night sky and mumbled to himself,
Fww!
"If only I had a camera to capture these scenes."
He stopped and went towards a modern-type tiny house not too far from the training ground.
At this moment, Long Huang heard footsteps coming from the direction he was headed. Not
startled by the fact that someone came to this remote mountain.
Long Huang continued walking because he knew who it was without even looking, and sure
enough, as he guessed, a tender childlike voice cried out,
"Junior Brother, my dad is looking for you."
Long Huang looked ahead and saw a lovely and cute little girl who looked 16-year-old girl with
bright blue eyes and her hair braided into long braids, standing in front of his house. This little
girl was his senior sister, Huang Min, and his only friend.
"Why is the fifth elder looking for me?" Long Huang asked.
"I don't know." Huang Min's voice was innocent and sweet.
"Let's go back. If we take too long, then Dad will scold us!"
When Long Huang heard this, he smiled and pinched Huang Min's cute little cheeks before
saying,
"Let's go then."
Huang Min pouted, then said angrily,
"Hey! I'm your senior, have some respect."
"I told you before, don't pinch my cheeks, damn it!" said Huang Min, chasing after him, screaming.
"Come on, take your beating like a man for once!"
"I'm a boy, not a man!"
"Junior brother, don't run, I promise I won't kill you!" she said as she cracked her knuckles with
an agitated facial expression.
"Get over here, you bastard!"
"Try and catch me, old lady!"
"Now you've done it."
The two frolicked down the mountain, laughter and the muffled sounds of someone being
punched could be heard. This continued until they had made their way back to the sect situated
at the foot of the mountains.
.