Early in the morning, as the sun rose on the horizon, an object suddenly tore through the sky like a falling star. It descended through the atmosphere like lightning, leaving a white streak in its wake.
It was heading toward a small village filled with wooden houses.
Inside one of them, a young man slept deeply on a wooden bed covered by a thin mattress. A light silk blanket wrapped around his body.
Crack!
Part of the roof split open like glass, sending shards of wood scattering across the floor.
At that moment, Yu Xuan, startled by the sound, abruptly opened his eyes. He had no idea what was happening. His mind was blank. Dazed, he looked toward the buzzing noise and saw fragments raining down just a meter away from his bed.
"That was close... if it had cracked a little further ahead..." He swallowed hard, not wanting to imagine the outcome. "Damn rotten wood!"
Yu Xuan muttered a string of curses—but suddenly his eyes widened. Through the hole in the roof, something white slipped inside. Following it with a trembling gaze, he saw the object plummet at the fastest speed he had ever witnessed.
Within seconds, it struck the ground.
Boom!
A crater formed in the dirt floor from the impact, the object burying itself nearly a meter underground.
The white light surrounding it slowly faded away, leaving only stillness behind.
Yu Xuan remained frozen on his bed, mouth slightly agape, his eyes trembling.
"A-am I dreaming?" He rubbed his eyes and pinched his cheek. Feeling the sting, he confirmed it wasn't a dream. "A treasure?"
It was a reasonable guess. In this immortal world, treasures occasionally fell from the heavens into random places.
"This is my chance!" Yu Xuan snapped out of his daze, his eyes gleaming with greed. He needed that unknown treasure.
Leaping out of bed, he ran straight toward the crater with hurried steps. When he peered inside, he saw a white book lying within.
"A cultivation manual?" Yu Xuan speculated, his desire growing even stronger. Unable to contain his insatiable curiosity, he jumped down into the pit.
As he fell, his hair lifted with the wind, and a cold breeze brushed against his face.
Blinking from the chill, Yu Xuan landed on the ground. He bent his knees to absorb the impact, a few joints cracking—but nothing serious; the drop wasn't high.
Getting up clumsily, he crouched again and stretched out his hands toward the book.
When his fingers touched its surface, he felt a cold texture—like the book had been dipped in ice. He pulled his hands back and shot it a wary glance.
"It's freezing... could this be an immortal cultivation method of the Ice element?"
With that thought, Yu Xuan grew even more excited. He waved his hands to shake off the chill, then quickly grabbed the book with both hands—one on top, the other below. Instantly, a wave of cold rushed through his body.
Ignoring the sensation, Yu Xuan sat down and placed the book on his lap. Pulling open the cover, he revealed a page written in silver-blue letters. The moment he saw the color, his eyes lit up—he was about to confirm his theory.
But as he read, confusion clouded his mind.
"Huh?"
Yu Xuan blinked and reread the words carefully.
[Diary of Yu Xuan]
[This is the experience I've accumulated over a thousand years.]
[Introduction]
[I am an unlucky man. Throughout my life, I never once obtained great fortune. Even when it was right before my eyes, I failed to grasp it. I suppose that's what it means to be unlucky, isn't it?]
[Aside from my bad luck, my cultivation talent was actually decent. I was born with a Deep Sword Root. But unfortunately... I began cultivating far too late. My potential was already ninety percent exhausted.]
[Even so, I managed to reach the level of Martial King—my limit.]
[But I refused to accept that fate. To change my destiny, I refined the Qi of the River of Time. Yet I could never cultivate it properly because of my insufficient level. Still, I managed to obtain a trace of it... but it wasn't enough to turn back time.]
[At that moment, I devised a plan that took a hundred years to complete.]
[I created a diary containing all the opportunities I encountered over the past thousand years. And I will use my entire cultivation, soul, and body to send it through space and time.]
[If this works, I hope my past self can correct my regrets and attain eternal life. But well... that's easier said than done. The butterfly effect is huge, after all.]
[End of Introduction]
[This was my life—or your life, along a predetermined path.]
[If this diary has reached you, my past self, you may now open the following pages. I don't know how old you are; hopefully less than eighteen, and still in Yu Village. If so, that's good—you can begin your journey from the start, step by step along the path I've drawn for the next hundred years. That should be enough time to reach the peak—assuming you don't die, of course. My younger self was quite reckless, wasn't he?]
"..."
Yu Xuan was speechless. The whole situation threw him into an existential crisis.
"Do I even exist? In the past and the future—am I living in multiple timelines? Is my destiny to be unlucky? My talent is good but I started too late? The Qi of the River of Time? Martial King?"
Yu Xuan's head throbbed violently with questions. Pain pulsed in his skull.
"It hurts... my head's going to burst!" He grabbed his hair, overcome by agony. His blurry vision didn't help. As his mind began to collapse, a memory from childhood surfaced.
....
"Calm down, little Xuan. A man must have a strong mind and not fall apart so easily before problems," a woman said gently, her fingers running through the boy's hair. "Cough, cough..." She coughed after finishing her words.
The woman lay on a bed, the back of her head resting on a pillow, a cold cloth filled with ice placed on her fevered forehead. Her face was flushed, her breathing heavy.
"Mother..." Little Xuan cried at the sight of her condition. Tears streamed endlessly down his small face.
"Why are you crying? Didn't Mother tell you before that a man must stay strong?" she said, pretending to scold him.
"But Mother... you're seriously ill."
She knew her condition well—and that she wouldn't live much longer. Yet before departing this world, she had one final wish.
"I want little Xuan to live well and have a long life. Mother wanted to see that with her own eyes... but it seems that won't be... cough..."
She coughed up blood, worse than before. Her pneumonia had reached its final stage.
"Mother!" Little Xuan screamed with all his strength.
"I'm sorry, Xuan... Mother lost the fight. Before I go for good... remember what I told you."
Those were Yu Jinan's last words, before she closed her eyes and sank into eternal darkness, tears flowing endlessly as her final act.
In the year 1230 of the Sacred Origin Era, the winter claimed countless lives across the mortal regions. In Yu Village, many perished—especially women who gave birth during the harsh season.
Yu Xuan's mother, whose body was frail, passed away that same year.
A painful memory he would forever carry in his heart.