Jin Huang sank to his knees in the empty blackness, the abyss pressing in on every side. The rift was gone now, and with it any hint of movement, any whisper of life. Only he remained, his golden energy pulsing quietly against the oppressive darkness.
He reached into his robes and pulled out the small box King Yama had pressed into his hands before pushing him back through the rift. The box felt impossibly light, but warm- like it carried the faint heartbeat of something alive.
Jin Huang's hands trembled slightly as he opened it.
Inside lay a small book, bound in pale leather that glowed faintly even in the black void. He lifted it reverently, almost afraid to breathe, and saw familiar handwriting on the cover... His own handwriting, despite the massive gap in years between lives.
"Supreme Immortal Journal."
He opened it. The first page was filled with messy but precise notes, diagrams of meridians, and careful annotations about the Supreme Immortal Body:
"The Supreme Immortal Body is not simply a vessel; it is a convergence of mortal and immortal, matter and soul. However it is possible, it was created to contain a soul to potent that it cannot die. Therefore, the body is not the source of your strength, nor is the soul the root of your power. Both are the same. The Supreme Immortal Body is the physical manifestation of what I have come to call: The Supreme Immortal Soul. Which must mean that I am... the Supreme Immortal! Haha! :) ."
Jin Huang blinked, turning the page. Each note he read seemed to resonate inside him. He knew, beyond doubt, that he was the one that had written them. He just knew.
"Internal energy here is different from conventional cultivation. The key is observation, not aggression. Feel the flow, do not command it. Let it gather at the center, and then spiral outward in sync with your breathing, your pulse, your very thought. The body will respond if treated as an ally rather than a tool."
Something clicked deep within him. He felt the golden energy in his meridians shift subtly, no longer just flowing, but cooperating. The pressure, the strange weight of his own power, felt… right.
"Oh," he whispered, barely believing it. "So that's how I'm supposed to do it."
He closed his eyes, letting the energy settle, letting it move according to the instructions scrawled by the self he had long forgotten.
He inhaled slowly and, for the first time, he could feel his entire body vibrating in harmony with itself. The energy wasn't just inside him anymore, it was him, flowing through every muscle, every bone, every fiber of his being, responding to his thoughts with perfect synchronicity.
Jin Huang stood, feeling taller, stronger, sharper. He lifted a foot and then the other, testing the ground beneath him. With a thought, the golden energy surged downward, and he leapt. The void did not resist him. The abyss offered no friction, no obstacles. His leap carried him farther than it should have, landing on a narrow ledge halfway up the obsidian cliffside.
A grin broke across his face. "Finally… I'm using my body right."
He adjusted the energy, flowing it outward through his limbs, and climbed. Each handhold, each foothold, responded as if the cliff itself recognized his strength- his alignment. The golden energy surged like molten light inside him, reinforcing every aspect of him to an even greater extent.
His dantian thrummed with vitality and joy, feeling itself being used right for the first time in seventeen long years.
The demonic beasts far above- those massive, longing, terrifying forms- paused, sensing the shift. They could feel him coming, but not yet the full measure of what he had become.
Jin Huang leapt from ledge to ledge, scaling the obsidian cliffs with speed and precision that would have seemed impossible moments ago. The abyss stretched below him, black and empty, but he moved through it as if it were air. His body, his energy, his will- everything aligned with relative ease.
He was shocked at how fast he had grasped the concept, but a part of him felt like he had always known how to do it. His current self had merely forgotten that he knew.
At last, he reached the top, where the first hordes of demonic beasts had been prowling, still casting those longing, pained eyes in his direction. He stood, chest heaving, energy radiating in golden waves.
"It's your turn to run now," he muttered, almost playfully, and surged forward, leaping into the fray with a confidence that no mortal had any right to possess.
The golden energy inside him hummed in perfect rhythm with each motion. For the first time, Jin Huang felt like he was truly living.
The demonic beasts saw him coming, felt the aura around him and the pressure he was currently exerting on them, and their longing expressions faded into fearful ones. They turned tail and started running, but Jin Huang caught up to them.
His fist moved, and a massive horse-shaped beast exploded into meaty chunks. He aimed a kick, and soon a large, scaly dog was sent flying up into the crimson lightning clouds.
Jin Huang's grin widened as the next wave of beasts surged toward him. Their snarls and cries were deafening, but his golden energy flowed calmly through him, steady, harmonious, unrelenting. He didn't hesitate.
A massive, centaur-like creature charged, its hooves cracking the obsidian cliff with every step. Jin Huang's fist shot out, golden energy spiraling along his arm, and the impact detonated against the creature's chest. A burst of light and sound hurled the beast apart, chunks of flesh and bone scattering across the jagged stones.
He pivoted midair, kicking another grotesque, dog-like fiend into the crimson clouds above. Its shrieks were swallowed instantly by the roar of the incoming horde. Jin Huang barely slowed, golden energy coursing in perfect rhythm through his limbs, stabilizing his Energy Gathering cultivation with every strike.
And there were more. Always more.
The cliff ahead became a slaughterhouse. Beasts of every conceivable nightmare surged toward him: six-armed horrors with glinting blades fused to their arms, massive serpentine dragons with scales like broken mirrors, and even some whose forms twisted and reformed mid-charge, as though reality itself was afraid to settle them.
Jin Huang leapt, spun, and smashed, each movement precise, unstoppable. His Energy Gathering cultivation hummed within him, the golden energy in his core synchronizing with his bodily power He felt right in a way he never had before, as though his body had finally recognized its true potential.
A titanic, bat-winged monstrosity lunged from the side. Jin Huang grabbed a jagged rock, charged it with golden energy, and hurled it. The projectile embedded itself into the beast's chest, exploding outward in a cascade of golden light that incinerated its wings. It shrieked, flailing, before collapsing in a heap of molten shadows.
More were coming. Thousands of them, pushing forward like a living wave. Their cries of lust and hunger were gone, replaced by desperation and fear. They understood, instinctively, that the golden boy was no longer afraid.
Jin Huang surged forward, every motion fluid, his golden energy carving paths through the charging hoards.
Fists became strikes of light, kicks became arcs of destruction, and the air itself seemed to bend around his power. He was a storm, a whirlwind of lethal force, moving backward step by step toward Obsidian City while the monstrous tide pressed forward relentlessly.
A three-headed hound lunged at his throat. Jin Huang dodged, spinning, and drove an elbow into the central head. The impact detonated like a hammer against an anvil, and the heads split apart in a grotesque bloom of blood and shadow. Two more beasts collided behind it, trampled and torn apart by the force of his momentum.
The cliffside became a gauntlet. Jin Huang moved through it like a golden blade, each leap and strike synchronized with the surging energy in his body. Despite the relentless assault, Jin Huang's expression was almost playful. Every swing, every kick, every strike into the grotesque masses in front of him carried a thrill. He had never felt so alive.
But the horde was endless. As he carved a path back toward the city, he could see that more were forming at the cliff's edge, waves upon waves of larger and stranger beasts. Some grew from the shadows themselves, their forms grotesque and chaotic, as if the abyss was still attempting to defend itself.
Golden light surged around Jin Huang, outlining him like a miniature sun in the oppressive blackness.
He landed on a narrow ledge, spinning to face an incoming pack of giant, armored beasts with tusks and horns, their sheer size making the cliff quake. He didn't hesitate.
His hands glowed, his fists wrapped in golden energy, and he struck out. The impact alone sent three of them tumbling down the cliff, crashing into the abyss below with an earth-shaking roar.
Behind him, the remaining horde pressed on, unrelenting.
Jin Huang leapt from ledge to ledge, energy radiating outward with every strike, moving deliberately but dangerously backward toward Obsidian City. Every movement felt predestined, each strike intuitive, as if his body itself were teaching him how to wield it.
And the beasts? They screamed, they charged, they clawed at him with impossible strength- but none could touch him.
Golden energy surged like a shield around his core, radiating outward to fend off even the closest attacks. The abyss itself seemed to recoil at his presence, the black void trembling where his golden light touched it.
Step by step, strike by strike, Jin Huang advanced. He was a living golden storm, unstoppable- and yet he knew this was only the beginning. The horde pressed on endlessly, the abyss seemed infinite, and the city he sought was still above, waiting.
But Jin Huang's eyes glimmered with that fierce, unshakable resolve. He would cut his path through this nightmare, step by step, beast by beast. His only goal now, was to keep testing his limits.