In the darkness…
Sun Chen felt nothing. No wind, no pain, no sound. Only emptiness, only silence, only an endless void swallowing him whole.
Utterly still. Numb, yet somehow, his consciousness remained awake in this nothingness.
Then, suddenly—
"You pushed yourself too far, O… heir."
The voice was startlingly clear, echoing through the hollow darkness, piercing through bone and jolting Sun Chen's awareness.
His eyes flew open, his head turning in all directions, searching for the source of the voice in the abyss.
There was nothing.
Only the voice—no form, no shadow, just an undeniable presence.
"Do not be alarmed… I am but a fragment of a fading consciousness… soon to vanish entirely…"
Sun Chen remained silent, trying to make sense of the words, but only confusion filled his mind.
"I do not know if this is fate or coincidence… but as of now, you are the one who will shake the heavens themselves…"
Sun Chen swallowed hard, his eyes still scanning the darkness, searching for meaning in those cryptic words.
Then, the void began to crack.
A sliver of light pierced through the fissure, slowly widening, revealing a vast space bathed in soft radiance.
Sun Chen—his aged, eighty-year-old body clad in tattered white robes, his long silver hair disheveled—now stood upright, staring at the figure emerging from the light.
For a moment, he forgot he was dead.
Before him stood a handsome young man with gentle eyes. But then, the figure shifted—morphing into a mature man, then an elderly figure with white hair.
Sun Chen was stunned, his eyes following the transformation in disbelief.
"What… is happening here…? Who are you…?" he whispered, his voice barely audible.
The figure gazed at Sun Chen with eyes like an unfathomable ocean—deep and immeasurable.
"These are the stages of life you have walked, Sun Chen. Mortals are born, they grow, they endure, they struggle, they age, and they die. Such is the path of mortal men…"
Sun Chen could only stand in silence, his aged chest rising and falling with labored breaths, his eyes filled with confusion.
Then, the figure changed again—this time into a man of breathtaking handsomeness, clad in golden robes that radiated light, his posture regal, his aura like that of an invincible deity.
Sun Chen froze, his gaze locked, his chest trembling as if sensing something extraordinary before him.
Had the power he wielded all this time… come from this man? Was his strength merely a drop in the ocean of this being's might?
Questions flooded Sun Chen's mind, yet none escaped his lips.
The golden-robed man slowly raised his hand. From his palm, a transparent qi formed, projecting countless miniature worlds—floating orbs of light in the air.
As Sun Chen looked closer, the orbs grew smaller, farther away, until they resembled stars in the night sky.
"And this… this infinitesimally small point… is your world, Sun Chen."
Sun Chen's eyes widened. His breath caught, his throat tightened, his body instinctively retreating a step.
"What…? This world… is just a tiny speck among all of that…?"
The man nodded slowly.
"This is but one of countless mortal realms. There are far greater worlds—realms of pure energy, where martial artists walk the path of cultivation to become gods… Those worlds are called… the Cultivation Realm."
The man displayed an image of an impossibly vast world—multicolored qi oceans, towering mountains piercing the clouds, dragons soaring through the skies, and hundreds of floating palaces suspended in the heavens.
"The reason the mortal realm remains untouched by cultivators is the immense distance between worlds. Descending to the mortal plane demands a great sacrifice. Moreover, cultivators are bound by the Heavenly Dao's laws, which maintain the balance of the universe…"
The man's voice was calm, yet filled with authority.
"Cultivators do not know… that life exists in the mortal realm… and none care, for they see it as nothing more than a speck of dust in the vast cosmos…"
Sun Chen could only stand in silence, his eyes glistening as he stared at this unimaginably vast world.
"Then… why am I here? Why am I seeing all this? Who are you, really…?"
Sun Chen's voice trembled, his fists clenched, his eyes pleading for answers.
The golden-robed man gazed deeply at Sun Chen, a faint smile on his lips.
"Because, Sun Chen… this is only your beginning."
Sun Chen didn't fully understand. To him, all of this was knowledge too vast, too impossible, far beyond the comprehension of a mortal man.
"Sun Chen… do you remember when you entered that mysterious forest, on the brink of death, fleeing from the Demonic Sect?"
Sun Chen's eyes slowly widened. The memory surfaced—one long buried in the depths of his mind.
Back then, at the age of sixty, during his years of exile, he had wandered beyond the borders of the Central Continent. That place was the most remote of all—a vast, forbidden forest, feared by all as a den of savage beasts and deathly aura.
That day, the Demonic Sect's forces had hunted him relentlessly, determined to eliminate the last surviving witness of the Blossoming Mountain Sect.
Exhausted and gravely wounded, Sun Chen stumbled, fell, and crawled into an ancient cave to hide.
In the darkness of that cave, he lost consciousness.
He remembered nothing after that. When he awoke, the only thing he found was a strange, untitled book lying tightly beside his bloodstained hand.
"That cave…"* The golden-robed man's voice sounded again, calm yet firm. "That place exists outside the flow of time in the outside world. Only those with a powerful destiny can enter it."
Sun Chen was stunned, listening intently to every word.
"Fate led you there, Sun Chen."
Sun Chen gritted his teeth, his eyes trembling. "Please… explain so I can understand… Who are you? Why me…? Why did all of this happen…?"
The man looked at Sun Chen with serene yet resolute eyes. "When you collapsed in that cave, your blood dripped onto the ancient carvings on the floor. Those carvings were a legacy seal, and the first to shed blood upon it would become its inheritor."
Sun Chen's breath hitched as he vaguely recalled his blood dripping onto the strange patterns on the cave floor, his body shivering, his hands trembling.
"Your blood… unlocked the seal, making you the heir to my knowledge and power."
Yet Sun Chen saw a flicker of sorrow in the man's eyes.
"But I saw vengeance and regret in your eyes, Sun Chen. That is why I did not give you the full inheritance immediately. I gave you only one thing—that untitled book of techniques… which granted you great power, but at a great cost to your aging body…"
Sun Chen remembered—how he had miraculously escaped the Demonic Sect's pursuit with the strange power that emerged after studying the book, even though his aged body burned with agony each time he used it.
The man spoke again, his voice gentle yet firm. "At the moment of your death, I saw the hope still lingering in your eyes—the hope of reuniting with those you loved in the afterlife."
His voice softened, like wind passing through an empty valley.
"But a soul marked by this legacy can no longer reincarnate like ordinary mortals, Sun Chen. It has only two choices: reincarnate into the past, though not into your original body, for it is gone… or reincarnate into the future, waiting millions of years to enter the cycle of rebirth…"
Sun Chen clenched his fists, tears spilling uncontrollably from his eyes.
"If I can return to the past… even if not in my own body… I just want… to see my master again… to thank him… and to apologize…"
Seeing the sincerity in Sun Chen's eyes, the golden-robed man smiled faintly.
"Your resolve is remarkable, Sun Chen."
Sun Chen stared at him with desperate hope.
"But know this—every action taken to return to the past will alter the flow of time. No being, no god in this universe, can change the timeline without consequence."
The man paused briefly before continuing.
"However… I alone can. And this… will be the last time I do so before I vanish forever."
Sun Chen was stunned, his eyes trembling.
"If you return to the past, my presence in that cave will disappear. All records of your existence in the martial world will be erased—as if Sun Chen never existed."
The man raised his hand, and suddenly, a ring with a black gemstone engraved like a solar system materialized from the light, descending onto Sun Chen's finger, fitting perfectly.
Sun Chen stared at the ring in shock.
"This… what is this ring…?"
The man smiled faintly. "In time, you will know."
Sun Chen ran his trembling fingers over the ring, feeling a strange pulse from the gemstone—as if life itself breathed within it.
Yet one question weighed heavily on his heart, growing louder with each passing moment.
He looked at the man solemnly, his eyes burning with curiosity.
"If you are truly this powerful… why were you in a small world like mine? Who are you, really…?"