Opening his eyes, he gazed towards the wall surrounding him. The absent of light didn't manage to obstruct his visual perception in a slightest.

Observing the change from the structure of the cave, he could deduce the passage of time. While he was secluding, the time had walked a thousand years worth of distance. Without anyone interrupting his meditation, he remained unclear about the outer world.

As he stood up, he willed his mind. The dust on his clothing fell onto the ground, cleaning his messy state into a neat one. He decided to check his body condition first before leaving the cave.

The skin that once was dry and full of wrinkles became smooth and healthy, bearing no sign of previous scars. His grey hair also regressed into its prime, turning pitch-black. There was no way of guessing his real age from the outer appearance alone.

Tapping his finger lightly, he forced the boulder that blocked the entrance out of his way. The wind blew past his face as light reflected on his eyes. His worn-out robe flustered with the rhythm of the wind, dancing freely around his body.

He took a step forward, then abruptly stopped in his track. He closed his eyes and stood still for some time. Before long, he opened his eyes and reached his hand outwards, making strange gestures.

Placing his hand forward, a tiny spark of flame flashed and grew larger exponentially. The raging fire extended until it was a large as his fist before it exploded into a cloud of dust and dissipated away. Along with the explosion, the land around him got flattened by the strong wind, uprooting the nearby young trees.

Although the raging storm of heat engulfed the man, none of his clothing or him got burnt. His appearance was still the same as before, aloof and mighty without a single hint of damage.

After the event came the moment of silence. The man calmly waited for an unknown reaction to occur after the large disturbance he had caused. However, despite remaining at the same place for hours, not one single life had come forth to see the situation.

The spiritual energy that the fireball released was enormous and would attract the attention of the cultivators who lived nearby. The man was planning to ask for the information and events that had taken place when he was in seclusion.

As he discerned that no one would come to meet him, the man didn't waste any more time and took a step forwards, merging with the wind and disappeared from where he once stood. Before he completely vanished, he sent out a tiny sphere of greenish light from the tip of his fingers into the levelled land.

The sphere dimly shone before it broke into pieces, covering the destroyed land. The snapped trees floated and reverted to its natural environment as well as the misplaced dirt and shattered stones. They moved to create the exact copy of their previous position before the fireball exploded, hiding every trace that there was someone here not long ago.

The stillness of the forest echoed the region and remained unmoved from the passage of history. His appearance did not change the course of time, as he did not belong to this world.

In front of an unimpressive landscape, the ground warped onto itself and folded into a humanoid figure. As it melted, the silhouette inside began to emerge.

The man surveyed his surrounding and quickly determined where he was. Although one thousand years had passed, he could easily remember the detail inside his memory. As the corrosion of time was unstoppable yet slow, his vision of the past could still be of use.

His gaze penetrated the weeds and grasses that covered the graveyard, setting his sight onto one of the minor tombstones where moss spread on it. His emotion stirred as he walked towards it step by step, thinking about what they once did together.

In front of the memorial, he kneeled before it and used a handkerchief to wipe dirt and moss out from the surface. Without the help of his power, he took his time to slowly restore what once was a beautiful slumber to its natural state.

Hours went by until the weed-filled graveyard became clean and neat. The man used his two hands to dig out roots and unnecessary weed. He also planted flowers and symbolic willow trees around the yard. With his lifeforce, he poured his vigour into the saplings and turned them into trees.

With the faint fragrance of the flowers and the shelters provided by the extending branches of trees, the forgotten ruin turned into the beautiful cemetery where deads rested peacefully under the adoration of nature.

With all the cleaning completed, he took out the incenses and lit them using his power, placing them in front of their respective tombs. The faint grey smoke diffused into the atmosphere, covered by the aroma of nature.

Without any human's presence, the place was devoid of noisy battering. The absence of sound attracted the peace-loving nature of the animals, brightening the atmosphere of the surrounding, enveloping the graveyard with tranquil that would help the deads relax in their slumber.

Although he didn't want to believe it, after hours and hours had gone by, not a single soul had visited the graveyard which should have guards and cleaners. In his memory, he remembered that he clearly ordered to have servants guarded the resting place of their ancestors.

Saying farewell to the graveyards, he touched its smooth surface for one last time before bowing towards the biggest tomb in the middle of the site, which represented the founder of the family. With a single step, he vanished from the spot, leaving behind the tranquil as if he was never there before.

The peaceful world of the dead returned to its eternal slumber, never to wake up to admire the beauty of life again. He who could not die remained awake, drowning in his past and memory.

When he landed, he found himself in front of an old building, full of the scent of incenses and candles. Between the building and him was the red doors that separated the revered site from the mundane world. Two guards were standing still near the entrance, preventing unapproved people from entering.

However, despite standing in front of the gate, the guards did not detect the figure whose loose robe danced in the absence of wind. As they never experienced cultivation and its supernatural power, they could not imagine that the legend from the past was real. Without the ability of the cultivators, mortals could not discover the whereabouts of a high-level cultivator if they wish not to do so.

On the uniform of the guards, a giant symbol of a flaming bird on a blackened tree was the most noticeable symbols of the household. Looking at it, he felt a wave of nostalgic memory overwhelming him. The sign was his emblem when he was still one of the powerhouses of the cultivation world.

Back before he entered his seclusion, he was one of the masters who ruled over the family. He was the highest and most respected ancestor who would only occasionally come out to meet with other ancestors from other families.

However, looking at the state of his family now, he could not feel any emotions regarding their poor condition. There was no presence of cultivators inside their ancestral house, and the guards were only mere mortals.

Looking at them one last time, he sighed as he felt the sensation of loneliness permeated itself within his mind. The old exclaimed family had already fallen. He suddenly felt that there was no purpose of him visiting them anymore, and he should let them be, for they were only a stranger to him.

With another step, he became nothingness and dissolved into nature, leaving the place where he once loved and swore to create a paradise for it. However, time was mysterious and cold. It changed both people and emotions.

As none of his friends and family was there, he lost the only reason to uphold his promise. They were not the same, and there would be no coming back.

In the end, he was alone. The isolation of time restrained his heart and locked it shut.

He appeared before a mountain, where the delightful garden of colourful flowers once stood tall. Although the fascinating temple was standing at the same place on the peak of the hill, its previous glory had decayed into nothing more than a disremembered ruin.

There was no scenery of disciples chanting mantras and praying for their enlightenment. Only the solitude of abandoned site remained engulfed within the main hall. The golden statue of the deity, which was once the subject of worship from thousands, had now become an unrecognisable art of a nameless, lost spirit.

The golden hue of the inner temple became tainted by the green shade of bushes which found their way into the holy ground. With a hint of pink flowers and brown branches, the harmony of the wisdom regarding detachment had fallen into the mixture of ancient knowledge, full of lost language and damaged scripts.

Upon entering, he could witness the process of destruction, caused by the neverending river of time. Without someone to succeed the previous temple lord, it slowly became neglected and crumbled under the pressure of time. The reflective floors and pleasing scriptures had become dull, and the world forgot.

Seeing the pitiful state of the temple, he did not enjoy the silence of the wild but slowly walked around the area. Along the journey, he could see the silhouette of the past, reminding him of his attachment that once bound him to the temple.

Although his face showed nothing, his heart was gloomy, and his body felt empty. The day when he helped his friend found this sect was vivid in his mind like it was just yesterday. In his eyes, with his friend's talent, there was no way that the temple would disappear from the history this fast.

However, life was unpredictable and everchanging, in a blink of an eye, when he was not paying attention, everything he knew disintegrated into dust, and they left him alone in the journey where no end was present in sight.

Sitting in the largest room of the temple, he quietly rearranging the messy room into what his memory recorded, and he created a simple monument in the middle of the room. The stone contained a hint of his power, allowing it to last for a long time. This was the last time he would see his friend, and the tie that united him to this broken ruin would disappear into his memory.

He wept and lamented, but reality would never change. The separation between the peak and the world slowly wore down his unyielding self, bit by bit.

In front of him, an olden hut in the middle of scattered ruins hid beneath the cracked dome of white marble structure. The wooden composition did not have any sense of majestic of its surrounding. However, despite its humbleness, the hut stood proudly against the corrosion of seasons, outlasting its surrounding.

Seeing that the hut was in its optimal condition, he felt his heart stirred as he stepped towards it. Upon closer inspection, the garden around the house was in good shape, maintaining its simpleness while showcasing its perfect disposition.

The white birds whose tails were various in colours were singing and playing on the maple tree, chipping peaceful song while occasionally cleaning its feathers. Beneath the nests, a group of squirrel were using its limbs to open the seeds, and they would move past grasses and flowers, inviting nature to dance with its movement.

He walked past them with utter silence, allowing the animals to enjoy their playful event without alerting them. Although they could not sense his presence, he wanted to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere to heal his tired mind after the pained journey. With each step, his heart rate accelerated as he could guess something, making his body excited.

Reaching the door, he knocked it twice before waiting for a response. As one of the strongest cultivator, no one would be able to do anything to him even if he decided to blow open the door and kill the owner. However, he wished to find the answer to everything and the owner of this land would be able to answer it.

Half an hour of stillness passed by, he allowed the wind to allure his cloth to swing according to nature's will. The lack of scheming and ploys from his past made him relaxed and healed his mind. The songs of the birds gently massaged his ears, reminding him of his past journey. Before he went into seclusion, he would occasionally have some moment of happiness with her, and his friend.

Before long, the sound of cracking wood woke him up. The door slowly opened up, unveiling a figure whose legend was as astonishing and exalted as him. However, the previous demonic demeanour and cold facial expression had become tainted by the wrinkle of time, making the overlord of the past decayed into an old, dying man.

In the past, the two would have already exhausted their means to try to kill each other, using all of their trump cards and traps, mobilising their force to crash against the opposing force. Their battle lasted for tens of years, resulting in countless tragedies and victories.

As for now, they merely smiled at each other before the old man invited the young man to have tea with him. Their hostile aura turned into friendliness, and their grudge became nostalgia.

They chat and listened, speaking about their various past. They found happiness and satisfaction in participating in a nostalgic recollection with their worst enemy.

Before long, a year passed by in a blink of an eye. The young man watched as the old man laid onto his bed. He weakling uttered in a low voice about his first love. The young man listened in silence, easing the old man worry as he smiled throughout their last conversation.

Finally, the voice gradually turned soft and silence, leaving a soulless shell on a white bed, covered by a grey bedsheet. The flickering tail of a candle emitted orange light, illuminating the room with its warm air. The shadow of the young man fully engulfed the aged corpse.

With one last sigh, he blew off the candle, allowing darkness to descend onto the world, singing a soundless lullaby for the old soul to enter its eternal slumber.

This time, his purpose in life was none. He stepped out of the hut and closed the gate, separating the inner peace from the outer silence. With one last glare, he took a step forwards and vanished into the void, never to be seen again.

For he had learnt a lesson. The one who stood at the peak did not go free from the cost.