“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Qian Yu yelled as he noticed what happened. The last thing he saw was the tears on Zhao Xieren’s face before he started rapidly descending downwards. 

The gorge was a couple thousands feet deep and it would take him 20 to 30 seconds as he continued to accelerate downward. By the time he hit the floor, he would have been falling down with a speed over hundreds of miles fast where he would instantly become a bloody piece of mess.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds. 

*Bump bump bump* Barely a few seconds had passed but it felt like an eternity to him as he felt every muscle in his body tighten as he felt his heart pump crazily fast. 

There was only one thought on his mind as he looked downwards into the black depths of the ravine. Horror! Knowing that death was coming and being unable to do anything about it, his mind diverted his attention as a form of defensive mechanism. 

The next couple seconds passed by and all sorts of memories flooded his mind from the earliest memories of his life to all the people and friends he had met at the sect. It felt like he was reliving his life as he continued falling downwards. 

Yet, he soon regained his consciousness and thought process as tears had unknowingly swelled in his eyes. 

‘I fucked up!’ he thought as he felt death reach out for him. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm down and make his last moments as peaceful as possible. 

*Zap…* At that moment, a spark of lightning appeared around Qian Yu as the space surrounding him suddenly warped chaotically. Just a few seconds before becoming a corpse, Qian Yu silently vanished. 

From the bottom of the gorge, a woman in a black dress appeared out of nowhere just after Qian Yu had suddenly vanished. A small smile appeared on her face seeing the lightning and chaotic laws and qi that were in the area. 

As Qian Yu opened his eyes, amazed that he didn’t feel a single ounce of pain. ‘Truly a swift and painless death, it looks like reincarnation does truly exist,’ he thought, seeing that he still had his consciousness and additionally, all his sense felt completely normal. 

Looking around he saw a world filled with thunder and clouds. Snowy peaks could be seen in the distance while a few fiery volcanoes erupted elsewhere. It was a gloomy and pessimistic sight.

‘Is this the underworld?’ Qian Yu sighed as he continued to observe his surroundings. Turning around however, he saw someone else besides him.

It was a transparent-looking man who was wearing a robe that had a star with an hourglass etched into it. His face had many scars and he looked extremely fierce. Despite his fearsome look, Qian Yu didn’t feel any bad intentions from him. Rather, the man was smiling friendly at Qian Yu.

“Hello senior, who are you and where is this place?” Qian Yu bowed and ask.

His voice was quiet as he reassured Qian Yu, “Don’t worry, you’re not dead.”

His eyes felt deep as Qian Yu looked at them. “I am nothing but a remnant soul of a Martial Emperor. As for where we are, we are in my soul world,” he continued.

‘What, I’m in his soul world? How does that work?’ Qian Yu was astonished. 

‘Also… a Martial Emperor?!?’ He kept silent as his astonishment grew. 

The man laughed, seeing Qian Yu and as if he could read minds, he said, “It's natural that you don’t know much about the soul world. Judging from your low fighting power, you wouldn’t be entitled to know the specifics in the higher realms. Essentially, a fighter’s soul world is very special and has many uses. For example, when your soul world reaches a certain point, you can affect reality which is known as a “domain”. The opposite can work as well.”

He stopped for a few seconds before continuing, “Anyways, this remnant of my soul has waited here for my successor to appear. You are that successor.”

“What?” Qian Yu didn’t believe his ears.

“Why me?” Qian Yu asked, struggling to digest his words. The past few minutes had been crazy, with constant ups and downs.

“Hahaha, it’s because the heavens chose you. Rather, the mortals chosen by the heavens themselves are those gifted with a heavenly constitution. As for you, me, and the ones before me, we have the same constitution called the Chaotic Lightning Body. An extremely strong and tenacious body whose ability and affinity for cultivating lightning and chaotic laws techniques are so high that we can cultivate a forbidden legendary grade cultivation technique. Without this type of body, the cultivation technique would slowly erode and destroy the cultivator’s body otherwise, hence it is forbidden. I still can't believe how accurate that man's prophecies are, hahaha!” the man explained and laughed.

Qian Yu however, was still skeptical. Furthermore, even if the man was telling the truth, what should he say or do right now? Just ask for the cultivation technique and leave? His face was not that thick…

As such, he instead thought about the origins of the man. Thinking about a certain event that had always piqued his interest he asked, “Did you perish due to the Month of Hell?” Considering the amount of powerhouses that were killed during that event, it was his first guess.

“Month of Hell? What is that?” the man was puzzled.

Now, it was Qian Yu’s turn to be confused. ‘Was I wrong and did he just die from age or something?’ Qian Yu thought. 

“The Month of Hell was a month where the world experienced massive chaos about 5000 years ago. People started going crazy and a world wide war was created,” he gave a short answer.

Hearing all of this, the man closed his eyes and as he thought.

Finally, he asked, “What year is it now?”

“815 of the 4th era,” Qian Yu replied.

“30,815,” the man repeated before going silent again. After a couple minutes, he sighed as he finally started talking, “Although none of this information is of any use to me, it still pushes me to know more. Truly, curiosity is the driving force of mankind. Alright, I perished around nearing the late 2nd era. As for the reason, it was similar to what you called the “Month of Hell” that occurred five thousand years ago. Yet it happened in the late 2nd era and its name was known as “The Plague”. Likewise, people grew crazy randomly and a world wide war happened that decimated the world.”

He stopped talking and took a deep breath. His voice turned serious as he said, “Yet the story doesn’t end there. The first records of such an event happening however, was before the first era. In fact, the event caused the first era>”

Qian Yu’s eyes continued to grow wider as he listened to the man talk.

“Although 30,000 years may seem like a lot of time, it is very little when you remember that a Martial Emperor can have a lifespan of over 10,000 years. The first time the “Plague” occurred, it was without a doubt, more serious than the one I lived through and the one 5,000 years ago. An ancient world and its glory and history had been destroyed, lost in time, leaving only scattered remnants behind everywhere. Such is what caused the beginning of the 1st era.”

Digesting his words became harder as he continued. Qian Yu could only guess how bad the destruction was from the first Plague that society decided to start anew. As for doubting the man, Qian Yu had no reason to. 

Firstly, he felt that there were a lot of these so-called legendary ranked cultivation techniques. With only 30,000 years, or over the life spans of about 3 Martial Emperors, it didn’t seem possible to create so many techniques. Yet it would easily be explained if there was a previous society that had existed for millenias where these inheritances came from.

As he continued thinking, Qian Yu’s eyes opened in shock as his mind froze in terror as a certain idea came up. The man seemed to feel the change in his countenance and said, “Yes, it seems you noticed the problem.”