Darkness.
That was the first thing it thought.
It just appears there, no other to accompany it.
It tried to move, but had no body to move.
It tried to make a sound, but nothing came out.
It tried to think, but nothing came to mind.
The only thing it could do, is to feel.
Fear.
Helpless.
Confusion.
It wants to know what happened to it.
Why is it here?
Why is nobody here?
Why is there nothing here?
For a long time, it can only wonder.
Every moment or so, fear becomes more, helplessness becomes acceptance, but its confusion becomes less.
It's beginning to be able to understand many concepts.
It somehow knows many things such as fire, water, nothingness, fear, curiosity, human, animal, all kinds of things.
It experimented with it’s thoughts. Sometimes, it saw many visions.
It saw trees and flowers.
It saw the sky.
Sun.
Clouds.
People.
It then learned of emotions, happiness and serenity.
It saw fire.
Rain.
Thunders.
Blood.
Steel.
Corpses.
Its fear becomes more palpable. It learned of sadness, anger, and desire to bring end to all things that hurt it.
But it persevered and kept thinking deeper to the visions.
It saw stones.
Mountain.
River.
Moon.
Stars
Town.
It learned of peace and tranquility.
A lot of the visions were fragmented, but the essenes were intact.
Many long times passed. Alongside what it learned, there were also so many strange concepts it found. It learned of qi, mortal, immortal, Dao, cultivation, cultivator, spirit, ghost, god, devil.
It saw many unbelievable feats a cultivator can perform, such as flight without wing, creating elements with only qi, battle of unimaginable proportions.
Yet, it felt like it missed something.
It believed that it had learned everything from the visions before. It wonders in silent, humming a tune it didn’t remember hearing.
And just like that, it realized.
Out of everything it saw and learned, it never learned of ITSELF.
It reviewed all of the vision, but nothing came to its mind.
It peruses with the visions, to no avail.
It saw kingdoms.
It saw empires.
It saw continents.
Sects.
Dangerous demonic beasts.
Mythical existences.
A large piece of land housing many things it has learned, a World.
A vast blackness housing the world, sun, stars, and many other worlds, the Void.
But then, it learned of Terror.
Calamity.
Worlds destroyed.
Countless life perishes.
It saw a battle of EPIC proportions, everything and everyone against the Calamity.
Billions of life perished, their death was in vain.
Millions barely scratch the awful thing, before they too, bite the dust.
Thousands faring much better, but ultimately meet their end.
Barely a hundred were left, tired in body and mind.
The Calamity is winning, but was hurt very badly.
‘Something’ appears.
The Calamity was distracted, attention to that ‘something’.
Desperate measure, another life gone.
The Calamity’s life is numbered, but nothing was left in the Void.
Then, an explosion.
The vision ended.
It was confused,
It learned the end of existence as a whole.
But it still hasn’t learned about ITSELF.
It tried to think again, but something is in the way.
That something was hurting its everything. But it didn’t care.
It needed to know who it was. It must learn the truth about the self. It didn’t know why, but it knew it was what to be done.
And then, a new vision.
This vision was a lot clearer than any other visions. It saw a cloudless sky with sun on the horizon. The dark sky became brighter by the moments.
It saw a middle age man sitting on a very large tree branch. The branch was so large, it can fit hundreds of others like that man. It tried to see more of the vision and it was shocked even more by the sight.
The very, very large tree branch was actually one of the twigs of a tree branch that is still part of an even larger tree branch. Its vision panned further from the man and saw more and more of the branch collectives.
It then saw a tree, so lush with many large leaves, ripe weird fruits surrounding many of the branches, and magnificently gigantic in size.
The tree’s trunk was so thick and tall, it can fit a couple of realms inside of it, judging by the size of the man sitting on that twig.
The root of the tree gripped tight to a vast plain with many other small trees around it, but so far away from the base of the trunk. Those smaller trees didn’t even reach a millionth of the giant tree’s size.
Around the tree lives many big animals, a herd of deer-like creatures gnawing on the tree branches for the leaves, a large bird nestling on top of the tree surrounded by flocks of smaller birds. Horses running around the plain and rabbits hopping without care.
Lakes of all kinds spread around the forest, but there was a giant lake lying further away from the forest and the giant tree. Nothing was inside of the water, but there is a large tunnel at the bottom of the large that led to the root of the giant tree.
Underground, it saw a large serpent gnaw on a particularly large and bulbous root. It somehow can hear the scream of agony within the root. Looking around it saw two more similarly bulbous roots, away from the mighty serpent.
Refocusing back to the surface, it noticed six more similar bulbous parts of the trees, unmolested by the animals. Three were on the top part of the tree, two on the lower branches, and one within the center most trunk.
Before it can see more of the vision, the man sitting on the twig somehow grasps its focus and brings its vision to him. The man’s expression was that of a calm neutrality, no emotion could be read from his face. Then suddenly, he smiles.
He raised his right arm and his hand grasped forward toward it. Before it can contemplate on what is happening, knowledge floods its mind. How to nurture plants, how to identify plants, how to harvest them properly, how to treat the soil, how to ‘something’ the sky, how to ‘something’ so the body is ‘something’, how to craft ‘something’ from ‘something’ so it can be used for ‘something’, and many more.
It cannot comprehend most things it was learning, but it remembers the lesson, concept by concept. “Nine World Chronicle”. The name sounded overbearing but it feels right. It wasn’t sure what it meant and why it was given such a lesson.
After that, the man showed it a peculiar item. It was a jade pendant in the shape of peony, the chain was made of silvery metal, and it was in pristine condition, albeit ordinary.
The man handed out the pendant to it and another vision occurred. This time, it didn’t just merely see the vision, it LIVED with the vision. All of the visions it saw, it experienced it once more. Understanding beyond understanding. Everything is clear to it, now. It, no, HE finally remembered who he was.
He was a cultivator, a mighty one albeit mediocre on a grand scheme of things. He remembered his life, all of the struggle, revelry, lost, discovery, everything.
He knows of the Calamity, and what it entails. He knows of what happened AFTER that explosion. He and a few others tried to do…‘something’. The detail was lost to him but whatever they were doing led to this moment.
He was alone in darkness, unable to remember anything. He struggled to grasp on reality and succeed. But then, what does he need to do now?
As the cultivator contemplates, the world around him begins to crack. He felt himself being pushed away from this place, for a lack of proper descriptions.
The cultivator was panicking, he felt despair and fear. He just remembered who he was and everything began crumbling away like a sandcastle in the middle of an earthquake. Meanwhile, the middle aged man looked on toward the cultivator and smiled.
“It is the time. You know what to do.” The middle aged man said calmly.
“Wai-!“ the cultivator tried to say but he was yanked out of the vision of the giant tree.
He was alone once more, only this time the place he was on felt too small for his body. He was crushed by what felt like invisible fleshy walls. He was crushed and pushed around toward the direction where his head is.
For a long time, he endured. Breathing was hard, then he realized he hadn't been breathing from the start. It was a recent thing that happened just now.
After what felt like an eternity, he saw a light. He instinctively knew that the light led to freedom. He endured the crushing agony and finally, he reached the light.
Freed from the clutching darkness, he struggled to breath. He faintly heard the sound of crying. His weak body felt like being carried by a large hand.
Vision blurry, incessantly loud crying, his body felt like wet noodle. With a start, he understood what was happening. This is birth. His birth. The crying sound came from him, vision impaired and feeble physique because he was just being born.
He heard rumors of such happening in the previous life from passerby but labeled it as insanity. Who knew he would have experienced such a thing right now. He didn’t realize what a surreal experience it was, being born.
He decided that if such a thing occurs to him once more, he much rather didn’t remember anything at all just so he didn’t have to do this again.
The hand, who he presumed was from a midwife, proceeded to cut the placenta and then clean him with warm water and a wet soft towel. Her care was excellent to him, proven by the lack of crying sound. Noises came from many places, but he understood it’s meaning.
“Du Ju, may I see the baby?” a woman said weakly.
“O-of course, mistress.” Said the owner of the hand, moving closer to the origin of the voice.
She then handed over the reincarnated baby to his mother. The mother then held him close to his body, cooing weakly to the baby. He can’t see her face clearly, but he can feel a tinge of disdain and disappointment in her voice. Before he could contemplate further, there was the sound of a door opening.
A menacingly slow footsteps, not too heavy, nor too light, make its way toward the bed. The intruder’s gaze was upon the baby, an oppressive feeling pressed down heavily inside the room.
“How is the child?” Asked a male voice, he sounded to be quite young, a bit younger than the mother, but clearly came from an adult.
‘Her one of her sons? No, I don’t think so. But where have I heard of this voice? Come to think of it, the mother…no, my mother’s voice also sounds similar….’
“He was healthy, and also-“ a third woman voice answered him, presumably the midwife’s assistant. But before she was finished, the father interrupted her and asked again.
“What would you name him, Mo Lian?” This time, he asks the question to the mother.
There was a long pause after that, a tension on the room as thick as ink. Then, she answered, “…Hui. his name shall be Fang Hui.”
“…Good.” and just like that, the man left.
Not long after, two heads popped up on the baby’s blurry vision.
“So…will he be my brother, or her brother?” asked a boy, judging by his voice, while tilting his head toward the second head.
The second head, most likely belonged to a girl, didn’t answer but her head tilted toward the mother, seemingly asking the same question.
The cultivator can feel the bewilderment of his mother even without seeing her. Then, he heard her giggle lowly and answered the two kids, “Silly children, Fang Hui shall be a brother to the both of you, not either of you.” She said with a slight chiding tone.
The children seemed to be embarrassed, seeing their body language. The two of them then chatted to their mother for a bit more before finally left the room so the mistress could rest.
‘Mo Lian, that is a name I haven’t heard in a while. Kind of like my mother’s name from my previous life. Fang Hui, that was what I was called back then too. That man from before also reminds me of that bastard. The two kids, the question was a bit weird, as if they were from different families before.’
Before he can contemplate further, he heard shuffling of fabrics and his mother brought him closer to her body. Pain in his stomach brought a thought of something…mortifying. Reluctantly, Fang Hui opens his mouth and gently bring it forth toward a fleshy stuff. He then sucks on the flesh and liquids gushes from the opening.
After he was sated, fatigues assault Fang Hui suddenly. He slowly felt sleepier and sleepier by the moments until finally, darkness embraced him.
Prologue
