Long Xue stared scornfully at the Hidden Dragon Sect elder, elder Han. His tattered clothes were unable to hide his frightening presence. His appearance was that of someone in their late twenties, but his eyes gave off an ancient archaic aura.

Elder Han, however, was a stooping old man who looked as though he was on the verge of death.

“Old dog of this bastard sect! I will exterminate you, and that will mark the end of this bastard sect!” Long Xue screamed at the old man.

Elder Han panted heavily. If he had known that this Long Xue was such a jinx, he would have never provoked him. Now, his entire sect was in ruins. He was the last remaining member of the Hidden Dragon Sect. Even women & children were slaughtered in cold blood by this jinx! If only he could go back in time and mend his mistakes! Elder Han sighed inwardly.

‘Wait, time!’ Elder Han’s eyes lit up. ‘That’s it!’ The thought of going back in time gave the elder Han an idea. He remembered how the Hidden Dragon sect, was formed. An Ancient Immortal Time Jade, once, fell from the sky and made a crater on the land. Several Taoists and Daoist societies came to investigate. The first patriarch of the Hidden Dragon clan was among them. After many bitter and bloody battles, the first patriarch of the Hidden Dragon Sect came to acquire the jade and obtained immense power from it. This power allowed him to become peerless in the middle domain and establish the mighty Hidden Dragon Sect! This incident occurred thousands of years ago. The first patriarch's soul bonded to the Ancient Immortal Time Jade after his death. From that point onwards, all the subsequent patriarchs of the Hidden Dragon Sect could connect to the jade via the soul of the first patriarch. This Ancient Immortal Time Jade was the sect founding treasure, about which, only the highest elders and patriarchs of the Hidden Dragon Sect knew. The Ancient Immortal Time Jade was the true sect reserve of the Hidden Dragon Sect!

The elder flew with all his might towards the Sect Treasure Pavilion with Long Xue tailing him. Long Xue was almost upon elder Han when the elder threw a piece of black jade at him. This jade was not the Ancient Immortal Time Jade, but another precious treasure. It could delay a cultivator at the peak of the Sovereign realm by one breath’s time.

Elder Han was the disciple of the first generation patriarch and the black jade was his master’s gift for him. He initially had three pieces of it and used the first piece, in a battle against the ice-princess of the Azure Lightning Sect, a few millennia ago! His master had gone and slaughtered his way through the Azure Lightning Sect for him, but that bitch, ice-princess had gone ahead and escaped along with the legacy disciples.

The irritated Long Xue clicked his tongue. ‘This rude bastard!’ he thought. He rotated his cultivation base at full power. The black jade shattered in half a breath’s time.

‘What a monster?!’ Elder Han was shocked, but half a breath was all he needed to escape into the topmost floor of the treasure pavilion. There, wrapped in spirit silk, lay the Ancient Immortal Time Jade! He took the Ancient Immortal Time Jade in his hand and screamed “Master! Save me!”

Long Xue had broken into the top floor of the treasure pavilion, by this time. He looked scornfully at the old man.

White smoke streamed out of the Ancient Immortal Time Jade. The face of an ancient man came to be visible within the smoke, which quickly became the figure of an entire person. The figure pointed his finger at Long Xue and shouted “Quick! Haner, use the delaying jade now!”

Elder Han threw out the last piece of black jade he had.

The ancient figure made of smoke, which was, the first generation patriarch’s soul, weaved numerous hand-signs within the half breath’s time. “Time Burial!” he screamed. Blue light streamed out of the Ancient Immortal Time Jade which slowly began to form a light sphere around Long Xue.

Long Xue felt a tingling sensation at the back of his neck. He quickly weaved numerous hand-signs while rotating his cultivation base to the extreme. “Heaven Cleaving Immortal Blade!” he shouted. A red light began to gather above him in the form of a blade. The blue sphere had almost condensed when he shouted: “Descend!”

The red blade descended with lightning speed and struck the blue sphere and the Ancient Immortal Time Jade with tremendous destructive force.

The blue sphere collapsed immediately and the first generation patriarch’s soul shattered. The Ancient Immortal Time Jade, instead of shattering, started glowing white! The white light grew bright and engulfed both Long Xue and the elder Han. Then it blinked and disappeared, along with the Ancient Immortal Time Jade and the two men.

Somewhere farther up, in the higher planes, an ancient man was meditating in an immortal cave. His face suddenly flickered and his eyes quickly opened. They gleaned greedily. “Ancient Immortal Time Jade” he muttered. “Xun Zian '' he shouted. “Send some disciples to the middle realms! What’s needed has appeared!”

The Blue Springs river flows westwards to the Great Ocean of Sunset. It passes through the Myriad Illusions forest, on its way, making the land around it fertile and wet. Outside the Myriad Illusions forest, on the southern bank of the Blue Springs River, lay the Great Tian Empire. Inside the Great Tian Empire, near the Myriad Illusions Forest is a place that looks more majestic than the national capital! This was a place that even Emperor Tian wouldn’t offend! Outside the boundary walls of this place lay a large stone stele on which three words were crafted in pure gold. They read ‘Cloud Piercing Sect’.

The Cloud Piercing sect is one of the super-sects, in the Blue Spring continent. It has many hidden powerhouses and immense resources. It is located in the land which is nourished by the rich spiritual energy from the Blue Springs river. The bustling sect, one of the titans in the Blue Spring continent, was strangely quiet today. There were very few people outside the sect walls. Those who were in it were also few and they were all wearing white robes. An air of melancholy filled the sect. Anyone who saw the sect now could tell that something was seriously wrong. And indeed, something was wrong. The sect was mourning for the loss of its junior patriarch. Today is the sixteenth day since the death of the junior patriarch. It was the last day of mourning and hence the sect was unusually calm. The sect elders gathered around the graveyard to offer final prayers to the deceased junior patriarch. Even the emperor was present for the burial of the junior patriarch. Since the final prayer was unique to the sect, it was held privately without outsiders.

Two beautiful women were sobbing in front of the grave of the junior patriarch. One of them had a bulging belly, which indicated her pregnancy. She was leaning over to the second woman, who was also sobbing silently. The pregnant woman was called Luo Yin, she was the wife of the deceased junior patriarch. The woman she was leaning to, was called, Long Yuan, her sister-in-law. Long Yuan was sad, but her expression was fierce. Her face was red with anger which boiled out in the form of teardrops with her occasional sob. She held Luo Yin firmly while supporting her abdomen.

A middle-aged man, with recently grayed hair, looked at the grave with sorrowful eyes and whispered “Oh! What curse is it to bury one’s young? Goodbye, Guanger.” A tear trickled down his cheeks as he said this.

Long Yuan couldn’t hold it in anymore. She exploded like a volcano “Blood shall be answered with blood. I will bathe the Golden Roc Sect in blood.”

The middle-aged man looked at his daughter and slowly said: “Now is not the right time, Yuaner.”

“Then when is the right time?! When all of my siblings lie under the dirt?” Long Yuan shot back.

“Yuaner” this time it was an elderly man who stood behind Long Yuan that spoke. “I know you are angry, but we can’t make any rash decisions. Long Guang’s death is an unfathomable loss to us. He was loved and admired by all and now we are all mourning. This loss is exactly what makes us weak. We can’t fight in this state. Anger makes one’s judgment clouded. Let us recover first before planning an attack. When we strike them, it will be so hard that they won’t be able to retaliate. We’ll wipe them out cleanly. After all, they killed my grandson, how can I not shed blood for blood.” He sighed. His face looked sad, but his heart also was boiling with rage.

Long Yuan looked at her grandfather and teardrops trickled down her cheeks. Her loving brother is no more! There is nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t even retaliate right now. She tightened her grip around Luo Yin and looked at her stomach affectionately. She pledged in mind that she would take care of her brother’s child in his stead.

“I, Long Wenyan, hereby decree that the disciples of the sect are not to leave the Great Tian Empire till the next four sect competition. Anyone who disobeys this decree shall be treated as a traitor and shall be hunted down and exterminated by the sect. The Cloud Piercing Sect shall enter into closed-door cultivation soon.” The elderly man declared with a sigh.

Long Yuan was about to lead her sister-in-law away from the burial ground when a loud screech was heard on the horizon. Suddenly, a class one demonic bird flew towards the sect. It was hit by lightning from the sect protection array and died instantly. If this was not enough, two other birds followed it, followed by two others and others until it was a large flock of birds that were flying towards the array. The scene looked like a mass suicide. Dust also began rising in the horizon which indicated the upcoming beast tide.

The faces of the gathered elders became stiff. Murmurs broke out throughout the sect.

“Has a high ranking beast wandered outside of the fourth layer?!” Long Wenyan asked himself shocked. He poured some qi into his hand and waved in the air. The birds approaching the array were immediately pushed back by the gale of wind, generated by his palm. “Depending on the rank of the beast, the entire sect, no, this entire country might be in dater. Let’s investigate at once!” he declared.

Long Xue felt as though his entire body had become extremely heavy. His head was aching and strangely, he felt lightheaded. His entire body felt paralyzed. With whatever little force he could gather, he moved his eyeballs to look around. What he saw was a strange world. Everything around him was quite large. The trees, the grass, even insects seemed to be strangely magnified. He tried to rotate his cultivation base, but to his shock, he found it missing. ‘Is this heaven!’ he thought for a moment. ‘Probably not, I’ve killed far too many people to be there. What did those old bastards do to me?’ Suddenly he felt that something was watching him.

“Who is it?” he asked. “Show yourself.” His tongue was so weak that what came out was a shrill cry. A large demonic python stealthily swung in front of Long Xue from the tree above.

“You, insolent prick, you have such gall to come in front of this mighty me!” he declared but what came out of his mouth was “Goo goo gaa gaa gaa ga!”

The pythons froze in its track, confused. ‘What the hell is this?!’ it thought. It soon resumed declining towards Long Xue, flicking its forked tongue.

‘Ah! A mighty cultivator like me is getting finished off by a beast when I can’t even move!’ Long Xue sighed. With all the courage he can muster, he began shouting curses at the top of his lungs. But, what came out was a loud ear-piercing cry.

The python immediately froze in its tracks. It nearly exploded on hearing the loud noise coming from Long Xue. It quickly slithered away from him.

“Bastard, that’s what you get for messing with the mighty me. Come here, let me play with you a bit.” Long Xue screamed at the back of the fleeing python.

A rank two demonic swallow was nearby. It rushed over on hearing the commotion only to find Long Xue lying near the small lake. It descended towards him to grab a quick bite, a decision it regrets till now.

On seeing the giant bird, Long Xue screamed. The frightened bird quickly started flying away, but then, what shouldn’t have happened, happened! It pooped in fright and the poop landed on Long Xue’s forehead like a dart.

Long Xue shook in anger. He gathered all the power he could muster and screamed “Gagaaaaaaaaaaaa! (Bastarddddddd)” 

“I’ll screw you! I’ll screw your mama; I’ll screw your entire clan”

What followed was an endless rain of curses aimed at the bird. Long Xue didn’t care anymore whether his words made sense or whether his throat was sore. This bird had humiliated him, that too in the vilest way possible. He deserves to be dead!

After cursing the bird for some time, he started cursing the bird’s father for making such an offspring. The frightened bird, along with his shrill cry soon kicked up quite the commotion among the beasts nearby. His cry was so loud that the beasts in the nearby area ran swiftly away from him. Even the fish in the lake fainted and some even died.

Long Xue was cursing the eighth generation grandfather of the bird when a familiar scent entered his nostrils. It was the scent that he longed for years, the scent of home! ‘Wait, my sect was destroyed several years ago, so how is this possible.’ The sound of footsteps also entered his ears by now.

“Goo goo gag aa, ga ga gaa? (Fellow sect members, is that you?)” he asked, confused.

The sound of footsteps grew louder along with the sound of people descending from the air.

In the meantime, Long Wenyan was flying deeper into the woods, dispersing beast tides on his way. A few elders of the Cloud Piercing sect were following him behind. Some legacy disciples along with another group of sect elders were following them on the ground while dispersing ground-borne beast tides. After traveling some distance into the forest, both groups heard the wailing of a baby. 

Long Wenyan immediately sped up ahead as the wailing became less intense. He reached the lake in a few breaths of time. What he saw there was something he would not forget for the rest of his life. There, by the shore of the lake, lay a naked baby boy, wrapped in a woolen blanket. He was making indistinct noises and in the nearby lake, many dead and fainted fishes were floating up.

Long Wenyan threw caution in the wind and rushed to pick up the baby boy.

Long Xue, who was wailing on the lakeside felt someone grab his unfamiliar body. He slowly looked up and saw a familiar face there. A face he would never forget, the face of the man who was very dear to him.

“Great-grandpa! (Ge Gaga)” the baby Xue called out, surprised.

“Elder Long” one of the elders who rushed behind Long Wenyan called out to him. He couldn’t hide his surprise on seeing the baby that caused a beast tide. It was merely a few days old and caused such a commotion in the sect. If the child is raised in the sect, what all tantrums would he throw up!

Long Xue, on the other hand, was suddenly struck by lightning on seeing his grandfather. He decided to shut up and contemplate for a moment. His grandfather who was dead for more than a century was currently holding him in his hands. ‘So, I am really in heaven, huh! No, that’s not it. It feels like I am reborn. A second life!’ All the mistakes he made in the past came to his mind in an instant. How he was an unruly silk-pant, who bullied anyone and everyone including the sect elder? How his grandfather and great grandfather died to protect him and mother? How his mother gave up her own life to teleport him away from safety?! How his sect was destroyed?! Many memories floated into his head. Some were pleasant, many were sad. A flurry of emotions bloomed in his mind. His chest felt heavy as he was overcome by sorrow. For the first time in centuries, after his mother’s death, Long Xue started crying like the baby that he is now.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! don’t cry little monkey, you are safe now!” Long Wenyan whispered while rocking the baby boy back and forth. “Let’s take him to the sect.”