1 THE RETURN OF HEAVENs BANE (1/2)
Long ago, space had mysteriously split open. A giant crack had opened up and, from that crack, had emerged an unconscious, blue-eyed child. Finding themselves close-by, the two kings and two queens of Worldslord Flying Island - the four Divine Beasts - took him in and welcomed him as one of their own. The child, they named Xu Ling, and the five of them lived together as brothers and sisters, with the four friends choosing to keep the existence of the child a secret from the outside world.
Unfortunately, one day, the news of a mysterious child appearing at the floating island reached the ears of Tian, the Heavenly Lord. Urged by a prophecy foretelling of his defeat at the hands of a ”youth born of space”, Tian set off to Worldslord Island to kill the young Xu Ling!
Among the four Divine Beasts, it was the Vermillion Bird, Ren Hong, whom had developed the closest relationship with the blue-eyed child. This resulted in her giving her life in order to save Xu Ling's: thanks to Ren Hong's sacrifice, Xu Ling survived his first encounter with Tian and escaped into the mortal world, where he would hide and live as a simple human youth for a few years… until, on one fateful day, he met with a gargantuan, golden dragon; a mighty Primordial Beast named Blindlight. With that encounter, Xu Ling gained a powerful ally; a friend that would accompany him in the centuries to come.
Time passed, battles were fought, dynasties and clans were uprooted, empires fell… and eventually, that once small and powerless child had somehow reached the pinnacle of the world!
In his quest to kill Tian and avenge Ren Hong he had gathered a following of millions; an army of humans and beasts so numerous their arrival could be discerned from the vibrations of the ground. Regardless of commoner or emperor, earthly or heavenly, all had to bow before Xu Ling and the might of his army; the army with which Xu Ling would wage war against the Nine Heavens and carve a path towards the palace of Heavenly Lord Tian!
Ever since Ren Hong's death three hundred years ago, Xu Ling had been fighting to avenge her for many mortal lifespans. During this time, his hatred towards the Nine Heavens had only ever increased, especially when coming to know of Tian's evil ways and oppressive actions: many had suffered at the Heavenly Lord's hands, so much so that Tian's title had slowly been changed from Lord… to Tyrant; Heaven's Tyrant, Tian! And yet, all those people could do had been cursing in their hearts, not daring to voice their true thoughts…
But!
Finally, under the lead of Xu Ling, those bottled up feelings could be vented! Millions gathered under the banner of Xu Ling, creating the largest army the world had ever seen! Finally, after suffering in silence for so long, the commoners could finally rebel against Tian and his Nine Heavens by following the figure of the blue-eyed youth; a blue-eyed youth that, like an evil demon, he would cause entire worlds to be drenched in the blood of his enemies, and, like a just messiah, he would warmly welcome the oppressed under his wing and kindly guide them onto the road of cultivation.
Eventually, all the people of the cultivation world, lands that spanned across multiple planes of existence, a land that had stayed underneath the dominion of the Nine Heavens for far too long, had come to look forward to their clash… The final, decisive battle between Heaven's Tyrant and the Evil Saint!
Finally, after centuries of war, Xu Ling had managed to reach the throne room atop Tian's celestial palace. There, Tian had been waiting for him, determined to accomplish what he had failed more than three centuries prior.
Three hundred years ago, the two had met for the first time. Before then, neither had had any feelings of animosity towards the other, and maybe, if Tian had not acted and planted that seed of enmity himself by killing Ren Hong, they might not have been standing across each other at this very moment. Perhaps, none of this would have happened. And yet, because of four words, a ruler's fear of being overthrown, and a child's untimely appearance, there they were; within a throne room at the summit of the celestial sphere, about to clash for their second and last time.
The countless battles, schemes, plots, risks and sacrifices had all been for that one moment; a chance at taking Tian's head and ending his tyrannical rule once and for all! For that cause, all to get him into that one Throne Room, way, way too many had died… As such, Xu Ling had solemnly walked in, prepared for a fight to the death for the fate of the world!
Xu Ling had trampled over Clans and Empires and had eventually carved his name in history. He had achieved a status and cultivation base that very few would ever have dreamt of. For that reason, when the announcement came out into the outside world nobody could believe it… no one could bring themselves to acknowledge that their hope, their messiah, Xu Ling… had died! In that final battle at the pinnacle of the world, Tian, Lord of the Nine Heavens, had struck Xu Ling down and ended his rebellion once and for all!
The Evil Saint: his strength had been the stuff of legends, his knowledge had made countless sages bow their heads in shame, his persona had gathered him way too many admirers to count! Indeed, Xu Ling had been one of the greatest… Unfortunately as it turned out, Tian had been even greater!
And like so, a thousand years passed. Xu Ling's story turned into mere tales, buried by the sands of time and by the pressure of Tian. Slowly but surely, the Evil Saint slowly began to be forgotten, becoming the umpteenth ”evildoer” to have died at the hands of the ”just” Heavenly Lord…
Only Xu Ling's old companions, those few who had actually been by Xu Ling's side at that time and survived, would occasionally reminisce of a smiling, blue-eyed youth, of their dream of a free land, a land without Tian…
”Ahhh,” they would sigh: the times of those blue eyes, of that confident smile, of their fixation with Tian's head, of their dream of freedom… those times had all died together with him.
Xu Ling… had died that day, one thousand years ago-
”YAMA! YOU MASSIVE BITCH, YOU ACTUALLY DARE TO SEAL ME HERE?”
-or so the world had been led to believe.
Because you see, there was a secret to the Evil Saint that barely anyone had any knowledge of. And that was; Xu Ling could not die!
Or, more accurately, for some reason he could not be harmed fatally, as the world itself would act to prevent that from happening! Scratches? A ton. Mortal wounds? Not a single one in three hundred years of war! It was as if a mysterious law had dictated that Xu Ling could not be killed.
At the moment of his victory, Tian had also been stumped by this: when the time came to finally finish his defeated opponent, Heaven's Tyrant found out, to his dismay, that no matter how much he tried… he just could never land that finishing blow!
Weapons? They would miss!
Magical abilities? They would dissipate!
Step on that unkillable cockroach of a man until it died? He would slip and stomp his own foot instead!
Just how was he, the mighty Tian, supposed to kill off the annoying bastard???
The answer to that dilemma had come under the form of Yama, King of Hell. Yama, urged by Tian, separated Xu Ling's soul from his body and sealed it, after having wiped away his memories, at the entrance of the Yellow Springs: that way, although the guy would not die, he also would never be able to wake up and return into the world of the living!
Accordingly to common sense, that should have been enough.
Reality had other ideas…
Not even a thousand years after the seal had been put in place, something strange happened; an amalgamation of Spiritual Energy, Will and Qi had cracked the Yellow Springs open, freed the trapped Evil Saint of his shackles, restored his memories, and assimilated into his soul.
In the present, a ghostly, blue-eyed youth was standing on top of a vast, dark plateau; that plateau was none other than the top frame of a pair of massive black gates; the entrance to Hell! Below him, around the gargantuan door, was an expanse of black, coal-like dirt traversed by massive, ethereal rivers, incessant streams made up of none other than the decaying, yellow souls of the dead.
The ghostly blue-eyed youth looked around, witnessing as the yellow rivers flowed past him, beyond the black gates: there, those yellow rivers would converge into the Yellow Springs and head towards the reincarnation altars, where Yama, the Judges and ”old lady” Meng (#1 Miss Hell for three eons straight) would take care of the reincarnation processes. But now…
”YAMA! YOU MASSIVE BITCH, YOU ACTUALLY DARE TO SEAL ME HERE…”
”YAMA! YOU MASSIVE BITCH, YOU ACTUALLY DARE TO SEAL ME HERE…”
”YAMA! YOU MASSIVE BITCH, YOU ACTUALLY DARE TO SEAL ME HERE…”
The shout had been so loud it echoed from one corner of the underworld to the other! As for the person in question, how could he possibly not have heard it?
Spurt!