Darkness.
Long Tian’s soul floated within it. There was no sense of ti or space.
His soul was like a glowing bulb in the dark.
He wandered endlessly, his mories slowly fading away.
"Who am I?"
He couldn’t rember himself. He was a lost soul.
He kept wandering, trying to find out who he was.
Suddenly, he heard a weeping sound, which puzzled his lost soul as it tried to locate its source.
"Long Tian..."
He heard a cry of pain.
He wondered who Long Tian was. Was that his na?
Or was it soone else?
Confused, yet hearing such a cry caused him pain.
He stopped, floating in the darkness as a sharp pain struck him.
This pain was like a key, opening a shut door.
An ancient draconic chant shattered everything as he rembered his true self.
Long Tian looked around the darkness and wondered if he was in hell.
But it didn’t seem like it.
Then, at that mont, he heard a sigh.
A familiar sigh.
"How does death feel?"
The question appeared in his mind. He knew he wasn’t the one who thought it, but that so existence was communicating with him.
He looked at the darkness surrounding him, thinking about how he had tried to defy death... but his efforts had been in vain.
"Death..."
Long Tian’s voice sank into the darkness, soft and almost distant, as if it no longer fully belonged to him. His soul flickered faintly, unsteady for a mont before settling.
He remained silent.
Then, slowly, he shook his head.
"People think it’s sudden."
A pause.
"That it just... ends."
His gaze drifted, unfocused.
"Or that it’s pain. Loud. Chaotic. Like everything shatters at once." He shook his head again.
"It’s not."
Silence filled the space.
"You feel it."
"Slowly."
His light dimd a little.
"Your body goes first."
"Then your strength..."
"Then your thoughts."
A faint frown appeared on his face.
"You know you’re dying."
"And the worst part..."
A bitter, faint smile touched his lips.
"You can’t stop it."
His eyes sharpened briefly, a hint of resistance rising.
"You try."
"You fight."
"You think if you hold on tight enough... You can force it back."
A pause.
"It doesn’t listen."
The darkness remained still, indifferent.
"It just keeps going."
"Taking... piece by piece."
His gaze lowered.
"And then your mind starts racing."
A flicker of emotion crossed him.
"Everything you haven’t done."
"Everything you’ve delayed."
"Everyone you thought you had ti for."
His voice grew quieter.
"That’s when you learn."
He paused again.
"Ti was never waiting for you."
Silence lingered.
"And even then..."
"It doesn’t stop."
His light flickered faintly.
"Until..."
A slow, quiet breath.
"You feel yourself slipping."
His head tilted slightly, as if resisting the mory.
"And that’s when it becos clear."
A faint, cold calm settled on his face.
"You were never in control."
Another slow shake of his head, heavier this ti.
"You can’t defy death."
A pause.
"You can only delay it."
His gaze lifted into the endless darkness.
"And by the ti you realize that..."
A faint flicker.
"It’s already too late."
His words sounded profound, yet beneath them lay helplessness, anger, and defiance.
He didn’t know why he had been asked this question.
But he answered it with all his heart. He might be wrong, but this was his understanding of death.
Everything beca silent, and he heard no voice again.
Weariness slowly crept into him. Perhaps he had imagined it... Perhaps it had only been his own thoughts.
Suddenly, the darkness deepened. Though it could not be seen, he felt it.
At that mont, the darkness condensed, to the point that it felt like a sun to the earth.
Then, a being appeared.
A Grim Reaper.
Long Tian’s entire soul trembled in dread, as if his end had truly co.
He couldn’t even move.
It wasn’t that he was afraid... the Grim Reaper had locked onto his soul.
It seed it was ti to descend into hell.
Long Tian thought of this bitterly.
Even though his life had been short, he had many regrets. Still, there were so good mories he could hold onto in whatever ca after.
The Grim Reaper was cloaked, its figure fully encased, just like the image within the Infinite Source Genesis Diagram.
It stretched out its hand, and a scythe ford.
A chill spread through his entire soul as he looked at the scythe.
It was the embodint of severance... of nothingness.
All Long Tian could do was watch as it raised the scythe.
And with a cleave, his vision went dark as he dissolved into the darkness.
"How beautiful?"
That was the only thought that appeared in his mind for no reason at that mont.
ng Lingxue clutched Long Tian’s body after shouting his na.
She held his body close to herself, hugging it with all her might.
It was truly idiotic to cry this heavily over soone she had dismissed and didn’t care about... a stranger.
But for so reason, she felt an intense pain assaulting her.
As she cried, she sensed auras in the forest.
She quickly realized that Long Tian’s tribulation had attracted many Origin Martial Artists and even cultivators.
She instantly carried his dead body and disappeared from the area.
Not long after, nurous presences descended as figures began to appear.
If Long Tian were here, he would have been surprised that China contained such powerful experts.
They looked at the devastation caused by the heavenly eye.
The pit was filled with remnants of lightning.
Even with their strength, they didn’t dare rush into it, or they would be seriously injured.
There was even the possibility of death.
They looked around, trying to find traces of the person who had undergone the tribulation.
They didn’t dare use much of their spiritual power due to the lingering lightning.
In the end, they found nothing.
ng Lingxue had erased her aura, but if soone stronger than her had appeared, they might have sensed it.
However, the lingering lightning interfered with everything.
"Sigh... it seems the person has perished under the heavenly tribulation."
"Indeed, even the remnant lightning fills with dread."
"How strong must one be to summon such a heavenly tribulation?"
They all shook their heads at this. It pained them slightly that they had lost an expert.
If they knew that the one who summoned the tribulation was rely a young man stepping into the Origin Gathering Realm...
They wouldn’t believe it.
After searching for a while, they left. Of course, they collected the lingering lightning using special items.
It was useful to them.
Gradually, the forest returned to normal, though traces of destruction remained.
To mortals, it would seem like nothing more than a natural disaster.
In a hidden cave, ng Lingxue looked at Long Tian’s body.
She didn’t know what to do. For the first ti, her cultivation technique had failed, unable to curb her from crying.
She cultivated the Ice Emperor Technique, a thod fad for its ruthlessness and emotional detachnt...
Yet now, it was useless.
She looked at his face and gently rubbed it.
At that mont, sothing changed.
She watched as sothing began to crumble from his face and dissolve into ash.
A peerless face was revealed before her, leaving her stunned... almost entranced.
Her mouth parted slightly as she examined the face before her.
It had remained undamaged under the tribulation; the mask had absorbed most of the thunder force.
His face was perfectly sculpted, as though carved by a divine hand rather than shaped by mortal flesh.
Sharp brows frad eyes as deep and distant as a starless sky, calm yet unfathomable, carrying an aloof indifference that set him apart from the world.
His nose was straight and refined, adding a noble edge to his features, while his lips—thin and pale—seed untouched by warmth, as if smiles were foreign to him.
His jawline was clean and well-chiseled, flowing seamlessly into a slender neck that gave him an air of quiet elegance rather than brute strength.
What spoiled it was his closed eyes... and the absence of life within them.
That sight struck her again with pain.
She began to wonder why Long Tian had hidden such a face from her.
If he had presented himself like this, perhaps she would have viewed him differently.
With this face, the tribulation, and her grandfather’s behavior, she knew Long Tian was far from ordinary.
But it was too late.
He was already gone.
For a while, her gaze lingered on his face as she held his hands, interlocking her fingers with his.
Then—
Long Tian’s eyebrows twitched.
She froze.
She felt his fingers tighten around her hand.
Shock flooded her.
He was alive.
She quickly checked his body and sensed a faint life force... one that was growing stronger with every passing mont.
She watched as his body began to heal, restoring itself toward its optimal state.
This stunned her. She had checked earlier... There had been no life at all.
She tried to withdraw, knowing she shouldn’t be here. Her identity wasn’t ant to be exposed.
But as she moved—
His grip tightened.
And in the next mont—
His eyes opened.
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