It was a mystifying night, the type that would even cause the most valiant warriors to shudder. In the middle of an ancient battleground, devoured by freezing winds, stood a few dozen impervious figures surrounded by tens of thousands of workers.
If one looked closely, they would be shocked to see that winds seemed to bend around the figures, as if it somehow feared to come in contact with them. Each one of the figures permeated an aura of absolute power, causing those weaker than them to fall to their knees when near them.
"Hurry up!" yelled a large figure. "The slower you pitiful rats take, the greater your punishment will be".
The figure was a frightening sight indeed, a 3-meter tall monster of a man covered with muscles. His grey skin was plastered with black, frightening runes that caused the world around him to shatter. He had slick black hair, with his only clothing being a dark pair of pants.
"Calm down, follow Daoist Lin Hao," a seductive voice slowly called out. "The preparations we have made for this event have been in the making for the last millennia, what are a few more moments if it means that soon we will reach a new peak in the road of cultivation."
Unlike one would think, this voice came from a shriveled old man. No one would expect him to possess the voice of a seductress, as he seemed no different from any other elder from a village. The only distinguishable feature of his would be the two long red horns protruding from his shriveled, bald head.
"Oh, shut up Zhao Shuhang," hollered Lin Hao. "How dare you, a pitiful loose cultivator, order me what to do. All you are is the founder of some vile sexual cultivation arts. Heck, even those hypocritical righteous bastards have their own variation of your techniques."
"Hmph, be more complacent fellow Daoist," said Zhao Shuhang. "Spiting my anger will do you no good, your mere moments of agitation shouldn't be the undoing of our plans."
"That's enough, stop with your bickering," said a cold, monotone voice. "I have finished setting up the array, so inform the ancestor of the completion of the preparations."
There was a quick glimpse of anger evident on Zhao Shuhang's face as he felt he wasn't justified for part of the blame, but his reaction was quickly hidden with a mischievous smile.
The listless voice originated from a hooded figure, surrounded with a freezing aura.
The 3 figures move towards the rim of the array, with expressions of excitement evident on their face. In the center of the 1000 meter wide array sat a weeping girl, facing opposite of her was a young man with chains coursing through his arms, trying his best not to show his anguish.
"It's okay Chu'er, I'll get us out of here," the young man moaned. Sweat covered his face, with great pain plastered all over his face.
"No you won't kid, with your pitiful cultivation at the Nascent Core realm, even if there were a billion of you, you wouldn't be able to put a scratch on those chains," said Lin Hao.
The weeping girl fainted, revealing her country-toppling beauty face stained with tears.
Suddenly, the sound of slow footsteps was heard and all the people around the array quietened. A hunched back old man was taking slow steps, wherever he passed people would kneel. He seemed so frail that the wind could just blow him over, yet he continued to slowly take steps.
Once the elder reached the girl, he signaled the three figures and they seemingly teleported a 1000 imposing beings in chains inside the array. These beings all had incredibly powerful bloodlines, able to kill mortals with mere glimpses, at the peak of their various races. Yet at this moment they were mere prisoners, soon to be sacrificed.
The elder took out a small bone covered in golden runs and placed it on top of the fainted beauty's forehead. Slowly the girl awakened, realizing she had not dreamed a nightmare, she moved her eyes to the young man, never losing eye contact with him. Trying her darndest to comfort the young man with her eyes.
Slowly rays emerged from the array, creating a living hell, yet the pair of lovers still didn't lose sight of each other.
It was over mere moments after it started, the pair shocked to realize that they survived. All the bloodlines of those sacrificed around them compacted into a small levitating blood-red sphere. The bone moved from the forehead of the girl towards the sphere, but the exhilaration of the lovers' waned when they came to a horrible realization.
When the bone left the forehead of the girl, blood gushed from her eyes like a waterfall. The further it went from her, the more horrible her condition became. By the time the bone reached the sphere of blood, she had transformed into a disfigured corpse, no trace of her stunning beauty left.
"Noooo!" the boy cried, but it was useless. As his sanity slowly left his mind, he fainted.
Once the bone was submerged into the sphere it slowly morphed, until a being emerged. A pale human boy, as frail as a newborn child.
The elder went on his knees and bowed, not daring to make a single movement. All others around the array followed his actions, not daring to show a hint of disrespect or contempt.
"We servants, greet the almighty progenitor," nervously said the old man, for the first time portraying any expression his face. Fear. The type of fear a child shows when he sees the monster under his bed, the type of fear no one ever wants to face.
The frail youth with pale skin slowly opened his eyes.
"The heavens have failed," he mumbled with a small smirk on his face. Never taking his eyes off the night sky.