Somewhere, in a small starfield, in the boundless Han universe...
"Hey, birdbrain, don't you think it's time to end this conflict which has been going on for eras?" asked an abominable monstrosity, millions of kilometres long, with a scale-covered tail capable of sweeping stars and planets with frightening ease.
"Yeah, I think it's finally time to finish this conflict once and for all, lizard. " answered another similar giant having a wingspan so big that it would take a normal human a lifetime to at least cover one thousandth of its burning wings.
After a battle that literally shook the entire heaven and earth, the two lifeforms were reduced to two pitiful balls of flame, however carrying with them a frightening amount of divine energy. As they drifted in the cold void, each one got sucked by spatial cracks that were the result of the fight separating them in different spaces and times...
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Hundreds of thousands of years later.
In the insalubrious and snow-covered streets of Yellow Mountain town, in a sombre alley, a boy glanced at his hands full of calluses which were clenching hard on a leather purse. He inspected the contents and sighed.
"At least I won't starve to death this winter. " he said with a bitter smile.
"Hey! You bastard! Give me back my money! Immediately get back here!" shouted an exasperated voice.
"Old fart, I don't want to question your intelligence but who would obediently listen to you?" Li Tengfei taunted while trying his best to outrun his pursuer.
Such was the pitiful fate of Li Tengfei, an orphan as long as he could recall. He was an abandoned newborn, during winter, with absolutely no clue on who his parents were. There was only a simple pendant with the name of 'Li Tengfei' around his neck when a slave trader found him. As he considered the child quite robust for surviving in the snow, he took him in with the intent to sell him as a slave when old enough and gave him the same name as in the pendant. He had once tried to take the pendant away from the baby but he was immediately repulsed strongly by an invisible force. Afterwards the latter did not dare to have any malicious thoughts but he still treated the child like livestock. Everyday, Li Tengfei had to toil hard for the trader by doing manual jobs and at the end of the day, he would be imprisoned with other slaves. Furthermore, there was only one meal per day and it looked like some dog sh*t with water smelling like sweat. He would see old faces disappearing and new faces replacing them but with time, he got tired of socialising and developed a cold personality. He could not endure this life anymore.
Fortunately, when Li Tengfei was six, he found an opportunity and slipped out of the slave trader's grasp. Thereafter, he had to struggle hard among the other street children known as rats, the common name given by the locals. Indeed, he had to do some odd jobs here and there, even turning to theft, to be able to live one more day in this cruel world.
Suddenly he discerned at least five silhouettes lurking around the corner of the alley. As he was already running with all his might, he could not dodge and ran into them brutally. However, not one of them got hit and Li Tengfei fell heavily onto the cold ground.
"Brat! Watch where you are going! You almost tainted my newly bought robe!" reproached the one leading the group.
Could this smelly brat be able to afford this robe costing more than a thousand bronze coins? He, the great Lan Che, cultivator at the second level of the body refining realm, almost got hit by a rat? What a joke! If he didn't at least leave this fourteen- year-old brat half-dead, he would no longer have the confidence to keep his head high in this small town!
Indeed, in this world, cultivators were rampant and able to do everything they like. Strength was king. The weak had no right to object.
Li Tengfei only knew about Body Refinement Realm cultivators. Never had he encountered anyone beyond that Realm. It was also rumoured that the town mayor was a cultivator at the 6th level of the Body Refinement Realm.
Unwilling to accept this fate, Li Tengfei got up and darted into the dense crowd nearby. Even if the pursuer was a powerful expert at the Body Refinement Realm, he would not be able to find him in the crowd.
It was such cunningness and intelligence that allowed Li Tengfei to survive on the streets for this long. On the other side, Lan Che had an ugly expression and yelled with all his might:
"DAMN BRAT! If I don't find you again then my name won't be Lan Che!"
Meanwhile, Li Tengfei was already far away. This was a dog-eat-dog world. He searched the alleys and finally found the 'thing' he looked for.
"Hey wanna exchange your shirt with mine?" Li Tengfei asked the youth with the same body proportion with him. Though his shirt was covered with mud, it still looked far more warm than the other street child's shirt.
"Sure" replied the rat excitedly, unaware that he had just obtained a direct ticket to the underworld.
'With that, I am sure these f*ckers will never find me' Li Tengfei sneered in his mind.
After the exchange, Li Tengfei dashed off and looked at the purse he stole and started to think of what to do next. He did not want to be a bandit always on the run. He wanted to be a honest person that made money in a righteous way. In fact, his goal was to become a powerful cultivator, someone whose name alone could make others tremble in fear. But this was only a dream at this point.
However, he could not give up on his dream so easily! When life throws a challenge at you, you don't run away, do you? Such was his belief. And what better way to both make money and increase your strength than hunting? Thus, with a happy expression on his face, he made his way to the nearby blacksmith where he would get a weapon.
"How was it, today?" the blacksmith who was acquaintanced with Li Tengfei asked.
"It was okay. It's difficult to get jobs during winter." The latter replied nonchalantly. He would obviously not disclose the fact that he got a hundred coins, a considerable sum, in one swoop.
He inspected the weapons and made a plan his head. Although he was not a martial cultivator, he knew his fighting skills were better than average. In fact, he had even won fights against experts of the first level of Body Refinement. It was the bodyguard of the slave trader that taught him his skills as he pitied Li Tengfei's fate. Therefore, he chose to buy a simple dagger and left the rest of the money for later.
With a dagger in his hand, Li Tengfei made his way to the Thousand Acres Forest. That forest was huge and it was rumored that it even passed through several countries. It was inhabited by many beasts whose skin could be sold for high prices. And thus began the journey of someone who would later on shake the nine heavens.