Author thoughts: This chapter is a necessary read for the story to make sense, but chapter -1 is unnecessary.
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At the precipice of a snowy mountain, was a bygone cottage. The old wooden planks stood securely as foliage held it together. If one were not looking closely, they would suspect that it was nothing more than a tree.
Sitting at the porch of the cabin was a beautiful woman dressed in a frilly white dress. She had serenely calm blue eyes and white, luscious hair that reached down to her waist. In front of her were two cups and next to them was a teapot and a bowl of sugar.
She sat silently for a while as the tea cooled when suddenly a sanguine wind passed by the cottage. The wind left a chilling feeling as it flashed across the mountain and then suddenly a few feet in the sky appeared a white-robed man.
He firmly planted his feet on the air as he walked down toward the cottage. The young man was wearing white robes but there were bloodstains all over it. From afar it looked like he was wearing red robes instead of white robes.
In his eyes shone intense malice that threatened to devour anything in its line of sight. The young man landed on the ground turning the snow blood red with a single step. The entire mountain peak seemed to turn red in his presence.
When the young man saw the woman, his cold eyes seemed to soften considerably. The sanguine aura around him calmed significantly as he approached her and sat in front of her. The beautiful woman soundlessly set a cup in front of the young man and poured tea.
"Sugar?" She asked with a soft voice that soothed one's heart.
"Yes." The young man intoned, his demeanor transformed from his previous malice filled expression.
She reached over for the bowl and took a spoon and threw in a few teaspoons, then the young man gestured for her to stop. She put down the bowl and poured herself more tea.
The young man grabbed the cup and took a small sip. A cleansing aura entered his body and settled in his stomach. He felt as though he was riding on a cloud and suddenly the sanguine aura and blood on his robes disappeared.
"How is it?" She asked as she gave him a cursory glance.
"Your spirit tea is incredibly soothing. I can feel the purity in my soul." The young man praised as he put down the cup.
The young woman looked down at the ground as hesitation flashed on her face. The young man looked around the mountain waiting until suddenly she raised her head with determination and spoke.
"You didn't come here just for tea." She said with certainty.
The young man suddenly became serious, and he focused his attention back to her. With no hesitation, he spoke: "I came to say goodbye."
"Goodbye?" She repeated in a confused tone.
"Why? Why must you leave?" She questioned with a somber frown.
"I must walk my path to the end." He replied as he stood up with his back turned to her and looked to the skies.
"What path? What path could surpass our bond?" She said as she stood up and gripped the hems of her robe with bitterness.
"Bond, what bond? That ended in this life." He said as he threw a cursory glance at her with his back still turned.
"What?!?" She questioned unsure of what he meant.
"Did you know? I've already done it, I've killed my father." He said as a serpent materialized on his left hand and he showed it to her.
"You...how could you?!?" She said surprised as her body felt unbalanced by the sight of the serpent.
"I had done so long ago, and I had done far more. The aura you dispelled is nothing." He said coldly as he raised his palms towards the skies.
The young man's eyes transformed into a great world that lived and died in an instant. It was like a vision of the eventual death of the universe. All that remained in his eyes was the cold eyes of heaven unmatched.
From his body burst out a massive blood river that filled the entire sky and reached for beyond the firmament. The blood river stretched across the entire land threatening to engulf the world.
The young woman looked closely into the river and noticed hundreds of writhing faces and souls. The torment of millions of lives all in front of her made her nauseous and fearful.
"It's not possible, how could you be such a demon?!" She screamed with bitter disbelief, she lost her balance and fell to the ground of the cabin.
"How could it be that I've lost you?" She said in a choked voice as she sobbed, her eyes filled with crystalline tears without end.
The young man coldly looked on as she cried her heart out, and then suddenly she said tearfully said: "Why did you even bother to bring me back? Why didn't you leave me there then?"
The young man raised his right palm and opened it, in it was a small rotating white lotus. The young woman looked stunned as she saw the lotus in his hand.
"The lotus would never leave without you." He said ever so slowly that it broke her sweet little heart.
"Did you ever even love me?!?" She accused with a vicious tone.
"Did you ever even care?!? Is this...all that I am to you?" She roared with increasing emotion.
He coldly looked at her making her hairs stand at the end by his sheer killing aura.
"I once loved you but our paths are different." He said shaking his head.
"You are at the pinnacle of the Noble Path. You have slain no one nor have you devoured a soul." He played with a soul on his right palm and as a display, he squashed the soul in his palm with one squeeze.
"In this world, they sing tales of my cruelty as the brutal bearer in history. I am the tyrant king that rules with an iron fist." With his every word he inspired an increasingly oppressing aura of domination and fear.
"This is the path I chose and now I will follow it to the end." He declared in absolute terms with clarity in his heart.
The young woman's head was downcast by the young man's words. She couldn't but feel hatred build up in his heart and she retaliated with her own words.
"You're right, we have different paths. Your path is destruction and my path is to destroy you!" She hissed out like venom at the young man.
"You're a demon a cruel and evil demon. A horrible king, you are nothing more than a beast!" As she said this, tears welled up in her eyes and she barely finished the last sentence.
She declared while holding back her sadness: "I will destroy you and your legacy!"
"Hmph, then try to stop my ascendance; Song Qian." The young man said with a cold demeanor and stepped into the air disappearing.
"I'll beat you no matter what, Ye Yuyan!" She roared to the skies as the rippling died down from Ye Yuyan's disappearance.
Ye Yuyan's form appeared at the limit of the skies, where he stood flashed various atmospheric colors. With just a few more steps he would enter the extreme void, there even he would have a hard time surviving.
Suddenly the atmospheric colors condensed down quickly becoming a young man in 9 colored robes. In his eyes flashed 9 colors and on his back were 9 colored thunder wings. He approached Ye Yuyan as his thunder wings flapped incessantly.
"You've arrived." The 9 colored man said with a superficial smile.
"Yes, I'm ready to make the trade. Give me the refining method and I will open the grand era." Ye Yuyan intoned with haste interrupting the 9 colored man's civility. The 9 colored man closely examined Ye Yuyan before suddenly realizing something.
"That immortal Old Man Yan Shi, has he left a mark on your soul?" The 9 colored man asked almost teasingly.
"Yes, but I have a way to deal with him." Ye Yuyan said in a cool tone as if nothing could disturb him.
"Are you sure about this?" The 9 colored man probed.
"I am more than aware of the consequences." Ye Yuyan replied smoothly with an even tone.
"Then shall we?" The 9 colored man smiled as he transmitted his thunder wings to Ye Yuyan. The 9 colored wings flew off his back and fused into Ye Yuyan giving him two beautiful massive wings.
The wings flapped and instantly his body soared. His first step was through the atmosphere as he stepped into the extreme void. His body shot through the void with the wings flapping on his back for thousands of meters. Then suddenly his body stopped and Ye Yuyan looked down at the world.
It was a great world that spanned a great amount of the void. Around the planet was illustrations of various people and animals in the form of tiny bubbles. Ye Yuyan's eyes flashed with a blood light and suddenly his body exploded.
A river of blood surged out of him like a torrent in the void, it shot through space as it transformed into blood drops. The blood rained down onto the world defiling all the life on the planet and in every tiny bubble.
The world was drenched in blood that day and in the sky hung a blood moon, an eerie omen of things to come.