"So... this is it, huh?"
Xiao mumbled to himself as he sat cross-legged in a practice room without anybody else nearby. It had been three years since his trial, and now he was ten years old. He had just finished his talent awakening ceremony, which went just as he had expected, awakening a Mortal Core Realm talent.
Afterward, he had to deal with the congratulations, praises, and all those annoying stuff before being let free from the family elders. He had to endure his mother's endless loving praise and received a hug from his sister. After dealing with all of this, he locked himself in the practice room.
Furthermore, he was finally able to access his skills, which had been locked away. These three years, nothing major had happened other than his height growing and a bit of childishness disappearing from his face. He had also made a name for himself within the family, well, if being called a loner is considered a name.
The only good thing was that his mother's business was thriving better than before, his tips and words already having proved his worth as his mother had pulled him into the business world, taking his help and slowly helping him get control of her businesses.
He was much taller than most children his age and mostly quiet. He didn't spend time with children his age other than his sister and Yun Yurou, who also passed the trials and now had an Earth Core realm talent, even rarer than his own, earning her a seeded seat in the family.
What intrigued him was that he clearly remembered not hearing of such talent in his first life. In other words, she didn't overcome the trial and didn't have the heart for cultivation. Well, it could be his fault as he did help her get over her worries.
The day after the trial, Xiao found out that Yun Yurou was not disturbing him. Though it relieved him, it raised his curiosity. He looked into this, to which he discovered a traumatized and scared girl who would now shriek at a touch.
In normal cases, Xiao wouldn't have cared, but while the rest of the kids avoided him, she stuck with him. To be truthful, her bubbling sense of innocence and energy was a sort of relaxation for him. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, he helped her overcome her trauma.
It wasn't hard for him, as a grown-up who had come over many traumas himself, to help a little girl of seven. All it took was a bit of consoling and reliving the same scene with a bit of mental support. With time and help, he was able to bring back her energy.
As a result, she became more annoying to him, but he started to take it as normal. Plus, being freed and enjoying some time freely was not bad. After all, he didn't spend all three years simply playing around.
First of all, he had established a strict training regimen for his body to grow. As a growing child, he couldn't do anything extreme since he didn't want to stunt his growth. So he kept it at a medium level, which resulted in his young body looking cool and slim. There were no abs or extreme muscles for now.
Due to his training, he grew taller, and his body became more handsome. As a consequence, he had to deal with his mother's constant teasing about how he would be breaking many girls' hearts in the future. Due to his maturity, his mother didn't feel awkward about it and enjoyed his "blushing" expression.
Leaving that aside, he used his mother's connections to hire some people to look into the ruins for the pills. Since this particular ruin was open to the public, many lone cultivators entered and exited it, making it easy for him to hire them.
With their help, he was finally able to find the pill. Of course, he didn't describe the pill but some other stuff in there, and coincidentally, the pill was there. Since most of the items he obtained didn't look valuable, he didn't raise any suspicions. Well, this was one of the perks of being born into a powerful family. Now, in his hands, he held a black marble.
The marble was pitch black and seemed to suck the light around it. There was nothing extraordinary about it, but he knew that the pill in his hand was worth more than anything in the cosmos. It was the only object in this world that could completely change his fate.
Xiao didn't wait much longer as he cut his palm, causing blood to flow. He placed the pill in his palm and soaked it with his blood. As soon as the pill touched the blood, he could feel it absorbing his blood at a rapid pace. It continued for a few seconds before it stopped.
The pill's color started to change, accompanied by a massive pressure descending upon the whole practice room. Before things got worse, Xiao extended his hand and caught the pill. As he did, he activated his skill, {Forgotten}.
{Forgotten} was one of his skills that completely removed his presence from existence. It was the opposite of his skill, {Connection}, that made him stand out. Of course, {Forgotten} didn't make him invisible or undetectable to the eye. It simply made his "presence" disappear.
Even if the strongest immortal used his powers to search, they wouldn't find his "presence." However, the skill was useless when others could still see him. It made him completely invisible within a crowd, and even if he passed by somebody, they wouldn't feel his "presence," but they could still see him.
Hence, it was pretty useless in a fight, but right now, it would be his lifesaver. The pill of reform was a pill that shouldn't exist, and if its existence was ever discovered, the heavens presiding over this realm would completely erase it, heck even the main central Heaven might be alerted. If it weren't for his {Forgotten} skill, he and the pill would be in danger within seconds.
Soon, the pressure that filled the room disappeared. Xiao sighed in relief and opened his hands, looking at the pill of reform that had changed. Now it split into two colors, one eternal darkness and the other a blinding white light that dazzled anyone who looked at it.
With an eager expression, he placed the pill in his mouth. First, he played with it in his mouth, trying to get a taste of the forbidden pill, but all he got was a bland taste. With a small hint of disappointment, Xiao swallowed the pill.
And then he waited. The pill he ingested slowly started to melt, and soon, a smooth and calm feeling covered Xiao completely. Slowly but surely, Xiao went into a deep slumber due to the calming pleasure that filled his body, and it was a good thing that he did.
As soon as he closed his eyes, cracks started to appear all over his body, from the top of his head to the tips of his feet. He now looked like a cracked glass, but that was not the end.
Chains began appearing all around his body, seeming to bind Xiao down. Each chain was connected to a part of his body, and that's when the change started to occur. The cracks on his body spread to the chains, causing small cracks to form on them.
The cracks gradually spread to each and every chain. Now, Xiao looked illusionary, as if his body existed between many planes. Strangely, the cracks on his body didn't spill any blood. Only dark and white lights started to spill from his body.
One half of his body turned pitch black, while the other side became blinding white. Both sides started to converge on his body, enclosing him in a cocoon of dark and light. The chains that surrounded him started to break one by one, but each time one broke, the pieces of the chain were absorbed into the cocoon.
With each chain that broke, the cocoon grew bigger. It was a good thing that even though Xiao fell unconscious, his skill {Forgotten} was still in play. Otherwise, he would have turned to ashes the moment the cocoon had finished covering him.
And like this, without anybody in the cosmos knowing, a monster was being slowly created.