Legends speak of the times the Heavenly Dao withers away and the cycle of reincarnation hits its limit. When that time comes, the endless realms will birth ten Primordial Chaos Beasts, each of them possessing bodies vaster than the realms of gods. In their wake, heaven and earth will collapse, all life would end, spacetime will invert, and the stars themselves perish.
These Primordial Chaos Beasts shall vanish as the old world passes. Only then will heaven and earth take shape once more. The natural order shall return, life will flourish, and a new world shall be born.
...
Dark clouds were pressing down on Flameyellow Scions Institute as a storm raged on outside. Institute disciple Li Tianming braved the downpour on the back of his lifebound beast, a Four-Winged Goldroc, before landing in front of a house.
The door creaked open to reveal a beautiful girl in a white dress. With one hand holding up her skirt, and an umbrella in another, she crossed the rain with a warm smile to shield Li Tianming from the rain.
"Happy anniversary, Qingqing!" The two hurried inside, whereupon Li Tianming produced a jade hairpin which he placed into her hand.
Mu Qingqing's eyes sparkled. "What a pretty thing! Help me put it on."
The two positioned themselves before a mirror as Li Tianming inserted the hairpin into her hair, giving her face a pinch as he did so. He missed the annoyance that briefly flickered in her eyes.
Despite the rumbling storm outside, the atmosphere within the house was sweet.
"Tianming, I want to become a woman tonight." Mu Qingqing lowered her head as her face flushed charmingly.
"What do you mean?"
"I want to give you myself." She began to remove her dress, revealing her soft skin that left one intoxicated.
However, Li Tianming only felt confusion. She had always had a haughty personality, and intimacy was a difficult thing even though they were dating. In fact, she had always said that cultivation was her priority, so they had never even gone public with their relationship. Why would she suddenly take the initiative tonight? Li Tianming retreated two steps.
"Scared?" she asked.
"Qingqing, something's off with you today. This isn't you." They had gotten to know each other on the road to Ignispolis. Li Tianming had saved her life then, and they had gotten together afterwards.
"So how should I be then? Together with you for better and worse, and live a life of mediocrity?" Mu Qingqing's expression suddenly twisted into a cold sneer as she continued to remove her clothes.
A thunderclap rang out as the house's roof was torn off. Lightning arced across the sky, and in that singular instant, a violet Three-Eyed Eagle descended. Sitting atop it was a young man, within whose eyes seemed to lurk pools of lightning. Astride a violet three-eyed eagle and with the storm as a backdrop, he seemed every bit a child of lightning!
"Li Tianming, how dare you drug and assault Qingqing!" The young man's wrath-filled voice was like thunder, and in response, the Three-Eyed Eagle suddenly unleashed a bolt of lightning that slammed into Li Tianming! The lifebound beast's spiritsource ability left Li Tianming paralysed as electricity coursed through his body, and he fell onto the floor with a thud.
"Lin Xiaoting?!" Li Tianming was stunned. He recognised the man. After all, Lin Xiaoting was a famous existence in the institute. His talent was shocking, and not only was he one of the institute's Heaven's Division disciples, he was even born to Ignispolis' Lightning Manor. Among the most elite of all the children in the nation of Vermilion Bird's powerful families, he alone stood at the peak!
Li Tianming and Mu Qingqing were all from Vermilion Bird's smaller cities, and had struggled long and hard to gain the right to cultivate in Flameyellow Scions Institute. Lin Xiaoting was supposed to be in a different world from them, someone they should never have interacted with.
"Big brother Ting, save me!" A panicked voice called out, and by the time Li Tianming raised his head, Mu Qingqing, with her clothes disheveled, was already snuggled up to Lin Xiaoting, staring at Li Tianming hatefully as she cried.
"Li Tianming, upon my authority as a Heaven's Division disciple, I am well within my rights to lay down punishment for your conduct that is lower than a beast. Judgement has been passed. Your Four-winged Goldroc shall hereby be granted the death sentence!" Lin Xiaoting declared solemnly.
The lifebound beast dying was the same as crippling a beastmaster. Lin Xiaoting's intention was to sever Li Tianming's path of cultivation, and make him regress until he one day became a cripple, unable to ever stage a comeback!
Dense electricity began to coil around the eagle, screeching cruelly a moment later as it launched itself at the Goldroc next to it. With razor-sharp talons pinning the bird down, the eagle began to rip off the feathers of the goldroc. Every feather that was plucked out was accompanied by a small fountain of blood, as well as wretched shrieks that all stabbed at Li Tianming's heart.
"Midas!" It was his lifebound beast's name. And at long last, Li Tianming understood what these two ruthless people were after. "They intend to kill Midas and rob away the Saintbeast War-Soul!"
Ten days ago, Li Tianming had obtained the precious Saintbeast War-Soul in a secret zone. It was the posthumous remains of a mythical Saintbeast, and was worth a city. Supposedly, it had the potential to create a powerhouse that towered above the masses! Midas had already merged the one Li Tianming had found into its feathers.
"Only Mu Qingqing is close to me in Ignispolis. She must have figured out I had gained something precious. So... she tossed me aside after using information about the Saintbeast Warsoul to latch onto some great family's child?"
Paralysed by the electricity writhing around him, he could only look on as Midas, covered in blood, had its feathers plucked away one by one. The desire and pain in its eyes as it cried at Li Tianming stabbed at his heart relentlessly. What could be more painful than one's brother being butchered alive, while one powerlessly looked on?
"Lin Xiaoting, Mu Qingqing!" Li Tianming's blood was boiling.
"Tianming, submit to fate. Neither your strength nor station in life is a match for me or the War-Soul." Drenched by the rain, Mu Qingqing approached Li Tianming and looked down at him from above.
"So, what? Now you think you're a sparrow who's flown up high and transformed into a phoenix?"
"What else could I be? Big brother Ting has already promised to help promote me to become a Heaven's Sanctum disciple." She looked emotionlessly at him, "Li Tianming, I've come to realise since arriving at Ignispolis that we're just so insignificant. From now on, you'll be one of the masses, and I'll be up high and above. Just take it as a sacrifice you've made in the name of love for me, alright?"
"You won't meet a good end."
"Well, unfortunately that's not going to have anything to do with you. Return from whence you came, Flamehaven. I shall leave you with your life as repayment for the debt of saving my life. From today, we no longer owe each other anything." She crouched down and tidied up his disheveled hair. "I sincerely thank you for your gift.. I've simply been bullied too much since young. From today onward, I'll like those who've looked down on me to kneel while speaking to me."
The two of them then left, along with the War-Soul.
"This world has something called karma. You may believe you're risen high up in the ranks of society. However, there shall come a day when you reap what you've sown with interest." He spat bitterly, his maddened, bloodshot eyes fixated on their departing figures.
That night, thunder rumbled and a storm poured. A lowly youth, clutching the corpse of his lifebound beast, no, his brother, left Ignispolis and vanished into the night.
He knew-
There would come a day when he came back and demanded payment for this debt of blood!
"Three years, just you wait, Ignispolis!"
...
Three years quickly passed.
"Midas!" Once again, Li Tianming woke up with a start. He regularly dreamed of his brother who had once fought side by side with him, his eyes reddening each time it crossed his mind.
He had spent these three years in Flamehaven living a hard life to remind him of his revenge, while Mu Qingqing had indeed remained high and lofty at Ignispolis, becoming a disciple of Flameyellow Scions Institute's core, Heaven's Sanctum.
On the flip side, Li Tianming had become a laughingstock in the institute for his unsuccessful attempt to drug and violate a girl. Even after returning to Flamehaven, busybodies who didn't know better abounded, who would point and curse at his lack of conduct.
To add insult to injury, even his Saintbeast War-Soul was said to be obtained by Lin Xiaoting through his own efforts.
"Public opinion is under the control of the powerful families. No one will believe a word I say." Nothing could be more cruel than the ways of the world.
It was already late night, but Li Tianming got off his bed and went to the window, staring in the direction of Ignispolis.
Suddenly-
Activity occurred within an arcane space in his body.
"It's finally hatching after three years?" Li Tianming's eyes widened. That space was called the lifebound space! It was something that existed within every person at the moment of their birth on the Flameyellow continent. After seven days passed, a lifebound beast would hatch within. Practically every person on the continent had their very own lifebound beast.
However, Li Tianming's personal space had a massive secret no one knew about!
Apart from Midas, who had come into existence together with him, there were actually another ten mysterious eggs within his lifebound space. And today, two of them were wobbling, with cracks even appearing on one of them. Li Tianming shifted the cracking one out of his space, placing it on his bed and quietly waited for it to hatch.
The cracks began to spread on the egg, becoming denser and denser as a stifling pressure began to press down on Li Tianming. "It's out!"
The egg split apart.