"Did you hear about the Imperial Demon? I hear the Imperium sent an Inquisitor out after him. They narrowed the Demon down to the Dominion!"
"Yeah! The demonic cultivator escaped a battle against two Enlightenment Stage Experts!"
Rumors passed Cain's ears as he walked the cultivator market. He had just sold his Demon cores and was looking around to spend the rest of his money.
'I should have reached Jilian city by now and currently acting like an idiot. If it was me in charge at that time all of this could of been done and over with. It was a mistake to think letting that idiot roam free would do anything, but it wasn't my fault fate didn't bless me...'
Cain had gotten into the mindset of the lone cultivators, it was typical for them to take out their grievances on fate and have lots of regrets no matter the situation.
'I wonder if that Inquisitor will find me? It would be surprising, my traces are nonexistent. Though I'm using my original face, a drawing of me hasn't come out yet to the public. It might be because they know I have the thousand-faced spider.'
In recent years, through enlightenment, the thousand-faced spider reached the 8th Tier, its abilities increased another fold and it started to show signs of awakening a domain of subterfuge.
Cain passed another shop when a young girl screamed.
"Evil! Great Evil! The world will be ruined by you, you must be stopped!"
"What now?" Cain was taken aback.
The girl continued to yell while her elders came to her aid.
"Young miss, did you have another prophecy?!" The elder consoled while looking over at Cain, there was a mix of pity and prejudice in his eyes.
"Sir, I'm afraid you have to come with me."
'What is going on?!' Cain was confused, everything was happening too fast.
He kept his composure and questioned the elder, "Why do I need to go with you?"
The Elder explained, "My young miss was chosen as a vessel for the soul of 7th Tier Mythical Beast when young. It lingers in her body and grants her abilities.
'That's possible?!' Hearing such a thing went against common sense. But yet again, anything was possible.
The elder continued, "The soul's abilities are for prophecy. The young miss has visions that show the future, and none of them have been wrong. If what she saw was true, we must detain you and investigate, apologies."
'Bullshit!'
Cain wasn't going to surrender, "Oh? And whose authority will you arrest me?"
The Elder responded flatly, "The City Lord."
No wonder the girl could be chosen for the vessel for a 7th-tier Mythical Beast.
'Damn it, should I kill them? But what if I mess with the past....' Cain wasn't afraid of a mere Growth Stage Expert, he was far beyond it. Even the City Lord wasn't in his eyes.
But....in the end...Cain went with them. Out of preserving the past.
...
'These people, they just put me in a dungeon!'
Cain leaned against the bars, he was insulted beyond belief. The elder made him believe he was to meet the City Lord to clear things up. However, before he knew it, he was locked behind a steel cage.
The cell was only meant to contain growth stage cultivators, Cain could easily escape, but his thoughts lingered on what he would effect.
"I'll wait, but only for 3 months! After that, my other self should have entered the Void for the last time!"
It was rare for someone like Cain to wait, but he had to.
The City Lord gave zero face to him, keeping him trapped in the dungeons, it was unheard of for Growth Stage Experts to go through such treatment. Yet, Cain heeded it no mind, silently waiting.
In the dungeon, Cain lost track of time, he stopped trying to tell, the food given by the guards was random, Growth Stage Cultivators didn't need to eat for a month or two at a time so it was odd to overfeed a prisoner.
Because of this, Cain let time pass, he could only guess if the required time had passed, but he swore once it did he would get revenge.
The emotions of a lone cultivator were ingrained in Cain, he had a similar experience to these ostracized people only trying to make a living, it didn't take long for him to adopt their beliefs, though he kept such beliefs to a minimum. He was a person who made sure what he consumed wasn't poison, even when it came to information and beliefs.
One day, Cain was meditating when he felt a ripple. The ripple itself wasn't powerful, yet, there was a sense of grandness behind it that piqued an interest deep within his soul.
No one knew it yet, but this was the day the world would go into an uproar. Not just because of what the ripple brought, but the many figures that revealed themselves to the world.
In his prison cell, the ripple continued to entice Cain.
'This...I want to follow it....but did my past self leave yet?' Cain didn't know the ripple reached every corner of the Spirit Lands, he believed it came from somewhere close by.
But that notion of his was destroyed the second the world shook and a loud emotionless voice boomed, causing even the heavens to recede for a moment.
"The Ancient City of Marble is opening. Those fated will gain the knowledge of ancients while those not shall pile below the destined ones!"
'Ancient City of Marble?' Without another thought, Cain broke through the cell, through the earth. He reached the surface with his body alone, like a rabid dog.
What was the Ancient City of Marble? It was the city hidden behind a veil of space, a grand city said to be left behind in a corner of the void. It was the land of Ancient Cultivators, the place where the golden age sprouted from!
Blasting through the ground, Cain roared as he collided with the inside of a building, collapsing the roof.
In the sky, he looked towards the source of the ripples to see a massive tear in space with a world of white on the other side. Near the rift were many giant-like constructs carved out from marble, the guardians of the Ancient City, Marble Giants.
"Father look! It's that prisoner!" The girl from the street was below Cain, he had just blown through the city lord's palace, wreaking havoc.
"I see him, let me deal with it." The City Lord patted his daughter's head and rose to Cain's level. He was only a First Step Enlightenment Stage Cultivator, someone barely able to get his daughter a rare opportunity from a powerful cultivator when she was young.
Due to his meager level among the giants of the world, the City Lord was apprehensive seeing as Cain could escape his cage.
Yet to his disbelief, Cain paid him no mind, staring at the Marble Giants to see if there was a way to get past them.
Unbelievably, the City Lord took a softer approach. Many close to him knew he had been a coward since young, someone only arrogant against those weaker than himself. But faced against someone like Cain, he could only return to his roots.
"Sir cultivator, are you one of the prisoners my daughter said to be a great evil? This is my fault, I've never properly punished her, could we perhaps talk over drinks?"
Although the Ancient City was unveiled, the City Lord had no intention to go. He had a city to defend against vultures. Plus, he was a weakling in the mind and body. He had all the reasons in the world not to go.
The City Lord tried to get Cain's attention multiple times, only on the 12th try did Cain respond.
The red-eyed young man turned his head, staring deep into the City Lord's eyes.
In the youths, red eyes were swirls of endless despair. It was such a despair created from the thousands of souls Cain inflicted such a fate upon. They were the eyes of a predator that toyed with its prey until death, a predator that was cold to the world and found satisfaction from killing.
"Noisy."
Bloodletter appeared in Cain's hands, his slash was silent as colors seemed to disappear and the City Lord found himself in a world of gray. He watched the crescent projection of sword energy near him, unable to do anything to stop such a strong attack.
He knew he was doomed.
'Such a magnificent sword strike, who is he?' He tilted his head, seeing his daughter from the corner of his eye.
'Oh my lovely daughter, my most beautiful Irene, father made a mistake...'
Gray colors flew, soon turning into red. A fountain hovered in the air, a fountain made from a headless corpse.
"Ahhh!" The daughter of the city lord, Irene, screamed bloody murder.
Horror fell upon the onlookers' hearts as Cain's attention drew to them.
"You all wasted my time, die."
Sword energy flowed like a stream, whipping around like a torrential tide attached to a sword. The City Lord's Palace was decimated in a single strike, with chunks of flesh and droplets of blood layering the city.
A disfigured head landed on the ground, Irene's scarlet eyes glowing as she watched Cain. This was a scene she knew all too well. It was the scene she saw in the market months prior. It was the vision of a man covered in red and black, an evil smile creeping up his face as he held the head of her father in his hand, gazing at it with some interest before crushing it and absorbing the flesh and blood through strange means.
The youth whispered, "Make a good servant for me, will you."
Irene's vision darkened, all that was left for her was the emptiness of death, the despair that came with knowing her life ended, and the peace of having rest at last.