There was a short moment of silence.
"But I am the one giving it to you."
"But, sir..."
"Leave all that, Gu Taixu. You may think that you don't have the ability to secure it, right? It's a space ring. I have put some resources you can use in your training. If you use them well, you can reach Level 5 in a few years. I insist you accept it." Headmaster Yong said putting it in his hand.
"You have high hopes for me, Headmaster." Gu Taixu said while smiling.
"Yeah, yeah. To personalise it, you drip a drop of blood on the surface and it will be absorbed. Then you own the ring. For now it is ownerless. Once you own it, you can retrieve it if tossed away at a short distance with a thought of yours. I wish you good luck and safe journey in your way."
"You have given me a great gift, Headmaster Yong; I shall repay your kindness." Gu Taixu said as he kowtowed. Headmaster Yong tapped his back and smiled.
"Get up. You can leave now." The headmaster said.
Gu Taixu left the room. Headmaster Yong sighed.
"I hope I made the right choice. The fate is on him." Light flashed in his eyes as he returned to his sitting posture. It did not surprise Headmaster Yong later when he discovered the real reason for Gu Taixu's departure.
Gu Taixu left the academy's premises and got to the gates. There, he was examined by the officers and presented his certificate. They overlooked the ring in his bag as normal. They probably could not differentiate between a normal ring and a space ring. When they saw the certificate, some let out sympathetic sighs, some knowing smiles and let him go.
Now outside the academy, Gu Taixu tucked the Space Ring into the most secret and deepest part of his part of his bag and departed from the academy with a bus going to the Gu Clan.He paid the fare of 50 silvers and got on a double decker bus. He was so excited about going home that he did not know when he slept off in the bus.
Half an hour later. Thunder rumbles, lightning strikes. A flurry of lightning strikes that made the world tremble where on rampage. It was this chaos that woke Gu Taixu from sleep. People were shouting and wailing. He looked around. It was as dark as though it was dusk but it was not raining.
"Why is it this dark? It was just a little past noon then." Gu Taixu muttered. Suddenly, the driver stopped as the tyres screeched, jolting everyone forward.
"Oh! No! Tornado!!", the driver screamed, utterly terrified. Gu Taixu looked up and there it was; a tornado was forming several hundred metres ahead.
"We have to turn back. We have to turn back now, before it's too late.", a passenger screamed hysterically.
The driver went back and forth till it was a complete 180-degree turn. He heaved a sigh of relief and drove hastily. But unfortunately, he could not escape as the tornado went in their direction. The wind became turbulent and the driver struggled to gain control of the vehicle as it swerved to the edge of the road, nearly falling off.
Currently, there was a huge bedlam in the bus as the passengers screamed, some cried out, some had already fainted from fear, some hid under their seats, some just sat, speechless. Gu Taixu was one of them. His heart palpitated rapidly, in fear and also in self pity.
Is this the end of the road? He thought. I escaped anticipated death just to meet a quick and sure one. He smiled bitterly and clutched his two bags tightly. After few minutes of tottering along the edge of the bridge, the last nail on the coffin was struck; the tornado blasted the bus off the bridge and it went down down down down down .....
There was a loud crash.
B-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-M-M
Then there was silence. It seemed everyone was dead. Moments later, there was a movement in a corner among the forever silenced. Someone was actually alive!! This was Gu Taixu. He lay and recoiled at what had happened. His little cultivation has granted him a narrow escape from death. But, very very narrow. He could not sit, he just lay there. His body was wracked with pain. He was terribly weak and severely injured but he had managed to survive. He knew he could have only survived not only due to luck but because of that obscure fate that lingered over him. That thing that made him continue to survive; something that was still keeping him in this world. That something that restrained Qin Jiushang from killing him that day; something that made him persevere still, at Fallen Stars Martial Academy. His destiny was calling him from the grave.
He raised his head and looked around. He saw the tornado going to an opposite direction and slowly dissipating. From it, a golden halo visible to the naked eye was slowly unravelled from it. Suddenly with a speed supposed of light, a golden pebble emerged from the light and darted towards the ground. Gu Taixu noticed this strange phenomenon and observed from afar. While in mid-air, it seemed the stone had noticed someone looking its way. It instantaneously released an immortal, ethereal aura that towered over mortals. Gu Taixu looked on.
When it was near the ground, it started bouncing from person to person, body after body. It was just few meters from Gu Taixu when he became conscious of the incoming collision. Upon seeing the unfamiliar object, he tried his best to evade it. All attempts proved futile as the golden pebble headed for his dantian but it couldn't be dodged completely. It eventually missed his dantian but got somewhere else.
"Ah-h-h-h-h-h-h-h..."
Gu Taixu gave an ear-piercing scream as the stone pierced and passed through his left eye. It was a pain beyond the physical limits of his body. He immediately became unconscious. In the depths of his mind, an ancient consciousness, nearly invisible but highly powerful based on the aura it exuded. It sighed heavily and Gu Taixu's consciousness was called into its space. It sighed again and then spoke;
"Aeons ago, the Divine Dragons of the Ancient World battled with the Evil Overlords of Heaven and Earth led by the Evil Warlock of the Myriad Realms and the Demonic Enchantress of the Ghost's Dimension. In order to seal the Evil Overlords away, their souls were disintegrated and their bodies destroyed into many pieces. Many were directly vaporized into dust and scattered to different parts of the Galaxy. The Divine Dragon Eye you possess is one of the parts that was not destroyed in the great battle.
Brat of a lowly life-form, you are extremely favoured by the Gods of the Divine Realm." It coughed and its consciousness faded a great deal.
"Receiving this Dragon Eye is equivalent to inheriting the bloodline of the dragon. Your future in this world is boundless. Only you can stop yourself. Welcome to the world of Cultivation."
The consciousness said then went into a long and deep slumber.