The great equalizer. In all of Murim, nobody could escape it. Even the revered immortals would perish with time.
Nobody was genuinely immortal, Qi could only strengthen one's body enough times. There's always a limit.
Life-expanding medicines would slowly lose effect the more aged one's body became until, eventually, dust is what remains.
This is the fate that was very quickly suffocating John Slevester, feared by all of murim as the Heavenly Demon.
Sitting on the throne, he looked at the empty hall. Its beautiful arches and velvet red carpeting a testament to his power.
He let out a sigh.
Looking down at his hands, wrinkles covering them.
"I should have cultivated my Qi more." John sighed with regret.
He was born with a special power, telekinesis. It was his main weapon, and it's what made him rise to the top of the world, holding everything in the palm of his hand. Nobody could touch him, and he was invincible. Because of that, he disregarded Qi. if he had cultivated a little more, he could have lived a lot longer. Alas, he started his cultivation way too late and was barely able to transcend his human limits without telekinesis, much less expand his life.
He was dying.
Of course, with someone of his caliber, he could easily check the status of his body, and he knew today was the day he'd fall. Once that happened, all the righteous sects would band together to kill him and take over the kingdom he had built. His generals could only hold them off for so long before they breached the doors of his palace and beheaded him.
"Such an unsightly end for the ruler of murim, I refuse to accept such," he muttered to himself.
Unfortunately for him, no life-saving treasure could reset his condition. He was stuck.
As he sat there thinking, he became curious. "I wonder how far my telekinesis can reach now", he wondered. His ability to manipulate objects grew with him, and as he aged his control became more precise, could span over longer distances, and the amount of objects would naturally all increase with time.
After taking over murim, he had reached a stage where his control could get anything over the entire world, as long as he focused hard enough, but what about above?
What about the sky or beyond that?
John closed his eyes. His telekinesis was a bubble around him, and he urged that bubble to expand in all directions so that he could control and feel anything in that space. Soon, it covered the entire world again. Unbeknownst to all humans, he could easily stop all their hearts and they wouldn't be none the wiser.
John's brows furrowed, a frown appearing on his face.
There was a slight fluctuation in the space at the end of the hall to his throne, where the door would be. It was brief, and even he almost missed it.
"What the…" he muttered.
Focusing more intently, he withdrew his focus and honed in on the door.
It happened again. As soon as he felt a slight fluctuation of energy, he attempted to grab it with all his telekinetic power. Every fiber of him, focused on grabbing whatever it is was evading his senses 99% of the time. Although his Qi wasn't that of murim's martial masters, his telekinetic powers far surpassed those of even supreme emperors, those considered the strongest in the world (aside from him of course).
He could barely restrain the strange energy, it was unknown to him, and really, unknown to all of murim. It was something that didn't exist anywhere else in the world. In all his life he had never felt something so strange. It wasn't qi, so what exactly was it?
It was viscous, feeling solid and liquid-like at the same time, before it suddenly expanded to almost triple it's size. The sudden change overwhelmed John, something that hadn't happened since he first was declared an enemy of murim and almost lost his life, over 30 years ago.
Pain seemed to corrode at every cell in his body as he barely kept his consciousness. The sudden shock seemed to tear at his body. Never had this happened before. He coughed, and blood flew out of his mouth, staining his clothes and getting all over his hands. His eyes bulged as he looked at them in shock, before looking back at where the energy originated.
The energy pulsed again. Time seemed to slow down as the energy dominated space itself, ripping free from his control. Soon, it was right in front of him, inches from his face, his telekinesis failing him completely. He tried to make a barrier before him, something that even the strongest murim warrior couldn't destroy, and it shattered like glass. The energy enveloped him, and then, there was nothing.