Relentless winds shook the dark oak trees, the forest was devoid of light as if it was in perpetual darkness. countless eyes were glowing in the dark as if something was attracting their attention, it was all focused towards a man and a horse.
The horse was dead giving off a rotting scent as it had started to decompose, the man was alive but unconscious. The horse died due to the abnormal amount of Yin in the atmosphere whilst the man wasn't affected at all by it, in fact his presence amplified the Yin Qi.
The man had been injured in his shoulder with an arrow, which was still inside him while unconscious and sticking out of him. His face although unconscious was twisted and gave off a eerie feeling that affected the environment itself, a dark aura started to become viable as it wrapped itself around the body of the unconscious man.
The strange darkness gathered around the arrow that was lodged inside the man's shoulder, once the darkness made contact with the arrow it slowly started decaying at an incredible fast pace. In mere seconds the arrow that was once trapped inside the mans shoulder it vanished only leaving a wound on the man, the darkness then gathered once again but at the wound this time.
First the darkness replenished all the blood that had been lost during the time of the injury, then started recreating the flesh that was torn apart by the arrow until the wound that was there one second ago was gone.
Once the wound was gone so was the darkness that surrounded the man, the man was YuXiao he'd been betrayed once again. The world was so cruel and unruly reality itself was a mistake and was in a perpetual cycle of torment, one persons anguish becomes another's. It a cycle even god couldn't interfere with, and now it was YuXiao's turn to experience this cycle.
YuXiao's face twitched and suddenly being peered through the void and looked towards YuXiao, then that darkness from before materialized once again and covered YuXiao hiding his presence from this unknown entity. Time slowly past as the being was still looking at where it saw YuXiao last but later on it left as if nothing happened, after the entity left It entered YuXiao's consciousness.
The energy saw the ethereal body of YuXiao's soul and that it had been marked by a curse from which appeared as thousands of talismans, sealing his talents and make all living being underneath the heavens hate him to a profound degree. The darkness attacked the seal's blocking his talents but it's strength was not enough to break the mark of hatred on him only weakening it to a certain amount, the darkness used the last of its power to nourish his consciousness and filled it with a profound wisdom.
Moments later he woke up within the Resentment forest being overflown with a massive amount of knowledge the darkness had passed onto him, He learnt about what had happened to him and the seals placed onto him by the heavens itself. He later heard an ethereal voice resound within his mind imparting what seemed to be a unique cultivation technique, It was called the Dark Heaven Mantra and it was a defiant technique that goes against the heavens itself. It's cultivated using the resentment of all the living beneath the heavens, making an inverse heaven fueled by anguish of those below the heavens.
YuXiao slowly digested this information and started to pander about his fate wondering where things had gone wrong, what had he done to deserve such a fate for no reason at all. the more he pandered he slowly fell into a state of depression and anguish, even these emotions slowly refined themselves into there purest form, Hatred.
YuXiao heard that same ethereal voice again.
The dark heaven mantra is a technique for those forsaken by the heavens, a chance for hope that the hopeless to strive to get the strength to keep moving forward, It consists of 12 realms each one requires vast amounts of hatred to archive you are currently at the very first step the anguish Qi establishing realm the most important realm which is the foundation of the entire dark heaven mantra itself. The more you condense your Anguish Qi gets refined the better chance at archiving the true purpose of the dark heaven mantra, to make the heavens feel the same resentment it forces onto all other beings!
Undergoing these changes of mindset he unknowing had cultivated into the Anguish Qi establishment realm which he subconsciously cultivated feeding off the newfound hatred to nourish itself, now YuXiao found himself surrounded by that same dark energy but this one felt much weaker it was a unique energy that didn't need to reside within his dantian, but throughout his entire body.
The energy from the dark heaven mantra isn't an ordinary one that be stored within ones dantian but within the entire body, this allows the hatred and resentment to destroy you from the inside being able to refine your body to a extreme degree. But this comes at its cost...
just as YuXiao was wondering what this so called 'cost' was but suddenly his body started getting destroyed from the inside out, each cell within his body was stabbed and ripped apart by a relentless hatred and anguish. His face twisted as he screamed at the top of his lungs, the excruciating pain was so immense he couldn't even faint.
Living through each second was something YuXiao didn't wish for anymore at this point he'd rather die from the pain instead of suffering more, he'd do it. then he recalled the words of the ethereal voice mentioning the giving the hopeless hope to keep moving forward, this was apart of that process.
And so he persisted knowing that this pain would eventually have to come to an end, right?
Wrong the pain didn't stop it kept going and going but the pain was filling every fiber of his being, it made it so he couldn't sleep days and nights past with no end in sight it was a never ending nightmare that he couldn't escape from.
2 weeks later he was still feeling the extreme pain but noticed it had slightly lessened somehow, he could finally see the hope at the end of the tunnel but hope didn't last as it got ripped apart but just like him it persisted.
6 more weeks had passed and the pain YuXiao was dealing with had vanished and became not noticeable to him anymore, and then he heard the voice again.
This is the cost of the Dark Heaven Mantra, it will continuously be active against the will of the user and will be continuously refining your body. You assume that the pain you had felt lessened because the technique stopped working but thats not the case, you have actually adapted to the pain and became numb to it, that energy that was refining is sill going you are just numb to the pain now. this cost can be turned into an advantage because of the abnormal pain tolerance it gives.
Just as he was digesting all this information he had just received hundreds of hollow ethereal bodies stared at him and prepared to attack YuXiao.