Feng Chen found himself standing in a seemingly endless white void. The horizon stretched on forever, blending into the sky so that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. It was vast yet unnervingly empty, a place where time and space seemed to have lost their meaning.
Despite the eerie stillness, Feng Chen felt an odd pressure creeping in from every direction, an invisible weight pressing down on him. At first, it was nothing more than a slight discomfort, but gradually, it grew heavier, more suffocating, like a giant hand pressing against his soul. His legs felt like jelly, and his heart pounded in his chest.
"Wh-what is this place?" Feng Chen whispered under his breath. His voice echoed faintly, swallowed by the vast emptiness around him.
Then, out of nowhere, a mocking voice boomed across the space, echoing through the void like the voice of a god. The sound vibrated through his bones, shaking him to his core. Feng Chen stumbled, nearly collapsing under the sheer force of the voice, his soul trembling violently.
"Hah! Finally, someone with enough guts to try and wield our powers, huh?" The voice was deep, divine, dripping with disdain, and yet it held an undertone of amusement. As the words reverberated through the space, the pressure on Feng Chen's soul intensified, like a weight trying to crush him into the ground.
His hands instinctively gripped his chest, as though trying to protect the core of his very being from being crushed under the oppressive force.
Just as Feng Chen was trying to steady himself, another voice joined in... a voice as soft and calming as a gentle breeze on a summer evening. Unlike the first voice, which was overbearing, this one felt almost soothing, though no less powerful.
"Right, right! Can you believe it? After all these countless eons, someone has actually dared to step into this space! How long has it been?" the voice mused playfully.
"A few trillion eons at least, wouldn't you say? I've lost track."
Feng Chen's mouth went dry. His body trembled, not from fear but from the sheer pressure of the energies that swirled around him. He wasn't afraid, per se, but there was a distinct feeling of being overwhelmed, as though he were an insect standing before two titanic beings capable of snapping him out of existence with a mere thought.
Suddenly, the space around him began to warp and twist, distorting reality itself. The once flat white expanse began to ripple like disturbed water, bending and stretching in impossible ways.
Feng Chen's breath caught in his throat as two distinct forces started to gather in front of him... one dark as the deepest abyss, the other bright and radiant, glowing like a thousand suns. They swirled around each other, twisting and intertwining, the air around them crackling with immense power.
Feng Chen couldn't move. His body was frozen in place, not by fear, but by the sheer pressure emanating from the two forces. His eyes were wide, unable to look away from the energies that had taken form before him.
The black and white energies, yin and yang, moved with a kind of ethereal grace, as though they were alive, breathing entities that had been waiting for an eternity for someone to notice them.
"A-Are you… yin and yang energies?" Feng Chen stuttered, barely able to get the words out. The air felt thick and oppressive, like he was trying to breathe through a dense fog. His voice sounded small, insignificant in the presence of these cosmic forces.
The two energies burst out in laughter, the sound booming through the void. It wasn't a mocking laughter, but rather the laughter of beings who had finally found something amusing after millennia of waiting.
"Would you look at that!" the dark energy, the yin qi, chuckled. Its voice was deep and smooth, like dark silk.
"He actually thinks we're just 'yin and yang energies'… How quaint. Right, right. We are what the world calls yin and yang... the origin of all things… and the end of all things."
The white energy, the yang qi, laughed softly in agreement. Its voice was bright and playful, like a warm breeze on a spring day.
"But look at him! He's not even faltering under our presence. Not bad. I'd say he's got more guts than the last one, wouldn't you say?"
"Much better than him," the yin qi responded with a hint of amusement.
Feng Chen stood there, his mind racing. He knew he should probably be terrified, but instead, he felt a strange sense of calm washing over him. These weren't just ordinary energies... these were the literal origins of everything, the forces that shaped the universe itself. And yet, they didn't seem to view him as a threat… or as anything worth crushing.
"So…" Feng Chen spoke slowly, trying to keep his voice steady, "you already know who I am, don't you?"
The yin qi shifted slightly, its form becoming more defined, almost like a shadow given life.
"Feng Chen… Feng Chen," it mused, the name rolling off its ethereal tongue as if it were testing the flavor of the words.
"Is that what you go by now? Feng Chen? Hmm… more like… Chen Jie, don't you think?"
Feng Chen's heart skipped a beat at the mention of his old name. The name he had left behind in his past life, the name he hadn't heard in what felt like an eternity. His eyes widened in shock, but he quickly composed himself, forcing his emotions under control.
"Chen Jie…" he whispered. The name echoed in his mind like a long-forgotten memory, bringing with it flashes of his previous life. For a moment, he was no longer Feng Chen... the disgraced son of the Feng Clan... but Chen Jie, the orphaned high schooler who had dreamed of worlds like this.
But Feng Chen wasn't the type to be rattled so easily. He took a deep breath, pushing the memories of his past life back into the recesses of his mind.
"Right… I see," he said, his voice steady now.
"You know everything about me, don't you?"
The yang qi shimmered with approval, its energy swirling gracefully around Feng Chen.
"Indeed," it said softly.
"We've watched the cycle of reincarnation for countless years. We know everything there is to know about you… and every life you've lived before this one."
"Look, Feng Chen," the yang qi continued, its voice growing serious.
"It's been countless eons since anyone has stepped foot in this space. We've waited for what feels like an eternity for someone like you to appear. And now, after all these years, here you are."
The yin qi interjected, its voice rumbling with the weight of millennia.
"Though you are weak… very weak, in fact," it said with a faint chuckle,
"we've decided to place our final bet on you. Consider it our last hope."