Yang Feng's body trembled; naked soaked in blood. An ancient dull book hovered before him, its cracked cover pulsating with a faint, ethereal light. The energy radiating from it was overwhelming, yet somehow… familiar.
The air was thick with oppressive force, the pressure in the atmosphere crushing him from all sides. His mind was dizzy, and every part of him screamed to stop, to give up. But there was no turning back now.
He staggered forward, his knees buckling beneath him as he collapsed to the ground. His hand, shaking with the last of his strength, brushed the book's cover.
A strange resonance echoed through him—deep and primal—as if the book had been waiting for him, had chosen him, even as he struggled to keep his consciousness intact.
The Codex flared to life, its pages flickering as if turning on their own. Time seemed to stop and pressure disappeared.
The world around him blurred.
Before fainting he seemed to heard something.
BEASTMASTER'S FORBIDDEN CODEX
***
1 hour earlier.
The classroom was abuzz with excitement, but Yang Feng was far from eager. His gaze wandered out of the window, where the sun and moon hung in the sky at the same time, approaching each other, casting an eerie glow across the world.
The Astral Veil was nearly here. A rare celestial phenomenon that appears once every year. Transporting teenagers to a mysterious dimension. There these teenagers will go through trials and those who returns successfully will become legendary Beast Masters.
This is a world teeming with powerful creatures, wielding power beyond ordinary. After years of slavery, one day Sun and Moon appeared at the same time and slowly approached each other and merged. As they merged a mysterious veil covered the whole world. Various race's youths found themselves in a strange dimension.
Here they passed the test of various Beastmaster Relics and era of Beast Master's began.
But Feng wasn't like them. He had no special bloodline. No legendary potential. He was just another face in the crowd. A commoner.
"What if I can't pass?" he muttered under his breath, the gnawing doubt biting at him.
The other students laughed and talked, oblivious to the weight of the moment. But for Feng, it was a feeling he couldn't shake. The Beastmaster Relics had always chosen the most promising, the brightest. But who would want someone like him?
Still, there was something deep inside him that felt drawn to it. As though the opportunity would not pass him by this time.
It's just a test, he reminded himself. I'm not ready for it. I'm not worthy.
At this moment sun and moon merged and a starry veil surrounded the world.
Yang Feng felt a tug in his heart and the world around him spun. He and everyone in the class disappeared.
***
In a desolate wasteland, space trembled and Yang Feng appeared.
In the wasteland ground was cracked, its horizon split by jagged mountains that pierced the sky. The atmosphere pressed down on him like an invisible weight, draining his strength. Every breath was a struggle, the air thick with unfamiliar energies.
"So this is Astral Wasteland." Yang Feng muttered while looking around.
There was nothing accept cracked earth and steep mountains in the distance, no plants, animals, even sky was void of stars, sun or moon.
The familiar world of school, of everyday life, felt distant, unreal. All that remained now was the unyielding pressure of this strange realm.
Yang Feng chose a direction and walked toward it.
According to predecessors' experience everyone will be transported to a the periphery of The Astral Wasteland. And the place where Yang Feng has heading to was toward the origin of pressure.
After walking for about 10 miles, Yang Feng was low on stamina and pressure has doubled than the beginning.
In the distance he saw a temple and he walked toward it with difficulty.
There were many youths of different races. There were a total of 15 creatures, including 7 humans, 1 man with wings and 7 of different races.
On the side of the temple there were two statues of humans with a vertical eye on their head. This temple should contain Beastmaster Relics related to ocular abilities.
In addition to help Beastmasters to summon their beasts from different worlds, Beastmaster Relics also give a specialized ability to its user.
As for other races, not everyone can become a Beastmaster but if a beast passes the test for Beastmaster Relic, the relic will merge with their beast core, connecting them with source world and use its energy to cultivate.
(Source world is a place where all kinds of energies are born. Beastmasters, their pets and other races that have merged with relics can use the most suitable energy from this space to cultivate.)
When Yang Feng approached the temple he was blocked by an invisible barrier. He tried hard to enter but to no avail.
He was stunned and sad because this wasn't recorded in handbook provided by federation.
Other youths who were waiting or temple opening were also stunned but, after a while they all laughed at Yang Feng's misery.
Yang Feng thought miserably, "am I really cursed like others say. I can even approach the temple let alone pass the test.
As he was thinking about leaving the Astral Wasteland, a mysterious feeling took over his heart and he looked toward the origin of pressure.
He felt a tug in his heart, as if something is calling him. he fell into a daze and walked toward the tug.
He ignored the laughing youths. He stumbled, staggered and was injured many times. He didn't knew how much time has passed but the pressure has multiplied many, many times.
He was bloodied and his clothes were torn, moving with his willpower only.
At last, he saw a ruined building. There were only broken walls and pillars. There was no sign of roof on the broken walls.
Yang Feng could feel something beckoning him behind these broken walls.
He resolved his steel and stumbled forward. In his madness Yang Feng didn't observed the surrounding. There were large cracks spreading around on the ground, with broken building at its center. Space was rippling like the surface of a turbulent lake.
When he entered the temple he saw a book hovering in the center, cracked and a gentle glow coming through the cracks, while there was debris scattered around.
Yang Feng tried step forward but felt like space had been frozen.
At this moment a couple of thought appeared in his mind,
"Finally, someone is here"
"Hmm, a human…"
"Forget it I don't care anymore"
"As long as he can pass the test."
Yang Feng felt the word spinning and came in a boundless space.
At the moment his injuries were healed but he was still in tattered clothes. He felt full of energy.
"Survive"
A voice appeared.
Yang Feng was stunned, "And…"
But no one replied.
At this moment he saw a spark appearing in the distance. When Yang Feng saw this he tried to fly toward the spark but he couldn't move.
The spark was like a curious little baby. He flew around here and there. As the sparked moved, ripples appeared in the void. When ripples passed through Yang Feng he felt a slight headache. But it was tolerable.
Yang Feng could survive these ripples while sleeping. But he wasn't naive enough to think that test would be this easy.
After Yang Feng didn't know how much time passed, the spark started spinning.
With time its speed became faster and faster and suddenly it broke into two.
One was bright sun while other was dark as abyss. Darker than the surrounding space.
Just when the spark broke in two, Yang Feng was hit by a stronger ripple and spitted a mouthful of blood. Although he spitted the blood but didn't moved an inch.
The two energies black and white morphed and became beasts which Yang Feng couldn't identify.
Two beasts looked around and approached each other with caution but also curiosity.
After a time, they started playing around. This time no ripples appeared in the void so Yang Feng heaved a sigh of relief.
After sometime black and white beasts started playing with each other. Roaming the endless void dancing and playing. As they were playing, five colored mist started coming out of their skin.
This five colored mist slowly spread in the whole void slowly.
Yang Feng was looking at this scene in relish.
Two beasts playing around surrounded by five colored mists, this scene was too beautiful.
As Yang Feng was looking around, he felt a tremor and his heart skipped a beat. He quickly turned around and saw that two beasts weren't playing around anymore but confronting each other.
They were fighting each other, and these tremors was a side product of their fight.
As fight became intense, space began to crack, and a suction came. At first suction was negligible but as the fighting continued it became intense.
Suddenly both beasts glowed intensely and flew toward each other. As a result, space completely collapsed and sucked everything, both beasts and five colored mist.
Yang Feng who was standing at the side felt his body tearing as suction was also acting on him, but he didn't move.
His orifices were bleeding and vision blurry. There were no clothes on his body as they were long sucked in the blackhole (due to collapsed space).
Everything was compressed into a needle head size and then
Booooooooom...
An explosion sounded in Yang Feng's ears and a wave swept past him, but it was gentle and warm.
At this moment Yang Feng was surrounded by colorful clouds. In these clouds there were stars, being born, evolving, revolving and dying in an endless cycle as if time had sped millions of times.
It was a magnificent sight, but it was a pity Yang Feng only saw dim lights of stars.
World spun again and he appeared back in the temple.
***
Back to present.
Yang Feng was laying on a hospital bed, covered in bandages.
There was an oxygen mask on his face. Suddenly his finger twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes.
When he opened his eyes he saw a beautiful girl in silver clothes sleeping while sitting on the bench and laying his head on the bed where Yang Feng was laying.
"You are awake, finally." He heard a masculine voice.
He looked toward the source and saw a smiling man in his early twenties. Looking toward him in appreciation.