Xiao Tian stood on the peak of the world, his form as magnificent as the heavens themselves. The universe bowed to his will, the stars bending at his command. He had faced countless trials, battled gods, and even defied the very laws of existence. Nothing could break him. His power was absolute, his immortality guaranteed.
Or so he had thought.
The Heavenly Tribulation, a trial meant to crush even the mightiest of immortals, loomed before him. Most would quiver at the thought of it….. mortals feared it, cultivators dreaded it, but not Xiao Tian. He had weathered storms that could wipe entire realms off the map. He had defied destiny itself, conquered forbidden arts, and snatched power from the very roots of the universe.
The world had trembled when he ascended to the peak of cultivation, yet now, standing alone beneath the darkened sky, there was no fear in his heart. His chest swelled with arrogance, a defiance that had served him well through centuries of battle.
"Let the heavens bring forth their storm," he muttered to himself. "I shall stand tall, even against the divine."
The sky above him twisted and turned, swirling like an angry sea. Thunder rumbled, and the air crackled with electric tension. The heavens had sent their punishment before, but Xiao Tian had always emerged victorious. This time would be no different.
But then, the lightning struck.
Xiao Tian's body trembled for the first time in his existence as the lightning struck him directly in the chest, its energy scorching his soul. The pain was unimaginable…. an agony that tore through him like a thousand swords cutting through his flesh, his bones, and his essence.
He screamed, his immortal body, forged through countless battles, was no longer invincible. The energy coursed through him, burning away his power and his immortality.
For the first time in centuries, Xiao Tian felt fear. The absolute certainty of his strength faltered and it was then he realized the tribulation had finally broken through his defenses.
The pain was unbearable.
"No…" he whispered, "I… I will not fall."
But even as he gathered his remaining strength, the second bolt struck, then a third, and then another. Each one slammed into him with an intensity he had never experienced before. His body crumpled, his arms barely able to hold him upright as he fell to his knees.
There was no escaping this. No running. The heavens had spoken.
Xiao Tian's vision blurred, and for the first time in his life, he could not sense the flow of energy around him. His body, once impervious to time and decay, began to wither under the force of the tribulation. His heart thudded weakly in his chest, but he could no longer hear the pulse of his immortal soul.
The final bolt came crashing down, more powerful than any of the others.
He looked up to the heavens one last time, his face twisted in defiance. "Is this how I die? At the hands of the heavens I served?"
Then, with a blinding flash, everything went black.
Xiao Tian awoke in darkness.
He could not feel his body at first. There was no pain, no discomfort—only an eerie stillness that consumed him. Slowly, his senses returned, but they were… wrong. He could no longer feel his immortal body, the strength that had once coursed through him was gone.
For a moment, he was extremely confused. Had he truly died? Was this the end?
Then, a sharp, unfamiliar sensation jolted through him. His eyes snapped open, but the world before him was not the one he had left behind.
His body felt wrong. It was unusually small and weak. He no longer possessed the endless power that had once been his. He tried to move, but his limbs were extremely weak. His heart faltered as he gazed down at his hands, which were pale and delicate, nothing like the hands of the immortal warlord who had once stood at the pinnacle of the universe. Nothing like his.
He then looked around him and noticed that the world around him was different, too. The walls were wooden, simple, almost crude compared to the palaces he had once lived in. The air smelled faintly of incense and dust, not the divine fragrance of sacred lands or the clean, sterile atmosphere of the immortal realm.
Where was he? What was happening?
He tried to gather his thoughts, but everything felt wrong, like pieces of a puzzle that didn't fit. As his eyes scanned the room, he found a silver mirror on the wall. He rushed to it and truly he wasn't in his body. He knew this face. He had seen it somewhere…
His heart skipped another beat.
Memories began to flood back, memories that weren't his own. They weren't the recollections of the mighty Xiao Tian, but those of another…. a boy named Xiao Jin. Xiao Jin, the villain in a popular cultivation novel.
Xiao Tian's mind reeled as he pieced it together. He had been reborn… no, reincarnated into the body of the very character he had once read about.
Xiao Jin, the despised villain who would be crushed under the so-called "hero's" rise. A character doomed to fail, destined to be humiliated and ultimately perish in disgrace.
Xiao Tian's once-immortal mind trembled as he absorbed how real the situation was. He, the one who had defied the heavens themselves, now found himself trapped in the body of a character written to be nothing more than a stepping stone in another's story.
Xiao Tian's lips curled into a bitter smile. "So this is my fate," he murmured, his voice cold with disdain. "To be nothing. To be a footnote in someone else's tale."
The door to his small room creaked open, and a soft voice called out to him.
"Young Master, it's time for you to wake up."
Xiao Tian turned his gaze to the figure standing in the doorway. A servant who was young and timid bowed low, her voice shaking with a mix of fear and reverence.