Everywhere, there were corpses lying cold on the ground numbering more than thousand. Some corpses were with body intact but most of the corpses left with just parts of the body. Heads and limbs were scattered everywhere on the ground. Rivers of blood were flowing endlessly, painting the entire land in red. It was a brutal and bloody massacre, making it horrible and disgusting scene.

“kuk”

Ren was stunned and horrified at the brutal sight that he couldn’t stop shaking from fear. He was so disgusted that he felt like puking but he couldn’t do so.

He suddenly appeared at the scene but what greeted in front of him was this inhuman sight turning him completely pale and with horrified face. It was an unbearable sight for him who was just a 14 years old boy and had yet to experience killing other people and not to mention a weak desolate beasts other than chickens and pigs.

Swooosh

Peng. Peng. Peng

He heard a sound of someone fighting and turned to look at the source of the sound of fighting.

A few distance away from him, he saw hundreds of people fighting with the man with black hair. The man seems very strong because even if the other party had numbers more than hundred people, they were unable to overwhelm the man with black hair.

With a sword on both his hands, the black-haired man was completely dominating the battlefield. While one sword was blocking the attack of his enemies, the other sword would attack his enemies. Every attack of the black-haired man would leave behind a corpse or a limbs flying.

The black-haired man was like war god and a demonic one at that. Their battle was a one-sided battle with the black-haired man in a complete advantage.

As the battle went on, those hundreds number of people joined in the fray of attacking the man keep on decreasing until there were about a dozens of them left.

But instead of fleeing from the man, they continued to attack him like a madman who has lost their sense in a frenzied state.

Maybe they knew that it was useless for them to flee and would rather die fighting the black-haired man who has slaughtered many of their kins and comrades. That’s what Ren thought as he watched the battle from behind the rocks.

Then the black-haired man used a heaven defying skills and those dozens of people were instantly slaughtered in a way worse than a dog such that their bodies were split apart into different pieces. Even the surrounding areas were destroyed due to the aftermath of his skills.

Ren witnessed everything from behind the rocks, leaving him so shocked that his usually expressionless face has an eyes and jaws wide open.

The man stood there motionless, facing the bloody mess he has created. And then he turned his head to the direction of Ren looked at him.

Just by the look from the man left Ren frozen in fear. He wanted to run away but his body won’t listen to him. He stood on the spot unable to control himself from shaking due to fear.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap

The man slowly walked towards him. In reality, the distance between them was not near and there was no way he could have heard the sound of the footsteps. But maybe because of the extreme fear towards the man that Ren was imagining that he heard the sound of the footsteps. And those sound of the footsteps were like a thunder in his ears.

Thump. Thump. Thump

Ren's heart started beating in a rapid manner and that also became worse as the man got nearer and nearer.

The man was walking slowly but every step he took was like taking five steps. And in no time, the man has reached Ren and stood there coldly gazing at him without blinking.

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Those cold gaze of the man sent a chill down to his spine and Ren started shaking even more than before while his teeth makes chattering noise.

Then the man let out a smile on his face and he said,

“It is almost time. But….”

The smile on the man's face disappeared as he lifted bother his hands holding the swords and continued,

“…….. It’s not today.” And he slashed his swords towards Ren.

Ren watched everything unfold helplessly without being unable to resist even when the swords came slashing down towards him. And when the swords was about to touch him, he closed his eyes waiting for everything to end once and for all.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

In the silent night of the Green Rock Town,

Thud

A voice of something fallen on the floor was heard.

“huff…..huff….huff…”

Following the fall, a sound of someone’s rough breathing was heard. And that someone was Ren who has fallen from the bed to the floor.

Ren sat on the floor trying to catch a breath. He was sweating profusely making his clothes wet because of the sweats.

“huff….huff….it was j-just a dream…huff..huff….”

Ren said this as he looked around his room. But then he remembered the dream he had and he could feel his hands shaking again while his heart beats faster and faster.

The man he saw on the dream was not someone he didn’t see before. Although he didn’t know the man nor has he seen him before in this world, he would from time to time see this man in his dream. That’s how Ren came to know the man but why he was seeing the man in his dream was a complete mystery to him.

Ren still remember the time when he, for the first time, saw the man in his dream. At that time, he was just six years old and was living a miserable life in the clan.

From that time onwards, the man would often appear in his dream. But every time, it would be a different scenario. One time the man would be fighting the dragons and the other time would be of him destroying the cities. The man himself would sometimes be giving out a golden aura and sometimes a dark aura. Even the blood itself would sometimes be red and sometimes be golden liquids.

And in the dream, Ren was unable to make out from dream and reality as everything feels so real. So he could only know that it was a dream after he woke up. And after waking up, he would be sweating all over while his mind will be unable to figure out the man in his dream making everything a mystery that Ren was unable to solve.

But each time when he had this dream, it would be Ren standing on the sidelines as a bystander and watching everything unfold on its own without getting involved.

But this time in his dream, for the first time, the man not only discovered Ren and approached him, but also spoke to him although in the end the man killed Ren in his dream.

Ren was still sitting on the floor silently as he remembered the scene of the dream and was trying to figure out the words spoken by the man.

Almost time for what? He thought, but still couldn’t make it out about the words no matter how hard he tried.

Unable to find the answer, he stopped thinking about the words and about his dream as he remind himself that everything that happened was all just a dream. But deep inside, he knew that there was a familiarity between him and the man ever since the first dream but he had no idea about it.

Looking the night sky through his small window, he felt helpless that he couldn’t go back to sleep even if he tried to. So he positioned himself in a meditative pose and readied his to cultivate through the night.

Cultivation of qi was a waste of time for him and that is something he himself knew better than anyone else. Even after a long cultivation, he couldn’t see himself progressing at all. All the qi, after entering his dentian, would vanish instantly with him knowing the reason behind it.

But even after all this, he wouldn’t give up on cultivation. Not because he has strong will, but he felt something compelling him to continue like there was he would miss he don’t. And also, even though Ren knew that the man in his dream was cruel and demonic, he admired his strength and wanted to be strong like him and that was also why he keep on cultivating without giving up.

Taking a deep breath and calming down, he adjusted his state of mind and started his cultivation.

Qi from the surroundings started gathering around Ren and entered his body. Actually the amount of Qi around him was enormous enough that average cultivators couldn’t achieve during their cultivation unless from the effects of pills. But what use when the Qi after entering his body disappear and not help him to show even a tiny bit of progress in cultivation.

Although there was no progress in cultivation, Ren was in fact stronger than those of the mortals without cultivation. But in the world of cultivation, those fact were nothing but laughing matter that no one would wish to discuss about it.

Seeing no progress in cultivation, Ren opened his eyes and sighed with disappointment.

“Again”

Saying that as if to motivate himself, he closed his eyes once again and went back to the cultivation of Qi.

As the moon shines brightly in the sky and the cold breeze makes a rustling sound with the leaves of the tree, the room of Ren was quiet without any noise but if one were to look carefully in his room, especially Ren, one could find that his body would from time to time gives out a flash of azure light without him noticing it.