"I have everything in life that every great man before me had wished for but was never able to attain." Surrounded by the gold and jewelry he had collected over the millennia, Wang Xue (Blood), popularly known by the name of Bloodbath Monarch, lay dying on the cold floor.

The stars were beautiful glimmered over the night skies; as he gazed upon the beauty of these celestial bodies through the collapsing ceiling of the Great Phoenix Empire's Treasury, he had an abrupt epiphany.

"This scene would have been perfect if I had something to drink with me… oh and some street foods that I used to buy from old Gong." A hollow laugh escaped from his quivering lips. "Even better if your old faces were not blocking the view."

Pah!

A loud and crisp slap flew across his face as a response.

He gave out a groan and started coughing out blood from the force of that slap that he had received. His life was on the very verge of wilting, but the five people accompanying him in his treasury had no intention of letting him die so quickly.

They gave him a pill to be swallowed, sealing all 12 Main Spiritual Channels and reversing the eight minor channels' flow. A sharp pain struck him as though he was being ripped apart.

He grit his teeth, bloody froth coming out his mouth. It was painful, terribly so, but he wouldn't die.

"You must be very familiar with what kind of pill I just made you swallow, aren't you, Wang Xue?" One of the old men said in a solemn voice. 

The same old man spat on his face and forced Wang Xue to look at him, "I will carve your sins to your very soul, so once you pass, you will take your sins to the bowels of Hell where you would parade yourself like the fool that you are."

However, Wang Xue just laughed at the old man's words. He looked at him in the eyes without signs of weakness and spat back at him, saying, "I don't know what sin you're talking about, old man, you must be going senile. But I do remember what that pill is; I am sure that I used that pill to kill a lowlife scumbag from some lowly province…."

Pah!

A hand met with his face once again, causing him to cough off more blood.

"Stop playing dumb Wang Xue; you killed my son and tortured him for 3 days splitting him from anus to mouth." Pained expression started appearing on the old man's face when he thought about how his beloved child was gruesomely tortured and murdered, but it wasn't just him but the others as well.

They were all people who had someone or something taken by Wang Xue, the Bloodbath Monarch. Some had their loved ones killed, one had his entire Clan slaughtered, and another had his Sect burned down on the ground.

They lost it to him, and now they planned to take it all back by making him suffer. They all had lived for a long time, yet this event was the time that made them feel most delighted. They had defeated him at long last, and the only thing left to do was make him suffer by burning his soul and torturing his existence.

Their families and treasures may never return, but Wang Xue's screams would serenade their pained hearts.

But when their happiness peaked, the sound of cracking and breaking down echoed from above. All five elderly men raised their heads, and the moment they did, their pupils dilated from what they witnessed.

"W-what is that?" One of them stammered with his lips continuously quivering. Confusion was apparent in his eyes.

The sky broke like glass, crumbling, becoming no better than glass. The spiritual energy rampaged, and the divine power wreaked havoc all around.

A ball of black orb appeared in the middle of the cracked skies, rimmed with a golden light. Like a whale opening its mouth, the sphere absorbed the Realm's energy and expanded to hundreds of meters in diameter.

"The Black Sun of the End?" one of them mumbled.

In the midst of confusion, Wang Xue laughed in amazement at what he had accomplished.

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As the sky crumbled due to unknown forces, a peal of helpless laugh turned into a guffaw from Wang Xue's almost dead body.

The five old men noticed this and immediately started questioning him, "What is this, Wang Xue? Are you planning on destroying the wheel of Reincarnation in this dimension? Stop this foolishness; you will kill and rob the innocent people of this Realm the right to have another life!"

Hearing them panic like so, Wang Xue stifled his laughter and became quiet for a moment. But even before the others could feel relieved, Wang Xue's laughter shortly returned.

The 5 old men felt their heart was being squished by some hand, then he finally said something, "Who cares? All it matters is that you bastards die with me."

With his words, the Black Sun suddenly activated before reaching its full potential. The Realm was spared from its detonation, but the Celestial Phoenix Empire it was started on was erased from the map, leaving only a massive crater with no bottom.

A cataclysm caused its destruction, one of the most potent Celestial Empire was gone just like that.

Everybody who had lost their lives in that Empire would not be able to find salvation and go through Reincarnation. All of the souls present during the cataclysm were all shattered; everyone was the same, whether those old monsters or the weak peasants.

All turned to nothing, that was for one tiny speck of light floating in the middle of the abyss.

But it is said that those who journey to the crater would hear a cheery laugh that echoes through time.

***

When Wang Xue regained his consciousness, he felt his brain hurting and felt like it was being pressed down by a vast mountain. His entire body was aching, from his skin down to his bone marrow.

"Is this the flames of the underworld that will torment me for eternity?"

Wang Xue's mind had already registered his death, but the flimsy breathing he had was the only thing saying otherwise. He didn't know how long, but Wang Xue finally opened his eyes with a struggle after a while. 

'Darkness.' He mumbled, even confirming that he was somehow confined, 'Is this a box? Am I held captive? Me?' But, more importantly, how come I am still ali...

As his thoughts ran, a jolt of electricity descended upon his soul, and Wang Xue's mind was suddenly flooded by foreign memories that he had never seen before.

Only after a while did he finally finish going through all of his memories. Apparently, he was in the body of some youth called Wang Jia (loved by everyone) who lived in the [Willow State] located at the edge of the Jade Province. He was always accompanied by a beautiful young girl named Li Xiu, his bride-to-be.

Wang Jia was young, only at fifteen, and Li Xiu was fourteen; even with their frugal life, they both lived happily.

Wang Jia provided food on the table by taking various jobs while Li Xiu took care of the house, a peaceful and blissfully quiet life.

However, it all changed when Li Xiu encountered an old woman she helped by chance. The old woman was delighted by her kindness, thus offered Li Xiu to awaken her Martial Spirit as thanks.

Li Xiu didn't want to do it at first because she already knew that she didn't have Martial Spirit connected to her, but because of the old woman's insistence Li Xiu eventually gave in and humored the old woman's offer.

But when Li Xiu checked if she did have a Martial Spirit, a Worldly Phenomenon materialized. Phoenixes descended from the heavens and circled around the land before finally entering Li Xiu's body through her Spirit Lake located on the forehead.

The old woman was delighted by this, and after she saw the worldly phenomenon, the old woman revealed herself as someone from the "Azure Dragon Academy." 

The old woman claimed she had been searching for Li Xiu after receiving divination from the heavens that a genius would be born in the Willow State.

Wang Jia was delighted when he heard of this news. The Azure Dragon Academy had an illustrious reputation in the Azure Province as one of its most prestigious institutes. He urged her to grab hold of a once-in-a-lifetime chance, but Li Xiu didn't want to go train in the martial path.

She didn't want to abandon her peaceful life in the Willow State and go elsewhere and spend her life fighting. She only wanted to live peacefully and become a wife and a mother. She only wanted to be with the man who had been with her since they were nothing but hungry orphans.

Wang Jia felt warm in his heart when he heard those words from her; he didn't want to force in doing something, so both declined the old woman's offer.

The old woman was rather understanding of their decision and left the two of them on their own accord. The both of them continued their peaceful life as if nothing happened, that was until tragedy struck, Wang Jia became involved in an incident that cost him his life.

These were Wang Jia's memory. After sorting all of it, Wang Xue didn't know whether to laugh or cry from the little fairytale he had watched, 'These two kids were too naïve; it seems like this boy was killed by that old hag to get his woman. If I am correct, that old woman should've appeared after Wang Jia died.'

Wang Xue had seen many things through his past life, and most of what he saw would be people who wield great power will use any means to achieve their own goals no matter how dirty it may be.

'But that is not my problem anymore. I don't have any emotions attached to that woman, nor do I want anything to do with her. My priority is to first get out of here; only then will I start thinking about what my goal should be in the future. Better seize the strength to protect my life before anything else.'

Wang Xue tried sensing the world's spiritual energy and focused it in his forehead's acupoint and seeking out the Spirit Lake; this body had never trained in the martial path, nor did Wang Jia ever tried to connect a way to the Spirit World and formed a connection with the Martial Spirit that lay dormant in him.

The Universal Law of Cultivation was to bridge the path of the Mortal World and the Spirit World to call upon a Martial Spirit. Having no interest in cultivation, Wang Jia did not do anything.

Wang Xue got lucky. He does not know why he's still alive or even how he came in possession of Wang Jia's body, but all that matters is that he got a good bargain in this life.

'An untrained body means an untainted meridian. This body was dead, so I don't know how it could survive this long without rotting, but what does matter is I am alive, and the bastards aren't. I can cultivate and gather strength without hindrance, and now, I'll be improving faster than before. I need to call him.'

Wang Xue initiated his connection to the Spirit World.

A Martial Spirit was connected through the soul, which meant Wang Xue's previous Martial Spirit may still hold that connection with him.

Wang Xue began an internal introspection and entered his sea of consciousness through acupoint in his glabella.

As he delved deeper into his Jiang and Mai, Wang Xue found what he was looking for but noticed something was off in his Spirit Lake. Ordinary people only have one Spirit Lake located in their sea of consciousness.

The Spirit Lake would later house Martial Spirit, and cultivation would begin.

But when Wang Xue saw his Spirit Lake, there was not just one but three.

Seeing this, Wang Xue became ecstatic from excitement. 'If I have this many Spirit Lake, does that mean I can have more than one Martial Spirit? I have seen people with dual Martial Spirit but no one with three.'

Even with his experience Wang Xue had never seen something like this before, then as he was celebrating, he finally noticed that a Martial Spirit was already at the bottom of one of the Lakes.

Seeing this, his curiosity was piqued, so he went over to check it out. As he gazed down with the Lake directly below, Wang Xue saw a Dragon coiled up on a golden nine-layer pagoda.

'Where did this come from?' He could feel an ancient power coming from the Pagoda, it was strong and unbelievably primal, similar to his friend's, 'Is it connected to him?'

The Dragon was azure in color, and it had long whiskers that swayed within the water. The pagoda was made of pure gold and didn't have that much design, but if one looks close enough, the golden pagoda was actually surrounded by an ancient text that he could not quite read.

Wang Xue wanted to approach closer but could not move any closer than 50 meters from the Spirit Lake's surface.

Wang Xue was irritated by this fact, but he still failed to move closer even after trying for an hour. 

'This is really bothersome. I want to check the text to see if I can study it, but it seems like it is currently impossible.'

Without any other choice, Wang Xue left it alone. He then started opening the pathway of his mind to the Spirit World. 

Opening the gate to the Spirits, a powerful electrical current went and entered his body, filling Wang Xue with excitement and anticipation.

"He is still alive." Wang Xue's astral projection entered the Spirit World to find his partner and friend.