They were confused.

They were confused about many things.

‘Who am I?’

‘What am I?’

‘Where am I?’

‘Why am I?’

They tried to dig deeper to their memory

‘What is a memory?’

They saw visions. These visions were hazy, the sounds were static, and they somehow can smell, taste, and feel, however dull it is. Their mind cannot keep up with the rate these visions…moved?

‘Played.’

They didn’t give up however.

For an unknown amount of time, they try to make sense of these visions.

First day.

‘Flame’ ‘Sword’ ‘Faze’ ‘Pride’ ‘Father’ ‘Son’ ‘Dao’

Second week.

‘Pond’ ‘Spear’ ‘Hate’ ‘Freedom’ ‘Mother’ ‘Daughter’ ‘Cultivation’

Third month.

‘Seed’ ‘Apathy’ ‘Lie’ ‘Despair’ ‘Alone’ ‘Wine’ ‘Combat’

Fourth year.

‘Ore’ ‘Traitor’ ‘Vengeance’ ‘Blood’ ‘Death’ ‘Craft’

Fifth decade.

‘Stone’ ‘Grave’ ‘Conflict’ ‘Ridicule’ ‘Regret’ ‘Sect’

Sixth century.

‘Love’ ‘Flower’ ‘Hope’ Children’ ‘Mortal’ ‘Immortal’

Seventh millennium.

‘Tea’ ‘Fellowship’ ‘Light’ ‘Dark’ ‘Adventure’ ‘Ascension’

Eight eon.

‘Void’ ‘Destruction’ ‘Despair’ ‘Heaven’ ‘Together’ ‘Unknown’

After what seems to be a very long time, they have uncovered everything. They learned what is what, why is why, and most importantly, who they are.

I am….

Night Time.

Flood Dragon City.

A large cultivator city spanning over 3000 km square surrounded by a 1 km wide river encompassed the city. A 500 m tall and 20 m thick wall boxed the city from all sides, with only three points entry was made with a metal gate. To get into the city, one must cross a 30 m wide stone bridge that was placed directly on one of the metal gate’s pathways.

“GRAAAAAAGH!”

A wail of a young woman resounds from a mansion within the city’s noble district. Inside a luxurious room was a woman lying on a fancy bed in a pain. She was a beautiful woman with short white hair and blue eyes. Her sweats flooded the expensive silken bedsheet. Her breaths were rapid and shallow. Bloodshot eyes hidden beneath her grimace look. Her bloated belly was squirming in erratic manners.

“PUSH MILADY! KEEP PUSHING!!!” a middle aged woman shouts to the young woman by her side who is apparently the house lady. Her younger assistant helped on the opposite side by wiping the lady’s sweating head.

“KYAAAAAAAH!!” the mistress does as the midwife said and pushes once again. The squirming inside her belly strengthened, prompting another scream.

Outside the room, sat many individuals, most of them are middle aged and elderlies. They were sitting cross legged on the floor in a large crude circle.

“Sheesh… such a weak woman. Merely a middle stage foundation realm and a crybaby to boot. Why did that young fool choose her in the first place!?” a granny snide while sipping on her tea.

“Don’t be harsh, Elder Hei. A virgin old foggy like you shouldn’t try being a wise ass on what measure of pain a labor is.” a scholarly grandpa chides his fellow elder.

“So you claimed to know more of her pain than me, Elder Bai? Are we still thinking the same pain here, Little Pearl?” Fang Na teased, her perverted look unbecoming of her age, both physically and mentally.

“YOU!” Elder Bai bellowed, he stood up with face blushing. Circulating his qi, he glared at Elder Hei in challenge.

The granny only smirked and did the same, about to meet the grandpa’s challenge. Both elders were about to unleash their technique, when suddenly-

“Enough.” a heavy pressure halted both of them and canceled their technique. “It is improper to fight inside the mansion. Go outside if you want to play, children.” Said a hoarse male voice sat on an elevated platform, his voice bereft of emotion in neither high nor low volume.

The two elders shivered for a moment and sat back down. The Patriarch was a temperamental old man with a misleading tone of speech compared to his spiritual pressure. Not to mention, his cultivation was at a Peak stage Core Forming realm, half a step to the Nascent Soul realm.

Stolen novel; please report.

The patriarch was waiting for the birth of his newest great grandchild. The woman that is birthing this child is a princess of a traitorous clan of this city. Said clan’s master had surrendered himself to the temptation of a devil and followed the evil dao. Such an act warranted the death of the entire traitorous clan, and thus, war has been waged.

In only a mere day, the traitorous clan was defeated with their devilish clan master death at the noble clan master hand. The victorious clan master then brings mercy to the traitorous clan and makes a string of promises to treat them fairly if they surrender immediately.

As part of the deal, the traitorous clan must surrender the clan master’s wife and her young daughter to the noble clan master. Also, the traitorous clan and their vassals must become the vassal clans of the victorious clan. This contract would then elevate the victorious clan prosperity in the Flood Dragon City. This event happened less than a year ago.

This noble clan master is actually the patriarch’s youngest grandson. Only aged 21 years old and already a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. He was to be expected to reach the Core realm by the age of 35 or less. What a genius! He was also wedded to a similarly talented woman, who then gave birth to a talented son. Alas, the noble wife was murdered by the devilish clan master attack before the war.

It is a wonder for the noble clan master to forgive the traitorous clan, even if none of them was a practitioner of devil arts. The hostage wife on the other hand, while she is a beautiful lady who looks like she just entered adulthood, is actually already over 40 years old and still in the middle stage foundation realm. Such mediocre talent!

The Patriarch glanced at his right side to see his grandson sitting and staring worryingly to a certain door. The door is a shortcut to the impromptu birthing room, the new wife’s water broke earlier than planned. Despite his aloof demeanor, this grandson is as easy to read as a book, at least to the old patriarch.

This noble grandson was a young man with long, reddish black hair and vermillion eyes. He has a tall and slim toned body beneath the regal robe he was wearing. His deadpan expression cracked ever so slightly since his second wife’s water broke.

Looking at the people around him, the patriarch can only sighed inwardly. Half of the people present here were the vassal clan heads belonging to the traitorous clan, their intention would be to protect the wellbeing of their former clan lady, just in case. He must admit, the level of loyalty these vassal clan heads are high. Despite their clan master’s downfall to the devil, they still held loyalty to their former leader.

The problem came from the remaining half of the gathered people. The original vassal clan heads were suspicious and were wary of the clan's so-called dignity. For whatever reason, these elders thought that the new vassal heads were here to mock their clan master in case the children that were born were to have low talent in cultivation, according to the patriarch after glancing at their expressions. They were planning to mock the wife first before any of the opposing clan heads made their move.

Such an act may only complicate the current political stability of this clan! While the guards that present here wouldn’t recklessly spread whatever happened here to the public, the servants would and even the patriarch can’t stop them in fear of making things worse, again. Such blunder would not happen once again! Not when he’s not in closed door cultivation.

It has been 4 hours since the wife was treated, and while most cultivators in this room can prolong sleep for days to come, they are still clan heads with many responsibilities. Most of the cultivators here have no idea the intensity of child birthing so they expected them to only last minutes at most. Fools, all of them are. The few who understood this fact are himself and this noble grandson of his.

In the end, the patriarch can only awkwardly dismiss the lot of them, returning them to their post to rest or do their job. The vassal clan heads then politely excuses themselves, each with varying degrees of reactions. One person, though, hasn’t moved a slight. “Little Rong, are you willing to wait for the birth of this child of yours?” asked the patriarch.

Little Rong only nodded his head and continued to sit in silence. The patriarch can only shake his head. He then called one of the guards to tell the servants to wake the clan master’s son and the new wife’s daughter early in the morning, then bring those two here. The two children haven’t made any contact and he’ll be damned to alienate another family member, no matter the circumstances.

The wait then stretches from midnight to dawn. During this time, the clan lady has been in a battle of life and dead that risked both her life and her baby. The bed she was on was drenched with sweats and bloods, and the pillow was with snots and tears. Her first delivery wasn't as painful as this one, for she was given a preparation such as rare medicines and a famed spiritual doctor from outside of the city to ease childbirth back then, things that were lacking in this house since her water broke too soon.

She wanted to give up.

She wanted to die.

She wanted to end this suffering.

But the encouragement from the midwife and her assistant, along with the thought of her daughter being mistreated by this clan elders were she to leave the world and strengthen her resolve to see this through. She keeps pushing, screaming, and pushing from time to time. And then, 4 hour passes since dawn.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent room, the daughter of the wife and the son of the husband entered the room. The girl is a cute little lady with the same white hair and blue eyes as her mother while the boy is a stern looking kid with black hair and black hair and yellow eyes like his deceased mother. They both were wearing their sleepwear, having just woken up.

The girl was warily glancing back and forth at the males in the room, her expression full of fear. The boy, however, took a bit of distance from the girl awkwardly, being the first time seeing her. The Patriarch dismissed the servant and ushered the two children to sit beside each other across from their father. Silence reigned in the room, nobody was making a peep of a sound.

The girl was about to ask when she suddenly heard a wailing sound of her mother coming from the adjacent door in the room. She and the boy hadn't heard of this sound during the night since their bedroom was warded by a simple formation to prevent them from panicking, among other things. Also, it has been exactly 15 minutes since the lady screamed in pain.

The daughter was about to sit up and rushed to the door before a miniscule amount of spiritual pressure crashed onto the two kids. The patriarch looked said enough at what the two must do and she sat back down. During the long hour wait, the girl can’t stop worrying about her mother while the boy was confused about what is going on here.

Finally, a cry of a baby sounded from the room and a few minutes later, the door was opened by the midwife’s assistant. The clan head then entered the room, followed by the patriarch, then the children were guided by the assistant. On the bed was the disheveled lady holding her newborn baby. It was a boy. The mother had a vacant look, clearly tired from the long labor, but her expression was happy, she kept cuddling her baby boy.

“Mommy!” the girl dashed to her mother's side and looked at her, “What happened? Are you hurt? Who hurts you? Did they hurt you? What are you holding? Wh-“ the girl was asking so many questions at once, and only stopped mid sentences when she patted her daughter’s head. She was about to answer the little girl when her apparent husband cut her off.

“Have you thought up a name?” he asked her in a cold voice.

“….yes.” she hesitantly answered.

The clan head only nodded, then excused himself and exited the room. The lady then visibly relaxed. Such a cold demeanor clashed with his own fire attuned spiritual root. It still made her shiver that a young man of his caliber was able to overpowered her late devil bewitched husband. Which saddened her since the three of them were friends prior to her late husband’s fall. She remembered taking care of Little Rong when he was but a toddler with her then fiancé. Playing and teaching him cultivation and martial art was their day to day activity.

But now was not the time to wallow on the past. The patriarch is watching her, waiting for something while the boy just awkwardly stands there, glancing anywhere but her way. She looked at the baby in her hand and uttered a few words, “From now on, your name shall be…

“Fang Hui.”

Chapter 1 – Return of the survivor