A man with a tattered robe leaned against a big rock, resting under the shades of trees that covered the blazing sun. Grasshoppers hopped around the man from time to time as if to taunt the man.

'I ran! I ran ran Ran RAN RAN RAN RAN! I RAN!'

Bang!

The ground cracked with his punch, and the grasshopper flew away in fright.

Tonzen took a long breath to calm his mind. He didn't want to remember his past, yet it was his past that moved him forwards.

"This is the last chance I have. Heaven and Earth, I pleaded you, then I forsook you, and I am now pleading again."

Piling up the last of his spirit stones, Tonzen took a map out from his pocket.

The spirit stones quickly turned into regular stones that only some curious minds would notice.

Leaving behind no trace, Tonzen quickly sucked the stones into his spatial storage.

He pricked his index finger with a needle and dropped his blood on the map.

"Absorb... Absorb..."

Tonzen clenched his fists, and it seemed like his pleading worked because the map absorbed his blood.

...

A few Years Earlier,

"Presumptuous! Even his father, his whole family had their heads severed by me! How dare a fly who escaped buzz in front of me like this?"

The servant reading the letter trembled.

"Eunuch Wurvel! Mobilize the Imperial Guards. Catch that fly buzzing in our empire. You all are dismissed."

The servant reading the letter, excused himself as soon as he could after profusely thanking the Emperor.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

...

"Your Majesty! The traitor's body has been found."

Eunuch Wurvel reported to the Emperor. Behind him, several imperial guards were carrying a wooden box.

The eunuch continued.

"But something seems wrong... the body, it's all... I think your majesty should see for yourself."

The Emperor signalled, and the imperial guards opened the box.

Inside the box was a shrivelled-up corpse that looked like it was decaying for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Fearing the majesty would think that he was making some excuse by bringing some other corpse, the eunuch spoke.

"Your Majesty, it is him. We tes-"

"You think I wouldn't recognize him, he- Anyways, you did a good job. I will personally bestow you with some rewards later. For now, you all are dismissed."

...

After all his subjects left, the Emperor personally searched the body, even cutting it up and searching the insides of the shrivelled corpse.

"Where is it? Where did he hide it? Even his son..."

"Did those imperial guards... They wouldn't dare, but I will investigate it myself later."

...

There was a legend in Liberty Haven Continent. Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands or millions of years ago, people could ascend to the upper realm until one day when the sky fractured. Disasters after disasters ravaged the continent after that. People lost lives, the world lost its origin. The path to the upper realm shattered.

...

Tonzen woke up. He felt like he had a long dream. In that dream, he was in the upper realm. His father was one of the most powerful cultivators of the upper realm.

He even had the cultivation that could be called decent. Even though his father had, his father, father...

"Was it a dream? If so, who am I?"

His head began to hurt with all the confusion.

A grasshopper hopped in front of him. Grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper...

"Yes, grasshopper! It was not a dream. Did father's artifact work?"

Tonzen took a breath and began to observe his surrounding. It looked like he was lying under the shade of a tree.

"Did it not work? No, I was in a different location before activating the artifact."

He tried circulating his qi but realized that he had none of it.

"Fuck! Where's my qi? Even if my level is a little low, it doesn't mean I don't have any qi."

...

After trying a few times, Tonzen realized that it wasn't that he didn't have any qi. It was all sealed within his sea of consciousness.

After nearly injuring himself by trying to force out the qi, he gave up.

"Did the artifact do it? How do I undo it? And where the fuck am I?"

After being unsuccessful in circulating the qi out of his sea of consciousness, Tonzen tried standing up.

It wasn't only his qi that was absent; his body felt heavier too. Before, only a tiny bit of force would suffice to lift him off the ground, but now it wasn't enough. It felt like the world was pushing him down.

After applying more force with his hands, he stood up and carefully observed his surroundings.

...

After a while, he found a small body of water. His weak body became thirsty after walking, so he went to clench his thirst.

"Wha- Cough... Cough... Cough..."

He choked on water. His heart racing, he looked up.

The sky was full of cracks.