“The Eternal Hunger driven by its greed and hunger that could never be satiated, thirsted for the Sun. The Sun was the Earth’s Mother, allowing access to life. Earth used its mother’s gift to give birth to new lives on the planet constantly. All life forms living in the Primordial Era fought constantly day in and day out. On a particular day, all was silent as the beings stared at the sky in awe. The sky turned to night as a hideous creature filled their sight. The Eternal Hunger using its millions of arms and legs crawled towards the Heavens, its goal was the sun.”

With the closing of the book, the students were brought back to reality. They were enthralled by the story that the old man was reading. Many of them were illiterate and could only learn from oral teaching by the elders of the Yellow Sect.

“Alright students, the lesson ends here. Tomorrow is the day you will all be tested for your aptitude. If any of you show great talent we’ll happily take you into the sect with open arms.”

The old man’s words had caught the attention of all the students. This was what they had been waiting for the entire time. All of the students were teens who barely experienced the hardship of the world.

They were excited and nervous. This test would decide their future, whether they would be accepted and rise in status or fall into the lowest pits. The constant chattering of the students annoyed the old man who soon dismissed them from his classroom.

As the students walked out of the wooden classroom and headed towards their dormitories. Only one of the excited students had a particularly calm attitude. Zhou Yan strode toward his room in a calm manner not particularly excited or depressed.

He was analyzing the teacher’s words from earlier. Not the one about the aptitude test but the story that the elder was narrating. Stories served as a way to pass down tradition and lessons to offspring. If he used that basis then that story had some sort of truth to it.

As he finally arrived at the door to his room, he heard noises coming from the inside already. His room was shared with 3 other students, all who were excitedly talking about the test tomorrow.

As Zhou Yan entered the room, his roommates excitedly asked him about his feelings toward the test tomorrow. Zhou Yan replied with the same excitement as the rest of the students were feeling.

They kept the conversation going until the sky turned dark and nightfall arrived as Zhou Yan listened to the snoring of his roommates. His originally dark irises flashed a shade of purple.

Zhou Yan was of course feigning excitement. In reality, he couldn't care less about the aptitude test tomorrow. He was a genius who was a Half-Step Deity almost reaching the boundaries of full Deity status.

If it wasn’t because of that treasure and the 5 Deities that sieged him. He wouldn’t even be on this Earth. But Zhou Yan was best at adapting to situations, he wasn’t blinded by his previous strength and filled with contempt toward the mortals.

He had already realized his status under the Heavens, a person who would constantly fight bitterly until he either died or reached the summit.

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As Zhou Yan’s eyes were turning a darker shade of purple he could finally take a glimpse into his Soul Palace. The Soul Palace was the area that hosted one’s soul. Zhou Yan’s Soul palace was filled with cracks that were barely held together by a mysterious force. It was a cracked sphere with a purplish mist that ran through the cracks.

Inside his Soul Palace laid his soul. A towering figure whose horns could pierce the Heavens. Although his soul showed his previous strength it couldn’t hide its grievous wounds. The pitch-black staggering figure lay in a lotus position desperately trying to heal.

Zhou Yan’s soul had multiple injuries, it was a miracle that it was even alive. Its original 4 heads had turned into 1. It has multiple arms left with 6. The massive body was riddled with holes and injuries. And the tails that were attached to it were all gone.

He could only lament about the fickleness of fate. One moment he was standing on the top of the world and the next moment he was hiding inside the body of a mortal.

As he examined his soul in great depths he focused on one particular area of the body. The remaining head. It was a dragon’s head. With cracked horns and a smashed lower jaw. Not befitting of the dignity that dragons held.

But the draconic features weren’t his main focus. It was the upper half of the head. The upper half of the dragon's head was masked by a flamboyant mask. The mask had depictions of celestial stars and of the Moons that circled the Immortal Lands.

The mask was constantly flickering in the shadows but it couldn’t hide its beauty from the naked eyes. But the only thing that Zhou Yan cast upon the mask was suspicion. This was the treasure that caused his tragedy.

Before he even came into contact with the mask many had already seen it. The treasure held no intentions to hide its aura as it led a trail of bloodshed. He knew of the treasure that was causing havoc in the Immortal Lands but he adopted a wait-and-see position.

There would be multiple powerful figures interested in the treasure and if it wasn’t worth the trouble then he had no intention to fight over a mysterious treasure that he didn’t know of. Unfortunately, fate had a different plan as the trajectory of the mask was him the whole time.

The mask came to his front door and he was labeled as the owner. Countless greedy and envious gazes were cast upon him. As a Half-Step Deity of course he wouldn’t care about the feelings of ants, but true Deities were interested in the mask.

He intended to hide away for thousands of years until they gave up on him but the mask was like a constant beacon. Constantly sending his location to his enemies. All of his methods failed to hide its aura, leading to his eventual demise.

So he only looked at the item that was attached to his soul with clear suspicion. It wanted him to fall as it stopped showing its aura when he fell. And it only started functioning when his soul was about to shatter. It felt like a scheme to make him intentionally restart from the beginning.

‘I only have 15 years with this vessel before it completely breaks down from my overbearing soul.’

Zhou Yan’s cultivation was currently sealed, the best course of action was to rebuild on the foundation that he already made. It was easier to rebuild on a broken foundation than to build on nothing at all.

The more he progressed in his cultivation the higher quality his vessels must be. This teen body he currently possessed had a small physique towards spirits and ghosts, a normal body wouldn’t last for 5 years.

Zhou Yan closed his eyes in deep meditation. Waiting for the break of dawn. He planned to surprise everyone with his aptitude, take control of the sect, and cause chaos in the next 15 years.

He needed souls, souls would heal him. And souls would allow his cultivation to further. Everything was built up on souls. It didn’t matter how many had to die for his plans. His eyes now open, shining a ruthless and tyrannical glint.