In a corner of the southeast continent, early March. In a nameless village with little population and few cultivators...
The sky was bright and clear, with no signs of clouds anywhere. It was as beautiful as a painter's canvas.
On top of a wooden dilapidated ox cart, a young boy lay down as he dreamt. He was suddenly startled awake when a he heard a shout.
"Get up your lazy *ss Grey, the royal festival is about to start and you are sleeping around. The town square is still in need of a proper sweeping and here you are. If you don't do it, i'll make sure you don't get pay for today".
Hearing the man's voice, a boy of about sixteen years groggily wiped his eyes as he looked up. He had short grey hair and eyes. His clothes were wrinkled and filled with dirt and grim. A tired expression was on his nonchalant face. When he saw the angry man standing over him, he jerked up fully awake.
"Do you want to be fired? Can't you see that the halls are still dirty and you are lying here sleeping off." The man barked at Grey who stood up confused.
"But sir, you only said i should i deliver the fruits to the hall. Nothing was said about cleaning it up." The young boy said with a confused expression on his face.
The man's face seemed to contort in anger when he heard him say that and grabbed him by the collar and brought his face close. "When did i ever say that? Now go and do what i ask you to do, if not you will not receive your wages." The man shouted.
The young boy gulped and when the man let go of his shirt, he immediately ran to look for a broom to sweep the floor.
'But i was not lazing around, and you never said i should sweep the hall after carrying the fruits from ten kilometeres away.' The boy was angry, but would not dare show it in front of the angry man who was gradually calming down as he watched Grey pick up a broom and start to sweep.
Today was the royal festival in their nameless village. Every once a year, royal officials from the palace would come to the village to take the annual tax and the villagers would host a festival in their honour.
Rich merchants and traders would come to give their produce to the royal official in hopes of getting close to the royal family.
Grey had no money and he was an orphan who had to perform menial tasks in order to survive each day. Today he had been given the task of transporting 15kg of fresh fruits plucked from a farm that retained some of their spiritual quality in them.
He had trekked with the sack of fruits on his back for ten kilometres, resting several times while on the journey. He had hoped to get some sleep and get some strength for the next job while he waited for the person who hired him, but was not expecting to still be treated like this.
Everyone knew he was a broke pauper who survived only by doing menial jobs everyday and some people would take pity on him and give him some tasks to do, but this man was wicked and wanted to take advantage of Grey by threatening him with his wages.
After sweeping the halls clean in under two hours, he was given another task. "If you assist me in this, I will pay you double and won't have to work anymore." The angry man said.
Knowing that he would not be paid if he refused, he accepted the job.
Later during the night, when the royal official and his escorts came. The hall was full with people who had come to see the official and give him gifts and to try and get close to the officials.
During that time, Grey carried a gold wine glass with beautiful embroidery to give the official.
Just as the Royal official brought out the Royal decree to read, Grey accidentally slipped and poured the contents of the cup all over the official.
The officials' face contorted in anger and before anyone - including Grey could react, he was sent flying and crashed into the wall.
"Who is this imbecile who dares to defile the royal decree. I want him flogged and thrown out of this village."
The official shouted madly as he pointed at Grey which was the last thing he could see as he lost consciousness.
When he woke up, he felt a scorching pain on his back. He looked everywhere and saw he was tied to a tree and being flogged mercilessly.
Eventually, after receiving a hundred strokes. He was untied and unceremoniously thrown out of the village like a trash bag.
After the flogging, he could not move for several minutes so he laid there crying on the floor. After a while, he got up with a detached expression and walked towards the nearby forest.
As he walked tiredly into the forest with a somber expression on his face, he saw several fruits on various trees which he proceeded to eat because of his dying hunger.
A small shed which he lived in had been seized from him since he was no longer a member of the village, and was used to compensate the royal official on their behalf.
As he walked deeper into the forest, he came across a stream where he normally drank water whenever he was passing by.
He bent down to drink but saw something glitter, reflecting the sunlight. When he looked, he saw it was a small silver shard. No bigger than the size of his finger.
'What a curious stone!'
He picked it up and saw that it resembled some sort of a crystal than a stone since that was what he thought it was.
As he held it in his hands, the silver crystal turned purple with a cold light and dove into his body with a speed which his eyes could not follow.
Grey felt an intense pain in his chest and when he looked down, he saw the crystal already lodged halfway into his chest.
He screamed in pain as it effortlessly flew into his chest without any resistance. Grey felt it lodge into his chest, right next to his heart.
He let out a pained cry as blood flowed down and painted the water red. He was losing a lot of blood and coupled with the pain and his weak body being peirced through, he felt he would soon faint. But then the wound in his chest from the entry of the crystal closed up rapidly.
The blood he lost seemed to flow back and enter his body. The feeling of losing consciousness soon departed and as the wound finally closed up, he felt revitalised. Like his body was swirling with energy and before he knew it, a loud bang rang out in his head.
'I just broke through!!' He said inwardly in surprise and before he could even say anything else, 'Bang', he made another breakthrough.
'What!!'
He brokethrough two whole stages of Qi Condensation realm immediately. He was now a cultivator. One had to know that in the village, they had few cultivators. And they were mostly in the fourth stage of foundation building.
By making a breaktbrough twice, he was now a cultivator and could could cultivate the spirit energy in the world and ascend in power.
The reason for such a low number of cultivators was partly because cultivators had special physiques necessary to cultivate.
And although not all cultivation arts were the same, even the most basic ones could be learned if one had the physique of a cultivator.
Without the heavenly constitution, no one could cultivate no matter how hard they tried. Grey had already been tested and he did not have the constitution of a cultivator. So how did he manage a breakthrough?
His only answer was the crystal shard. Its entry into his body was the catalyst for his breakthrough.
He felt the crystal shake with a strange cool power and the qi within his inner core swirled and went into all the parts of his body through his meridian. His body parts absorbed them and he could feel more qi enter his body until his body was full to capacity.
When the qi stopped swirling, he knew he had finished one cycle of qi tempering.
'I can't believe it! The small crystal shard that i found was actually a treasure. But where did it come from?' He said inwardly but couldn't think of how the crystal got in the river in the first place. It was not there for sure yesterday.
Then suddenly, he felt a strong tug in his mind and he disappeared. He saw himself in a dark place with no light at all. There was a boundless sea before him and it was illuminated by a purple moon.
'Where am i?' He asked but couldn't think of anything. He suddenly remembered what he had heard about a place like this. It was called a sea of consciousness.
But only cultivators could actively enter their own sea of consciousness... but why was his different.
A person's sea of consciousness was supposed to be bright and reflect the your inner self. There had never been a mention of a dark sea of consciousness with moon before.
"But if am not dreaming, where am i?" Suddenly a heard a voice whisper that he couldn't understand. It sounded like someone muttering to himself "Hello, i-is anybody there?" The voice did not answer but the muttering continued and it grew louder and louder but he still couldn't hear what the voice was saying. "Hello,w-who are you?" Feeling scared, Grey asked again while stammering.
Then the mumbling suddenly stopped. The air inside his sea of consciousness seemed to drop by a couple degrees and Grey felt a great pressure descend on his shoulders.
The voice spoke again. "My name is none of your business for i am not a name... i am a consequence. I am the silence that breaks the brave shadow that stands where the gods fall. I am the light that burns instead of heals. I don't warn, i arrive, i don't threaten i am the result of the stars and the void remembers me. I am the last slayer of the divine!"