Shuyan opened his eyes to a strange scene—a small "world" a couple of kilometers wide, badly fractured and suspended in empty space, its dark surface barely illuminated by a miniature sun far in the distance.
"What the hell is this place?" he exclaimed, but no sound came, causing him to look down and see a translucent version of his body. Even his robes were see-through, his body floating in the midst of emptiness.
"Where am I? Who did this? Come out this instant."
He shouted again mutely, and his body flailed around as it slowly drifted toward the broken world. His panic multiplied as he realized his body was moving without his accord. Shivers racked his body, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
"Help me…" That was all he could mouth as his hands grasped at nothing—not even air.
That was until his body managed to float down to the fractured mini world. He tiptoed onto solid land for the first time since arriving here and took in deep gasps of nothing, since his translucent body actually didn't breathe. In fact, there was no air to breathe here. Those gasps were just instinct.
Once several minutes passed without any danger, his initial panic faded. His tensed mind relaxed. He felt nothing dangerous here—no pain, no pressure, nothing. Almost like his body didn't exist.
"Am I a spirit now?" He examined his transparent body again with amazement. He didn't know. Knowledge was one of the few things he lacked, right after wealth.
"What even is this?" he mouthed again as he finally managed to look around—and then it came.
A torrent of information no one asked for. He clutched his head and fell to the ground in slow motion, since the gravity here was so weak. His head felt like it was being hammered on an anvil, but he couldn't even scream. His mouth opened wide, and his eyes looked like they belonged to the dead as images and text flashed through his mind—and then everything went blank again.
He woke up after who knows how long and sat up. This time he didn't gasp. In fact, he felt nothing but confusion, which slowly cleared up as the flashing images and texts in his mind settled down.
"WorldStone? WorldSpirit? Yuan Tianxuren?" Shuyan muttered the names as he slowly went through the newly infused memories. His eyes, which were already big enough from being widened time and again, widened more as he realized the severity of the situation.
"This is a private world of a Mahayana Realm cultivator?" he shouted and stood up, which pushed his body high up into the sky, but he couldn't care less. He didn't even realize he was now floating as his thoughts churned.
This was a miniature world born from a WorldStone—a world seed capable of birthing a whole new world—personally prepared by the WorldSpirit of Xuheng, the being governing the natural forces of Xuheng, to counter Yuan Tianxuren after sacrificing almost half of its essence.
This was bestowed to a Mahayana Realm cultivator named Ye Wuchen—a being so powerful that Shuyan couldn't even begin to imagine the extent of his power—but he had died after Yuan Tianxuren found out about the WorldSpirit's scheme. This showed the terror of Yuan Tianxuren.
Shuyan's awe increased as he went deeper into the memories. Yuan Tianxuren was an ambitious fellow who wanted to assimilate the whole of Xuheng as his personal domain to break through to the Heavenly Emperor Realm, since a Heavenly King needed to refine a world to break through. But this would spell the WorldSpirit's doom.
So it had created this WorldSeed to birth another Heavenly Emperor, thousands of years ago—but the plan had failed, and now it lay in ruins, cracked and dark.
It had once been a proper world with tall mountains, lush valleys, and flowing rivers, but now it floated here, aimlessly and broken. Just a piece of it remained—the only remaining evidence of Ye Wuchen's stand against Yuan Tianxuren.
"Yuan Tianxuren?" This name rang no bell, but Shuyan knew how formidable he was from Ye Wuchen's memory, so there was no way he wouldn't have heard of that man in the legends.
But he hadn't—which was maybe normal, since it had all happened thousands of years ago, when even the Bloodborne Sect probably didn't exist.
But the shock didn't lessen as his horizons broadened. The highest level he had heard of was Nascent Soul, but even a Mahayana Realm cultivator which was one realm above Nascent Soul had fallen against that man.
It spoke volumes of the terror that Yuan Tianxuren was, or probably still is. Shuyan knew this level of being lived for thousands of years. Just thinking about that man being alive sent shivers down his spine.
But he pushed away any other sprouting thoughts on the matter. He had enough of being shocked and wanted to know where he stood. And came the good news.
"I am now the owner of this world," Shuyan thought as he gazed at the growing miniature world before him. He was floating back down, his hand on his chin as the details of how it all worked poured into his mind.
This was a treasure. Even the word "treasure" failed to define its value. That was how valuable this inheritance was—but with it came the danger of being hunted down by that monster of a man. But the memories revealed that anyone who found it should never reveal it and should just lay low, since the WorldSpirit was probably already done for. And maybe it was true, since thousands of years had passed since its scheme had been crushed by a simple palm strike from Yuan Tianxuren—a strike that fell straight down on the head of Ye Wuchen.
Shuyan shuddered at that memory. Ye Wuchen hadn't even managed to catch a glimpse of that man before being killed. That was all his memory held, having been infused into this world as an inheritance—a preparation made after he realized that Yuan Tianxuren knew about their scheme. It was a hasty effort, which resulted in fragmented memories of Ye Wuchen's earlier life, but Shuyan didn't really need them. He knew what he needed to know and be aware of.
"I would rather throw this away than face that man. But since this treasure is probably out of that man's sight… maybe I can enjoy it. In fact, this is just what I need. Even Ye Wuchen's memory mentioned it should be safe to keep if I didn't announce it to the world and stayed out of that man's sight."
There was risk in being the next heir of this world, but Shuyan would rather take this than live out his life as a failed cultivator.