Cough... cough...
Ling Tian knew his time was running out. At eighty-five, his body had finally surrendered to frailty. His heart was failing, his lungs were heavy with fluid, and every breath felt like a shallow struggle.
The doctors had told him he wouldn't last more than a few months, but Ling Tian did not care. He was ready to face the end.
He sat in a rattan chair on the porch of his small house. The morning sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, but Ling Tian did not notice. His mind was drifting far into the past.
In his youth, back in his twenties, Ling Tian was just an ordinary office worker. He lived a simple life on a modest salary.
His only escape was reading cultivation novels late into the night. Xianxia and Wuxia, he devoured them all. He was captivated by stories of gods ascending through realms, absorbing the Qi of Heaven and Earth to become immortal.
But the more he read, the clearer it became to him: all cultivators were essentially thieves.
They absorbed the energy of the world, borrowed the power of nature, and snatched fortune from others. They sacrificed their very souls just to merge their bodies with the Dao.
Even the so-called orthodox cultivators, who claimed to walk the path of righteousness, were the same. They took power from the Dao only to claim it as their own.
Ling Tian understood why every breakthrough to a major realm was met with Heavenly Tribulation. The lightning of judgment did not strike because the Heavens were cruel, but because the balance had been breached.
They stole from the Heavens, and the Heavens came to collect the debt.
"If all of that is stealing, isn't a true immortal someone who never steals at all?" Ling Tian had wondered back then.
That realization had struck him like a bolt of lightning in the dark. To him, immortality was not about a long life or limitless power. It was the cycle of reincarnation.
A soul sent back to inhabit a new body, to learn again and understand the Dao once more, without ever plundering a single thing from the Heavens.
From that moment on, Ling Tian changed his life. He stopped eating meat, fasted from worldly desires, and meditated every morning and night.
He chanted a simple truth he had come to understand: "The Dao is balance. Balance is the Dao."
His wife and son used to ask him, "Dad, why are you living like a monk?" But they supported him nonetheless. They were happy to see Ling Tian become a calmer, more patient man.
Five years ago, that rainy night brought everything to an end. His wife and son were on their way to visit his parents' graves when their car was struck by a heavy truck with failing brakes.
The police called Ling Tian that night. He reached the hospital too late. He only saw them one last time, draped under white sheets.
Since then, the house had been silent. There was no longer the sound of a curious child asking questions or his wife's laughter echoing from the kitchen. Only the sound of the wind, the rain, and his own shortening breath remained.
Ling Tian was never angry at the Heavens. He only asked himself, "Is this punishment for wanting something too much?"
There was no answer. Only silence.
Now, his body could no longer hold on. His breath hitched, and his chest felt tight. He reached for the small family photo on the table near his chair. The wooden frame was cracked at the corner.
The faces of his wife and son were still clear. They were smiling brightly in the photo.
Ling Tian touched the picture with withered fingers. His eyes were dim, yet he could see their faces with perfect clarity.
"You left five years ago," he whispered softly. "I'll be joining you soon."
He placed the photo back on the table. His hand trembled as he lifted his last cup of warm tea. The aroma wafted up, but Ling Tian could no longer taste it.
He closed his eyes. His breathing slowed. His chest rose and fell with agonizing slowness. The world around him began to blur.
Ling Tian flashed a small smile. A single tear escaped the corner of eye, wetting his wrinkled cheek.
"I hope my next life... has a better fate."
Suddenly, he imagined himself reborn in a cultivation world. He could cultivate, go on missions, and meet beautiful fairy maidens, just like the plots in the novels he used to read.
But he immediately shook his head inwardly. "I'm an old man, why am I fantasizing like a teenager?" he thought. "I'll just wait for death."
His final breath left him slowly. Ling Tian's body went still. His head tilted to the side, his hand still resting near the family photo. A small smile remained on his aged face.
Suddenly, a soft white light emerged from his body. It was not blindingly bright, but it felt warm.
The light lifted Ling Tian's body gently, floating upward through the roof of his house, toward the still-dark sky.
In the void between worlds, a voice, cold yet gentle, echoed in Ling Tian's unconscious mind:
"Request granted. The Light descends to the lower realm."
The light moved swiftly across space and time, heading toward a hidden cave in a forbidden forest of the cultivation world.
There, it stayed, maturing slowly over seventy years, until it finally condensed and hatched into the body of a seven-year-old boy.
And at that very moment, a spark of Ling Tian's memory began to return.
...
Before Ling Tian's descent into the world of cultivators, in an upper realm inhabited by immortals and divine beasts, a terrifying Tribulation Lightning appeared.
It thundered incessantly for seven years, destroying small villages. Great cities were forced to activate their protective formations to withstand the sudden calamity.
In a forest near towering mountains, the King of the Immortal Dog Clan, Ho Meng, watched the event from behind his protective formation.
"My King, it is not wise for you to be outside. This lightning is far too powerful. Without the protection of the formations, we might have been turned to dust," said the Prime Minister of the Dog Kingdom.
"Of course, it is dangerous," Ho Meng replied. "But I feel a strange energy in this lightning."
"This isn't an ordinary Ascension Tribulation. This is something that will shake the very foundations of the world," he thought.
Ho Meng stood tall and looked up. He saw a massive pillar of lightning in the center of the storm. Unlike the smaller bolts, this one did not flicker. It stood perfectly upright.
Its color was strange, like a dark radiance mixed with shimmering gold.
"That central bolt is bizarre. What is happening to the Heavenly Dao? Why would it send lightning of such a color? And it's piercing straight through to the lower realm."
Ho Meng broke into a slight sweat, crossing his arms over his chest.
"My King, is this a punishment, or perhaps someone with a talent unwritten in history is ascending for the first time?" Prime Minister Li Mo asked.
"There is truth and error in both ideas. It is only natural to wonder, as this has never happened before. Let us return. I wish to go to the Library Pavilion to search the ancient records."
Ho Meng ordered Li Mo to oversee the government and support the formation guards while he went into seclusion to find the truth.
"As you command, my King. I shall see to it immediately. I take my leave," Li Mo replied with a respectful bow.
Ho Meng paused for a moment before entering. He turned back to look at the strange lightning one last time.
"Just wait. I will uncover the truth of this phenomenon. I only hope it isn't something that will wipe out my people," he thought.
Upon reaching the Library Pavilion, Ho Meng immediately grabbed piles of ancient history books and began to read intently.
An hour later, he began to feel frustrated. "None of these books have anything to do with this! The lightning outside is so loud. Even through the formation, the sound still gets in. I can't focus!"
Three hours passed as he sifted through the thick stacks of books.
"Why is almost every book here about Dual Cultivation? What were my ancestors thinking?" Ho Meng grumbled, rubbing his aching head.
But then he reflected. It was thanks to his ancestors' focus on growth and rapid cultivation that his tribe lived in prosperity and was strong enough to repel outside attacks until now.
He continued reading a book that looked different from the rest. Suddenly, he found a folded slip of paper tucked between the pages.
"What is this?"
Ho Meng was shocked as he read a prophecy from an ancient beast. It stated that the cultivation world would crumble when a golden pillar pierced through the realms, protected by roots of light.
"Is that all? But if I understand this correctly, it matches the phenomenon outside. It seems I must descend to the lower realm once this calamity ends to find the spot where that lightning struck."
Seventy years passed. The thunder finally ceased. The upper realm began to heal, and the kingdoms started repairing the damage.
Ho Meng, who had been in seclusion for seventy-one years, finally opened his eyes. He stood up and walked back toward his throne.
He walked deep in thought, ignoring the subordinates who bowed to him along the way.
"It seems my people are well. From all the books I've read, I have found one answer: at the lightning's strike point, there is a golden orb of light, and it is called the Heavenly Dao Embryo."
Ho Meng walked faster. He immediately ordered the high officials and elders to gather at the throne to discuss their next move.
Once the meeting concluded, Ho Meng made a swift decision to descend to the lower realm before any other cultivators could find the embryo.
"My King, do you intend to go alone?" the Prime Minister asked, trying to stop him.
"There is no time. It is too dangerous to take you all. The kingdoms and empires of the upper realm are still recovering. We cannot be careless. Enemies might strike while we are weak. I will handle this myself."
Ho Meng transformed into his true form, a majestic black dog, and mounted a white cloud to take to the skies.
"My people, listen! Your King shall return once I have secured the Embryo. Our kingdom will become the strongest in the entire upper realm!"
Ho Meng's voice thundered across the land, followed by the prayers of his people.
He streaked toward the south, toward the portal to the lower realm, carrying the great hopes of the Immortal Dog Clan.