"Glory be to you, O supreme heir of Blood Spirit!"
"May honor be upon you, O legacy bearer of Primordial One!"
"We pray upon you; let the world witness the all-consuming hunger of Divine!"
"Let the vile world be submerged in blood; let it serve as the herald of Divine One's return!"
A sinister chanting echoed all around in an unknown world of pale whiteness.
'The Heir of Divine Spirit? Me?'
He wondered, shivers running down His spine for some reason.
Feeling lightweight, as if in a dream, He dazedly walked to the edge of the high pedestal He had somehow found Himself on.
Having woken up only a moment earlier with no recollection who and where He was, His state of mind was a mess filled with doubts and questions.
Yet when He gazed down, He felt a sense of familiarity and kinship.
The sources of repetitive chanting… those hideous-looking beings, seemingly born out of yellow, pus-like substance, He knew them.
The hideous beings bowing down to Him in reverence and fanaticism, they… they were… who were they?
He obviously knew them yet He could not remember!
He gritted His teeth in desperation, straining His mind for answers.
Yet, to His dismay, He found none.
Just as He was about to jump down in a desperate bid to find an answer Himself, a multitude of whispers echoed in His mind.
'They are Your servants, and You…You are their lord;"
'The sole heir to the sinful Crown of Blood, the successor of Divine Spirit Crimson, that's who You are!'
The whispers seemed to possess a hypnotic effect as He felt His doubts and suspicions wash away.
"Right, I… I am-"
However, before He could complete His sentence, a young, resonant voice rang out from the depths of His foggy memories.
"Child, henceforth your name shall be–
"Tanxue" the moment He uttered this name, He felt an intense sense of loss as He witnessed the world of whiteness shatter and melt away into a deadly silent, foggy expanse.
'Where… where am I?'
He wondered yet again, although the next moment His thoughts stilled as He noticed two purple orbs of light loom above Him through the fog.
'A pair of stars?'
Evidently confused, He looked at them intently only to realise that they were in fact the eyes of a colossal feline silhouette gazing down at Him with rage.
"Despicable human, how dare you inherit My name?!"
"Has the world forgotten the karma involved?!"
The intensity of the silhouette's voice blew away the fog thus bringing its hazy figure into His full view.
"The Blood-Severing Beast;"
He recognised the gigantic feline creature almost immediately and a minute trace of rationality appeared within His eyes as the creature brought down its massive maw to devour Him at once.
Frozen in terror, He could only watch as reality shifted once again—this time into a dark basement. Separated by iron bars, a small girl of roughly eight looked at Him in pain and resentment.
"You traitor, why did you leave me behind all alone?"
She questioned in an indifferent tone as if having given up everything that made her a human.
Watching her chained to the ground, tears streaming down her face, He felt an immense sorrow drown His mind and plunder away whatever rationality He had gained.
"Sorry.. I'm sorry.. Little Hua.. I'm sorry.."
He whispered in a daze and closed His eyes in a vain attempt to escape the miserable reality He had found Himself in.
'...'
'....Where am I?'
Feeling as if He had forgotten something precious, He opened His eyes and looked around in confusion. Surrounded by iron bars inside a dark basement, He instinctively reached out for a silk-bound book lying nearby but stopped mid-action hearing someone call out to Him.
"Brother Xue, look what I've brought for you this time!"
Standing outside, on the other side of the bars, a young man holding an expensive looking book gazed at Him with excitement.
"Brother Ling;"
He smiled and with a nod reached out His hand outside the bars for the expensive looking book.
"A PUPPET'S DESTINY."
Reading the title of the book with some interest, He looked back outside only to witness the young man lying on the floor—motionless, with a gruesome hole where the heart should've been.
Noticing the young man's eyes filled with betrayal and pain, He could hardly believe the situation.
How could something like this happen so suddenly?
He had looked away for only a breath of time reading the book's… the book?!
Looking down at His hand in suspicion, He found the expensive-looking book long gone. In its place rested a half-bitten human heart, still carrying a faint warmth.
Realisation dawned upon Him as tears trickled down His face, landing on the ground alongside blood and mangled bits of flesh leaking from the corners of His mouth.
And then… he woke up realising it was all a nightmare.
'Just a nightmare and nothing else.'
Di Tanxue whispered, consoling his weary heart with these words.
******
Blood-red clouds raged in the sky, obscuring the blazing golden sun and the serene Star of Eternal Truth from view as it rained crimson.
Swept by the galloping wind, pained groans, resentful roars and pitiful wails; some human, some beastly, others utterly inhuman, echoed all throughout the world.
Was it due to the nightmare he had just had, or simply a force of habit?
Feeling the crimson raindrops slide down his body, Di Tanxue could not stop himself from reciting something he had learnt as a child.
"The Heavens bleed, their hunger released;
The living perish, the perished feast;
Have mercy upon me, O Merciful Nimbus Beast."
Hymn of the Merciful Nimbus.
It was an age-old hymn pleading the long-dead Nimbus Beast of the Merciful Skies to quell her wrath and bring an end to the calamitous blood rain.
Supposedly first sung by an ancient Immortal, it was rumoured to possess magical qualities and was renowned throughout the northern continent.
'How ironic;'
Di Tanxue laughed, mildly amused with the situation. And how could he not be, after all it was Di Tanxue himself who had summoned this crimson rain. And he most certainly held no fear of this rain.
"Haa… I'm hungry;"
With a sigh, he opened his eyes and sat up.
"Let's see.. monster meat, meat and even more meat, great, just great!"
"Even after all that trouble, I'm still stuck with these, just what was the damn point?"
He grumbled with discontent and cursed looking at azure-robed human corpses lying a short distance away.
"Seems like being mocked as the lapdogs of the church has literally turned you all into dogs!.. Why don't you have anything normal in your storages?!"
Shaking his head in resignation, Di Tanxue bit off a large mouthful of bloody meat. His mouth moved on its own in a daze as one slice of meat after another vanished from his hands.
'To align one's mind with the world. To make the heavens obey.'
Di Tanxue muttered inwardly, thinking back to the surreal sensation he had experienced just before fainting from exhaustion.
The clouds up in the sky, the raindrops falling out of them and even the very fabric of reality, all of these felt like an extension of his will and vision at that moment.
For a brief instance, it felt as if he had become an Immortal… not the quacks he had met before, but a true Immortal, the one capable of obliterating heaven and earth with a single gesture.
It was overwhelming to say the least.
As he munched on the tacky meat, he tried simulating the otherworldly sensation from before.
He imagined intangible strings connecting his consciousness to the crimson clouds up in the sky, he pictured himself becoming a part of these clouds, ethereal, corrosive and most importantly, alive.
Was it because he had already done it once? Unexpectedly, he succeeded on his very first try.
The haze caused by the falling raindrops had made it difficult for him to see beyond a few meters yet now he could 'see' it all, 'hear' it all and even 'control' it all.
He could see a dead silent wilderness strewn with bloody and gruesome remains of beasts and birds alike.
He could see these gory remains being feasted upon by Phantoms, the familiar grotesque yellow beings from his nightmare.
And of course, he could also see himself sitting within a clearing surrounded with a dozen or so mangled azure-robed human corpses, their wide-open eyes staring blankly at him in terror, disbelief and injustice.
'Tsk, my ears hurt;'
Di Tanxue clicked his tongue. The Phantoms, they were still chanting the same incantation from his dreams—the one revering him as the Divine Spirit's heir.
Moments passed as he remained motionless letting the crimson shower; sometimes intense, other times gentle; drench him completely in its cool but bloody embrace.
Familiarising himself with his newly discovered abilities, recalling the things he had lost and planning out his next steps, Di Tanxue sighed inwardly with a heavy heart.
'Only a little over four months left;'
He remained lost in thought for an unknown amount of time and suddenly broke into a loud laughter.
"Hahaha;"
"These powers, with these the eastern continent.. no, the entirety of Crimson Echo shouldn't it be mine to hold?!"
He proclaimed with arrogance and looked sideways at the shadow of a nearby tree with a questioning look.
"What do you think?"
"..."
As expected, there was no response.
Casting aside the uninspiring and delusional thoughts of world conquest, Di Tanxue got back to sorting out the valuables he'd gained from the Azure-robed corpses.
There were numerous things inside their spatial storage bags but most of them, unfortunately, were of no particular value.
In the end, the only things worth mentioning that he found were about two to three dozen essence crystals, mainly jadeites; four artifacts of humanly-rank and also…
"A Concealment Cloak of earthly-rank!"
He exclaimed in delight but clicked his tongue in annoyance immediately after.
"Tsk, These greedy dogs were truly from the central continent;"
Looking inside the spatial storages one last time, he did not find anything else of value except for a jade vial with five pills inside.
"Hmm, smells delicious.."
"Hey, do you know what these pills are for? They don't look like poison to me;"
Di Tanxue asked curiously to the tree's shadow but once again there was no reply. The person concealed within the tree's shadow, watching Di Tanxue with an evaluative gaze, did not seem to have any intention of revealing themselves.
"Well, suit yourself."
Saying as much, Di Tanxue threw the pill inside his mouth and released a breath of satisfaction.
"Delicious! You should try some too;"
"..."
"Worry not, I won't lose my sanity for quite a while, you can come out;"
Despite his assurance, the person concealed within the tree's shadow showed no reaction except a single sentence.
"No need, I don't find myself lacking in bed;"
"..."
There was an awkward silence for a brief moment.
"..So what, they are still delicious!"
Di Tanxue daringly stuffed all of the pills inside his mouth at the same time, stood up and gave the shadow one last glance.
"I would appreciate it if you finished your assessment soon enough. I don't have much time left."
He said chewing on the pills and then turned his gaze towards the azure-robed corpses lying in the distance.
"Leave no traces behind!"
His command rang all across the wilderness and responding to it, the hundreds upon hundred of phantoms all around left behind their feast and rushed inside the clearing with reckless abandon.
Some tore apart the azure-robed human corpses and devoured them altogether, others willingly harmed themselves spreading a foul yellow liquid in the process and the rest, they began to cannibalize their fellow brethren, the ones who had consumed the human corpses!
"The sinful Crown of Blood…"
Di Tanxue mumbled thoughtfully, watching this scene of absolute obedience.
It did not even take ten breaths of time for the once-lush clearing to be transformed into a barren wasteland filled with corrosion.
"Let's hope this would delay the inevitable;"
He sighed and with nothing else left to do, Di Tanxue swiftly wrapped himself in the Concealment Cloak and rose above the forest with eagerness and anticipation on his face.
He could hardly wait to finally get a glimpse of his hometown after the long years of waiting!