Grandfather Kong

Sweat poured out of Kong Jin's orifices, the pressure on he felt now, immense. But slowly he felt the rhythm and tune in his soul ease his stress. He played a sweet melody from one of his memories, and slowly he calmed himself.

"No Uncle Lu. Why do I seem different?" he asked innocently.

"No. No. Maybe. I don't know, its a feeling in my old bones... now go off to your grandfather!" he waved Kong Jin, as he seemed quite embarrassed and ashamed he's wasting the Patriarchs time.

Kong Jin walked through the gate, into a dark room. It was eery, all the walls were pitch black and radiated a feeling of gloom.

A bang sounded behind him! As he turned around he saw the gargantuan black iron door slam shut, and with it the last semblance of light in the room.

"Grandfather?" Kong Jin's voice quivered.

A raspy voice called out, "Yes Xiao Jin, keep walking forward. That's it."

The voice was deep, and extremely old, making shivers go down Kong Jin's spine.

Kong Jin continued though, carefully trudging forward, taking a deep breath with each pace.

"Stop!" the raspy voice commanded again.

"Sit!" It let out a final time.

Kong Jin happily obliged, sitting down legs crossed.

"Do you know what today it Xiao Jin?"

"Yes, grandfather. Today should be my trial."

Although Kong Jin couldn't see his grandfather, he could sense his approval, as if he were silently nodding in the darkness.

"Indeed. Has your father told you how the trail goes?" Grandfather Kong questioned.

"No. Grandfather, Father wouldn't tell me. He only told me not to worry. But unfortunately..." Kong Jin laughed nervously, remembering his former self-had turned tail and ran for his life.

"Good, my good-for-nothing son has finally done something right." Grandfather Kong's voice became a little softer, sighing.

"Now let me explain. The Kong family trial takes place in a dream world, where the deceased souls of our ancestors reside. In the dream world, they shall judge you, communicate with you and if you're lucky enough even provide you with guidance."

"This is how all members of the Kong family practice, they will get their techniques from the ancestors. I myself found my first cultivation techniques from them."

Grandfather Kong chuckled, and the room started to illuminate as torches suddenly set alight. Kong Jin covered his eyes, the bright light bringing him a stark pain, that invaded his retina.

Slowly he opened them, his eyes were blurry but clear enough to see the horrifying figure in front of him.

Gasping, almost vomiting and running away he saw Grandfather Kong's true form. It was an old corpse sitting on an altar. Mainly skeleton, with pieces of flesh hanging off. It was a truly revolting sight to behold.

"Impressive. Most have a worse reaction." Grandfather Kong's face made a boney grin.

"When I was young I entered the Kong dream world and encountered one of our ancestors. He said that he started off life with great difficulty, being cast out of a branch clan as a boy. The only thing he took with him at the time was a protective talisman his father gifted him."

"Slowly he made his way going through the world. Encountering all kinds of adventures, until one day he entered a place called the Myriad God Graveyard."

Hearing these words bells rung in Kong Jin's ear. He was from the God Realm, so of course, he knew what the Myriad God Graveyard was!

It's an ancient graveyard from before this era! It was said that all that went there would die, even if they were an Exalt Sage!

"In this graveyard, a boy with meaningless cultivation ascended, the talisman his father gave him absorbed all the information from the corpses. Countless techniques, arts, runic inscriptions, and information flew into his mind."

"The boy's name was Kong Yongheng, or as the rest of the world called him, Exalt Eternal Sky!"

Hearing this same was like thunder in Kong Jin's ears. As a boy who had grown up in the God Realm how could, he have not heard such a legendary name. In the past, no fewer than thirty people had managed to reach the mythical Exalt realm, the pinnacle of cultivation, and who didn't know of Exalt Eternal Sky, the man to challenge all thirty at the same time and triumph!

After this fight though he had mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again! To think such a man was an ancestor of the small Kong Clan. It appears the roots have greatly withered.

"He granted me insight into the Dao of Corpses. With this I was practically undefeatable, I planned to steal the copses of old legends and allow the Kong Clan to rise from its ashes!" Grandfather Kong talked with righteous fury, yet held a strong sense of regret in his voice.

"But alas. It wasn't to be. My plan was all but completed, but I fell. Not by sword or spear, but by a dagger in my heart?"

Kong Jin looked incredibly confused, wondering where his skeletal grandfather had got such a romanticised version of betrayal from.

"A dagger in the heart means I was betrayed by a woman Xiao Jin." His grandfather gave him a hearty chuckle, thinking he didn't know what he meant.

"But enough of that. I received my punishment. That's why they crippled my Qi cultivation." Grandfather Kong sighed.

"She knew as a corpse cultivator I duel cultivated Qi and body though, and she sent my servant Lu with me. She's obviously wishing I could return one day." Grandfather Kong giggled, like a schoolboy in love.

Kong Jin rolled his eyes, no longer baring to listen to this old man's tales of wild romance, yet something in him wanted to know who this mysterious woman was.

"You're Grandmother was one hell of a woman!" Grandfather Kong reminisced.

"What, you're own wife crippled you?!" Accidently shouted Kong Jin. His face going bright crimson.

"Cough. Cough!" Grandfather Kong coughed heavily in embarrassment, making Kong Jin even wonder if he had lungs.

"Well, it's my fault anyway... she caught me. Sigh... with a corpse." Grandfather Kong had such shame in his voice, that he found it hard to look at Kong Jin with his eyeless sockets.

"With... with a corpse?" Kong Jin was beyond stunned.

"It's not my fault! I didn't realize the corpse I was preparing used to be a charm cultivator!" Grandfather Kong covered his face with his skeletal hands with embarrassment.

"Err, Grandfather. Can you... you're a corpse. How... You know what I don't want to know." Kong Jin was wishing he could jump right into the dream world, or perhaps even get hit with another log. This conversation was just too awkward.