Ling Jun.

Jashun felt as though he was in a dream which he could not control. He dreamed that he floated in endless darkness. Time passed and he began to see light. Eventually he came to be in a strange world. Before he could see much, he felt a jolt of pain and passed out.

When he came to, he could see endless greenery in the form of a variety of vegetation. Also all around he could see huge trees stretching out into the heavens.

He felt a strange sensation. It was similar to that when One returns to their homeland after a long and arduous journey. The sense of nostalgia that could make eyes water with reminiscence.

He blinked. Or tried to. He came to the realisation that he was unable to blink. In fact, he couldn't move at all.

Suddenly, unfamiliar memories rushed into his mind. He remembered being blown by the wind, helpless until he landed where he had. After that, a heavy rain displaced the mud around him causing him to be completely buried underground.

He remembered being hungry, so he tentatively reached out his hands into the soil around absorbing the nutrients he needed to survive. Eventually, he felt something strange coming out of him, and realised that he felt the sensation of wind blowing across a part of him that had appeared above ground.

He grew to become a fully developed herb. A hundred years passed before he finally saw another life form, a giant lizard which stared at him curiously. It lifted its nose to sniff him before digging out a home for itself nearby.

The lizard would nap mostly and occasionally hunt other creatures to eat, or leave to drink water before returning. Sometimes it would carefully inspect the herb, before returning to nap.

Another 9900 years passed. The herb had been in existence for ten thousand years. Over the years, the lizard had been killed by a wolf which had later been killed by another wolf. Many different animals came and fought and the victor would stay and guard the herb. The current guardian was a sliver scaled snake which was venomous.

On this day, he gained sentience. Yet it was similar to that of beasts. Primal and instinctive. 90,000 years passed and the herb began to wither. When the hundred thousand years were up, the spirit of the herb died.

It was at this point that Jashun had taken over. Along with his arrival, came a burst of life force that restored the herb to peak efficiency. Jashun realised incredulously that he was now a herb!

Yet he was a one of a kind existence. Sentient plants would usually only have a primal and instructive spirit whereas this herb had a verified human soul residing within it. Yet the properties of his soul was now that of a plant. No one would be able to tell the difference.

Mind reeling, he tried to figure out what to do next. Yet he could do nothing. He was a herb for god's sake!

Another ten thousand years passed. In the beginning Jashun had tried everything to get out of his situation yet he failed. He had been tormented for ten thousand years and almost went insane, doing nothing but spectating the surrounding scenery for years.

Yet this intense suffering also served to temper his patience tremendously. It was quite strange that he hadn't succumbed to madness already.

One day, he saw a human. He was wearing a silver armour with a tiger engraved on the breastplate and held a sword in his experienced hands. The man looked to be in his thirties, in good shape and ferocious looking.

The man noticed Jashun and his eyes widened with shock. It didn't take long for his shock to turn into greed, leading into the man cautiously edging towards him

'An over hundred thousand years old sessile plant. It's a pity the plant is generally useless. But the shocking amount of life force any plant that's over a hundred thousand years old has is enough to make it a definite treasure'

The mans name was Ling Huo. He was a cultivator of the ninth level of Qi condensation from the Hailan sect. He had gone on a mission to a mortal town to recruit new disciples as either servants or very rarely, straight to outer sect members.

On the way he had run into a rogue cultivator of the same level who had tried to extort him. After realising that he was no match for the rogue, he decisively fled leading him to this area.

'There will definitely be a beast guarding this herb' he thought cautiously. As he continued to edge forward, he heard the shrill cry of an eagle and leapt back without any hesitation. An eagle swiped down with its talons clawing the space he had occupied moments before.

Ling Huo felt a cold sweat form on his brow.

He quickly calmed himself before evaluating his opponent. Eighth stage Qi condensation beast. It would be difficult but not impossible. Ling Huo leapt forward dodging the incoming talons before swiping his sword at its neck. His sword connected and the beast let out another shrill cry. Ling Huo frowned as only a trickle of blood flowed out. The eagles defence was absurdly strong. Seemingly enraged, the beast began to swing faster and harder. Ling Huo fell back repeatedly, constantly saved by his armour which now seemed on the verge of shattering.

He quickly took out three throwing knives and imbued them with Qi. He threw one of them with force and accuracy and it lodged into the beast, prompting another enraged cry.

Ignoring the pain in his heart, he manipulated his Qi in the dagger, causing it to explode. This time the beast let out a cry of pain, as it's left wing completely exploded along with some of its body. The beast slumped to the ground, the last vestiges of its life force flickering before completely fading away.

Ling Huo sighed with relief. He had to sacrifice one of his three precious daggers yet the reward was worth it. An eighth level demonic core was worth quite a bit, but the true reward was the herb.

Ling Huo carefully harvested the herb and stored it into his spatial ring along with the Eagles corpse, before contentedly making his way off into the distance.

Inside the spatial ring, Jashun could suddenly feel something inside his soul being awakened with help of the space and time present within the ring. It was a strange feeling, as though he was awakening something new yet also as if he was awakening something he already had. An affinity to space and time.

He was able to see motes of space and time enter his soul, and after his soul had been saturated, he got the feeling that if he wished to leave this space, he could easily do so.

So he did.

Ling Huo would later cry tears of blood over his loss.

Yet Jashun also cursed his stupidity. He had fallen from the ring and at the speed Ling Huo had been going, he had not noticed anything out of place. That meant that he was again stuck in place until someone found him again.

Thankfully, only a year later, he was once again found. By this time, a lot of his life force had dissipated yet one glance was still enough to tell that the herb was precious. This time he was found by a cultivator in a close by town. A cultivator named Ling Xinyi. He was unrelated to Ling Huo.

Ling Xinyi could tell with a glance that this herb was special so he took it back to his house and kept it safe. And that's where Jashun stayed for half a year.

***

The wind buffeted the drizzling rain descending from the gloomy grey sky. As the temperature decreased slowly, snow could be seen hiding behind the droplets of rain. Eventually, a tenacious snowflake landed onto the rooftop of an ordinary house among many others in the Ling family's compound.

The snowflake melted into water which snaked down the sloped rooftop and dropped onto the cheek of a nervous looking woman. The woman was slightly above average in terms of looks, brown eyes and fair hair that fell onto her shoulders.

The woman absentmindedly wiped off the water with her sleeve as she contemplated the problem that plagued her. In front of her a stood a man, who was also slightly above average in terms of appearance. The man had piercing blue eyes, which was his most prominent feature, and pitch black hair slicked back with a few strands hanging loose in front of his face.

At the moment he stood there sheepishly as though he had done something wrong.

"Yun'er, I... I didn't realise..." he spoke hesitantly. The woman, Liu Yan sighed as she shook her head resignedly. "There's nothing to be done anymore. Xinyi, I... ugh... I'm not ready to be a mother yet!"

"I'm sorry... I didn't think you would get pregnant."

"Haaaah, well we'll just have to do our best."

Liu yan had noticed the bulge in her stomach and realised she was pregnant. Panicking she has called her husband and given him an earful. Ling Xinyi had listened on sheepishly. Eventually they decided to care for the baby as best as they could.

Ling Xinyi truly loved his wife with all his heart. She was the governors daughter and he was of the Ling clan. He had met her many years before and fallen in love. His persistence had won her heart and eventually they got married at age twenty.

They were now both twenty two years old and would have a child coming in about six months. Recalling the herb he had picked from the mountain half a year ago, Ling Xinyi decided to give it to his wife, so that his baby might be born with better talent, and possibly join a sect, scoring to the heavens in a single leap.

When Liu Yan consumed the herb, how could she have known that the soul of Jashun would take over that of the baby in her womb.

Jashun himself had no control of the matter and decided to accept the situation. There wasn't much else he could do.

Being a foreign soul, it had taken him a lot of effort to take over the body. He was lucky that the host soul was unaware of the battle and only struggled instinctively.

Jashun knew exactly what he was doing. He felt conflicted yet he knew that if he didn't struggle he would be consumed and die in both body and soul. Of course, he couldn't stop the process even if he tried. The struggle left his soul exhausted and his soul went into hibernation.

Half a year passed, and Jashun was finally born a human again. He was named Ling Jun and he had quite a high status in the City as the son of the illustrious Ling family first elder and also of the Liu family.

Yet when he was born he didn't cry. Even when slapped across the buttocks, he didn't cry. Luckily he was breathing well and proper so there was no danger.

He was born an empty husk, with no consciousness. His parents, who had sworn to care for him were devastated and even a little embarrassed. They decisively had another child, who was born a year later.

Ten years passed. Over the past years, no one had seen the son of Ling Xinyi, Ling Jun. No one even knew what he looked like. It became one of the biggest mysteries of Xin city.

The other two overlords of Xin city, namely the Tang and Meng families took note of this. They had tried to find out the reason, yet were unable. It was hard to plant spies as families were families. They wouldn't rarely employ outside help. And external members would not be given any classified information anyway.

What no one knew was that the son of Ling, was born an empty husk. It was though he was without a soul. Normally speaking, a fleshly body without a soul would quickly fall to ruin. They had discretely asked for help from various medical experts situated around the City, yet no one had a solution. Eventually everyone simply gave up. Including his own parents.

In the beginning they had been resolved to love their child no matter what. Over time, their resolve waned and they subconsciously began to think of him as a burden and a humiliation. Unbeknownst to them, their 'son' had been hearing and seeing everything.

He watched as his mother sat by his bed. Hesitation was evident and conflict was visible behind her eyes.

"Little Ling... it's not that your mother never loved you, but what is the point, what's the merit in loving an empty husk? It's similar to giving your love to a brick wall, there will never be a response.

"Little Ling, it's been ten years. Continuing to pretend won't do anyone any favours. It's time for me to let go...."

Ling Xinyi stood quietly at the door. He thought back to when they had both resolutely promised to love their child no matter what. He sighed softly. Promises were so fickle. Yet he knew that his wife was right. It was extremely unlikely that Little Ling would wake up.

"Little Ling... you... you died at childbirth." He murmured softly his heart racked with pain. He was unable to lift his gaze to meet the frail body laying the bed, guilt eating away at his conscience.

The couple cried heavily that night. The next morning a piece of news had taken the city of Xin by storm. It turned out that the eldest young master of the Ling family had an incurable disease since birth. The younger sibling Ling Ji was the successor to the Ling family.

Of course, people took the news with a pinch of salt. No one knew if this was some sort sort of scheme targeted at the other two families. People had various speculations that they didn't voice.

Three years passed. On this day the first signs of spring blanketed the lands. The sun was still rising and faint tendrils of mist could be seen swirling around almost invisible to the naked eye. Dew covered the various plants and greenery.

In a neglected shack towards the back of the compound, a body was laying on a straw mat on the ground. It was so still that most people would think it a corpse at first glance. The shack contained nothing except for the straw mat, a window and the body.

His mother had only visited once in the past three years. His father had not visited at all.

Suddenly, the body began to shudder and if one were present, they would realise that the body was rapidly ageing. Within a few breaths the body had white hairs and wrinkles covering his skin. A few breaths later the body began to reverse age until it was reminiscent of a healthy thirteen year old.

Throughout the whole process the body had been seemingly illusory yet also corporeal at the same time. This was none other Jashun. Now known as Ling Jun.