Strange Bead

Han Feng was standing in a small room. After being sucked inside the wall, he felt a little dizzy, and the next time he came to his senses, he found himself there. It was properly lit with lanterns burning with small but steady flames. Each one of them looked beautiful, like the ancient art of some sort. They had a certain air of mystery to them.

He suddenly remembered his previous conjecture about there being a treasure, which was the reason behind the disappearance of all the spiritual energy. He took out a spirit stone again and observed it attentively. He didn't lose hope and wanted to unravel the mystery of the cave.

He noticed that the spiritual energy inside the stone was being absorbed in a much quicker rate than before. In a matter of a few seconds, the spirit stone was completely drained and became dust.

Han Feng was confused and astonished at the same time. Confused because he couldn't find where was the spiritual energy went as it disappeared too quickly, and astonished with the speed of its disappearance.

"Is it a treasure or something else.." He was genuinely stressed. The previous experience with the fox was still fresh in his mind.

"Whatever it is, I must find it, if I want to go out of this place." He muttered resolutely.

He looked around but couldn't see anything. It was an empty cave. He reached the center of the room and started scanning in every direction.

But he couldn't find anything but wasn't discouraged at all. The fight with the fox has made him much stronger, both mentally and physically. His will to survive became as vast as the ocean and his mental strength became hard as iron.

He thought carefully and took out all the remaining spirit stones. "This is my best shot. The spiritual energy is disappearing way too fast and if I want to find out where it is disappearing to, this is the only thing I can do."

The spiritual energy inside the stones started draining and formed a cyclone. Now he could clearly see the spiritual energy and also where it was disappearing to.

The cyclone was being sucked right on top of his head. There was something there that was absorbing it. He tried his best but still couldn't see what it was.

"Come down dammit. At least let me see what you are!" He shouted at the thing that sucked the cyclone of spiritual energy.

Maybe it heard what he said or maybe it was just a coincidence, as the last bit of spiritual energy disappeared a small, shiny, spherical bead revealed itself. It was constantly changing its shape as if it was a ball of liquid but ultimately maintained a somewhat round shape.

"Shit!" Han Feng stepped back and fell on the solid ground. He was startled. Although he shouted on top of his lungs, he never believed that something was going to happen because of it. He was frustrated and just tried to vent that frustration on the so-called treasure that sucked him dry of spirit stones.

The spherical bead was just the size of a baby's fist and constantly changed its color. Sometimes it was blue as the sky, sometimes black as the darkest nights, sometimes red like the fire that could burn the heavens.

Han Feng just gazed at it as if he has lost his soul and he didn't notice that it was slowly coming towards him.

He snapped out of it only when he felt the warmth all over his body. The spherical ball was now floating just in front of his face. If he took a single step, he would hit it with his head.

"What are you..." He looked at the sphere and spoke in a daze. At first, he thought it was a treasure of some sort but now he wasn't sure. It completely broke the boundaries of his thinking capability. Only now he knew that something like this could exist.

If this was a treasure then all his previous thoughts about a treasure were like a piece of shit in comparison.

He raised his hand to touch it. As he was in the middle of doing so, a change occurred.

The spherical ball rushed towards him and disappeared inside his body.

"Fuck!" Han Feng was scared. He thought it penetrated his body and he was done for. He looked down but he didn't feel any difference. He didn't feel anything.

For an instant, now he believed he was hallucinating. There was no bead, no warmth, nothing. Just him in an empty small room with lanterns that no longer felt cute. They looked eerie and spooky.

"No. It wasn't an illusion... There really was a strange bead floating in front of me and then it suddenly shot towards me and went ...somewhere?" He reaffirmed that whatever happened was not a dream or his hallucination.

"For god's sake, what is wrong with this day! First I meet a Fox of Doom, then It starts to walk on the freaking water... Then somehow I survive and get here, which I have no fucking idea of where it is. Then I encounter a strange bead that disappears into me."

"What could possibly go wrong?"

As he was tangled with his thoughts he felt something. His wounds were itching and he felt warmth and a cool feeling at the same time.

He looked at the deep gash on his arm. The black substance which he believed to be the curse of the fox of doom was now disappearing little by little and his wounds were starting to close.

"What the hell is happening now?" He was perplexed by the situation. Before he could register anything else he felt sudden pain all over his body. A kind that made him scream.

A dark-grey flame started burning him. It enveloped him completely and Han Feng started screaming in a louder voice. He felt like his soul was on fire. He felt pain all over.

The pain was a hundred times more than he felt before. It was as if someone was burning each part of his body inside-out. He felt that his bones were melting, along with his blood, flesh, and skin.

He didn't know that the fire was remolding his body to a molecular level. Each and every cell in his body was being broken and then being recreated.

Amid the pain, Han Feng lost consciousness. But the process kept going on. The grey flame remolded his body after breaking it to the molecular level and again.

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Back at the mountain.

The four ancestors looked at the platform. After all the spiritual energy was sucked inside it, the storm calmed down and it descended on the ground. Due to the previous destruction, the rough mountain peak became flat.

"It really is from the Fallen Immortal Sect." Jiang Ping spoke. He was the ancestor of the Jiang clan.

"Yes, It has been nearly 1000 years since I heard that name. It sure brings back memories. When I was a kid, they used to tell the stories of the Fallen Immortal and his accomplishments. I feel very sad to see that the current generation doesn't even know who he was, much less about the Fallen Immortal Sect that he created." Spoke a man with a short height. He was wearing plain white robes without a single blemish. He looked youngest of all the ancestors present there.

"How can this generation know anything of that era? After all, there has been no mention of it in the past thousand years. If not for this particular situation, they would still remain oblivious to it for the next thousand years." Spoke another old man. He was the ancestor of the Duàn clan, Duàn Wencheng.

The other two remained silent and just nodded. They too remembered the glory of Fallen Immortal.

Fallen Immortal was a man that was born in the Eastern Domain with exceptional talent. He started cultivating at 8, broke through Sea Formation when he was 9, Divine Soul at 12, and Divine Tribulation at 16.

When he reached Divine Soul, he started challenging all the cultivators at and above that realm. He defeated all of them without an exception. Soon there were no cultivators left in the eastern domain for him to challenge.

So he aimed at the magical beasts living in the chaotic forest. At that time, Chaotic Forest spanned almost 80 percent of the eastern domain.

After conquering the Chaotic Forest he aimed towards the Western Domain. He started his ambition with the Demonic Mountain Range that was the entry point to the Western Domain.

In this way, he remained undefeated until he reached the Divine Tribulation Realm. He could learn the fighting style of his opponents and defeated them by mastering it to a better level than them in the short duration of their fight.

Then one day he disappeared. Everyone believed that he went further than the Western Domain as he couldn't satisfy his thirst for fight. That was lost on the path of cultivation.

Time passed slowly, even his name started to fade from people's memories. He became a myth that people talked about to their children to amuse them. No one believed that he really existed.

One day, after hundreds of years, he came back. As he returned he saw that his home was destroyed by people he defeated. His friends were suppressed by other forces. Every single thing that he bestowed his loved ones was snatched.

At that time, his anger had no limit. His fury burned the Heavens and destroyed the Earth.

He learned a new lesson. He used to spare his opponents and never kill them. This was his way of thanking them for giving him an opportunity to learn and become strong.

Instead of being thankful to him for sparing their life, they felt humiliated to be added to his long list of defeated opponents. So when they thought he was dead, they unleashed their anger and humiliation on his family and friends.

Now knew that he was mistaken but it was too late. Everything was lost.

Even the cultivators from the place he called his home were still cultivators. They had no regard for being from the same place.

That day, Eastern Domain was almost wiped clean of all the cultivators. Even the noble and ancient families that existed for tens of thousands of years vanished. The sects that stood tall against all odds disappeared. Even the magical beasts in the chaotic forest had to run away.

He killed everyone involved in the destruction of his home, his family, and his friends.

The world remembered his name once again. Only this time, It was etched into their memories for their whole life. Behind that name, there was not only his glory but also fear.

Many cultivators above the Divine Tribulation realm fought him together, but even in a many against one fight, they all were killed. No one knew what realm he achieved in those years he disappeared.

He came to be known as the Fallen Immortal. Fallen, because he fell from being noble and honest to someone who almost destroyed Eastern Domain, a killer.

Since his return, he never challenged anyone again. He just founded a sect and named it Fallen Immortal Sect in remembrance of the name that was given to him by the people, reminding them of who he was and that they should fear him.

After that, he disappeared. He never appeared again.

But this time, no one dared to do anything to the Fallen Immortal Sect. The name alone reminded them of a very bad memory.

The Fallen Immortal Sect thrived. Countless people joined and it kept on expanding.

Because of the fear of Fallen Immortal, no one dared to harm them. They felt that it was because of them, their own power and thus became extremely rampant.

This kept on going for nearly 500 years! No one went against them as they feared that Fallen Immortal was alive and just recuperating somewhere inside the sect. But slowly, generation by generation, the fear melted away.

There was a clash between the Fallen Immortal sect and all the major factions combined. Even with all the treasures that were left by the Fallen Immortal, the sect didn't last long.

It was destroyed.

Now that the profound tool of the Fleeting Cloud sect was revealed, the ancestors remembered this dust-laden memory. They have lived for nearly a thousand years and this was the first time they encountered something form the Fallen Immortal sect.

They tried to scan the platform with their spiritual consciousness but soon found that their spiritual consciousness couldn't get anywhere near it.

They felt shocked. In their realm, it was impossible for anything to stop their spiritual consciousness. They tried again and again but failed to even remotely sense the platform. It was as if there was a wall in front of it that stopped their spiritual strength from moving forward.