Origins

After setting the table, Zhenya sat down, pondering what to do when Yi Yun would arrive with the food. Sighing heavily, he let his head lean on his hand. "What now? I can't just keep avoiding her. I should just man up and get over it; it was only a little embarrassing," he remarked to try and convince himself.

"But that must have looked very weak to her, letting her pat me and even leaning into it... Argghhh!" he shouted in frustration. "I'll just try my best to not think about it. Things like that can happen."

Then Yi Yun arrived with the food; setting it on the table, she took a seat as far away from Zhenya as possible, her cheeks still slightly flushed. "The food is ready; take as much as you want, Zhenya," she mumbled, barely audible.

Zhenya just nodded and started to fill his plate with food and started eating it in total silence, keeping his eyes on the plate. Yi Yun did the same.

Like that, they ate their meal in complete silence, neither of the two daring to speak up or address what had just happened, as if they came to a consensus that they would just let it be and start the next day fresh as if it never happened.

After finishing dinner, Zhenya stood up. "I will go to my room now; tomorrow the training starts, so don't wake up too late." He mumbled as he left the living room.

Yi Yun just nodded and started clearing the table, sighing in relief. She also wanted some time to herself now to process everything that had happened today. It was a very hectic day becoming the personal servant for the future patriarch, getting told by the current patriarch that she could even become his first wife if she plays her cards correctly.

Lots of stuff to think about and consider; after clearing the table, she also went to her own room.

***

Zhenya entered his room. It was a relatively large room with a double bed, a large window, and a wooden desk with a wooden chair. Entering the room, he closed the door and sat down on the chair.

Taking out the diary he had gotten earlier, he took a deep breath, bit in his finger, and let blood fall onto the diary just like Jia Hui had said. When the blood hit the cover of the diary, it erupted in a burst of blinding light, engulfing the room in brilliance for a fleeting moment before fading away.

Opening his eyes again, Zhenya looked at the book and opened it. The pages were yellowed with age, covered in elegant handwriting. His heart racing with anticipation, he began to read:

"Entry 1

Hello, whoever you are, I am Jia Hui, also called the mad demon. Why am I called that, you might wonder. Well, that is because I did something mad. I went around absorbing other creatures bloodlines, combining them with my own."

Zhenya's eyes widened. So that is how the Heaven's Fall bloodline came into existence; he wasn't born with it; instead, he created it. Eagerly, he read on:

"And the world gave it the name Heaven's Fall because it is taboo, so the whole immortal world is hunting me down, which I do not mind; it's fun, you know. I keep finding new, interesting bloodlines to absorb. But well, that's for another time. To whoever is reading this, this diary will contain all my secrets and everything I found out about the Heaven's Fall bloodline and more."

He sat up straighter, gripping the diary tighter. The ancestor seemed to know something about the immortal realm that Jia Hui had dismissed as myth. What else might this diary reveal?

"The bloodline can increase your talent by absorbing strong bloodlines; that is why I decided to go down this path. To reach the pinnacle of martial arts. I just broke through to the Lord realm, which is still a small fry in this vast immortal world, but, well, you gotta start somewhere, you know."

Zhenya was making mental notes of all the information he was absorbing. "So I should really focus on absorbing bloodlines, and then the Immortal world and Lord realm I really don't know anything yet," he muttered to himself, clenching his fist tightly.

"I shall surpass your ancestor; just watch!" he vowed to himself as he stood up. Then he sat down again, breathing in and out slowly to calm himself down so as not to miss any details in the diary.

"It took me multiple decades to finally arrive here, from the mortal world and after that the eternal domain. Those bastards keeping all the good spots for themselves, well, I just wiped them all out, so it's fine; it gave me a lot of new abilities. Well, that was it for this first entry. I might later on edit it if I don't forget. To the one reading this, this world is ruthless; you also gotta be ruthless, or you'll get trampled by others. Jia Hui, the mad demon."

Seeing the end of the page, Zhenya was stunned. Who was his ancestor? The information in this diary is likely priceless; the future cultivation realms, and now he also had a clue about how to get to the immortal world finally. Not that he wanted to go there right now, but it's good to know for when his cultivation is high enough.

Sighing softly Zhenya tried to turn the page to read the next entry only to find that he couldn't turn it. Like there was a restriction cast on it, and he didn't meet the requirements to read further.

"This must be what Jia Hui meant; it's cultivation locked." Zhenya looked annoyed; this diary possessed a lot of valuable information, and it was right under his nose, but because of his own incompetence, he couldn't access it.

He closed the diary, and it disappeared; Zhenya panicked slightly. "Where did it go?" he exclaimed, looking around frantically. overturning his whole room, but it was nowhere to be found.

"What do I tell Jia Hui now? I can't just say that I lost it after only reading one page, right..." he mumbled, as he kept looking around the room for any spots he might have missed.

Half an hour later he sat down on the bed exhausted; the mental strain of losing such an important asset was tremendous. "I give up. I'll just tell them honestly tomorrow that I lost the diary.

But when he mentioned the diary, it appeared in his hand. Stunned, he lay on his bed staring at the diary, and after a while, it disappeared again, then he tried it again. "Diary." It reappeared right after, relieved he went to bed; it was a long day, and he was exhausted.