2 Melancholy

The leader felt a passing cold wind, his knees trembled and he kneeled down in fear, he who survived countless life and death battles was now kneeling in front of a youth who looked like he was on his prime of age.

"Y-You! W-what kinds of tricks are you pulling!" The leader mustered all of his efforts to shout, yet the youth only responded with slight, cold smile

"You guys dared to rob my resting place, you shouldn't have entered this place." His voice filled with indifference looked towards the leader.

"Since you are already here, why go out? Just stay here..." The youth's eyes narrowed into slits, the leader experienced a frightening premonition and he ducked his head towards the ground.

Shing!

A cold wind whistled by the previous location of his head, his eyes widened in fear, if he was just a second late just now, his head would've tumbled down.

"Damn you!" The leader gulped a mouthful of saliva and shouted in hatred, the ring on his hand emitted a pale blue luster as he shouted.

"Air Burst!" A pocket of wind exploded towards the youth, thanks to the force of the attack, the wind could even be seen as it approached the youth.

"A bit interesting..." The youth waved his sleeve as a crimson screen appeared before him, dispelling the complete force of the leader's crazed attack.

"T-That's impossible! Air Burst i-is my, Air Burst i-is my!" The leader's face contorted, he thrashed to the ground as he scratched his own face with his own hands, the nails on his hands scratched off his face in a bloody mess.

"Hmmph!" Looking at the scene before him, the youth snorted, 'You guys invaded this place, yet you guys didn't even disable the Asura Slaughter Formation and the Air of Madness Formation! Amateurs!'

The youth shook his head and walked towards the leader whose face couldn't even be recognized anymore and said. "Well, I guess, I can still grant you an easy death." The youth made a slicing motion with his index finger as a burst of blood splattered on the ground, the leader's head rolled down a few meters before stopping.

His eyes had a look of despair and the fear of the unknown.

The youth took a huge breath and scanned the surroundings. He didn't mind the bloodstains that covered the already crumbled walls, his eyes became blank. It was as if his mind wandered to other dimensions.

Eventually, the youth sighed in lamentation. 'No one can really escape the reaches of time...' He thought in his head. The once glorious Divine Talisman Sect was now an ancient ruin filled with withering rocks and moss.

He sighed once again and turned towards the coffin that sealed him. The Infinity Coffin. There, he saw the lined up Qi Stones, that already turned lusterless and dry, thanks to the merciless passing of time.

Beyond the Infinity Coffin was a throne, the throne already looked dilapidated that it could crumble just by a touch, yet the youth had a hint of melancholy in his eyes as he looked towards that throne.

There, years ago, he sat, before him were his trusted confidants and generals. All of them kneeled down and looked towards him with complete loyalty and reverence. Now, the throne of which he prided on was now mirthless, even it whom he blessed with his great cultivation, wasn't able to escape the grasp of time.

He once again sighed in grief, he closed his eyes and opened it once more, his great amount of experience made him quite numb to this type of sadness. Yet, he couldn't help, but feel emotional. After all, that was the sect that he made from scratch. The sect he, Khan Paradyne made with his own power.

The youth turned back and walked towards the crumbled wall where the treasure hunters came from, his footsteps were heavy. It was as if he was walking towards his final destination, nevertheless. The youth continued on, leaving behind the memories from his past.

"I will find out what happened to my sect, and make sure that those involved will pay!" The youth's eyes shone with a hint of rage and determination, he will surely make them pay!

He walked on, passing through the formation traps he himself had placed, he saw lined up corpses of the treasure hunters who didn't know about these things. He coldly smiled and sent a huge fireball towards the bodies, incinerating them to ashes.

His pace hastened until he stopped by a certain wall. The youth's eyes scoured the wall. Although it looked like the same as the other walls, the youth's gaze could see a small protruding rock, of which he pushed down.

The rock fell off and the youth patiently waited. Eventually, the wall shone with a crimson luster as sounds of unlocking could be heard from the inside. The aged walls dissipated to nothingness as a hallway appeared before the youth.

The hallway before him didn't look any different from the hallways inside, yet after seeing this hallway. The youth sighed in relief and excitement. This time, he didn't walk. Instead, he ran.

At the end of the hallway, there was another wall, but there were no protruding rocks, the youth smiled as he made a slicing motion in the air towards his left arm. Droplets of blood stained the ground, yet it immediately disappeared like bubbles in the air.

"Ablihi!" The youth shouted as a pillar of crimson light exploded from the place where his blood fell, a huge force erupted and the tattered wall before him also vanished into nothingness.

He walked inside and there he found something above a rock that looked like a table, a ring. a ring that also looked ragged as everything around here.

The youth picked up the ring and wore it, he closed his eyes for about five seconds before opening it in excitement. 'Looks like my Spatial Ring still works!' The youth suppressed his excitement and he turned towards the other treasures inside the room.

He shook his head as he looked at them one by one. Not one was even able to defeat the jaws of time. All of them rusted and lost their glorious sheen, every weapon, every accessory which was once imbued with mysterious powers, were now trash, trash that couldn't even be salvaged.

The youth sighed, he formed a grabbing motion in the air as a yellowish paper manifested before him. The youth grabbed the talisman as he thought. 'Looks like this Escape Talisman still works!' The youth smiled and stashed it back.

He then moved his sight towards his own arms. 'Now that I wonder, why do I feel weak? Is this because I was sealed for such a long time?' The youth's eyes became filled with confusion.

'Wait... If my body is affected by my sealing, does that mean that it also affected my cultivation?!' The youth sucked a huge amount of air, as his mind focused, he circulated the Qi in the air and tried to absorb it to his body.

"Ughh!" The youth cried out in pain, his body fell backward as he spat out a mouthful of blood. His eyes looked grim as he shouted. "Withered Dantian!" His face contorted in pain and sorrow.

A Withered Dantian was the same as being crippled, a Withered Dantian means that a cultivator's Dantian wasn't able to receive a constant supply of Qi causing it to become atrophied, and useless!

The youth knew this fact, yet he didn't give up, he moved his sea of consciousness and once more inspected his body. He didn't dare to circulate Qi from the air to his body, in fear that his condition would worsen.

Earlier, he was able to summon the Qi from his body to create fireballs and Qi Air Swords, which means, that his meridians have Qi in it, but why did his Dantian wither even though there's a supply of Qi from his meridians? The youth thought in confusion.

"Ah! So this is the cause!" The youth shouted as he looked towards his shriveled meridians, although they looked like old vines of trees, they still pulsated with some vitality. So what was the cause of his Withered Dantian? The answer was simple, his meridians lost its elasticity due to being dormant for such a long time.

"With the right medicine and training, I can still return to my previous glory!" The youth smiled with determination. His eyes narrowed and scanned the area, trying to find any traces that he could, but to his dismay, the jaws of time was merciless enough that it didn't leave any pieces of evidence that could point towards the destruction of his Sect.

However, he had a destination in mind that could help him clear every question that he currently had in his mind. He grasped the air as the Escape Talisman once more appeared before him.

"It's time to see the world outside." The youth willed it and the remaining Qi in his meridians surged towards his right arm, as a pale crimson light covered the entirety of his arm. The youth looked towards the pale light as he sighed in sorrow. 'Why did I waste that much Qi just to execute a fireball?! If I had known that my Dantian had withered I wouldn't have wasted it!' He sighed in regret.

He who was once at the peak of cultivation. The Divine Emperor Realm, sunk down to the lowest, the Flesh Tempering Realm. Fortunately, the vibrant and deep Qi of the Divine Emperor Realm still faintly existed on his body, so he was able to effortlessly kill the treasure hunters.

But he knew that this wouldn't last long and that he needed to find the ingredients needed to concoct the 'Second Chance Pill' that would restore his Dantian to its previous glory.

The youth willed it as a flash of light burst from the Escape Talisman. The carved words on the paper wriggled in the air as if it was alive, and encircled the body of the youth. The youth closed his eyes with great expectations. 'Those people who destroyed my sect... I will find you, and I will kill you!' His eyes flashed a murderous light, as the light of the Escape Talisman reached its peak.

The youth disappeared into the void, but the place that he expected to appear, wasn't there, what awaited him were the wonders of science...