1 Wang Ling

"This is the end, Wang Ling. You may have defended yourself for five days and five nights but tonight will be your end."

"Wang Ling just give it up and give us the [Overturning Nine Heavens Scripture]. If you continue resisting us you will only face death."

"That's right! If you just hand us the scripture then we can stop this. The heavens do not need a new «Apex», eternity has been opened for us and we can fight back against the beasts, opening a new path is nothing but madness."

In the [Kun Lun Mountain Range] the strongest people and power of the Cultivation World gathered to stop one man.

Cultivators who have reached [Celestial Stage]were able to bend the laws of this universe to their will and defy the laws of heavens. They have powers of unimaginable height and possess fame that spreads throughout the entire land.

However, these great people were unable to face one man who was profusely bleeding all over.

With his white robes dyed red from his blood, Wang Ling stood tall and proud with his head raised against numerous Celestials.

In his right hand was a sword that slew uncountable foes and on his left was the scripture that will overthrow the current laws of the world. With pressure to flatten a mountain, Wang Ling stood there unflinching to his goal.

He projected a perfect image no portrait can ever hope to capture. His heart, clear as the day he attained enlightenment and temperament tranquil as a serene lake, but in Wang Ling's deep eyes reflected an indescribable longing.

"The sky is too low."

He said with resolute determination.

The Celestials who were observing him knew what this great man meant but they could never understand him for they were not the peak existence of this world.

Wang Ling was the strongest being in the realm.

From the first emergence of his name after killing an infamous bandit group while being a mere lowly scholar to his highest achievement of killing the emperor of the Heavenly Empire with one swing of a sword.

His tales have long scattered throughout the lands to the point where no one, whether it be [Spirit Beasts], humans and the other races were ignorant enough to not know his name.

He had long reached the apex, but he was not satisfied for he felt something was binding the world. 'Chains' that only he, who was at the top could feel. The boundary of true strength that could let one control his and others' fate.

Wang Ling sought the «True Apex», and for a long time, he searched for a way to transcend over these chains. Only after ten thousand years of scouring the lands did he finally found a way to break these chains.

The Overturning Nine Heavens Scripture in his hands came from a time when the Nine Chaos formed this world. This scripture contained the secrets of the universe and the way to transcend the shackles that bound the realm.

From the legends he had read, this scripture was the key to opening a brand new era. Inside it contained a power that can eradicate the law the world was bounded with.

But there were grave consequences if he wanted to break these chains. If he wanted to open a new path, Wang Ling would need to offer his life and cultivation as the catalyst.

Not only that, the « Spirit Qi » of the world will inevitably change. The flow will be redirected, it will become chaotic for a time that will lead every Celestial and some unfortunate people to die from qi deviation.

But he cared not if he will die, and he was ready to bear every grudge, this is the path he yearned for so he will not let anyone stop him.

His plans were already laid out, the laws that bound the world were already located. The key that he had been searching for was already found. The only thing he had to do was to use this 'key' and let the Ancient laws break the chains.

It took him at least two thousand years, laying out the foundation of his plan to free the world from the binds. Wang Ling will not let anyone stop him, even if the Gods attempted to do so, he will kill them without fail.

"I only follow what my heart tells me and do what I want. The path that I want to take is right in front of me and I have finished the preparations I need to make. If my actions shall lead in the death of many, I will gladly carry their resentments and hate when I crossed the yellow spring roads.

"I am a scholar before I am a cultivator. I seek the knowledge this world has hidden from me, so with my own two hands I shall unravel what is beyond these chains."

After saying those words he stabbed his sword on the ground in front of him before the other Celestials could react.

Seeing Wang Ling stabbed his sword on the ground, every celestial surrounding him immediately aggravated their spirit qi. Their faces darkened, as they moved in for the kill.

One particular celestial moved as soon as he saw Wang Ling's movement. He was faster than anyone else, so he was able to move closer to Wang Ling.

"I won't let you! Devil, die!"

The Celestial used the sword just like Wang Ling, and with a single move of his, the entire Kun Lun Mountain Range trembled.

The earth thousands of miles surrounding the Mountain Range were uprooted by a strong gale of wind. Power to destroy multiple mountains appeared to the world, but it could not reach Wang Ling for something obstructed his path.

Hu!

A tower of golden light emerged, which surrounded Wang Ling and kept his enemies outside.

The earth-shattering sword skill was stopped when it touched the golden light.

This technique was Wang Ling's last card and to use this technique meant that he's risking his life for his goals. He was about to die anyway, he was just speeding up the process.

"[Gate of Heaven]!? Wang Ling are you insane?! Do you wish to end your life for such nonsense!? A path that you can never hope to take?"

A celestial bellowed after seeing the towering golden light.

Everyone's face darkened for they knew that no one can ever hope to pierce this golden tower.

The technique Wang Ling had used was the Gate of Heaven. It came from the Yellow Dragon Monastery which he had previously destroyed.

This technique possessed the infamy of granting temporary defense that even a god cannot hope to pierce in exchange for the user's life.

Opening the scripture on his left hand, the world of Celestial Spirit Realm trembled as the cloud parted and an 'unusual' spirit qi fell from beyond the parted clouds.

Ancient laws coming from a time where chaos prevailed escaped the Scripture as Wang Ling opened it.

The ancient law that bound the world was destroyed and the limits were erased. In exchange, Wang Ling's cultivation was immediately shattered, his life essence drained, and his death became imminent.

Swoosh!

"What have you done, Wang Ling!?"

"Vile creature, you have caused the world to change and brought a calamitous disaster upon us!"

"Curse you, Wang Ling, everything that I have worked for will be destroyed because of your selfishness!! Many will die because of you!!"

Many Celestials screamed and cursed out at Wang Ling the instant they saw the clouds parted. The one thing they have feared has come and it was all the fault of one man's selfish actions.

The change of the era was imminent, but to change an era and break the bindings of the world, a price must be paid.

For Wang Ling to see this grand event to happen he unhesitatingly paid with his life and the destruction of his era. The cultivation of many celestials will be destroyed and after this day, a lot of sects will fall.

The era will be rebooted for the last time. Many paths will be interwoven and death will rise like never before, heaven and earth will tremble while new legends will rise.

The Celestials who surrounded him earlier dispersed as their cultivation was quickly destroyed by the laws of the heavens. Many celestials fell immediately while others staggered and tried to get away from the parting clouds.

The spirit qi in their bodies became rampant, attacking the cores of the Celestials. At this moment, the various Celestials felt the spirit qi they had cultivated for so long feel so foreign.

Their hearts were attacked, ending in a bloody mess, their veins and meridians were ruptured, blood seeped out of their skin. The ending of all Celestials and those who have reached a certain threshold in their cultivation all suffered the same fate.

They all faced death. They cursed the retched Devil who caused all this, some, who knew they will eventually die gave the Gate of Heaven multiple hits to vent out their frustrations.

Their attacks shook the heaven and the earth one last time, even flattening the Kun Lun Mountain Range in the process.

These Celestials were true beings to defy common sense, they used to bend the laws of the universe, yet at this moment all of them were about to die in the hands of one man.

"Wang Ling, I cursed you to your very souls!! If there is an afterlife I will still hunt you down, and destroy your soul!"

"Accursed Demon you will also die like us! You will cause the entire Celestial Spirit Realm to fall into oblivion, your wish to open an Apex sealed by the heavens has damned us all!"

Many cursed were said to Wang Ling. His very being was cursed by these Celestials. He understood their grievances, but he didn't care.

All of these people were his enemy at one point in his life, they had wanted him to die for a long time, so seeing them die like this was satisfying for him.

As they cursed him blood started spurting out of their bodies. Death was closely creeping upon them.

"Cursed you!!"

Feeling their death was about to come, they cursed him one last time and soon after, blood exploded from their six head orifices and blood started seeping out of their pores.

Wang Ling's vitality slowly escaped him together with his blood and cultivation. The Gate of Heaven slowly lost its radiance as his eyes focused on the descending spirit qi.

A smile appeared on his face as his body turned paler than the color of a sheet of paper. His «Blood Essence» was sucked out of his body and he was riddled with injuries, Wang Ling was nearing his end, yet he showed a melancholic smile.

For most of life, he chased the true meaning of strength and the apex of this world, yet when he finally reached the answers, he was already dying.

He felt regret for being unable to witness this even to the end. Being unable to enter the true limits of power when he was the one to open it, Wang Ling was unsatisfied.

"If there is a next life, I will run my sword to the depths of the new heaven and reach new heights. My act of destroying this era may seem wrong but I do not regret doing so if humans can reach the true meaning of the universe."

After saying his piece, Wang Ling's body was destroyed and turned to dust soon after.

Although he will be reincarnated once again, Wang Ling regretted he could not traverse this path with his current self.

However, the instant his eyes lost its brilliance and Lord Death came for him, the Overturning Nine Heavens Scripture shone with great brilliance.

A great suction force was birthed, created by the ancient laws that govern the world of Life and Death.

Wang Ling's soul was sucked into the scriptures that overthrew the era and like a slithering dragon escaping to the vast oceans, it disappeared.

The scripture came alive to traverse space and time through unknown means. The way it crosses space and time was mysterious, unfathomable, and unexplainable.

It carried Wang Ling's unknowing soul to a place no one knew, a time where no one would imagine, somewhere unimaginable.

That day when the heavens parted and showed a world that's beyond the clouds, the era of Wang Ling and many Celestials ended.

Many sects and ancient families fell from the actions of one man.

The day the old era came to a close was the exact time the advent of the new one rose, and the exact moment the new era rose the death of the strongest Celestial came.

As time passed, many were forgotten and Wang Ling was one of those forgotten heroes. Cultivators who were able to leave legacies became legends and records of the past were lost, Wang Ling's name was erased with time.

=====

It was way past midnight in the Kingdom of Azure Skies. Many were already resting on their beds sleeping away their bodily fatigue.

While many slept on their beds one youth, in particular, had opened his eyes awake. The young master of the Wang Clan opened his eyes and as if he was unaccustomed to the room he is in, he started looking around.

"Where am I?"

Wang Ling voiced out a question inside the room. No one was inside the room, so it was natural that there was no one to answer his inquiry.

He tried sitting down on the luxurious bed he was in, but a sharp pain assailed his whole body.

Confusion lingered in his mind and before long, questions started popping up, why was he here? Where was this place? And most importantly, how was he alive?

In exchange for destroying the chains, he offered his life to the Nine Upheaval Scriptures so how can he still be alive? He felt his blood essence leaving him and his cultivation being destroyed, but here he was, still alive, albeit having a weak body.

While still in a confused state of mind about his current situation, faint memories surged into his head. Faint images of human interactions flowed inside his mind.

People he had never seen before and vague scenarios were being shown to him in drove. It was as if his memories were playing backward.

It didn't take long before he was able to make in and out of what is happening.

"It seems like my name is unchanged, and because of my own mistake, I am currently in a precarious situation."

It would seem that his soul has been sleeping for quite some time now and the image he had just seen was the scene his mind captured while he was in an 'idiotic' state.

In this life, he was still named Wang Ling. The only thing different than before was that he had a family now and he is the young master of the highly reputed Wang Clan.

Wang Ling was the scion of a large military family. He was the oldest of the two sons of General Wang Shu Qing who guarded the Southern Borders of the Azure Skies Kingdom.

Being the son of a reputed general, Wang Ling was expected to do great things in the future just like his father. But to the Wang Clan's misfortune, Wang Ling turned out to have an indescribable 'defect'.

The young master doesn't seem to have any kind of 'life' within himself. Always listless and staring at some far-off place as if waiting for something.

Wang Ling's father called for many great [Physician] and [Alchemist] to check up on his son but to no avail. No one was able to say anything about Wang Ling's current conditions.

To this day he has yet to even utter a single word.

This young master was branded to be useless but no one dared to voice them out as the name of his parents was too overbearing. Even young master Wang's mother was from a reputed household of Alchemists so how could they badmouth him in public?

However, even with these great parents sheltering the young master, looks of contempt was still present among the many nobles of Azure Skies Kingdom.

The Wang Clan's prestige suffered greatly when this happened. Even so, his father and mother loved and cared for him, not caring for other's contemptuous gaze.

Wang Ling sighed about his current situation.

For nineteen years before his soul's awakening, his body was nothing but a hollowed-out vessel with human features. Eating, sleeping, and light exercises like walking were the only things he could do for him to live.

There was never a useless young master, only a sleeping Wang Ling.

He had been living like a doll not doing anything other than to survive. Instincts of a human to live through hardships were ingrained inside their bones so even if he was not awake he was instinctively living through the days.

But it was still an unbelievable feat. However, there's a single explanation for how he managed to do such a thing.

With his previous cultivation of a celestial, and considering his soul was still the same as the strongest being in the past era. His will to survive was strong enough to sustain a functional drive on his unique situation.

While he was reorganizing his previous thoughts, Wang Ling noticed that sunrise was about to come. Walking up to the nearby window, Wang Ling basked in sunlight, enjoying the warmth he thought he would never feel again.

"It would seem that my societal standing is not that bad. In my past life, I was nothing but an orphaned scholar, a student less teacher, and a lone mass murderer, but in this life, I am blessed with a great family, for them to love a child with such a defect…"

Wang Ling stopped his words as warmth started gushing in his heart. Forcing his tears to stop falling, Wang Ling made a resolute vow.

"I am finally awake and the road to the true apex shall be traverse by non-other than I, Wang Ling if I am to reach the apex I shall bring along my family with me."

This vow was witnessed by the heavens and the earth, Wang Ling will not renege on his vows no matter what happens.

After some time of idling by the window, he heard a little voice coming out from outside.

"Young master please wake up, the day is upon us let us—"

His ebony door opened. Wang Ling turns around and saw a young girl around the age of ten or eleven looking at him as if she had seen a ghost.

"Y-young master… y-you're awake without any assistance?"

As if she remembered something the little girl asked him a sudden question.

"C—can you understand me?"

Wang Ling's heart ached after hearing those words.

[Am I a savage beast?

It would seem that even this kind of action is too surprising for my current caliber.]

He jokingly said in his head.

Wang Ling saw the girl quiver and before long he remembered that he was supposed to be a brain dead walking zombie. In realization of how weird these simple actions were for his conditions, Wang Ling did not speak in fear of having the young girl faint.

Nodding his head Wang Ling answered the girl.

Seeing Wang Ling nod his head, the young girl got all teary-eyed all of a sudden and without minding other people who were still sleeping, she started screaming as she runs out of the room.

"Butler Sun! The Young Master learned how to get out of bed on his own, he even responded to me!!"

When Wang Ling heard the little girl announcing his little actions like he had gained immortality, an indescribable feeling of wanting to find a hole to bury himself out of embarrassment entered his mind.

[Am I a dog that has learned new tricks?

I know I was at a miserable state but can you at least not treat me in such a way?]