34 A new beginning

The efforts of the three forces were futile. Hundreds of years later, the world's Qi ran dry and several cultivators started to fall. Most sects and clans were destroyed by those in the lower hierarchy.

The commoners took over the throne and soon, a new era dawned. The chaos finally stabilized after another hundred of years.

However, the calamity soon eroded upon the Qi on other mortal worlds, blatantly consuming the Qi of other worlds. Some worlds that greatly depended on Qi finally collapsed after the Qi ran dry, turning into a desolate world.

Eons later, the same situation happened in the immortal realm and the celestial realm, causing the gods above to take action. With their combined efforts, they still failed to save the immortal and celestial realm, resulting in total destruction of both realms.

Not long after the destruction of realms, the god realm soon became infected by the monstrosity. It only stopped when half of the Qi in the god realm was depleted. By then, the number of gods remaining dropped to five.

The five remaining gods immediately entered seclusion to recover from the immense drop in cultivation.

With that, eons flew by...

... ... ...

Present day. Somewhere within the Himalayas.

"Haaaa..." the sound of someone regaining their breath could be heard. On the break of dawn, a dark figure could be seen lying on the pure white snow, creating a stark contrast.

Shadow deeply exhaled as he glanced around. His mind was empty.

Suddenly, a head-splitting headache assaulted him and his memories came back to him, it was similar to a playing film roll. It came back in bits and pieces but eventually, Shadow remembered everything.

"Ah... I'm still alive huh? Where am I?" After eons of rest, much of the coldness and vengeance had disappeared, only Shadow himself remained.

"Apart from that, what's with this ridiculous amount of Qi in my body?!" After analyzing himself, Shadow had a shock of his life. A seemingly infinite amount of pure Qi coursed through his body, causing the black mist to danced fiercely.

As Shadow was about to take the first step, he stopped. As if he suddenly remembered something, Shadow thought for a while before changing his appearance into a human male. Shadow was now around 1.78cm tall with tight muscles that resembled intertwined steel wires. His facial features were slightly... well... feminine. Without throwing his modesty out the window, Shadow created a long black robe for himself and finally, took the first step.

"I love it," Shadow murmured as he felt the chilly air beating against his face and the crunching of the snow beneath his feet.