1 Cursed Fates, Twins Aligned

"Brother Wei, why must you be so worried? If your children are anything like you, they'll be geniuses I say! Geniuses!"

"Thank you for the kind words Brother Jie, but even so this is an important day. Not just for me but my wife as well."

Today was the birthday of Zhao Wei's sons, Xue Chang and Xue Hai. Twin brothers who were born from his beautiful wife, Xue Mei. Zhao Wei was a rogue cultivator who married into the mortal Xue family. When he was younger, he was seriously injured by a wild beast causing him to lose most of his strength and leaving him in the forest for dead.

Luckily, Xue Mei discovered him while exploring the forest in search of herbs. She was surprised to see a man randomly appear in the forest located just behind her house, but was even more surprised to see how injured he was. Ignoring the words of her guards who were saying how dangerous the stranger could be, she approached him and brought him back to her abode in order to nurse him back to health.

Spending time together, the two developed feelings for one another and eventually decided to get married. Originally, Xue Mei's father and mother were against the couple's engagement. After all , what parents would want their daughter to marry some mysterious stranger?

But to their surprise they discovered he was a rogue cultivator. Not only that, but he was someone who had reached the eighth level of Qi refinement!

In their world, there were beings who existed known as the immortal cultivators. Cultivators were beings to would absorb the energy of heaven and earth into their bodies in order to advance themselves. All cultivators worked toward the same goal, achieving immortality. And the closer they got to this goal, the more powerful they would become.

As such, immortal cultivation had been split into several parts and sections. The very first step into cultivation was getting pass the Qi refinement stage. This stage consisted of ten levels and once someone reached the tenth, they had the chance of going to the next stage and building their foundation.

As a family consisting of mostly mortals, the Xue family did not have a deep understanding about cultivation or its stages. But even they could understand the higher the stage of a cultivator, the more important they would be. A Qi refinement level eight cultivator wasn't the strongest being in the world, but from what they knew about immortals, having connections with this person wasn't such a bad thing either.

After all, that was still someone who was only a couple of levels away from foundation establishment! Something mortals like them couldn't even comprehend.

Although Zhao Wei wasn't a very powerful figure, most cultivators who were more powerful than him were too focused on advancing their states to worry about mortal affairs. As such he was a powerful shield that could protect the family against most mundane opponents.

So they gave him a lot of respect, no matter the fact that his background wasn't as impressive as theirs and his talent in cultivation seemed average. The Xue Family treated him well.

In return, Zhao Wei guarded the family and even made a name for himself. With his actions and reputation, the Xue family was able to rapidly expand and grow into a major family within several cities.

And they didn't even need to question Zhao Wei's loyalty to the family ever since his children were born.

Xue Hai was the younger of the two. He had black hair and deep grey eyes just like his older brother. The two of them were almost identical in looks but had very different personalities.

Xue Hai was a very quiet kid and always looks up to and stuck around Xue Chang. He was a shy but curious boy that loved to explore and discover new things constantly. And if he wasn't moving around or playing, he would get extremely restless.

Xue Chang on the other hand was more open to others. He, like his brother, liked to find interesting things to do as well, but he did it in the form of studying. While Xue Hai would get restless if he wasn't in constant motion, Xue Chang could easily spend hours on end reading stories or studying books found in the family's library.

And unlike his brother whose curiosity could get him into difficult situations, Xue Chang preferred to take things slowly and safely. Especially when it was something he was doing with his little brother.

He took his responsibility as the older brother very seriously, and always tried to protect Xue Hai from snakes or sharp branches that they would run into while playing around in the woods.

The two would always be beside each other wherever they went and they were known to be inseparable. Although with their differing personalities this made a very awkward pairing.

Zhao Wei raised them away from the internal conflict of the family. He did his best to make sure they didn't become greedy and selfish like their cousins were, after all no father wanted to watch his sons kill each other to become the leader of a family.

Xue Mei agreed with his ideologies and assisted him in this as well. And although the children were still very young, their kindness and actions proved to the parents that they were on the right path.

Today was a very special day for the family, it was the eighth birthday of Xue Chang and Xue Hai.

This birthday was different from any other because every child of the family who became eight years old was given the chance to start on their own path of cultivation.

Eight was the minimum age one needed to be to even attempt to absorb the energy of heaven and earth. Any younger and their body might just not be able to handle it and just explode outright!

Today was such an important day to Zhao Wei that he even invited one of his best friends over to watch. Wu Jie was a physician and a cultivator as well. This way not only would he be able to check and see if Xue Chang and Xue Hai had any problems or talent in cultivating. He would also have someone else to help him guard his sons in case any of their enemies decided to interrupt.

After all, a persons first time cultivating was a very important matter. This was the start of the transition from being just a mortal to an immortal cultivator.

And although Qi refinement experts weren't official immortal cultivators yet, they were still treated with the same amount of respect as it was only a matter of time and effort.

Entering the large courtyard of his house, Zhao Wei and Wu Jie caught sight of two identical children sitting on the smooth stone floor with their eyes closed and legs crossed. Xue Mei was a couple of meters away watching her children carefully with sweat trickling down her brow.

Every time Xue Chang or Xue Hai made a slight movement or readjustment, Zhao Wei could see the pupil of her eyes begin to dilate. Although he couldn't tell if this was from fear or from excitement.

With a small smile forming on his lips, Zhao Wei approached her and wrapped his arms softly around her shoulders.

"You're going to scare them out of their meditation if you keep staring at them with such intensity."

Feeling the arms of her husband around her, the stiffness in Xue Mei's shoulders lessened.

"I know, I know. But this is such an important event. If they show even the smallest hint of talent, their future in the family would be secured."

"Whether or not they have talent in cultivating, we would still love them all the same though. And as long as I'm alive, none of your siblings will dare harm a single hair on their heads. So just relax a little. Besides, you're getting more wrinkles every second. Who knows, you might just turn into an old hag right now!"

Zhao Wei felt an elbow lightly jab him in the side as he released a hearty laugh.

Although he was just trying to get his wife to calm her nerves, everything he said aligned with his true beliefs. It didn't matter if the twins had any talent or not. They were still his kids and he wouldn't treat them any differently.

Gazing over quietly at Wu Jie who was circling the kids and nodding, Zhao Wei couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. It seemed as if Wu Jie was even more worried for the kids than he was, after all the two friends were like brothers.

Xue Chang and Xue Hai were like nephews to Wu Jie, and they treated him like family every time they met. Of course the gifts Wu Jie brought also helped to improve his reputation among the kids. But he was happy to grant gifts and Zhao Wei wasn't going to ask him to stop anytime soon.

Just as he was about the invite his friend in for a drink, Zhao Wei and Wu Jie both snapped their necks up to face the sky.

Wu Jie's eyes became bloodshot as sweat formed upon his brow. His breathing began to quicken while sense of fear and surprise began to fill Zhao Wei.

Xue Chang and Xue Hai had just begun absorbing the energy of heaven and earth. Wu Jie was impressed by their speed and could tell that their talents weren't normal. But a split second later, an oppressive feeling began to press down on the courtyard.

Both he and Zhao Wei were the first to notice, followed by Xue Mei and lastly by the children themselves.

The clear blue skies darkened as clouds covered the sun and thunder rang from the heavens above.

Brilliant flashes of light shot out from the sky and struck the ground below, causing the earth to tremble and crack.

Shock and awe was all that anyone present could feel. This was the power of the heavens itself transforming the world, for better or worse.

As more lightning struck at the ground, a single form appeared from inside the dark clouds.

It was a finger.

A finger that seemed to go on endlessly without end and yet only remain right there in the courtyard at all times.

It was without imperfections and had a rainbow glow surrounding it. Thunder and lightning crackled around it and a single character was etched into its tip.

"Heavens"

Wu Jie sucked a mouthful of cold air as a whisper escaped from Zhao Wei's mouth, "Heavenly Blessing."

Heavenly Blessing was well known among all cultivators now matter how big or small. The Finger of Nirvana would descend from the heavens and imprint a mark onto the body of a cultivator. Whosoever was imprinted with this mark was destined to become greater than any other cultivator in this generation.

This was a sign of the heavens itself declaring that a pinnacle existence has come into the world, and all were to know him.

"Heavenly Blessing! Heavenly Blessing! HAHA! Zhao Wei you lucky bastard, one of your sons is actually a heavenly fate!"

A being fated to be like the heavens, a heavenly fate. Producing one of these was probably the greatest honor any family can possibly have.

And to have his own son be a heavenly fate... nothing was greater than this to Zhao Wei.

But just as his joy and exhilaration had reached its peak, despair replaced it just as quickly as it came.

Even Wu Jie couldn't help but fall to the floor and stare slack jawed at the sky in horror. His face became a deathly pale as all the blood drained from it and his lips were even trembling slightly.

Xue Mei didn't really understand what was happening. She understood that the finger with the "Heavens" character on it was probably a great sign, else Zhao Wei wouldn't have gotten so excited, but she also knew that something bad must've been happening for all of the joy on his face to suddenly disappear like that.

Looking up at the sky in worry and fear, Xue Mei couldn't help but grab the sleeve of her husband's robe and ask in a worrying manner.

"Honey... is it normal for there to be two fingers in the sky side by side like that?"

There, floating right next to the first Heavenly Blessing was a second finger, very different from the first. Unlike the Blessing, this finger was pitch black and had an eerie dark glow.

And on its tip two characters rested there instead of one.

"Eternal"

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