Unknown Immortals

A young man was meticulously inspecting his clothes in the mirror. He smoothed every wrinkle he could find until his clothes were spotless.

From top to bottom, he wore the best clothes the village had.

His green top was from the village elder, the bottom was from the neighbor next door, and the shoes were from his brother-in-law.

The ring decorating his finger was his mother's treasure ring.

Overall, the young man looked fine. At least that's what he and everyone else in his village think.

"Little Brother, it's about time. The Galaxy Star Seed Convention will start in five days. Considering the time to travel, you should head out now."

"Everyone is waiting for Big Brother in the village hall! Let's go there together, Big Brother!"

A woman and a young girl entered the room after a brief knock.

The woman was the young man's older sister and the girl was his younger sister. They came here to remind him of the time, as ordered by the village's elder.

The young man greeted his sisters with a gentle smile that could warm anyone's heart.

"Let's go."

The three of them walked together from their house to the village's hall.

The little sister was so excited about things and couldn't stop talking in a high-pitched voice to his brother. The big sister didn't say anything and only looked at her two siblings warmly.

The three of them arrived at the village hall after a few minutes of walking. Everyone in the village has already been waiting there.

The kids scrambled as soon as they saw the young man, surrounding him in a big circle. They were just as excited as his little sister, their voices overlapped to one another into a loud buzz.

"Let him pass through, children."

An aged, gentle, and soothing voice came from behind the children. The children quickly receded like a tide to let the old man pass with barely contained excitement in their eyes.

An old man holding a wooden cane was revealed after the children retreated. His hair was grey and white. His back was hunched forward, and it was clear that just walking around was quite a struggle for the old man.

He looked very weak, but everyone in this village had nothing but respect for this old man.

He was the village elder, Bai Yan.

Everyone respected Bai Yan like they respect their own parents. The elder had done so much, too much for their village, after all.

The stories about their elder's selfless sacrifices for the village know no ends.

There was a time when a terrible winter assaulted their village. A thief had stolen all their stock of firewood and they were ready to face the death's cold embrace. They could do nothing but to sit and watch as their families slowly being tortured by the cold.

But it was the village elder who saved them. He so selflessly tore down his own house, the biggest house in the village to use as firewoods.

Everyone was overjoyed, and they braced the winter safely. The elder was once again showered in praises, but he didn't look happy.

It was until a long time later that they found out that the elder's bedridden son had died that winter. The elder's son had faded from everyone's memories due to his years of absence, and it horrified them when they learned the truth.

The elder had sacrificed his own son to save everyone else from a fate worse than death.

He lost his son to save the villagers, but he didn't say anything to anyone about it. The only emotion the elder showed was self-hatred and grief for losing his son.

There were many, many more stories like this. Each and every villager was indebted to him, and they couldn't possibly pay them back to him.

That was why the elder was so respected, and even his casual remarks were treated as law that everyone willingly obey themselves.

"Elder."

The young man kneeled to show his respect to the old man in front of him. It felt like a natural thing to do.

"Get up, child. I am happy that your parents did a good job raising a child like you. Your respect is wasted on an old bone like me."

The elder touched the young man's shoulders with his weak, withering hands and prompted him to get up. A warm and gentle smile was plastered on that wrinkled face.

"Have you finished your preparation, child?"

Getting asked this question from the elder, he quickly looked at his clothes once again. There were a few wrinkles after his little sister and the children had clung to him just now, so he smoothed them with his fingers.

After making sure that he hadn't forgotten everything that he should bring with him, he answered the elder's question resolutely.

"Yes, elder. I am prepared. I will do my best to attract an elite's attention to make me their student. With their help, I will break this village's curse and free everyone from this terrible fate in the future."

A flame of determination was burned vividly in his eyes. He was the only one that could save everyone, and he will not fail his one and only chance no matter what.

Bai Village, the only semblance of civillization in this Bai Planet was cursed. But perhaps that's not an accurate statement. The planet itself was cursed.

Every living organism in this planet couldn't die.

While that seems convenient at first glance, the reality is far from it.

No living organism in this planet could practice the profound. They couldn't sense, feel, or see the profound. They were born without a profound vein in their body.

In all sense of the word, they were well and truly, mortal. They weren't profound practitioners.

The only thing differentiating them from normal mortal was their inability to die. They wouldn't die of sickness, they wouldn't die of old age, they wouldn't die from anything.

Even if their heads were blown to bits, they would just regrow another head in an instant and be absolutely fine. Their bodies would grow weak as they grow old until they could no longer move, but they won't die.

They can, however, suffered a fate worse than death if they were going too far away from the village. They would turn into a blob of flesh and blood with their consciousness still intact if they stray too far from the village.

Anyone from the God Realm would drop their jaws if they learn the true age of the elder Bai Yan. It was well beyond what they thought was possible from a human, let alone a mortal.

Even though they were mortal, they were more immortal than even the mightiest profound practitioners because of the curse.

The absurd thing about all of this, however, is that no one knows about them. The Bai Planet was hidden in the corner of a really hard to spot star system. You couldn't get to it if you didn't know the exact location.

Due to this, no one in the God Realm learned the existence of the Bai and their immortality all this time.

The denizen of the Bai Planet, the Bai Village's villager, was doomed to live a nightmare for all eternity, robbed of their ability to die.

They had already done everything they could think of to remedy this issue to no avail. What's left inside their dying hearts were just despair and depression.

But all of that had changed when Bai Fei was born.

He was a normal baby just like any other, and there didn't seem to be anything special about him at first. But when he was a year old, he had broken a table when he threw a tantrum.

It was at that time that they knew Bai Fei was special, and only Bai Yan knew why.

Bai Fei had been born with a profound vein, and that meant he could become a profound practitioner and escape the planet. He could die when he was old, and that made people jealous.

The Bai Village had never had any conflicts because of their circumstances. Fighting amongst their own was a stupid idea when they had to band together in that harsh planet and environment.

Even though they were jealous of Bai Fei, that was all they do. Their jealousy turned into admiration, and admiration turned into hope.

They saw the possibility of salvation. They had longed for death for a very long time. For the first time in ever, they could hold and see the hope of it coming true someday.

Bai Fei was fhe embodiment of their hope and salvation.

He was a talented kid as well. He had no one to teach him in the way of the profound, but he was still able to achieve much by himself.

He broke through the divine realm when he reached the age of 10, and he was currently at the 3rd level of Divine Soul Realm at the age of 16.

He had spent all his time practicing the profound way in Bai Planet. It was only after he broke through the Divine Soul Realm that he could escape the confine of Bai Planet and roam the universe freely.

He had learned that there was a huge civilization amongst the stars. They were called Star Realms, and they were divided by the might of their profound practitioners.

It was also how he had come to learn about the Galaxy Star Seed Convention. He came back to Bai Village to tell what he had learned about the world to the villagers.

They were all shocked to learn that they weren't the only ones in this universe. Everyone was curious about this other civilization, and their will to live was stoked even brighter that day.

They realized once again how great Bai Fei was.

It was a gargantuan accomplishment worthy of praise of the highest degree considering his circumstances.

He had no resources to help him practice, no teacher to teach him the profound way, and no legacy to inherit.

His profound art was simple manifestation of basic element using his profound power. Its quality was poor, and it was even worse than the worst profound art in Floating Cloud City.

But even so, the fire that Bai Yan conjured had lit a burning desire of every villager.

They realized that death isn't the only thing they desire.

If they could live like Bai Fei, if their descendants could become like Bai Fei and roam the universe like him, they would gladly hang on to life to see that happen. They could always die later when they are satisified with the lives they had.

Living life to its fullest, so they could die later on with no regrets is their way of life now.

"Good, good. Good child. You will do well. Do not worry too much if you fail, you could always have more opportunity in the future."

The elder nodded in approval after seeing Bai Fei's determination. With a young man like Bai Fei, the village's future was bright.

"Go. Go and see the bigger world. Don't mind us old fogeys here, you can do whatever you want there and don't come back even if you're worried about us."

The elder's voice prompted all the other villagers to say their piece as well.

"That's right! Seeing a Bai escaping this planet is more than we could dream! If even a single one of us escaped this damn place, we would be happy!"

"You are one of the Bai. No matter where you go, Bai is within you and know that we will always be there for you."

"You are our greatest pride, Bai Fei! Don't forget to bring your wife and kids here later if you miss home!"

"Idiot. Any place out there would be like heaven compared to this shithole. Why would you want him to bring his wife and kids here? Bai Fei, don't listen to him. Don't even think about coming here, in fact, I will stab you with this pitchfork if I ever see your ugly mug again, got it?"

Chatter chatter.

The villagers were excited to send Bai Fei off.

Some were serious, some were not, and some were emotional. The only common thing they said, however, was that they didn't want Bai Fei to come back to Bai Planet.

This place was truly terrible, and they didn't want one of them to come back to this wretched planet.

Bai Fei's little sister, Bai Wei, was holding his right hand tightly with her tiny little hands. There were tears in the corner of her eyes, even though she had been doing her best not to cry all this entire time.

Bai Fei rubbed his little sister's hands to reassure her. He kneeled in front of her and wiped her tears with the back of his hand as he stared into her eyes and smiled the warmest smile he could make.

"Don't worry, Wei'er, big brother will be back. When that time comes, I will bring Wei'er to lots of fun places and eat many delicious food! So wait for me, will you?"

Wei'er's sad face hasn't changed, but her eyes seemed to be brighter after being comforted by her Big Brother.

She really didn't wanna be separated from her Big Brother. But even she knew without being told that life out there was countless times better than living in Bai Planet.

She wanted her big brother to be happy, so she didn't say anything. But she was just a child, and it pained her to see her big brother leave her for a long time like this.

There was every chance that she couldn't see her Big Brother again, and the thought of it was what pained her the most.

"Do you promise?"

Wei'er looked at Bai Fei's with her glassy eyes.

"I promise! Let's do a pinky promise so that Big Brother can't lie to you."

They wrapped their pinky together, and Wei'er's face finally brightened. She was back to being her usual cheery self.

"Um! I will wait for Big Brother here like a good girl! You've made a pinky promise with me, so you can't lie!"

Bai Fei gently patted her head and smiled.

"I'll be back, Wei'er."

After that, he said his goodbyes to his family and friends and flew to the distant Star God Realm.

"I must succeed. For the sake of everyone."

His eyes were full of determination as he passed through countless planets like a meteor.