Chapter 1: Lightning Strikes Twice

In a big city called Honghua City in the southern province of China, our story begins in a well-off apartment building in one of its rooms on the seventh floor.

A twenty-year old young man with short, messy black hair was curled in his gaming chair facing his computer monitor, controller in hand, his eyes bloodshot. He was grounding his teeth in frustration and anger.

His name is Lin Longtian, a college dropout and a well known shut-in to his relatives, friends, and some of his neighbors.

He started living alone after his parents kicked him out of the house for dropping out of college. He didn't hate them for it, he understood their reason for it. Heck, any parents would at least disown their child when they heard the reason as to why he dropped out.

Because he didn't want to work like any functioning adult in society – he wanted to live in isolation in his own room, playing games, reading comics and books, and have wonderful dreams without a care in the world.

Was this decision of his the act of a teenage impulse? No!

This is the dream! Lin Longtian's ambition! Ever since he was a child he never had big dreams or great goals to achieve. Thus, he had no will to get a job.

Be a doctor? Nah. A policeman? No! A lawyer? No! A politician? Oh hell no!

What Lin Longtian wanted for his life to be, was to become an eternal shut-in as much as he could!

After a brief moment the screen showed the words, "DEFEAT", and the young man couldn't take it anymore and shot out of his chair, tossing the controller onto the floor, breaking it into pieces, his hands grabbing the sides of his computer monitor, and started yelling,

"AHHHH!! WHY!? Why are you all so fucking noobs?! We're all Mythical God Rankers, how the fuck did you all get easily killed in just five minutes?!" He gritted his teeth, then paused.

He took a deep calming breath to calm himself down, because he didn't want to buy another monitor just after a week of using this one after he absolutely wrecked the previous one.

It wasn't because he didn't have the money to buy another one, he'd earned enough money to rent 10 other rooms in the apartment complex he was in after all, but he just didn't want to go out of his comfortable room to buy one.

As for ordering it online, yeah, after the last few incidents of him ordering other online items had all ended up being either scams or broken, he stopped shopping online for stuff other than food and drinks. He'd typically ask one of his friends to buy stuff like that.

Lin Longtian slumped himself back down onto his emerald colored gaming chair, he grumbled under his breath as he scratched the back of his head.

"...I bet you all just bought your accounts, rich fucks. I'm reporting you all." As he moved his mouse to do that, he noticed at the corner of his screen several words and memes appearing.

'Ah shit. I completely forgot about them.'

"Hahahaha!"

"Lmao!!"

"SlothfulGamer is at it again, raging on bots."

"Well I can understand his pain..."

"Play the next game man! Epic comeback time!"

"Boo! Why can't you just solo win this like any other games you've played?!"

"Yeah, yeah! Are your skills lagging now that some new giant updates are coming into the game?"

"Hahahaha!"

A faint smirk spread across Lin Longtian's lips for a moment before a vein popped in his forehead as he read the last comments.

These were his viewers, his audience, and his source of income.

As you can tell, with him being a college dropout and a weird mindset of not leaving home, in order to sustain him he did what most shut-in gamers and bloggers do when they need money – they turn towards the internet for cash.

One of the platforms for such is–livestreaming.

And yet, despite them being his source of income, he didn't submit to their will and responded with one gesture...clenching his hand, raising his middle finger towards the camera.

"?!?!?!"

"GFY!"

"Hey, Hey, Hey! Slothful, are you courting death? Do you want me to stop watching you?"

"Damn, MoonlitYoungMaster is back again. But he's right! Don't disrespect your viewers man!"

Lin Longtian rested his elbow on the desk, his cheek pressed against his fist, while his other hand continued on flipping the bird towards them. "Listen up assholes, I don't give a damn if you don't watch my streams anymore. I'll still be playing games and having fun, whether you like it or not."

"What did you say?!!!"

"Damn bro, respect."

"Bastard!!"

"Fuck you!"

"F"

"Hey, shut the fuck up you losers! Slothful is right!"

"Yeah! Get lost!"

"Fuck off you simps!"

[BunBun has gifted you $20! Slothful, don't mind these losers and just keep on gaming!]

[HoleIsAGoal has gifted you $15! Ignore them babe!]

[MoonlitYoungMaster has gifted you $1! Go Fuck yourself!]

The chat exploded with messages of anger and disappointment, as well as great support, but Lin Longtian ignored them and focused back on his game.

After a few more failed attempts, he finally managed to win and let out a sigh of relief and satisfaction.

"Finally. Now, time to take a break and grab some food."

He stood up from his chair and stretched his limbs, feeling the stiffness from sitting for too long.

As he walked towards his mini fridge, he couldn't help but think about the new games, comics and stories coming in this month and was wondering how he'll enjoy them all without his brain turning mush.

"Eh. I'll just make a schedule and put up alarms. I joined the military for two years after all, although it was mandatory, the discipline shouldn't have been taken away from me just yet." Lin Longtian said with a weak smile, clearly remembering those torturous days in the military camp.

Shaking his head, he returned to his chair and resumed his gaming session, not knowing the event that was about to happen to him soon.

.....

In one of many worlds governed under the Immortal Realm, a world called Dark Metal World, a great and catastrophic event was occurring.

Atop the highest mountain peak of the realm, where thousands upon thousands of high-level spirit beasts and demons roamed the lands of the treacherous mountain terrain, one of the forbidden areas in the world where even True Immortals would die, the Nether Beast Mountain Ridge.

A lone figure draped in all black robes, was a twenty year old man with rugged looks, majestic beard and long black hair. The man was exuding an aura of darkness, authority, and power that would make even the strongest of beings tremble in fear.

This man's name was Xi Yan, the Shadow Immortal and one of the ten Immortal Kings reigning over the Dark Metal World.

But that would soon change.

Xi Yan was standing at the pinnacle of the mountain peak, his hands spread wide open as he chanted an ancient incantation, his voice booming across the entire realm, causing the skies to turn dark and ominous.

His mouth curled up when the sky started booming with thunder and rain started pouring down.

"And so it begins..." He quickly began circulating his Immortal Qi throughout his body and poured out, like some sludge, covering his body in black obsidian armor.

He released his spiritual power outwards from his body, a invisible spiritual power burst out of his body and started covering almost the entire mountain ridge, which spanned for dozens of kilometers.

Xia Yian scanned everything that was in his spiritual domain, warding off any threats to his ascension to the next realm of his cultivation.

He wanted nothing to go wrong with his thunder tribulation that he had been preparing for five hundred years.

Xia Yian was 4,032 years old this year, making him the third youngest of the ten Immortal Kings and thus had a lot of potential to reach the Demi-God rank and possibly even achieve true Divinity!

Becoming a God was one of his greatest desires after he became a False Immortal, to truly defy fate and destiny and control the Heavenly Dao with just a thought. To step into the true peak of the Martial Dao!

It was not only for his personal gain, but also his atonement for not being able to repay his loved ones graces.

Unlike most Immortals, Xia Yian had lived as a simple farmer like his parents and 7 whole generations of his family until he decided to enter a 2nd-rate sect in his mortal world to earn money for his parents.

That was the day that changed his life as he took his first step into the Martial Path.

But when you delve into it, you can never go back to your normal life ever again.

For the next time he went to see his parents, a hundred years had passed.

That was the said reality of becoming a cultivator.

"I will become a God." Xia Yian swore under his breath as he took a deep breath and the entire atmosphere suddenly turned..silent.

All of a sudden, the dark clouds filled with rumbling thunder and coiling lightning, parted atop the peak and a bright full appeared.

Then, 3 kilometers around Xia Yian, was drowned in complete darkness. No light, heat, or sound could be fealt.

As if the entire world had been engulfed in total darkness.

Shadow domain, one of the strongest and innate ability of the Shadow Immortal after he reached a certain level of strength in the mortal world.

There was a reason why he was mostly known as the Shadow Immortal and also why he came to the very peak of the Nether Beast Mountain Ridge, for it was the focal point of all Yin related essence and energy.

'To achieve my goals...'

Amidst the darkness, great roars of thunder and hissing of lightning could be heard and a bright flash of sparked.

'To reach the end of the Martial Path...'

Nine white lightning bolts started to appear simultaneously, bursting with restrained cosmic power, the color of the lightning bolts soon turning as black as the surrounding darkness.

'I will breakthrough!!' Xia Yian opened his eyes and let out a powerful yell.

"Come at me!!"

....

Back at Lin Longtian's apartment room.

"Hn..." Lin Longtian stretched his arms up, popping his back as he let out a satisfied groan. He had just finished his meal and was planning on continuing his gaming session, not before getting a fresh breath of air at his balcony.

Hey, he might like staying at home but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to take a look outside to enjoy the air and scenery of the city, especially during nights when it shines the brightest.

Opening his balcony window door, feeling the air of the city hit across his face as he stepped out. He leaned over the rail of the balcony and started gazing at the night sky, littered with stars.

"Ah, this is the life." Lin Longtian mused to himself. 'I wonder how my parents are doing...ah, I should call them to visit me next week. It's the least that I could do as a unfilial son.'

But then, a sudden rumbling sound caught his attention.

He looked around, trying to identify the source of the noise, but couldn't find it. It sounded like it was right in front of him, but there was nothing there.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning appeared in the sky, followed by nine more bolts of lightning, and everything seemed to be shrouded in a black shadowy aura.

Lin Longtian furrowed his eyebrows, feeling the strange energy coming from somewhere.

"What the hell is happening?" He muttered to himself.

But before he could do anything, the energy suddenly surged forward and hit him directly, causing him to scream out in agony.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the blackness enveloping him completely, his eyes tinged with fear and confusion.