Chapter 1: Rebirth?! A lowly duck once more?

Ya Jiao floated peacefully through the river of life. His skin was pale and his lips cracked. Not a single drop of moisture remained in his body, which now looked like a dried-up corpse.

It felt nice. . . the painlessness, the numbness, the cold.

Ya Jiao drifted steadily through the blackened gates of hell, as each passing gate slowly turned him more and more incorporeal. It was as if he'd lost control over himself, lost his grasp on the world. Nothing felt real, mirages and illusions swam within his darkened vision, steadily sapping his life and will. The Yellow Springs Road sure is cruel. . .

However, a spinning orb abruptly halted his descent into the underworld. The lifeless Ya Jiao felt a strange sensation overtake him. An ancient, primordial, and frightening energy. It overturned the still and groggy atmosphere, restoring his consciousness as Ya Jiao groaned.

The painlessness, the numbness, and the cold vanished all at once. And the pain-

Pain?

Soft noises hummed in the background as Ya Jiao thrashed around in his boat of the dead.

Abruptly, the Duck Lord winced, a fiery sear travelling through his body. What is this? Pain erupted from his senses, stabbing at him as both soreness and tenderness assaulted him. Emotions flowed past the bounds of grounded reality and struck him who was already deceased. And not just any old emotion.

It was a rare feeling of humiliation.

The mumbling voices became clearer, louder.

"Kick him! Kick him more!"

"He dares to act so pompously in front of us? He must be courting death!"

"Someone cut him up. We'll be having duck meat and soup tonight!"

Ya Jiao's vision cleared. He watched as a giant foot, raised high into the air, stomped harshly toward him. It blotted out the sun with its unfathomable size, covering heaven and earth. Out of sheer instinct, the Duck Lord shifted slightly to the side, rolling away from the blow.

Pak!

The foot came into contact with the ground. The earth trembled, sky rent, and the flow of Time and Space and—wait, nothing. . . happened? No blast of air, no bang or boom? Not a single rock beneath him was even displaced? Ya Jiao looked on in confusion, observing the opponent who was currently lifting his attacking foot up in pain, cradling it and hopping around on the other. The curses and whining flew past Ya Jiao's head like crows, serving only to accentuate his astonishment.

'What. The. Duck?'

It was like looking at an alien lifeform. The confounded Duck Lord opened his mouth but managed to say nothing in response. What would one even say in this situation?

Thankfully, the aggressor finally recovered enough to go after him again, sparing him the brainpower to fully process the proceedings. The giant, a being almost four times his size, approached him yet again. A classic tell-tale monster. . .

Perhaps the earth beneath them had an unbreakable quality to it. That would explain the lacking damage and subsequent reflected pain.

Nevertheless, why was this giant so slow?

Furthermore, why did it have tears in the corner of its eyes?

No matter.

Ya Jiao prepared for the next hit as his supreme arts manifested. The Duck Sword was not with him, he knew that much. His power had also taken a hit, dropping to a level almost imperceptible, a speck of dust in the wind. The supreme arts were barely able to manifest.

Everything was different now. A sense of discordant unfamiliarity struck him.

"Stupid duck, I'll slice you up!"

And yet some things never change.

Ya Jiao cleared his mind, hitting the incoming stomp with his circulating palm. He hoped to nullify or deflect the damage and escape. A bumbling giant such as this would be hard-pressed to chase him. Grudges between gentlemen could last for thousands of years after all, and it was never too late for revenge.

Right palm and left foot clashed.

Bang!

However, contrary to his calculations, the towering giant instantly went flying! Like a kite without its strings or a sail lost to the winds, Ya Jiao witnessed an airborne figure soaring sloppily through the sky. The giant was like a duckling on its first flight, waving its wings in desperation. He half-lifted an arm in a state of slight stupefaction, before retracting it at the sight of that same giant crashing headfirst into a large, gritty boulder.

'Ssssshhh.'

That's gotta hurt.

The giant's two companions also recoiled in shock, their mouths opening wide. Then. . . their eyes widened in horror, and they ran away without looking back, screaming as they escaped:

"MURDER! MURDER! A DUCK KILLED SOMEONE!"

Ya Jiao blinked a few times. Shortly after, he sighed in surrender and started walking forwards.

Seeing how far away the giant flew, Ya Jiao decided to test out a few things before dealing with the aftermath of his rash actions. It was his good fortune that no other person was nearby. The rock with a bloody body bashed into it would make for one hell of a reason for the arrest.

The contemplating Duck Lord focused and circulated his energy, but immediately flinched in pain as he stopped the process completely. His meridians had almost ripped in two.

'Negligent amounts of Qi. . . and a closed Dantian. I have no cultivation?'

This revelation stunned him for a while, though his face returned to a still calmness soon after.

It made sense. Entering Qi Deviation, no less its second stage, was tantamount to suicide. All of his meridians and Qi channels should have been obliterated entirely. Bones like powder and skin like torn jerky, he was lucky to be alive.

But that begged the question.

How was he alive? And fully intact at that.

The question swirled around in Ya Jiao's head, yet there was no way for him to respond, for even he himself had no clue. By all rights, he should be a dead duck. Furthermore, what was he to make of this odd scene? Sending such a giant flying was undoubtedly within the realm of impossibility for the Ya Jiao whose cultivation had been abolished.

Questioning and pondering, the Duck Lord arrived at the boulder.

It was a ghastly yet comedic sight. A tall figure splayed out in figure eight, hugging the rock-like how one hugs their lover. Ya Jiao heard slight mumbling and muttering, as if a drunkard on his last legs, blackout drunk. However, he was still alive.

'Should I kill him?'

Ya Jiao suddenly remembered the cruelties he suffered under this man's hands. Humiliation like this was a first for the Heavenly Duck Lord. A cold aura lashed out at the surrounding area, forming into an icy bloodlust. There was no way he would leave such a matter so easily.

His situation was not dire, but the damage was quite great nonetheless. It made him angry, and that anger usually led to slaughter, or worse.

Ya Jiao decided to wave away his killing intent for now. Information was more important.

He looked over the giant's body and found some peculiarities. The giant actually had no cultivation either! Hell, his strength was on the same level as a mortal human?! Simply preposterous. If nothing else, would his physique not elevate him to a degree of strength incomparable to mortal men?

Ya Jiao's curiosity peaked. He stepped closer to the fainted being, but felt something gross and disgusting underneath his feet. A wet and sticky sensation. . .

Your mother! This guy actually pissed himself!

Almost vomiting in repulsion, Ya Jiao began backpedalling, until a brief image caught his eye.

The Duck Lord's eyes widened in shock.

'This. . . this. . . this. . .'

Even if it was only for a moment, the observant Ya Jiao knew exactly what he saw. Stretching out his hands, he realized a monumental change, and his mouth opened wider than those two scumbags from earlier. No bloody stump, no phantom pain. He still had both hands.

And these hands were not hands, but wings.

Duck wings.

Ya Jiao stared into the golden liquid; a noble, white-feathered duck with a yellow beak stared back.

The True Duck Lord faltered and then screamed at the uncaring sky.

"WHY THE QUACK AM I A DUCK AGAIN?!?!"

————

Within the Primordial Void Rift.

A skeletal hand emerged from the depths of nothingness, clawing towards the surface. Ghouls and ghosts ran away in terror as even the omniscient Heavenly Law trembled from its presence.

Sickening. Unbearable. The existence that defied Heaven climbed its way back up from Hell.

Endless repeating patterns congealed around the husk of a figure, runic symbols of unfathomable profundity orbited it like how the moon does the sun. Infinitely changing, yet everlasting.

Two words that have weathered the end of countless dynasties and eras.

[Ancient Samsara]

Chains of Dao floated in the void, shattered into dust, and scattered across the Realms. The Key of Flowing Time soared away from its lock, humming a mournful tune.

Flesh and skin regenerated and dressed the skeleton. Nails and hair regrew. The face took shape and moulded, cast into darkness before anyone could view it.

A pair of black eyes opened in endless shadow, as an eerie, gruesome laugh penetrated the space.

"The seal is broken. Did someone finally cheat Samsara? My toy in the Heavenly Realm sure came to good use, huh. Well. This life will be very, very interesting. . ."