Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"Not like this!" A youth hysterically shrieked. The youth who shouted as if the skies were falling was currently putting the pedal to the metal on his internal engine as he dashed ferociously across the grassy plains. Originally, these plains and knolls were his safe haven, but today, it seems like it may be his death sentence. His head, in curiosity of his impending status of death, couldn’t help but turn backwards slowly in anticipation of presumed safety. However, what welcomed his eyes were sights far more disastrous than originally believed.

A meteor!

A crimson meteor of almost blinding light was descending from the skies at unimaginable speeds. A few seconds ago, this meteor seemed to have the destination of a far-off scene, and all the youth wanted to achieve was to avoid any possible fallout from its descent. Unfortunately for his little life, the meteor seemed to have eyes and a mission as it shifted directions ever so slightly and seemed even closer than before.

"What the fu-!" He couldn’t help but curse the heavens for wanting his little life. What did he ever do to deserve this?

Thinking about it, perhaps it wasn’t entirely unwarranted.

This youth, named Yan Zaizen, was amber-eyed, scrawny in physique, messy short black hair, no more than sixteen years of age, and possessed a face that was neither distinctively attractive or overtly ugly for the eyes. Currently, he cursed his life choices. Staying in an isolated plain with nearby knolls to get away from it all left him in his current predicament. The nearest human life was tens of miles away from him, so outrunning this hell-bent meteor seemed to be a sweet dream of impossibility.

The meteor reached ever closer until he could feel it radiating a sensation of distinct death.

His life flashed before his eyes so vividly at that moment.

Yan Zaizen was just a normal boy in a place called Meteorite City. It was named thus not because of the constant meteorites that would land near the city, but because a thousand years ago, tens of thousands of meteors culled the entire population - human and beast alike. The meteor shower spanned a thousand miles, and Meteorite City was created with its epicenter hoisting the largest existing meteor to date. Since then, only meteors that had a size that would be small and harmless upon entry to the world would fall. They were no larger than a basketball, and that’s always been the case since the culling shower.

However, it seems like Yan Zaizen’s luck will forever be bad.

Yan Zaizen originated from one of the strongest family clans situated in the city and should be enjoying immense favor as he was a grandchild of the current clan head from his mother’s side, and for a time that was absolutely how he was treated. That was until his talent, at the age of five, was decided to be the lowest grade possible in both Body & Qi cultivation. This set off a series of events that soon lead to even more unfortunate events. It didn’t help that before he was even five, both of his parents had already left this world and were now buried in the family’s sacred cemetery, and thus he pretty much had to rely on himself from then on.

Misfortune tends to be followed by even more misfortune, and his life was a superb example of that. At the age of seven, he fell for a girl named Ya Qinqan. It was child-level infatuation. She had the dream of entering one of the five great sects — Water Veil Sect — it had high standards for cultivation and age requirements to enter. It also had one ironclad rule: Females Only! Recognizing this, he tried to aid her the only way he could think of, he gave her a majority of his own clan given resources.

The Ya Clan and Yan Clan were allied forces in Meteorite City, but the Ya Clan are direct subordinates of the Yan Clan and one of the lesser clans in the power standings; therefore, the given resources of someone, even one talentless and devalued, but in the descendants line of the clan head was vastly superior in both quality and quantity of what a normal member of the Ya Clan would receive. Not to mention, he still held the status as one of the grandsons of the clan leader.

To put it in perspective, he received far more resources than the direct descendants of the Ya Clan with exceptional talent! Let alone a basic member.

The difference was just too vast - heaven and earth essentially.

After this was done, his own cultivation into body & qi coupled with his lackluster innate talents put him at the bottom of the ladder as a cultivator out of all of the city’s youths. Ya Qinqan’s cultivation, however, explosively rose as she already possessed greater innate talents than many and coupled with the resources given to her by Yan Zaizen and the ones given to her by her own clan. With that, she directly entered the top ten of her generation in the city at the age of ten.

This, however, lead to even more problems for poor little Yan Zaizen.

Firstly, Yan Zaizen’s decisions and lackluster results lead to the clan not giving him sufficient resources anymore at the age of ten, but the pigs fat had already been eaten. Ya Qinqan, unbeknownst to her clan about the resources given to her, had received the utmost attention from her family and was given top quality resources that could rival the total Yan Zaizen could give. They essentially funneled all their hopes and dreams into her, heralding her as a genius, and further giving her all sorts of earthly treasures with heavenly waters. They spared no cost. This caused her cultivation to explode even further and talents to be further accentuated. Even worse, although Yan Zaizen was given greatly reduced resources, he still gave her what he could to convey his determination and feelings for her. It was as if he was saying: ’Even if I became a useless person, as long as the person I love succeeds, be it disdainful gazes or dirty curses, I can bear it all!’

Obviously, this didn’t work out well for the scrawny sap.

At the age of thirteen, an incredibly talented and direct descendant in line to be the next clan leader, Yan Jinzen, had declared his love for Ya Qinqan and with the approval of both the Ya and Yan family, they were engaged. The standard of engagement was thirteen years of age, but actual marriage happened at fifteen. Ya Qinqan and Yan Jinzen were the same age as Yan Zaizen and got married one year ago. They had already consummated their commitment and Yan Zaizen had, at that moment, lost everything. His future, his girl, and even his dignity.

Nothing went his way, and It didn’t stop there.

Yan Jinzen soon learned about Yan Zaizen’s earlier attempts at trying to court Ya Qinqan, he saw his attempts as if an unworthy toad wanted to taste his swan’s meat, and since then has suppressed him further within the clan. With his father as the clan’s elder of resources and finances, Yan Zaizen was suppressed to the point where his living situation, the number of resources given, and even his standing in the clan was absolutely the lowest of the low. For an entire three years, despite conventional practice, his cultivation and even his body had become rather poor compared to his age which explains the scrawny appearance of his.

"Please, up above, if you spare this little life of mines, I’ll change my ways! I’ll stop stealing meat from Uncle Louzen’s storage!" His mind swirled in his thoughts as he prayed to the heavens for mercy, willing to give up his pleasures in turn for this little life of his. However, as he ran forward, he could see the silhouette of the meteor inching ever closer, unrelenting as if on a mission to claim what was his.

His pupils constricted as a frightful sensation of death stroked his mind causing his hair to stand, his skin to crawl, his blood to turn cold, his scalp to tingle, and a sudden loss of breath. Tears slowly came from his eyes, but his legs didn’t stop. No! They became like lightning of the horse he wished to be and he exerted over three hundred percent of his top speed, completely defying his natural limits and causing his bones to crack as a result. Yan Zaizen was an individual that was absolutely terrified at the thought of death, especially when he’d done so little if nothing at all with this life of his.

He hadn’t tasted all the gourmet foods of the world, hadn’t gotten so much wealth that he could go into an auction and purchase every last item with hearty laughter, and hadn’t even lost his virginity! That was beyond important and covered a majority of his regrets. He couldn’t help but continue to pray and bargain as if to make a deal with the Gods and Devils in the sky for his life.

"I will give up peeping! On...the weekends. I’ll even give back the stuff I’ve taken from Aunty Qinlan!" His thoughts went into a spiral, but then his expression turned odd as he later added into his prayers, "Maybe...actually, nevermind. I’d rather die." As if the heavens were angry at his half-hearted plea, the meteor-like object was now mere inches away from his body, and even the sweat on his body felt like it was producing its own sweat. The bones in his legs were long since shattered from the intense pressure he placed upon them as he ran, and if not for his Qi Cultivation supporting it, he’d already have flopped on the ground as a cripple and accepted his fate.

Whoosh!!!

The impact didn’t initiate a massive explosion as expected, nor did it shatter his body into a billion bloody pieces. It did, however, cause his body to be surrounded by a bright crimson glow, and the whites of his eyes could only be seen as he dropped face first on the ground. Completely unconscious. The invading crimson light wiggled its way inside his body like a parasite, but when it reached his core of existence — the soul — a switch seemed to have been flipped deep-within Yan Zaizen. An earth-shattering noise that seemed to come from an ancient existence erupted from his body. Yan Zaizen’s body started to vibrate erratically as if experiencing a seizing episode.

Something had been awakened.

A resplendent black light exploded from deep within Yan Zaizen’s body, a light that seemed to originate from his very soul. It was accompanied by the painful screams of another man’s voice, which seemed to be in absolute agony at the moment, and it kept getting more intense. "What? This weak body is trying to devour my soul?! How?!" The voice was obviously alarmed by the sudden, unprecedented development. "I can’t escape, stop! STOP!" The voice grew more and more frantic, and it even resorted to begging our scrawny hero.

Upon Yan Zaizen’s glabella was tiny black swirl that seemed to contain infinite darkness and even light seemed to be consumed by it whole, giving the swirl a slight glimmer of bright light around its edges. Despite it being no more than half an inch in radius, it possessed a tyrannical aura that seemed to outdo even kings of great nations.

"Please! I’ll give you anything, just stop whatever you’re doing, please! I have things to do, people to slaughter, so I can’t die like this! PLEASE!!!" The begging tones could obviously be seen as something this voice wasn’t used to, but at the moment, it seemed that everything was out of its control and that caused a deep fear to be ingrained into every single syllable spoken.

However, how was this voice, this remnant soul, supposed to know that even Yan Zaizen had no way to control this horrific black light that seemed to wish to devour all. He was unconscious, so he also had no idea what was even happening.

The crimson light almost instantly disappeared as it seemed to be sucked suddenly into the black swirl on Yan Zaizen’s glabella. There was no little last struggle or further words shouted. The spirit that had flown from the sky like a meteor descending from the heavens and entered this boy’s body had no longer existed in this world, or at least its consciousness didn’t.

The black light slowly receded, and all of Yan Zai Xen’s injuries produced by the earlier events started to heal at a visible rate. A perfectly snug silver ring appeared on his middle right-handed finger as if it was always there and made solely for him, while countless crimson streams surrounded by black light slowly invaded his meridians before traveling back into his glabella. His eyes that were fully white before slowly returned to having that amber color to it. Luckily too, as those eyes were his most recognizable and personal favorite feature of his entire body!

Three whole days passed. The sun rose, and a new story of a legend was born!