Sovereign of the Ashes

The way of fate was ever-changing and impossible to predict. Its patterns were difficult for anyone to grasp fully.

Celestial Venerable Yuanshi believed that what he had seen was happening in the present.

In reality, however, the vision he had divined came from five hundred years ago.

Five hundred years earlier...

The once-poor but warm-hearted Duan Family Fortress was engulfed in raging flames.

Amidst the ruined houses and pitch-black, charred debris, a boy barely into his teens struggled out from beneath the rubble, a machete clutched in his hand and a younger girl strapped to his back.

His parents’ corpses had shielded them from the flames.

“Oy! Someone actually survived, huh?” A loud, brazen laugh rang out from beyond the burning village.

Several bandits who had yet to leave turned back. Whistling mockingly, they approached the brother and sister with curved blades in their hands.

“Kid, call me Grandpa,” said an unusually young but burly man. “Crawl between my legs, and I might spare your life!”

His coarse blue garment was soaked in blood, but none of it belonged to him.

His words immediately drew mocking laughter from the other three bandits nearby.

One of them noticed the filthy little girl strapped to the boy’s back. Covered in dirt, she looked almost like a small ball of mud.

“Hehe, there’s a little girl too. Should we take her back to the mountain stronghold? Or sell her to a madam in the red-light city?”

The bandits’ vulgar laughter made the boy tighten his grip on the machete.

The despair and agony on the faces of his parents and fellow villagers during their final moments was still fresh in his mind.

In harsh times like these, strength reigned supreme.

Perhaps the famous righteous sects could bring justice and order to many parts of the world.

Unfortunately, their influence did not extend to this tiny mountain village hidden in a remote corner of the land.

Darkness and chaos still ruled much of the world.

Strength was the only standard by which morality, justice, and even right and wrong were judged!

Duan Family Fortress had been too weak. Its people had been too poor to afford even the protection of the nearest garrison. And so, the village had been overrun by bandits far stronger than they were, who survived by plundering others.

In the end, this world was still a dark jungle where the big fish devoured the small fish, and the small fish devoured the shrimp.

That was true whether one looked at the grand scale of civilizations and interplanar wars, or something as small as the destruction of a remote mountain village.

“What is it? You want to fight me? Can you even hold that machete properly, kid?” the burly bandit sneered.

Even after more than a decade as a bandit, being stared down by a half-grown child wielding a machete was a new experience for him.

Of the other three bandits, some egged him on while others simply watched the show. Only the last one urged impatiently, “The second boss and the others have already left. Hurry up and kill the brat, grab the girl, and let’s get out of here!”

Girls were worth more than boys, and they put up weaker resistance.

Besides, for some unknown reason, the mountain stronghold had recently begun collecting young boys and girls.

The boy was clearly too old and probably did not meet their requirements, but the girl should be suitable.

In fact, aside from plundering the village, one of the main reasons this group of bandits had attacked Duan Family Fortress was to collect children.

Urged on by his companions, the burly man spat to the side and kicked his horse forward.

Clop! Clop! Clop!

The pounding of hooves grew louder and closer.

With the burly man’s confidence in his swordsmanship, it would take only an instant to send a fine head flying through the air.

He could already imagine the blood spraying across his face. He loved the thrill of licking blood from his blade.

Directly ahead, the boy tightened his grip on the machete and pulled his little sister closer against his back.

As the bandit charged toward them, he felt her arms tighten around his neck.

“I’m scared, Big Bro,” she whispered, burying her face against his neck.

“Don’t be scared, Ning’er. Big Brother will protect you.” The boy’s grip tightened once more.

Perhaps the deaths of his parents and relatives had driven him beyond his limits.

Or perhaps his unusual constitution had awakened under the pressure of death.

A dark silver gleam flashed through his eyes.

Whoosh!

The bandit shot past the brother and sister.

A second later, the burly young man was split cleanly in two!

Scorching blood splattered across the boy’s cheek.

A moment later, he raised his head and looked toward the remaining three bandits.

Silver flames burned in his eyes.

“H-how is that possible?” the three men exclaimed in disbelief.

The attack had been so fast that none of them had even seen how the boy had swung his machete.

In a single flash of silver light, the bandit who had been laughing so arrogantly only moments earlier had been split in two.

Now, the boy slowly walked toward the remaining three.

In an instant, the situation between them had completely reversed!

The boy was now the one advancing, while the three bandits facing him were filled with shock and uncertainty.

The little girl on his back raised her head and stole a quick glance at the scene around them before immediately lowering it again.

It was as though her brother’s back were the safest place in the entire world.

“What do you think you are doing?” one of the bandits cried out in alarm.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three more flashes of silver light swept past.

Three heads flew into the air!

Hot blood splattered across the boy’s face. Perhaps even he did not know where this sudden strength had come from.

More importantly, this profound and mysterious blade intent was not something he had learned through training. It was almost as though he had been born with it!

Why had he never discovered it before while chopping firewood in the mountain ravine?

Had he awakened it earlier, perhaps his parents and the other villagers would not have...

Oh well, people were often forced beyond their limits by adversity.

“Hm? What happened here?”

The boy had just killed four bandits in quick succession and had yet to emerge from that strange state when another voice sounded nearby.

A man dressed in a tight-fitting black outfit stepped into view.

He was also one of the boy’s enemies, the fourth-in-command of the bandit gang that had slaughtered the people of Duan Family Fortress.

Faced with the boy, whose machete was still dripping with blood, the man frowned slightly.

He did not underestimate him. Instead, he bent his knees and assumed a combat stance.

This man was a true martial practitioner, though at the beginner stage.

Within the Immortal Realm Civilization, not everyone had the opportunity to cultivate the path of immortality, just as knights and mages were hardly common in Magus World.

Opportunity, inheritance, wealth, and even the recognition of a powerful patron were all indispensable.

Most ordinary people remained at the very bottom of society. They might have heard stories of immortals, but they would still spend their entire lives struggling through mud and dust.

For those unable to embark on the path of immortality, practicing martial arts was one of the few ways to break the cycle of poverty, aside from studying.

As for becoming a merchant, that was certainly not an option for everyone.

This battle also ended in the blink of an eye.

The youth swung his machete in a vicious horizontal slash across the man’s chest.

The fourth leader of the bandit group had been just about to strike the youth’s head when he suddenly looked down in disbelief.

The lower half of his body had been severed cleanly from the upper half. Thick blood carrying a strong metallic stench instantly spread across the ground around him.

Martial practitioners possessed vigorous vitality. The sheer amount of blood pouring from the man clearly set him apart from the ordinary bandits the youth had killed earlier.

Unfortunately, none of that mattered!

The man had become yet another victim of the youth’s machete!

“How is this possible...? I clearly dodged it just now...”

Reduced to only his upper body, the fourth leader was somehow still alive.

Although he had yet to reach the Rank One life level, commonly known as the Foundation Establishment stage, the fact that he could cling to life for several more breaths through sheer vitality showed just how solid his cultivation foundation was.

“No... I’ve been chosen by the Tianyu Sect. I’m about to become the Gate of Immortality’s disciple... I’m going to become an immortal! I cannot die...”

Another torrent of blood poured from beneath the fourth leader’s torso. On the verge of death, he raised one hand toward the sky, as though trying to reach the so-called Gate of Immortality.

At the same time, the youth coughed up a mouthful of blood. The fourth leader’s right fist had struck his left shoulder earlier.

Worse still, the youth had forced his body far beyond its natural limits for too long, unleashing speed and strength that his physique should never have been capable of supporting.

His skin had split open in several places, leaving thin trails of blood across his body.

Most seriously, his left shoulder seemed to have shattered.

The unbearable pain dragged him out of that strange state. It was then that he heard the man’s dying words.

The youth’s eyes burned with hatred for the man before him and every bandit who had slaughtered his village.

When he was younger, he too had heard stories of immortals from his mother.

But now, after learning that someone like this could become an “immortal”...

“If you become an immortal, then I will become an immortal slayer!” the boy spat out through clenched teeth.

The moment the word immortal slayer left his mouth, thunder exploded across the sky.

Dark clouds churned.

A violent storm descended.

In the blink of an eye, the remote mountain village was swallowed by a summer downpour.

The pain in his shoulder, the shock of everything he had endured, and the strain of forcing his body beyond its limits finally drained the last of his strength.

After uttering those defiant words, the boy collapsed to the ground.

Through the curtain of rain, he faintly saw his younger sister rushing toward him, terror and worry written across her face.

“I’ll protect you...” he murmured before losing consciousness.

“Big Bro!”

The Great Primordial Land, Eastern Purva Continent[1], the Heaven Cloud Empire under the Aolai Nation, Taixi Province, Tiema Prefecture, at the ruins of Duan Family Fortress on the border of Conglan County...

Holding a machete and leading his younger sister by the hand, the boy began the journey of this lifetime.

1. Translator’s Note: In Journey to the West, the Eastern Purva Continent is one of the four great continents. There are a few official translations for this continent: Continent of Superior Bodies, Purvavideha (in Sanskrit), or simply Eastern Continent. ☜