Chapter four: The Cry of Nothingness and the Seed of Eternity
There is no time here, no beginning, no end...
In a colorless white ocean, with no bottom or top, Fang Yi was floating like a drop of water separated from the river of existence. His body was nothing but naked consciousness, no longer protected by skin and bones, but blended with the atoms of the void, melting and freezing at the same moment.
Yet he did not die.
He was in a greater state of annihilation, as if his death was his birth.
Faint echoes echoed from the depths of nothingness, whispers that carried devastating meanings that no human mind could explain, but which he understood without realizing how:
"You... You are no longer human, but you don't exist yet..."
Suddenly, through the soul-crushing silence, a scream echoed, seeming to come from the beginning of time itself. The cry of a terrifying existence that had awakened from its slumber... A mysterious ancient being, whose name is not recorded in the books of creation, opens its eyes for the first time in countless aeons. It was watching, not moving, just breathing, each exhalation tearing apart bits of the surrounding white fabric.
Fang Yi felt something hovering over him-not a body, but a will beyond his comprehension.
Something that was ready to swallow him up, erasing him from every record of existence if he dared to err.
But amidst this terror, an invisible flame rose within him.
His consciousness refused to be melted or swallowed.
It refused to be a mere stray dust in the ocean of nothingness.
"As long as I'm alive... No one will stop me!"
"I will break through the boundaries of the sky... and transcend existence itself!"
These words, though silent, carried a weight that shook the nothingness.
It was then that the seeds of change began...
A thread of golden light emerged from the cracked core of his consciousness. It was thin, tiny, barely visible, but it defied the darkness of the void. This thread was slowly spinning, as if spinning a new body for him, a fabric not of flesh and blood, but of pure will.
But the path was not paved.
From the torn corners of nothingness, Hungry Shadows crawled out, formless entities with an instinctive hunger for souls. Their eyes, if you could call them eyes, were dark holes that swallowed up every ounce of light they encountered.
They surrounded Fang Yi, snarling soundlessly.
In a flash, they were gone.
A battle unlike any the mortal world had ever known was unleashed.
There were no swords or blood, just a clash of wills: The shadows tried to erase his golden thread, and he fought back with all his fragile strength.
Each time it almost tore him apart, the golden thread glowed brighter and brighter, as if the suffering itself nourished it.
Amidst the pain, Fang Yi remembered his mother's face, her pale features, her warm voice whispering to him one day:
"No matter how lonely you are, remember that deep roots are not afraid of the storm."
His consciousness screamed, trembled, and then ignited.
The golden light exploded from deep within him like a hurricane, pushing the shadows away, tearing them apart like rotting leaves, and at the center of the explosion... His new body began to take shape.
It wasn't a human body.
It was more like the embodiment of will itself: Lines of energy flowed through him instead of veins, and his eyes, when they opened, did not reflect light but swallowed it.
As his consciousness began to stabilize in his newborn body, he felt something else.
Through the nothingness stretched invisible networks, separate spheres, each inhabited by an entity, a guardian, an ancient presence guarding a gateway of secrets.
In one of these distant spheres, the threads of emptiness vibrated for a moment.
One of the ancients, a spirit that had wandered the lower realms thousands of years ago, had caught a glimpse of Fang Yi's flash. It was not a direct encounter, but a vague feeling, a call to an unwritten destiny.
"This boy's fate... is unreadable."
"Where did he come from...? That's impossible..."
The old man whispered as he closed his eyes in nothingness, then disappeared into the void, taking his questions with him.
As for Fang Yi, he realized without the need for words that the path before him was no longer the path of humans.
He had to make his way through the spheres of nothingness, confront their guardians, and perhaps... In the end, he would cross over to the higher realms where the fates of living and dead beings are decided.
But that future doesn't matter now.
Right now... All that matters is one step at a time: Survival.
He opened his eyes amidst the pulsating nothingness of life and death, and smiled.
A small, rebellious smile, but it was enough to announce the beginning of a journey for which the universe would know no end.
End of Chapter Four