"Emperor Lin is dead, I saw it with my own eyes. His imperial bones were stripped away, his imperial blood drained, and his imperial meridians pulled out. He is undoubtedly dead."
"Mm."
"So let us begin! Once this Emperor Lin is dead, he is bound to be resurrected ten thousand years from now. When that time comes, Emperor Lin, the Goddess, the Demon Sovereign, the Dragon Emperor, the Phoenix Empress, the Beast God, and that holy dog—every single overlord of those bygone eras, along with the entities of the forbidden zones and the Celestial Clan—will all be reborn in that unprecedentedly prosperous era ten thousand years hence."
"And the Ten Emperors will step upon their mighty reputations, their achievements, their invincibility, stepping upon their very heads to rule as kings and lords!"
...
"Master!!!"
"Why so many words? Go on and die!!"
...
Rumble! Thunder shook the heavens as a faint beam of light suddenly pierced the gloomy sky.
In the courtyard, a young girl of around eleven was enduring the agonizing pain of a profound transformation. Blood was endlessly pouring from her body, slowly soaking right through her clothes.
"Sigh, I wonder if Xiner can make it through this tribulation. What will happen if she fails?" a simply dressed woman asked with sorrowful anxiety. "Spit it out, spit it out! Of course she'll make it. Xiner will be fine."
"Ahhh! It hurts so much! Mother! Mother!" the girl screamed in her heart. Yet she was undergoing the Bone Transformation Stage of the Body Refining Realm, and the bones within her body were shattering. Aside from relying on medicine or the assistance of an experienced person, no one could help her—or perhaps even someone experienced could not help her at all, because her current condition bore no resemblance to the normal symptoms of the Bone Transformation Stage. Bone transformation merely shed the accumulated impurities on the bones and might draw a little blood, but it should never produce this much, and there were faint signs that the bleeding was worsening. She was only an eleven-year-old girl; where could she possibly have so much blood to lose?!
To make matters worse, some unknown object had invaded the girl's mind, causing her to suffer not only physical torment, but excruciating mental agony as well.
"Xiner!!" A man covered in mud rushed in hastily from outside. "Ajian, how is it? How is Xiner?" "A-Wei, why are you only just getting back? Hurry, take a look... see if you can help Xiner, she's right out there in the courtyard!"
Hearing this, the man named A-Wei did not hesitate for a second. He rushed into the house, rummaged out something resembling a book and a bottle, and dashed toward where the girl was.
"You... you're still holding onto that wretched thing! If it weren't for this thing, Xi—Xiner wouldn't have ended up like this. When I first asked you what on earth this thing was... now I know, it's a fiend, it's going to kill my Xiner! Let me tell you, if—if anything happens to Xiner, I—I'll go with her!!!" Grief was written all over the man's face, yet he kept moving forward, shouting, "Move aside! Right now, this might be the only thing that can save her! Move aside!!"
Arriving at the front of the courtyard, the man did not dare step inside, afraid he would lose control of himself. Standing at the doorway, he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Xiner, your father has failed you, but now, listen to me! Deep inside, follow what I'm about to say: feel it, and circulate your qi!"
With a *whoosh*, the bottle was thrown inside.
"The silent one: heart like still water, unmoving as a mountain, serene to the world. Free of desires and thoughts, devoid of love and hate! Did you hear me? Did you hear me, Xiner!!"
In the courtyard, a wisp of vapor seemed to drift out from the shattered bottle. Under the influence of this vapor, the girl seemed to instinctively grasp the meaning of the man's words. Something inside her body began to operate on its own, while simultaneously, her mind felt as though it were shattering even further. Following his incantation, it felt as though something in her brain had awakened, and two even stranger entities squeezed their way into her mind. She truly, truly could not take it anymore!!...
*Bang*
...
"It's you?? What do you want?? Was this your design?"
"It was me!"
...