"If he cannot survive in this Realm and ascend to the Higher Realms, then he is not worthy of being my son!”

***

Xiao Tian, the child abandoned by his own parents.

He once lived a happy life as the crown prince of the Wang Kingdom. But a great tragedy struck his family—his beloved uncle staged a coup, killing his mother, father, and all those loyal to them.

However, the death of his parents was a lie.

It was merely a scheme—to leave him behind in the Tianwu Realm, the lowest realm in the Universe.

Alone, he rose.

Step by step, he walked a path filled with hardship.

When he discovered that his parents were still alive, anger filled his heart. But it was not blind rage—it became the fire that forged his resolve to become stronger.

With unwavering spirit, he climbed from the lowest realm, ascending through each realm—until he surpassed even his father and became the ruler of the entire Universe!

“I, Xiao Tian, swear to overturn this injustice. I will reach immortality and create true peace—so that no one will ever be oppressed again across the Universe. Strength shall no longer be the only measure of justice. And if strength is the key—then I shall become the strongest and be the one who defines justice for all of existence!”

Rebels

In Wuyu City, a large city of the Ming Dynasty, its ruler was the Wang kingdom. However, the current king did not bear the Wang surname but instead bore the surname Xiao. The current king was Xiao Jian, the son-in-law of the previous Wang king. Xiao Jian's wife was the eldest daughter of the previous Wang king. Now, Xiao Jian, along with his wife and son, were surrounded by generals of the Wang kingdom itself, assisted by influential figures from other forces.

Xiao Jian stood with his wife, Wangmei, while behind them was their seven-year-old son, Xiao Tian.

“Xiao Jian, now I will take your life and also the lives of your wife and son. I will take the throne that rightfully belongs to me!”

The person speaking was Wang Chong, the younger brother of Wangmei. But now, the brother she loved most was rebelling, daring even to kill everyone loyal to Xiao Jian.

“Brother Wang Chong, why are you doing this? If you want the throne, I won’t hesitate to give it all to you. After all, I do not desire the throne. I have only been governing and waiting for you to come of age. Once you are of age, I will give it to you,” Xiao Jian said firmly to his brother-in-law.

“Ha ha ha,” Wang Chong laughed heartily.

“Xiao Jian, don’t be naive. Do you think I’m a fool? Who wants to step down from the throne after feeling comfortable in that position? No one! I cannot allow you to step down with an unwilling heart. I will eliminate all of you!”

Wangmei, Wang Chong’s older sister, was very disappointed with her brother’s actions.

“Wang Chong, now let your sister go! I promise not to interfere with your rule in Wuyu City.”

“Ha ha ha, forgive your brother, Sister; I cannot let you go,” Wang Chong replied, then looked at all his troops who had already slaughtered all of Xiao Jian’s loyal followers.

“Kill them all!” he ordered with a fierce face.

Thousands of kingdom soldiers in armor, led by the kingdom’s generals, surrounded Xiao Jian and his son.

“You three must die! You are not worthy to lead the Wang kingdom!”

Everyone ran, dragging their weapons. Xiao Jian, Wangmei, and their son Xiao Tian were attacked from all directions.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The sound of footsteps rumbled, shaking the earth.

Seeing so many troops coming from all directions, Xiao Jian looked at them with a murderous gaze.

“Mei’er, protect our son; I will clear a path so you can escape,” Xiao Jian said in a heavy voice.

“My husband, I cannot leave you to die alone. If you want to die, we will die together,” Wangmei said firmly, without fear, facing the thousands of troops that were getting closer.

Wangmei saw one of the imperial members of the Ming Dynasty. But unfortunately, the person from the Ming Dynasty just sat and watched without caring about them.

“No! If you and Tian’er die, no one will seek justice for us. But if you survive, you can seek justice for me and my people who died at their hands!”

Xiao Jian drew a jet-black sword. Then he raised his sword.

“Kill!”

Without waiting for Wangmei’s response, Xiao Jian tied his wife and son with his inner energy; then, he ran towards the troops before him.

He channeled his inner energy into the sword with great force, then slashed it fiercely.

Xiao Jian was like a rampaging beast; every time he swung his sword, several heads were decapitated. However, even though the number of enemies was large, several stabs and slashes had already wounded him.

Clang ~~~~

Clang ~~~~

The sound of weapons clashing continued.

“Don’t let him escape!” Wang Chong shouted from afar.

“Your Majesty need not worry; no one will leave this place. The three of them will die!” The kingdom general responded confidently.

Shot ~~~~

A weapon pierced Xiao Jian’s chest. However, Xiao Jian did not scream; he became more ferocious and terrifying.

Plof, plof, plof ….

Xiao Jian decapitated several heads. He continued running while killing anyone who blocked his path.

After killing many people, Xiao Jian finally broke free from the siege of many troops. However, though he had succeeded, many troops were still chasing him. His body was full of wounds, continuously bleeding. His once pristine white robe turned red from the flowing fresh blood.

Finally, Xiao Jian stopped running. “My wife, you must take Tian’er and leave Wuyu City, go as far as possible, and remember, it was your brother, our child’s uncle, who did all this. You must avenge my death!”

“My husband, no! I will stay here with you! We will live and die together!”

Wangmei did not want to leave her husband, who was already pale from losing so much blood.

“No, you must live. Go!” Xiao Jian threw his wife and son away. Then he turned and faced the Wang clan general and all his troops.

“I will slaughter you all.”

Xiao Jian leaped while swinging his sword. Now, he no longer held back his inner energy.

As a level 6 royal warrior, Xiao Jian’s cultivation was relatively high. At the same time, the Wang clan general was only a level-four royal warrior. But he had the advantage of numbers.

Shoott ~~~~

Xiao Jian slashed his sword, and the sword energy shot out at high speed.

“Aah!” The pitiful cries continued. Many members of the Wang clan had their bodies sliced in two.

Shoott ~~~

Plof ….

“Brother-in-law, I can no longer let you live!”

“Cough, cough, cough!”

Xiao Jian stood still, continuously coughing up blood. He saw a poison-laced sword piercing through his body; even his heart had been destroyed. Wang Chong had appeared behind Xiao Jian and stabbed him directly.

“No... Father!”

Perverted General

Xiao Tian, seeing his father stabbed, screamed hysterically.

Xiao Tian wanted to go back, but his mother stopped him. “Tian’er, we must go. Don’t waste your father’s sacrifice, who wants us to live!”

“No, Mother, I must save Father!” Xiao Tian struggled to break free from his mother’s grasp, but his mother held him tight, and they ran faster.

Xiao Tian’s eyes had turned red; he was crying tears of blood. He kept staring at his father, who now had no chance to live. Dozens of spears and swords had pierced his father’s body from front and back.

Xiao Jian stood with his sword as support. He looked at Wang Chong with a murderous gaze. “Wang Chong, your death is not far. My son will surely avenge me.”

Wang Chong sneered coldly. “Don’t hope too much. They won’t be able to escape! I will send them to hell to accompany you!”

Wang Chong looked at his troops. “Capture them and bring them back, dead or alive!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Wang Chong's face turned red, his anger reaching its peak, his eyes emitting a terrifying murderous aura.

“Xiao Jian. Now, I will end your life first. Don’t worry, you won’t be lonely. Soon, your wife and child will follow you to Hell!”

“Wang Chong. You’re truly barbaric! My wife and child are your sister and nephew. How can you treat them like this? People like you will soon face a calamity far more painful than this!” In his heart, Xiao Jian hoped that karma would soon catch up with Wang Chong and give him the punishment he deserved.

“Enough talk!”

Bang—

A sword instantly sliced Xiao Jian’s body into two parts, and the man died in a gruesome manner.

“My poor brother-in-law, I won’t let anyone threaten my position. To me, there are no relatives or friends. Anyone who has the potential to take my position will meet a gruesome death!” said Wang Chong with a sinister and hateful tone.

Wang Chong’s face looked terrifying, his eyes ablaze with rage, his lips curled into a sadistic smile, and his face appeared more cruel than a demon’s.

Wang Chong clenched his fists tightly as if wanting to destroy everything in front of him.

Wangmei and Xiao Tian kept running, gasping for breath, trying with all their might to leave the Wuyu Region. However, their journey stopped when they reached the bank of a vast river that separated them from their destination.

The river was known as the Wang River, famous throughout the Wang Kingdom. It was filled with various ferocious beasts of extraordinary strength. Some were even known to possess power equivalent to that of a royal warrior. The Wang Kingdom had built a suspension bridge to facilitate crossing this dangerous river.

At this moment, Wangmei and Xiao Tian stood in the middle of the bridge. They couldn’t continue their journey because several Kingdom soldiers were blocking their way ahead, and they couldn’t go back either, as Kingdom soldiers were chasing them from behind.

“Empress, it’s better if you surrender! Your deaths won’t be too painful,” the Kingdom General sneered with a lustful look in his eyes.

Seeing no way out, Wangmei drew a short sword from within her gown.

“You want me to surrender? Keep dreaming!”

Slash—

Wangmei cut the ropes holding the bridge; then, she pushed Xiao Tian into the river.

“Mother, no!” Xiao Tian didn’t want to be separated from his mother. But Wangmei pushed her son’s body with great force until Xiao Tian fell into the river.

The river was large and had a very strong current, and the flow carried away Xiao Tian.

“Mother, mother!” Xiao Tian kept calling for his mother, but Wangmei only smiled bitterly.

“Son, you must live. No matter what happens, you must live.” Wangmei shifted her gaze. She looked at the Kingdom General with sharp eyes.

“Traitorous scoundrels, I will kill you all!” A cold aura emanated from Wangmei’s body. She was a woman known to possess powerful ice energy. She began to attack using the short sword coated with ice.

The sound of clashing weapons echoed as Wangmei fought against the General.

Puchi—

Suddenly, Wangmei spewed blood with a loud noise. Several spears had pierced her from behind.

Xiao Tian watched his mother with eyes as red as blood. He saw his mother smiling at him with a face covered in blood.

Xiao Tian could no longer resist the river’s strong current, and the boy was swept away. Whether he was alive or dead, no one knew.

The Kingdom General and the other soldiers didn’t care about Xiao Tian’s fate; they only looked at Wangmei’s lifeless body.

“It’s such a pity; the Empress’s beautiful body is now full of wounds,” the General said with a sad tone.

One of his subordinates dared to speak to their General.

“General. If possible, you shouldn’t touch the Empress’s body. After all, the Empress is our King’s sister. If His Majesty finds out, we could all face his wrath.”

The man spoke while bowing because he knew their General was very passionate and had slept with countless women.

“Hmm, you don’t need to worry; I still have limits. Now, let’s return and present the Empress’s body to His Majesty.”

“But General, what about Xiao Tian? He was swept away in the river. Should we search for him?”

Hearing his subordinate’s words, the General snorted coldly.

“Search for him? Why waste time? The boy is surely dead; this river is filled with wild beasts. There’s no need! He must have already become their food. Now let’s go back!”

XIAO JIAN INDENTITY

The General took Wangmei’s body back to the Kingdom. Wang Chong welcomed their arrival. After hearing the whole story, Wang Chong didn’t care about Xiao Tian, as he also believed that wild beasts indeed ate Xiao Tian.

“Prepare a funeral for my sister! As for Xiao Jian’s body, throw it into the soul-tracker dog kennel.”

Wang Chong was genuinely ruthless, letting his brother-in-law’s body become food for his pet dogs.

After Wangmei’s body was buried and Xiao Jian’s body was thrown into the dog kennel, they didn’t know that both bodies had transformed into a tree branch.

****

In a place far away, not in the Ming Dynasty nor Wuyu City, a middle-aged man stood with a wonderful woman on a mountain peak that reached beyond the clouds.

The man and woman bore a striking resemblance to Xiao Jian and Wangmei.

The woman gazed at the vast sea of clouds spreading out before her. Even though she looked at the sea of clouds, her vision could penetrate everything in every direction. She sighed softly with a sad face.

“Husband, aren’t we being excessive, leaving our child like that?”

The man smiled faintly, though his body trembled slightly at the question.

“He’ll be fine. If he can’t survive in such a small world, he’s not worthy of being my son.”

“Husband, why didn’t we take Tian’er with us? He could grow better, especially if he received your guidance; he could surely become a great expert in this universe.”

It turned out that the man and woman talking were Xiao Jian and Wangmei. The bodies killed in the Wang Kingdom were just replacements, not their natural bodies.

“Tian’er must find his path in cultivation. The hatred in his heart will make him grow faster. If he follows me, he might increase, but it would diminish his potential. Moreover, those who become true experts have lived through various hardships. Without hardship, pain, and humiliation, one cannot ascend to the peak of glory. Only those who have endured numerous challenges can stand at the pinnacle of cultivation. Now, it’s time for us to go. I can’t leave my clan any longer, or else a great catastrophe will occur in the entire universe.”

No matter what, Wangmei was a mother, and a mother’s worry was far more significant than a father’s. However, she couldn’t oppose her husband’s decision, who held the status of the Supreme God Emperor.

Xiao Jian held his wife’s hand and then walked across the stars.

After reaching a certain height, he tore through space and disappeared.

Xiao Tian sank into the great river, unconscious.

Various ferocious beasts approached to devour him. However, when the beasts were just a few meters away from him, Xiao Tian's body suddenly shone.

The light was so intense that it blinded the approaching beasts. They seemed confused and frightened, quickly retreating from Xiao Tian.

The scene was astonishing because these beasts were known to be extremely powerful and fierce. The weakest among them were level two beasts, equivalent to third-class warriors in the human realm. The strongest were beast kings, equivalent to earth king warriors in the human realm.

The beasts fled in fear from Xiao Tian's weak body. The light emanating from the minor child's body drove away all the ferocious beasts.

How could a child make such fearsome beasts retreat? What happened to Xiao Tian's body that allowed him to emit such powerful light?

After the beasts fled, the light disappeared from Xiao Tian's body.

****

At the calm riverbank, two figures were practicing together. One was a small girl, about eight years old, with her hair tied in a ponytail, fluttering in the wind. The other was an older man, standing tall and wise, watching the girl's every move intently.

The little girl was practicing sword techniques. Although the sword she wielded was just a wooden toy, her swings were lively and unpredictable. The wind complemented her swings, creating a mesmerizing rhythm.

"Ziyan Rouxi, it's time to go home. You've been practicing from morning till near sunset, making Grandpa waste a lot of time watching you," the old man sitting on a rock grumbled at the little girl.

"Grandpa, you finally have time to watch me practice, but you're already complaining so much. It seems you don't care about me at all!" the little girl pouted. Despite her young age, she looked lovely.

Before the older man could reply, he saw a small child's body drifting in the river's current.

"Wait, Grandpa!" the girl shouted.

"Where are you going? Don't...." Before Ziyan Rouxi could finish her sentence, she saw the child's body being carried by the current, not far from a high waterfall.

The older man ran into the water, retrieving the minor child's body—Xiao Tian.

After bringing him to the riverbank, the older man still heard Xiao Tian's heartbeat.

"This child is not dead." He immediately channeled his internal energy into Xiao Tian's body.

Xiao Tian suddenly coughed, expelling a lot of water from his mouth.

After continuous internal energy transmission, Xiao Tian began to open his eyes slowly.

When he fully opened his eyes, he saw the little girl's face very close to his.

Their eyes met.

"Are you the angel of death? Why isn't your face scary?"

Slap—

Ziyan Rouxi immediately slapped Xiao Tian's face.

"Ahh.... Why did you slap me?" Xiao Tian didn't understand why the angel of death slapped him.

"What did you just say? Angel of death? Do you want me to kill you?" Ziyan Rouxi was annoyed with being called the angel of death by Xiao Tian.

Xiao Tian tried to get up but felt his whole body ache as if it were shattered.

After a while, he realized an older man was channeling his internal energy to heal his injuries.

"Don't move too much! Your body has suffered severe injuries. Let me heal you first."