Endless rain fell through the skies. The wind whispered through the thin branches of naked willow trees. And the soft murmurs of water fighting with sand floated in the air.
Amidst the darkness of the night, Xu An, a young man not past the age of 16, sat upon a large rock, by the edge of a small mountain lake.
It was the first night of winter, the lake was littered with the last of the fallen autumn leaves, and Xu An was calmly watching, as they coiled about under the breaking waves by the shoreline.
"Free at last…" His voice reached into the coldness of the air.
Feeling an unprecedented sense of peace, Xu An took a deep breath, as the cold breeze from the north blew the rain fast against his figure. "The scent of thunder, and the ruthlessness of the northern wind…"
"Ah… You only miss these small things, after they've become completely out of reach." Looking down, Xu An carefully observed the dim, yet beautifully-made ring that silently rested on his right hand's palm.
"A thousand years of suffering. Even flesh and bones have become foreign to the soul. Only the last dregs of what once was remains." He sighed before crushing the ring into dust.
The dust, both golden and emerald, turned into a blurry haze that quickly faded at the whims of the wind.
"And yet, there is no looking back. Because when you do, you realize that there is nothing to be seen. The only thing left is the path ahead, the one that is yet to be written." He faintly smiled before shifting his gaze upwards.
"The road to immortality is truly like an endless sea."
"The more you swim against the current, the further you get lost in its depths. And, when you finally look back, the shore is no longer visible. You can't even tell from which direction you originally came from…"
Xu An's story had begun long ago, so long that by now he could barely remember the starting point of it all.
As the light from his eyes reflected the far away stars, countless memories seemed to pass through his vision, all in a silent blur.
The only thing left from his first life was the vague image of a clear and starry night sky. Something that he had always carried with himself.
Even now, he could still remember the shapes of the many constellations of that world.
Ever since the start of his second life, he had spent an untold amount of time gazing at the stars in the night sky. However, no matter how long, or how many times, he traced their shapes, they were nothing like the ones in his memory of the past.
Xu An sighed, his cold gaze falling back onto the lake. He had just awakened from a thousand years of slumber, and his mind was still a chaotic mess.
"This should count as the third." He revealed a bitter smile.
Even though he had not died in his second life, the outcome couldn't be considered much different.
As for his new awakening, it couldn't be considered reincarnation but a possession.
After letting out another bitter sigh, Xu An slowly got up before jumping from the edge of the rock.
The distance between the edge and the sandy shore of the lake wasn't grand.
After a graceful landing, he calmly clasped his hands behind his back and made his way over to the water.
His movements were stiff, his long-robes were stuck close to his skin, and his long hair hid half of his face away.
Once his steps broke through the surface of the water, he looked down on his own figure. The face that greeted him was totally different from the one in the past.
He had long black hair, a set of pitch-black eyes, and a somewhat rosy tone of skin.
His original self had always been sickly-pale, with silver hair and a pair of golden eyes.
Well…
The differences were to be expected, after all, this body wasn't originally his own. It belonged to the young master of a rather wealthy mortal family. Someone who had a deep obsession toward the elusive secrets of immortal cultivation.
In that regard, Xu An was someone who could actually resonate with the spirit of that young man.
No matter how vague and impossible a goal may be, it is, after all, what drives everyone to move forward in life.
There is never an ending to it. Once you've accomplished your initial goal, another will begin to bloom.
Sometimes we may not acknowledge their existence, or feel uncertain and torn between multiple dream-like futures. But to be completely rid of it…?
No.
That would be akin to throwing all sense of purpose into the wind. Those who do not follow something in life, are bound to lose themselves to the world. They become no different, if not lower, than mere beasts.
And in this world, beasts who raise their heads do not get to keep them for long.
"Eventually, we all grasp a tiny piece of it, don't we?" Xu An too was someone bound to a dream. A dream that had and would keep on stretching further into the future.
The youth, whose body he now possessed, was named Shen Xuan.
He had scoured the entire mortal realm for clues related to immortal cultivation.
Many had shunned Shen Xuan for his madness and yet, he never stopped, not even faltering in a single step.
His belief in his own eventual success was commendable and eventually paid off...
"But no matter how sturdy the road may seem to be… Men proposes, but heaven disposes." Xu An calmly shook his head.
That kid, Shen Xuan, had found an old ring, buried deep within an ancient mountain cave.
That ring was the one Xu An had just crushed into motes of dust, and it had been used to house his soul for over a thousand years.
The moment that kid had touched the ring, Xu An had immediately awakened. And the moment Shen Xuan put it on, Xu An obliterated his soul and forcefully took over his body.
This incident had happened just a few instances ago…
"In the end, no matter how many times the world revolves around the sun, there will always be those who, under the effects of greed and ambition, cannot think two steps ahead once their goals are within reach." Standing under the shadow of the moon, Xu An couldn't help but reveal a bitter smile.
This story was similar to his own.
"You can reach the final step, and your goals can be just a hair's width away, but if you're not careful enough, It can all fade into dust, just like that…"
He had once been one such idiot. His current condition, in which he had been forced to take over someone else's body, was merely one of the many consequences of that.
In his second life, he had been born in this world, as the only son of a small mortal family. His parents were both simple wood-workers, and he, upon learning of the vastness of the world, had set out on a journey of his own.
His parents were long dead by now. Perhaps, in this time and age, even their graves had turned into dust.
Xu An could barely even remember their names…
"Then again, Xu An is also no more than a dead man's name." After taking possession of Shen Xuan's body, he would need to take over his identity, and he was fine with it.
Xu An was merely another identity that he had adopted when he first came into this world. The original was the one from his first life, Li Xian, but by now, it no longer mattered.
"Li Xian…Xu An… Shen Xuan… What difference does it make?" His gaze grew cold and his tone grew low. His heart was without any ripples.
"As long as there is a way to move forward, I will take it. The rest is mere dust in the wind." Reaching here, his feet began to move, and he started wandering by the shore.
"This world is filled with countless creatures. Humans are merely one of many."
"In order to accomplish anything, one must first create a footing to stand on." He had already seen the depths of the world.
After peering into that abyss, and falling into it more than once, he knew the nature of this world.
"A weak mortal is no different than a lamb for slaughter." He looked down on his own hands and pondered over for a moment.
Here, mortals and immortals were forced to live under the same skies. They all shared the same lands and breathed the same air.
In most cases, encounters between these two groups led to kill or be killed situations. And no regrets either. Especially for immortal cultivators.
The difference was that mortals were akin to tiny ants, crawling over a vast and broad world. While immortals soared above the clouds, overlooking these ants, and the world, beneath their feet.
And, it is no small feat for a mortal to break his shackles and step toward the road of immortality.
Mortals were mostly treated like cattle. Their biggest value lay not in manual labor but in their ease of bearing offspring.
They were weak when put in the same line as most of the creatures in the world, yet when it came to their numbers, even the wild beasts would pale in comparison.
Immortals on the other hand could build massive cities in the blink of an eye. They could split the seas and rend mountains into dust with a mere wave of a hand. However, the more powerful an immortal, the harder it becomes for them to bear offspring.
Perhaps this mechanism was one of heaven's attempts at displaying a sense of fairness in the world…
As long as mortals exist, children with the potential to cultivate immortality will continue to be born. That is their role in the eyes of the truly powerful. And thus, heaven created a faint layer of protection for these people, while also giving those who rose into the clouds a restriction.
But to Xu An, no, to Shen Xuan. These things mattered very little, to nothing at all.
His true identity was already set, like an immovable mountain. If he had to change name once or twice, even a hundred times, then so be it.
In this world, none of that mattered.
Your killer wouldn't care if you were called Xu An or Shen Xuan, they would still end you all the same.
"From now on there is no Xu An. There is only Shen Xuan, a mortal seeking immortality!"
"And what the heavens don't give, I shall seize!" Bathed in streaks of silvery moonlight, he lifted his face against the rain.
The skies rumbled with thunder and the earth trembled beneath his feet.
His soul was weak and on the verge of collapse. His body felt foreign, yet strangely whole. And the future would soon be left for the world to behold.
"Let's see, where this last struggle may lead to..."