1 Titan Blood

Resentful, rebellious thoughts clouded Ye Qing's mind as he scaled the spiraling mountain path in the dead of the night. Tears threatened to overflow from his misty, red eyes as a stinging pain throbbed across his swollen right cheek. Even as he racked his brain to forget that resounding backhand from a father he detested now more than ever.

A flash of golden light greeted Ye Qing on his next turn, followed by a muffled droning noise while space split and a drop of golden blood, not unlike a bullet, blasted into this young man's forehead.

Stunned and paralyzed, memories of seventeen years of a far-from-satisfactory life flashed through his mind in a split second.

"Fuck..."

Ye Qing thought as he was painlessly thrust off the mountainside and into the foggy darkness of an ancient necropolis fabled as the land of the cursed.

If he knew things might have ended like this, he wouldn't have run away from home after an intense argument with his father— even as his mother stood to the side and observed the quarrel unfold with an exasperated expression.

A few moments of silence followed as the fog below began to slowly twist and churn. Then, a pillar of golden light exploded from the depths, reaching far into the sky with a cast of light not unlike the break of dawn.

Alas, this golden pillar was visible to but a select few all around the world.

The fog below dissipated ever-so-slightly as an ancient necropolis— a shadow of its grandiosity with ten thousand tombstones marred by the unforgiving times.

Ye Qing happened to lay motionless at the entrance to this ancient necropolis as an old man accompanied by a young woman of impeccable features approached unhurriedly. The old man was drawn over by the light, while the young woman merely followed in his wake.

"Your divination said to come here on the last Friday of the last month of the Lunar Year— and so I came," said the young woman with furrowed brows, her eyes locked onto the old man despite her skepticism. "Where is that opportunity to change my fate?"

The old man took one step to the side, allowing the woman's eyesight to land on a young man of defined features, sharp eyebrows twisting in pain, short black hair, and tender skin riddled with bruises.

"Are you talking about this child?"

The woman looked closer for a moment, shaking her head in disappointment. "No can do— I sense no internal energy whatsoever..."

The old man sighed, his hazy eyes reflecting the golden pillar as it shot to the sky while enveloping the youngster. He said, "I can see things— things you cannot imagine. Just take him, and teach him well... He might surprise you in the foreseeable future."

Even as the old man spoke, the golden pillar dimmed out as it shrank into a skintight cocoon around Ye Qing's body. As the golden light drilled into his frail body, it translated into golden runes that pulsed with pale incandescence— densely packed as though they were infinitesimal worms slithering their way into his marrow.

"This child is enduring unimaginable pain at the moment," spoke the old man.

The woman's brows joined tightly as she responded. "You don't need to tell me that— I can tell."

Ye Qing might seem unconscious, but the matter wasn't so simple. He was experiencing so much pain to the point of consistently phasing between clarity and deliriousness.

Even as the woman was about to talk, she noticed that the old man had already retreated into the necropolis as the fog completely enshrouded the ancient structure— everything seemed like an illusion, as though this graveyard never existed in this valley.

Exasperated, the woman tucked her fair hands away into the pockets of her black windbreaker jacket and tapped the ground with the soles of her feet, a pulse of energy carrying both herself and Ye Qing before shooting into the cloudy sky.

Heavy clouds clashed and thunder echoed, preluding a heavy downpour. Looking at planet Earth from space, one would notice the shadow of a golden pillar connecting the sky and earth, slowly dissipating.

"Dense clouds hid the waning moon; this dark night is growing even darker! Go, go look for our child..." said a housewife in the latter half of her thirties. Dark hair and even darker eyes, glittering with worry as they skipped past the windowsill and into the merciless thunderstorm brewing outside.

"It's going to rain soon, mommy!"

A young girl around thirteen years old tiptoed to reach for the window, also looking outside. The woman also knew about the pending rainstorm— despite the shift in whether being borderline capricious.

She turned around to her husband; a man in his early forties. He sat there on his couch, browsing the newspaper.

A patch of blood was evident on the knuckles of his right hand, yet to disappear. Perhaps he was too lazy to wash those hands, or perhaps he was too used to their violent tendencies by now.

The woman bit her bottom lip and braved through the fear and hesitation, all the while watching her husband's hand as she urged softly, "The least you could do is go look for the child!"

His callous hand twitched ever-so-slightly, and the woman flinched in response. However, it was a false alarm; he simply flipped the newspaper to the next page as he said in a drawn-out voice, "This isn't our first time going on vacation in the Suburban Resort; he knows his way up the mountain, same as he knows his way down."

The woman didn't dare ask why he beat the child— she could only navigate her way through this landmine of a temper her husband nurtured over the years. "It's the first time he ran away during a stormy night..."

Her voice dropped to a whisper as her husband's gaze slowly lifted from the newspaper, eventually silencing the woman without a word of retort. Frustrated, she could only take it upon herself to call for help and brave the storm, the cold, and the dangerous mountain in a fruitless search for her eldest son.

January 5th, 2020. Friday.

After hours of fruitless search, the rescue team found traces of a collapsed roadside leading into the depths of Perpetual Fog Valley.

Conclusion: Assumed dead.

...

Haikou City, Hainan Province.

The woman brought the convulsing Ye Qing into her private villa estate in the mountains, accommodating his body on a soft couch while contemplating her options.

The young man was sweating— a lot.

Things didn't look good.

A young maid who happened to hear the commotion from the adjacent room knocked on the door respectfully.

After getting permission to enter the living room, she immediately noticed Ye Qing on the sofa, prompting her to ask in sheer surprise, "Madam— who's this person?"

"He's in too much pain..." responded the woman with something totally unrelated, as though absentmindedly. She then asked, "Any ideas?"

The young girl in a maid outfit thought long and hard before clapping her own cheeks with a yelp, "I know! Try the immersive capsule— the Young Master pre-ordered the game a while back, but he ended up leaving the country for urgent business in the United States."

"What game?" The woman seemed confused, lifting her beautiful ivory eyes to stare at her maid and assistant. "Never mind— just make sure to sample his blood and go fix a maternity test to record him as my son. He's still a minor without legal documents, it shouldn't be a problem to get things done... As for that immersive game or whatever it is— get that done afterward."

As she spoke, she waved her hand and brought out the student card from Ye Qing's pocket, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.

"What a surprise— we share the same surname. This makes things easier..."

The maid couldn't watch this anymore, she shouted in a soft tone, "Madam!"

The woman furrowed her brows at being interrupted, somewhat displeased as she snapped back, "What is it?"

The maid took a deep breath. "You're still a virgin... I mean— you need to be mindful of your status; can't you register him as your younger brother instead?"

"But I already have a younger brother."

"Who said you can only have one brother?!"

"Who said a virgin can't have children?"

The maid was speechless as she stuttered, "You... I... You know— sigh... Forget it, I'll do the paperwork! You're having a younger brother, Madam."

Breathing heavily and sweating heavier, Ye Qing could somewhat hear the conversation carried right next to him.

Despite the pain no mortal could possibly endure, he was excited to try the immersive capsule as he could guess the game involved.

A game that swept the planet like a storm, developed by top technicians and game studios across the globe, funded mutually by the United States, the European Union, NATO, and many other big names around the globe.

No other than "Clash of Titans" Online.