Chapter 6: Prologue (6)

Zenith Heaven Emperor became an Eternal Life Being at the incredibly young age of 15, an accomplishment that left many in awe. After achieving such a feat, he spent most of his time with his good friend 'Blockhead' Song. Together, they played countless pranks on others, including painting their good friend White Dragon with golden paint, which granted her the title of Gold Dragon Primogenitor or causing a group of cultivators to accidentally shave their eyebrows off, during a conversation with them. Despite his impressive status, Zenith Heaven Emperor never forgot to have fun and enjoy life with his friends.

One of their favourite pranks was to use Zenith Heaven Emperor's power of fate to manipulate events in a person's life to make them more likely to fall victim to Blockhead Song's schemes. For instance, they once arranged for a sect leader to be humiliated during an important conference, causing him to lose face and credibility in front of his peers. Another time, they used their powers to make a powerful enemy of Zenith Heaven Emperor accidentally swallow a mouthful of chili peppers, causing him to run around frantically in search of water to soothe the burning sensation in his mouth.

On other occasions, they looked around to find some of the most famous 'young masters'. After finding them, they not only humiliated them, causing their ancestors to show up, but even taught their entire family an unforgettable lesson.

Nothing major happened for a while, as Zenith Heaven Emperor continued to spend his time with 'Blockhead' Song, participating in various pranks and enjoying his newly acquired eternal life.

However, at the age of 18, something remarkable happened. He manifested a character like Holy Man's Ru and Heavenly Emperor's Emperor character, but instead of Ru or Emperor, he manifested the Heaven character. This was a significant event, as it signalled that Zenith Heaven Emperor had reached a level of power and prestige comparable to the previous two greats of the world of cultivation.

AN: Originally I wanted to include the Chinese characters for Ru, Emperor and Heaven, but webnovel apparently doesn't like this

With the manifestation of the Heaven character, Zenith Heaven Emperor's power increased dramatically.

From that day on, Zenith Heaven Emperor became a legend in the world of cultivation, feared and respected by all who knew of him. Despite his young age, he was already one of the most powerful beings in existence, and his mastery of the Way of Eternal Life was unmatched.

Furthermore, around this time, Zenith Heaven Emperor's father, Heavenly Way White, sensed that his time was approaching to an end. Despite half-succeeding and half-transcending the Way, White knew that he could not further delay the inevitable. After all, he should have already been dead since the moment he failed to successfully withdraw from his position as Heavenly Way. Even his powers as a Half-Transcendent no longer allowed him to extend his life at this point in time. Nevertheless, he was happy to have been able to witness his son grow up and decided to pass on his entire legacy to him before departing from the world of the living.

This legacy included the Piercing All Heavens And Myriad Realms Flying Shuttle, the fastest flying magic treasure in All Heavens and Myriad Realms. It has a flying speed close to that of space jumps, and is a magical treasure forged by the Daoist Karmic Virtue. White initially acquired it in a trade, where he traded his position as Heavenly Way for it.

Then there's also an independent private world he created for his son, that even the Heavenly Way can not intrude into. Knowing full well that his son liked it futuristic, he made the entire dimension in a futuristic fashion that is similar to that of our current world.

Furthermore, he also found a way to transfer his remaining Heavenly Way Authority to his son, which he proceeded to do. Although his authority fell from the level of a Half-Transcendent to that of the Heavenly Way in the process, this still gave Zenith Heaven Emperor the authority and jurisdiction of someone at the level of a Heavenly Way, despite not being one.

The last thing he left behind was his remaining power, which he also granted to his son. Similar to the authority, his power also fell to the level of the Heavenly Way. However, it still granted his son the power that allowed him to fight with the Current Wielder of the Heavenly Way on equal terms, despite not actually being the Heavenly Way himself.

This inheritance essentially created a bug in the already broken system of the world, with someone below the Heaven having the power of the Heaven. Until now, this rule was something that could not be violated under any circumstances.

Although the child accepted all these powerful gifts, he didn't plan to actually use the power and Authority for now. Instead, he kept it a secret that he told to nobody. Not his mother, not his friends, only he knows that he inherited his father's power and authority.

After this, he bid his final farewell towards his father, who 'died' like any other Heavenly Way. Just like with the Heavenly Way's preceding him, nobody knows what truly happened to White after this. Many speculate that he died, while many others speculate he still lives in a realm somewhere else, as the Heavenly Way is Imperishable and Inextinguishable and no death should exist for them in the first place. But in the end of the day, only White knows what truly happened to him.

After spending six more years with Song ONE's group following the passing of his father, Zenith Heaven Emperor had an unexpected "accident" that caused him to time-travel into the year 2018. The details of this accident are still a mystery, but it is rumored that he played around with his father's Heavenly Way Authority and tried to combine it with his Way of Eternal Life.

During this entire time, Zenith Heaven Emperor kept his true identity as the Heavenly Court's Crown Prince a secret from his friends in Song ONE's group. Only a select few, such as the four Cardinal Emperors who held high positions in the Ancient Heavenly Court, were aware of his true status. To the rest of the Heavenly Court, he was known simply as another talented cultivator and prodigy, without ever having revealed his true face or identity.

After he left the Heavenly Court Timeline, Song ONE with the help of Cheng Lin usurped the Heavenly Emperor, sealed her and began his plan to form the Heavenly Way Must Step Down Alliance. Just like in the original story, the fall of the Heavenly Court overnight was unexpected and still remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries throughout All Heavens and Myriad Realms.

Upon entering the modern world in the year of 2018, Zenith Heaven Emperor realized that he needed to blend in and create a new identity. With a combination of fate manipulation and deceit, he managed to get chinese citizenship. For his official name, he chose the name Hei Bai, which combined his previous life's name with his current identity as the son of Heavenly Way White. 'Hei' means black, which was his previous life's surname, although it wasn't Hei per se but the word with the same meaning in his local language, while 'Bai' means white, which was his father's current Dao Name.

Despite originally coming from the modern world, he still needed some time to accustom himself to once again living in this era. After all, for him, 24 years passed since he reincarnated into this world's ancient past.

He quickly realized that blending in and creating a new identity would be more difficult than he initially thought. The world had changed so much in the time that he was gone, and it was a constant struggle to keep up with the new technology and societal norms.

After fully adapting to the life in the modern world, he decided to visit the house, where he lived in his previous life. To his surprise, however, this house did not exist, neither did the town he was born in his previous life.

One day, he decided to enter the canon story and registered at the Jiangnan University, where the protagonist of the original novel, Song Shuhang, studied.

Using his skills to manipulate fate, he managed to enter the same class and dormitory as Song Shuhang. He was assigned to Song Shuhang's room due to it coincidentally being a five-person room instead of one for four people. He quickly befriended Song Shuhang and patiently waited for an entire year for the canon story to start.

Although he had to wait a year for the story's canon to begin, Zenith Heaven Emperor spent that time studying and re-familiarizing himself with the modern world as well as the new world's cultivation techniques and organisations.

By no means did he abuse his powers and send an avatar to study at the university, while he played games the entire day as a way to 'familiarize' with the modern world, or did he?

AN: I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Originally I wanted to end the prologue with three to four chapters, but as I wrote I got more and more ideas that I wanted to include. I wrote this prologue in third person as I did not plan to extend it to 20 chapters, which I certainly would most likely require to write it, if I wrote in first person.

From now on, the story will continue from the first-person perspective. For now, I will keep the main Timeline mostly the same, while messing with some 'Seniors' of a certain chat group.

If you have any suggestions on what to do, you may comment here.