Rebirth

'Where am I?' Long Yang tried to open his eyes but he couldn't, he tried to move around but he could only squirm a little.

Suddenly he was hit with a wave of exhaustion as if thinking and moving took most of his energy. His consciousness started to slip as he fell asleep.

"-the baby out?"

Long Yang woke up, his eyes opening slightly.

"yes congratulations, it's a healthy baby boy!"

His eyes fully opened, his vision slightly blurry. In front of him was a plump, kind-looking old lady. She placed him down on a small blanket before wrapping it around him. She looked towards another direction, "do you want to hold your child?"

Long Yang heard a weak, "yes please." The old lady gently handed him to someone. He looked up. It was a beautiful young woman, her face was pale and very visibly fatigued as she looked down at him with care in her eyes. She rocked him back and forth, Long Yang feeling at peace and drowsy.

A loud bang echoed out, interrupting the peace. Heavy footsteps belonging to another person could be heard. "I-Is it done?"

The sudden noise jolted Long Yang from his drowsy state. He started tearing up and frowning, close to crying.

The young woman slowly rocked him back and forth, "shh, baby it's all okay. Everything is okay, there, there, there." Long Yang calmed down, feeling drowsy again. He shortly fell asleep after some more rocking.

The young woman glared at the person who had just entered the room. In a soft, quiet voice, the man whispered, "sorry… can, can I see him?" The man drew closer to the woman who gently held out the baby Long Yang.

He nervously took the baby into his hands, "he, he's so small." Smiling, he turned towards the woman, "so, what'll be his name?"

The woman smiled as well, "Yang, for the sun. So that he will rise above everyone like the sun so that even those at the peak can only look up to him."

"Long Yang huh? Good name, good name." The woman quietly laid there, resting as the man stood still looking down at the baby in his arms smiling.

Later that night, Long Yang woke up covered in a blanket in a wooden crib. He tried to look around him but attempting to turn his head was very straining so he stopped.

'It seems that I've truly reincarnated. I'm currently a baby, I wasn't able to get too much of a look at my mother but her looks and attire mean that I've probably been born in a well-off family. So I shouldn't need to worry about basic necessities.'

Long Yang felt tired after his train of thought, his eyelids drooping. 'Why am I so tired-' In the middle of his thought, he fell asleep.

Moonlight shone through the open window onto his body as he opened his eyes from the short nap. 'My body is still that of a baby's. Just thinking with my underdeveloped brain is exhausting.'

Long Yang stared at the moon, his tiny eyes sparkling. 'I guess this is the start huh.' He laid there, still and unmoving, 'so… what now. What do I do? What can I do...'

The sparkle in his eyes dimmed down and he laid there clueless as to what to do next. 'Hmm… I wonder what the gift the Azure Dragon left me was...'

As if spurred on by that thought, Long Yang's surroundings began to distort. Not before long, he found himself submerged in a clear ocean.

It was a surreal experience, he was submerged deep but he could breathe. He moved his arms in front of him, it was his body but it was the one before his death. "Where am I?"

Feeling a presence, Long Yang looked forward. In front of him were two balls of light, one dark red, one light blue.

'You're here.'

Long Yang looked at the light blue ball, "Azure Dragon? Where is this?"

'This is your sea of consciousness, where we, your spirit souls reside. Normally, one would need to be at least at the soul-strengthening realm to access this place but at the cost of some of my strength, I dragged you in here as a one-time thing. As for the gift, here.'

A small orb of light separated itself from the light blue orb entering Long Yang's body. A sudden rush of information entered Long Yang's brain.

'My gift, a heaven grade cultivation manual. I'm afraid the amount of time you can stay here is limited so I want to say one last thing. Both Tiamat and I are in a weakened state right now, the amount of power we can lend you as your spirit souls are very limited. The amount of power that you can draw from us is dependent on your strength and cultivation and as you grow, the more we recover.'

Long Yang nodded before his surroundings started to distort again. He returned back to his baby body on the crib. He closed his eyes and went over the manual he was gifted, 'Heavenly Dragon's Ascension'