1 Born in a Foreign World (Opening of the Indigo Cloud City Act)
“Grandpa!!”
A fifteen-year-old young boy screamed at the top of his lungs. His hands reached out in front, grasping nothing but air. Once he opened his eyes, an unfamiliar forest came into vision. Surrounded by unknown greenery, confusion took over his mind.
“Where are we, grandpa? And what happened to our clan and the Asuras, our enemies?”
He shook off the confusion, observed his body, and started circulating his qi. His irises grew wide in dismay as he faced a shocking truth.
“Damn!! Why is my qi at the first level of the violet stage?!!”
The first level of the violet stage was the weakest level of qi. Stages of qi consisted of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and rainbow, from the weakest to the strongest. Each stage was further divided into nine levels. The first level of the violet stage meant that he was as vulnerable as a person without qi. The young boy was terrified at this new revelation. Perplexed, he tried reorganizing his thoughts, to which the attempt was fruitless.
“Hmph!! Causing a ruckus already?” The sweet voice of a young girl rang in his ears. The boy frantically turned his head left and right to search for the origin of the voice.
“Stop wasting your time finding me. I exist in your subconsciousness. Your name is Leng San, correct?”
“Who are you? And what brought you into my subconsciousness!!”
Leng San was not quite sure about the owner of the voice. He dispersed his qi to inspect the surrounding area. However, the radius of his weak qi reached its capacity at a mere three meters. He found nothing suspicious.
“My name is Freya, the daughter of the Devas’ king. It appears that I will have to explain everything to you, from the beginning, kid. What a chore,” the voice slightly sighed.
“Unnecessary!! Just tell me three things. Where am I? Where is my clan? And where are the Asuras!!?”
Leng San spoke in a rough voice, filled with hatred. Freya’s irritated attitude elevated the young boy’s anger to its limit. Before losing his consciousness, his clan was in a critical condition from the Asuras’ attack from a different realm. The gap between their powers was enormous.
“There’s no need to hurry. Everything has already ended. According to my calculation, we’ve traveled one thousand five hundred years into the future since the destruction of your clan.”
Her calm voice made the young man tremble as the color on his face drained. His back and the palms of his hands were drenched with sweat. Hot flashes sparked through him as if he was plunging from a steep cliff to the bottom.
“Impossible!! You lied!! I’ve never heard anything like this in my life!!”
“I, the daughter of the noble Devas, have never lied to anyone.”
The statement shattered Leng San. He instantly dropped down onto his knees. Time traveling was just a joke that only a fool would speak of. It was nothing but a fable to Leng San. However, his firm belief started to waver due to several facts. How did he come here? What happened to his qi? What about the young girl’s voice that kept echoing within his subconsciousness? He could not find a reason to justify his current situation.
“Alright, I’ll tell you everything. Did you know that your grandpa saved my father’s life ten years before the battle between your clan and the Asuras? The Asuras’ king ambushed my father in the Human Realm.”
“From then on, your clan was like a distant relative. Both sides quietly supported each other despite being residents of different realms.”
“Because of this event, a seed of fear was sown into the mind of the Asuras’ king. He feared that the Devas and the Leng clan, the most powerful clan in the Azure Dragon Continent of the Human Realm, would join forces to destroy the Asuras. The Asuras then brought its troops to the junction connecting the Asura Realm and the Deva Realm in order to lure out my father and the main troops of the Devas.”
“Then the Asuras proceeded to dispatch stronger warriors to attack your clan, which didn’t end well. My father requested me to come to your assistance in order to preserve the bloodline of your clan, the Leng Clan.”
“But we underestimated the power of the Asuras. Usually, a thousand troops wouldn’t be able to do us harm. Still, it was a different story once they were led by their general, the Infernal Asura, Feng Lun, who amongst the three realms, only my father and the Asuras’ king could lay a finger on. It defeated me as well.”
“Your grandpa, Leng Tian, then embedded your clan’s heirloom, the Dragon Marble, onto your body to send you through time, which can only be used once. My spirit was also sealed within the heirloom. However, the choice of preserving your qi was impossible, or else you would be able to travel only ten to fifteen years into the future, which is clearly impossible for you to escape the Asuras’ hunting. So, he destroyed your qi, leaving it at the lowest level possible to help you escape from the pursuers. Then you ended up at this place.”
Leng San was still on his knees. He did not move for half a shichen (one hour). Freya’s story was almost impossible to digest. Suddenly, he looked up to the sky with tears on his face.
“Why did grandpa choose to deal with the situation this way? I’m not as strong as my grandpa and my father, but I’m not weaker than the other clan members. Why didn’t he let me die along with the clan…”
As Leng San spoke, the tears rolling down his face turned red. It was blood!! Only those that had experienced profound grief would shed tears of blood.
“I’ll shred the Asuras’ king and the Infernal Asura Feng Lun into bits. I’ll avenge my clan with its blood and bone!!” The boy with blood-stained face vengefully swore, grinding his teeth in pain.
“Hmph!! Are you crazy? The Asuras indeed live a long life. But five hundred years is usually the limit. There’s no one waiting for you to take revenge. They’re all dead by now.”
“I’ll destroy their entire clan instead!!”
“Good!! Don’t forget what you said today. And don’t forget your place now. Only its breath would be more than enough to take your life.”
Leng San confirmed whether his body still remembered the martial arts he had been practicing. It was a relief that he could still use them. However, it was impossible to execute powerful techniques with his current amount of qi.
“Freya, why would a member of the Devas like you decide to follow me?”
“Feng Lun ended my life. But we Devas can still survive in the form of spirits for three days after our physical body is destroyed. And within three days, if we are able to seal ourselves within another being, our spirit will then be saved. We can be brought back to life once we have suitable materials and medicine.”
“So, your motive is to tag along until I’ve found you a vessel?”
“That isn’t the whole story. I was requested by your grandpa to assist you in any way I can in this new world, and also to send you a message.”
“A message from my grandpa. What is it!! Tell me now!!”
Freya remained silent for a short while, thinking hard.
“Sigh… I think it is still too early for you at the moment, but please know that you’ve been bestowed by the soul of the Azure Dragon!!”
