1 Hopelessly Hopeful

[Book discontinued, do not read]

Time trickled deeper into the night.

A downpour was crashing onto the ground; the sound of ambulance sirens and cars whooshing past echoed relentlessly.

On the paved ground of a dirty alley laid an unconscious young boy, raindrops tracing down his dirt-smeared cheeks.

His head rested against the disgusting trash bags as the unceasing rain spread a putrid stench.

Wearily, the boy opened his eyes. He saw the rain crashing against the floor but flinched and closed his eyes as the water splashed into his face.

"What the hell is this? Where am I?" the boy muttered, covering his face with his hand as he looked around.

He saw a small, red, flickering sign in the alley that kept releasing glitching sounds. And a putrid stench of soaked garbage permeated the area.

Foo!

The sudden noise of tires rushing through the wet puddle near the alley snapped him back to full alertness. He quickly scanned the area, his eyes darting around in bewilderment.

Seeing there was no one around, he breathed out and touched around his neck. It felt smooth and… empty. But still intact.

'It's still there!' He hissed in phantom pain and stood up. His body filled with unknown adrenaline because of the strange situation. As the rain soaked him and his mind ran amok with thoughts, he looked around his surroundings through the downpour.

This place was nothing like he had ever seen before—his heart thumped—the blinking light, rain, the fast-moving metal things that passed by with glaring lights in the front, and ear-bursting horns.

His body also felt weird for some reason. His center of gravity was not as it used to be.

"Where… is this?" he asked out loud, stunned. But then he stopped speaking too. His voice sounded foreign and shallow. It was not his own. At least not what he remembered to be his.

He looked down at his reflection in the dirty puddle he had been sleeping on. It was unclear, but the flowing white hair that should have been there was not there. It was not himself.

Someone other than himself.

He stumbled a step back, his heart thumping.

'What is going on?!'

Suddenly, a quiver ran through his body as he remembered. He remembered the last thing he saw before waking up here:

His vision rotated as he looked down, only to see his own body standing there, stationery; headless as a shower of blood exploded forth from its neck. A leisurely young man sheathing beside him a bloody sword. After that, his vision had darkened.

He took a cold breath and then thought about the myth regarding his ancient locket his master had once jokingly told. It was said to reincarnate the dead for once, a magical immortal treasure that has no equals in might. He hadn't believed it then, but those words now echoed in his mind violently.

'Then what about Ling'er and Master?' His eyes kept widening until they grew bloodshot. 

His heart immediately began beating chaotically. 'Did the temple even survive the end war?'

He gritted his teeth and punched the walls of the alley in fear. Feeling weakness spread throughout his body. 'Why?!'

'For what reason did I train the Sword for so long? Genius?! What fucking genius am I?! I couldn't even stand three moves of someone the same age as me!'

Once again, he stared at the 'carriages' moving past. They were too fast for a carriage and there were no horses. Something was really wrong, really, really wrong, these didn't seem like anything he had heard of existing in Martial Star.

But the weird situation also gave him some trickle of hope amidst the despair creeping up.

Maybe, just like him, his Master and Ling'er had survived due to some weird luck. Maybe his Master had a breakthrough. And maybe Ling'er ran away fast enough.

He looked up at the sky, the moon and stars were hidden behind the rain and clouds. The strong water mercilessly poured onto his face and then down his body.

He could feel the anger and hatred fiercely simmer within him. Gently building up; he knew hoping they survived like he did was probably delusional. He only had one locket after all.

'Maybe, if I had been a bit more hardworking, my Ling'er would have been safe.'

Blood tears streamed down his eyes and fused into the rain. He just stood there. A hopeless look glazed over his eyes.

'Maybe it was all destined from the start, I was just supposed to lose. Fate had decided it to be so like Master always said. I had no chance of saving them from the start!'

Suddenly, the sound of a blaring alarm rang out. Followed by a panicked announcement:

"Announsiese Sradhdha, So se citizeons!" The mic buzzed before the voice warned with even more urgency, "Ase ghostha opene ne sity wan! Anase ghostha opene ne sity seva! ghostha streame suesa Astrale! Ples Evahua! Si Re, Ples immeya Evahua!"

Wu Ren's ears pricked in irritation. 'What is this language?'

The woman said something more but he didn't understand anything and ignored her. At the moment, he didn't care. His mind was consumed by memories of the last few days. So many things didn't even make sense!

His temple was targeted from too many sides for no reason.

The war of the 9 great factions, the temple being surrounded from all sides, and the martial masters dying one by one. Running away with his juniors only to be intercepted in between.

Everything seemed to have been planned from the start, even the hidden escape routes were worthless. 'Did someone inside betray the temple?'

His heart constricted even more.

It was clear once he thought about it; even he, the senior brother, died. The chance of his juniors surviving was way too low.

He gritted his teeth in hatred as his eyes once again overflowed with tears.

Without the temple, his master, and his Ling'er, life was pointless.

There was no use even if the locket truly did this miracle.

No matter what, he should have scouted his surroundings, but he didn't. Or in other words, he couldn't.

That was the way the Temple had taught him, but, even though he tried, he found himself unable to stop the tears or to move, his mind was tearing itself apart.

The coldness of the rain was seeping into his heart.

The world was spinning around. His emotions were overwhelming him.

'I shouldn't have bothered about the temple rules. I should have just married you...'

He said this again and again in his mind, but that didn't change anything.

–

Swallowing down an urge to just crawl into the ground and die, he once again looked around, pulling a bit of his sanity together.

Suicide was no solution. He had to man up, for the first time in his life.

He couldn't disappoint them even in their death.

If they didn't die, he had to go save them. If they died, he had to leave behind the temple a strong legacy before he himself followed.

His mind became much calmer at the thought even though his heart kept screaming.

But before he knew it, an eerie tension began to envelop the area, everything had become too quiet.

Too silent. Even the dirty fleas around seemed to have vanished and quietened.

He scanned his surroundings, his senses immediately on high alert as he pushed his emotional turmoil deep into his heart.

He didn't know why, but the metal carriages had stopped whooshing past for a while.

'Was it the female voice? Was that some kind of warning?' he wondered as his eyes shifted around, and soon enough, they locked onto a pair of glowing eyes in the dark night, a ferocious beast with a feral aura emerged from the darkness.

Towering over a typical wolf, its fur was wet, upright, and gray and its expression was one of hunger and coldness.

A ferocious growl escaped through its fangs.

Its steps were slow, cautious, and gouging.

'A wolf?' Ren looked at it with a frown and slowly moved to the side without startling it.

'No, something's wrong!'

The wolf's eyes were ghostly grey, its steps far too silent.

It was no ordinary wolf, it was as if it was mixing into the night. 

He pushed the thoughts down and focused on his opponent.

Silently, he tried to tap into his internal energy but cursed inside. There was no such thing in this body.

Immediately, he looked behind it for an escape route.

"Good dog, just stay there and don't come closer!" he gently murmured as he moved sideways. His muscles were taut and ready to dodge at any second.

The wolf growled and moved closer to him, about to lunge at him.

He braced himself to evade the attack, his muscles tensed, his eyes focused under the belly of the beast where his best escape route was.

But just as the wolf closed in, an arrow whooshed through the air and pierced its eyes with a swish sound followed by the piercing of soft flesh, it moved some more steps towards him before it powerlessly flopped to the ground.

He looked at it in alarm as it whimpered, huffed, and died in front of him as the blood exploded out. Alongside that, the arrow in its eyes vanished into a puddle of blood.

'A Demonic Art!' Wu Ren exclaimed to himself and looked around, but the rain was too heavy and he couldn't tell where the arrow came from.

Without waiting, he ran past the monster carcass and towards the road, but just as he reached it, another wolf collided with a cart beside him, slamming it against the wall in a puddle of flesh and blood.

His heart skipped a beat and he took his eyes away from it to 3 men fighting more than 30 wolves by themselves.

"Kid, what are you doing? Hahahahah, Run!" One of them looked at him and shouted, the blood on his hand splashing around as red arrows everywhere.

Wu Ren looked at the gleaming, white stars on the man's forehead for a second and with a nod, ran away.

He had yet to make clear of the situation, and all the help was gladly accepted.

Even though he didn't understand what the man said.