Once there was a lingering soul trapped in the stream of qi belonging to the highest worlds.

When it was supposedly killed by the Emperor, the Gray Figure had its soul split to almost nothingness and invaded the deepest parts of the angelic and hellish qi and eventually, its chaos qi.

His soul was split into many pieces in order to leave as many marks as possible. He left his husk that was his skeleton and erased parts of his own memory leaving only bits of the truth and a chunk of its creator's words.

It lived through the qi of Heaven and Hell for millennia, it was revived in the form of a Gray Figure who had knowledge of the chaos qi but nothing about itself. It believed in its own memory regarding the talk of peace and harmony, but still trusted the instinct it felt.

It fooled itself so it could fool others.

It urged its host to go to the center of the realm where his body lays to reclaim what he had lost but was met with an unfortunate event. He wished for the husk to reach the peak of Devil Lineage and devour the blood of humans but still failed as by then, the host had already doubted the words of the figure.

The memory of the innate ability regarding the ability to read the words of the ancients was sealed in an instinctual fear that its courier would find out something he should not. For years, it fed its courier lies that it believed itself believed to be facts, and now that it had regained its memories, it now understood what it had uttered before was a complete and utter lie.

The body of its courier was destroyed, his soul, damaged and a big chunk of it missing after imploding from too much qi. However, the figure did not care, its bones were already present, it may be dust now, but it was still its own bones.

The dust that had exploded earlier began to gather like a sandstorm, it gathered around the body of the already broken husk Wang Ling.

[I just need to reform my body.] it thought to itself and then took control of Wang Ling's broken body.

With the least amount of effort, the great figure summoned the bell of the heavens and let it rang out 81 bells and had what remained of Wang Ling's soul take the brunt of the sounds.

The already torn soul of the husk slowly showed signs of being destroyed. After the bell sounding out, the body moved, albeit rather slowly.

[Now, let us fix its functionality, I need to get my powers back.]

The innate ability of enhance regeneration was there, and as nine haloes appeared on the back of his head, the husk began healing from the implosion. The flesh and blood scattered on the ground, ceiling, and walls started to crawl towards his body.

And as if nothing happened, Wang Ling's destroyed body was as good as new. This was the power of his bloodline.

It was difficult but he began to step forward, left, and then the right going up the stairs and then opening the door at the end of it all. The husk stepped out with the dust of the skeleton going round and round around him.

Walking at a very slow pace he began to head for the middle of the triangular area.

The barrier around the area was supposed to act as a means to ensure that when the successor of the creator was destroying the skeleton none would be able to get in the way. But now, it was acting against him.

'Did he fear my children that much?'

The General stood in the middle and as he tapped his foot down, a gray soul escaped from the husk, and the dust littering the area began to congregate to form the bones one by one. The bones that had been destroyed was slowly getting restored as the qi that had been scattered to revitalize the world was absorbed back by its rightful owner.

Starting from the greenery of the Red Lands, the life of the entire realm was slowly getting sapped away. The trees were slowly turning to dust and the bones began reforming themselves as if nothing happened.

From the mausoleum of Heaven, the dense qi was being stolen and from the tomb of Hell, the blood he had lost was returning back. The runes that had been written with his blood was returning back, recreating the flesh and blood that had been ripped away from his body.

When the body became functional enough for him to operate, the Gray Figure left Wang Ling's body carrying his own bloodlines, and then, he stood with his original body, smiling.

With a body of his own, the gray figure whose name was yet to be known looked down upon the body that lay on the floor. His eyes showed sympathy on how he had ended up. But soon enough he smiled.

"So this is your end. The man who wished to conquer all the lands ended up dying in the hands of the one he thought was dead. I really enjoyed our time together, but sadly your insight was not enough to see through my words.

"Although you eventually did saw past some of my lies, like the lineage and the thing about the demons, it is unfortunate as you could have avoided this if not for the fact that you believed my words of the Fake Nobles. Though I have to admit, they are indeed fake and inferior to the one and only King which is myself, you could have survived if you have met any one of the Kings.

"You avoided them like a plague trying to hide your strength as you feared death. What luck. Your soul is already dissipating? How unlucky of you, but still, thank you for taking me here. Don't worry, I won't turn you into my soldiers, you at least deserve some rest. As for your family though, they will have to die and be devoured by my little children."

The Gray Figure turned his back from Wang Ling's now dying husk.

He was sure that he would die sooner or later. His soul had already been damaged beyond repair, and indeed he was right. With a damaged soul, anyone would no longer have any strength to move.

Such was the end of the strongest man's pursuit of strength.

However, a lingering flicker of life still remained. A flicker no bigger than a wick's flame when compared to his previous limitless vitality. From his open eyes Wang Ling could still see bits of the world.

With his ears, he could hear the words of the Gray Figure clearly.

As he lay on the ground, nearing lifelessness, Wang Ling heard something from deep within.

"I supposed this is the time when I fulfill my promise to you."

The figure he had previously seen, the figure that whispered to him when he was in that darkness and the never-ending light. It echoed in his ears the words of a promise when he needs it the most.

A figure appeared before him. This time, he could see its face, observing it, the face it possesses is like an ethereal beauty. With Wang Ling's limited cognition at the moment, he could not properly make it out.

The ethereal figure smiled as it asked.

"What do you wish to do? I wish to help you but I can only really use it one more time, answer me, what is it that you wish to do?"

Wang Ling's damaged soul opened its mouth with great difficulty trying to make out the words it wishes to do.

"K...ill..."

The man with an ethereal visage looked at him with a saddened face.

"You...will disappear if you push your soul too much. I can have you reincarnate a third time, with my remaining strength, guiding you to a corner of the universe is possible. You will be able to cultivate and become strong enough to kill him once and for all."

"Wang...Fa...mi..ly... would be destroyed...I can't... have that... Kill Him...NOW!!!!"

This wish stem from both his life.