Transcending Chaos

Red, overwhelming shades of red. When one looks from a spatial view at the planet, it would be appear in many shades of red. This was the Crimson Tide Planet, a planet considered a part of the Mortal Realm. Its atmosphere crimson and its oceans scarlet.

For reasons unknown, there was never a true day cycle. The sun was always in a state of perpetual sunset for the Crimson Tide Planet. Sunset and night, these were the only two phases of the planet. Many cultivators speculated that the planet was in its current situation because there wasn't a balance of the elements.

Clearly fire was dominant, and yet, although the majority of cultivators used flames because of this belief, they weren't overwhelmingly stronger than other cultivators who didn't primarily use flames. At the most, they simply cultivated slightly faster and their ability to fight was slightly higher due to the environmental advantage. It was truly an enigma that researchers were still trying to understand to this day.

Of the hundreds of millions that encompassed the Crimson Tide Continent, a mere ten million made up the worlds smallest country, the New Dawn Kingdom. They were the weakest of the nations, never once able to give birth to a Heavenly Emperor. Despite this, they had survived for a rather simple reason.

Even if they had a plethora of natural resources, if one empire attempted to conquer them, another would surely intervene. Each of the empires wanted to monopolize the New Dawn Kingdom for themselves, but it was much easier said than done due to the precarious position that the New Dawn Kingdom was in.

And yet it was in this small country that Lute resided. Standing at full height, he was a little over five feet tall. A mass of disheveled red hair flowed freely as he travelled through the surrounding forest. Covered in mere animal skins, he lived on the outskirts of the Crimson Tide Mountain Range that pierced through the entire continent.

At thirteen years of age, Lute was already passed the time that a child should start cultivating. Raised in a small farming village of mortals, he never had any chance to learn cultivation. This was a regret he held deep in his heart, he had always wanted to learn, but there wasn't a way.

The more he thought about it, the more the feeling of guilt arose within him. At the age of eleven, two years ago, bandits who were Nascent Qi Realm Cultivators, assaulted his village and slaughtered all the men within, they took the women and children as slaves, and plundered everything available. Had Lute not been outside hunting deer for his father because the house needed to be repaired, he would’ve been forced to watch his father die and be taken with his mother and sister as slaves.

When Lute had returned to the small village that was burned to the ground, he found the corpses of all the men piled in the center of the village. His father appeared to be one of the first killed as he was at the bottom of the pile. With tears of agony, Lute had one by one, taken each member of his small village, and buried them. On that day, a child who should've had a happy childhood despite living a life of farming and hunting, had lost all emotions pertaining to happiness and pleasure.

After that fateful day, the Lute that all the family, neighbors and friends of the village had once known died. The previously cheerful and energetic youth was replaced by an emotionless person with stern eyes. A cold heart that lost all emotions of happiness; all that remained in his heart was anger, sadness, and most of all, guilt. Becoming a cultivator was something he always dreamed of like most boys his age, if only he'd pursued that dream in earnest and achieved strength before the bandits had come.

Every night, revenge was all Lute dreamed about. But, two years had passed since that dreadful day. Lute knew that it would take a miracle to obtain such a chance, especially since he would be years behind other child cultivators. If he could take revenge, then he wouldn't mind giving up his life. However, he'd learned the cruel reality of the world years before most other children. The strong were always in the right, it was that simple. The only way he'd be able to live life the way he wanted was to have the strength to back up whatever actions he took.

With thoughts of the past constantly floating around in Lute's head, he flitted through the trees. After two years, he had gauged roughly when the safest time for him to be outside of his make-shift shelter was. Each day he would have roughly six hours to hunt and gather the necessary resources for survival in the Crimson Tide Mountain Range.

If he dared to tread too far into the forests that were on the outskirts of the mountains, the probability that he would encounter a Vicious Beast multiplied. Even the weakest one could slaughter a third level Foundational Qi cultivator with relative ease. At least this much was common knowledge, even among mortals. To kill one Vicious Beast that was considered weak, it would take tens of mortals to even make an attempt. But with such a deterrent, Lute wasn't afraid; he'd been travelling these forests for years, even before he started living on his own.

Flitting through the woods at top speed, Lute was tracking a doe from the tracks he spotted a few hours ago; they lead deeper and deeper into the forest. However Lute still relatively knew the area he was in and considered it safe. But just to be safe he remained on high alert at all times and kept his bow and arrow notched.

After travelling for a few more minutes, a clearing began to open up. Appearing in the middle of the clearing was a doe that was eaten and mutilated almost beyond recognition.

Strange, something is not right here, there shouldn't be any predators out yet, especially one that could dismember the doe to such an extent. Why would such an occurrence happen?

Almost as if on que, when Lute finished thinking about how abnormal the situation was, an almost sixth sense activated from years of surviving alone. Rather than turn around, or even attempt to figure out how he knew something was approaching from behind him, Lute dove forward and ran at top speed. Diving to the right and left, zig-zagging through the trees, he kept running.

From his peripheral vison, sometimes small tufts of black fur would appear and then meld into the surroundings again. But that was enough for Lute to realize the severity of his situation. He was being toyed with by a Vicious Beast, and most probably a wolf because of the black fur.

Despite being driven further and further into the forest, Lute kept on running, he remained calm but anxiety tugged at his heart.

Is this how it ends? Does my pitiful thirteen years amount to nothing? Are mother and sister still alive? Is my fate so terrible that the heavens just want to end my life?

"Hehe, it seems that contemplating about your life and its entirety before you die is true. So will that mean it will flash before my eyes when I am about to die?" Said Lute in a ragged voice as he continued to run without care.

Panting heavily, Lure ended up coming to a chasm with a waterfall piercing its depths. Turing around, his eyes met with none other than the Vicious Beast. It stood at close to two meters in height. Long fangs were protruding from its vicious snout and even though he wasn't a cultivator, Lute swore that he could sense bloodlust emanating from the giant black wolf.

Slowly it crouched down and began to stalk towards Lute. Its eyes were clearly mocking him as Lute just stood at the edge of the cliff. Then when it was within five meters of Lute, it began to pounce with its fangs and claws outstretched.

Contrary to its expectations, the prey, Lute, chose his own way to die. He wasn't going to die under the sadistic glee of a wolf that toyed with him and probably wouldn't even eat him after he died. Instead, when he saw the wolf begin to approach, Lute chose to live the last moment of his life in freedom by making his own choice about how he would die.

As the wolf began to pounce, Lute turned around while making an obscene hand gesture at the wolf. Then he jumped with all the might he could muster from his tired and ragged body. Colliding into the waterfall, Lute began a high speed descent into the chasm.

The more momentum his body began to pick up and under the weight of the water pouring down on him as he fell. Lute quickly began to lose consciousness as he quickly approached the bottom of the chasm. Slowly closing his eyes, Lute simply let gravity take complete control.

So this is how it ends? What a pitiful way for it all to end. At the very least I died under my own decision and not under the whims of another looking for entertainment.