In a secluded little world, on an island in the middle of a lake was a little thatched hut. In front of the little hut, a man dressed as if he were a beggar, was sitting cross legged meditating. The man had a slender body, his face was as white as jade and as refined like a dolls. His long black hair was as straight as a sword. As he sat there meditating, a rift opened up in front of him. An old man in white robes stepped out.

The robes had golden embroidery that gave them a majestic aura. The old man had a wrinkled face and his long silver hair was exactly the same as the man in beggar clothes. The old man smiled to the young man and said warmly, “Your highness, it seems as though your world has another person who has the potential to shatter the fetters.” The young man slowly opened his eyes as he said, “Yea, through a twist of fate, he acquired the Legacy of the previous person who had the potential.” The old man nodded warmly. The young man sighed as he continued, “Fate truly likes to play tricks, huh...”

The old man was puzzled by this statement but before he could ask the young man what he meant, the young man continued, “Focus on the Soul Aura of that person. You will understand what I mean by that then.” The old man had a suspicious face but didn’t say anything. Suddenly, his face changed as astonishment was painted all over it. He stuttered, “H-H-How is t-t-that possible? It, it. He should have completely died countless years ago!” As the old man exclaimed, the young man threw a jade slip towards the old man.

The old man caught it and looked at it for a second. “Inside is his life until now.” As the young man explained in a few words, the old man poured Qi into the jade slip and information entered his head. A few minutes passed and the old man let out a sigh, “To think that the Heavens are this unfair.” The young man also wrily smiled as he said, “Even my Father, The First Being in Existence, can’t escape the Laws of Heaven. To think that the person our Cosmos owes the most, who should have sown the best karma, has actually had to leave this tragic of a life.”

The old man also nodded helplessly. He sighed as he asked, “Is there nothing we can do to help him? We owe him too much to just let him do everything himself.” The young man helplessly shook his head as he said, “The Laws of Heaven prevent us from interfering with worlds that have not had an Ascended person yet. All we can do is just wait and look at him.”

The old man just sighed as he asked, “However, how did he survive? The entire Cosmos saw his soul being shattered in the Dimensional War.” The young man also shook his head as he said, “I have no idea but it seems like even he himself doesn’t know it.”

***

No one, knew what had happened in that little world and it didn’t concern them. Nalser entering closed door training came as surprise to all the puppets but they could only bury the worry deep inside when Librarian told them what Nalser had told them. Nalser had chosen to go into closed door training in the Training Hall. As he kept cultivating the body refining techniques, his understanding of the importance of a solid foundation also grew. Most people overlooked them because training in them was painful and tedious.

It was easier to reach small success and move on, however Nalser, who had now fully perfectly tempered his body in accordance to the techniques, let out a sigh, “If I survive this, I should make it mandatory to reach perfection in at least 3 techniques before advancing.” Nalser opened his eyes and slowly stood up. He executed a familiar set of martial art techniques. After every move, a sonic boom rang out. His fleshly body had reached an unprecedented height. The only person in history to reach his body strength in history was the Ancient King.It was also due to his foundation with these body tempering techniques that he had the unprecedented power he had.

In his time, he had unified the Realm and was only a step away from reaching Ascension. However he knew, that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to take that step. So he started collecting all sorts of techniques, devising all sorts of training methods and reflecting on his own training. All of this was done in order to find a disciple with the potential to pass all of it down to. If he couldn’t achieve Ascension himself, he wanted to be the Master of the person who did.

Through a twist of faith, all the preparations, all the expectations fell on Nalser. Nalser let out a sigh as he finished his set of martial techniques. He looked his hands and mumbled, “The power of this fleshly body is something on par with a peak Foundation Establishment Stage person. With my Artefacts, I am on par with someone form the peak Core Formation, with my teleportation ability that couldn’t be interrupted, I am on par with someone who is in the Nascent Soul stage.” It wouldn’t be far fetched to say that when he reached Foundation Establishment, he would be the strongest person under the Tribulation.

This kind of power, actually scared Nalser a bit. Even though he understood that this was all due to his hard work and a solid foundation but something didn’t feel quite right to Nalser. Deep down, he felt that there was still something else involved. He couldn’t put his finger on it but for some reason, everything he did was very familiar. He had never trained in cultivation but for some reason, all the techniques he trained in, he could somehow identify the mistakes in them and improve them. All the body refining techniques in the Library had a few pointless parts or false parts that lowered the final outcome. As he fixed them, he realized that the modifications he heightened the end point of the techniques. He could refine his body more thoroughly.

In the beginning, he thought that he was just modifying them to suit them to himself but as time went on and the more techniques he modified, the more he realized, that he improved them over all rather than tailor them to himself. Although, he didn’t let it show, neither did he tell anyone about it but it was something that was constantly on his mind. This was truly one thing that he couldn’t find an explanation to, so that made him feel a bit unsure in himself.

Although he had heard the saying, “Don’t look a gifted horse in the mouth.”, he felt there was still something extremely important hidden from him. It had nothing to do with his fleshly body but more with his soul. Before reaching the Core Formation and fusing his soul with the core, to birth his Nascent Soul, the soul is an intangible thing. It can not be felt or touched, however for some reason, Nalser felt some other existence inside him. Locked deep inside, hiding, waiting for something. However, he also somehow had a feeling that everything will become clear when he steps into Foundation Establishment.

This was also one of the reasons he wanted to reach Foundation Establishment so quickly. He hated this feeling of being in darkness. If that something was bad for him and he would be engulfed in darkness, then let it be so. As he thought to himself, he sat down cross legged again and breathed out deeply. He directed his Qi Sense inside him and as the Qi Sense followed the Meridians, he was searching for the last Hidden Meridian inside his body.

If he could find and open it, he can start opening his Hidden Palaces. When all of the other techniques were for tempering the body, this one was for tempering his Qi. By unclogging his 99 Hidden Meridians, he could increase his Qi intake and also his Qi rotation speed. Also he would be able to force out a lot more Qi in his body to use in a technique. The Hidden Palaces had the function of storage and purification. If he could open all of the 7 Hidden Palaces, his Qi reservoir would increase by threefold. It would also make it easier to channel the Qi.

Actually, you didn’t need to unclog all the 99 Hidden Meridians to open the 7 Palaces but Nalser had a feeling that something different will happen when he finds all the 99 Hidden Meridians. In history, no one had found all the 99 Hidden Meridians, not even the Ancient King. Shaon had found 98 but had never found that last one. Days passed and soon two weeks had passed since Nalser started searching for the last Meridian.

His eyes were bloodshot as he cursed to himself, “What the Hell is going on? Why can’t I find that last Meridian?!” He had searched every cell of his body through and through several times already but hadn’t even found a trace of the last Hidden Meridian. He started doubting the last Meridian even exists, when suddenly he felt his heart thump. He slowly closed his eyes and started focusing on the thumping of his heart. The more he focused on the thumping, the more he fell into a trance. Hours passed, days passed. Soon a week had passed. Nalser’s heart was beating very slowly now as he had reached an enlightened state again.

Suddenly, the heart stopped beating and Nalser opened his eyes. However, when he opened his eyes, he didn’t see the familiar training room but a giant, white, blank space. Inside that space was nothing, it was only pure whiteness. As Nalser looked around, his face had a blank expression. As he closed his eyes again and focused, he could hear a heart thumping slowly. Following the sound he moved across the white space. When he opened his eyes again, in front of him was a black cocoon. As he looked at the cocoon, it thumped loudly.

As if possessed Nalser closed his eyes, stretched his hand out and touched the cocoon. When he did, the cocoon stopped thumping. Slowly, a curled up human figure’s silhouette became visible. As time slowly passed, the silhouette became more and more apparent. When the silhouette was completely visible, Nalser slowly, took back his hand. As he did so, the cocoon started thumping wildly, Nalser slowly opened his eyes as a slight smile came onto his face. He slowly murmured, “No wonder, no one has ever found the last Meridian. It isn’t a real Meridian at all.”

As he closed his eyes again, he exited the blank white space. Inside the stone training room, Nalser’s heart, the heart that had stopped beating for a few days now, started slowly beating again. An hour passed and Nalser opened his eyes. Inside them was no excitement, hesitation. In his eyes was only tranquility.

As he closed his eyes again, popping sounds started ringing out inside the stone room. PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! As the popping sounds continuously rung out, Nalser’s body was covered in black filth. However, the layer of filth was only a few mm thick. These were the last of the impurities left inside Nalser’s body. In addition to finding the last “Meridian” he had immediately opened all of the Hidden Palaces. When he did so, the last of the impurities inside his body was forced out. As Nalser opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was that he was covered in filth from head to toe. Without saying anything, he closed his eyes again and planned on burning all the filth away when suddenly an explosive PA! Echoed out inside his head.

The explosion was loud enough to shake the entire Island but no one heard it except for Nalser. Before Nalser could even start thinking about what had happened, he felt a connection. It was the connection to his own soul. He had achieved something no one in the History of the Realm had achieved. He had found his soul and established a connection with it before reaching the Nascent Soul Stage. Towards his future cultivation, it was extremely beneficial. It was a well known fact that a Nascent Soul Expert had an easier time comprehending and cultivating because they can have the Soul do it while they took care of the mundane things.

If both the Body and Soul cultivated together the progress would be even faster. Nalser had reached this state while only in Qi Gathering. This was something completely unheard of and also unthinkable in the Realm. If a word of this got out, it would set the entire Realm into a giant stir. However, since even the Ancient Remnants couldn’t look into the Starry Island any more, no one knew about this. The only person who knew about this was Nalser.

Unlike a Nascent Soul Expert, he couldn’t summon his Soul outside his body to fight alongside him. He also couldn’t abandon his body on the brink of destruction to live on with only his soul. All he could use the soul for was for comprehending things, cultivating or training in Martial Art Techniques. This unexpected thing was exactly what Nalser was after. For some reason, every time he followed that mysterious gut feeling of his, something unexpected but very beneficial for him would happen.

However, he could not understand where this feeling came from or why he had this feeling. Even with his now enhanced body and with his link to his soul, he still couldn’t find the place where the feeling came from. Nalser let out a sigh as his entire body abruptly erupted into flames. All the filth was burned so cleanly that not even ash remained of it. As Nalser closed his eyes again, to understand the connection with his soul better and to see the exact limits on what he could do with it, he arrived inside the blank white space again.

However this time, there wasn’t a giant cocoon in front of him but rather a mirror image of him stood in front of him. When he closed his ‘eyes’ again he tried communicating with the soul again.

***

On a little island, the young man in beggar clothing opened his eyes in astonishment. He pondered for a second before shaking his head with a bitter smile. All he could do was only murmur to himself, “No matter if it is this life or the previous one, you are still the unreal monster that turns all logic upside down.” He had a nostalgic gaze as he remembered something.

After a few moments, he shook his head and murmured again, “I really want to see if your wings can break the chains this time or they will be cropped again.” As he closed his eyes to enter meditation again he murmured one last sentence escaped his lips, “Nalser Vi Dragoncross, The Black Flame Angel, Chain Warden, Bloody Angel, which one will you be this time?”

***

Inside the black castle as ancient as time itself. The shadow referred as the ‘Ancient Prince’ by the red robed youth let out a cold “Hmph!”. The youth didn’t dare to say anything before the man in front of him gave him permission to do so. An archaic voice echoed out in the throne room, “Is it true that Father’s Legacy has resurfaced?”

The youth respectfully said, “Yes, your Highness. The Legacy has landed in the hands of the Previous Prince from the Heavenly Fire Empire.” The shadow was quiet for a second before asking, “And?” The youth continued, “It is the Prince that had been locked in a special Dimension by the Heavenly Fire Ancestor 7 years ago. About a year ago, the bloodline jade let me know, that he had exited from the Special Dimension but before I could get him, he disappeared without a trace. From the traces at the scene, it is safe to say that it was then that he had obtained the Legacy of the Ancient King.” The shadowy figure nodded, what seemed to be his head, signalling for the youth to continue.

Without tarrying the youth continued, “For a year, there had been no trace of him at all but suddenly a few weeks ago, he appeared again. This time he put on a show of brute force. He specifically mentioned the Starry Island-” The shadow cut him off with a wave of what seemed to be his hand. He dismissed the youth. When he was alone in the throne room, the shadows started dissipating.

From the shadows a young man in black robes stepped out. He didn’t have a buff body but his hair were as black as the night. His skin was slightly tanned and his usually handsome face was now extremely ugly. However, he soon started laughing madly.

When the laugh ended anger took over. With a smile he he bellowed, “I wasn’t worthy enough to inherit your Legacy, huh Father?” He turned to look towards the ceiling before continuing, “So, I will kill the person who obtained your Legacy. I will crush and obliterate your Legacy. If I can’t have it, no one can!” After saying so, he started laughing madly again.

***

On the starry island, Nalser had mostly figured out the limitations with his Soul. He had steeled his heart and sat down cross legged on the ground. In a one-on-one splitting image both him and his soul started gathering Qi as he started marching towards Foundation Establishment. His heart was now light.

He had done every single preparation he could before taking this step, if he failed, he would have no one and nothing to blame.