Immortal Ascension Tower - Book 1: Reborn! [CH 1 - 75]

(Old Version) Book 1 - Reborn: Prologue - I Have Returned

That sure was a strange place... There was no ceiling and yet no sky could be seen. On the ground there were countless dirty yellow rivers whose waters were so filled with souls and specters that they barely moved... Yet, millions, billions, trillions or even quadrillions and sextillions of discarnate souls flowed on.
Thousands if not millions of souls passed every single moment on those yellow rivers of death... The Yellow Springs!

In that hellish place though He was different. He simply stood there alone in the dark, looking upwards towards where the sky should have been. He was special. He wasn't tortured nor was He noticed, as if He were invisible. It was impossible to tell wether it was a bless or a curse. Yet He had no memories... No memories of Himself nor of any others and He just laid on His back and looked upwards, as the time flowed on, and on, and on.

Until the Light finally reached His eyes. It appeared suddenly, a dazzling Light that dispelled all the shadows. It also dispelled the Darkness in His head. He felt a burning pain as all his memories came back to him.

With a flash, hazy memories that shouldn't have existed reappeared as clear as the day. He knew, He knew where He was.

He was in the Underworld, He was at the entrance of the Yellow Springs, cursed to never reincarnate nor pass on, cursed to watch the starless sky until the end of time. He had died but His death was sealed... Much more of a curse rather than a blessing... Since His death was sealed He could have gone back in the world of the living any time he wanted but that darkness in His head didn't allow that.

It only gave Him the knowledge that he didn't exist, that He had no body and wasn't really there... Truly something that contradicted itself, but His muddled mind could only accept it as He had no way of knowing that.

The Light flashed again and more shadows got dispelled. He knew, He knew who He was.

He was Xu Ling. He was the Evil Saint. He was the one who challenged the Heavens.

Once again golden flashes reached Him and more shadows also disappeared.

He knew. He knew what He Had to do.

He smiled with a mouth that wasn't there, He laughed even though His vocal chords didn't exist. He stood up on His legs when He shouldn't have had any, and took the golden light in His hands. He had no hands, yet He could hold it, no mouth yet He swallowed it. He didn't exist yet He also did. All didn't exist and that was why He couldn't see, yet all still was there so He Could see.

If He was nothing He would not do anything. If He did anything He wasn't nothing. If He wasn't nothing He did. If He did He wasn't nothing.

He DID. Therefore He WAS. Understanding that, the deepest shadow in his mind also faded away and the invisible shackles that bound him to this place broke down. It was then. That Death couldn't hold Him anymore.

After a full one thousand years of blankly staring at the starless sky, the stars reappeared and then He knew. He knew that they had been there all along, it was just Him that didn't have the power to do that final step and see them.

The frozen ground beneath Him turned back into the cold dirt and the once still air now brushed in waves on His skin. The sky... The earth... The wind... He lifted a small hand. At first He was taken aback but then He smiled. The golden light pill that He had swallowed let out a feeling of warmth from his stomach.

He breathed in the cold air and laughed. "I have returned!"

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Note: This book is a Xianxia, a Chinese genre. You might want to look into what a Xianxia is otherwise you won't understand a lot of the stuff I will be writing about. Anyways, congratulations to me for my first chapter! And you have no idea how much time it took to change all those 'h's into 'H's...

If I had done this on a computer I could have just changed them all at once but... *Sigh* my brain the size of a hazelnut just had to go ahead and decide I had to do this on my iPad... Great thinking buddy!