Chàng Bo stood on top of Chun Mountain. His wild long black hair hanging loosely down his back, fluttering enigmatically in the spring breeze, as two large suns rose from the east.

They illuminated the horizon with golden rays. Under the dawn, Chàng Bo's unblemished milky skin seemed to shimmer, his blue eyes contained the stars. It was as if the heavens themselves were blessing him.

Underneath Chàng Bo various floating valleys made of rivers and rock formations were on display, the clouds were within his reach, and the birds flew by.

Chàng Bo stretched out his arms as if he were embracing the world. The rampant spiritual essence energy running wildly on the land halted and rushed towards him frantically. He felt it seep into his blood and refreshing his spirit, his qi increased in volume and quickly shrank again as it was filtered and purified within his Dantian.

"I've finally broken through into the Dao stage!" he laughed jubilantly. He was proud of himself. At a mere 100 years of age he had surpassed all his peers and in record speed had attained the Dao. He could finally be considered a true Celestial practitioner.

As Chàng Bo smugly grinned to himself and felt as if the world was truly his oyster, he heard a rather annoying voice yell "YOUR TIME IS UP!"

Chàng Bo's brows furrowed in irritation. He chose to ignore it.

Yet a second later, "No longer will we be under your evil tyranny, be prepared to head to the afterlife!" another annoying voice shouted.

"Die Chàng Bo!"

"Face the punishment for your crimes!"

Soon several annoying voices were calling out to him.

"Be quiet." Chàng Bo said, he spoke softly but his words still echoed like thunder across the valleys. Causing the clouds underneath to part, the birds to scatter and the earth to quake.

His words spread to the hordes of practitioners behind him, making some of the weaker one's shriek as their ears began to bleed.

Chàng Bo slowly turned and was slightly startled at the sight of over two hundred practitioners. He raised a perfect eyebrow in surprise. It was not just some lowly weak peasants. Amongst them he also saw some powerful practitioners at the Dao stage, Ascendance stage, and Allfather stage.

What had he done to get such powerful figures here? He doubted they came to congratulate him on breaking through to the Dao.

"What is this about?" Chàng Bo asked with a frown.

"The Supreme Lord of Stars has decided that you have become an eyesore Chàng Bo." A sneaky and silky voice announced.

The host of the voice was a woman with silver hair that shone like strands of moonlight. She was extremely stunning, a flower, but Chàng Bo wasn't captured by her beauty. Instead his frown only deepened. "Why is this witch, Fu Hau, here?" was all he could think.

"What is the meaning of this? Why would my Father call me an eyesore exactly?" Chàng Bo glared at her. Under his starry blue gaze, she felt her breath hitch and her qi become disrupted.

She quickly took a step back and averted her eyes. "He's broken through to the Dao stage!?" Fu Hau realised, "How was that possible?" Chàng Bo was only 100 years old and yet he'd already surpassed her and was able to make her qi disrupt just from his aura.

She'd known that he was a heaven defying talent, but this was too much. Even for the most peerless talents of the past it would take at least 1,000 years to reach the Dao stage. How was this possible...unless he'd had some type of legendary encounter?

"You've overstepped your boundaries, Chàng Bo." she squeezed out, sweat dripping from her forehead, "You've gone too far this time."

Chàng Bo was honestly confused. Too far... with what exactly?

"First you slaughtered the Hong clan in cold blood." Fu Hau announced.

Chàng Bo rolled his eyes, "So what. I am the son of the Supreme Lord of the stars, heir to the star realm. The Hong clan insulted me; therefore, they insulted this realm, they deserved their punishment. Getting rid of small pests such as them is by no means significant."

Fu Hau's hand twitched in rage. This boy was so overbearingly arrogant.

"You then slaughtered the righteous Jie clan! Although they were a mid-tier group, they have been fighting to protect the star realm for hundreds of thousands of years!"

"They were a bunch of self-entitled hypocrites, that used their righteous title to commit all kinds of heinous crimes. I was doing the realm a favour." Chàng Bo retorted.

"Then!" screamed Fu Hau, "you killed Lee Jingyi and stole the static artefact of Void Master Ju Juan from the Domain of Deities. Do you have an excuse for that one?!"

Chàng Bo froze. What? He had never done that. Why would she claim he'd done such a thing?

The Domain of Deities was a sacred burial ground for epic heroes of the past who formed the worlds and shaped the eras. Stealing from that domain was beyond criminal it was practically sacrilege and punishable with death.

And Lee Jingyi! Wasn't she the daughter of his Father's rival, the Supreme Lord of Demons? Had Lee Jingyi died? That didn't make any sense he'd seen her at the Eternal lotus festival only yesterday. If she died and he killed her, that wasn't even funny as a joke. Both the Star and its neighbouring Demon celestial realm had only cooperated peace together a few millennia ago, it was still a fragile agreement.

Lee Jingyi being killed by him would prompt another bloody war. He would never do such a thing. He was reckless and arrogant, a trait he would admit to, but he wasn't stupid. Someone was framing him!

"I wouldn't dare do something like that. I am obviously being falsely accused" Chàng Bo pushed past Fu Hau, "Move aside I must have an audience with my Father."

"Falsely accused?" Fu Hau laughed, "Is that what your excuse is? There were several witnesses who saw you together with Lee Jingyi at the Eternal Lotus Festival yesterday before she died. Also, the stolen static artefact was found in your quarters only this morning!

What excuse do you have against all this evidence!?"

Evidence? Chàng Bo's eyes narrowed. In what way was that evidence, that was the most pitiful excuse for evidence he'd ever heard.

Anyone that agreed to this so-called evidence had to be blind. This wasn't credible proof at all.

If he'd really stolen the artefact why would he blatantly leave it in his quarters for anyone to find, and so what if he was with Lee Jingyi yesterday. It didn't mean he killed her.

But as Chàng Bo saw the outraged look on Fu Hau's face and saw the cold expressions of everyone present, he realised that it didn't matter what evidence she gave, they were all set on framing him. Were they all in on this, or was some mastermind plotting against him? Whichever it was, such accusations could start another war between the realms. He couldn't let that happen, he had to prove his innocence.

Where was his Father? There was no way his Father would let him be framed for such outrageous crimes.

Immediately he summoned his flying sword Celestial sun, and jumped on its back, preparing to fly straight to the imperial castle.

Celestial Sun was a tier 1 immortal artefact, and its scorching aura blew many of the weaker cultivators aside.

Yet as he hovered above the crowd, he suddenly felt his qi disrupt and he threw up a mouthful of blood. Immediately he lost control of Celestial Sun and fell back first onto the ground. The crowd surrounding him.

Blood oozed from every orifice. Poison? When, how? He couldn't move. The poison seemed to have been lying dormant in his body for quite some time and only at this moment had it been activated.

Searing pain ran through him, he felt the poison eating and sucking up his star energy, wrapping itself around his Dantian like a snake, trying to crush it. If his Dantian was crushed, he wouldn't be able to separate his soul from his body and revive at a later date.

"Am I going to die!" Chàng Bo couldn't help but think. "I, the chosen son of the stars. The next in throne to the grandest realm, being poisoned to death…. No, I will not go down like this."

Chàng Bo weakly clutched his chest and grabbed on to a necklace. It was a lifesaving treasure called 'five star five lives', it only had five uses and could save its host from near death. As he activated it, he felt the poison stop moving in his veins. Five Star Five Lives temporarily held it back, but it wasn't capable of healing wounds, if someone wanted to finish him off right now, he wouldn't be able to resist.

He scowled at Fu Hau who was staring blankly at him. He spat blood in her direction as he activated his emergency escape treasure. A rare ancient tool, dating back from the Dawning ages. There were only 8 of its kind known to exist.

It was a Gatekeepers key.

In every world there is a Gatekeeper, the gatekeepers are a mysterious and powerful group that control the border of realms and worlds. No one can go in or out without attaining the permission of a Gatekeeper first. The Gatekeepers key is the only exception, allowing one to go to any realm immediately without needing prior permission.

It could only be used once.

The drawback being that there was no control over the destination, and one could end up anywhere. Even in a realm where powerful monsters lurked and there was guaranteed death.

The key was also a forbidden item, if he used it, he would probably get into a lot of trouble.

But Chàng Bo had no other choice.

As his body faded away, he hissed “Whoever is behind this. I know you're here! I will be back!”

"Should I just become a Lesbian? Should I!?" yelled Fei Bing Bing as she drunkenly downed her glass of Baijiu. Or more like the Baijiu downed her, as half of it dribbled down her chin and poured into the cleavage of her skimpy red dress.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed, "I'm all wet now!!!" ugly tears fell from her eyes causing her mascara to smear and streak her cheeks like tires burning up a highway.

One of her false eyelashes precariously sat on her left eye, about to fall off, looking like a black caterpillar clinging for life. "Screw men! I'm done with all men!! I quit trying anymore, only woman are good. Screw men! Screw him!!!" she yelled one final time before collapsing in a drunken stupor onto the bar counter.

Mao Lu's eyebrows twitched. Had the argument been so bad this time that she had to drink herself stupid? He sighed, “Why are all my friends such dramatic messes?”

The worst part was that she had to be a dramatic mess at his workplace.

What had started as a normal evening shift at the club Roaring Tiger, had turned into Mao Lu making shot after shot, and daiquiri after daiquiri for Fei Bing Bing.

The moment he had started at 8pm she'd marched in, making a beeline for him, shouting "Zhao Detong is a bastard!!!!!" Then she ordered relentlessly and refused to listen to Mao Lu when he had told her to stop. Sadly, she was a paying customer and with his manager breathing down his neck nearby he couldn't just refuse to serve her.

Mao Lu sighed to himself yet again. He was lucky that she had finished drinking quickly. At 9pm the club had only been open for an hour, the evening was still early and there were only a few customers dotted here and there. It wouldn't get really busy until probably around 11 or 12pm.

"Damn, what happened to Bing Bing this time?" asked Fang Kai. Fang Kai was a lanky tall guy, he had a rather ordinary face, but he made up for it with his eccentric green dyed hair and excessive piercings. He, just like Mao Lu, was a part timer working the evening shifts at Roaring Tiger.

"Apparently she had a fight with Zhao Detong."

"Again!" Fang Kai couldn't hide the exasperation in his voice. Practically every shift for the last few months, he'd seen Fei Bing Bing come in and cry about Zhao Detong fighting with her.

"It's not surprising, this always happens," Mao Lu replied casually. Lu had known Fei Bing Bing as well as her on and off again boyfriend, Zhao Detong, since they were babies. They had been an infamous trio in school. He still remembered when Bing Bing and Detong started going out at the start of senior year in High school, they had already been a mess when they were friends and it only got worse after they started dating.

Mao Lu couldn't help but sigh as he took out his phone and dialled Zhao Detong.

"She's here again."

"I guessed; she's always running to you. Sorry for the trouble Lu." Detong calmly apologised through the phone. "I'm already on my way."

"What happened this time? She seems more upset than usual; she even drank herself unconscious."

"She did?"

"She did."

"..."

"So, what happened this time?"

"... I asked her to marry me."

"What!" Mao Lu nearly dropped his phone. Was Detong being serious? Was this really coming from the guy that had cheated on her numerous times over the past few years and refused to talk about children or being serious?

"I realised the other day that next year I'd be turning 25. I went to visit my mother and I saw some real grey hairs on her, and that's when it hit me. That I can't keep fooling around like I am now y'know. I have a good woman who loves me and is good to me. If I keep treating her like this, she'll leave me one day. I need to get my life together and be better, it's not like I'm a kid anymore...so I proposed."

"And…" Mao Lu scrunched his brows together.

"And what?"

"What did you do to piss her off!?"

"That was it. I swear."

Detong sounded like he was going to cry, "Honestly. I bought a nice ring, I took her out to eat, and then on the way home I took her to our favourite place and I popped the question...and at first she was really happy but then she burst into tears and started screaming at me, asking me who the other woman was. Asking me what I was compensating for and what my angle was. She convinced herself I must have made some girl pregnant, so I was proposing to her out of guilt. Every time I tried to tell her otherwise, she just panicked more, and then she just ran away. I honestly didn't do anything this time Lu I swear. I don't know why she'd act like that."

"Well I do, she's right in jumping to conclusions considering all the shit you've pulled."

"Damn. Mao Lu, god I know she's right to think that way. I know she is, which is why I know I need to change and make it up to her... I'm here."

"BEEP" the call ended.

A second later Zhao Detong walked into the club. He was tall and handsome. He had good skin, a tall nose, practically painted on eyebrows and an impressive jawline. All the women that were already in the club couldn't help but stop and stare at him as he headed straight for the counter.

"Oh god! Why did you let her drink so much?" Detong angrily glared at Mao Lu.

Mao Lu rolled his eyes, "You think I could have stopped her? Plus, it's policy not to deny a paying customer."

"You can deny for a friend, you bastard" Detong growled as he hoisted the unconscious Fei Bing Bing onto his back.

Mao Lu rolled his eyes again, "Not if I want to keep this job."

Detong didn't reply and only headed towards the exit. Mao Lu watched them go, his heart twinged a little bit with feelings he thought he'd left in the past.

"Be safe on the journey back you idiot." He shouted as Detong got near the exit.

Detong turned back and with a charming smile said, "will do" and like that he was gone.

Mao Lu stared in their direction, stuck in a slight daydream that was quickly broken as the club became busier. The music blared across the floor, the DJs on the stage screamed and danced around, and everything around him reverberated with the heavy bass. Soon enough hordes of customers were coming up to him throwing their money. He was pouring drink after drink, and quickly got caught up in the busyness of work.

_________

Mao Lu didn't clock out until 4am. The club was near the Wanping Residential district near Fengtai, but Mao Lu lived in the Daxing suburb, so it took him around an hour to get home to his small deadbeat one room flat at 5:15. He was asleep by 5:20.

Then at 8:45 his alarm clock sounded, and he crawled out of bed like a Zombie. He yawned and begrudgingly got dressed, it was time to start work at the convenience store.

Mao Lu was 24 years old. 6'2 with a slim build, warm black eyes, good skin, a gentle soft-spoken voice, and a high nose. A classic example of a pretty boy. He probably would have been every Mother's ideal look for a son-in-law if it weren't for his lip piercing and the Phoenix tattoo on his left arm.

He worked 4 part time jobs, one as a bartender at Roaring Tiger, another as a sales assistant at the local convenience store, the other as a cleaner, and the last as a waiter at a popular French style cafe called Cafe Eclair.

He was always working. He needed to, or else how could afford to pay rent for his small one room apartment, his food, toiletries, and the outstanding debts his parents had left him.

"Beep… Beep… Beep" was the sound of food being scanned. "That would be 40RMB" he said with a fake smile and a forced jovial voice.

Mao Lu was inwardly screaming, his job as a sales assistant working at the tills of his local convenience store, was the worst.

He generally felt that every second was dragging to an impossibly long degree. If he was tired before he was even more tired now. His eyes kept drooping, and any minute he felt like he'd probably nod-off while talking to a customer.

"I knew I shouldn't have taken the early shift, but Li Qingwei was begging me to swap shifts with her. And she's pregnant, there was no way I could have refused." Lu grumbled.

He had to resign himself to his fate.

Actually, his entire life Mao Lu had had to resign himself to his fate.

He hadn't always lived like this. He'd had parents who were relatively wealthy. He had lived his early years better than most kids; however, his parents had always been extremely strict and were quite conservative.

They wouldn't allow him to hang around certain kids, they'd beat him if his grades were too low, they always expected him to be the best at everything and live the way they planned for him. They had even arranged his marriage to a girl called Lee Heri who had been from a family far wealthier than their own.

For most of his life he had felt suffocated by the ambition of his parents. And that suffocation only got worse when he was 13 and had to come to terms with his sexuality.

The day he realised he liked men and was in love with his best friend, was the day he felt like the world ended. Knowing the clear-cut traditional ideals of his parents and the values of society he'd understood at an early age that such things weren't easily accepted.

As a result, he'd swallowed those feelings, and walked on eggshells around his parents to hide it. It hadn't been easy, but Mao Lu had been okay doing that, he

didn't mind following the path his parents set for him, he'd actually been prepared to go through with it.

Well that was until his Father's business went bankrupt. His father had run a successful restaurant chain that he'd created and developed from scratch during his 20's. Almost all of their family's assets were in shares invested into the company.

Yet after a powerful competitor had come onto the scene a series of unfortunate events had followed.

Negative review after negative review. Extremely negative press, a nasty rumour about roach infestation in his stores, and the worst of all was when his father was arrested, and business was halted due to suspicions of under the table dealings with the Mafia. Of course, the arrest had turned out unwarranted and the suspicions were untrue, but the damage had been done. There reputation went into the gutter.

The business his father had spent his life on took a complete nosedive. Soon there were no customers and they went bankrupt.

Perhaps if they'd invested in more assets like property or cars, they would have been able to safely liquidate them to pay off the growing debts, but sadly his Father hadn't done that. Every last RMB they had, had been in the business and it went down the drain with the business. They quickly transformed from a wealthy family into a struggling one all by the time Mao Lu was 16. Then a year and half later that incident happened.

It was the day before High School graduation, Mao Lu could still remember coming home and seeing his Mother on the kitchen floor bleeding to death, his Father holding a knife with a crazed expression saying "let's all die together" as he ran at Mao Lu. The knife in his hand.

It was an attempted family suicide.

Luckily, Mao Lu hadn't come home alone but had been with Zhao Detong and Fei Bing Bing. Detong was a high school champion at Wing Chun and easily restrained Lu's father.

They called the ambulance straight away but sadly his Mother still died and now his father was in Prison facing a life sentence.

That's how Mao Lu had ended up like this, working 4 part time jobs, not really caring about life, and only focusing on getting by every day.

_________

"Ding-donging" went the chime on the door as customers entered the store.

Mao Lu yawned and looked up, only to see Zhao Detong and Fei Bing Bing walking in, hand in hand.

Unlike the mess that she was yesterday, Fei Bing Bing was looking her usual gorgeous self, like a jade beauty straight from a novel.

Her brown eyes beamed, and her pale cheeks were flushed a little pink.

Mao Lu couldn't help but focus on the silver ring on her finger that was decorated with pretty diamonds.

She raised up her hand into Mao Lu's face. "Lu, I can't believe it, he really proposed!"

Mao Lu stared at the ring and at Bing Bing's happy smile, and he felt a plethora of feelings. One of them being jealousy, the other shame, and the other genuine happiness for her.

"Congratulations." he said softly.

"Thank you!" she squealed, jumping up and down.

Detong leaned on the cashier, he was wearing an expensive blue coat that was lined with fur and decorated with blue sewn dragons on the cuffs. His black hair was neatly combed back, and he looked devilishly handsome.

Mao Lu involuntarily felt his heart twinge.

"What time do you get off; let's all go and get a meal to eat. On me obviously."

Mao Lu glanced at Zhao Detong but then quickly looked away, he really didn't want to. These feelings that he'd been hiding for years were killing him right now. He had thought he'd gotten over it, but obviously not.

"I'd love to." he said with a fake smile. Even though he was dead tired, he had to go and celebrate with them, his two best friends were getting married. "I finish in an hour."

_________

The soft jazz music played in the background amongst quiet chatter, the smell of rich foods and wine filled the air. Mao Lu was very uncomfortable.

He hadn't expected them to take him to a classy restaurant like this, especially when he was still in his uniform, and he hadn’t even bothered to shower this morning. Amongst the well-groomed and well-dressed customers, he stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Cheers to our future!", Zhao Detong grinned as he put up his wine glass and clinked it with Bing Bing and Lu's glasses.

"Congratulations, I'm really happy for the both of you." Mao Lu said robotically, he'd probably repeated this phrase like ten times.

"Are you okay Lu?" Bing Bing asked, she could tell that his mood seemed pretty low.

"Just tired you know… And I guess a little jealous of you two… I can't help wondering when I'll find someone." he laughed, his tone bitter. Inwardly he began screaming. What was he saying, why did he say that??? He must be drunk, or was it because he was tired, his tongue was so loose tonight. He almost cried.

"Aww, don't worry Lu I'm sure you'll find a girl that's right for you soon enough!" Bing Bing chirped.

Zhao Detong looked pretty surprised, "I didn't realise you had such worries, in all the years I've known you you've never once brought up being lonely or anything about relationships. I didn't think you could have such worries."

Fei Bing Bing elbowed Detong savagely in the chest, "Don't be stupid, Mao Lu is human as well you idiot. Of course, he has such desires."

"If you need any help, I know a bunch of amazing girls that I can introduce you to Lu. Just say the word and I will start the matchmaking ASAP!"

"No-no-no-no-no!" Mao Lu fiercely protested. "I don't need that. I'm not in a rush."

There was no way he'd let Bing Bing send him on blind dates. Plus, he wasn't into girls, it just wouldn't work out.

Even though he protested throughout the entire dinner Bing Bing kept bringing it up, it didn't help that Detong was constantly joining in and encouraging her.

"Are you sure?" Bing Bing pouted. "I think it'd be good for you to go out a little. It'd relieve your stress a bit."

"I'm not even in the financial position to even think about such a thing. So, it's probably best to leave it for later."

"But when's later, that could be never."

"I-"

"Why don't you call that girl." Detong interrupted, "y'know the one you had that crush on in high-school, the mystery girl."

Mystery girl? Mao Lu was momentarily confused until he remembered the lie, the one he had told in high school. At the time Fei Bing Bing had caught him writing 'I love you; I love you; I love you' into his notebook.

Being who she was she immediately demanded an explanation. He couldn't say to her "I was thinking of your boyfriend when I wrote it." So instead he made up a girl that he'd seen around the area and pretended he had a crush on this imaginary girl.

It would have been fine if it ended there but Bing Bing had asked for an update of the situation every week, so he had had to make up a new story about the girl every week. In the end he told them that he'd gotten her number and she'd moved away.

Of course, Zhao Detong found out about this story. And since Mao Lu refused to tell them her name, they both called her the 'mystery girl'.

Mao Lu inwardly groaned. He just wished for this conversation to end.

Eventually he was able to get them off the topic and a few hours later they dropped him off home.

"You know," Detong announced before Mao Lu got out of the car. "You are going to be my Best Man, right?"

Mao Lu glanced at Detong and smiled weakly, "Of course."

"Awesome!"

"Sleep well Lu, bye" Bing Bing yelled and then he watched as they drove off in their Mercedes.

Life was hard.