“Uhhh!!! Dammit all!”, a young man who was completely wonded was running with all of his might inside a forest.

He seemed to be around 27 years old. He had a slender body which wasn’t well built. He could be easily compared with a wooden stick.

“Huff huff, if only I had a bit more time...”, he was panting heavily.

It seemed that some people were following him.

“I have to survive no matter what happens...”

He was trying desperately to dodge from them and escape as far as he could when suddenly there was a huge blast.

‘BOOM’

The entire forest was suddenly caught in flames due to the blast that happened.

“Arghhh! My legs!”, it seemed his legs hit something which made his leg get twisted.

He looked here and there and found only flames that was surrounding him.

“I... I can’t die here...”

Even though he was hurt badly, he stood up using a stick which was supporting him. He somehow managed to walk even though he was just limping.

“They are waiting for me... I have to somehow reach...”, just as he finished the sentence a bright light shined before him.

It seemed as if he was out of the forest.

“YES! Now a bit more... just a bit...”, he felt that he was almost near to reaching his goal.

He just had to walk 8 more miles in order to reach the designated place and meet his family who had been fighting till now.

“I have to...”

‘SWOOSH’

‘BOOM’

Suddenly there was a huge explosion in front of him and the mountain that was acting as a barrier and protecting the people and his family who were fighting on the other side was blown up into pieces.

“Huh...? What...?”

“WHERE IS ARE THE CORES!!?”, suddenly a man who was quite well built and huge appeared in front of him. He was levitating in front of him.

Half of his hair was engulfed in flames but it didn’t seem that he was in pain or something.

“HOW DARE YOU STEAL THE CORE FROM THE DEVAS!!?”, he shouted quite loudly which made the entire forest crumble in front of him.

However that sound was made only to scare the young man and not hurt him. It seemed as if he was still of some use.

“JI-JINDAN? You...?”

It appeared as if the man in front of him was JINDAN, one of six legendary DEVAS who was flying in front of him.

“Young man, return the cores, otherwise everyone will face our wrath and they all will be annihilated thanks to you!!”

“Haha, doesn’t matter... cough cough.”, he coughed blood while he was laughing and saying that.

“They are ready to even sacrifice their lives in order to stop you all bastards! *cough cough*”

He seemed to be coughing a large amount of blood and was losing a lot of energy.

“Damn, my meridians have been severely damaged... if only I could get even an ounce strength then just maybe... I could destroy these cores...”

Jindan looked at him with fierce red eyes which were blazing like that of fire.

“Don’t you understand what you are doing? You are just a puny human who hasn’t even reached the rank of ASURA, you dare try this trick on us DEVAS!!?”

The man looked up towards Jindan and smirked.

“If I can stop you all from doing evil, then I am more than happy to go against you!”

“Tsk, looks like you won’t return the cores!”

He was getting furious and impatient.

“Don’t blame me for what I am going to do...”

He immeditely forged a fire ball in his hand which he aimed at him.

“I am giving you a last chance, tell me where you have hidden the cores!!?”

He stayed mum and didn’t open his mouth since he couldn’t possibly destroy the plan at the last moment.

There were many sacrifices given only for this moment and probably that was why he kept his mouth shut.

“Alas, looks like I won’t be able to see you guys...”, he closed his eyes tightly and prepared himself completely for the so called death which was in front of him right now.

Jindan slowly released the fire ball from his hand and immeditely after which there was an explosion.

‘BOOM’

“...”

“Huh? I’m alive?”, he opened his eyes slowly only to find himself alive and safe.

He looked here and there and found that even Jindan had vanished.

“Did... did he run away?”, he was happy for a second when suddenly Jindan returned and walked slowly in front of him.

‘TAP TAP’

“You!? Why didn’t you k-kill me yet?”, he asked the question right away but little did he know that Jindan was by no means a merciful man.

He could go to any extreme in order to achieve his goals.

‘DROP DROP’

Some amount of blood was dripping which seemed to be coming from Jindan’s right arm.

The young man immeditely wipes his eyes to look at what exactly had happened only to find that there was someone in his arms.

“L-LIAN!!!!? NOOOOO!!!!”, the young man screamed and started to cry the moment he saw a young girl who also appeared to be around 27 was in his hands.

“WHY!!!? I WILL KILL YOU JIN!!!!”, the man had lost all his reasoning. He somehow stood and walked towards him trying to punch him but his efforts were futile.

He was immediately pushed back with just a flick of a finger.

“ARGHHH!!!”, when he saw her again, he lost his mind.

The body of the girl was without the head. It seemed that her head was chopped almost instantly and the cut was also clean.

“YOU!!!?”, the young man was covered with rage and wanted to kill JIN who was standing in front of him when suddenly other 5 DEVAS also appeared in front of him and surrounded him instantly.

They immediately immobilised him and tortured him in order to obtain the knowledge about the place where he hid the cores.

But no matter what they did, he didn’t utter a single word other than ‘LIAN’.

“Tsk, it was a waste coming here... let’s head back.”

All 6 of them immeditely pierces his stomach with six different swords that had six different attributes.

“The core doesn’t matter until we can stop the news from spreading...”, a women who had a bit purplish hair and wore a short outfit with busty figure said this.

All of them agreed to the woman’s word and immeditely started to walk away.

“I’ll kill you... I’ll definitely kill you all! Just you wait for me...”

That was his last words after which he met his doom and fell asleep forever at least that’s what had to happen.

But suddenly, six different coloured lights started to glow from his stomach and everything started to go white.

It seemed that he had swallowed all the six cores which were now inside his stomach which had suddenly reacted to some unknown energy.

The sun was setting and soon it became dark. The young man who was supposedly died today and had his story closed was soon going to start a new journey which the whole world would be shocked about.

TO BE CONTINUED...

“Ryuu... Ryuu wake up! RYUUU!!!!”

“NOOOOO!!!!”, a young kid with black hairs who was around the age of 11 screamed quite loudly.

“Huff huff...”, he was panting and sweating a lot.

“Haha, what happened? Did you see a nightmare!!?”

He turned his head towards the soothing voice which he heard that made him comfortable.

He could hardly see the person standing before him since his eyes were blurry because of crying.

“Oh my, was the dream so scary that you started crying?”, the woman slowly moved closer to him and wiped his face with a piece of wet clothe.

Then she sat beside him and started to caress him a bit.

He again looked towards the lady since his blurryness had now faded away.

“M-mom...?”, he said slowly.

He didn’t had to confirm it since he could feel the gentle touch from her that was comforting him.

“Yes baby? Is something wrong?”, she looked at him with a worrisome expression on her face.

He then immeditely said, “Mom, you are not dead yet!?”

“Eh?”

‘WACK!’

She hit on his head and pulled his chin.

“Looks like you want me dead!!!”, she was speaking sarcastically with a smile which was rather scary.

“Ouch! Mom that hurts...”, she immeditely stopped and then patted his head.

“I am alive and perfectly fine! Ain’t I sitting in front of you?”

He looked at her again and then slowly grabbed her hands.

“Ya... you are alive... but...”

“But?”

“But, why aren’t you dead yet?”

‘WACK!’

She hit him hardly again and said, “Looks like you are still in your dream world!!! Do you want another hit to wake up!!?”

“Ouch!”, he immeditely realized that it was not a dream and a reality that his mom was in front of him.

“So... that was...”, he wasn’t able to understand if he had watched a dream or something because the feeling was too real to be a dream.

“Haha, perhaps you had a nightmare. Don’t worry, I am with you. Everything is fine now.”

For some reason her consoling made him relax. He was finally able to accept that this was indeed a reality since he could feel her touch and everything else.

She kept on patting his back since she felt that he might have been worried because of the nightmare.

He too felt an usual love that was being poured onto him. It seemed as if he had lost all the memories of this earlier.

He fell asleep again in her arms because it was too comfortable for him without even realising it.

“Eh? You slept again?”, she wanted to wake him up since it was already noon, but he had been suffering from fever since two days so she decided to let him rest.

She slowly laid him in the bed again and went back to the small flower selling shop of theirs.

Soon two hours passed by and Ryuu woke up from his sleep only to find no one near him.

The room was not well lit and it was a bit cold too. There were many holes in the ceiling from which rain water used to easily leak in.

“Our house...?”, he looked here and there and confirmed that it indeed was his house.

“Huff... then was that really a dream...?”

He tried to remember it and was able to tell everything that had happened.

“But, the feeling of dying and sorrow... it was too real.”, his heart was unrest and his mind too was wandering somewhere else.

He wasn’t able to tell which one was a dream when suddenly his stomach started to hurt a lot.

“Argh! What’s happening?”

He felt as if his stomach was about to burst anytime soon. There was a weird reaction going on in his stomach.

“D-Damn... my chest...!!!”

Immeditely as his stomach started paining, his chest too ached. Slowly the pain spread throughout his body and all of the parts were in immense pain.

He couldn’t even shout because of the extreme pain in his throat and neck.

He couldn’t even lift a single finger of his and continuously suffered while gritting his teeth.

“Mhmmmm!!!!”, he was biting a piece of cloth in order to reduce the pain and not scream but it was unbearable.

He finally felt unconscious because of the sudden change that happened to his body.

Soon another one hour passed and his mother again came back to take a look at him only to find him sweating heavily and breathing hard.

“Ryuu!!!?”, she immeditely rushes near him and started to pat him and used wiped his sweat with a cloth after dipping it in the cold water.

“Baby, What is happening to you...?”, she was not a doctor so she couldn’t tell anything about his condition.

She couldn’t even consult a doctor since she had very little to no money.

“What should I do?”, she was panicking each and every moment. She gazed at the table which had a drawer and immediately rushed there.

She opened the drawer to search for medicines if there were left any.

“No! No! NO!”, there was only dust in the drawer and nothing else.

She was too tensed and worried. She immediately rushed out with the petty sum of money that she had to ask for a doctor to help.

“Please... my son... he will die! Please come and see what has happened to him.”

In this era there was nothing called as mercy or kind heart. Everyone only aimed at name and fame and nothing else.

Finding a doctor was too hard in the world since very less people practiced the art of medicine and that was why they always asked for a hefty price.

“Kick her out immeditely!”, said the doctor near whom she had went to beg. She was even ready to sell her body but the doctor who was too rich had more than enough money to get even more beautiful women.

“I would rather sleep with a bitch than sleeping with a skinny woman as you!”

The guards pushed her out and threw her out of the mansion right away.

It suddenly started to rain and all her clothes had become wet. She was almost broken and didn’t know what to do next.

She remembered that Ryuu might become wet and his condition might get worse since their ceiling had many holes and thus she rushed back as soon as she could and reached her tattered house.

“Ryuu...?”

Some droplets of water has already started to fall on him on seeing which she rushed and lifted him up and moved him a bit tak the aide where no water would fall on him.

“I am sorry... I can’t do anything even when your are suffering from the fever... your mother is totally useless!”, she started weeping beside him when suddenly the locket that she was wearing flashed in front of her because it had become loose.

“This...”, she remembered something from the past which suddenly changed her expression.

She immeditely removed the locket from her next and tied it around Ryuu.

“God... please protect my son...”, while saying this and praying she too fell asleep since she was already tired after running all the way to the doctors place that was 3 miles away and returning from there without any footwear!

TO BE CONTINUED...

She immeditely removed the locket from her next and tied it around Ryuu.

“God... please protect my son...”, while saying this and praying she too fell asleep since she was already tired after running all the way to the doctors place that was 3 miles away and returning from there without any footwear!

It was raining heavily and the thunder sounds were too loud. It seemed as if something was going to happen soon inntheir world.

Ryuu who was in immense pain and was sweating a lot with a high fever had slowly started to recover.

The locket which he was wearing now seemed to glow with white light which was enough to lighten the whole room.

The locket suddenly started to change its shape and took the form of a miniature dragon.

It had the appearance of a dragon’s head only, and was completely silvery white in colour.

There were six other lights too that were glowing from six different regions of Ryuu’s body.

One was from his right wrist and the other was from the left. One more was glowing from his right thigh and another was from the left.

And the last two that were left were glowing from his chest and his back respectively.

The reason was unknown but it was truly like a miracle. The people were resting in their house and didn’t know about this happening. The light that was being radiated from his body couldn’t leave the house because of the closed walls.

Ryuu’s body started to have some weird marks which looked like tattoos which started to spread from his hands to his legs and covered the entire body including his face.

And immeditely after that happened all of those marks had vanished suddenly. Now the boy Ryuu who was breathing heavily had started to regain his normal breathing rhythm.

Even the amount of sweating decreased and slowly his fever too disappeared. Now he seemed to be perfectly healthy.

After that the rain too stopped and it seemed as if it was already 4 AM in the morning.

‘CHIRP CHIRP’

Soon it was 6 AM and there were many birds that were chirping. The sound was pleasant and it was peaceful.

*yawns*

Ryuu woke up from deep sleep slowly and steadily after yawning a bit.

“Waaa, my body feels weirdly energetic...”

Immeditely after saying that he looked at his mom who was sleeping just beside him.

He looked at her with gentle eyes because he knew how much she cared about him.

He had already understood that he had travelled back to past since he was able to remember everything.

After thinking for a while he understood that he had been given another chance to do everything properly.

“Doesn’t matter what I do, this time I have to save my mother and all my friends...”

He suddenly started glaring and was having a cold gaze.

“DEVAS, just you wait! I will take everything from you!”

This world is typically a place for martial artists where cultivation determines everything.

Some are born with extraordinary talent while some pave their own way through hard work. Some do evil deeds to attain the great heights but regardless of what method they use, all aim for just one spot- DEVAS.

The cultivation rank has been divided based on the strengthing of the body and Qi. It involves the Spirit Soul Powers too which is the main basis.

Everyone of them try to become immortal which is believed to be attained when one attains a breakthrough to the DEVAS realm.

The realm are basically of 8 types - Lower Martial, Mid Martial, High Martial, Supreme Martial, War Lord, Divine, ASURA and DEVA.

These are the total eight realms that have been given in order with their increasing order of their powers.

A normal human is doesn’t belong to any of these realms. He would reach the first realm only after he starts true cultivation.

Each realm has been divided into 5 other sub realms which are basically called ranks.

Those ranks were - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Crystal and Advanced.

One would usually be referred as Bronze rank Lower Martial when he would successfully break through to the Lower Martial Realm.

Ryuu in his previous life had attained Advanced ASURA realm and was just a step away from becoming a DEVA which actually means GOD!

But unfortunately he realised something which made him trick the DEVAS. He understood that they were trying to bring back the evil to the world and that was why he stopped cultivating and started to help the rebellion against them which resulted in failure.

“This time... I will definitely reach the DEVA realm...”, he has decided to do that and understood that unless he achieved that no one would care about him.

He then recalled everything about the past knowledge. He was quite hardworking and excelled in many fields such as in Medicine which was under Alchemy, Inscription, Language and other things too.

He had visited many places in his past life because of many missions that were given to him and thus had met many people who helped him, walked beside him and in the end died in the hands of DEVAS.

“I have just one more year before they come to test the talents...”

He was wondering about the event that would be happening in the near future and was thinking to be prepared for that.

“I have to do my best to be ready till then, otherwise all the pain that I had suffered in the past life will be suffered by me again in this life too!”, he murmured.

“R-Ryuu...?”, his mother woke up only to find that Ryuu was sitting on the bed in front of her.

She immeditely pulled herself and moved closer to him and placed her palm on his forehead.

“The fever... it’s gone!”, her expression suddenly changed. She seemed to be extremely happy since her son was now alright.

She looked at the locket he was wearing and concluded that it was the locket that brought Ryuu good luck due to which he was cured almost instantly.

“Mother, I’m fine now. Don’t worry...”

She immeditely hugged him when she listened that. Immeditely after that she burst into tears.

Ryuu patted her gently since he couldn’t see her cry. He was also sad as he wasn’t able to understand her in the past life and couldn’t save her from dying.

While patting, his gazes fell on her feet which had stains of blood which had dried.

There were many cuts on her feet after seeing which he immeditely asked her, “Mother!!! What happened to your feet!!?”

He was shocked on seeing that. She didn’t say anything and just averted her eyes when Ryuu decided that he would look deep into this matter and asked her again, “Mother, if you consider me as your son then tell me, what is this wound about?”

He couldn’t possibly tell him that she ran all the way till the doctors home barefooted.

“I was closing the shop when by mistake I tripped on the stone...”

Ryuu believed her blindly without even trying to think about it. He immeditely said, “Be careful Mother, you need to take care of yourself...”

She was more than happy to just listen him saying that. He was just eleven years old and even though he was just a kid, he has almost perfect control on himself.

Previously during this age, app he did was play around with some other beggar friends. He was also bullied by the rich boys and girls who used to visit the slumps in order check on them.

He was able to remember all that and now he clenched his fist and said, “Mother, give me a bit of time... I’ll solve everything...”

She looked at him and said, “Hehe, I’ll wait...”

She was drowsy again maybe due to tiredness so Ryuu asked her to take a bit more nap.

She laid her head on his lap and fell asleep.

“Huff... Mother, I don’t know if I can ever repay you for all the things you have done...”, his eyes seemed teary.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get forgiveness for abandoning you in past life...”, he looked at her while saying this.

“But I will definitely make you smile in this life and that smile will be due to happiness from the bottom of your heart!”

He slowly shifted her head and laid it on the tough pillow. He immeditely got down of the bed and started to organise everything Janice his tiny brain.

After one hour he had thought about all the nec scary details of starting cultivation and the required items.

“I have sorted out everything... but there is still one question that keeps on lingering in my mind.”

He was thinking about that again and again since he wabt able to figure out the exact reason about it.

“How...? How was able to travel back in time? And how the heck was I reborn again? Why was I brought back to when I was 11 and not 12 or 13...?”

His doubts were definitely genuine and held many mysteries due to which he decided not to pry on it for now.

“Hmm, I will think about that later, my first priority right now is to get stronger and breakthrough to the Bronze rank Lower Martial Realm!”

Immeditely after saying that he opened the door and rushed towards the nearest forest which had many herbs in it from where his mother used to collect herbs daily in order to sell and earn an extra income.

“That herb will definitely be there..”

TO BE CONTINUED...