Chapter 1: Prologue

I was the king of kings.

My soul had reached the apex of power. Nothing in the entire universe could have stopped me—or so I thought.

The future is fickle for the mighty and powerful. It hounds us with its claws, trying to bring us down.

Once I survived the last tribulation, I thought I could finally rest. I would have enjoyed the new terms of my Immortality and the invulnerability coming with it. Nothing, neither Gods nor Buddhas would have been able to touch me. My glaive sheared through the firmament, changing the very Laws of Time and Space.

I had been the Supreme Master of Time and Space.

And now...

There was only darkness around me.

I tried moving, but everything was wet and the only sensory feedback I had felt ethereal. Not even when I isolated to cultivate for twenty-million times the amount it takes for a candle to burn I got so detached from reality.

Something suddenly grabbed my head.

Huh?! Insolence!

A foreign force was trying to whisk me away from this new dimension I had discovered.

Begone, foul creature! This Patriarch shall teach you—

Suddenly, light blinded me.

“Your Majesty, it’s a boy!” A man wearing a scarlet dress spoke right into my face. His bushy beard so close to me I was surprised it wasn’t actually tickling me.

A boy? Shall I rip your tongue out, impudent brat? How can you witness Mount Tai right in front of your nose, but not have eyes to recognize it?!

But before I could vocalize my outrage, the man suddenly looked down.

“There’s another one!”

I was suddenly passed to a woman with jade-like skin and an ample bosom. Even though I was still unsure what this situation was, exactly, I would allow this buxom wench to be introduced to my harem—only after confirming her pristine virginity, obviously.

“It’s another boy!”

The bush-bearded man took out an infant out of—

Space and Time be my witnesses...

I was looking at a woman giving birth. Her hair was flowing like a cascade of gold, but her face was strained with effort, red and emaciated.

“Why are they not crying?” She asked, panicked.  

I looked at the toddler, who was now staring right at me with impudence.

It occurred, then, that perhaps I should have foreseen this situation. Clearly, I had been reincarnated. It was time for me to ascend beyond The Three Realms and the Six Paths of Reincarnations.

My Dao had clearly transcended reality and the duality of the Yin Yang had broken.

I was clearly being reincarnated as part of my final tribulation... what I had thought to be the end of me, was in reality just a new dawn ahead.

I took in the room and pondered my next step and how to announce myself to these commoners. The walls were made of large stones stacked upon each other—so pedestrian. These people also wore something that clearly wasn’t refined silk. I sighed. I would clearly need to introduce great changes to this unsophisticated world.

Now, I looked at the man who, presumably, was my father. He was blonde, like my mother, and dashing. He was wearing a tunic with some leather over his torso...

Father, we shall go to an auction house soon. I can’t bear the patriarch of my family to walk around like an untrained farmer.

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“Doctor Shelby, can I hold them?”

Suddenly, my mother asked.

Me and the other toddler, one with darker hair than our parents and a body slightly smaller than mine, were gently laid in our mother’s arms.

For a second, my soul wavered. Even though my Dantian had yet to be formed, I could feel it already shaking with doubt.

This was nothing like the worlds I already visited during tribulations nor like any of the great visions I had ever had. It wasn’t even like that one vision of that weird planet called Earth.

Doubt crawled all over my skin, ready to transform me into a demonic cultivator.

Was this actually a tribulation?

...

I was the Demon Lord.

I had conquered Earth, the last free bastion of The System. All his inhabitants, and especially all the pathetic heroes that had a name starting with a ‘J’ had been killed.

The System had promised me a gift beyond anyone’s imagination. I could already rend entire galaxies thanks to my Void and Darkness Abilities. I had been looking forward to it for an eternity. The little worms on Earth had been harder to kill than I had ever imagined.

But their struggles had ultimately been pathetic.

Their resistance, futile.

Their TV shows, interesting.

But while my right eye watched four independent women navigating the up and down of NYC’s sex scene and their troubled careers, I had unsealed my evil left eye; disaster struck all my enemies and the power of Ancient Gods, once upon a time sealed by the Primordial Calamity, ravaged the heroes of Earth.

What had The System gifted me, though, after such a perilous journey, after reaching the apex of villainy?

And why was I staring at a naked toddler, again?

Also, what was that naked toddler staring so insolently?!

Didn’t he know what blasphemous forces I was able to summon?!

“Oh, they are so cute together!” The bosom-rich woman spoke. “Look, they are staring at each other!”

Suddenly, the female shook my body a little.

“Hey, Jack, that’s your brother, John.”

Brother?

You accursed, loathsome creature! My only brother is the despair I inflicted on the masses! What are you talking about?!   

“Doctor,” the male adult suddenly spoke. “Is it normal that they are not crying? Isn’t that what children are supposed to do?”  

“Your Majesty, it’s not unusual for children I personally attend to not cry when they come out of the uterus. I won’t disclose the exact levels but my [Neverpain] and [Royal Treatment] both deaden any pain they could feel and offer the best outcome possible for members of the Royal Family. Both your children are as healthy as they could have possibly been. Perhaps, we took such a great care of her Majesty that not just one, but two heirs to the throne were born.”

“Doctor,” the male continued. “There’s only one heir. The child who came out first shall be the rightful heir to the throne, destined to follow in my steps. And by the way...”

The male looked confused.

“Which one was it again?”