Chapter 2: Prologue

"Yes! I finally managed to obtain it!" 

A person exclaimed, with a voice full of excitement but also exhaustion as he held a glowing stone on his palm. 

The voice was quite soft but also had the ability to put a genuine smile on the face of someone who heard it. His hair that should've been ink-black appeared dull-white while his straight nose made him look sharp.

But his lips were dried that also made look like a cool homeless spirit. 

This person's haggard appearance was overlaid with a bit of wrinkle on his cheeks yet made him look young at the same time, like a youth who had aged a bit. 

'It's been ten long years since I, Tian Long, managed to obtain the Death Book.'

A deep glint flickered in his eyes, and the thought that he had managed to obtain the item that he had been searching for more than five years left him with the feeling of excitement and nostalgia.

'I have only used the Death Book to kill my only enemy back then, and I haven't used it for killing since then...'

Numerous scenes flashed past his eyes. Feeling the passage of time, he gently sighed.

On the one hand, he had only used the Death Book to kill his one and only enemy while in the other, he managed to carefully traverse his way into succeeding in his endeavor, the matter of searching for this item without even having to dirty his hands.

'It's time to go back to my homeland and pull off this crazy idea that has been gnawing at my heart since eight years ago!'

Walking out of a cave, he proceeded to leave the mountains to get back to the airport, which was situated in a city a few kilometers away. 

He finally cast a look at the virgin mountain range not trespassed by anyone to his knowledge, nor did he see a single soul who engaged in the sports of trekking in this place. 

Then without encountering many problems, he descended down the mountains the whole way before encountering a vehicle on the elevated roadway.

Luckily, he managed to hitch a ride along the way to the city. After arriving at the airport, he boarded the airplane and returned to his home country, China. 

After returning to his home and resting for a while, he did nothing as he sat on the sofa, feeling refreshed from the hot water bath. However, he started to have second thoughts about his plan at the last minute.

Numerous matters flashed past his eyes. The acquaintances he formed a little connection with but didn't dare to improve it due to his near-death situation.

'Tch! It's do or die! I don't have much choice.'

'In any case, I don't have much time to live in this world anyways.' He composed himself.

He packed his things and went out of the house, locking it behind with two more locks than the usual, making it look like he had gone for a vacation again or had sealed the house for some reason.

"Alright, it's time to leave this world." Silently muttering to himself, Tian Long left for the place that has many rumors, including that it's connected to another world. Although he heard rumors, he did his homework and flushed out the possibility that it might be fake.

'Honestly, my chances of crossing over are pretty low, way low...'

'I only thought of this idea because having only a few more years left to live made me feel hopeless and empty; after all, I want to live more.' He thought, introspecting his own thoughts about this mad plan and his actions.

After arriving at an ancient temple in a certain region in China, he searched the whole place for any unusual signs. Unfortunately, he found none, and the day was almost about to end.

"This place is notably abandoned yet it's kept clean, why is that?" Tian Long muttered in an inquisitive tone to himself. Being alone for a long time, he had developed the habit of talking to himself, both mentally and physically.

After seeing that he hadn't found anything for today, he decided to just sleep and continue the search tomorrow. However, just as he was sleeping in the makeshift tent that he had set up, a sound startled him awake.

"Who's there!?" Tian Long shouted as he turned cautious.

"Whoa! Don't jump scare me, old man!" 

A young man exclaimed.

Tian Long examined the young man with his eyes, but hearing that he was called an 'old' man, his eyelids started to twitch in annoyance. Nowadays, people calling him an old man was a common occurrence, and he didn't put much thought into it since his vitality was waning due to his lifespan being reduced.

"Who are you, little boy?" Tian Long asked even though he knew the answer.

"Me? I'm Xiao Yi." The young man replied. He looked as if he was not at all bothered or scared about by the presence of an old man in this ancient temple. After all, a person could also mistake Tian Long's countenance to be the same as a pale ghost.

Just when Xiao Yi was about to ask with a curious and confused expression on his face, he was interrupted by Tian Long.

"Why are you here?"

"Me?" Xiao Yi was first taken aback as he thought of asking the same question. He blinked and then answered, "I'm hired by the nearby temple to clean this place every week and patrol once in a while..."

Hearing that, Tian Long was astonished.

"Isn't this place abandoned?"

"Yeah, it was... but it's now the property of the nearby temple. They bought it about a month ago." Xiao Yi replied in a casual tone.

"Oh, I see." Tian Long nodded.

"Now that you understand that it's private property, shouldn't you be leaving?" 

Xiao Yi questioned in an annoyed manner.

"Uhh, yeah, once it's dawn... I'll leave. It's pretty late right now..." Tian Long yawned and said.

"Reasonable, I don't want you camping out here tomorrow. Old man, just leave after resting..."

"Alright..." Saying so, he went back to his tent.

A few minutes later, after routine patrolling, Xiao Yi left the ancient temple.

From the transparent part of the tent, Tian Long saw him leave.

'Ah, how young... He is rather nice inwardly even though he appeared to be rude and pretty blunt...' He felt that he had rather managed to see through the young man in a glance. 

'Still, what is he doing here at midnight? Patrol once in a while? Do people usually pick this time to patrol?' Tian Long chuckled as he thought, 'Or was he having a rendezvous with a woman or something?' 

His brows creased for a moment.

'Looks like I don't have any time left to sleep, this worn-out body of mine can't take this anymore!' Shouting in his mind, he stormed out of the tent and started searching the place again.

Switching on one of the numerous torchlights he brought and hid in the tent, he started looking around for any kind of unusual signs in the place he hadn't searched for yet. There were many statues of lions and tigers, but they were all different in a way that he couldn't put his finger on... There were even murals that were depicting some kind of history.

However, the statues and the murals were all more or less shattered, making the ancient temple look more like a ruined temple.

An hour passed since he continued his search, from the time Xiao Yi left.

Moving around, Tian Long entered another one of the many wide rooms. He moved towards the front of a wall and started tapping around.

*Tokk tokk!~*

As he kept tapping around the wall, a muffled kind of sound echoed across the room.

Tian Long blinked, and the next moment, his dried-up lips widened into a smile.

"Yes! Found it!"

He pushed that certain part of that wall, which created a muffled sound.

An underground door opened in the room, which made Tian Long glance at it instantly. He checked if it bore some traps for quite some time, being a bit patient.

An hour later, he couldn't find any traps, and that made him feel a bit assured.

If he were to lose his life even before crossing to another world, then he didn't know how many people here who were in the know would laugh at his dead body/

Ensuring that were no dangers to be found with his current expertise, he then started to descend the underground door. He encountered a lot of stairs leading down and arrived in front of an iron door etched with some kind of decrepit patterns.

Tian Long stared at the switch right beside the iron door and yanked it down. The iron door opened up, and he entered the underground area, lighting up space with the torchlight in his hand.

An unfamiliar and eerie sight came into his view!

Tian Long gasped in astonishment as he saw the unknown formation, which was like a circle. The outer circle appeared spherical, while the inner circle looked oval with an eye on it.

It looked like a demonic eye that almost gave him the chills!

"Oh, this must be the formation which makes this ancient temple unusual enough to be rumored as a ghost temple..."

There were indeed people who came here for fun and found this place, making it rumored to be a temple that worshipped evil gods. They spread the information but never came back, and neither did people come to check this place out of fear. 

In any case, it was just a local myth that didn't garner much attention from the authorities.

Tian Long muttered and walked towards the formation as he arrived at the eye of the formation.

'That's a creepy looking eye alright... I should probably be in the center of this formation to increase my chances...'

The rumors that were circulating around were mainly related to ghosts, but the moment the picture of this formation circulated throughout the internet, it was quickly taken down.

However, Tian Long noticed it in a timely manner and even jotted down the name of the ancient temple in his notepad since he was on the lookout.

Originally, he only thought of it as a prank, but noticing the mysterious groups he had been keeping an eye on behaving like they had been fed ecstasy pills, he was quite sure that this was the place he was looking for from 8 years ago.

Tian Long took out a stone from his backpack, which emitted a faint green and purplish otherworldly light. It was the item he found before returning to China.

"The transmigration stone..." Tian Long's eyes shone brightly under the illumination as he muttered. At least, that was what the others called it since it rumored to be capable of hosting souls in it.

"If the characters of the nearby temple knew if that I had the stone, would they become mad?" Tian Long laughed loudly.

That nearby temple which Xiao Yi mentioned is one of the factions he had his eye on, but the matter of them purchasing this ancient temple seemed to be so secretive that he didn't manage to even hear a word of it.

He then walked to the stone that looked like a podium, 'Hehe, an obvious place to keep the switch to activate the formation, I like it.'

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The switch itself was half-spherical in shape, and it kept glowing.

"Does this mean they have charged this formation already? Perfect!" Tian Long exclaimed.

The temple nearby painstakingly used its resources to charge it. This formation took at least two years to charge to a certain level, which Tian Long didn't know about. If he knew, he certainly wouldn't have approached this place that easily because of the uncertainties involved.

"But, why did they charge this formation? It can't be that they are warmly welcoming me? is it?" Tian Long was deeply in doubt and couldn't help but joke.

He pondered about this for a while but creased his brows.

"Hmph, thinking about this is useless, after I activate this formation, either I die or live in another world!" 

Tian Long stomped the ground and stopped his indecisiveness. He took a deep breath before reaching out to his inner pockets over his shirt and took out the Death Book as he exhaled.

'It's time...'

He took out a pen and positioned above the Death Book. His right arm stiffened in place while his fingers which held the pen quickly moved.

[

Tian Long

After the activation of the formation and during the space-time travel, his soul gets jolted out from his body, then enters the transmigration stone. After reaching the other end, his soul possesses a weak body that is below twenty years of age using the transmigration stone and, after five minutes, dies of a heart attack.

]

*Hissss!~* 

Tian Long drew in a cold breath of air as his heart palpitated in nervousness. Tumultuous waves rose in his heart as his blood boiled, threatening to overwhelm his mortal heart and mind.

To use the Death Book on himself, he had to write his own name!

'The Death Book can control and kill people to a certain extent meaning that it is capable of manipulating the soul, so it should be able to control the soul to quite an extent.'

He consoled himself as he thought.

'It's fine, I will be tying the Transmigration Stone behind my head, and there's not much distance between my soul and the stone, so it shouldn't be a problem for the Death Book to succeed.'

"If only my theory is correct that is..." His hands shook as he almost dropped the Death Book. After all, he just put an end to himself if things didn't go the way he thought it would.

The moment he wrote his name on the Death Book, he knew that he would undoubtedly meet his end. He cannot extend his lifespan with the Death Book because he had tried it on people who were going to die before.

So writing his name on it is just killing himself at this point. He didn't know how much time he had left to live, but judging by how he lost his vitality, he inferred he had one or two years at best.

That five-minute leeway was just for him to test... To test if the Death Book still worked on the other side. If it worked, then he would die in five minutes.

If he didn't die in five minutes, then he would die within two years due to his waning lifespan. 

Tian Long felt that his lifespan being crippled applied to his soul as well. However, he also felt that the crippling of lifespan didn't affect his body directly but was a byproduct of affecting his soul. After all, a rather famous doctor had found him to be an enigma since that doctor couldn't find the reason for his rapidly aging body even though Tian Long was just below his thirties.

Hence, Tian Long thought that his limited lifespan directly affected his soul, which in-turn made his body experience an enormous drop in vitality.

That's why it's also a do or die situation for him. He felt that he should die quickly rather than waste two years in a new body before dying because of his crippled lifespan. 

That would be just too pitiful, perhaps even pathetic.

This plan came to his mind when he completely realized that the Death Book was capable of controlling the soul to manipulate people other than directly killing them. He had also included in his plan about the fact that the Death Book can arrange strange coincidences, so he felt that it could make the Transmigration Stone search for a rather appropriate body to possess.

In short, his entire plan to live relied on the fact that the Death Book will stop working the moment he reached the other side! He was relying on pure luck and unconfirmed facts!

Tian Long's legs shook uncontrollably.

'Damn! Stop getting cold feet already, I've done it now, and there's probably only two years left for me to live! There's no going back!' 

Tian Long expressed a determined expression on his face and patted his thighs before he started the formation.

As the underground area trembled, space-time fluctuations appeared, activating a vertical space-time passage. Tian Long went to the eye of the formation immediately and left his fate to luck.

He looked at the iron door one last time before feeling like a traveler.

'Goodbye, Earth...' 

*Bzzz!~*

Tian Long got instantly absorbed into the space-time tunnel; however, the moment he entered, he suffered a fate extremely worse than people getting crushed by a huge rock. He became enormously pressured by the spatial tunnel. His body felt like being shredded by thousands of blades, causing him to scream in pain.

"Arghhhhhh!!" 

'Is this spatial tunnel not stable? I'm doomed!' 

Tian Long saw his hand disintegrating by the chaotic spatial turbulence. 

"Haha, It's over..." Letting out a faint laugh, he looked at his disintegrating shoulder. Just when his shoulder started to disintegrate, his soul jolted out of his body and entered the Transmigration Stone.

Tian Long didn't notice the Death Book being shredded to dust. A black shadow flew out from it and also entered the Transmigration Stone.

He passively observed his body being disintegrated into nothingness, which made him feel nauseous, wanting to puke, but he couldn't as he was in his soul form.

The Transmigration Stone then flew in the space tunnel, encountering many spatial storms that made him feel like he was traveling on a tiny boat surrounded by a colossal storm without any sight of an island in the distance.

Tian Long couldn't figure how much time had passed, he was listless throughout the whole journey, mourning the loss of his body and the Death Book. 

The Death Book he had tried harming before but never made a dent on, actually disintegrated! He had been able to tear its pages in the past, but as for damaging the cover, he had not been able to do it, not even once.

Its disintegration actually made him lose half-hope for the future. 

Initially, he had just wanted the Death Book only to stop working, but never did he imagine that it would disintegrate in this spatial tunnel.

If his soul form were to have eyes, there was no doubt that it would look dull about now.

Even then, he could still observe. However, he couldn't even perceive at this time as his surroundings were completely black, only making him capable of feeling his existence that was still alive in a sense.

After some unknown time, the Transmigration Stone finally flew out of the spatial tunnel, arriving in a brand new world.

======

Meanwhile, on Earth...

"Who activated the formation?!!" The nearby temple's head priest flew into an angry fit and started breaking the furniture beside him.

"Check the abandoned temple immediately!" The head priest shouted out loud.

Many people in mysterious robes moved away to check the abandoned temple quickly.

The head priest then calmed down after a minute and then harrumphed.

"Hmph, I don't know who activated the formation, but traveling in it is useless. Countless experiments have been done, and we don't even know if a person has managed to reach the other side. Sometimes, the body disintegrates even before one enters that incomplete and unstable formation. It is useless!"

"What do you mean by useless?" Suddenly, a voice could be heard coming out of a bald man who appeared out of nowhere.

"We have confirmed that it is indeed connected to another world through various means. If only we had the Transmigration Stone, which can host a soul, we might perhaps be able to reach the other side..." The bald man sighed gently.

"Hmph! What use is there to have the stone? If you can't move the soul to the stone, it is still useless!"

'Heh, you may not have a method to move your soul, but I do!' The bald man sneered.

"Too bad, the Transmigration Stone appears every thousand years, and we have used up all we had on experiments. Judging by the time it last appeared, it should've have appeared by now. Quick, search for it!"

"I know..." The head priest replied with an annoyed expression.

Suddenly, a man came sprinting before stopping at a respectful distance.

"Head priest, we found Xiao Yi outside the temple, and he.." The man hesitated.

"He what?" 

The Head Priest looked quite impatient.

"He.." 

The man's forehead was stricken with black lines, his facial expression full of hesitance.

"Quick, out with it!"

"He was doing a woman under a tree nearby the abandoned temple but escaped once he saw us!"

The Head Priest became stunned while the bald man started to laugh as he rubbed his beard.

"Kill both of them and feed them to the dogs!!!!" 

The Head Priest had coldness flickering in his eyes as he echoed.

However, the man who came to report was trembling from head to toe, "Hea... Head Priest!"

"What!?"

"That woman….. is your i-illegitimate daughter!"

*Pui!!~*

The Head Priest's eyes widened before he sprayed a mouthful of blood and collapsed while the bald man laughed out loud like a mad man.