"Get up your lazy *ss Grey, the royal festival is about to start and you are sleeping around. The town square is still in need of a proper sweeping and here you are. If you don't do it, i'll make sure you don't get pay for today".
Hearing the man's voice, a boy of about sixteen years groggily wiped his eyes as he looked up. He had short grey hair and eyes. When he saw the angry man standing over him and jerked up fully awake now.
"Do you want to be fired? Can't you see that the halls are still dirty and you are lying here sleeping off." The man barked at Grey who stood up confused.
"But sir, you only said i should i deliver the fruits to the hall. Nothing was said about cleaning it up." The young boy said with a confused expression on his face.
The man's face seemed to contort in anger when he heard him say that and grabbed him by the collar. "When did i ever say that? Now go and do what i ask you to do if not you will not receive your wages." The man shouted.
The young boy gulped and when the man let go of his shirt, he immediately ran to look for a broom to sweep the floor.
'But i was not lazing around, and you never said i should sweep the hall after carrying the fruits from ten kilometeres away.' The boy was angry, but would not dare show it in front of the man who was gradually calming down as he watched Grey pick up a broom and start to sweep.
Today was the royal festival in their nameless town. Every once in a year, the royal officials from the palace would come to the village to take the annual tax and the villagers would host a festival in their honour.
Rich merchants and traders would come to give their produce to the royal official in hopes of getting close to the royal family.
Grey had no money and he was an orphan who had to perform menial tasks in order to survive each day. Today he had been given the task of transporting 15kg of fresh fruits that retained some of their spiritual quality in them.
He had trekked with the sack of fruits on his back for ten kilometres, using several hours on the journey. He had hoped to get some sleep and get some strength for the next job while he waited for the person who hired him, but was not expecting to still be treated like this.
Everyone knew he was a broke pauper who survived only by doing menial tasks everyday and some people would take pity on him and give him some tasks to do, but this man was wicked and wanted to take advantage of Grey by threatening him with his wages.
After sweeping the halls clean in under two hours, he was given another task. "If you assist me in this, I will pay you double and won't have to work anymore." The angry man said.
Knowing that he would not be paid if he refuses, he accepted the job.
Later during the night, when the royal official and his escorts came. The hall was full with people who had come to see the official and give him gifts and to try and get close to the officials.
During that time, Grey carried a gold wine glass with beautiful embroidery to give the official.
Just as the official brought out the royal decree to read, Grey accidentally slipped and poured the contents of wine all over the official.
The officials' face contorted in anger and before Grey could react, he was sent flying and crashed into the wall.
"Who is this imbecile who dares to defile the royal decree. I want him flogged and thrown out of this village."
The official said madly as he pointed at Grey which was the last thing he could see as he drifted unconscious.
When he woke up, he felt a scorching pain on his back. He looked everywhere and saw he was tied to a tree and being flogged mercilessly.
Eventually, after receiving a hundred strokes. He was untied and unceremoniously thrown out of the village like a trash bag.
After the flogging, he could not move for several minutes so he laid there crying on the floor. After a while, he got up with a detached expression and walked towards the nearby forest.
As he walked groggily into the forest, he saw several fruits on various trees which he proceeded to eat because of his dying hunger.
His house had been seized for him since he was no longer a member of the village. It was used to compensate the royal official on their behalf.
As he walked deeper into the forest, he came across a stream where he normally drank water whenever he was passing by.
He bent down to drink but saw something glitter, reflecting the sunlight. When he looked, he saw it was a small silver shard. No bigger than the size of his finger.
He picked it up and saw that it resembled sort of a crystal than a stone since that was what he thought it was.
As he held it in his hands, the silver crystal turned purple with a cold light and dove into his body. Grey felt an intense pain in his chest and when he looked down, he saw the crystal already lodged into his chest.
He screamed in pain as it effortlessly flew into his chest without any resistance and grey could feel it lodge into his chest, right next to his heart.
He let out a pained cry as blood flowed down and painted the water red. He was losing a lot of blood and coupled with the pain and his weak body being peirced through, he felt he would soon faint. But then the wound in his chest from the entry of the crystal closed up rapidly.
The blood he lost seemed to flow back and enter his body. The feeling of losing consciousness soon departed and as the wound finally closed up, he felt revitalised. Like his body was swirling with energy and before he knew it.
'Bang' A loud bang rang out in his head.
'I just broke through!!' He said inwardly in surprise and before he could even say anything else, 'Bang', he made another breakthrough.
'What!!'
He brokethrough two whole stages of the Qi Condensation realm immediately. One had to know that in the village, they had only one cultivator. And he himself was only in the fourth stage of foundation building.
By making a breaktbrough twice, he was in half the realm of the guy.
The reason for such a low number of cultivators was because, to cultivate the body had to have a special constitution.
The reason for such a low number of cultivators was because, to cultivate the body had to have a special constitution.
Without that constitution, no one could cultivate no matter how hard they tried. Grey had already been tested and he did not have the constitution of a cultivator. So how did he manage a breakthrough?
His only answer was the crystal shard. Its entry into his body was the catalyst for his breakthrough. He felt the crystal shake with a strange power and the qi within his body, swirled and went into all the parts of his body. His body parts would absorb them and he would feel more qi enter his body until his body was full to capacity.
When the qi stopped swirling, he knew he had finished one cycle of qi tempering.
'I can't believe it. The small crystal shard that i found was actually a treasure. But where did it come from?' He said inwardly but couldn't think of how the crystal got in the river in the first place. It was not there for sure yesterday.
Then suddenly, he felt a slight tug in his mind and he disappeared. He saw himself in a dark place with no light at all. He could only see himself and nothing else.
'Where am i?' He asked but couldn't think of anything. 'Am i dreaming? Could this all be a dream?' But when he pinched himself, he felt real pain.
"But if am not dreaming, where am i?" Suddenly a heard a voice whisper that he couldn't understand. It sounded like someone muttering to himself "Hello, i-is anybody there?" The voice did not answer but the muttering continued and it grew louder and louder but he still couldn't hear what the voice was saying. "Hello,w-who a-are you?" Feeling scared, Grey asked again while stammering.
Then the mumbling suddenly stopped. The air inside the dark place seemed to drop by a couple degrees and Grey felt a great pressure descend on his shoulders.
The voice spoke again. "My name is none of your business for i am not a name... i am a consequence. I am the silence that breaks the brave shadow that stands where the gods fall. I am the light that burns instead of heals. I don't warn, i arrive, i don't threaten i am the result of the stars and the void remembers me. I am the last slayer of the divine."
The voice seemed to speak with madness amd Grey couldn't help but fear. He did not know how he got here and the scary voice that put such heavy pressure on him.
"My time is almost out and yet i have not departed unto this generation my legacy. So i will give to you." Then the mighty pressure that grey felt holding him down disappeared and a strange power entered his body.
But it didn't swirl in his body like with the crystal shard. It went straight to his brain and instantly, he felt agonizing pain.
He fell to the ground and blood rushed out from his ears. He felt like his head was going to explode any second now. But along with the pain,came knowledge. He could see techniques and cultivation arts he had never heard before, entering into his brain without caring for his sake.
When the techniques finally stopped, the pain also stopped. As he looked up with red eyes, he could see a handsome middleaged man of looking at him.
There was indifference in his eyes as he looked grey.
"What did you do to me". Grey said in a hoarse voice.
"You are now the next godslayer. From now on you will practice the Great Void Immortal techniques until the end of your days."
"Why?" Grey asked.
"The world needs the Great Void" The voice said coldly and grey could feel his body about to be expelled from the dark place but he raised his head and shouted. "WHY!!"
The man had already began to walk away and grey could only see his back. He looked to be dissipating into nothingness but he still turned back and answered. "Because you have no choice"
Then he was expelled from the dark place and fell into the water again. Still shocked from everything that had happened. He didn't move for a long while.