Ashes Of Heaven Book 1 : Solar Calamity

Han Xuhan was still slightly dazed when he was brought inside the ancient building by the maniacal elder Mu.

"Tell me, young man, did you like flying like an immortal?" Elder Mu asked on the way rather vindictively.

The suspicion of the woman outside the building was very possibly accurate.

But currently, he was more worried about his predicament. Elder Mu's sadistic tendencies were hardly a major concern when he might just end up getting killed any moment now.

His thoughts were interrupted when he was shoved forward inside a huge hall while the elder stayed back outside. Han Xuhan turned around in a hurry, only to see the thick, gigantic doors closing in and trapping him inside.

Immediately, Xuhan flattened his back on the door and turned around to survey the room he was locked in. With a shiver going down his spine, he realized that he was not alone.

A man sat in the middle of the room, on the floor, seemingly lost in meditation.

Grizzled looks, sharp features, and shoulder-length gray hair made him look memorable. In terms of appearance, this man came off as someone crossing his fifties, but still quite handsome.

Thinking of how long the lives of cultivators could stretch, Han Xuhan decided to treat this man as a respectable senior.

Rather flummoxed by the turn of events, Han Xuhan decided to stay silent and still.

But that silence did not last long. A few seconds later, the senior opened his eyes suddenly, startling the nervous young man.

Meeting the old man's penetrating gaze, Han Xuhan felt a premonition that that gaze could see through everything! Even his most secret thoughts wouldn't stay secret before those eyes...

Moving imperceptibly, Han Xuhan put his left leg in front of his right one, blocking his crotch area from that pervasive gaze...

He didn't want to make this senior feel inferior! Not now, at least.

However, the old man noticed the covert action and immediately became so incensed by the implications of his movements that the veins on his neck bulged out for a moment before he could control his fury.

"YOU....!"

Seemingly lost for words, the old man gritted his teeth before calming himself down and speaking again.

"Did elder Mu explain to you why you've been brought here?"

Hearing the cold question, Han Xuhan shook his head, which prompted a snort from the old grandpa.

"Understandable. That brat really needs another hands-on lesson on flying. Now listen attentively, I won't bother explaining twice."

Han Xuhan was simply relieved that his death didn't seem imminent yet. Nodding like a good boy, he focused his attention fully on this grandpa.

"Are you familiar with the concept of 'reincarnation' ?"

Han Xuhan nodded. It was a familiar concept among most mortals.

Many religions and school of thoughts claimed it to be real instead of a simple afterlife with heavens and hells. After death, everyone's souls would forget their memories of past life and be reborn into another vessel. Of course, there were varieties of claims concerning how this whole rebirth process was operated, but Xuhan, being a standard orphan with no fixed religious bias, always had seen those claims from the viewpoint of a skeptic.

But right now, his beliefs were about to be challenged as the old man continued speaking.

"To those among the cultivators who have stepped into the realms of immortals and above, the cycle of reincarnation is a very ordinary passage of life. To shed mortality, one must understand what the essence of mortality is. Every immortal cultivator has reincarnated once at least in their lifetime of cultivation. "

Han Xuhan's jaws fell open. Reincarnation was real?

"However, the heavenly law is not something that can be so easily manipulated to man's convenience. More often than not, the process of voluntary reincarnation goes awry somewhere and the world ends up with some oddities whose fate has been twisted and crushed into an unrecognisable state. This is akin to a punishment from the heavens to those who continuously challenge the way of the heavens."

Sufficient to say, Han Xuhan's mind was already forming some strings with his current predicament to these new pieces of information. It couldn't be that...

"Yes," the old man nodded, looking pleased with his fast thoughts.

"You, boy, turned out to be one of those instabilities whose fate was basically screwed by the heavens in your past life. That ancestry test was a precautionary step for us to detect the unfortunate freaks like yourself."

Han Xuhan's face became pale as he realized that his luck was actually even worse than he had thought.

It was one thing to be the descendant of a famous person who had a feud with a reputable sect like the Crimson Snow Sect. At best, he'd just die tragically young.

But to be directly placed among a randomly selected group of people who were the punching bag of the frustrated heavenly law, what kind of dogshit luck was this? What did he do in his past life to deserve this? Wouldn't he be tortured even after death?

"Hehe, don't wet your breeches now. It's not that bad. As cultivators, we always have been a bit of an eyesore of the heavens. So being a victim of their unfair laws isn't all that uncommon among us. However..."

The old man paused as a dark glint appeared in his eyes. Xuhan felt a chill down his spine as if death itself was right around the corner. He could already make a few guesses as to where this conversation was heading.

"Existences like you are a very unstable factor to have around. Anyone with a sufficient knowledge of the cultivation world knows that those who are the reincarnated selves of mighty cultivators from ancient times are always discriminated by the heavenly laws.

They are the harbingers of apocalypse and destruction. If they manage to awaken the memories of their past life and get stronger, they often start bloodbaths and challenge the heavens, blinded by their vengeance and driven almost crazy due to how twisted the heavens have made their fates to be.

This is also another form of punishment by the heavens on us mortals and immortals alike, whether we challenge heavenly laws or not, simply because we cultivate to become immortals."

"...I can honestly swear that I won't do any of those things. Let's just forget that I took the test and you can let me leave while no one is looking..." Xuhan muttered unhappily.

The old man chuckled gloomily.

"It isn't so simple as that. What if you awaken your memories after you return and realize that the heavens have greatly wronged you?

Such as intentionally killing your past life's daoist partner in a tribulation, or making your parents reincarnate into humiliating vessels such as animals or demons.

How are you going to deal with that eh?

Are you willing to let it pass off and bear the humiliation, hmmm?"

Han Xuhan numbly thought about it and found a tiny trap in the old man's words. If he said no, then it would mean he was definitely an unstable factor who might bring destruction to all living beings around him. As a reputable sect, Crimson Snow Sect would never let him off the hook. The small town he lived in was under the jurisdiction of this sect. Where could he run?

But if he lied and said yes, it would be a proof of a timid and cowardly nature, thus marking him as a sinister person, a scum who wouldn't mind sacrificing his and his family's dignity to survive.

Would such a guy who could potentially become stronger be spared by anyone with a working brain? The risk was even greater in this case!

Han Xuhan stayed silent for a long time before speaking.

"Your words are very cleverly placed..."

"Call me Xuan Zi."

"Your words are very cleverly placed, master Xuan Zi. You've placed many prerequisites in your question and made it impossible for me to answer without stepping into a trap. Those conditions about having my daoist partner killed in tribulation, or my parents being humiliated in their afterlife because of me...aren't these rather far-fetched?

Now, I don't know much about this heaven you speak so casually of, but I have some doubts about how you're portraying such celestial beings...they can't definitely be a bunch of retards!

"Unless I committed heinous crimes in my past life, why would they go that far to pick a fight with me? Would they leave me alive after doing all that?"

"How do you know that you haven't committed heinous crimes in your past life, boy? Hehe..."

"Master Xuan Zi, your questions have too many ifs. Such uncertainty cannot make for a good argument.

If I asked you, what if you had been a great pervert in your previous life, and so, are the ladies of the sect really safe from your hands now that you're a powerful cultivator...?"

Xuan Zi's mouth opened and closed, but no words got out. Clenching his teeth, he closed his eyes for a few moments before regaining clarity. Showing him a thin smile, the man said,

"Indeed. That's a valid argument when you put it like that, young man."

Xuhan noted how the old man had gone from addressing him as 'boy' to 'young man'. It seemed that he had avoided a calamity there. His back was already covered in a thin layer of cold sweat. He had a feeling that if his answer was simply either yes or no, he wouldn't be alive at this moment.

"If any of the celestials above heaven had met you in your previous life, they'd probably have enough reason to pick a fight with you, young man. After all, it has barely been five minutes into our conversation and I was almost angered to the point of awarding you with some gentle slaps."

Han Xuhan coughed awkwardly and chose to ignore that comment from master Xuan Zi.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, we both seem to agree that it is of paramount importance that we know what you were in your past life so that we can judge whether to let go of you or not, eh?"

Han Xuhan sighed. He had seen this coming.

Despite wriggling out of the trap set by the old man, it was inevitable that his answer would lead to this. Master Xuan Zi was a crafty old fox who hadn't wasted his long life keeping his brain idle.

No matter how intelligent Han Xuhan was, his experiences simply couldn't measure up to a cunning old cultivator like him. Defeating this guy with witty arguments was beyond his ability.

"I suppose so," he muttered despondently in the end.

"Hehehe. Then you shouldn't have any complaints against our technique of cracking open the memory seal of reincarnation and making you recall your previous life, hmmm?"

"That sounds quite dangerous."

"Oh, don't worry! The results are very simple. Either you awaken your memories and tell us what really happened in your previous life so that we can judge whether to 'terminate' any threats; and if it doesn't work...uh, you wouldn't need to worry about your future. Shouldn't be a problem to understand the implications for a bright young man like you, hmmm?"

Once again, Han Xuhan realized that his arguments were useless when his opponent was a cultivator with both power and wisdom.

Cultivation was the only thing that could guarantee his safety in this cruel world where the heavenly laws had anger issues.