A boy was frantically running along a mountain path.

Three masked men were chasing him.

They followed slowly, as if playing with a toy.

Eventually, as if they’d had enough, they quickly closed the distance and grabbed the running boy.

“Got you.”

One of the masked men lifted the struggling boy, grinning in amusement.

That’s when it happened.

A flash of light—followed by searing pain in his eye.

Stab.

“Arghhh!”

The boy had stabbed the masked man in the eye with a hidden dagger.

“You little shit!”

Smack!

Crash!

Writhing in pain, the masked man slapped the boy hard across the face. The small body flew and hit the ground far away.

The other masked men shouted in shock.

“Are you insane? Didn’t you hear the order to bring him back without a scratch?”

“Fuck! Can’t you see my eye is ruined?”

“If you got taken down by a fucking kid, you should be embarrassed. Shut up already!”

Tap, tap.

“Shit. He’s running again.”

“Why waste his energy when it’s fucking useless?”

“Let’s just subdue him and take him. I’m done with this.”

“Fine.”

The masked men resumed their chase.

In the distance, the boy suddenly stopped, looking panicked.

When they caught up, they saw it: a sheer cliff blocked his way.

The masked men laughed.

“Haha. You ran so hard, only to find yourself cornered.”

“Even the heavens have abandoned you. Just give up.”

The boy turned around and glared at them.

The sight of his eyes made the masked men freeze.

They were pitch black—Black Eyes.

“Fuck me. He really is his bloodline. I’ve only heard of the Black Eyes before, but seeing it in person is fucking creepy.”

“The atmosphere’s different now.”

Before, there had been fear and terror in the boy’s gaze. Now, there was killing intent.

Snap.

The boy broke off a branch from a nearby tree.

The masked men laughed mockingly.

“What, you’re going to fight us with that?”

But no.

The boy aimed the sharp end of the branch at his own neck.

“Don’t come closer. Take one more step, and I’ll stab myself.”

The masked men stared at him, dumbfounded.

“Just like him. Ruthless as hell. Go ahead. Try it.”

One of them moved.

Drip.

The boy really stabbed the branch into his neck, and blood began to drip.

Even as the branch pierced him, his expression remained cold. He glared at the masked men and spoke in a frigid voice.

“Come closer, I dare you.”

The masked men flinched.

“Fucking hell. This little bastard is insane.”

“Just like his bloodline. What a goddamn temper.”

“What should we do?”

—I’ll distract him. Hit him with a wind strike (Jipung) to knock him out.

The masked men nodded after hearing the transmitted voice.

The one in front spoke calmly.

“Now, now. Calm down and listen to us.”

“Why the fuck would I listen to you, after you killed my entire family?”

“They weren’t your real family.”

“What?”

“Don’t you want to know whose bloodline you really belong to?”

“What bullshit! My real parents passed away years ago!”

“Haha. Don’t you want to know who your grandfather is?”

At the mention of his grandfather, the boy’s gaze wavered slightly.

“Your real grandfather is alive. Don’t you want to meet him?”

His grandfather is alive?

The boy’s pupils shook violently. Should he believe them?

At that moment—

Throb.

A sharp pain shot through his body, leaving one side paralyzed.

They had distracted him and done something to his body.

The boy glared at them with his pitch-black eyes.

“You… tricked me.”

Half his body could still move.

“What the hell? Why is he still moving?”

“Damn it, I couldn’t hit the pressure point properly from here.”

The boy turned to look back.

One step, and he’d fall off the cliff.

“No fucking way! Stop him!”

Sensing what was about to happen, one of the masked men sent out a wind strike to subdue him.

Whoosh.

But it was too late.

The boy’s body was already falling off the cliff.

“No!”

Hearing the masked men’s anguished cries, the boy smiled faintly.

Even in death, he’d managed to spite them.

The mention of his grandfather lingered in his mind.

But it was probably a lie.

His grandfather was dead.

“Goddamn it! That crazy bastard!”

The masked men looked over the cliff and then at each other.

“Fuck! We were ordered to bring him back alive… Let’s go down.”

“I told you we should’ve dealt with him quickly. We fucked around, and now look!”

“Shut up. You enjoyed the chase too, asshole!”

“Hey, that’s not the problem right now! We need to at least find his body, or we’re screwed!”

“Fuck. It’s so deep. How the hell are we supposed to climb down there?”

***

Endlessly falling, the boy—

Suddenly, something flying through the air collided with him, sending his body bouncing off mid-fall.

The boy's body came to an abrupt halt in the air. A bright light shone on him, and moments later, figures appeared in midair.

One of them carefully picked up the boy and said,
“He just fell from the sky! I couldn’t avoid him!”

“Damn! We’re not supposed to harm lifeforms from other planets!”

“That’s not the issue right now! We need to treat him. Quickly, take him inside!”

Behind them, a glowing, circular orb floated silently, radiating constant light.

As they turned, the light bathed their forms before they vanished. At the same time, the glowing orb disappeared as well.

Shortly after, the masked men were searching the area.

“Damn it! He’s gone!”

“What do we do? If we go back like this, we’re dead.”

“Let’s run. If we’re going to die anyway, we might as well try to survive somehow.”

Nodding to one another, the masked men hurried off into the thick fog, disappearing from sight.

Once they were gone, the glowing orb reappeared.

It seemed to have some kind of feature that concealed it automatically when other lifeforms approached.

Inside the orb, treatment for the boy was in full progress.

His body was suspended in a transparent glass chamber filled with a red liquid.

“We’ve unintentionally gotten a close look at this planet’s lifeform.”

“Normally, this is illegal.”

“It’s even more illegal to harm a being from another planet. That gets automatically reported to Central.”

“Can he be saved?”

“It seems possible, but the problem is he won’t survive long. His spiritual energy  is far too weak.”

The aliens looked at the boy in the glass chamber with pity.

“Let’s at least ensure he can live as long as possible.”

Resolute expressions on their faces, they began working on him diligently.

They inserted something into the boy’s brain and shot beams of blinding light into his skin. The red liquid’s energy seeped into his body.

Bubbles rose from the boy’s mouth as he grimaced in silent pain.

Inside the chamber, his body was repeatedly disassembled and regenerated, over and over again.

Finally, the procedure ended. The chamber’s door opened, and the unconscious boy was carefully lifted out.

Looking at him, one alien said,
“Even after becoming a Transcendent  like us, he won’t live long…”

“There’s no helping it. Spiritual energy isn’t something we can give him. We’ve done everything we can. The rest is up to him.”

“Still, it’s pitiful. He’ll only live for two hundred years.”

“If he awakens as an Omnipotent Being , his spiritual energy will be replenished, and he could achieve eternal life. That depends on his talent.”

“That’s impossible. Even we, the chosen race, haven’t reached that level. There’s no way a primitive lifeform from this planet can do it.”

“The treatment is complete. Now what? We can’t just leave him here.”

“Let’s entrust him to this planet’s intelligent lifeforms.”

“We can’t just give him to anyone.”

“Exactly. The intelligent beings here are too savage. It would be dangerous for him.”

“He’s now tied to us by fate. Let’s entrust him to the strongest being on this planet.”

“Fine. Then we’ll hand him over to the strongest being here.”

“But what if that being doesn’t care about him?”

“Then we’ll make sure they do. We’ll make this child the one they cherish most in the world.”

“So that’s how we’ll do it.”

“To think we’d use our ability to make lifeforms trust and follow us like this… You’re a genius.”

“Alright, let’s find the strongest being on this planet.”

“Found it. I sense an immense power not far from here.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

***

Suspended mid-air, a glowing vessel radiated brilliant light, and time in the world stood completely still.

“Is it him?”

“Incredible. To possess such power…”

“With strength like that, we can entrust the child to him without worry.”

“Hurry up! If we keep time frozen any longer, it could destabilize this dimension.”

“Understood.”

Zzzang—.

A powerful beam of light descended, bathing a lone human standing motionless on the ground. The light seeped into his body.

“It’s done. Let’s place the child nearby and withdraw.”

“Lower him! Quickly.”

Zzng—.

The underside of the vessel opened, releasing a stream of light. The boy slowly descended along its path and was gently laid on the ground.

At that moment, the light vanished, and the vessel soared away into the distance.

Time, which had been frozen, resumed its flow.

***

In a fog-covered valley, an elderly man wandered, exclaiming in awe.

“Haah, amazing. No wonder my disciples couldn’t find this place.”

The old man looked around in fascination, his gaze brimming with admiration.

“The more I see it, the more I like it. Haha. Once I clear out those pests, I’ll make this my secret sanctuary.”

Muttering to himself, the old man’s figure blended seamlessly with the mist, making him look like a celestial being walking through the clouds.

As he wandered, marveling at the valley, something caught his eye.

“What’s that?”

There was something that looked like a child.

It was unmistakably a child—but what was a child doing here?

‘Is this a trap set by those Blood Cult bastards?’

This wasn’t a place where people could easily set foot.

For a child to appear here, suspicion was inevitable.

‘What kind of trap is this?’

His curiosity piqued. If this trap had been prepared for him, he was willing to humor it.

The old man approached the child and began examining him closely.

But it was just that—a real child lying unconscious on the ground.

“What? It really is a child? No… why the hell is a kid here?”

The old man’s face wrinkled in confusion as he scanned his surroundings.

No matter how he looked at it, this was not a place where a child could have simply wandered in and collapsed.

The old man crouched down, carefully inspecting the boy.

Was he even ten years old?

Dark, jet-black hair. Porcelain-white skin. A slightly chubby face framed by thick eyebrows. Long eyelashes peeked from his closed eyes, paired with a sharp nose and delicately shaped lips. The features were strikingly harmonious—he looked like a young noble.

What stood out most was how clean he was.

For someone lying in the depths of a valley, he was far too pristine.

It was as though he had just stepped out of his house moments ago.

The strange incongruity unsettled the old man.

Around the boy’s neck hung a necklace, inscribed with letters that looked like a name.

What was even stranger was the old man’s inexplicable attachment to the boy.

“What is this feeling?”

The more he looked at the boy, the better he felt.

Even his sleeping face seemed absolutely lovable.

It was the first time.

Never before had he felt such affection for someone.

This warm, unfamiliar feeling brought a rare smile to the old man’s face.

“Well, well. To think I’d find a child so precious the first time I saw him. You live long enough, and you see everything.”

The old man gently took the boy’s arm, injecting his Qi to examine the boy’s body.

After a moment, his face fell in disappointment, and he muttered softly,

“Hm, a strange body indeed. But it’s far too lacking to learn martial arts.”