(OLD/NOT CANON) Immortal Ascension Tower

Chapter 116 - Xu Ling

Cookie's Note: yo, been a while. Long story short, I'm back. The following is a "Record of the Nine Heavens", meaning it is separate from the main story (Cheng Hao discussing with the ancient being about the Mountain and whatnot), and instead focuses on the backstory of the world, prior to Xu Ling's reincarnation as Cheng Hao. The following three chapters will also be the same, after that we will go back to our golden (red?) eyed freak right away.

Records of the Nine Heavens - Xū Líng 

Heavenly Plains, about one year prior to the human*, Xū Líng's, first appearance in the world: in this location, with it being outside of the Nine Heavens, the restrictions on the Four Kings were lifted, thus allowing them to stroll freely through the incredibly massive Plains.

[*actual race remains unknown]

Here, many centered the very beginning of a tale that would span from the small Earth of a low-tier plane of existence to the greatest Heavens!

Here, began his legend.

According to various tales, the Four Kings had gone out for a stroll to try to ease their youngest sibling's mind whom, after the death of her mother, had shown no signs of recovery. Even after more than a thousand years had passed, her spirit had ever since been on the verge of breaking.

Ren Hong, King of the Flames; daughter of the greatest airborne beast, Emperor of the skies and the source of all air currents, the Roc, and of the genius Primordial Beast, Lady Jin FengHuang who was born due to the Primordial Flame Emperor's tears. And yet, even the powerful blood containing the legacy of two Primordial Emperors couldn't stop her mind from slowly, but surely, fall even deeper into despair. The tales of the Heavenly Plains lead her three older siblings to try their luck; maybe the beautiful sight of the world's most beautiful plants and flowers all gathered in one spot would be able to mend her wounded spirit? Such a random choice brought about unforeseeable results. The exact night the four siblings reached the Heavenly Plains, just as the sun rose up into the sky and the first ray of sunlight fell down... 'it' happened. He appeared.

[...]

Suddenly, a rift in space, spanning countless miles in both height and length opened and 'he' came out: around his body was a vortex of glowing runes, swirling around the young child like a barrier of some sort, protecting from the gargantuan rift. No matter how viciously it bit down, the void failed to devour the youth back in, as the glowing symbols interfered. However, despite keeping the rifts at bay, the runes were slowly shrinking, the light emitted from their ethereal figures dimming with each passing moment: soon, they would disappear and, along with them, the boy would die too! What to do? At first, the Four Kings didn't mind the boy. After all, it could be seen he was a simple human. Why should Kings amongst Beasts like them worry about tending to the flickering flame that is a human's life? What's more, the strength of the Dimensional Rifts on such a high-quality plane as the Heavenly Plains were so terrifying even Ren Hei, the eldest of the siblings, possessing the greatest cultivation, deeply feared having any sort of contact with them.

Sensing the danger, neither Ren Hei, nor Ren Bai or Ren Long moved a finger and simply resigned themselves to take up the role of bystanders in the extremely short life of the youth, born from a spatial rift. This would have been the end of the Evil Saint: no matter how powerful he would become in the future, at the time he was nothing more than a mortal! Indeed, it would have been the end for the strongest human, that is, if it had not been for her: Ren Hong! Due to the importance of these event it should be emphasised that, had it not been for the Vermillion Bird's pity on the young boy, the tales of the Evil Saint would be nothing less than some writer's fantasies! And yet, moved maybe by the young child's twisted fate, maybe because she empathised with him and saw him as a fellow victim of a grim fate, Ren Hong took pity and flew into the sky!