Chapter 3
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Chapter 3: Heavenly Dream
The starlight stretched across the infinite cosmos, traveling countless light-years, weaving through the fabric of time and space, and softly descending upon Yun Xi like a celestial whisper. From the depths of the universe, the shimmering nebulae, the long and winding river of stars, swirled around him in an ethereal dance, their silent symphony resonating with a mysterious allure.
As if drawn by an unseen force, the stars gathered, forming a radiant sea above the quiet village, a glistening tapestry of cosmic splendor. An endless cascade of silver brilliance poured down from the heavens, enveloping the world below in an embrace of divine blessings. In that fleeting moment, the gears of fate, long frozen in place, began to turn once more.
A voice, distant yet familiar, echoed through the void of Yun Xi’s consciousness, a celestial murmur carried by the wind of dreams.
“Be careful… it’s almost time…”
“They are searching… this Star Domain…”
“Scheduled awakening at 18… moved up…”
“WARNING… hurry and complete the trial… or be consigned to eternal damnation!”
Who is searching? What is awakening at 18? What trial?
Yun Xi’s eyes fluttered open, but instead of the familiar warmth of his bed, he found himself suspended amidst a vast, star-filled expanse. The golden-red sun, the resplendent silver moon, and an ocean of dazzling stars surrounded him, their celestial bodies humming with an overwhelming flow of knowledge. Information surged through him like a tidal wave, threatening to split his mind apart.
The sun, the moon, and the stars circled him, their trajectories weaving patterns of cosmic destiny. Amidst their glowing brilliance, Yun Xi beheld a silhouette—a reflection of himself cast upon the starry canvas, like a ghost gazing back at him from the depths of an eternal dream.
In the farthest reaches of the cosmos, an ancient light pulsed, pushing back the vast darkness. And there, bathed in the gentle glow of the stars, a young boy clad in white cradled a golden puppy in his arms. The two figures remained cocooned in a slumber as if waiting for the destined moment to awaken. The stars coiled protectively around them, a celestial cradle shielding them from unseen perils.
“This time… it shall be done,” whispered a cluster of radiant stars, flickering with an ancient sorrow. Yun Xi could feel the weight of the boy’s burden, a suffocating sense of impending calamity pressing against his soul.
The golden puppy whimpered, its small paws trembling as it covered its eyes, unwilling to face the looming darkness. Fear clung to it like mist, and yet, it did not make a sound.
Poor thing… she’s terrified.
“You’re a good girl,” the boy murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to the pup’s forehead. His voice was soft, yet beneath it lay an unyielding resolve.
Nowhere left to run. No sanctuary remained. The trial could no longer be avoided.
So this is fate…
He had known it would come to this. He had prepared for this moment long ago.
“Go,” he whispered, his voice filled with an aching tenderness. “You will have good luck.”
A golden light flared, and the puppy vanished from his embrace, carrying the hopes and dreams entrusted to it. The boy watched in silence as two more figures, still ensnared in their cocoons, were cast into the endless sea of stars, their fates scattered across the cosmic expanse.
“I hope you all grow strong… Even if we are separated, I believe our paths will cross again.” His voice trembled with a rare gentleness as he gazed into the vast abyss. “The stars will watch over you until I return.”
A deep rumble echoed through the cosmos. From the gathering of stars emerged an overwhelming presence, an immense shadow stretching across the sky, so vast it seemed to swallow the entire Star Domain.
It had broken through dimensions. It was a force of nature, an entity beyond comprehension—one that even the heavens would tremble before.
Yun Xi watched in stunned silence as the stars rearranged themselves, forming words—fragments of knowledge scattered through time. Names, legends, whispers of once-great beings now reduced to distant memories.
Among them, one name stood above all others.
Dragon God Yasha.
The supreme ruler of the star dragons. The sovereign of the Dragon God’s Domain.
She was the embodiment of order, the mistress of time and space, the eternal mother who governed the cycle of birth, life, and death. Yasha, the void dragon, bathed in the radiance of the stars, her colossal form shrouded in an aura of celestial majesty. Her obsidian wings stretched across the firmament, adorned with countless stars twinkling like precious gems.
She was both creator and destroyer, a force beyond mortal comprehension.
Yun Xi felt the weight of destiny pressing down upon him, the warnings of the stars echoing within his soul. A trial awaited him, and failure meant oblivion. But who was he in the grand tapestry of the cosmos? A mere boy in a small village, bound by fate yet longing for an ordinary life.
And yet, here he stood, beneath the watchful eyes of the stars, caught in the tide of something far greater than himself.
They were real stars, scattered like celestial jewels across the boundless wings of the dragon of order, cradled within her eternal embrace as her cherished children. Her scales were a fathomless black, deeper than the void between the stars, yet beneath the infinite darkness, her skin shimmered with the radiant dust of shattered constellations. Her eyes, gleaming with a gentle silver luster, held within them the wisdom of epochs, glistening like the most precious of gemstones. Her colossal tail stretched into the cosmos, each scale a sleeping dragon, waiting in hushed anticipation for the moment of her awakening.
All miracles, all whispers of reverence and awe, found their origin in her form. She was the myth whispered across the galaxies, the eternal legend etched into the annals of time, the ruler whose existence transcended mortality.
“At last… I’ve found you.” Her voice rippled through the void, slow and deliberate, yet with each syllable uttered, the cosmos trembled. The stars shivered beneath the weight of her words. “This time, you must pay the price.”
“Yasha… sister…” The boy’s voice was laced with helpless resignation. He stood alone, adrift in the vastness of space, his form illuminated by the flickering of distant stars.
Before his lips could part with another word, three radiant forces cleaved through the starry river, descending upon the void with an overwhelming presence.
From the first shimmering ray emerged an ancient, floating city, its towering spires rising in solemn defiance of time itself. It was Sigil—the city of doors, the nexus that linked countless realms. A veiled woman stood amidst the towering structures, her gaze cold and piercing, a silent testament to her dominion. She was the nameless lady, the forgotten deity of pain, the enigmatic mistress of the city of secrets.
In the second wave of darkness, an endless black ocean churned with unrelenting malice. Tendrils, grotesque and monstrous, occasionally emerged from its depths, writhing and twisting in unfathomable terror. Its essence was beyond comprehension—an abyss of primordial chaos and discord, the manifestation of nightmare itself. This was the Naiya God’s Domain, the birthplace of madness, where reason was but a fleeting illusion.
And from the final burst of iridescent radiance, a vast stone slab descended, inscribed with infinite rules that pulsed with the very heartbeat of creation. Its presence alone was enough to seal the void, etching reality into an immutable order. She was the stone slab of Ionia, an eternal entity with countless avatars, a being known only as the god above gods, the arbiter of endless domains, the master of the celestial marketplace where gods and demons alike bartered their fates.
“Come here!” Yasha’s voice thundered, her demand absolute.
“Become mine!” The veiled lady’s voice cut through the void, as cold as a dagger’s edge.
“And I am all for it,” Naiya spoke, her voice laced with a sinister glee, thick with the weight of the abyss.
“Declare yourself my precious treasure,” the stone slab of Ionia intoned with an undeniable finality, inscribing his fate in lines of glowing script, “to be cherished by the God of Man.”
What followed next was beyond anything Yun Xi could have imagined—a desperate, brutal, yet breathtakingly magnificent spectacle of chaos and ambition. The heavens themselves seemed to fracture under the unimaginable conflict that erupted between the four supreme beings, their clashes powerful enough to rend the very fabric of the star domain.
The young boy, who had been the center of this celestial storm, found himself ensnared in the unforgiving tides of fate. Yun Xi watched in horror as the boy’s fate was sealed in an ending so cruel, so devastating, that it defied words.
Under the combined assault of the four overlords, the boy’s body was torn apart by forces beyond mortal comprehension, reduced to countless fragments of radiant, transparent jade light. Each shard shone with an ethereal beauty, as if the purest, most exquisite soul had been laid bare—an unmarred gemstone, containing an essence too perfect for this world.
The shattered remnants of his being scattered like stars across the boundless void, streaking across the heavens like falling meteors. And then, the true horror began.
The four overlords lunged, their divine forms moving with terrifying hunger, snatching at the jade fragments with ruthless greed. Like vultures descending upon a feast, they devoured his essence, each fighting to claim the last remnants of the boy’s existence. Amidst the chaotic struggle, a handful of precious fragments managed to slip through their grasp, vanishing into the vast darkness under the protective embrace of the stars.
That night, the stars wept for him.
Yun Xi could feel it—through the swirling dance of starlight, he sensed their sorrow, their longing to protect the boy who had been their beacon. And yet, against the overwhelming might of the four supreme beings, even they had no choice but to retreat, their brilliance dimmed in defeat.
This dream… was unlike any other.
It was vast. It was sorrowful. It was real.