The pale hospital room reeked of disinfectant. Outside, chaotic footsteps and deliberately hushed conversations could be heard.
The machines beeped softly. No one knew that the unconscious young man on the bed had been enduring indescribable pain all along.
A vegetative person, also known as a vegetative state, was an irreversible coma. Simply put, the body remained alive and could react, but it could not awaken and seemingly had no consciousness. Yet who would have imagined that within this young man was a lucid soul trapped inside?
After so many years, the young man could barely tell who he truly was anymore. The conscious soul was called Yan Xiao, but the body bore another name. There was no rejection whatsoever between body and soul, and he also possessed this body's original memories.
In the third-person playback of those memories, the unconscious young man looked exactly like Yan Xiao himself. But he remembered clearly that he should have been dead.
He did not know why he had come to this body. The world and experiences in this body's memories had nothing to do with his own, as though they belonged to two utterly unfamiliar worlds.
Trapped in this immobile body, he was conscious but unable to awaken. He could sense everything outside, yet could not respond. He had never understood what the suffering of birth, one of life's eight sufferings, truly meant. Now he did. Some people suffered more while alive than they would in death.
Warm sunlight streamed through the glass and fell upon the bed. It was another bright spring day. Suddenly, a flash of light flickered on the horizon and shot straight into the empty hospital room.
"Was... that... you...?"
The firelight rushed into the room without causing any damage. In an instant, space twisted, and a black-robed figure appeared within the ward. He rasped something toward the young man on the bed, and the unconscious youth actually opened his eyes.
"Are you human or a ghost...?"
The young man on the bed tried to speak, but no words came out. Sunlight shone down, yet the man in black cast no shadow. Even the breeze from the fan passed straight through him. If not for the fact that he could see him clearly, it would have seemed as though he did not exist at all.
The man in black lowered his head toward the young man. At that instant, heaven and earth seemed to sway faintly with his movement. He appeared to become the center of the world, carrying an indescribable pull.
As the man in black lowered his head, an unspeakable pressure descended upon the young man. His vision blurred completely. His eyes ached unbearably, and he vaguely saw a flame-shaped mark on the black-robed man's forehead.
This was not intentional on the black-robed man's part. The difference in the essence of their lives was simply too great. It was like a mortal gazing up at the starry sky and naturally feeling small before the endless universe. If not for some special connection between them, the young man would not even have been qualified to "see" him.
Somewhere deep within, the young man suddenly felt that they were very alike—just as his soul and the unconscious young man's body on the hospital bed were alike.
"This place... is unsuitable..."
Weariness filled the black-robed man's eyes. It seemed he did not have much time left. At the very moment he spoke, the winds and clouds changed abruptly. The whole world inexplicably brightened as a blazing radiance burst forth without warning.
Communications around the world fell into chaos, and countless people panicked. No one could understand why this was happening.
"I will send you... away..."
The black-robed man spoke again, still with great difficulty. The young man on the bed suddenly gained a flash of understanding. It was as though he understood everything, yet understood nothing at all.
A blaze swept across heaven and earth, rapidly contracting toward this hospital room as its center. The young man's body was swiftly enveloped in fiery light, slowly becoming transparent.
The black-robed man flicked out a finger and touched his brow. Countless streams of information entered his soul. A flaming pattern flew from the black-robed man's forehead and sank directly into the young man's, engraving itself deeply within his soul.
The young man's consciousness descended into Chaos once more. He felt as though he had reached the end of the world, standing at the source of the River of Time. One moment, the sky was filled with stars; the next, the heavens were withered and desolate. He became one with Void, mingling with the light and dust.
He seemed to comprehend many profound truths of the Great Dao, yet he could not put any of them into words. He discovered that his body was like the cosmos itself, while those tiny points were like clusters of flame.
Some of those flames were powerful, while others were weak. Every one of them carried different Laws and abilities, encompassing all things and accepting all things.
"This is... fuck..."
He could not even finish his final complete sentence before his entire being vanished without a trace amid the brilliant light.
The black-robed man watched this scene quietly, then gazed at the world with longing in his eyes. "I saw it for you. This World Fruit truly is beautiful, enough to make one linger. The seed of Empyrean Flame has been passed on. I hope he can stand at the peak of the myriad worlds, just like you did!"
As his words fell, the black-robed man's entire body emitted a clear, radiant glow. Flames rose from beneath him, and then his whole body shattered, turning into specks of firelight that scattered across the world before vanishing without a trace.
The space around him seemed cramped. Yan Xiao suddenly felt his vision brighten. He had actually escaped the space of his soul form and felt a sluggish heaviness, as if shackles had fallen upon him. That tangible sensation made the soul that had been deprived of freedom for so long rejoice inwardly.
He sensed hazy light before his eyes. His limbs seemed tiny and incredibly weak. Pain suddenly spread through him, and he could not help crying out—but what came from his mouth was only a baby's wail. Amid the vague buzzing at his ears, there was boundless joy.
He did not know how much time passed before he finally understood. He had been reborn once more—or rather, born anew. He had entered this new life with his memories and experienced the suffering of birth once again. Yet this time, it did not seem quite so painful.
An infant's brain could not bear too many thoughts. Before long, exhaustion overcame him and he fell deeply asleep. After an unknown amount of time, he instinctively began to feed. His tiny stomach quickly filled, and the unceasing suffering of birth eased somewhat in that sweetness.
Several days passed, and his consciousness gradually became clearer. Though he still could not open his eyes, his keen five senses allowed him to perceive far more.
"Son, Dad's here! Look what I brought you. Wake up, come on, wake up..."
The sound of a rattle rang out by his ear. He had been woken up again. Some guy who smelled faintly of smoke had come to tease him again.
After getting to know him over the past few days, Yan Xiao found that he could reluctantly accept this unqualified father—if the man could play around a little less and let him rest properly.