It had been said humanity was created from golden dust and what they had met was a ruined realm called Earth, with a large tower at its center. With this tower came portals harboring creatures known as Yaoguais.
Humanity was blessed with the ability to cultivate mysteriously, and those who successfully awakened were known as Cultivators, able to enter the tower and engage in portal raids. They were also given the privilege to follow the Path of Apotheosis.
From the very beginning, humanity had learned to adapt to this setting, not knowing who or what had blessed them with such a boon—and yet also burdened them with the cruel flaw of portals.
Eras passed, and now it was the Advanced Era, otherwise known as the Year 4000.
It was currently the year 4050, and humanity had long evolved in technology and also the supernatural on a large scale. The story of how it all began were now myths, with different versions and beliefs. Although humanity knew too well that those "myths"—or maybe one of them—might be true, considering its testament still affected humanity even to this day.
People still awakened and became Cultivators. Portals still opened, and monsters still spilled out, and there was definitely a tall, enormous red tower at the center of the Earth.
Even Rain, who had always forced himself to believe the world was just a webtoon or video game he transmigrated into when he was born, was forced to believe the myths—and the rest of his doubts that he was on Earth disappeared today as the blue portal kept swirling violently.
"Oh shit... oh shit... oh shit..." he muttered under his breath as he ran inside. His parents, oblivious to the change in atmosphere, were still arguing about whether his life was pathetic or not.
Rain slammed the front door shut, the bang echoing louder than his father's shouting.
"Dad! Mom! Shut up! We have to leave now!" Rain yelled, his voice cracking.
Ryan turned, his face reddening. "Don't you tell me to shut up in my own—"
BOOM.
The lights immediately went out, leaving the sitting room in a sickly twilight from the blue light of the portal seeping through the window.
Ryan's face froze. Lila's hand covered her mouth as if she was about to scream.
"A blue Gate?" Ryan stammered.
Ryan worked as a government officer assigned to portal raids, so he knew very well the nature of the portals called Gates. Everyone mostly knew their nature, especially their ranks.
There are five different types of Gates ranging from Tier 0 to Tier 4. A Tier 0 Gate is red in color, while the others are green, purple, and black respectively. While the last one, Tier 4—the most lethal Gate—is blue....
The creatures on the other side of the Gate determine its rank, and thus the blue portal right outside on the road of the estate was harboring Yaoguais from Rank 8 to 10.
Rain ushered his parents out of the house, and they ran toward the entrance of the estate without going near the portal. Before leaving, he went to the sitting room and pressed a red button beside the light switch.
The red button glowed and blared like a horn, turning the whole house into a shade of red. It was a method installed in all houses to announce the arrival of a portal, send the location directly to the officials meant to handle it, and alert buildings within a certain radius.
Others living in the estate were also evacuating their families upon seeing Rain's alert signal.
Rain would have loved to watch the estate lose its peace if the reason wasn't a death sentence.
Behind them, the blue portal grew farther and farther away, although the entrance to the Gate was still nowhere in sight. Houses kept slamming their doors open as people rushed out in different numbers, running toward the entrance. Soon, the road became crowded.
Behind them, creatures gushed out of the portal.
The first set of creatures looked like humans, but they were skinny with hard black flesh, dangerously tall, and had round heads with a single large dark orb-like eyeball that rolled in strange, unnatural motions. Their overextended limbs ended in sharp metallic claws. On their chests was a maw that opened and closed, ready to massacre the flesh and blood of civilians.
They stood staring at the running humans from a distance, like looming death.
Rain caught a glimpse and, for a moment, made eye contact with one of them from afar and immediately felt a foreign force trying to force its way into his mind. With enough willpower, he tore his gaze away.
"Whatever you do, don't turn back," he warned his parents.
As he ran, he saw five figures leap out of the crowd wearing battle clothing. They separated themselves from the civilians with high leaps, jumping over Rain. With different weapons, they ran toward the portal.
Turns out there were Jiangs among the civilians. Jiangs were normal humans possessing Martial Souls like everyone before awakening. Yet they were different, as when they awakened they did not become Cultivators and were not allowed into the Tower of Aperture. Instead, their understanding of martial arts was increased, and from that they created incredible battle skills that could still rival Cultivators at a certain level.
"But what can they do against a blue portal?" Rain hissed and decided not to think about it.
He continued running, but the man in front of him abruptly stopped, making him slam his face into the man's back.
"Hey, what gives?"
The man gave no reply.
Rain turned his gaze to the front. Everyone had stopped. In fact, they had reached a large black open gate, which was the entrance.
Rain's expression soured.
"What... in... the... world?"
Separating the civilians from the gate was another blue portal, and coming out of it were large lizard-like creatures.
Rain knew this wasn't the right time, but he glanced at his mom first. Her expression was hopeless. He turned to his dad, whose expression was still frozen.
"Dad..." he called the old man's attention.
"...I guess you're right after all. I would die in a portal raid—just not as a Cultivator or a Jiang."