Not far from a huge mountain range, in a place you can't find on a map, two old men stood earnestly before the entrance to a tomb guarded by two large dragons watching the horizon. One of the old men sealed the entrance to the tomb with a spell, tracing several series of circles with his bare hands. The two men wore loose-fitting white robes with fur collars the same color as the snow that had been falling for months. The taller of the two continued to trace the seal on an imaginary wall using his spiritual energy. The patterns were almost impossible to reproduce, and the scarlet-red seal glowed brightly before fading away as if it had never existed. Both were cultivators, individuals striving for immortality who had mastered various techniques of meditation, martial arts and magic.

"Goodbye, my friend," greeted the two, bowing their backs to the tomb solemnly.

There was a strange atmosphere, as if one was waiting for the other to speak.

"What are you going to do now?" asked the smaller one "Are you planning to stay here?"

The one who had made the seal appear looked pensively at the dragons, "He had a son..."

"And?" exclaimed the little one, raising an eyebrow, not understanding what he was getting at. Again, there was a long silence, everyone trying to find the right words "Is that supposed to change anything about this situation?"

"I'm going to take him with me and raise him, teach him what I know and find a solution."

The little one replied at once, spouting a series of words at full speed: "A solution? What solution? Are you planning to leave here? The woman won't let you! You'll end up like some of our comrades..."

"It's not too late to cross the mountain, it can be done before dark", the tone was firm and the voice confident.

"You mean you'd go the other way?!"

"It's been a few days since some of us crossed over to the other side," explained the tall man, "and there's no point in staying here with that cursed woman on the throne! None of us will survive much longer, so you might as well save me and what's left of our old friend. There's no peace possible in this kingdom now."

"You..."

"But there's a prophecy," cut in the tall cultivator, who was threatened by a snowstorm in the distance, "a rumor I heard before I came here."

"I don't believe in prophecies, they're nonsense to put people to sleep, nothing more."

"I want to believe in it at least once."

"And what did your rumor say?" growled the little one, holding his hands on his hips almost impatiently despite his refusal to believe it.

The capital facing the mountain shines in the sun, the other turns its back and will never see it again. When the great dragon of the mountain appears, there will be no more shadows murmured the man as his comrade tried to understand 'Other cultivators have crossed the mountains, some of my disciples too...Let's do the same. I'll be back here as soon as I find a solution."

"I'll be back too then," assured the smaller of the two, "in a few moments I'll change my physical form to survive and won't try to find you there. It'll take years, if not centuries, but I'll come back here and avenge my companions and my friend."

And so, the two great masters parted ways, each taking a different path: one had walked for days through icy snow and then dry earth, while the other had flown for hours on his sword with a baby in his arms, the only precious thing he had left of a long-lost friend. But the child also played another role that he would have to fulfill when the time came, along with another person older than him, a young girl who had already been across the border for several days and who had been given a single mission by her master, who had left with the child: "Go, find a cultivator of your level and give birth to a son, just one."

I'll stop the baby's physical progress and wait for her to give birth to a son, so that they can both grow up at the same time. It'll be complicated, but doable... thought the cultivator.

Years later, the child raised by the great master, an admirable cultivator above the rest, became a handsome young man with two turquoise-blue eyes recognizable among the others and a promising talent, while the daughter whose mission it had been to bear a son had herself become a master at the head of a renowned clan, through marriage, and had brought up a strong, robust boy whom every conceivable compliment could describe. Everything had worked out perfectly, but it was far from over - in fact, it was just beginning.