Kaze watched clouds pass his throne room's windows with an unreadable expression.
While he appeared to be in his mid-twenties, the profound aura he exerted made the chamber suffocating. Only immortals at the pinnacle of cultivation could enter it.
One such cultivator stood before Kaze. He was an elder man with long grey hair in a ponytail and a neatly groomed beard.
While most who entered the room knelt by necessity, he calmly walked to the emperor's side.
"You look dissatisfied, Emperor. It leaves me curious; what more could the man who has everything want from life?" He mused with a slight smile.
"For people to rebel." Kaze replied tersely.
"Pardon me?" The elderly man asked.
"To rebel. You understand the word, yes?" Kaze asked mockingly, "I want enemies to use the free cultivation techniques, shadow armies, and resources I've provided to rise up against me."
"Forgive me, emperor. I was just astonished that you would want something so paradoxical." The man chuckled in amazement, "What drives you to fund your enemies?"
"What drives me?" Kaze chuckled bitterly, "I've spent my whole life fighting, constantly facing stronger enemies, all for the sake of power. Now I'm at the top, and I have nothing left to aspire to."
"Is that so? I'm curious. If you were to do it over again, would you live a humble life?" The man mused, "Would you give up your power, royal harem, and luxuries?"
"Of course not." Kaze scoffed, "Do you take me for a fool? You cannot live life without power."
"Then what would you do differently?" The man asked with intrigue flashing in his lifeless grey eyes.
"I'd enjoy my power." Kaze replied with a slight smile, "I haven't enjoyed myself in four millennia. I'm so bored that I'm praying you came here to kill me."
"Is that so?" The elderly man chuckled, "Well, unfortunately, you're wrong. I'm not here to kill you."
Kaze scoffed and looked out the window again. "Then what are you here to do?"
"I'm here to rectify the damage you wrought when you destroyed the Tree of Immortality." The man replied.
"Hoh? And how do you plan to do that?" Kaze asked with a murderous grin.
"By giving you this." The man smiled while holding out a scroll.
The emperor accepted it hesitantly, preparing to strike. "A cultivation technique?"
"Yes. You can restore the Tree of Immortality and solve your quandary with this cultivation technique." The man claimed with a mysterious smile.
Kaze narrowed his vibrant green eyes while examining the scroll. He could cultivate the blueprint but couldn't read the description or sense its aura.
"I cannot read this language; what does it say?" He asked.
"Why spoil it? You're the one that's seeking excitement, are you not?" The man mused while walking away.
The emperor looked up from the scroll to face him, but he had already vanished.
"How strange. I've never met that man in five thousand years." He remarked with a wide grin, "He must possess knowledge I do not. Let's get a taste of his secrets."
Kaze used his hyperthymestic memory to memorize the scroll. Then he waved his hand, and a wall of twisting space sealed off the doors and windows from his throne room.
He stood up, sat on the silk-woven rug in the room's center in the lotus position, and began cultivating.
A strange sensation washed over his body and distorted his mind and thoughts. The room filled with the sounds of snickering, and Kaze felt a strange feeling on his face.
He immediately understood something was wrong and snapped his eyes open to free himself from the technique. When he did, he found someone's hand close to his face.
Kaze immediately grabbed the hand, twisted it while standing, and—
CRRRAAAACK!
—smashed the individual's face on the [floor].
The area fell silent as he raised his hand to deliver a lethal cultivation technique. It sealed an enemy's dantian and forced their meridians open, flooding their body with Qi until it ruptured.
It was a brutal attack that worked on any grade of cultivator, yet it wasn't working on the man before him.
"Did that man seal my cultivation?" Kaze laughed with a murderous glint in his eyes.
He checked for traces of the man's presence but was instead met with silent, shocked gazes from college-aged humans.
Kaze's eyes widened in bewilderment. He turned down to face his adversary.
"You, speak! How did you defile my palace with this thorough-paced farce?"
Despite his warning, the man didn't respond, leading Kaze to perform a closer investigation.
To his bewilderment, he hadn't slammed the scrawny man with neck-length brown hair to the [floor]. His blow smashed the man onto a desk, knocking him unconscious.
A desk. It was a sight the emperor hadn't seen in over five millennia. "What's…."
"Kaze…." A petite brunette wearing a white dress in front of a smart board called out timidly. Her light brown eyes trembled at the scene unfolding before her eyes.
The emperor looked at the woman in bewilderment. "Professor Roybock?"
"Um, yes… it's me. Professor Roybock." She replied.
Kaze felt vertigo wave through his body, and his mind became hazy with mixed signals of deja vu.
"Can… you please release Steven?" Professor Roybock requested.
"Oh… oh, yes." Kaze replied. He released the young man's wrist while staring at her in disbelief.
CRASH!
A loud noise freed him from his perplexion. He looked down and found Steven had crashed through the broken desk onto the floor.
The two halves of the white desk followed, dramatically dropping on both sides of the man.
The emperor looked up at Professor Roybock's troubled expression.
"Worry not, Professor. Out of respect, I shall spare this insolent fool's life today, as this was a misunderstanding. I'll immediately send for a servant to—"
Kaze panned his gaze around the classroom. Stunned students stared back at him with perplexed expressions and recording smartphones.
It immediately sunk in that even if it were an illusion, he no longer held the power he once had.
The man had hyperthymesia—Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory—a condition far exceeding eidetic or photographic memory.
As a result, he knew he was at his old college, Lockheed University in Meridian City, a place ruled by the weak, not the strong.
"Kaze, I… understand your defense, but Steven…." Professor Roybock said nervously.
Kaze laugh-scoffed at her nativity. Even if he were on the Mortal Plane, scum was scum.
"You needn't concern yourself with this detestable primate, Professor." He asserted while confidently striding to the front of the classroom.
"He's weak scum, and my action was simple self-defense. So don't distort your beautiful face for someone foolish enough to touch a sleeping man.
Please send word to have him detained and concern yourself no further."
Kaze gave Professor Roybock a charming smile before reaching for the door. When he opened it, he called out.
"By the way, Professor. White looks good on you; I just thought you should know."
The classroom gasped in astonishment at the young man's words.
Everyone was just as stunned as Professor Roybock, who stared at the shut door with a flushed expression.
The emperor strode through the halls of Lockheed University, trying to decipher the cultivation technique he was given.
When women passed him, he flashed them charming smiles as usual. However, they giggled or scoffed before turning away.
"Is there something on my face?" Kaze asked in bewilderment while touching his cheek.
The instant his fingers made contact, his eyes filled with horror and disbelief.
"What is this nightmare!?" He growled with a murderous glint in his eyes, "Once I break free from this illusion, I will find that man and teach him the terrors of raw power!"
Kaze navigated through the halls to the nearest bathroom and burst through the door. It was a small bathroom with two sinks, and both were occupied.
"You there!" He announced while pointing to an athlete with a neat haircut, "Move out of the way and go!"
The man turned away and laugh-scoffed at his arrogance. However, when he turned back, he found himself face-to-face with Kaze's overbearing killing intent.
There was no real power behind it, but the emperor's posture and eyes triggered his fight-or-flight response, and he immediately stepped out of the way and left the bathroom hurriedly.
The blonde-haired, glasses-wearing teen at the other sink initially grinned when he saw a geek like him bullying a jock.
However, he wiped the smile off his face when he saw the emperor look in the mirror.
Kaze stared at his appearance in disbelief. His head sported a black mop-top haircut, and his lanky chest housed an image of his favorite anime.
Worse, his face was riddled with bright red acne.
However, those horrifying features paled in comparison to the half-completed dick drawing tattooed on his face with permanent ink. He stared at it intensely with a twitching cheek.
"As a gentleman, I cannot break my word when I make a promise to a woman," He seethed with a murderous glint in his eyes, "But there are times when death is the only option."
The lanky geek at the other sink froze in fear.
"You there!" Kaze snapped while turning to the man, "What day is it today?"
The man's glasses nearly fell off his nose when addressed.
"D-Day?" He replied.
"Yes, day. Date, Timestamp, Celestial Marker." Kaze clarified in annoyance.
"F-Friday, June 1st, 2032." The geeky man stuttered.
The feeling of vertigo and deja vu returned, contorting the emperor's mental sphere with a surreal haze.
Friday, June 1st, 2032. He was on Earth one day before Elemental Qi was introduced to the Mortal Plane, inaugurating the birth of cultivation and ushering in the Qi Sickness epidemic that would trigger the apocalypse and begin his road to power.