I'm too old for this shit, man. A ragged looking middle-aged man with long, unkempt black hair and heavy eye bags sat atop a small wooden raft in the twilight. He was floating near the center of a small lake. If one looked hard enough at him, they would be able to catch a vague glimpse of a long lost twinkle that rarely shown in his eyes. He was trying his hand at mortal fishing, something that he had done a few dozen times in the millions of years that have passed.
He'd been out here for hours and so far had only been pelted with rocks and spit water at by the overly territorial skelpies. Can't an old geezer just fish in peace, he thought as he lazily shook his head with his chin resting on his palm.
To the eyes of passersby, he was an obviously tall man sitting in the rickety fishing boat, hunched over and staring into the water with a dull expression on his face. Overhead, one would witness the breathtaking scene of expansive nebulae and moons, which coupled with the man on the lake in his boat, would've been a strangely fine sight. The dark blue water was calm and acted as the perfect mirror for the heavens above. The man himself didn't care about things like that; he had seen it a hundred million times. In fact, he didn't care about much of anything. He was only out here to prove to himself that he hadn't given up on living; which wasn't working out too well for him at the moment.
Before he become too depressed in his thoughts, old Grandma Mary appeared hobbling down the dirt trail on the outer banks of the lake. "Hey, Qing Ming!!". She looked towards the lake and spoke in a loud, quivering voice. She was hunched over, carrying a bag of fresh ingredients from the market. "Looks like fishing ain't your thing either, huh.." The old woman sighed and shook her head in disappointment. "Stop moping around you depressed leech, get off your lazy bum and get a job!". She chastised the man and threw an apple with surprising speed and force for an elderly woman and it flew straight into the man's outstretched hand. Still looking down at the water, he brought the apple to his mouth and took a large bite.
Usually, Qing Ming wouldn't have paid any mind to the old lady, but he was very pissed off lately, and the mischievous antics of the blackwater shelpies beneath him weren't helping. Qing Ming directed his finger so that it was pointing down at the lake and in the blink of an eye the entire thing evaporated. All that was left behind were millions upon millions of fish, angry blackwater shelps, and many other interesting aquatic creatures. Grandma Mary, who had been strolling by earlier, stood stock still with her mouth sagging open as her groceries dropped and items tumbled onto the ground.
Qing Ming was hovering in the middle of the crater that was a lake just moments ago. He motioned his hand so that all of the fish began de-scaling and preparing themselves as if they were each being prepared by a grandmaster chef. He then packaged them all up with a few more motions and plopped the thousands of tons of fish neatly next to the lake crater. "There! How's that for no job... sheesh." Qing Ming excitedly shouted and then quickly returned to his lazy way of speaking.
At that moment, he abandoned his skiff and the fishing expedition altogether, blinking himself a vast distance away to a cave in another part of the world. He was finished with the farce in that town. Those sixty years should have been a nice retreat for him, but when it was all said and done, he felt more empty than ever.
Moving over to a familiar cabinet against the rocky wall, he opened the drawer to reveal a small, ghastly wooden chest that emanated an aura of pure despair and death. Even the chest itself was a rank 8 treasure that could seal the most terrifyingly powerful items. Inside lay a poison that had once disintegrated his immortal right arm and half his torso in an one hundreth of a second. Back then, his life was only saved because the poison suddenly vanished when it came into contact with Qing Ming's heart.
He had found this shocking chest in the early days of his life. Back when the Go Ma empire was at its peak of power and influence. In those days, he was a great leader of the king's valiant second army that fought to protect his city from neighboring invaders.
Qing Ming had long since departed from the world of such insignificant mortal scuffles. At the same time, he would give anything for even a little bit of the ambition he had back in the old days. That's why he's holding this ancient chest in his hands right now; he felt no desire or passion in his heart, and this chest might have the potential to bring him much needed change. Screw it, Qing Ming thought as he made the decision in his heart. The instant before opening it, he glanced over at a timeworn portrait on the wall of a young woman, then took hold of what was inside the chest with one hand.