PROLOGUE

The small tavern by the Reincarnation Bridge received a strange guest in the late winter of the year of Guihai.

Wearing a golden cirrus pattern ink-black robe, with a golden guan on his head and a small golden fan in his hand, he appeared abruptly in the barren land together with his attendant.

The snow had accumulated to a depth past his knees that day due to the heavy snowfall. He appeared quite frail, with a pale face and trembling hands and feet, yet he persisted in trudging through the snow and moving forward against the blizzard.

They continued to walk for a while until the young man in black entered the tavern, appearing to be physically exhausted.

The young man's complexion appeared to be slightly improving when he raised the curtain and entered the tavern, where heat was pouring out of it. When he looked up, he saw that the hall was packed with people gathered around a platform where a storyteller was standing and thoroughly recounting folktales. Everyone in the crowd appeared to have already heard the stories he was sharing, and those who were drinking and chit-chatting paid him no attention at all.

While they were dressed in finery and looked stunningly handsome, the two made no sound when they walked through the door, and nobody even noticed that they had entered.

Among the throng, they made their way to the innermost table, where they took a seat. The attendant poured tea for the young man and then left to fetch some spiritual food. Then, appearing a little sleepy, the young man sat on one side, leaned his head against the wall, and gently closed his eyes to recuperate.

"As demonic cultivation becomes more prevalent, Yunze's spiritual energy is dwindling. Huayang Jun is said to be sustaining the spiritual energy right now, but I wonder how much longer he can last."

There were murmurs in the crowd about current affairs, with a tone of concern in their voices. The storyteller on the platform, however, was describing with great passion the times when Yunze was in its prime: "Back then, the grass and trees in the immortal realm of Yunze were lush, the spiritual energy was abundant, and there were countless righteous cultivators. Many mortals climbed mountains and traversed rivers to come to Yunze."

"A child by the name of Qin Yan was among them. He travelled across the sea with his mother to Yunze in search of immortality during the year of a severe drought and other natural disasters."

The young man in black, who had been recuperating, opened his eyes slightly when he heard the name "Qin Yan".

The storyteller was talking about the "Biography of Sui Yan", a long-standing folk tale.

The legendary Sui Yan MoJun was the main culprit behind the devastation of the living souls in Yunze today.

He used to be Jiang Yebai's chief disciple, the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace's leader, and the most promising future successor of the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace. However, he killed his master and betrayed his sect, secretly unsealed the Karma Prison, built the Immaculate Palace, and became a demon lord of his time.

Nearly twenty years of bloodshed between the righteous cultivators and Qin Yan culminated in an attack on the Immaculate Palace led by Huayang Jun, Fu Changling, who managed to capture Qin Yan alive and bring him to the judgement platform, where he was dismembered to death.

This was a past that everyone in Yunze was familiar with, and no one liked to listen when the storyteller talked about it. "Sir, you should stop talking about this same old stuff and tell us something we haven't heard before," a youngster sitting under the platform finally said, appearing to be annoyed by the storyteller's noise.

The storyteller was a little embarrassed by this remark. His face reddened and he was unable to utter anything, while the youngster grinned and said, "You're not running out of things to say, are you?"

"How come I've run out of things to say?!" The storyteller was somewhat annoyed and grunted coldly, saying, "What do you know, kid? This old man knows a lot more than that."

The audience began to heckle, "Then tell us." As the crowd's excitement grew, the storyteller controlled his expression slightly, softly coughed, and drawled, "Then I will share something I have seen in the past since everyone seems to be interested. Do all of you know that Sui Yan MoJun killed himself back then?"

Hearing this finally piqued everyone's interest, and the attendant returned from fetching the spiritual food. He turned his head to glance over when he heard this and was just about to say something when the young man in black raised his hand, pressed the attendant's sleeve with his cold palm, and silently observed the old man seated there.

"Back then, Huayang Jun fought a night of fierce battle at the Immaculate Palace, captured Sui Yan MoJun alive, and brought him back to the judgement platform for a public trial. I was in the audience at the time and witnessed the trial firsthand."

"Sui Yan MoJun was brought with his Jindan completely destroyed, his Spiritual Root severed, his eyes already gouged out, and his legs were flimsy as he was dragged. It was horrifying to see him being dragged over while covered in oozing blood."

After taking a sip of tea, the storyteller continued, "Huayang Jun then went up to perform an open soul-probing in front of everyone. But then, guess what happened when Huayang Jun's finger tapped him on the forehead?"

"What happened?"

"He then exploded his Sea of Consciousness on the spot!"

Everyone gasped upon hearing this.

For cultivators, three crucial points must not be touched: the Jindan, the Spiritual Roots, and the Sea of Consciousness. If any of these three points—the Jindan, which stored spiritual energy; the Spiritual Roots, which absorbed spiritual energy; and the Sea of Consciousness, which housed the state of mind—were to be carelessly touched, it would result in excruciating pain, and the Sea of Consciousness was not only the point that hurts the most; it also served as one's very foundation. One simply could no longer cultivate if their Jindan and Spiritual Roots were gone, but if the Sea of Consciousness was gone, they were rendered completely useless.

"Is he hiding something so unseemly that he would rather blow up his Sea of Consciousness than reveal it to anyone?"

"Did Huayang Jun manage to find out anything in time?"

"Sui Yan MoJun had lost his Sea of Consciousness, so didn't that mean he had become a complete imbecile as a result? Yet he was still capable of killing himself?"

"It will take a while before the Sea of Consciousness entirely disintegrates after it self-explodes. It seems that Sui Yan MoJun didn't live for very long after self-exploding his Sea of Consciousness."

...

There were several questions from the crowd. The young man in black lowered his gaze, and the hand he had placed on the table began to tremble gently.

The storyteller shook his head as he listened to the questions and said, "What you all are asking, I don't know. This old man guessed that Huayang Jun probably knew something. Because at that time, when Sui Yan MoJun was lying on the ground, Huayang Jun stared at him and appeared shocked. I think he said something... I couldn't make out what he said, but I saw Sui Yan MoJun sit up, stick his hand into his heart, pull something out, hold it, then squeeze his hand, and it was gone. The thing scattered, and Sui Yan MoJun collapsed with a smile and died on the spot. The subsequent 'punishment by hacking' was merely a formality and was only carried out for show."

"What exactly did he pull out, then?"

Everyone was intrigued, and the storyteller shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

After a brief moment of discussion, a youngster's voice hesitantly rang out, "Did Sui Yan MoJun cultivate the Emotionless Path during his early years in the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace?"

Everyone had a sharp memory jolt after hearing this.

Those who cultivate the Emotionless Path were said to have a Root of Love that they would pluck out once they had attained its highest level. After this point, they would become supremely emotionless, devoid of desire, and unmoved by anything.

As though they had pried into some secret that shouldn't have been known, no one dared to speak.

"I've heard that in earlier years, both Huayang Jun and Sui Yan MoJun were the pride of Yunze. That year, when the battle was held at the Junzi Platform and Sui Yan MoJun was not there, Huayang Jun even invited him to fight at the Reincarnation Bridge."

"Did Sui Yan MoJun show up?"

The crowd reasoned that this should be unknown to anyone.

"He did." When everyone assumed that nobody could answer, the shopkeeper, who had been using his abacus to tally at the counter, broke out laughing and raised his hand to point to a long bridge in the distance outside the window. "It happened to be raining like hell those days. So for seven days he stood there holding an umbrella, but Huayang Jun never even showed up. He didn't leave until someone from the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace came. Oh, and he even left his umbrella with me before leaving," said the shopkeeper with a sigh.

Fiddling with his abacus, he murmured, "In earlier years, he was actually quite a nice person. How come he couldn't think straight and did so many stupid things?"

There was a lot of commotion in the tavern when these words were spoken, with some people showing sympathy and others ridiculing. The attendant was perplexed for a moment, but then he looked at the young man in black with a sudden realisation. "Gongzi, you..."

No words were uttered by the young man in black. He lifted his long, slender finger and rested it on his lips while flashing his usual gentle, suave smile, suppressing a hint of pleading in his eyes, and softly "shushing".

The attendant was at a loss for words. The young man feebly picked up a wine cup from the side and poured himself a cup of warm wine. He seemed to muster enough courage after finishing the last sip to stand up and approach the shopkeeper slowly, lifting his face, which was a bit thin in its paleness, with a set of peach blossom eyes that were inherently charming, weary, and gentle, spreading his fair palm, and saying calmly and politely while smiling at the shopkeeper, "Excuse me, umbrella."

The shopkeeper was in a stupor as he stared at the young man. He did not respond, but the cupboard behind him abruptly opened, and from among the many umbrellas, a sixty-four-rib black bamboo oil-paper umbrella with paintings of rippling reeds flew out and landed smoothly in the young man's hand.

The young man lowered his gaze and cast a quick glance over the old stains on the umbrella that were impossible to erase after the heavy rain. After a moment's pause, he turned around with the umbrella in his hand, proceeded to the door, and opened it in full view of everyone.

Snow flurries were thickly falling outdoors at that time, and the young man was holding up an umbrella as he walked, his wide sleeves flapping in the wind with the reeds on the umbrella rippling and flickering.

As he made his way towards the Reincarnation Bridge, someone behind him exclaimed, "Isn't that... isn't that Huayang Jun?!"

"What is he doing here?"

What are you doing here?

Huayang ZhenJun, Fu Changling, held a paper umbrella while gazing at the far-off long bridge that was covered with snow and frost stains.

It felt as though he could still see Qin Yan waiting for him quietly back then, clad in white with a jade guan, a long sword hanging from his waist, and holding a sixty-four-rib black bamboo umbrella.

In actuality, he had little opportunity to interact with Qin Yan throughout his life. Up until the final meeting, when he died in front of him, every time they encountered one another, it was a matter of life and death.

The lights went out when the person died, and all past grudges slowly melted away, refining that person's image through time, day by day, eventually evolving into an unforgettable cinnabar in his heart and an unattainable white moon in his eyes—extreme and intense, inflicting a superficial but lasting wound in his heart.

He himself had no idea why he had come here at this point in time.

Yet when he clearly outlined Qin Yan's appearance waiting on the bridge, he suddenly understood the significance of his journey of thousands of miles to get here when he realised his end was drawing near.

This unfulfilled life-and-death engagement was why he had come here.

Qin Yan, Sui Yan MoJun, who had caused bloodbaths in the immortal realm of Yunze, was hacked to death on the judgement platform in the twelfth month of the year of Guichou. To everyone's astonishment, even though Qin Yan was dead, the demon cultivators weren't yet finished, defying expectations that Yunze would resume its former prosperity after his death.

It was a fairly peaceful year following Qin Yan's death.

Three years after Qin Yan's death, Yunze was in upheaval.

When the spiritual energy was depleted and everything withered five years after Qin Yan's death, Huayang Jun, Fu Changling used his own spiritual power to replenish Yunze's energy channels.

Ten years after Qin Yan's death, at the end of winter in the year of Guihai, Fu Changling breathed his last at the Reincarnation Bridge.

After this point in time, Yunze ceased to exist.

...❦❧❦❧❦❧❦❧❦❧❦❦❧❦...

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***