Chapter 1: Heavenly Mandate

Cloud-Chasing Terrace, Gengchen Immortal Sect—the most sacred summit in the Cultivation World.

The heavens stirred, and the sky darkened.

Clouds piled upon one another, roiling with a weight that seemed to press down on the world. A strange, dim crimson glow seeped from their depths. Thunder rumbled now and then, as though Heaven itself were warning the mortal world of the disaster about to descend.

A silver-white figure stood motionless atop the terrace, quietly watching the turbulent sky.

In moments, the gathering clouds had become a vast sea, blotting out the sun. Something seemed to swim through them, churning the mass into a vortex. Red lightning flashed in its depths, staining nearly half the heavens and earth crimson. A crushing dread settled over every heart.

The Heavenly Dao Barrier was about to shatter. Beyond it, the evil ghost sealed away for ten thousand years was gathering an endless killing intent. A heavy, deathly aura would soon sweep over the land and devour it.

This was a catastrophe the Mortal Realm could not escape.

A messenger keeping watch beside Cloud-Chasing Terrace reminded him, “Immortal Lord, the barrier won’t hold much longer.”

“Mm.”

Shen Yueshan answered mildly, his dark eyes fixed on the sky without a ripple. A frigid wind, seething with killing intent, whipped up the hem of his robes and revealed the pale, slender hand at his side. A bright red cord circled his wrist, tied to a silver bell that chimed softly in the wind.

He asked, “Does Huaiyi know about today’s matter?”

The messenger lowered his head. “Immortal Chief Qin will handle the aftermath once Your Reverence has finished repairing the barrier.”

So Qin Huaiyi had known.

Shen Yueshan lowered his long lashes and smiled. There was relief in it, and bitterness. For a moment, he couldn’t tell what he felt. Then the wind swept over him, and he suddenly felt cold to the bone.

Qin Huaiyi was the junior brother he had raised himself. Shen Yueshan had feared his death would grieve the young man, and had planned to leave a few last words with the messenger. He hadn’t expected to be so presumptuous.

After a moment’s silence, he murmured, “Then that’s for the best.”

At least he wouldn’t leave with regrets.

The messenger dared not answer. He only raised his bowed head a fraction to steal a glance at the Immortal Venerable in white, standing in the wind.

The white-robed Immortal Venerable had features as exquisite as a painting. Tall and slender atop Cloud-Chasing Terrace, he seemed to stand among the clouds. His eyes rested placidly on the mortal world, so calm they held a hint of loneliness. His moon-silver sleeves swayed in the breeze like delicate butterflies, lending him the air of a god who had descended into the human realm.

Or perhaps he was a god himself.

A god who would save the mortal world.

The heavens shifted unpredictably, and the wind grew sharper.

While there was still time, Shen Yueshan looked back. Reflected in his eyes were the lush, picturesque grounds of Gengchen Immortal Sect, stretching for miles. He wanted to see once more the place where he had cultivated for nearly a thousand years.

Memories of the past rose before him like scenes from a dream.

When he was eight, his Grandmaster, Immortal Venerable Yuli, had personally left seclusion and entered the mortal world to bring him to Gengchen Immortal Sect. For the thousand years that followed, he cultivated day and night, setting foot beyond the sect’s gates only a handful of times.

Everything had been for the sake of a “Heavenly Mandate” his Grandmaster had divined.

The mandate foretold that an evil ghost from beyond the Heavenly Domain would crawl out of the Endless Abyss, shatter the Heavenly Dao Barrier, and bring endless calamity to all living beings.

It also pointed to him as the one and only variable capable of saving the mortal world.

So his Grandmaster had used half his cultivation and spread his divine sense across the Cultivation World to find him, bringing him back the moment he did.

Perhaps it was the will of fate, the hope of the Heavenly Dao.

His path of cultivation had been free of obstacles. At just a hundred years old, he had defeated the greatest swordsman in the land at the Tianfu Tournament, claimed the championship, and taken the top spot on the Tianfu Rankings. His title was Immortal Lord Wuwang.

In the eyes of the world, he was Heaven’s favored son.

Shen Yueshan knew that exceptional talent came at a price.

The price was having no say in his own life.

Everyone around him had told him he must take responsibility for all living beings, simply because the Heavenly Dao had assigned him that fate long ago.

He could no longer tell whether the Heavenly Dao was merciful or cruel.

It had granted him unparalleled talent, but every movement drew in spiritual energy until his meridians ached as if they were splitting. He had to practice sword forms and formations day after day, and never miss his medicinal springs at dawn and dusk. For the mortal world. For this day, when he would repair the barrier. He could never stop.

Even so, he had never complained.

It was just…

Shen Yueshan lowered his eyes.

Some things still hurt, even when you had understood the ending long ago.

He had come into the world alone, and he would leave it alone.

A peal of thunder shattered the heavy silence. Shen Yueshan came to himself and looked toward the swelling vortex of clouds and the deathly aura gathering within it.

The evil ghost was about to emerge.

He sighed and said to the messenger, “When you return, tell Grandmaster this: from now on, Shen Yueshan owes Immortal Venerable Yuli nothing. He owes Gengchen Immortal Sect nothing, and he owes no one anything. There’s no need to worry about me.”

The messenger fell silent for a moment, then stepped back and bowed deeply. “Take care, Immortal Lord.”

Shen Yueshan nodded faintly, a slight smile at his lips. “I’ll take your well wishes.” With a flick of his sleeve, he sent a gentle breeze sweeping the messenger down to the foot of the mountain, dozens of feet away.

Thunder rumbled through the clouds. The Heavenly Dao Barrier was on the verge of collapse, and the clouds gathered ever thicker, countless streaks of crimson pressing toward the vortex’s nearly black center.

Shen Yueshan leaped from Cloud-Chasing Terrace and plunged into the clouds.

The deeper he traveled into the vortex, the thicker the mist became, and the heavier the killing intent. Tiny bolts of lightning clung to the clouds on all sides, faint as starlight and densely packed. A single careless touch would leave his skin tingling and numb.

Before long, Shen Yueshan passed through the vortex and reached the edge of the Heavenly Dao Barrier. He looked up and saw a jagged crack running through it.

The sky resembled a shattered glazed mirror. Shards drifted out through the fissure, floating nearby like icy crystals and gleaming with a frigid light. Countless strands of resentment fought to squeeze through the break, coalescing into thick, ink-black clouds.

Beyond the barrier lay nothing but Primordial Chaos and darkness.

It was the source of all these strange signs.

The Heavenly Dao Barrier was about to collapse. It had to be repaired at once.

Shen Yueshan hovered in midair, studying the endless, dark boundary. Then he drew closer and pressed his palm to the crack, sensing the damage and reinforcing the barrier. His strength was meager, but he could still hold the evil ghost back for another half hour.

From within the Primordial Chaos beyond the crack, it seemed that a gaze had turned toward him, sizing him up.

Shen Yueshan’s expression did not change. The Heavenly Mandate his Grandmaster had divined with the Heavenly Divination Technique had foretold: a heavenly calamity, turmoil in Primordial Chaos, Shenyuan breaking into the world, and catastrophe for the Mortal Realm.

The gaze beyond the Primordial Chaos likely belonged to the evil ghost Shenyuan, the one whose arrival would bring calamity to all living beings. Born of Primordial Chaos, he was a walking disaster, a scourge to both ghosts and gods.

The cold gaze from the void fixed on Shen Yueshan. He neither evaded it nor flinched. “Your name is Shenyuan. I’ve heard much about you.”

That prophecy had followed him for more than a thousand years. Because of it, he had cultivated so hard for a thousand years. This was the only time he had ever met Shenyuan, and it would likely be their last. He supposed he ought to offer a greeting.

As soon as he finished speaking, the clouds around them rolled slowly, and thunder rumbled again and again.

From beyond the boundary of the Primordial Chaos came the evil ghost’s cold, contemptuous voice. “You can’t stop me.”

Shen Yueshan smiled and withdrew the hand he had used to reinforce the barrier. In an instant, the silver bell tied to the red cord around his wrist transformed into a jade-white sword and dropped into his palm.

He wrapped his other hand around the blade. His slender fingers were flawless and clearly defined as he gripped the sword and slowly drew his palm upward, letting the blade slice through it until blood coated its length.

“You never know,” Shen Yueshan said, lowering his eyes as though the matter were of little importance. “You have to try.”

Spiritual energy surged through the sword. Its surface glimmered with white light, rising toward the heavens as if it could cleanse every stain in the mortal world. Shen Yueshan’s lips, meanwhile, grew paler and paler.

The Heavenly Dao Barrier was vast and intricate. No single person could repair it alone. His talent, insight, spiritual energy, and cultivation had all been given to him for this moment.

He would burn away everything and offer himself to Heaven, using his soul to mend the barrier.

The evil ghost’s low, shadowy voice rang out from within the Primordial Chaos. “A mere boundary could never bar my way. You can give up everything to defend it, and it will still be futile. I will overturn the land!”

“I know.” Shen Yueshan smiled. “That’s why there’s one more thing I have to do before I die.”

He paused, lifting his long lashes. His casual gaze turned cold, and the faint smile on his face took on a razor-sharp edge in the swordlight.

“Kill you, so you can’t cause trouble again.”

*

Black clouds had already covered the plains. The great sects and clans of the Cultivation World stood ready for battle, their protective barriers shining like stars beneath the oppressive sky.

Everyone braced for the coming calamity. The leaders of the various sects looked up at the heavens, trying to glimpse the change hidden within the swirling vortex of clouds.

The clouds surged like waves.

After a long while, a beam of white light shot up from the vortex. It wavered several times, then burst apart, spreading like ripples and colliding with the clouds wrapped in thick Ghost Qi. In moments, it shattered them to dust.

In the blink of an eye, the clouds parted and the sun appeared.

The world brightened again. The force that had threatened to destroy everything seemed almost like a dream.

A little later, snow began to fall across the silent world.

Snow covered every corner of the Cultivation World. The Sect Masters and elders of the various sects and clans finally let out the breath they had been holding, gazing at the restored sky with complicated expressions.

The cultivators felt spiritual energy fill the world the instant the snow began to fall. They hurried to sit and meditate, absorbing the bounty it brought.

Snowflakes brushed their faces on the breeze, like the compassionate hand of a god. They were cold, yet tender beyond words, and the spiritual energy they carried nourished the land.

The catastrophe that had seemed inevitable was over.

At that very moment, the name of Immortal Venerable Wuwang—the name that had shone like a brilliant lamp atop the Long Bamboo Stele for hundreds of years—began to fade.

News spread throughout the Cultivation World on the wind.

Immortal Venerable Wuwang of Gengchen Immortal Sect had sacrificed his soul to save all living beings and returned to the earth.

He had fallen.