Over three thousand years ago, the iron cavalry of the Great Qin Dynasty swept across the land.
The Emperor, obsessed with the pursuit of immortality, scoured the land seeking a way to transcend the limitations of mortal existence. Over time, he discovered mysterious realms known as Blessed Lands and Heavenly Realms. Within them, he saw ultimate cultivation methods, acquired powerful secret treasures, and tamed mythical creatures.
Holding these powers in his hands, Qin Shi Huang conquered the Eight Deserts and Six Directions, unified the territory under a single banner, and established the Great Qin Ancestral Court.
From that day forward, everything under the sky belonged to Qin, and every land in the Four Seas and Eight Deserts became ancestral territory.
After practicing secret techniques, the Emperor achieved immortality. Even after a thousand years, his body remained youthful and vigorous, like a man in his prime.
For over two thousand years, he personally presided over the Ancestral Court.
Horse-drawn carriages traveled on standardized railway tracks. A unified written language spread throughout the empire. Technology, machinery, and crafts developed at an astonishing pace, eventually ushering civilization into the industrial age.
At the same time, ordinary people can also access these mysterious worlds.
They may practice secret martial arts, possess mystical creatures, and pursue powers that once existed only in legends.
Technology and mysticism have developed in parallel.
Human civilization entered an era far beyond anything their ancestors could have imagined, while the Emperor was revered worldwide as the Royal Ancestor.
Then, over a thousand years ago, everything changed.
A strange, mysterious world suddenly appeared in the sky.
It resembled a colossal celestial palace suspended above the world, its vast shadow seemingly capable of swallowing the entire sky. Countless supernatural phenomena appeared around it, as if immortal gods were hiding somewhere within.
Soon after, strange changes began to occur throughout the Sacred Lands.
The sun disappeared from the sky.
The stars gradually disappeared from the night sky.
Day and night became indistinguishable. The four seasons lost their order. Trees withered, crops failed, and countless creatures began to die.
Emperor Huangzu personally led a million elite cavalrymen of the Great Qin—each a master of cultivation—into the mystical world.
They marched against the very sky.
The battle shook the heavens and the earth.
Dark clouds swirled, fierce storms raged, and the sounds of blood echoed across the sky. For ten consecutive days, torrential rains of blood poured down upon the Sacred Land.
And then, finally, the world became clear again.
The mystical realm in the sky has vanished.
The sun and moon have returned.
The world has recovered.
But the Imperial Ancestor and the million Great Qin soldiers who had followed him into battle never returned.
Not a single one was ever seen again.
Without the Imperial Ancestor, chaos consumed the world.
Warlords rose everywhere, the Ancestral Court collapsed, and the realm descended into more than two centuries of conflict.
Eventually, peace returned.
The Ten Heavenly Kings rebuilt the Ancestral Court and became its first generation of Elders.
From that point onward, there would never again be an emperor.
There was only the Grand Master of the Ancestral Court and the ten Elders who possessed the authority to elect the next Grand Master.
"Awakening Innate Secret Talent..."
"Cheerleader's Soul."
Ethan Carter stood completely frozen.
For several long seconds, his mind went blank.
Ever since becoming a cultivator, Ethan had imagined countless times what kind of Innate Talent he would awaken when he entered a hidden realm during his eighteenth-year coming-of-age ceremony.
For a cultivator, one's Innate Talent could influence the course of their entire life.
Naturally, Ethan had fantasized about awakening one of the legendary supreme talents.
Something like Peerless Dao Body, Heavenly Meridian Sword Bones, or Ten Directions Martial Soul.
Of course, he understood that such fantasies were unlikely to become reality.
The probability of awakening a Peerless Innate Talent was said to be less than one in a hundred million. Some Peerless Talents might have only one or two possessors in the entire world at any given time.
Innate Talents were divided into five known grades:
Common.
Rare.
Exceptional.
Unique.
Peerless.
Common was the lowest.
Peerless was the highest.
The process of awakening an Innate Talent wasn't particularly complicated.
Once someone reached eighteen years of age and successfully reached the introductory stage of a Secret Art, they could enter a hidden realm for the first time.
Upon sensing the existence of Origin Energy, they would naturally enter a state of resonance between humanity and heaven, awakening their Origin Energy Talent.
Ethan had imagined countless possibilities.
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But never—not even once—had he imagined awakening something with a name like this.
Cheerleader's Soul?
Just hearing the name was enough to tell him that this talent probably provided no direct enhancement to the cultivation of Secret Arts or the execution of Secret Techniques.
It sounded more like an ability designed to inspire morale.
In other words...
A support-type talent.
And this was an era where personal strength stood above almost everything else.
People admired the strong.
More importantly, anyone who wished to survive inside the hidden realms needed enough personal combat power to protect themselves.
No matter how powerful a support talent might be, its owner would ultimately have to rely on others.
Their survival would depend on someone else's strength.
That was not a future Ethan could accept.
"Even if I've awakened a support-type Innate Talent, so what? Even without a talent that directly strengthens me, I can still cultivate my Secret Arts to the highest level and close the gap between us."
Ethan's expression gradually calmed.
"I can still command top-tier Mystic Spirits."
"And I can still fight those so-called genius cultivators on equal footing."
Instead of wasting time feeling sorry for himself, Ethan focused his attention inward and examined the talent he had just awakened.
Name: Ethan Carter
Cultivator: Level 1
Origin Energy: 1
Innate Talent: Cheerleader's Soul (Secret)
Secret Art: Longevity Art — Level 1 (Common)
Secret Technique: None
Mystic Spirit: Five-Red Hound — Level 1 (Common)
The laws within hidden realms differed from those of the outside world.
Inside a hidden realm, cultivators who practiced Secret Arts could perceive their own condition internally and obtain clear information about their cultivation.
As a result, almost every cultivator possessed an accurate understanding of their current level of power.
Ethan had only just entered the hidden realm and completed his awakening.
The Longevity Art he had practiced beforehand was merely a Common-grade Secret Art available to practically everyone.
After awakening, he possessed only a single point of Origin Energy.
That was the starting point for the overwhelming majority of cultivators.
But when Ethan noticed the word displayed beside his Innate Talent, his eyes immediately brightened.
Secret.
For a moment, excitement surged through him.
Perhaps Cheerleader's Soul was merely a support talent, but if it somehow belonged to the Peerless grade, then its value could still be extraordinary.
Then Ethan looked more carefully.
The excitement on his face slowly turned into confusion.
There were supposed to be only five recognized grades:
Common → Rare → Exceptional → Unique → Peerless.
There was no such thing as a Secret grade.
If anything, the name almost sounded like some counterfeit version of Peerless.
"There's even a knockoff version of Innate Talents?"
Ethan frowned.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
He concentrated harder, attempting to extract more information about his newly awakened talent.
Cheerleader's Soul — Secret
Words of praise overflow from the heart, awakening the hidden potential of life and releasing the restraints upon the soul.
Those who receive your praise may become invigorated in both mind and spirit, entering a state in which they feel almost divinely empowered.
The more magnificent the praise and the more directly the words resonate with the target's true nature, the greater the effect.
Ethan's confusion only deepened.
He had never heard of the Secret grade before.
Based purely on the description, however, Cheerleader's Soul seemed relatively close to what he had originally guessed.
It was an ability capable of raising morale or stimulating fighting spirit.
Apparently, he could trigger its effects through words—or perhaps even through certain actions beyond simple speech.
And...
The more aggressively he praised someone, the stronger the effect became.
Ethan wasn't sure how different that was from a charismatic commander giving an inspiring speech to his soldiers.
He would have to test it before he could determine exactly how useful the talent was.
"Even if I've never heard of the Secret grade before, this definitely doesn't look like an ordinary talent."
Ethan suppressed the excitement gradually building in his chest.
"If it's so rare that I've never even heard of it... maybe it's actually rarer than Peerless."
"If that's true, then even as a support talent, its effects shouldn't be comparable to ordinary support abilities."
With that thought, Ethan finally began examining his surroundings, searching for something—or someone—on which he could test Cheerleader's Soul.
He was standing inside a barren valley.
Not a single blade of grass grew from the cracked earth.
Instead, the entire valley was littered with strangely shaped white bones, making the place resemble an enormous burial pit.
Known hidden realms were currently divided into two major categories:
Heavenly Domains and Blessed Lands.
Heavenly Domains were high-level hidden realms.
Unless someone reached a sufficiently high cultivation level, entering one was simply impossible. Many cultivators would live their entire lives without ever setting foot inside a Heavenly Domain.
Blessed Lands had far fewer restrictions.
Once a human reached eighteen years of age, they could enter one.
Anyone younger than eighteen couldn't even perceive its existence.
A Blessed Land could be directly in front of them, yet they would see nothing.
Even if another person grabbed their hand and attempted to pull them inside, they wouldn't be able to enter.
If the entrance existed within a mountain, for example, an adult cultivator could simply walk through the mountain wall and disappear into the Blessed Land.
A seventeen-year-old attempting to follow would merely slam face-first into solid rock.
There was another important difference between the hidden realms and the outside world.
Cultivating Secret Arts outside could strengthen the body and mind to a certain extent, but because the outside world contained no Origin Energy, cultivators couldn't accumulate Origin Energy or truly strengthen their bodies through cultivation.
Only after entering a hidden realm and absorbing Origin Energy could someone awaken an Innate Talent and truly step onto the path of cultivation.
Each sacred land seems to be a vast world of its own.
Even now, humanity has not fully explored any island.
When someone first sets foot in the Holy Land, their destination is entirely random.
No one can control where they appear.
Fortunately, newcomers are often led to lands with relatively low-level Mystic Spirits.
No one knows whether some mysterious force deliberately orchestrated this or if it is simply an inherent law governing the esoteric realms.
Ethan had no idea where he was.
Before venturing into the sacred land known as Binh Do Mountain, he conducted thorough research and made the most meticulous preparations possible.
But he still couldn't recognize the valley.
The skeletons lying around him made things even stranger.
Some of the skeletons are even larger than dinosaur skeletons.
Some are even thinner than toothpicks.
Their shapes are incredibly diverse, clearly indicating that they belong to many different species.
Ethan was still watching them when suddenly something moved between the two piles of bones.
His eyes immediately fixed on it.
At first glance, it looks like a giant polar bear.
But when Ethan looked closely, he realized it wasn't a bear.
It's a rabbit.
A giant rabbit, covered from head to toe in snow-white fur, its body nearly as large as a polar bear.
However, calling it a rabbit isn't entirely accurate.
Its body proportions are completely different from those of a normal rabbit.
Its head was unusually large in proportion to its body, and instead of supporting itself on all fours, it sat upright with its two front legs lifted off the ground, much like a human.
With its soft body, oversized round head, and long ears, it looks almost like a talking rabbit from a cartoon.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The sound was coming from the rabbit.
For a moment, Ethan wondered if the giant creature was eating carrots.
As he watched, the giant rabbit suddenly turned its head towards him.
It really does have a human-like face.
Its round head, long, soft fur, and big, round eyes make it look so adorable it's almost comical.
But Ethan didn't find that cute at all.
Because between its gleaming white teeth and the snow-white fur surrounding its mouth...
There is blood.
Fresh blood, dark red.
One front paw gripped a huge, blood-stained butcher's knife.
The other person was holding a half-eaten piece of spine, still covered with chunks of meat and streaks of blood.
Its blood-red eyes stared intently at Ethan.
Despite possessing a face so innocent it could melt someone's heart, the rabbit has an unmistakable mischievous expression.
And as Ethan stared at it, he couldn't shake the feeling that every inch of the creature's enormous body was emanating a pungent, deadly smell of blood.