Prologue
Prologue, Past Life
In the land of the human world’s spirit veins, spiritual qi had gathered for thousands of years.
And at the very center of the spirit vein core stood a grand hall called the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
It was said that powerful cultivators of the cultivation world had assembled dozens of immortal artifacts imbued with immortal power in this Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, gathering spiritual energy and seeking the Dao for all the realms of Donghuan. Beneath the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall lay the deepest spirit vein foundation in the entire cultivation world today, and for thousands of miles around, all one could feel was the surging spiritual qi radiating outward from it.
And at this very moment, countless powerful cultivators had gathered outside the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, all of them assembled here, drawing repeated glances from the many cultivators nearby.
The cultivation world had not seen so many powerful cultivators gathered together for a very long time. As far as the eye could see, their pressure alone was enough to make everyone feel breathless.
“Why have so many powerful cultivators come?”
“Isn’t it all to suppress that ghost cultivator, so he doesn’t escape?”
“Wasn’t it fine to keep that ghost cultivator pinned under the Sword Tomb? Why bring him to the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, and dirty the spiritual qi here?”
“You don’t get it, do you? The spirit-gathering effect of immortal artifacts can kill ten thousand demons and monsters.” A cultivator explained, “That ghost cultivator is a hidden danger. Now that the Immortal-Quest Platform is about to be completed, using a sentient immortal artifact as its foundation to execute that cruel ghost cultivator will uphold orthodoxy and restore the proper path.”
“That ghost cultivator is here.”
Voices came from afar. The cultivators who had been discussing looked up and saw a cage escorted slowly over by powerful cultivators.
Inside the huge prison cage forged from thousand-year meteor iron was only one broken figure. That figure was neither fully human nor ghost, with mortal flesh and white bone existing in eerie coexistence, and it was sealed layer upon layer by talismans, completely bound within the cage’s array formation.
Only then did everyone clearly see what was in the cage.
The figure sprawled on the ground had bluish-white skin, and whether human or ghost was unknown. The end of his body, covered by talisman arrays, was a pair of lower legs already reduced to white bone. On those legs was pinned a cold-white snow sword, which pierced clean through the leg bones and suppressed him within the cage.
“What is that?”
“A sword from Tianxu Sword Sect, and also the sword of that ghost cultivator’s senior brother.”
“Don’t even mention it. I heard he killed his senior brother, then ate him too.”
Everyone looked toward the open gates of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall. On the lofty immortal platform inside, spiritual qi surged violently, faintly forming the shape of an immortal soul. Around the hall stood countless Soul-Calming Bells, all of them apparently meant to suppress the ghost cultivator beneath the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, who had brought disaster to the cultivation world.
No one now knew this ghost cultivator’s name. It was said that a thousand years ago, he had originally been a wandering soul in the Donghuan cultivation world born with an innately baleful fate. Tianxu Sword Sect had taken him in and raised him, only for him to prove a faithless, vicious wretch. He cultivated the cruel Spirit-Devouring Art, devoured living souls, slaughtered his master and ancestors, and by his own power killed dozens of high-level cultivators of Tianxu Sword Sect before fleeing to Void Land.
That incident enraged the powerful cultivators of the Donghuan cultivation world. At the time, many of them joined forces to hunt him down, intending to kill him and console the Tianxu Sword Spirits. Who would have thought that this ghost cultivator had already achieved great mastery and become effectively immortal? In the end, they could only imprison him beneath the Sword Tomb of Tianxu Sword Sect.
And now, as the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall was about to be completed to question the path to immortality, this ghost cultivator burdened with karmic debt would also become the foundation poured into the hall, forever and ever serving as the base of the Immortal-Quest Platform, never to rise again.
The constructed cage reeked of ghostly aura, and layers of dharma images pressed down around it.
Right now, that cage was slowly ascending the stone steps of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, step by step heading toward the depths below.
Silence fell all around. The powerful cultivators watched as the cage entered the hall.
The Tianxu Sword Sect elder leading the way cupped his hands toward the cultivators assisting from all sides. “That is the array core of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, and also the foundation of the Immortal-Quest Platform. We ask all fellow Daoists for your help. As long as this evil culprit is sealed into the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, he will never be able to reincarnate, and the Immortal-Quest Platform of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall can be completed.”
The old man in monk’s robes replied, “Elder Yu is too polite.”
The Tianxu Sword Sect elder nodded. “There’s no time to waste, everyone…”
But before he could finish, a clear ringing of bells sounded inside the silent hall.
Cling, cling.
The Soul-Calming Bells before the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall erupted with a piercing sound. The soul-snaring reverberation of demonic music filled the air, and the treasures in the long-silent hall, as if guided by some unseen force, actually began to spread terrifying spiritual qi despite having no master, surging toward the immortal soul on the high platform at a speed impossible to stop.
“What is going on?”
“The Soul-Calming Bells of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall have rung!”
The spiritual power of the crowd had not yet been poured in, but with the bells ringing, all the immortal artifacts in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall shakily began to operate. Lights filled the hall in layers. Under the impact of the Soul-Calming Bells, the immortal soul on the high platform shattered and collapsed. As it collapsed, cracks appeared in the thousand-year meteor iron cage holding the ghost cultivator on the hall’s high platform, and pale, bone-white ghostly aura burst out from the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
“Grand Elder, wasn’t this evil soul’s cultivation already crippled?”
The Venerable Monk’s expression changed drastically. “No… why hasn’t the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall’s Ghost-Suppressing Array activated!?”
Everyone looked toward the core array. The fused Ghost-Suppressing Array had, at some point no one noticed, become a sacrificial array.
And the one directing the array at its center was that ghost cultivator imprisoned in the core.
“He wants to escape!” Tianxu Sword Sect’s Grand Elder said quickly in desperation. “I must trouble everyone to act. Exorcise this evil soul and do not let him harm the human world.”
“Exorcise him?” The ghost cultivator did not lift his head. It seemed he had not spoken for a very long time, and his tone was especially eerie in the hall filled with ghost fire. The moment his words fell, the array centered on that massive cage suddenly came alive. Golden patterns tinged red, like blood vessels beating, thump, thump. Instantly, spiritual power surged throughout the entire hall.
The monks in their robes all retreated. The Venerable Elder at their head went pale.
The surging spiritual power flooded into the divine platform, and layers of spiritual-power shackles dropped down, sealing off every exit in the hall.
“You’re insane, insane.” The leading elder instantly realized what that evil soul was doing. “Using the soul as a guide to draw out the immortal spirit, where did you learn such a mutually destructive method?”
The great cultivators wanted to exorcise this ghost cultivator before the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall collapsed, but they never expected that in total silence he had already altered the array’s patterns, driven deep into the spirit vein below, and turned this place into a sacrificial array spanning thousands of miles.
“Tianxu Sword Sect’s array formations… I’ve long played these to death.”
The ghost cultivator raised his head. A waterfall of white hair fell down, and a pair of eyes engraved with red talismans looked at the cultivators in white robes beneath the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall. He paid no heed to the voices of the other cultivators; only the word “exorcise” filled the last scraps of his consciousness.
Exorcise him? Exorcise who?
He had waited for hundreds of years, waited for all these people to enter his domain. If they were going to descend into the eighteen layers of hell, then all of them would have to go down together with him. No one would be allowed to survive alone.
“You’re insane. If you do this, the spirit vein will collapse!” the Venerable Monk shouted.
“And what does that have to do with me?” The ghost cultivator gave a low laugh. His complexion was almost bluish-white, and only the trails of blood flowing down were strikingly beautiful. His entire body trembled with his laughter as the array pressing on him gradually shattered. “Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, Immortal-Quest Platform… filthy. So filthy.”
Bright red liquid flowed from his eyes, dripping drop by drop onto the talisman array of the cage, continuously supplying spiritual power to the formation below. The blood washed over the cage and fell onto the divine platform inside the hall, making the obscure patterns on the platform light up.
In an instant, many powerful cultivators hurriedly retreated, only to find themselves already trapped beneath the array covering the surrounding area of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
The sacrificial array was complete. The nearest powerful cultivators were trapped here, and their spiritual power and life force were rapidly devoured by the formation.
The voices of the cultivators below sounded as though blocked by deep water. The droning hum, together with the Soul-Calming Bells in the distance, became the sorrowful chorus of all the immortal artifacts within the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
The evil soul felt the restraints on his body gradually disappearing. Along with those restraints, his life was also disappearing…
He raised his head, listening to the cries of agony from all around, ignoring those voices. With difficulty, he climbed up from the cage. As he turned, the bones in his body emitted a cracking sound, but he paid them no mind. His eyes, empty and unfocused, stared behind him.
There was nothing behind him except a snow-white sword standing unbowed in the sacrificial array.
The ghost cultivator suddenly smiled and reached out, touching the sharp blade resting on his leg bone. His hand moved upward little by little, until he finally gripped the hilt.
“Senior brother, I’m about to die… this is good. Then all of you can go too.”
As the talisman array devoured the cage, the shackles that had pressed on him for nearly a thousand years turned to ash and vanished.
And his evil soul body, half human and half spirit, also began to collapse in the wind at that moment.
From a mass of sinister white bones, it turned into wisps of dark smoke and scattered away in the flood of spiritual power.
Just as he was about to vanish, the remnant souls of the immortal artifacts inside the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall seemed to sense something. The shattered remnants gathered together and rushed toward the sacrificial array at the cage’s center. The snow sword in his hand suddenly emitted a faint sword glow, then shot out in a flash. As everything collapsed, it wrapped around the evil soul’s remnant spirit.
The immortal spirit wrapped the evil soul, and the wails of the Soul-Calming Bells vanished entirely.
The ghost cultivator looked up, as if he had seen a sliver of light in the darkness.
During the Tianqi Era of the Donghuan cultivation world, the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall collapsed, the Tianxu Spirit Vein was destroyed, and countless powerful cultivators perished.
From then on, the cultivation world’s spiritual qi withered.
-*
A thousand years later, on Nanwu Mountain in the Donghuan cultivation world.
The wind and rain poured down. A black shadow streaked past, splashing mud everywhere. A pale-faced youth ran through the dense forest, fleeing in panic. His body was covered in wounds cut by branches and broken stones, and his mind was nearly consumed by the sound drawing closer through the storm.
Suddenly, the youth missed his footing and fell into a muddy water pit along the mountain path.
“What are you running for?”
The voice drew closer in an instant.
The youth’s face turned deathly pale. His hands fumbled wildly, found some gravel on the ground, hurriedly grabbed it, fearfully swinging it at the surroundings. But just as he lifted his hand, his left arm snapped with a crack and twisted behind him, brutally broken by someone.
A fierce gust of wind blew at him, flipping him over and sending him crashing down at the edge of the cliff.
At that moment, a person dressed in black slowly took shape in the wind.
“Still running?” the Black-Clad Man asked with a sneer.
The youth panted heavily. Seeming to feel the wind at the cliff’s edge, he endured the pain and shrank back a little, only to bump into a hand.
“Su Yu, a member of the Su Clan of Tianyuan City, eighteen years old, born in a yin year, yin day, and yin hour, with his three souls incomplete…” The Black-Clad Man exerted a little more force, gripping the youth by the neck and lifting him from the ground.
Rainwater splashed over the youth. His hair was in disarray. When his name was read aloud, he trembled and tried to shrink back, his unfocused eyes blank and lifeless, yet he struggled far more fiercely, though even that could not shake the hand clamped around his throat.
“…and you’re only at Qi Condensation stage? What a waste of that star-cursed fate.” Seeing this, the Black-Clad Man let out a cold laugh and lowered his head to look at the Book of Fate in his other hand. The youth’s fate was all laid out on the page before him. In just eighteen short years, he had been shunned by his family, slow-witted, extremely lacking in talent, and even blind and afflicted. “Su Clan members are such a hassle.”
“He’s dull by nature, so it’s already quite good that he was able to enter the Dao.”
Not far away, a middle-aged cultivator stepped closer by a few paces, but did not dare approach the Black-Clad Man. “Rest assured, he has already become worthless to the Su Clan. You may deal with him as you wish.”
The man lowered his head and drew the youth closer, admiring his face as it gradually reddened from suffocation, his almost appraising gaze sweeping over the youth’s features. Seemingly having failed to find what he wanted on the boy’s face, he clicked his tongue in boredom. For goods like this, it was quite something that the Su Clan had kept watch over him for so long… getting him out had taken some effort too.
That one had said:
A star-cursed fate born in a yin hour was best erased from this world forever, so that no future trouble would remain.
The moon had sunk and the sky was black. Cold wind howled between the cliffs, and the yin energy that could not be suppressed kept surging upward.
The Black-Clad Man lowered his head. The youth in his hand was already soaked through from head to toe. A living person inevitably still posed some risk.
A star-cursed fate. This should be the last one.
The youth’s face grew redder and redder. The man’s grip tightened, and his voice held not a trace of pity.
“Pitiful… you can only blame yourself for being born at the wrong time.”
“If you’re reincarnated someday, remember to choose a good family.”
Under the pouring wind and rain, the youth’s disheveled hair was blown up, and his struggling grew weaker and weaker.
The middle-aged cultivator had only taken a few steps forward when the yin wind from the bottom of the cliff forced him half a step back.
When he looked up again, he suddenly saw a figure standing on the cliff in the distance. Though it looked like a person, it was more like a wisp of ghostly soul, hanging quietly beside the youth.
That soul looked exactly like the youth who had stopped struggling by the cliff. But unlike the youth, the floating soul said nothing. The depths of his dark eyes reflected the high moon above, cold and sharpened by a few streaks of icy light.
And within that passing flash of cold brilliance, red-gold threads kept crawling up from the depths of his eyes, like the patterns woven by a spider, seemingly taking shape into some kind of special talisman mark.
What was that? A ghostly soul?!
In that brief instant, the middle-aged man felt as though he had been seen through completely by those eyes. He jolted back to his senses and quickly stepped away several paces.
“What is it?” The Black-Clad Man turned his gaze aside and loosened his grip.
At that moment, one of the youth’s thin, pale hands suddenly grabbed the Black-Clad Man’s wrist. The Black-Clad Man lowered his head, and before he could react, he saw the youth borrow that hand as leverage and break free from his restraint at once, falling heavily to the ground.
“Troublesome.” The Black-Clad Man frowned and shoved his palm forward with force. The youth, who had just run a few steps away, was struck flying by the palm force and uncontrollably plunged toward the cliff below.
The middle-aged cultivator in the distance came back to himself. When he looked again, there was no ghostly soul on the cliff edge. The youth had already been pushed down.
He let out a sigh of relief and thought that the yin wind here was a little strange. He worriedly said, “Should we go down and take a look…”
The Black-Clad Man wiped his hands and frowned. “No need.”
With only Qi Condensation stage cultivation, he could not protect his body.
Once he fell, he would be gone.