CHAPTER 1 An old friend met in memory lane.

“Master Immortal[1] Yue had promised our Old Master an explanation. Even if they would perform a soul reaving on Young Master Fu, they would find out who killed our Young Mistress.”

Outside the door came the rustling of someone speaking. That person’s voice sounded like it was submerged in water, speaking through muffled sounds in a manner not too clearly heard.

Who was talking outside?

Fu Changling slowly blinked open his eyes, feeling a little confused, as he listened to the person outside continue speaking, “Considering how arrogant and willful Young Mistress Yuemin usually is, the Old Master should have lectured her. If Young Mistress Yuemin hadn’t mocked Young Master Fu for being a mute, this incident would not have happened.”

Yuemin?

Fu Changling listened to this name, and felt familiar to it. He shook his head and pushed himself up to sit.

He’s guessing that someone had hit him unconscious.

His head hurt. His face hurt. All over his body hurt.

He inhaled and raised his hand to examine his wounds, couldn’t help feeling a little angry, but just as he wanted to open his mouth to scold someone, the moment his lips parted, he realized something.

He couldn’t speak.

He was familiar with being mute in this manner. His family, the Fu Clan, was born with an ability where all they say may come true. In order to avoid its members from creating chaos from their speech, they were all cursed to be mute before their core formation stages. Only after their core formation stage in cultivation would the curse be lifted and only then could they speak.

But he was already in his core formation stage in his eighteenth year and lifted the curse, so why…

Something’s not right!

Fu Changling suddenly realized; why was he still alive? Hadn’t he died at the Bridge of Reincarnation?

As he thought until this point, he immediately surveyed his surroundings and realized that he was situated in a rundown, dilapidated room. There wasn’t even a bed in this room. As the Leader of an Immortal Alliance, he had lived a comfortable life for years on end. Since when had he ever had to live in a place as foul as this before?

Thankfully, the rundown and dilapidated room contained a copper mirror. He frantically ran up to the copper mirror to look at himself.

In the mirror stood a young version of himself—soft and gentle features that looked like an incredibly lovable infant, and a smile that held the splendour light of spring from the moon of the month of March—was incredibly good-looking.

And afterwards, he heard, once more, the whispering voices from the outside in their discussion. “However, isn't Master Immortal Yue just a servant of Young Master Fu’s family? Could he truly perform a soul reaver on Young Master Fu?”

“There’s something you don’t know, then,” the person outside whispered. “Master Immortal Yue was Madam Fu’s wedding dowry, while Eldest Young Master Fu was Fu Zhenjun’s bastard whom he’d taken home before he even married Madam Fu. Madam Fu would have given anything to see him dead.”

Master Immortal Yue, Yuemin, the Curse of Silence…

As these series of words made it into Fu Changling’s ears, he gradually found their source from his memories, and finally realized that—

This was forty years ago!

Forty years ago, he was seventeen. His stepmother, Yue Sihua made arrangements for him to pursue her servant, Yue Mingsi to White Water Town to exorcise evil spirits.

White Water Town was one of the territories of the Fu Clan. In the last two years, almost a hundred people have gone missing. The Immortal Sects seldom meddled in such matters until a disciple from one of a side branch of the Fu Clan had gone missing here, only the Fu Clan took initiative.

This was originally not one of Fu Changling’s duties, but Yue Sihua took the chance to send him off while his father was away, claiming it as a campaign to educate him. After Fu Changling arrived in White Water Town only did he know that the claims of educating were false, while imperiling him was the solid truth.

They arrived in White Water Town and accommodated in the manor of the Shangguan Clan who were a native immortal sect. The Shangguan Clan had once nurtured a core formation stage cultivator named Shangguan Hong, but after an ill-fated cultivation went wrong, his damaged spiritual roots prevented him from being able to further improve his cultivation. Presently, he was no different than someone who’s resigned to fate and simply living aimlessly in life.

On the day they arrived in the manor of the Shangguan Clan, Fu Changling had an argument with the Young Mistress Yuemin. On the morning of the second day, Shangguan Yuemin died right next to him. Yue Mingsi forbade all explanations and instead decided to file a case, wanting to perform a soul reaving on him in front of an audience.

Soul reaving would require one’s spiritual consciousness. If the performer was careless and injured their spiritual consciousness, the one who the soul reaving is being performed on would lose their ability to cultivate. Yue Mingsi was obviously making use of such a trivial matter to destroy him.

Yue Mingsi never had the chance to, however. On the very same night of that day, something suspicious happened in the Shangguan Clan. Fu Changling originally wanted to use that chance to escape the manor, but in the end, upon leaving through the main gate, he had fallen into the Hidden Realm of Xuanji[2]. When he left the dimension, only then he’d heard that during the night, the guests from the Shangguan and Fu Clan—a total of two core formation stage cultivators, thirty foundation establishment stage cultivators[3], and more than a hundred common citizens—were all annihilated.

The case’s severity escalated quickly, and afterwards, when Fu Changling rose up the ranks into the Alliance Leader of the Immortal Alliance as ascending cultivator[4] and began his quest of investigating the origins of the demonic cultivators of the Avici[5], he had gone to the abandoned manor of Shangguan.

The Shangguan Clan’s manor was recognized as the earliest spot where a demonic cultivator was spotted. He had found traces of the Zhenxue Sword.

Zhenxue Sword was Qin Yan’s cultivation sword, and after that, Qin Yan allied with the demonic cultivators of the Avici.

And so, the annihilation of the Shangguan Clan was most likely done by Qin Yan.

As he thought until this point, Fu Changling couldn’t help feeling a little anxious himself.

This person, Qin Yan, was Fu Changling’s life-long nightmare.

When he was young, Qin Yan was his age, the eldest disciple of Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng, as well as the exemplar of youths in the Immortal Paths. Fu Changling’s father often compared him to Qin Yan’s overly outstanding performance, and scolded him with, “Look at Qin Yan, then look at yourself”, and everyday, it gave him nightmares. He often dreamt of watching Qin Yan achieving number one in the Immortal Path’s assessments.

After Qin Yao allied with the Avici, he assassinated his own shifu and betrayed his own sect, and became the Suiyan Mojun of the Unsullied Palace. He personally annihilated the entire Fu Clan and almost killed Fu Changling as well—the reason Fu Changling continued to have those nightmares, that even when he closed his eyes he could see Qin Yan holding a sword with his hands stained with blood.

After Fu Changling avenged his family and killed him, he thought that finally, their story came to an end. Yet, in the end, Fu Changling had watched as Qin Yan cut out his love root from his heart in front of him and crushed it to dust. It traumatized Fu Changling so much that he’s dreamt of him every night therein. Even before his death, Fu Changling had gone to the Bridge of Reincarnation and died in the only spot in this world that connected them.

As long as this person was mentioned, Fu Changling would have a headache, a heartache, and everywhere in his body would hurt.

He didn’t want to reminisce about Qin Yan, but at this moment when his little life was concerned, he was forced to.

Could he beat Qin Yan if he saw him now?

Fu Changling gave that idea a serious thought.

He recalled when he was seventeen, Qin Yan was known as the Number One Under Nascent Soul[6]. A person like Qin Yan was used to keeping a low-profile, so if life from outside the realm complimented him for being ‘under nascent soul’—taking Qin Yan’s actual capabilities into consideration, it’s feared that the fame of nascent soul cultivators was being made fun of.

Presently, Fu Changling was only a foundation establishment stage cultivator. Taking Qin Yan’s skills into consideration…. If they fought a tie in the past, then now that his cultivation levels were far more inferior… if the both of them ran into each other…

Fu Changling would not survive it.

As these words appeared in Fu Changling’s mind, he immediately jumped to his feet in a shiver before he began collecting his items.

The good luck he had in his previous life made him fall into the Hidden Realm of Xuanji at an early stage, but would he have such equally good luck in this life?

Faced before a murderer like Qin Yan, Fu Changling cared nothing for the nonsense that evolved around the walking lives of Yunze nor did he care about the energy channels in the Avici. Now, all he wanted was only one thing: to flee.

Since Yue Mingsi hasn’t begun the trial, and Qin Yan hasn’t arrived in the Shangguan Manor, he should run. Immediately. Right away. At the earliest time possible.

Huayang-Jun was an incredibly motivated man. He packed all his relics and quickly used his qi to examine his own body. After he was certain that he’d only sustained some minor physical wounds, he tapped the back of his fan to his forehead and soundlessly recited a string of words to lift the Curse of Silence. He then felt like an invisible force that was imprisoning him fades away. He coughed quietly, and after confirming that the curse had taken effect, that he could speak again, he walked towards the side of the door and raised his golden fan to the side of his lips as he quietly whispered, “Sleep!”

The two people who were speaking outside the door suddenly stopped talking and after a while, there was a thud as they fell to the ground. Fu Changling raised his hand high towards the door and felt an energy barrier sealing up the breathings of life outside the door.

It was probably Yue Mingsi’s intentions. The moment Fu Changling destroyed the barrier, Yue Mingsi would be informed.

Although a core formation stage cultivator like Yue Mingsi was a little troublesome, he would rather fight Yue Mingsi to the death instead of going against Qin Yan.

At the thought of Qin Yan, all of a sudden, Fu Changling’s motivations to run away had amplified. He quickly sketched his escape route, tore his own sleeve, bit his own finger, and drew an array on a piece of cloth. After he put on the array, he gave the main door a kick and immediately rushed outside.

He had just only rushed into the corridor when the defensive barrier of the Shangguan Manor raised an alarm. Yue Mingsi was obviously aware that he had broken his prohibition barrier, and so he engaged the main defensive barrier. A foundation establishment stage cultivator flew into the air and shouted loudly, “Fu Changling has escaped. Look for him quickly!”

One these words were said, everyone started looking for Fu Changling. There were nearly a hundred people in the Shangguan Clan, and while it’s impossible for all of them to have seen Fu Changling before, they could all recognize him by the classical robes of the Fu Clan he wore.

This is not good, said Fu Changling in his heart. He heard the sounds of people rushing from the front and rear of the corridor and leapt onto the beams on the roof. After a while, a group of guards rushed past, and following behind them was a rushing little servant. Watching that little servant, Fu Changling looked him over and when the little servant was just below him, he hung down from the beam and slapped both his hands onto the servant’s head, knocking him out and then hung him onto the beam.

The space on the beam wasn’t large, but due to the many times Fu Changling was hunted after in his last life, he had learnt how to switch his robes with someone else quickly in this small little space. He changed into the servant’s clothes and left him sprawling on the beam. Fu Changling leapt down after surveying his surroundings.

He muttered a spell that would disguise his spiritual energy and seals. Then, picking up a stick, he lowered his head and began rushing around like the other servants in the manor.

The villa had already turned into primal chaos. Foundation establishment stage cultivators flew to and fro in the air. Fu Changling gripped his stick tightly and wanted to quickly leave the villas when suddenly, from the air, a very sharp and explosive voice barked, “Everyone, stop!”

Everyone abruptly froze. Fu Changling raised his gaze slightly and saw, in midair, there was a man. That person was adorn in a blue-black sturdy robe, a tall hat in dark blue on his head, and a cream-coloured youth sat on his shoulder. That youth had a body that looked around five to six years old and he wore a cyan coloured tall hat, he had a face that looked seventeen to eighteen years old and there was white powder on his face that made him look extremely pale. His cheeks were even painted red, making him an extremely strange sight.

If one were to take a closer look, they could see that at the back of that youth, red strings were tied all around him. When he parted his lips to speak, one would also realize that his body looked like it was made of wood and that he was simply wood being put together.

It was Yue Mingsi who came.

The Yue Clan was known through their generations by their ability with puppets. Even if Yue Mingsi was only a servant, the puppets he made were incredibly similar to real humans.

Yue Mingsi looked around him and the puppet on his shoulder spoke as if this was an opera show, “Everyone, raise your heads.”

Fu Changling dare not raise his head. He only slightly raised his head as he secretly muttered an incantation of disguise.

This incantation would not be noticeable within a cluster of people, but if one were to move closer, they could feel the waves of spiritual energy radiating from it.

This thought had obviously crossed Yue Mingsi’s mind. As he scanned the people with his spiritual consciousness, with a raise of his hand, the youth from his shoulder flew out into Fu Changling’s direction, looking closely at every servant that stood by the gate. Just as he was about to reach Fu Changling, he couldn’t help quickly forming an array in his hands.

Once his puppet came close, he would lose his only chance to run free.

As Fu Changling thought of this, he realized that he could not escape without a battle against Yue Mingsi. If that is the case, why don’t he just get over with it?

With this thought in mind, of all the arrays up his sleeve, he had chosen the Earthly Fire Array. When that puppet got nearer, Fu Changling shot the array out from his palm and unhesitantly fled towards the outside!

The puppet was hit head-on by the fire and caught fire. The puppet screamed, and at the same time, Yue Mingsi shot a Royal Water Seal at the puppet. Following afterwards, a dozen cultivators went into pursuit of Fu Changling.

Arrays after arrays shot out of Fu Changling’s palms. The golden fan fell from his sleeve, blocking Yue Mingsi’s long sword the moment it pierced him. After that, Fu Changling fell backwards and the little fan was like a small dagger who drew a line across his palms. Fresh blood sprayed out and a dozen cultivators leapt into assault. Fu Changling wandered his way through the group of people as light as a feather. His actions appeared to be extremely slow, but the moment weapons wanted to land on him, they would fail to even touch him.

Yue Mingsi was angered at the sight. He raised his right hand and the puppet who had caught fire shriek loudly all of a sudden before he lunged himself at Fu Changling and bit him.

That puppet moved at an extremely fast speed. Fu Changling felt that there wasn’t much time left, and so he surveyed his surroundings to note where his blood had fallen onto. He held his palm in midair before lunging towards the puppet.

As a person and a puppet clashed, Fu Changling balled his hands into fists next to his body in preparation to attack at any time. The puppet opened its mouth wide to reveal teeth as sharp as a beast's.

The both of them drew closer; the closer they were the faster they moved. Just as the puppet was about to bite down on Fu Changling’s neck, that was the cue!

A long sword with glorious light fell from the sky and pierced through the puppet with a stab. The sword had carried an aura that Fu Changling was familiar with and the moment it fell, it blasted off everything within its ambit.

Everyone present was blown off by the sword’s aura. Fu Changling was the closest to the sword, and so he had received the most impact. He clusimy fell into a wall twice before finally hitting the ground.

He thought that he'd most likely broken a rib. An intense, searing pain rushed up to his head. His conscious faded in and out and all of a sudden, the movements of everything became slow in his eyes.

His footsteps sounded like he was walking on the road to reincarnation, every step loud and clear. Step by step he took as he slowed down and stopped before the white-jade long sword in the center of the array.

He used a posture Fu Changling was very familiar with to pull the long sword out. His white-coloured robes with patterns of cranes fluttering gracefully in the wind. The round jade that uniquely belonged to disciples of the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng swayed by his waist, reflecting the afterglow of the sun on its surface like a small stream.

Then, that person turned around to look into his direction. Facial features that looked like they were painted on had a childish and young air to them, and then there was that pair of phoenix eyes identical to those in his memory—who carried no sorrow and no joy in them.

Qin Yan!

Fu Changling’s eyes widened, and was finally certain that—

Here comes Qin Yan!