Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Prologue

In the cultivation world, three great immortal sects stood above all others: Kun Lun Sect, Qing Xu Sect, and Tai Yi Sect.

For ten thousand years, the three had joined hands to guard the mortal realm—slaying Devils, defending the Dao, and keeping Demons and ghosts from running wild.

Once every ten years, each sect sent its most outstanding young disciples to gather, spar, and compete. From that, the Immortal Sect Feng Yun Rankings were set. Anyone who made the list earned their sect’s favor, was entrusted with real responsibilities, and walked away with both fame and fortune.

This generation, Wei Qing Lan—the Kun Lun Sect Master’s personal disciple—took first place at only eighteen. People praised him as a once-in-ten-thousand-years youth genius.

Ye Xing Ci, the Tai Yi Sect Master’s personal disciple, placed second.

Only Yu Wu Chen, the Qing Xu Sect Master, stared at his own disciple, Jiang Li Sheng, and felt regret twist like a knife.

How had he been blind enough to believe this girl would one day inherit his legacy and shoulder Qing Xu Sect’s heavy burden?

Wei Qing Lan was eighteen. Ye Xing Ci was eighteen. Jiang Li Sheng was eighteen too.

Yu Wu Chen had raised her for eighteen years with his own hands—yet look at them. One was champion of the Feng Yun Rankings. One was second place. And she… she ranked three thousand from the bottom, never even brushing the list’s tail.

Back then, he’d even strutted in front of Qin Feng Xing, the Kun Lun Sect Master, and Pei Tan Yi, the Tai Yi Sect Master, boasting like a fool.

Now he’d lost every shred of face.

With Jiang Li Sheng’s barely passable ability, he counted himself lucky she didn’t get eaten the next time she went demon-hunting. These days, he had to chant “Amitabha Buddha” and burn incense, praying heaven would keep her alive.

And the worst part?

She never stopped causing trouble.

Every few days, a Peak Master or Hall Master came to complain, demanding he discipline his disciple. They warned him bluntly: if he still refused to rein her in, the thirty-six Peak Masters would unite, bring out the Founding Patriarch Token, and kick her out of the sect by force.

Could Yu Wu Chen bear that?

Hopeless or not, she was still the child he’d raised for eighteen years.

So when Jiang Li Sheng sparked another disaster—one that finally enraged everyone—Yu Wu Chen packed her up on the spot and sent her to Kun Lun Sect.

When the Peak Masters and Hall Masters stormed in, fury blazing, Yu Wu Chen stood as steady as a mountain and said, “Martial Uncles, Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, Junior Brothers, Junior Sisters—calm down, calm down. That little bastard has already been driven to Kun Lun Sect. Don’t worry. I’ve told Kun Lun Sect to discipline her strictly by their rules. If she refuses to learn and dares cause trouble again, lock her on Kun Lun Sect’s Ten-Thousand-Year Hopeless Cliff and freeze her to death.”

The moment he said it, their anger cooled—barely.

Faces still looked ugly, but in the end, no one pressed further.

Everyone knew how strict Kun Lun Sect was with its disciples. Kun Lun Sect’s Discipline Hall wasn’t for show. Kun Lun Sect was not a place where Jiang Li Sheng could run wild. If she could truly be fixed there, fine.

Besides, none of them wanted the sect master to grieve. He had only this one personal disciple. If she was kicked out, he’d have nothing.

And so the matter was smoothed over.

No one imagined it—least of all Yu Wu Chen—that Jiang Li Sheng would go on to cause an even greater disaster in Kun Lun Sect, one bigger than anything she’d managed in her previous eighteen years.

If he’d known, he would’ve cleaned house himself first.

Ten li of spring fragrance, yet the wine stays unopened; the spring wind will not cross, and you will not come.

On Qing Xu Sect’s mountain, peach blossoms like a face; on Kun Lun Sect, snow on the Primordial Sword.