Prologue [Considered Part of the Setting]

A thought, an ocean; a blink, creation and destruction.

A myriad years, a moment; an instant, eternity.

The universe is vast, countless lives struggling to survive.

The life and death of a person, the withering of a tree, the vicissitudes of mountains and seas, the birth and death of planets, the changes of the universe.

They are incomparable and incomprehensible to each other.

In the vast starry sky, countless powerful beings are also vying for the right to survive, pursuing the path to eternal life.

Countless stars form a galaxy, and in the void of this galaxy, a fairy faintly flutters, existing since ancient times, elegant and ethereal.

She wanders in the universe, and because of her existence, divine power radiates, making the starlight of this galaxy bright and dazzling.

As the fairy becomes more and more powerful, more and more cosmic dust clings to her. Slowly, the dust condenses into a mass, and with the blessing of the fairy's power, it slowly transforms into stars, joining the galaxy, revolving around the fairy, and shining brightly.

And on these new stars formed by cosmic dust, as the river of time flows, life slowly appears.

They multiply and inherit from generation to generation.

The fairy still wanders in the universe, constantly contacting other powerful beings, sometimes fighting, sometimes fleeing, sometimes confronting, sometimes forming alliances.

But all of this is unknown to the lives on the countless planets that depend on the fairy.

They are working hard to survive, working hard to reproduce, working hard to compete, and working hard to inherit.

They do not know that if one day the fairy falls, this entire galaxy will slowly turn into dust.

They do not know, so they are simple and calculating, complex and pure.

They do not know that the time of their countless generations of life is only the time it takes for the fairy to take a breath.

And around the fairy, far and near, are full of existences like the fairy; to the west, there is a huge wolf, to the east, a hideous scorpion, and to the south, a huge bear.

Further away, there are countless strange and powerful beings.

Each being is surrounded by a powerful and vibrant galaxy.

They fight each other, ally with each other, confront each other, hunt each other, and depend on each other; in this vast universe, they are staging the survival rules that belong to powerful beings like them.

But like the weak in their eyes, the strong prey on the weak!

In the more distant universe, more stars form a huge ocean.

And at the edge of the sea of stars, the light of a galaxy is already very dim.

Because the being on which this galaxy depends has already died.

In the void, a huge and ferocious beast stands with its head held high, motionless.

This was once a god so powerful as to be boundless.

Head like a lion, tail like a scorpion, neck like a dragon, limbs like a bear, wings alternately bright and dark, wings that covered the sky.

This was a powerful Flying Bear God.

His eyes still glared ferociously at the void, and his hands were still making attacking gestures.

His body was still radiating the power to support the star system with intense heat.

But his formidable vitality had already vanished.

He was already dead.

But the star system that existed because of its dependence on his power still existed.

The lives in the star system had no idea that the being they depended on had died.

And the planets beneath their feet would soon completely scatter into cosmic dust because they had lost their divine power.

They were still developing in full swing.

Some were vying for supremacy, some were learning, some were scheming against each other, some were deceiving each other...

In the starry sky not far from him, there was a huge centipede, endlessly spreading in the starry sky, surrounded by a bright and dazzling star system.

His whole body emitted a strange blue light.

The blue light was constantly eroding the Flying Bear God's star system...

Obviously, this centipede was the murderer who killed the Flying Bear God.

And his divine light was also completing the final plunder after killing his opponent.

The Flying Bear God stood quietly.

Waiting to disappear.

Waiting to be completely swallowed by the centipede.

Or waiting to be replaced or surpassed by a new god.

Flying Bear Star System, on one of the resource stars.

Earth Star!

Two factions had been fighting for more than ten thousand years.

One side believed that good intentions were fundamental. All living beings have good intentions, and as long as good intentions are guided, the world will surely be peaceful, and the world will surely become better and better.

The other side believed that evil intentions were eternal. Living beings are inherently evil, and the weak are prey to the strong. Even plants develop crowns and root systems to squeeze the living space of other plants, let alone living beings? The human world is inherently a great arena, so who is nobler than whom?

Even ants cling to life, and living beings compete and kill each other every moment. Who in this world doesn't commit countless killings? What saint can claim otherwise? From this, two major camps developed.

Their respective positions and beliefs are extremely firm.

Good and evil are irreconcilable.

However, the side of good is conducive to governance and maintaining social order.

Therefore, the side of good gradually formed the ruling power over the continent, but the side of evil has never disappeared. Moreover, it also has a huge force and has penetrated into every industry on the entire continent.

One side is orthodox, and the other is hostile, naturally becoming mortal enemies.

One side regards the other as a confidant's trouble, and the other regards the other as a life-and-death enemy. Over countless years, the two major camps have been at odds and fought to the death.

But I don't know when it started, the evil side changed its faith, and they began to believe in the Heavenly Centipede God.

And the balance of battle, from this moment on, began to slowly, slowly tilt...

A dilapidated temple.

It enshrines a statue of a god that cannot be named.

It seems to be a monster.

Its head is like a lion, its tail like a scorpion, its neck like a dragon, its limbs like a bear, and it has wings.

According to the elders, this is the ancient Flying Bear God.

No one knows what the Flying Bear God does. In all the legends, there are countless gods, but no one has ever heard of the Flying Bear God being responsible for anything.

Therefore, the Flying Bear God's incense is also extremely bleak.

Now the Flying Bear God's wings are broken, and its tail has been broken several times. Now only a lump behind its butt remains.

One of its upper limb claws is broken off, and its ears are gone.

One of its eyeballs has been gouged out.

Heavy rain is pouring down.

Seven people are sheltering in this broken temple, avoiding the heavy rain.

The temple is dilapidated. It rains heavily outside, and it drizzles inside, but at least, a little clean space can be cleared out.

Covering it with clothes or something is enough to survive.

The rainwater flowing down from the seven people's backs merges into the stream, carrying a bright red color.

All seven people are seriously injured.

No wonder they are curled up in this small temple. With such heavy rain and such serious injuries, traveling in the rain, I am afraid they will die before long.

The atmosphere is very solemn.

"This mission, it makes me feel blocked in my heart. I really want to kill all the bastards of the Sole True Sect..."

One person sighed and broke the silence: "Seventeen thousand people! Two small towns, including martial artists and ordinary people, none of them survived. When I saw the corpses all over the ground, I collapsed on the spot."

The others were silent.

But an atmosphere of oppression spread silently.

After a long while, someone said in a hoarse voice, "The Sole True Sect has done too many outrageous things. Just the situations after the massacres we've witnessed firsthand have been four times. And then there are the blood debts from those massacres we've only heard about; but the Sole True Sect has existed for tens of thousands of years, and no one has been able to eradicate them."

"This time, it's said that our mole was discovered by them, so they massacred villages and towns to vent their anger and demonstrate. Sigh... damn it! What does the discovery of a mole have to do with ordinary people? These Sole True Sect guys are truly inhuman!"

"Sigh, which time have they rooted out our mole without massacring the villages and civilians?" The others sighed.

"This is their method. If a mole is found, the mole's hometown will inevitably be razed to the ground. If they don't have a home, they will slaughter two towns at random to deter us. They have never cared about innocence. What the Sole True Sect cares about is that they themselves are not threatened. To this end, they don't care about killing everyone in the world."

"It's a pity that we can't find their headquarters, otherwise... sigh!"

A sigh. Everyone's mood dropped.

No one can find the headquarters of the Sole True Sect. The Guardians don't know how many experts have been sacrificed and how many years of effort have been made, but there has been no effect.

And now, as the Sole True Sect becomes more and more powerful, this hope is becoming more and more distant.

Then no one spoke, and the atmosphere was as oppressive as the clouds in the sky during a rainstorm.

A few sighs.

Depressed and suffocating.

After a long time, it seemed to deliberately break this uncomfortable atmosphere.

"Boss, after this mission, can we rest for a while... it hurts so much."

One of them covered his chest and said, "I want to take a vacation."

"Heh... single dog, do you want to take a vacation? Do you want to go back for a blind date? I heard your family sent you a letter a few days ago?"

The boss sneered, "Old Fourth, don't have too many fantasies about life. Maybe your blind date is as fat as a pig, as stupid as a donkey, as short as a jar, and as ugly as you."

The other five twitched.

They laughed, but the laughter triggered their wounds, causing them to twitch in pain.

"Boss, your mouth really lives up to your nickname, Drunken Swordsman!"

Old Fourth collapsed in an instant, his eyebrows and eyes twisted, and he wailed, "I just want to take a vacation, do you have to curse me with such a poisonous tongue?"

The boss leaned against the statue's crotch, his head resting on the statue's groin, and a shocking penetrating wound on the upper right chest.

"Old Fourth, you have to be clear-headed. Life is not just about the ugly woman on a blind date in the distance, the most important thing is the immediate compromise."

He tried his best to steady his breathing, sprinkled the medicinal powder on his wound again and again, and said lazily, "We haven't escaped the Sole True Sect's pursuit yet, so don't think about such a beautiful thing as a blind date. Let's talk about it when we really get back."

"But after you say that, I suddenly don't want to go back."

Old Fourth said resentfully.

"Don't think too badly, maybe it's really a woman." The boss closed his eyes and blessed.

But as soon as this sentence came out, Old Fourth didn't even want to speak.

What am I, a man, supposed to look for if not a woman when I'm looking for a wife? What do you mean, 'Maybe he really is a woman'? That statement is utterly heinous.

"I'm taking a vacation when I get back this time. My daughter's been born for two months, and I haven't even seen her yet," Old Seven said with a gentle expression.

The others immediately wore doting auntie smiles: "Need us to help with naming her?"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Old Seven said, looking like he wanted to avoid something unpleasant.

Clearly, he knew nothing good would come out of these guys' mouths.

This time, the Boss wasn't joking. He closed his eyes, remained silent for a moment, and said softly, "Don't forget to take my gift back to NanNan."

"Yes," Old Seven nodded slowly.

"And don't forget ours either."

"But this time when we get back, our Ninth Squad will be famous. We should at least get a promotion, right?" Old Five said, daydreaming.

"Shouldn't be a problem. We have enough merit points. Over a hundred extra."

Old Two calculated carefully and said, "We can become Gold-Rank Guardians. However, that's for the whole team. Only the Boss has enough merit points for Gold-Rank individually. The rest of us can only get Silver-Rank. We each need to do three or four hundred more merit point missions, but we're not far off."

"Gold-Rank is good enough for me. Many Venerable-level cultivators are usually only around Gold-Rank anyway. We're just Emperor-level, what more could we want?"

The others were all very satisfied.

"Wouldn't that mean the Boss can be called Gold-Rank Drunken Sword in the future?"

Old Five had a sudden inspiration.

The others burst out laughing: "Yes, officially recognized, Gold-Rank Drunken Sword Fang Zhi."

The Boss, Fang Zhi, rolled his eyes, shifted his body, and said, "Ugh, this Flying Bear God's thing is poking me uncomfortably. Did they sculpt that on the statue too? I can't move now, someone come help me adjust it?"

"Boss, that's not easy to adjust, it's hard to make it soft."

Old Four said with a sarcastic tone.

Still, he stood up, wanting to help the Boss move it.

Just then.

A rapid whistling sound came from the air.

Immediately afterward, with a BOOM, it seemed two powerful beings had fought once in mid-air, and the entire earth trembled.

The seven men's butts were simultaneously shaken off the ground and then dropped back down. They looked at each other, dumbfounded, with expressions of shock and horror.

Pfft! Fang Zhi's butt landed right on the protrusion under the statue, and in an instant, he opened his mouth in a living death, his eyes bulging with anger, unable to make a sound.

His face was sallow, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans oozed out.

"What the hell is this!"

He reached out to touch it.

But it seemed to be a piece of iron? He used all his strength to pull it out from under his butt, and just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief.

He heard a whoosh sound.

A figure descended from the sky.

A spear, illuminated by lightning, emitted a ghastly white color.

It seemed to be made of white bone.

The seven people were simultaneously shocked, their hearts as if falling into an ice cave.

Such a spear, under all of heaven, only one exists.

"Cloud Top Weapon Compendium, White Bone Dream Shattering Spear!"

How could it be such a powerful existence?

Sent to hunt us down? Isn't this using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

As the figure landed in front of the temple, the torrential rain seemed to stop in an instant, within a hundred zhang radius of where the person landed, not a single drop of rain remained.

But in the distance, it was clearly still raining heavily, the rain threads all connected into lines.

The person was slender and tall, but standing in the torrential rain, he seemed to prop up the entire rain-filled sky.

The space behind him seemed to have turned into a darkness. He alone blocked all the light!

He leaned on the White Bone Dream Shattering Spear, looked up, and saw the expressions in the eyes of the seven.

In an instant, he discerned friend from foe.

"Die!"

The spear tip flicked up and instantly stabbed out.

One spear, seven kills.

Seven streaks of light flew out like meteors.

All seven were already seriously injured and unable to dodge.

Moreover, the realm of the person who came was far above everyone else. Although it was just a casual blow, even if everyone was not injured and in their prime, they would not be able to stop it! The gap was too great! A sigh.

With a hint of relief.

Fang Zhi, the boss with a large hole in his chest, suddenly flew up from the statue with his tattered body. This reaction at this moment was already instinctive.

He opened his arms and rushed into the spear shadow like a moth to a flame.

In his hand, he still clutched the iron piece stained with his own blood.

It was what he had just pried from the statue.

But this was the only weapon Fang Zhi could take out in a hurry, relying on his instincts.

A clang.

Very subtle.

Blood splattered.

"Boss!"

The six people roared in unison, their grief reaching its peak.

Fang Zhi's body instantly shattered into bloody fragments amidst the shadows of the spear, leaving him no time to utter a single word of farewell.

Yet, he blocked all the attacks.

Because, at the very instant he sacrificed himself, a blade of light descended from the sky.

The blade of light was even more dazzling than lightning.

It intercepted the opponent's spear.

And also intercepted it at the position of Fang Zhi's chest.

The blade of light and the tip of the spear collided at Fang Zhi's chest, but this was, after all, the White Bone Dream Shattering Spear. Even this blade could only halt the opponent's subsequent attacks, unable to save Fang Zhi.

The light of the blade flashed, giving people a peculiar feeling, as if this blade had severed all the bonds in the world.

Leaving the heart empty from then on.

Blade and spear clashed, erupting in an unprecedented burst of energy and light, illuminating everyone's faces with a green hue!

Moreover, the light persisted and did not dissipate!

Fang Zhi's entire body transformed into bloody fragments, flying away and seemingly coating this light with a layer of vivid red.

This was not the light that could be emitted from the clash of blade and spear.

Both the wielder of the blade and the wielder of the spear revealed looks of surprise in their eyes.

The boss's life only held off the opponent for less than a second.

But that little bit of time was already enough.

A slender figure, dressed in white as snow, remained spotless in the torrential rain, landing in the dilapidated temple.

The figure's back seemed to carry a hint of loneliness.

Holding a long blade, its light was like snow.

"Duan Xiyang, your opponent is me!"

Cloud Top Weapon Compendium, Dream-Transcending Emotion Severing Blade.

Another legend had arrived.

The two faced off, one with darkness engulfing the sky behind him, the other with the world as it was behind him, like light and darkness, coexisting, distinctly separate, and evenly matched.

This feeling was extremely strange to people.

But the six people had no time to be shocked.

Their hearts were already filled with grief, and in their eyes, which were about to burst, was only the boss's body, torn to pieces in the opponent's spear shadows.

"Boss..."

The six people only felt their hearts shattering into pieces.

Raising their eyes, pupils bloodshot, they stared at the person wielding the spear.

White Bone Dream Shattering Spear, Duan Xiyang! They had to burn this person's face into their minds.

In the space where blade and spear clashed, that ball of light still existed, and, at that instant, it suddenly blazed even brighter.

The two, blade and spear, simultaneously revealed shocked expressions.

They retreated at the same time.

Then, that ball of light suddenly shot into the sky, breaking through the rain, tearing through the void, and vanishing in an instant.

A bolt of lightning split the sky.

A thunderclap resounded, and the mountains and rivers trembled.

"Anomalous phenomenon?! Soul snatching?!"

Dream Shattering Spear and Emotion Severing Blade's bodies shook simultaneously, and then, they made the same move.

Divine sense swept out.

However, they didn't sense any fragmented soul power.

It was as if no one had ever died here.

Only at the tip of Dream Shattering Spear, there was a trace, which was now rapidly dissipating.

The two simultaneously reached out, fingers pointing towards the spear tip.

They barely felt anything before it completely vanished.

Emotion Severing Blade frowned: "You severed his true self?"

Dream Shattering Spear frowned: "Not completely severed, less than thirty percent."

The two's expressions changed simultaneously.

"Who is this person?"

Almost at the same time, the two asked the six people.

Immediately, Emotion Severing Blade turned his head without hesitation, unleashing thousands of slashes towards Dream Shattering Spear like a storm.

The blade light condensed into an overwhelming light curtain.

"Go!"

And he himself spun around, a whirlwind rising up and engulfing the six people's bodies, with a whoosh, transforming into a rapid stream of light in the air.

It vanished into the horizon in an instant.

A loud sound.

Duan Xiyang of the White Bone Spear drove boundless darkness up to the edge of the white clouds, watching the light that was already beyond pursuit in the distance, his eyes flickering.

"Investigate!"

"He definitely didn't die!"

For a long time afterward, both sides of the entire continent began various secret investigations.

A soul anomaly!

One side regarded Fang Zhi as the chosen one, their hope for the future, while the other side regarded Fang Zhi as a thorn in their side, a future great enemy.

Years of searching yielded no results.

But there were always people working hard.

It wasn't until a hundred years later that they finally gave up. At least, on the surface, they no longer made separate requests each year.

Whether there were still people secretly investigating was unknown.

But Fang Zhi's six brothers never forgot and continued to search in secret.

They never gave up, year after year, constantly searching in their own way.

They firmly believed that their boss was still alive!

Time passed.

One hundred years, two hundred years, five hundred years passed...

In the end, they still didn't find him.

(Qidian has now released a reader error correction function. If you find any errors, you can use it to remind me. I will see it immediately in the background. Thank you all.) My hand has recovered, I didn't get knifed, the curse of one knife per book has been broken, and my condition is fully restored.