The imperial capital, the Zeng Family estate.
It was a vast complex of ancient buildings, with flying eaves and interlocking brackets, carved beams and painted rafters. Every corner exuded the rich ancient charm of the Hua Nation.
Deep within the estate, a nine-story tower rose from the ground. It was called the Star Picking Tower.
The tower stood tall and majestic, its imposing presence seeming to reach straight into the heavens and pluck down the stars.
At that moment, a figure on the terrace atop the Star Picking Tower looked particularly unusual.
He was a blond, blue-eyed foreigner, yet his hair was tied into a high topknot, and he was dressed like a Daoist.
Beneath his robes, he wore a purple Daoist garment densely embroidered with the patterns of the stars throughout the heavens in gold and silver thread. An eye-catching yin-yang Taiji Bagua emblem adorned his chest.
Over the Daoist robe, he wore a flowing crane cloak, giving him the full bearing of an otherworldly immortal.
This man was none other than the thirteenth-ranked martial immortal on the Hua Nation's Martial Immortal List: "Calculates All Under Heaven," Zeng Jianguo—the great martial immortal Zeng.
He was also one of the earliest martial immortals in the Hua Nation, one of the founders of the nation's martial arts education system, and the first head of the Zeng Family.
What was interesting was that this pivotal figure in the Hua Nation's martial arts world had been an ordinary diplomatic officer stationed in the Hua Nation by the White Eagle Federation before the Abyss invaded.
When the Abyss descended and the world plunged into chaos, international transportation was severed, leaving him stranded in the Hua Nation.
By a lucky twist of fate, he came into contact with the Hua Nation's martial arts. From that