Inside the City God Temple, a down-and-out scholar was telling a group of children tales of Mythos and the supernatural.
"Then the Emperor of Jiuhua descended on a cloud and declared that the monster was his household's guardian beast. It had sneaked into the mortal realm, and he asked the gentlemen to show mercy and let him take it back to his cave abode to discipline it..." The scholar's face was sallow as he put on airs. "All right, if you want to know what happens next, you'll have to hear the rest next time."
The children were all disappointed. One of them asked innocently, "Sir, if a monster belonging to an immortal or a bodhisattva eats people, does it only need to be disciplined, while other monsters get beaten to death?"
The scholar froze, not knowing how to answer. He had told stories for years, but this was the first time he had considered them from this angle. It seemed like a perfect summary.
Children were innocent, untouched by the ways of the world, and could see the problems adults took for granted.
He was just about to explain when a thunderous rush of water and the tremendous crash of a collapsing embankment suddenly rang in his ears.
The great river surged eastward, cutting through towering mountains and spanning ten thousand miles of plains. It had flowed since the Middle Ages, through the era of Great Jin and Northern Zhou's rivalry, and remained one of the few features of the land that had barely changed.
The Secret Vault obtained by the True Martial Sect lay at "Riverheart Source," though its exact location was unknown. Based on the clues left by the True Martial Emperor and the rumors surrounding the inheritance received by the True Martial Sect's Founding Patriarch,