Above Kunlun

A cold wind swept past, brushing over the thick white snow atop the mountain.

At that moment, a figure appeared on the rarely visited summit of Kunlun Mountain. The figure nearly blended into the snowy landscape.

He wore a thin white robe, his hair tied up with a Taoist hairpin, and walked barefoot through the icy snow. The cold wind sliced across his cheeks, yet it could not stir his jet-black hair.

Wind and frost swirled around him. As he reached the summit, heaven and earth seemed to lose their color. What a banished immortal descending into the mortal world.

His handsome, immortal-like features and indescribably unique aura combined into a charm that could make all living beings fall for him with the slightest smile.

The "banished immortal" exuded a gentle, jade-like aura that immediately inspired goodwill in anyone who saw him. He lowered his head to look at the snow beneath his feet and frowned slightly. The atmosphere on the mountain instantly tightened.

"Has the Ancient Teleportation Array on Kunlun Mountain been buried beneath the snow?"

Divine light flashed in his eyes as he looked through the layers of snow at the ancient Teleportation Array below.

"It should still work."

"If I remain in this Age of Dharma Decline, my body will never become an Immortal Body and will eventually decay. Existing only as a Primordial Spirit is not what I desire. Besides, in this age, even my Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Primordial Spirit will decay. It would only delay things by one or two thousand years. I can only give this a try."

"Three hundred years ago, heaven and earth still contained spiritual energy. Spiritual treasures and Immortal Herbs were scarce, but they still existed. Yet now, not even the so-called Blessed Lands retain the slightest trace of spiritual energy. Even the Celestial Master Mansion, which once led the hunt for me most zealously, no longer has anyone capable of Dao Entry. This world is becoming increasingly despairing."

"It is said that the summit of Kunlun leads directly to the Immortal Realm. If I can be nourished by the spiritual energy of the Immortal Realm, I may achieve an Immortal Body and have hope of pursuing the Great Dao of immortality."

Shang An closed his eyes and used the Taiyi Divine Calculation to deduce the odds of the Teleportation Array succeeding—eighty percent. He calculated several more times, yet the result remained the same.

"An eighty percent chance is worth trying!"

Shang An pulled a small snake from his robes. The snake was snow-white all over, and faint light shone from its scales. It did not seem cold or sinister; instead, it looked exceptionally sacred.

Shang An gently stroked the white snake's scales.

"Xiao Bai, I am the last cultivator of the End of Dharma Era, while you are its last demon. Today, I will activate this ancient Teleportation Array and dissolve our Spirit Pact, returning your freedom to you. Go where you please."

Xiao Bai closed its eyes and enjoyed Shang An's touch. Upon hearing those words, it shook its little head like a human, then plunged back into Shang An's sleeve.

"So be it. Today, you and I shall witness the splendor of the Immortal Realm."

Shang An said nothing more and sat cross-legged atop the mountain. Time passed swiftly. The moon rose, then set. A sliver of sunlight appeared in the east, and Shang An, who had been meditating for a long time, rose to his feet.

"The time has come."

Mana surged around Shang An as he cast one hand seal after another into the great array beneath the ground, finally channeling all the mana in his body into it.

Suddenly, the snow-covered ground beneath his feet split apart. The earth shook as though a natural disaster had descended.

Shang An hurriedly circulated his mana and floated into the air. Standing there, with crumbling snow and rolling boulders cascading beneath him, he appeared three parts more immortal than any true immortal.

Who would have known that this was the Evil Path cultivator whom every sect had feared like a tiger three hundred years ago?

A quarter of an hour later, the earth beneath Shang An gradually calmed. A beam of golden light shot upward, piercing the sky and enveloping Shang An before silently carrying him away from this world.

Immediately afterward, the great array, long deprived of spiritual energy, exhausted its final radiance and vanished on its own.

No one knew that the world's last great cultivator and last demon had departed through its final Ancient Teleportation Array.

In the haze, Shang An felt as though he was suspended in a void, yet he could also sense his body and Primordial Spirit being continuously squeezed and compressed.

He did not open his eyes—or rather, he did not dare to. It seemed that opening them would bring some great terror. His intuition had always been accurate.

He did not know how long he drifted. It seemed that he had reached the edge of some world, and the sense of emptiness began to weaken.

Then, a terrifying "gale" swept toward him. Shang An felt like a fish struck by massive waves, thrown off his original course.

Then he lost consciousness.

Martial Soul Hall Orphanage.

A child who looked like a porcelain doll sat on a bed, holding a book titled Complete Guide to Soul Beast Classification. That child was Shang An.

Back then, he had activated the ancient Teleportation Array atop Kunlun Mountain and entered the spatial passage, only to encounter an accident. Space-time had become unstable, and when he awoke again, he was already in the Martial Soul Hall Orphanage.

According to the director, he had been an infant found by a Martial Soul Hall Deacon while carrying out a mission. When he was first found, he had been unconscious. If not for his faint breathing, they might have mistaken him for a corpse.

After being rescued and treated, he had been sent to the Martial Soul Hall Orphanage because his parents could not be found. Thus, Shang An began his life as an orphan in another world.

In the blink of an eye, six years had passed. The bone age of this body, which had been compressed by space-time, had also reached six. He was just over a meter tall, with faint baby fat still on his face. Delicate and adorable, he truly seemed to have been turned into a child by the Space-Time Turbulence. Fortunately, this was still his own body.

Shang An was not accustomed to using someone else's body. Otherwise, he would not have pursued an Immortal Body and physical immortality in his previous life.

He still possessed that jade-like aura, making people like him and instinctively want to draw close. After all, he cultivated the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Path with the Great Freedom True Scripture as his foundation. A Heavenly Demon was a Heavenly Demon—those who understood, understood.

At first, Shang An had not realized which world this was. It was only after he learned the language of this world and heard terms like "Spirit Master" and "Spirit Ring" that he finally understood.

This place was just like a novel he had read in his previous life, Douluo Continent. That was right—even though Shang An was an old monster who had lived for over four hundred years, he still knew how to keep up with the times.

Moreover, with the aid of his Primordial Spirit, his memory and computational abilities were no less impressive than the most advanced computers before his transmigration. Learning all kinds of knowledge came effortlessly to him.

Unfortunately, he had to start over after transmigrating, so he could not enjoy the conveniences of his Primordial Spirit for the time being.

Besides studying the natural sciences in his previous life, he had also read a wide range of novels. Many of the imaginative ideas within them had helped him refine his Great Freedom True Scripture.

Douluo Continent was one of the earlier fantasy novels. Back then, Shang An had found its Martial Souls rather fascinating.

Tool Martial Souls were much like the natal magic treasures of Earth's ancient Qi Refiners, while Beast Martial Souls somewhat resembled the body-tempering cultivators among the demons of the Mongol Yuan.

Based on Shang An's current understanding and deductions, this should be the sixth year after the Pope ascended the throne—the point when the story was about to begin.

At the same time, today was the day he would undergo Martial Soul Awakening.

"Xiao An, Xiao An, come gather up quickly. Today, I'm taking you all to awaken your Martial Souls."

A gentle female voice came from outside the door. It belonged to the director of the Martial Soul Hall Orphanage, a little girl in her seventies.

"Alright, Granny Qin. I'll be right there."

Shang An closed the book in his hands and rose to head outside. The room housed eight children, but the others could not stand the loneliness and were all playing in the orphanage's little park.

Naturally, Shang An would not play house with a bunch of brats, so he often stayed in the dormitory reading. At the moment, he was the only one in the room.

Shang An left the room and followed Teacher Qin. Like Shang An, seven other children would awaken their Martial Souls today—four boys and three girls. In the original novel, they were probably the sort of Spirit Hall personnel summarized in passing, not even worthy of being called extras. There was no need to mention them.

On the annual day of Martial Soul Awakening, the square before the Spirit Hall Holy Temple in the eastern district of Spirit City was packed with people.

Most children were accompanied by their parents, though some, like Shang An, came from orphanages.

There were more than ten orphanages in Spirit City, four of them in the eastern district. Shang An's orphanage was one of them.

These orphanages were funded and established by Spirit Hall, primarily taking in orphans who had lost their parents or been abandoned.

Of course, once these orphans awakened Innate Soul Power, they would also join Spirit Hall. This was one of Spirit Hall's sources of personnel.

These adopted orphans were naturally more loyal to Spirit Hall. To them, Spirit Hall was their home, so they would naturally support Spirit Hall's rule even more.