Ji Fuyao

As the voice faded, a streak of crimson light tore across the distant sky like a falling meteor. In the blink of an eye, it landed in the pavilion and transformed into a woman.

She was tall and graceful, with a curving figure and a pair of long, fair legs exposed beneath her skirt, pale as lotus roots. The two mounds on her chest seemed ready to burst free, straining the crimson robe taut.

She was clearly hot-tempered. Otherwise, she wouldn't have opened with that earthshaking "Fuck your mother!"

The moment she arrived, she launched into a furious tirade.

"Zhu Tiangang! You're poaching right under my nose?"

"Have you no shame?!"

The lean old man called Zhu Tiangang's brows twitched wildly. His expression had darkened to the extreme, and he shot back, "How vulgar!"

"Lu Qingyao! Was I wrong? What resources does your Master-Disciple Lineage have to offer him? When he reaches Foundation Establishment, can you provide him with top-grade materials?"

His voice rose. "A talent like this would be wasted in your Master-Disciple Lineage!"

Lu Qingyao looked as if he had struck a sore spot. Her face flushed crimson, her chest heaved, and she gritted her teeth before snapping, "Ha! You only formed your Golden Core thanks to your ancestors' blessings! So what if you have resources? You still can't beat me in a fight!"

"To put it bluntly, if you hadn't inherited all those resources from your ancestors, you'd be a pile of dirt by now!"

"Fine! Fine! Fine!"

Zhu Tiangang let out a series of cold laughs.

"Then let's trade a few blows!"

Before his words had even faded, his aura abruptly burst forth.

A black droplet, about the size of a soybean, suddenly appeared behind his head. It was black as ink.

In an instant, the droplet spread.

The entire sky was dyed black, as if covered by a vast mass of thick, dark water.

Even the moonlight couldn't penetrate it.

In the sky, dragons clawed and snarled amid an ink-dark sea of clouds, while Black Tortoises rose and sank in churning black waters. One strange vision after another appeared, as if an entire world had been turned upside down above the Heavenly Fire Sect.

The stars and moon were blotted out!

"Like I'd be afraid of you!"

Lu Qingyao barked. A point of crimson flame collapsed and shrank before her, then suddenly exploded.

The flame forcibly shoved aside a patch of the dark sky, and crimson light spread outward like a tide.

With Heavenly Fire Peak as the boundary, the sky above the entire Heavenly Fire Sect was divided into black and red, each side clearly distinct and yielding to neither.

On the black side, dragons clawed and snarled while Black Tortoises churned the seas. Strange visions appeared one after another, as if countless troops were locked in battle amid the clouds.

On the crimson side, a gigantic figure slowly took shape, clad in crimson armor and wielding a halberd.

The figure stood over a thousand zhang tall. Every scale on its armor was clearly visible, and crimson flames flowed along its halberd.

The crimson figure seemed to have the upper hand, at times pressing across the boundary, its light surging like a tide into the black side.

But each time it charged forward, the black waves soon drove it back.

Forward, back; back, forward—like two armies facing off, like two tigers locked in a struggle.

The many disciples of the Heavenly Fire Sect all looked up at the spectacle.

"What is this? Are True Persons fighting?"

"You ignorant fool! I've seen True Persons fight. It was certainly impressive, but not on this scale! This has to be True Lords fighting!"

"True Lords fighting? Did a True Lord from another sect attack us?"

"How could that be? I reckon it's the True Monarch Heavenly Fire Phoenix of the Master-Disciple Lineage fighting the True Monarch Profound Water Heavy Cloud of the Descendants of the Six Monarchs!"

"Some people never get to witness a True Lord fight in their whole lives. We're lucky enough to feast our eyes on one!"

"But it is strange. The Master-Disciple Lineage and the Descendants of the Six Monarchs don't get along, sure, but I can understand friction between disciples, sparring among Foundation Establishment Immortals, or even True Persons fighting. Why are these two going at it?"

Voices rose and fell, and some people were thrilled.

In the pavilion atop the peak, one man sat beside the long table while the other stood nearby. They stared each other down, neither willing to give an inch.

They didn't move their hands or feet. They simply traded blows from afar with their divine powers.

The white-robed man seated at the head of the table said nothing, quietly sipping his tea.

He glanced at the two of them, his expression as calm as still water, then said evenly, "All those youngsters are watching from below."

"Don't the two of you feel ashamed?"

"Let it end here."

With that, he gently set his empty cup down on the table.

"Bzzzz—!"

A deep hum rang out.

An invisible ripple spread from the table. Wherever it passed, the dragons in the sky, the Black Tortoises, the crimson-armored figure—all the strange visions—vanished in an instant, as if they had never existed.

The sky returned to normal, the stars surrounding the moon, the Milky Way glittering brilliantly.

Lu Qingyao's expression grew even darker.

She whipped around.

"Ji Fuyao! Listen, ever since you became Sect Master, you've neglected the Master-Disciple Lineage. Fine, I can understand that."

She paused, each word deliberate. "But if you dare hand this promising talent over to them, don't blame me for no longer recognizing you as my senior brother!"

"Stop this nonsense!"

Ji Fuyao frowned and barked at her.

He raised his eyes to Lu Qingyao and Zhu Tiangang, his gaze pausing on each of their faces in turn.

"There is too much karma tied to this person. He is connected to the Hundred Thousand Year Calamity. Neither of you can bear it."

Zhu Tiangang froze. The anger on his face vanished, replaced by profound shock. "What? He's connected to the Hundred Thousand Year Calamity?"

"How could a mere Qi Gathering cultivator be connected to the Hundred Thousand Year Calamity?"

Zhu Tiangang's expression shifted, his face darkening and brightening in turn.

As far as he knew, Ji Fuyao and Lu Qingyao both came from the Master-Disciple Lineage. Their master knew very little about the Hundred Thousand Year Calamity, only that it had been a catastrophe for cultivators.

But the Descendants of the Six Monarchs were different.

The secret histories passed down among the Descendants of the Six Monarchs clearly recorded the devastation the last Hundred Thousand Year Calamity had wrought upon this continent.

Rivers of blood.

True Lord corpses littered the ground, the sky was stained red, and half the continent had been sunk beneath the waves.

Mountains shifted, rivers flowed backward, and countless sects were wiped out overnight.

Blood rained for ten straight days. The Heavenly Dao of this land had mourned and wept.

At that thought, he had already made up his mind.

He couldn't get involved with Jiang Tian anymore.

The karma was too great.

So great that even he, a Golden Core True Lord, couldn't bear it.

Ji Fuyao withdrew his gaze, his voice as calm as before. "All right. Neither of you needs to concern yourselves with Jiang Tian anymore. I have my own arrangements."

To be honest, when he had used his divine power to divine the matter that day, he had only learned that Jiang Tian was connected to the Hundred Thousand Year Calamity. He couldn't tell whether it would bring fortune or disaster.

Jiang Tian was clearly just a minor cultivator in the Qi Gathering Realm, yet it was as if a veil of mist shrouded him—fuzzy and indistinct, impossible to see through or fathom.

It seemed it was time to meet the boy in person.

The sun rose.

After waking, Jiang Tian sat cross-legged on the platform and began absorbing Solar Qi.

He found that the morning's Solar Qi was far purer than the Qi at noon or night.

He had also seen the earthshaking battle in the sky the previous evening.

Black and red had faced off, strange visions filled the heavens, and the stars and moon had been blotted out.

To be honest, the sight had been shocking, like two ancient gods battling above the clouds.

But he had only glanced up before looking away and continuing to cultivate.

Golden Core True Lords.

They were still a long way beyond his reach.

Watching wouldn't help. He might as well spend more time looking at the sun.

Just then, a voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Are you trying to gather the Five Qi?"

Jiang Tian's eyes snapped open, and every hair on his body stood on end.

He hadn't felt anyone approach. There had been no footsteps, no aura, no warning at all.

It was as if the person had been standing behind him from the very beginning.

He slowly turned around.

A white-robed man stood three feet behind him, hands clasped behind his back, watching him with keen interest.

The man's gaze lingered on him for a moment, then paused slightly as a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

"Hm? Why is your Solar Qi in your heart?"

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