Fate truly had a mischievous pen.
On the normal course of life, Lu Shuanghe had nearly become Jiang Wang's first teacher.
Yet now, he had become the first seeker of the Dao within Chao Wendao Heavenly Palace, the first to stand before Jiang Wang.
Young Jiang Wang's hesitation by Phoenix Creek, his stunned daze beneath its waters, had now found an exquisite echo.
Jiang Wang was no longer that Jiang Wang.
Lu Shuanghe was still that Lu Shuanghe.
His disastrous defeat in Fallen Immortal Forest seemed not to have affected him at all.
Regrettably, neither had it brought him much progress.
With his cultivation, talent, Dao heart, and accumulation, he should long since have stepped without regret onto the pinnacle.
But he had not.
Had he been trapped forever on that day?
And yet, that did not quite seem to be the case.
He had cleaved his way in through the palace doors, still bearing the edge that belonged to Lu Shuanghe alone.
Or rather, the very fact that he came before Jiang Wang to seek the Dao solely in the name of Lu Shuanghe—from an "immortal master" who had nearly taken Jiang Wang away to a "Dao seeker" asking Jiang Wang for instruction—was a reversal so close to heaven and earth turning upside down that few could face it.
Lu Shuanghe's heart in seeking the Dao was still the purest sword beneath heaven, or at least one of the purest.
"Is True Lord Jiang willing to teach me?" Lu Shuanghe stood still in the hall.
Jiang Wang sat there. "This Heavenly Palace was raised for the seeking of the Dao. If there is anything I can explain, even one part in ten thousand, I will hold nothing back."
Lu Shuanghe lifted his eyes slightly. "This palace for seeking the