Land of the Divine Remains, Source River Basin.
More than a thousand years had already passed here. After countless developments, all that had happened in the past had long become myths and legends; even the dynasties of old were difficult to verify. Yet the general thread remained. Historical records contained accounts of Great Xin and Great Xun, and after Great Xun came Heaven-Dropped Meteoric Iron. The Great Meteor Grand Ancestor forged the Son of Heaven Sword from it and founded the Great Fall Dynasty. That dynasty had endured to this day, though it had long existed in name alone.
The reason for this was six hundred years of warfare. In recent years, the lands that had been fragmented for nearly six centuries across the Source River Basin had been divided among nine kingdoms.
The rulers of the nine kingdoms nominally obeyed the Great Fall Son of Heaven's orders, but the Great Fall Dynasty had weathered centuries of storms. From its initial era of blazing prosperity, it had suffered several calamities, and its authority had long since slipped away. The Capital Region was no larger than a palm, not even comparable to a single prefecture of a great kingdom. If not for the Son of Heaven Sword suppressing Fortune and displaying its rightful legitimacy, it would have vanished from the world long ago.
Even so, everyone in the world understood the current situation. They knew the Great Fall royal house would perish sooner or later, and all waited for a hegemon to arise among the nine kingdoms and set the cauldron in place.
Several years earlier, the Mystic Kingdom in the west had risen to prominence. Its ancestor had originally been the Great Meteor Grand Ancestor's groom. He had been promoted for his merits, and after the Grand Ancestor founded his