You Call This the Celestial Master's Ordination?

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Xuan slowly opened his eyes.

But the moment he did, he realized his surroundings had changed. He was no longer in the temple's dim side hall, but had been moved outdoors...

He looked around. Mountains encircled him, their overlapping peaks draped in emerald green. Clouds and mist wound between them like silver dragons coiling through the heights.

Ancient trees towered everywhere, their branches thick with leaves, their canopies spreading like umbrellas to blot out the sky and sun.

What a blessed paradise, teeming with life, where all things flourished.

Only...

Why did every color throughout this world carry a strange green tinge?

"Awake?"

The voice sounded abruptly beside Zhang Xuan, startling him into stumbling three steps backward.

A moment later, he realized it was the Old Celestial Master's voice.

"Master?" Zhang Xuan called tentatively.

He had suddenly lost consciousness, his surroundings had completely changed, and now the scene before him was utterly inconceivable!

By all rights, Zhang Xuan should have been bristling with alarm.

He had no memories and was deeply wary of everyone around him.

Whether it was his third senior brother Jiang Jiu, who always smiled at him and seemed so concerned about him, the cold-spoken Jian San, or the other strange-looking fellow disciples.

Zhang Xuan had always maintained a basic level of vigilance!

And yet, for some reason...

From beginning to end, the Old Celestial Master before him had given him a sense of warmth and security.

It was like a child staying beside his parents. No matter how dark the surroundings were, as long as his parents were there, there was nothing to fear.

"I know you have many questions right now. You will learn the answers in time. For now, there is only one thing you need to do: I speak, you remember. Do not reveal a single word to anyone else, even those closest to you!"

Perhaps the scene before him was simply too incredible. For a moment, Zhang Xuan actually forgot the questions he had intended to ask.

He stood stiffly beside the Old Celestial Master, surveying everything around him with awe. "U-understood."

"This is the Inner Landscape. All you need to understand is that it is where the Celestial Master's Ordination is stored."

Zhang Xuan frowned and glanced around, but saw nothing resembling the "Celestial Master's Ordination" the Celestial Master had mentioned.

As though seeing through his disciple's thoughts, the Old Celestial Master called out in his aged voice, "Celestial Master's Ordination!"

Then Zhang Xuan witnessed a sight that would astound him for the rest of his life...

A blazing sun hung in the sky. Far larger than any ordinary sun he had ever seen, it occupied almost half the heavens, its sheer size terrifying.

Its surface was not the usual golden yellow, but a deep crimson, as though boundless flames burned within it.

The enormous sun loomed overhead, yet strangely, he felt no scorching heat at all.

Its light was not dazzling. Instead, it carried a soft halo that spilled over the earth, bathing the entire world in a warm radiance.

"This is the Celestial Master's Ordination. Quite a shock, isn't it? When I first saw it back then, I nearly wet my pants!"

Seeing his disciple's stunned expression, the Old Celestial Master's aged, bloodstained face revealed a trace of smugness.

"Wait, Master, you call this the Celestial Master's Ordination?"

At that moment, Zhang Xuan's brow was furrowed so tightly it almost formed the character 川 as he stared at the blazing sun overhead.

Across that sun, flames of varying intensity were arranged into what were unmistakably two enormous Chinese characters...

—System!

The Old Celestial Master had not expected this reaction from his disciple. "Of course this is the Celestial Master's Ordination. It has been called that since the second ancestral master!"

Zhang Xuan pointed at the sun overhead, his face full of speechless exasperation. "'Celestial Master's Ordination' is three characters. Master, look carefully. There are clearly only two characters on that sun!"

"Our human culture is vast and profound. It is quite common for a single character to have two sounds."

"Master, who are you trying to fool? What character has two sounds? Those are clearly two characters! That isn't the Celestial Master's Ordination at all. It's obviously a sys—"

Before Zhang Xuan could finish, the Old Celestial Master raised his long, gray-white brows and pointed two fingers at him like a sword. "If I say it is the Celestial Master's Ordination, then it is the Celestial Master's Ordination! Shut your mouth, you rebellious disciple!"

As those words fell, Zhang Xuan felt as though his upper and lower lips had been sewn together. He could no longer open his mouth.

Watching his disciple make only muffled, incoherent noises through his sealed lips, the Old Celestial Master planted both hands on his hips. "Heh heh. My Inner Landscape, my rules. All right, I'll speak and you listen!"

"First, let me explain what the Celestial Master's Ordination does. There is one thing you must understand: the Celestial Master's Ordination is all-powerful, yet it is also utterly useless!"

Now that he had reached the matter at hand, the Old Celestial Master's flippant expression turned solemn.

Having said that, the Old Celestial Master turned to look at the blazing sun overhead.

"Celestial Master's Ordination, please tell me: is my sixth disciple cursing me in his heart right now?"

The next second, before Zhang Xuan's utterly astonished eyes, the characters formed from crimson lava on the sun shifted, finally becoming a single character...

—Yes!

Zhang Xuan could not speak, but his expressions were remarkably eloquent...

[Cursing you in my heart? Absolutely impossible!]

[My loyalty to you, Master, can be witnessed by the sun and moon!]

[If I harbor even the slightest disrespect, may heaven strike me with lightning, may five thunderbolts crash down upon my head, and may ten thousand arrows pierce my heart!]

Yes, that was what his expression said.

Beneath his gray-white brows, the Old Celestial Master's eyes flicked indifferently toward Zhang Xuan...

Judging by that look, he clearly held his disciple's silent defense in utter contempt.

The Old Celestial Master did not pursue the matter with Zhang Xuan, but continued, "Celestial Master's Ordination, tell me whether it will rain tomorrow within the territory of the Celestial Master's Mansion."

The lava on the blazing sun shifted again, ultimately forming the same single character...

—Yes!

Staring at the character on the sun, the Old Celestial Master said, "See? The Celestial Master's Ordination can answer any question you ask. It can concern a problem you are facing now, or reach across time and space to uncover an answer from the future. It is...

—All-knowing and all-powerful!"

Zhang Xuan's pupils trembled violently.

"You can even ask the Celestial Master's Ordination how to become stronger, and it will give you an answer. But as for actually becoming stronger, you must still follow its guidance yourself, step by step."

He understood what the Old Celestial Master meant...

The world's understanding of the Celestial Master's Ordination was actually wrong. People saw it as a ritual, a ceremony for transferring cultivation.

As though receiving the inheritance would instantly boost their power, send their cultivation realm soaring, and immediately put them on par with the previous Celestial Master.

That was wrong, of course.

The true Celestial Master's Ordination... no, this was not any kind of Celestial Master's Ordination at all. It was a system. With the system's assistance, he could embark on the path to greater strength.

But that path had to be traveled gradually, step by step.

He could ask the Celestial Master's Ordination how to ascend to immortality in a single step!

The Celestial Master's Ordination would reply—eat a Peach of Immortality from heaven, and you can soar to immortality in broad daylight.

But would Zhang Xuan have a chance to obtain a Peach of Immortality?

Clearly not.

Even after receiving the Celestial Master's Ordination, he would still be an ordinary man without the strength to truss a chicken, someone who still had to eat, drink, and relieve himself every day.

Seeing understanding dawn on Zhang Xuan's face, the Old Celestial Master knew his disciple had grasped it!

"There is one more thing you must remember. The Celestial Master's Ordination can only be used three times a day. If you exceed three uses..."

Seeing the Old Celestial Master's solemn expression, Zhang Xuan swallowed, unable to stop a wave of anxiety.

"What happens then?"

Only after the words left his mouth did Zhang Xuan realize he could speak again!

The old man spread his hands and smiled. "Then it won't respond to you."

Zhang Xuan: "???"

This rotten old man was wicked to the core!

Just as Zhang Xuan was inwardly grumbling, he suddenly felt a violent tremor beneath his feet.

The entire world seemed about to shatter in an instant.

The eerie green tinge that had been hidden among the riot of colors swallowed this world whole.

Only the blazing sun suspended in the air remained utterly motionless, standing silently overhead.

"Master, what's wrong with you?"

His lips trembling, Zhang Xuan turned his gaze toward the Old Celestial Master.

But the sight before him gave him an even greater fright.

An air of decay seeped from the Old Celestial Master's entire body. Every patch of skin exposed outside his robes had taken on a rotting, ashen hue.

Most striking were those clouded eyes. His pupils had turned entirely emerald green, encircled by a faint ring of grayish white. Those were simply not human eyes...