The Fourteenth Celestial Master, Zhang Xuan!

"I have little time left. From this day forth, you, Zhang Xuan, shall be the fourteenth Celestial Master of the Celestial Master's Mansion!"

The sudden appointment left Zhang Xuan stunned for quite some time. When he came to his senses, he found the Old Celestial Master looking at him with an exceedingly complicated expression.

That gaze made Zhang Xuan uncomfortable all over. His eyes wandered involuntarily from side to side, and his throat inexplicably went dry. Only after swallowing did he manage to squeeze out, "Master, what... what's wrong?"

The Old Celestial Master seemed not to hear him. He simply stared motionlessly at Zhang Xuan with those eerie, emerald-green eyes.

There was sorrow in them, and relief, but more than anything, there was pity.

Unease stirred in Zhang Xuan's heart. He asked tentatively, "Master, don't you have any instructions for me? Something like... bringing greater glory to the Celestial Master's Mansion, slaying demons and vanquishing evil, or bringing blessings to the people?"

The Old Celestial Master smiled. A faint smile appeared on his ashen face, lending it a little vitality, like a withered tree welcoming spring.

He said softly, "I have no instructions to give. You're a good boy. You'll know what to do..."

His words were warm, like an elderly father advising a child about to travel far from home.

Zhang Xuan vaguely sensed a final farewell in his master's words, and for no apparent reason, his nose began to sting...

—Well, not that much. Just a little.

After all, he had none of his memories, and today was effectively his first meeting with the old man. To claim he was devastated would be a lie. Zhang Xuan was just about to offer a few suitably sentimental words, something about how he couldn't bear to part with his master...

Suddenly, Zhang Xuan's pupils contracted sharply, as though a thunderbolt had struck him. His fingers clenched unconsciously, his knuckles whitening with the force, as if only this could let him seize that fleeting thought!

Damn it! How had I forgotten this again? The Old Celestial Master had been fatally poisoned. Who exactly had poisoned him???

Even if the Old Celestial Master himself didn't know who had poisoned him, wasn't the Celestial Master's Ordination omniscient and omnipotent?

He'd already asked two questions just now to demonstrate it. Why wouldn't he ask who was trying to take his life?

It was too bizarre, as though everyone was deliberately ignoring the matter.

I'd been misled!

No, no, I hadn't been misled...

The old man's earlier words still rang in his ears, spoken with his hands on his hips and the smug air of a mischievous child: "My Inner Landscape, my rules."

This was his [Inner Landscape]. Within this realm, the old man possessed the supernatural power to make his words law.

All he needed was a thought to make Zhang Xuan forget something. Wouldn't that be as easy as reaching out his hand?

In a flash of insight, Zhang Xuan abruptly raised his head to look at the Old Celestial Master. Staring into those green pupils that were about to lose their focus, he tried urgently to speak. His mouth opened and closed, yet not a single sound emerged.

Immediately afterward, the scene before him suddenly blurred, as though shrouded in a thin mist. Everything around him began to warp and dissolve.

When Zhang Xuan came to his senses again, he found himself back in the small room in the Celestial Master's Mansion.

The Old Celestial Master stood quietly before him, his aged hand still resting gently on Zhang Xuan's head. But his eyes were dull and gray, his pupils unfocused, devoid of any trace of life...

Everything he had just experienced seemed like nothing more than a dream, so unreal that it made his heart tremble.

Had it been real?

Had it been false?

But Zhang Xuan could no longer concern himself with any of that...

His head hurt as though it were about to explode, as though someone were forcibly stuffing a mass of red-hot iron into it.

Cold sweat instantly soaked a large patch of his clothes across his back. The fabric clung to his skin, chilling him to the bone.

His eyes were densely bloodshot, and the thick veins in his neck writhed like hideous earthworms.

Clutching his head, Zhang Xuan staggered toward the main hall.

When he reached the doorway, his fellow disciples saw him emerge and immediately crowded around him.

"How did it go? Did Master pass the Celestial Master's Ordination to you?"

"The Celestial Master's Ordination—did you receive the inheritance, junior brother?"

"Sixth Brother, what about the Celestial Master's Ordination?"

Their voices buzzed in his ears, but Zhang Xuan's vision spun wildly. His fellow disciples' faces twisted and distorted before his eyes, as though he were trapped in an absurd dream.

A violent ringing engulfed his ears, rendering every sound from the outside world indistinct.

The extreme pain tore low, hoarse growls from his throat, like the struggles of a trapped beast. His steps faltered. All he wanted was to escape this cage-like Celestial Master Hall.

Yet he had barely taken a step when he crashed heavily to the floor, curling into a ball and convulsing as he clutched his head.

His consciousness gradually blurred, and the world before his eyes slowly sank into darkness.

Finally, Zhang Xuan's eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness completely.

After an unknown length of time, Zhang Xuan opened his eyes. Instinctively clutching his head, he sat up in bed.

He immediately discovered that his head no longer hurt. The swelling, burning agony had vanished entirely.

Yet he remained sitting blankly on the bed, still holding his head. He was afraid—afraid that the terrifying pain would return. The posture was merely his body's instinctive act of self-defense.

That agony had been so extreme it had left him psychologically scarred.

"You're awake, Sect Leader? Are you feeling any better?"

The speaker was his third senior brother, Jiang Jiu, who was sitting beside the bed with concern filling his gaze. Yet deep in his eyes, beneath that concern so intense it almost spilled over, there was also a trace of burning eagerness.

After all, his sixth junior brother was now a Celestial Master in every sense of the title!

"Thank you for your concern, senior brother. I'm fine now." He threw back the covers and walked toward the little table in the corner of the room.

Jiang Jiu beat him to it and offered him a cup of water, his smile tinged with an eagerness to please. "You should get some proper rest, Sect Leader. For little things like serving tea or fetching water, you need only say the word."

Zhang Xuan accepted the cup and thanked him. Jiang Jiu's eager gaze made him a little uncomfortable.

Seeing that Jiang Jiu kept staring at the cup in his hand, Zhang Xuan's heart tightened. Could it be...

With that thought in mind, Zhang Xuan set the cup down, even though his throat was almost on fire. "The tea is cold. I'd like something hot."

Jiang Jiu slapped his forehead and gave an apologetic smile. "Ah, look at what I've done. You've only just recovered from a serious illness, Sect Leader. Of course you should drink hot water."

With that, he picked up the cup from the table, formed a sword gesture with the fingers of his other hand, and lightly pointed at its mouth. Lightning flashed, and in an instant, wisps of steam rose from the cup.

Zhang Xuan's right eyelid twitched violently. His gaze settled on the cup...

It was a plain, roughly made wooden cup. The wood was dull and dark, with several faint cracks visible, as though it might split open at any moment. Up close, it even gave off a faint, rank woody smell.

Jiang Jiu had used the Thunder Method. The power of lightning was blazing and violent, a force of utmost hardness and pure yang.

To use lightning to heat an entire cup of water without doing the slightest harm to the crude wooden cup—not even leaving a trace of scorching—was a feat that simply took one's breath away.

His third senior brother was nowhere near as simple as he appeared!

Unaware that his junior brother the sect leader had already judged him "far from simple," Jiang Jiu approached with his back hunched, holding the cup and smiling ingratiatingly. Patches of green moss mottled its rim like livor mortis.

"Here, Sect Leader, have some tea!"