The Jade Roaming Palace

Heavenly Passage Ancient Star was a star on the fringes of the universe, little known in the present age.

This star could just barely be counted as one of humanity's Life Source Lands among the stars.

In truth, however, although mortals could survive on this star, it was ill suited to cultivation.

At present, the laws on this star were elusive, the Great Dao remained hidden, and Heaven and Earth Origin Qi was sparse. The strongest in its cultivation world had only just ascended the Immortal Platform and could be called half-step mighty figures at best.

As for the great clans that supposedly dominated entire regions, their strongest reserves amounted to no more than a cultivator at perfected dragon transformation, along with a few supreme elders in the dragon transformation realm.

On this ancient star, a cultivator at four extremes could often swagger across an entire region. Anyone who truly became a dragon transformation expert could stir up winds and clouds across ten thousand miles.

Cultivators in the dao palace secret realm formed the backbone of Heavenly Passage Ancient Star's cultivation world.

This alone offered a glimpse of how far Heavenly Passage Ancient Star had fallen.

Yet this ancient star on the fringes of the universe was said to have enjoyed an age of glory in the distant past.

Many young cultivators on Heavenly Passage Ancient Star had heard their elders tell such tales: Heavenly Passage Ancient Star had once been incomparably powerful and glorious, with an unbroken succession of saintly experts and numerous Great Sages standing side by side. Even supreme Quasi-Venerables had descended upon it, manifesting their unsurpassed majesty.

In those days, Immortal Second Realm Mighty Figures were everywhere, and even Dao-Slaying Kings were nothing remarkable, fit only to lead a minor sect.

The great leaders of the true holy lands and ancient clans had all possessed cultivation above the Saint King level. They ruled entire regions, their names resounded across the sea of stars, and when they issued commands to all quarters, none dared disobey.

Now, however, many on Heavenly Passage Ancient Star regarded such legends as mere stories, something to listen to at most, with no truth to them whatsoever.

In their minds, if Heavenly Passage Ancient Star had truly possessed so many experts, how could it have fallen into such an embarrassing state in this grand age? Never mind Saints and kings-even Immortal Second Realm Mighty Figures were nowhere to be seen.

To explain how the current situation had come about, another account promptly emerged.

According to this new account, some earth-shattering upheaval had later struck Heavenly Passage, its effects reaching across the entire star region and even rippling out into the universe.

Afterward, Heavenly Passage Ancient Star had suffered devastating losses from that great upheaval. Its ancestral dragon vein had completely fractured, and the age of declining cultivation had arrived.

After that, in a single night, the Great Dao on the ancient star had become lofty and unreachable. Countless experts had fled beyond the star, and the supreme Great Sects and their traditions across its regions had withdrawn from the world.

The star's present condition was the lingering scourge left by that disaster.

Unfortunately, the younger generation still refused to accept this account, treating it as nothing more than a joke.

With their limited horizons, they naturally refused to believe that any upheaval could affect the entire universe and make the Dao Lineages of countless Saints and Quasi-Venerables disappear overnight.

Unable to imagine such power, they naturally leaned toward believing it did not exist. This was a common failing among humanity's young.

After all, the true history had long since been buried alongside Heavenly Passage Ancient Star's former glory. No one now knew the truth.

Heavenly Passage had many oceans. Deep waters covered the star, their waves thundering to the heavens.

Apart from those oceans, the entire ancient star had thirteen continents, all surrounded by boundless seas.

Aside from the sea races, the vast majority of living beings on Heavenly Passage Ancient Star dwelled on these continents, establishing cultivation traditions and multiplying there.

Of course, islands were also scattered between the continents like stars across a chessboard, and many living beings made their homes and multiplied there as well.

Although these islands also had cultivation sects, however, they were generally small establishments that amounted to little.

To survive upon the oceans, these minor sects usually submitted to the great sects on the continents, paying tribute every year in exchange for a secure foothold and protection against attacks by the demonic beasts and strange creatures of the seas.

The Jade Roaming Palace on Golden Tortoise Island was just such a place.

Golden Tortoise Island was a small island in the boundless oceans of Heavenly Passage Ancient Star, connected neither to the thirteen continents nor to the many other islands.

Golden Tortoise Island had earned its name because it resembled an enormous divine tortoise, with a dragonlike head and tail and a turtle's body. Viewed from high above, it was a most peculiar sight.

The Jade Roaming Palace was a cultivation lineage on Golden Tortoise Island. Though its name sounded grand and imposing, it was a small sect through and through.

The palace had originally housed several hundred people in all. Unfortunately, during a conflict with another sect more than thirty years earlier, its leader, whose cultivation had reached perfected dao palace, had died a terrible death. The Jade Roaming Palace's disciples had also suffered grievous casualties in that conflict.

Fortunately, what remained of the Jade Roaming Palace had the protection of the Great Sect to which it had long paid tribute. Only thus had it survived, rather than having its inheritance severed outright.

Even so, under pressure from outside forces, its remaining disciples had gradually scattered like monkeys when their tree fell. In the end, only two Daoists, one old and one young, still lived in the palace and counted as members of its lineage.

But just two months earlier, the old Daoist, who had reached the other shore realm, had failed to break through into dao palace and passed away while seated in meditation within the palace. The Jade Roaming Palace had thus lost its last supporting pillar, leaving only a young Daoist whose bitter sea had not even been fully opened to inherit its tradition.

In principle, the young Daoist could at least be considered a cultivator. His presence meant that this branch would not suffer a complete severing of its inheritance and extinction of its lineage, which was a good thing.

Yet with the old Daoist's passing, the young Daoist had no choice but to take charge alone, becoming the Jade Roaming Palace's new leader and taking over everything the old Daoist had once managed.

No sooner had the young Daoist taken charge than all manner of troubles followed. Of these, two were the most pressing.

First, as a cultivation sect subordinate to a Great Sect, the Jade Roaming Palace had to pay tribute every year.

While the old Daoist had been alive, he could still venture out to sea and try his luck. With his other shore cultivation, he could always bring back something and barely scrape together the required tribute.

Now that the old Daoist was dead, however, the Jade Roaming Palace had lost its source of resources entirely. The young Daoist had nothing with which to cultivate himself, let alone pay tribute to the Great Sect.

With his bitter sea only just opened, the young Daoist was a mere bottom-rung cultivator. How could he dare follow the old Daoist's example and venture out to sea in search of resources?

Yet once the tribute stopped, losing protection would be the least of the Jade Roaming Palace's worries. The real fear was that the superior sect would fly into a rage and impose punishment. Neither the young Daoist nor the Jade Roaming Palace could bear that.

Second, although the Jade Roaming Palace had declined, it had once been overseen by an expert at perfected dao palace, and several hundred years earlier, it had even produced a four extremes expert. It could certainly be considered a sect with a substantial inheritance.

The various Dao Lineages on Golden Tortoise Island all believed that if they could acquire this inheritance, even if their own sects could not soar straight into the heavens, they would certainly benefit greatly and could flourish from then on.

Thus, both on Golden Tortoise Island and beyond, countless eyes were now watching the Jade Roaming Palace and the young Daoist, hoping to seize this chance to tear off a piece of flesh.

It was easy to imagine what a miserable fate awaited the Jade Roaming Palace once it lost its protection.

At that moment, inside the Jade Roaming Palace, the young Daoist sat before the old Daoist's memorial tablet with a mournful face, fretting alone.

He carefully considered how he might survive this calamity, but could find no way forward.

Just as he sat at his wits' end, a knocking suddenly came from outside the palace.

Then a clear voice rang out beyond the palace gates.

"Is anyone in the Jade Roaming Palace? This humble Daoist is He Mu, an old friend of the Jade Roaming Palace lineage. I have come expressly to pay a visit today."

First update.