Feng Jiu's transmigration had been less than ideal, but at least it had brought him into a vast world of myriad heavens and landed him a job with the Heavenly Court.
Still, whenever he woke from dreams at midnight, his face would darken as he wondered what sins he had committed in his previous life to have stepped straight into this bottomless pit.
He still remembered that stormy night, when a brilliantly golden orb of light abruptly appeared in his home. It had no human form, yet spoke in a human voice: "Young man, do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live... pfft, wrong lines..."
"Ahem!"
"Young man, I can see that you possess extraordinary bones and heaven-surging fortune. You have the makings of a Heavenly Emperor, a talent found not even once in a billion people. I have a path here that can realize your potential. Care to walk it?"
"Huh?" Feng Jiu's mighty frame shuddered. "What's going on? People transmigrate every year, and now it's my turn?"
After only a moment's consideration, he decisively went all in. "Yes! Absolutely! Right now! Immediately!"
He believed that going all in was a form of wisdom!
Instead, this left the sacred-looking orb stunned. It stammered, "Eh? That's not how you're supposed to react... shouldn't you first deny it, then question it, then be reluctant to leave... scream about kidnapping, and finally let me drag you away against your will?"
"That script went out of fashion ages ago!" Feng Jiu's gaze was disdainful. "You don't understand young people these days at all... you don't have internet access, do you?"
"It's 2044. Even if you put a button to summon Trisolarans or nuke the world in front of me, hesitating for one extra second would be disrespecting my own life!"
"If I don't use an autoclicker, consider my moral standards rock-solid!"
The orb was shaken.
-Are those 'morals' of yours really all right?
"Hurry up. Whatever you have to say, say it on the way. I don't care whether it's made up or true, a tall tale or utter nonsense..." Feng Jiu urged.
"Oh, oh, okay..." Profoundly shaken, the orb agreed.
Then Feng Jiu's consciousness grew hazy. In his daze, he seemed to pass through the vastness of the cosmos and condense the dark heavens and yellow earth. Peerless axe-light cleaved through endless space and time, while a desolate dragon's cry echoed through eternity...
Heavenly palaces shattered and fell into nothingness; immortals and gods wept blood and buried entire epochs... the birth and death of myriad heavens, the existence and absence of countless worlds, all joined in a mournful song!
Feng Jiu's consciousness drifted away completely. He could no longer see or hear anything. His final impression was a few utterly plain words.
"Cang Heaven is dead..."
The place where Feng Jiu had been born was far from simple.
Or rather, what was simple was his own world-the tip of the iceberg showing above the sea, ordinary and unremarkable.
Beneath the surface lay vast myriad heavens, endless space and time, resplendent myths, and the boundless Primordial World!
"The Primordial World... is it the one I'm thinking of?"
Once Feng Jiu's consciousness cleared again, he asked curiously.
"Yes and no."
Heavenly Emperor Cultivation System 999 answered. That was the orb's true name. "The various legends of your world are both right and wrong. They're merely information that escaped and was picked up, becoming inspiration for mortals... reality is far more complicated."
"Of course, I don't know much either. After all, I'm only a little system that was just born, and I was given this mission in a crisis..."
System 999 muttered.
"So you're an illiterate who only just graduated from prenatal education..." Feng Jiu sighed.
"What do you mean, illiterate? I'm not!" System 999 declared forcefully. "My database contains all the basic teaching materials left by those great adepts!"
"They're the key to cultivating the next Heavenly Emperor!"
System 999 explained earnestly.
The Primordial World kept no count of years, and its past could not be traced.
And any discussion of the Primordial World inevitably involved the Heavenly Court, the seat of order throughout its heaven and earth.
In this era, a Heavenly Emperor named Cang had ruled the Heavenly Court and could be called "Cang Heaven."
Cang Heaven stood above all. Before him, every race and every great adept had to bow their heads. He had raised the Heavenly Emperor's majesty to its pinnacle and imposed his will upon endless space and time.
Sadly, those glorious days did not last.
A Demon Ancestor of unknown name arose and brazenly stormed the Heavenly Court, overturning Heaven itself!
"The Heavenly Emperor is dead!"
"Cang Heaven has fallen... but the Heavenly Court must endure. A new Heavenly Emperor must take office and shoulder the burden of the entire Primordial World..."
"And so systems like me were born, gathering the wisdom of many great adepts to open a long road of trials... the Heavenly Emperor's Path!"
"Someone who completes this path and comprehends the spirit of the Heavenly Emperor may become the next supreme Heavenly Emperor."
"Originally, this should have taken place within the Primordial World, which encompasses countless greater worlds."
"But the Demon Ancestor's assault on Heaven had far-reaching consequences. The entire Primordial World was thrown into turmoil, and every concept related to the Heavenly Court and the Heavenly Emperor became unstable."
"Still, the great adepts had accounted for this too. The Primordial World had become unstable, but we could travel to other worlds among the myriad heavens, rely on the concept of the Heavenly Court, and forge ahead through adversity..."
System 999 revealed to Feng Jiu a glimpse of the scenery at cultivation's end.
-Once cultivation reached an inconceivably wondrous realm, eternal freedom throughout endless space and time was merely commonplace. One's Dao and its fruition could manifest out of thin air even across immeasurable heavens, creating something from nothing!
"Take the Three Pure Ones, for example. They can project similar forms in different worlds, on different soil. That's how it works."
"Of course, while such people do exist, they may not attain the same transcendent realm. They might remain mortals their entire lives, never displaying any divine wonders... a few deviations are perfectly normal."
At this, Feng Jiu grew thoughtful and drew further conclusions. "So some things I've seen and heard, things that seemed like mere fiction, might actually have real counterparts?"
"Exactly," System 999 said. "These waters run deep. Truth and falsehood, illusion and reality-it's not something beings at our level can see through."
"Fortunately, how extraordinary is a concept like the 'Heavenly Court'?"
"No matter where it is, it's destined to stand above the world!"
"So just cling to my coattails and let me carry you to glory. We'll win this trial for the Heavenly Emperor!"
How supremely confident and detached System 999 was at that moment!
Could they win?
They would win!
"Huh?"
Suddenly, System 999 spoke, sounding astonished. "What am I seeing?"
"A Reincarnation Supreme Treasure?"
"It looks wild, too-unclaimed? Host, watch me get you divine gear right at the start!"
With that, light blazed, and it was like a husky let out of its cage, noisily thrash-
-ing about.
Then Feng Jiu watched helplessly as a lotus seed danced through the air. The light dimmed, the orb shattered, and System 999 cried mournfully, "How despicable! It was bait? I got greedy this time..."
Everything went black before Feng Jiu's eyes.
When light returned, he had become a young boy standing inside a stone palace. Children around his age surrounded him on every side, their expressions solemn.
An old man stood on a raised platform, his face cold. "Once you enter my Heavenly Court, you must follow the Way of Slaying!"
"The way of Heaven is to take from those who have too much and give to those who have too little! Under this way, there is no one in the world who cannot be slain!"
"Cultivators may be slain, and prodigies all the more so!"
"Take from the prodigies who have too much to replenish your own deficiencies... this is your destiny, and also your opportunity!"
"The golden age has begun. This is a feast that belongs to you!"
"..."
At that moment, Feng Jiu's heart felt hollow, and one thought echoed without end.
-What kind of Heavenly Court was this?