The Heavenly Evolution Sect.
Thick tribulation clouds filled the sky, lightning flashing within them. Their violent aura carried a thousand miles, as though intent on destroying everything.
Rain poured down. A woman stood quietly atop the mountain, gazing up at the sky.
Fierce winds swept her white hair behind her, and her clear, limpid eyes held nothing but coldness.
White hair and a youthful face, raging thunder and howling winds-the scene was beautiful and otherworldly.
On dozens of distant subsidiary peaks, crowds watched and whispered, "Which tribulation is this for the sect master?"
"The ninth. Each one comes earlier than the last."
"Nine tribulations..." Everyone fell solemnly silent.
In this world, there was no such thing as transcending a tribulation and ascending. After reaching the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, a heavenly tribulation descended once every five hundred years, meaning, "Heaven will not tolerate those who contend with it for longevity." Survive, and one's cultivation advanced; fail, and body and soul were annihilated.
The so-called "surviving ten thousand tribulations" was the highest pursuit. Unfortunately, no one had ever been heard to achieve it.
After all, each tribulation was more powerful than the last, while at such a stage, a mere five hundred years could scarcely improve one's cultivation. It often failed to keep pace with the growing strength of the heavenly tribulations. Never mind surviving ten thousand-even those who had survived a dozen or more were exceedingly rare, every one of them among this world's foremost earthly immortals.
And this female sect master before them had already endured nine tribulations.
A boy who had recently joined quietly asked an elder, "I've heard that with cultivation like the sect master's, even heaven can be deceived, and there are ways to lengthen the intervals between tribulations. Why does she insist on cultivating the art of divining heaven's secrets, bringing heaven's jealousy upon herself? Having her hair turn white in her prime is bad enough, but even her tribulations keep coming earlier."
The elder sighed softly. "She... is looking for someone. Even founding the Heavenly Evolution Sect back then was only to have people at her disposal, to make the search easier. Once your cultivation reaches a certain level, you'll receive missions to leave the mountain and search, too."
The disciple stared in astonishment, then turned toward the distant sect master.
Boom! A bolt of lightning several dozen feet thick crashed down, illuminating her breathtakingly beautiful face.
The boy was struck by her beauty. He had only ever heard people praise the sect master's looks, without truly understanding it. How beautiful could someone with a head of white hair be? Yet seeing her in person, she was plainly a young woman of twenty, her jade-like face lit by lightning, like a celestial being. Her white hair did not age her at all; instead, it added an immortal air and a cold severity, making her beauty utterly arresting.
Looking for someone? A man?
What man in this world could deserve her?
A slender finger lightly touched the lightning. The next instant, energy erupted, sizzling currents spilling terrifying power in every direction. The spectators on the distant subsidiary peaks hastily brought out Law Treasures to shield their disciples as they retreated at speed.
Where the currents passed, rock shattered and great trees snapped.
"These mountains were reinforced with formations! Even the energy spilling out is like this... Would we have any hope of surviving at the heart of the tribulation?" an old man murmured in horror.
"With such power, how is the sect master?"
Everyone looked up, only to find the lightning fading, the downpour stopping, and the clouds clearing to reveal the moon. Atop the main peak, the peerlessly beautiful sect master stood with her robes fluttering, quietly watching the moon, as though nothing had happened.
The heavenly tribulation had been broken with a single finger.
Everyone was both awed and afraid. The sect master's cultivation might have surpassed even the world's estimates.
Her young, cool voice came on the wind. "Jinyue."
A white-robed girl flew up from afar and bowed. "Master. Congratulations on safely passing the Nine Tribulations."
"The Heavenly Beam Star has stirred recently, seemingly showing an unusual sign. Go to the Tianliang Continent and take a look. Our sect's influence has yet to reach Tianliang, so use your own judgment. If circumstances permit, try taking disciples and imparting our teachings to expand our influence. Consider it a trial of experience as well. Send word promptly if you need the sect's support."
The girl looked up at her master's young, beautiful face and the white hair that should not have been there, hesitating to speak.
How many years have you searched for him? Could he have long since passed away, leaving everything you've done as futile as climbing a tree to catch fish?
Heaven's secrets are obscure and cannot be fully known. For vague things like a "stirring star" or an "unusual sign," how much more of your lifespan will you sacrifice? Is it worth it?
But facing her master's deep, unwavering eyes, she ultimately said nothing, merely holding her sword as she accepted the order. "Yes."
Even her own name, Jiang Jinyue, came from a line of poetry the person her master sought had once recited to her master: "At parting, the vast river lay steeped in moonlight."
Her master had spent half her life cultivating for this obsession. No one could dissuade her.
The six great continents of the Heavenly South were arranged in the shape of the Southern Dipper. The third was named Tianliang.
There was a small city called Anding, with a pine-covered ridge outside it.
Qi Yan sat amid a cluster of burial mounds, his head splitting and his stomach wracked with pain.
Through the stars swimming before his eyes, he could vaguely make out a young man in fine robes standing in front of him, chuckling. "Qi Yan, it's already the fifth day. Have you thought it over?"
Qi Yan rubbed his throbbing head. Two sets of memories interwove, and he soon understood what had happened.
He had originally been a man from modern Earth who had built a small company from nothing. Unfortunately, bad luck had struck, and he had died in a car accident. He seemed to have reincarnated into a xianxia world, but rebirth had clouded the light of his former soul, leaving him with no memories of the modern world. He had lived eighteen years as a native.
In this life, he was a member of a small, declining cultivation Lineage. His parents had once been notable figures within it, and his father had even been a strong contender for the position of clan head. Unfortunately, they had died early in a conflict with other powers, leaving him, then only a few years old, to grow up as an outsider in the Lineage, enduring disdain.
This Lineage was utterly pathetic. Its ancestor had only been an ordinary Golden Core cultivator, though of course, in this small, outlying city, a Golden Core cultivator was a local powerhouse. Unfortunately, after thousands of years of passing down its legacy and multiplying, it had declined to the point where most members could not cultivate even a trace of Spiritual Qi. Almost all were mortals. Only the clan head was at the Qi Refining Third Layer, barely keeping a foothold in the city.
Well, Qi Yan's father had also been at the Qi Refining Third Layer. Who knew whether he might have reached the fourth or fifth layer if he had lived until now? In any case, it was a bunch of weaklings pecking at each other.
As for Qi Yan himself, whether because of his reincarnated soul or slightly better inheritance from his parents, his aptitude was decent. Despite growing up on the fringes, he had actually cultivated a little qi by eighteen and could use a few minor spells-commonly known as the Qi Refining First Layer.
Yet this rare achievement had brought him neither favorable treatment nor nurturing. Instead, they believed his parents had left him some secret, subjected him to all manner of interrogation, and punished him by making him kneel at the ancestral graves until he confessed.
His parents had left him jack shit! Even if he knelt for ten thousand years, there would be nothing to cough up. So his clansmen went all the way and fed him Seven-Day Heartbreak Powder, refusing to give him the antidote unless he revealed the secret.
Today was the fifth day since he had taken the poison. The intense threat of death had angered his past-life memories awake; all along, they had retained a faint awareness of his circumstances.
What an idiot. If you don't want to live, I will!
"Only two days left." The finely dressed young man crouched in front of Qi Yan, smiling. "Whether it's a cultivation trick or some hidden secret in the ancestral graves, it belongs to our ancestors, not to you, Qi Yan. Here before their graves, you refuse to admit it even on pain of death. That's tantamount to betraying the clan. Have you thought that through?"
This finely dressed young man was Qi Zhi, the eldest branch's legitimate son. Clearly, he was merely worried that Qi Yan's cultivation would threaten his entire branch's position, and with the tacit approval of his father, the clan head, had found an excuse to eliminate future trouble.
Perhaps there had been something suspicious about his parents' deaths back then. Now that Qi Yan was showing talent too, someone could no longer sit still.
Qi Yan sorted through his memories, looked at Qi Zhi, then at the guards beside him, and almost laughed.
Not at Qi Zhi's branch. At himself.
What had I been doing these past eighteen years?
Especially these past few days?
He was a Qi Refinement cultivator, however lowly, while Qi Zhi and every guard around him were mortals! A few mortals were putting on airs and threatening a cultivator, yet he had not dared utter a peep. He had been so full of grievance and resentment that his anger had even stirred up his past-life memories...
What was there to feel wronged about?
The Lineage's orders? What the hell were those? I'm about to die, and I'm still worrying about this and that.
Seeing Qi Yan smile, Qi Zhi froze. "You're still smiling?"
"Sure. I've come to terms with things." Qi Yan smiled faintly. "There's no cultivation trick. Maybe if you reincarnate and get a better brain, you'll have a chance."
Qi Zhi's expression turned icy. "Are you courting death?"
"See? You're getting worked up again." Qi Yan smiled. "That said, the ancestral graves really do hold a few secrets. As our finest members passed away generation after generation, some things were lost. I wonder whether you know what I know... Shall we compare notes?"
Qi Zhi breathed out. So he was afraid of dying after all. "If you'd cooperated earlier, wouldn't that have settled it?"
Qi Yan glanced at the guards on either side and beckoned. "It's an ancestral secret, after all. We can't let outsiders hear it. Come closer, and I'll tell you."
Qi Yan had lived cautiously for eighteen years. Even after being poisoned, all he could do was torment himself and brood over his grievances. Qi Zhi truly did not believe he could muster any backbone, and leaned closer without suspicion. "That's more like it! If you spout nonsense to deceive me, you should know... Urk..."
Before he could finish, a palm struck his Dantian, crippling all his meridians.
"You..." Qi Zhi spat out a mouthful of blood and raised his head to see Qi Yan's smiling eyes. "A mere mortal, trying to push around a Qi Refinement cultivator. Our Lineage is pretty funny."
"..." Qi Zhi thought Qi Yan was the funny one. He still could not imagine how he dared!
Could he possibly escape after attacking here?
Only then did the surrounding guards react, drawing their weapons in alarm. "Release the young master!"
Qi Yan seized Qi Zhi by the throat and searched his body with his free hand. His expression darkened slightly.
Qi Zhi carried only some silver, no antidote.
Coughing blood, Qi Zhi gritted his teeth. "Don't waste your effort. My father has the antidote to the Seven-Day Heartbreak Powder. Let me go now, before we destroy each other, and perhaps your life can still be spared. We're family, after all..."
"Oh." Qi Yan smiled again, tightening his grip on Qi Zhi's throat as he turned to the guards. "Go tell the clan head to bring the antidote if he wants his precious son alive."
Qi Zhi was utterly speechless. "This is a hilltop! Once the surroundings are blocked off, you won't escape even with the antidote. Why do this... cough, cough... Let me go, and I promise I'll get you the antidote. I promise!"
"Whether I can escape is no concern of yours, young clan head." Qi Yan looked around with a smile. "Well? Go deliver the message."
A guard immediately raced down the burial hill, heading straight for the Qi Clan estate.
Still gripping Qi Zhi's throat, Qi Yan dragged him before the largest stone tomb in full view of the remaining guards and pressed a mechanism.
A small door rumbled open. Qi Yan dragged Qi Zhi into the tomb by the throat and closed the door again.
This was the tomb of their Golden Core ancestor from thousands of years ago. Even the outer burial chambers had numerous restrictions and formations, both to prevent grave robbing and damage and to serve as a refuge where descendants could defend themselves if the clan faced extermination.
Qi Yan was an outsider now, but he had not been one as a child when his parents were alive. He really did know quite a bit about the ancestral graves' secrets.
Qi Zhi had no idea what Qi Yan intended by trapping himself here like a turtle in a jar. "You aren't thinking of using the ancestral tomb's restrictions against the Lineage, are you?"
"Why not?" Qi Yan smiled. "Didn't I say there were things you might not know...?"
"Are you an idiot?" Qi Zhi nearly laughed in anger. They did believe Qi Yan knew some secrets, but at most they thought those concerned insights useful for cultivation, not the ancestral tomb's mechanisms and restrictions. Who could know more about those than the clan head himself?
Qi Yan ignored him, dragging him through the outer burial chamber passage straight to the main tomb's entrance, where he activated another hidden mechanism.
A blood-colored formation rose beneath their feet.
Qi Zhi's heart lurched. His face changed in horror as he struggled desperately. "The Mutual Destruction Restriction! Are you insane? These are the ancestral graves! Your ancestors are buried here too!"
The Mutual Destruction Restriction was the final safeguard the ancestor had left for his tomb: if his descendants proved unworthy and enemies breached the burial chambers, sacrificing the life of a single descendant of the Qi Clan would trigger the entire mausoleum's explosive self-destruction, taking every invading enemy down with it.
Every blood descendant knew about this. After all, any descendant might have to organize resistance, so they all needed to understand it. If only a few people knew and they were killed in an attack, the knowledge would be lost.
Never in his wildest dreams had Qi Zhi imagined that Qi Yan was summoning the clan head not to exchange him for the antidote, but to destroy them all together!
No, not together. The person activating the Mutual Destruction Restriction probably wouldn't be harmed... At that thought, Qi Zhi grew both angry and frantic. "These are all our ancestors around us! Qi Yan, this is unforgivable sacrilege!"
Qi Yan's smile remained. "Our ancestor set this restriction to give his descendants a chance to perish with their enemies. I'm a descendant, and you're the enemy. A perfect fit. If our ancestor knew, he would smile in his grave."
Qi Zhi's mind went blank.
Had he known Qi Yan was this kind of lunatic, why bother with Seven-Day Heartbreak Powder? He should have killed him outright. But he had never been like this before. How had he suddenly become a different person?