Beneath the vaulted dome of the Auric Celestial Skyspire's grand central hall, Qin Ting presided over a sanctuary as opulent as it was secluded. The vast chamber, his private dominion, hummed with a profound stillness, its gilded walls and soaring pillars bathed in the soft, golden glow of suspended orbs that mirrored the sun's eternal radiance.
Here, amid the splendor, he pursued his path of cultivation, untouched by the chaos of the world beyond.
At the hall's heart, atop a dais of flawless white jade that gleamed like captured moonlight, Qin Ting sat cross-legged, a bastion of calm amid the storm of his own power. His breaths flowed in a steady, oceanic rhythm—deep inhales swelling his chest, slow exhales whispering through the air like waves lapping at a boundless shore.
In this sprawling realm of cultivators, techniques glittered like stars across a midnight sky, each a unique beacon of possibility. Yet only the rarest methods—coveted jewels of insight—could propel a practitioner to greatness with breathtaking speed, halving their toil while doubling their rewards. Such treasures were legends, desired by all but grasped by few.
And Qin Ting wielded the grandest of them all: the Heavenly Void Mystery Tome, the pinnacle of the Xuantian Sect's sacred teachings. Whispers among the sect's elders spoke of its divine origins, claiming it was once the personal doctrine of Saint Xuantian Ren, the sect's mythic founder. Its verses were intricate, its truths veiled in shadows so deep they overwhelmed lesser minds.
Only the True Disciples, anointed as bearers of the sect's hallowed legacy, were permitted to study its pages. Even then, its riddles defeated all but the most resolute. Over millennia, prodigies had come and gone, their spirits ablaze with dreams of mastering the tome and standing in Xuantian Ren's radiant echo.
Yet, one by one, they faltered, their ambitions crumbling beneath the weight of its mysteries, retreating to humbler arts with their pride traded for pragmatism.
In the sect's vast history, spanning hundreds of thousands of years, only three souls had pierced the tome's enigmatic veil. Each had risen as a colossus within the Xuantian Sect, their names immortalized as titans who elevated the sect to unparalleled heights, their eras marked by unchallenged supremacy. Now, Qin Ting stood as the fourth.
This triumph had ignited quiet fervor within the sect. The elders, who had long pinned their hopes on him, exchanged hushed, reverent words, their eyes alight with visions of a golden future. 'He is the one,' they murmured behind closed doors.
'The next great sovereign of the Xuantian Sect, destined to sweep the Eastern Wilderness beneath our banner and extend our dominion far beyond.' To them, Qin Ting was no mere disciple—he was a harbinger of glory, a blade poised to carve their name into the heavens.
A slow, deliberate exhale escaped his lips, his energy sinking like a stone into the fathomless depths of his dantian, the pulsing core of his vitality. His spiritual consciousness bloomed outward, delicate as a lotus unfurling its petals, threading through his being until it brushed against a radiant inner sanctum: his Celestial Harmony Palace.
This shimmering edifice, a hallmark of those who had breached the Divine Spirit Realm, served as both a wellspring of boundless spiritual power and a treasury for a cultivator's most prized possessions. Its scope reflected one's foundation—a mirror of their potential, a prophecy of their ascent.
Among Divine Spirit practitioners, the size of a Celestial Harmony Palace measured greatness. Ten miles was respectable, a hundred miles exceptional. Three hundred miles heralded a genius born once in a generation, while five hundred miles was a wonder whispered in tales spanning a thousand years.
Qin Ting turned his inner gaze upon his own palace, its shimmering expanse stretching before him like a dream made manifest. He traced its boundaries with a meticulous eye, marveling at what he found.
A thousand miles. A thousand-mile Celestial Harmony Palace.
If this truth were to spread beyond the Skyspire's walls, it would spark a storm of astonishment and disbelief, a seismic upheaval among cultivators and scholars alike. No record, no legend—not even the hallowed annals of Saint Xuantian Ren himself—spoke of such a marvel.
Even the founder's fabled palace, a monument of lore, had spanned only eight hundred miles. Qin Ting had surpassed them all, his name poised to blaze as the unrivaled first in the chronicles of time.
Yet no flicker of arrogance stirred his heart. 'A thousand miles,' he mused inwardly, 'is no crown to flaunt. It's my due, the natural fruit of someone forged to tower over the rabble of the Eastern Wilderness.' To him, this was not a boast—it was a fact, as unassailable as the rising sun.
His life had been a tapestry woven with golden threads, each strand smoothed by fortune's gentle hand. From birth, Emperor Qin—his father, a titan among men—had indulged him, shaping him into a true son of the heavens. What Qin Ting desired, he claimed; what he sought, he seized; what barred his path, he sundered. These years had forged a will of iron, a confidence unshaken by doubt, tempered by the Dao into a blade that cleaved through all obstacles.
Silently, he summoned the Heavenly Void Mystery Tome once more. His aura erupted, vast and inscrutable, cloaking him in a presence that wavered between divine majesty and demonic dread. His qi thickened, dense as molten gold, tendrils spiraling outward to bathe his Celestial Harmony Palace in a nourishing sheen of violet light.
The palace's walls grew sturdier, its expanse more resolute, each pulse of energy anchoring it deeper into his being.
He had only recently entered the Divine Spirit Realm, and his palace was still a fledgling construct, its roots tender and untested. So he poured himself into its refinement, channeling his power to fortify its foundations. In just half a month, it had hardened into an unbreakable bastion—a feat that left his peers' progress far behind, a testament to his prodigious gifts.
Yet he did not stir from his trance. Instead, he plunged deeper, his mind threading through the tapestry of his first Divine Spirit ability, seeking its perfection.
Qin Ting's birthright granted him luxuries few could fathom. Emperor Qin, a colossus of cultivation, had tutored him with a father's tenderness, unraveling the secrets of Immortal and Divine Spirit arts as if they were bedtime tales. While others, like Song Changge, a former True Disciple, clung to the Great Sun Reincarnation Secret Code as their sole prize, Qin Ting faced no such scarcity.
Should he desire a technique guarded by the Xuantian Sect, a word to the elders would see it delivered. The Qin family's Scripture Guardian Hall, a trove of ancient wisdom, brimmed with tomes that sparked wars in the wider world. To him, they were mere trinkets on a shelf.
But Qin Ting was no idle heir, content to bask in inherited might. The truest masters of the Dao blazed their own trails, birthing abilities from the crucible of their own genius. 'I'll not be outdone,' he vowed silently.
The lightning that had once felled Elder Zhang in a single, searing strike was his own creation—a derivation of the Divine Raging Thunder Secret Technique, passed from father to son. Yet it remained incomplete, its edges rough despite Emperor Qin's near-perfect refinements.
Flaws gnawed at Qin Ting, a perfectionist to his core, and so he sank into deduction. His brow flickered with insight, his eyes swirling with boundless enigmas—thunder's secrets distilled, fused, and reborn as something wholly his own.
Time melted away, unnoticed, until his eyes flared open. Lightning crackled within them, fierce and unyielding.
"Thunder comes in five colors," he proclaimed, his voice a resonant thunderclap that shivered through the hall.
"The tribulation of thunder is its soul. My first original Divine Spirit art will take the Five-Colored Divine Thunder as its root, wield the Thunder Calamity as its essence, summon clouds with a gesture, and call rain with a twist of my will. This is the Eternal Void Sovereign's Divine Edict—a judgment from the heavens themselves. No immortal could stand beneath it unscathed."
A long, crackling breath escaped him, the air tingling with static as he rose. His body unfolded with a predator's grace, muscles and bones humming in unison, a faint rumble of thunder reverberating through the chamber. With a flick of his fingers, the air erupted in a cascade of violet arcs, tendrils of lightning lashing outward as if he were a storm god reborn in flesh.
The hall trembled under the unintended onslaught of raw, purple thunder, the chaos barely contained by its thick walls. Qin Ting paid the devastation no heed, his aura retracting as swiftly as it had surged, leaving the air still once more. Such was his mastery over his spiritual essence.
The Divine Raging Thunder Secret Technique had been perfected—reborn as the Eternal Void Sovereign's Divine Edict, a creation far more intricate and potent than the art his father had once wielded to crush his foes.
A voice pierced the silence, snapping him from his reverie.
"Young Master!" Nie You's tone was deferential, trembling slightly as he knelt beyond the hall's threshold. "Forgive my intrusion—I bring word that we've reached the Lian Yun Mountain Range!"
Qin Ting rose fully, his piercing gaze narrowing, a faint, wicked smile curling his lips.
"Ye Qiu," he murmured, the name dripping with dark amusement, "let's see what makes you, a so-called Child of Destiny, so remarkable…"
⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘
Far to the north of the Eastern Wilderness, the Lian Yun Mountain Range rose in a breathtaking symphony of stone and sky. Jagged peaks thrust upward like the spears of forgotten gods, their tips grazing the heavens. From afar, the summits seemed to weave into the drifting clouds, a union so ethereal it birthed their name: Lian Yun, the Cloud-Linked Range.
A perpetual shroud of mist clung to their slopes, softening the edges of ancient, emerald-cloaked forests and veiling the silver threads of streams that tumbled down in ceaseless whispers. These mountains stood as timeless guardians, their silent majesty both an invitation and a warning to those who dared approach.
At the heart of this grandeur, Qin Ting crossed the threshold of his Auric Celestial Skyspire's central hall. The ornate gates parted soundlessly before him, their golden lattice catching the light as his silken robes rippled in the breeze sweeping in from the boundless sky beyond.
The fabric flowed around his tall frame, a cascade of deep azure embroidered with faint silver runes that shimmered like stars against the night. His presence was a quiet storm—calm, yet charged with an authority that needed no proclamation.
The hall stretched before him, a grand corridor of polished marble and soaring pillars. On either side, two groups stood in reverent stillness.
To his left, his retinue—servants in crisp livery and guards in gleaming armor—bowed low. To his right, fellow disciples from the Xuantian Sect lined the way, their robes emblazoned with the sect's crest. The air thrummed with anticipation as Qin Ting stepped forward, his measured stride echoing softly against the stone.
"Young Master!" the servants cried in unison, their voices a chorus of deference as they dipped lower, foreheads nearly brushing the floor.
"Senior Brother Qin," the disciples intoned, their fists clasped before their chests as they bent in a synchronized bow. The words resonated through the hall, a harmonious wave of respect carrying the weight of their admiration.
In recent days, these disciples had trained within the Skyspire's labyrinthine chambers, their skills honed under Zhou Pingyue's exacting gaze. Her instruction was sharp and unforgiving, carving away weakness to reveal strength.
Yet it was Qin Ting's initial guidance, offered with piercing clarity, that had truly ignited their progress. His insights had unraveled techniques once thought unreachable, illuminating paths through the tangled wilderness of cultivation. Now, as he emerged from weeks of secluded meditation, they gathered to honor him, their hearts alight with gratitude and curiosity about the marvels he had wrought.
Qin Ting's lips curved into a faint, enigmatic smile, cool as the mountain winds. He raised a hand, the gesture graceful yet commanding, stilling the fervor around him.
"Junior brothers and sisters," he said, his voice a smooth current, gentle yet laced with unshakable presence, "such formality is unnecessary among us."
From the crowd, Zhou Pingyue observed him, her sharp eyes narrowing as she dipped her head in a subtle bow. She stood apart, a figure of poised intensity, her cultivation teetering on the edge of greatness. At the pinnacle of the Divine Wheel Realm, she lingered just shy of the Divine Spirit Realm—a threshold few could cross.
Her mastery of the Supreme Clarity Heart Method, the Xuantian Sect's revered mental cultivation technique, had honed her perception to a razor's edge. To her, ordinary Divine Spirit practitioners were mere shadows, unworthy of notice.
Yet Qin Ting was no ordinary man. As Zhou Pingyue studied him, a faint pressure brushed her senses—an elusive force, subtle yet heavy with unspoken power. It stirred her honed instincts. 'He's crossed another threshold,' she thought, her mind racing.
'His strength has grown—veiled now, yet far beyond what it was at Taixu Peak.' The realization sparked awe, tempered by the resolve of one who understood the climb ahead. She recognized her fortune in joining this expedition. If she played her cards right, she might earn Qin Ting's favor, perhaps securing a fitting reward by journey's end.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the Lian Yun Mountain Range sprawled Backridge City, a humble settlement nestled in the shadow of the towering peaks. Named for its rugged backdrop, it had long been a quiet haven, its cobblestone streets winding through modest homes and sleepy taverns.
But now, the city pulsed with unfamiliar vitality. Rumors of a rare treasure emerging within the mountains had spread like wildfire, drawing the ambitious and desperate alike.
The once-tranquil lanes buzzed with life. Disciples from prestigious sects swaggered through the crowds, their embroidered robes proclaiming their lineage. Rogue cultivators slipped through the throng like wraiths, their eyes glinting with hunger for fortune. The air hummed with anticipation, crackling between shouted greetings and whispered deals.
Opportunity bloomed amid the chaos. Locals and merchants had seized the moment, erecting wooden stalls that lined the streets like a makeshift bazaar.
Their tables groaned under treasures: spirit herbs glowing faintly, vials of elixirs shimmering like liquid stars, and scrolls etched with incantations promising fleeting power. Voices overlapped in a vibrant tapestry—haggling, laughter, and gasps of wonder as rare finds changed hands.
Through this bustling sea wandered a young man in simple cyan robes. His delicate, almost scholarly features suggested a life among scrolls rather than cultivators' clamor. His slight frame moved with effortless grace, drawing fleeting glances. To most, he was a mere passerby, quickly forgotten.
But to those attuned to spiritual energy, his presence sang—a potent aura of the Divine Wheel Realm, coiled tightly within him like a storm awaiting release. This was Ye Qiu, the Child of Destiny.
He drifted among the stalls, fingers grazing a jade talisman here, lingering over fragrant herbs there. His expression of idle curiosity masked the storm brewing within. 'Master,' he thought, toying with the plain ring on his finger, 'what treasure awaits in the Lian Yun Mountain Range?'
A voice answered in his thoughts, aged and raspy, laced with wisdom and amusement. "The sky's painted with a half-crimson sunset, and the clouds have blazed red for seven days and nights. Heh, such a portent can only mean one thing—the birth of a Strange Flame. The Earth Emperor's Mysterious Flame, I'd wager!"
Ye Qiu's pulse quickened, excitement flaring in his chest. 'The Earth Emperor's Mysterious Flame?' he echoed silently. 'If I claim it, could it carry me to the Divine Spirit Realm?'
The old voice chuckled, rich with pride. "When you refined the Heavenly Jade Spirit Fire—a lesser flame—it propelled you from the Body Forging Realm to the Primordial Pill Realm in a single bound. Later, the thirty-seventh-ranked Eternal Song Mysterious Flame carried you to the Divine Wheel Realm."
The geezer paused, then continued, "But this Earth Emperor's Mysterious Flame? It's eleventh among the Strange Flames. Refining it to reach the Divine Spirit Realm, lad? That's as certain as the sun rising."
Ye Qiu's heart soared, the promise of such power intoxicating. But before he could bask in it, his master pressed on. "And why do you think I drilled the Heavenly Mysterious Flame Scripture into your thick skull? That tome's a match for the Xuantian Sect's vaunted Supreme Clarity Heart Method—every bit as profound!"
The words pierced Ye Qiu's elation. His expression darkened, resentment coiling in his chest. 'Xuantian Sect... Qin Ting…' The names were venom, each syllable a reminder of festering humiliation.
He'd tried to dismiss Liu Susu's betrayal—abandoning her childhood friend to serve a young master—as her choice. But the shame clung, a wound pulsing with every thought of Qin Ting. Had Elder Ling not seized his body that day in the Sunken Moon Valley, he'd have died, his dreams extinguished.
Elder Ling, the voice in his mind, was the remnant soul of a once-formidable cultivator, now tethered to Ye Qiu's ring. His power had dwindled, but years ago, he'd roused by siphoning Ye Qiu's fledgling cultivation, binding their fates. In time, he'd taken Ye Qiu as his disciple, imparting the Heavenly Mysterious Flame Scripture—a legacy as potent as it was perilous.
Sensing his pupil's mood, Elder Ling softened his tone. "Chin up, boy. Claim the Earth Emperor's Mysterious Flame, step into the Divine Spirit Realm, and your brilliance will outshine them all. Revenge is a feast worth waiting for."
Ye Qiu exhaled, tension draining from his shoulders. 'I know, Master. A true gentleman nurses his vengeance patiently, even if it takes a decade.'
No sooner had the thought settled than the sky darkened, clouds twisting into ominous spirals. Ye Qiu glanced up, his breath catching as a massive shadow swallowed the sun.
A floating palace—an airship of breathtaking splendor—glided toward Backridge City. Its structure was a marvel: towers and spires soared from its deck, etched with glowing runes that pulsed with spiritual energy, casting an otherworldly radiance. Even Ye Qiu, seasoned by countless wonders, felt a flicker of awe.
The crowd erupted, heads tilting skyward as murmurs swelled into shouts. A weathered merchant, eyes wide with recognition, stammered, "No—it can't be! The Auric Celestial Skyspire!"
The name struck the throng like a spark. "The Auric Celestial Skyspire? It's unmistakable—the Xuantian Sect's prized treasure! Emperor Qin's heir! Young Master Qin Ting has come to Backridge City!"
"I saw it at the Jade Lake Festival two years ago," a woman whispered, her voice quivering with reverence. "To witness it again—what a blessing!"
"No doubt about it," another declared. "That's Young Master Qin Ting's personal vessel. If it's here, he's aboard."
Admiration lit the faces around Ye Qiu, their excitement a tangible wave. But within him, a darker fire ignited—rage, raw and unrelenting.
"What's so great about it?" he snarled, his voice cutting through the din. "Just a spoiled brat riding his father's coattails!"
His words landed like stones in still water. Silence spread, thick and suffocating. Eyes turned to him—some wide with disbelief, others narrowed in pity—as if he'd already sealed his fate.