"Mo Yang, you got the Fourth Elder killed, and you still have the face to kneel here!"
"The Fourth Elder's fall has brought huge losses to our Lingxu Sect. You should die to atone for your crimes!"
"You've cultivated for so many years and still couldn't even step into the Qi Condensation Realm. Mo Yang, you are simply trash! The Lingxu Sect doesn't keep trash—get out of the Lingxu Sect!"
"The Fourth Elder is already dead, and there is no one left to protect you. The Sect Master has already ordered that starting tomorrow, Wood Peak will be merged into the Main Peak. From now on, there will be no place for you in the Lingxu Sect!"
...
Behind the back mountain of the Lingxu Sect, in front of a cenotaph, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy knelt with a dull expression. Facing the various scoldings and curses from more than ten sect disciples, he turned a deaf ear, acting like a walking corpse.
He was Mo Yang, currently the only remaining disciple of Wood Peak.
Wood Peak was originally one of the five peaks of the Lingxu Sect, but in recent years, it had fallen into complete decline.
Because the Fourth Elder frequently went out to search for various medicinal herbs for him and had no time to attend to the affairs of Wood Peak, the sect was extremely dissatisfied. The disciples who used to belong to Wood Peak were either directly transferred away by the sect or chose to join the other peaks on their own, leaving Wood Peak long deserted.
Mo Yang had long anticipated that Wood Peak would be merged this time.
Yet when this day truly arrived, an inexplicable sense of loss still filled his heart.
Looking at the newly piled cenotaph before him, that benevolent face constantly surfaced in his mind. In his heart, the Fourth Elder was not only his master, but also his only family.
He had originally been an orphan. Ten years ago, the Fourth Elder went out on a experiential journey, rescued him from the jaws of a fierce beast, and subsequently brought him back to the Lingxu Sect, taking him as a disciple and teaching him the path of cultivation.
At that time, the moment he first came into contact with cultivation, he was able to directly condense true qi, and his astonishing comprehension had shocked the entire Lingxu Sect.
Only, he never dreamed that what awaited him was not a glorious halo, but endless despair and darkness.
After ten years of cultivation, he hadn't even been able to cross the threshold into the Qi Condensation Realm, the very first realm of a cultivator, because he was unable to store the true qi he condensed within his meridians.
Over these ten years, the knowledge concerning martial arts that the Fourth Elder told him, along with the cultivation techniques and mental formulas imparted to him, had long been memorized by heart, yet all of this proved entirely useless to him.
The Fourth Elder had continually sought various methods, unwilling to let his monstrous talent be buried, yet in the end, it all came to naught.
Half a month ago, news spread that a sacred herb had miraculously appeared in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, drawing various sects to rush there. Upon hearing the news, the Fourth Elder disregarded everyone's dissuasions and insisted on going, only to leave and never return.
Afterward, several elders of the Lingxu Sect went in secret to investigate, learning from certain cultivators that the Fourth Elder had been slain by a powerhouse of the Great Dao Sect while trying to seize the sacred herb.
The Great Dao Sect was a supreme, colossal power terrifying beyond imagination, with a heritage spanning ten thousand years and an unfathomable foundation. Facing such a behemoth, the elders of the Lingxu Sect dared to be angry but dared not speak, shifting all the blame entirely onto Mo Yang.
The numerous disciples were no exception, and the overwhelming, venomous words drowned Mo Yang like a tidal wave.
"After tomorrow, there will be no more Wood Peak in the Lingxu Sect. Find your own way out!" The Second Elder glanced coldly from afar, dropped these words, and then turned and left.
After the other disciples departed, Mo Yang sat alone in front of the cenotaph, looking at the overgrown weeds all around and listening to the wailing wind blowing past his ears, his spirits plunged into the depths of despair.
"It's time to leave..."
After a long while, he softly murmured to himself.
Yet endless bewilderment immediately welled up in his heart.
Where should he go? Where could he even go?
Amidst a brief moment of confusion, a trace of resilience flashed in his eyes.
"I was an orphan to begin with. As vast as the heavens and earth are, where is not a home!"
"Master, rest assured, I will definitely step into the path of martial arts, become a powerhouse, and one day I will surely avenge you!"
As for his own condition, he could make no sense of it either. Everything seemed no different from ordinary people, yet he simply could not store the condensed true qi within his meridians; every time true qi was gathered, it would vanish in a short space of time, and it had been like this for ten years.
The Fourth Elder had once asked other elders of the sect to examine him, but none of them had the slightest clue or could find the reason.
The last trace of the setting sun's afterglow vanished from the horizon, and the entire world plunged into darkness.
Mo Yang knew this was his last night remaining in the Lingxu Sect.
He sat cross-legged in silence before the cenotaph, running his mental cultivation method. A wisp of true qi slowly gathered within his meridians, and just like usual, it gradually dissipated not long after it formed.
He sighed helplessly; it had been like this for a decade, and he was long used to it.
Yet right at that moment, his entire body suddenly trembled violently.
Immediately following, a crisp cracking sound rang out from his Dantian position, as if it were shattering.
The Dantian, which cultivators could only open upon reaching the Spirit Awakening Realm, inexplicably and instantly broke open at this moment. This sudden turn of events left Mo Yang utterly dumbfounded.
Because at this very instant, a torrential surge of true qi poured out madly from his Dantian, instantly filling the meridians throughout his entire body.
Mo Yang froze. Could it be that the true qi he had condensed over all these years hadn't truly vanished, but was instead absorbed by his Dantian?
Moreover, the moment his Dantian was unblocked, it felt as though something had been blasted open; aside from true qi, an overbearing and formidable power also erupted from within his Dantian.
Mo Yang's expression changed drastically. Within the span of a few breaths, he felt as though the meridians throughout his body were about to burst open, sending waves of tearing, excruciating pain coursing through him.
Such a situation had never occurred before, catching him completely off guard.
Before he could even recover his senses, the surrounding scenery instantly transformed drastically. When he opened his eyes again, he had actually arrived within a hazy, gray space.
Monstrous billows surged in Mo Yang's heart. His consciousness was clear, but everything happening now had subverted his cognition, making it feel like an absurd and bizarre dream.
What kind of place was this?
He hurriedly swept his gaze around. This place resembled a ruined and desolate wasteland, with broken stones scattered everywhere. It seemed a terrifying battle had once taken place here, as fragmented skeletons could still faintly be seen among the shattered rocks.
Then, his pupils contracted sharply, for a figure was unexpectedly standing not far away!
That person stood with his back turned to him, tall and stalwart. Standing there, he resembled an unscalable giant peak, like an ancient god or demon.
This completely exceeded Mo Yang's understanding of cultivators. That figure before him emitted an intensely terrifying sense of oppression invisibly; even just a glance was enough to make one feel that matchless momentum.
As Mo Yang's gaze locked onto him, that figure also slowly turned around.
It was a middle-aged man!
Only, his face was somewhat blurry. Clearly he was not far away, yet in a blur, it felt as though they were separated by tens of thousands of miles.
"Who are you?"
Mo Yang involuntarily stepped back, speaking out instinctively. Intuition told him that this was definitely an entity powerful beyond imagination.
The middle-aged man silently watched Mo Yang, his expression unreadable. Instead of answering Mo Yang, he spoke, "Your ability to come here shows that you have already passed through the darkest times!"
The calm words fell into Mo Yang's ears like a thunderclap from a clear blue sky, leaving him completely stunned.
Clearly, the other party knew about his experiences!
At the same time, endless doubts welled up in his heart. What was this place, and who was this person? He could dare swear this was definitely no hallucination!
"Who on earth are you?"
Mo Yang asked again, growing increasingly vigilant.
Yet facing Mo Yang's repeated questioning, the middle-aged man still offered no reply, instead speaking at his own pace, "With every loss comes a gain. Once the darkness passes, the dawn will surely arrive. When the seals within your body shatter layer by layer and you inherit the heaven-defying power, you will embark upon an invincible path!"
Mo Yang stood frozen in place. There was a seal within his body? And what was this heaven-defying power?
Intuition told him that this middle-aged man seemed to have tampered with him long ago.
If that were truly the case, then his ten years of pitch-black, sunless days were probably all thanks to this person!
Had he not heard it with his own ears, he would never have believed it true. Why would a mysterious powerhouse, terrifying to the point of being unfathomable, treat him this way?
As for his own past, his memory was a complete blank. He only remembered being brought to the Lingxu Sect by the Fourth Elder when he first gained memories, followed by a decade of dark days.
Mo Yang found it difficult to calm down, towering billows churning in his heart. He had already sensed it earlier: when his Dantian was unblocked, not only did a torrential surge of true qi pour forth, but it was also accompanied by a formidable, mysterious power.
Could that mysterious power be the heaven-defying power the other party spoke of?
"What is this heaven-defying power you speak of?"
Looking at the middle-aged man who was close enough to touch yet seemed separated by tens of thousands of miles, Mo Yang's emotions fluctuated with unusual intensity.
"The Heaven Dao Inheritance!"
The middle-aged man seemed to smile, his pair of eyes as dazzling as the stars. At this moment, a momentum that dominated the heavens and earth erupted from his entire body. As those four words fell, they sounded like a bursting thunderclap, shaking this hazy, gray space so that it trembled continuously.
"I am merely a lingering imprint, waiting solely for your arrival!"
Following that, without any extra words, the middle-aged man's body abruptly transformed into a patch of light mist and dissipated. This hazy, gray space trembled violently, resembling a giant mechanism that had been triggered.
Before Mo Yang could even recover his senses, he felt himself pushed out by a force.
...
The night breeze swept past. Mo Yang's thoughts returned as he slowly opened his eyes. The newly piled mound of earth remained before him, appearing even more desolate under the hazy moonlight.
After coming to his senses, he hurriedly circulated his cultivation technique. True qi flowed through his meridians, and he discovered that his cultivation had actually broken past the Qi Condensation Realm and the Spirit Awakening Realm, leaping directly into the third realm of cultivators: the Earth Profound Realm.
He simply couldn't believe it. The ten-year nightmare of cultivation had inexplicably been broken, and in just this short moment, he had actually leaped through six minor realms in succession!
Driven by his cultivation technique, the true qi in his meridians flowed without stopping, and the true qi overflowing from his body told him with absolute certainty that he had reached Level 1 Earth Profound Realm.
Recalling that bizarre space, he hurriedly concentrated his mind to sense it, only to discover that an unknown stone tower had somehow appeared within his Dantian.
With a shift of his mind, the scene before his eyes changed drastically once more, and he instantly arrived before that stone tower. Yet viewed from up close, the stone tower was incomplete.
The stone tower before him had a total of eight levels, but above the eighth level, it seemed to have been forcefully truncated, and the shattered broken edge could be clearly seen.
Brilliance flickered over the stone tower, and a few ancient characters emerged. Mo Yang looked closely to distinguish them, and those ancient characters seemed to be—Emperor Xing!