In the afternoon, deep within the Kunlun Mountain range, the sky suddenly clouded over.
Gu Lingyu and her three-year-old daughter, Gu Yan, who lived in seclusion there, were cultivating in the courtyard.
Gu Lingyu looked up at the sky and frowned. What was going on? The weather had been fine, yet it changed in the blink of an eye.
Gu Yan put away her stance and said to her mother, "Mother, it is going to rain. Let's go back inside."
"Alright, let's go inside. It looks like it's going to pour."
The moment the two stepped across the threshold, a flash of lightning suddenly split the sky, accompanied by a deafening crash of thunder that made the mother and daughter shudder.
Gu Yan looked back toward the doorway. "Mother, look..."
Gu Lingyu also turned back to look. After the flash of lightning, the dark clouds quickly dissipated, and a dazzling beam of golden light shone down.
Gu Lingyu sensed that this was no ordinary weather change; it had to be a miraculous phenomenon.
What kind of phenomenon was this? She had never seen anything like it. Could it be that some martial arts master had broken through their realm and triggered this spectacle?
For millions of years, the martial arts of all the planets and worlds in the Milky Way had been in steady decline. People practicing martial arts became fewer and fewer, as everyone grew more focused on material enjoyment and the release of desires.
In the Hong Realm, practicing martial arts was considered utterly useless. The nature of warfare no longer relied on suppressing the enemy through cultivation realms, but on high-tech, modern weaponry to handle all kinds of conflicts.
No matter how formidable your martial arts were, they were completely useless against modern weaponry—you would undoubtedly die.
Gu Lingyu gazed at the sky, deep in thought...
Most martial artists in the Hong Realm had retreated into civilian life, treating martial arts merely as a personal hobby for physical fitness and self-cultivation.
It seemed as though there were no cultivators left in the world.
The traditional cultivation system in the Hong Realm, and indeed the entire Milky Way, consisted of 13 realms: the Body Tempering Realm, the Qi Condensation Realm, the Heart Tempering Realm, the Fusion Realm, the Foundation Establishment Realm, the Golden Core Realm, the Nascent Soul Realm, the Divisional Spirit Realm, the Void Piercing Realm, the Great Vehicle Realm, the Human King Realm, the Human Sovereign Realm, the Great Emperor Realm, and the legendary Earth Immortal Realm. It was said that reaching the Earth Immortal Realm allowed one to shatter the void and ascend to the Immortal Realm, becoming a true immortal.
In the current Hong Realm, the highest cultivation realm found in society was merely the Great Vehicle Realm. Some major families and nations had surviving Old Ancestors, but they never revealed themselves to the world. Consequently, cultivation realms above the Great Vehicle Realm were known to very few, and no one knew how to cultivate them.
Gu Lingyu had loved practicing martial arts since she was a child. Now thirty years old, she had never given up on her cultivation.
Today, her cultivation had reached the Golden Core Realm—a level that could well be considered that of a top expert in the present-day Hong Realm.
Seeing that the dark clouds had dispersed and the sun was shining brightly once more, Gu Lingyu walked back out into the courtyard.
Not far from her dwelling lay a cliff. Atop the cliff, a naked infant was wrapped in a golden quilt.
The infant opened his eyes and let out a loud, resonant wail.
Unable to speak yet, the infant felt rather anxious and muttered to himself inwardly, "Damn it, how did I end up in the lower realm? And as a newborn baby at that! Old Ancestor, are you messing with me?"
Just as he was muttering to himself, a sweet voice echoed in his mind.
"Host successfully detected crossing over to Hong Star. Boundary-Breaking System is initiating binding... System binding successful..."
"What the heck? Who are you? How did you get inside my head? Get out of here right now!"
"Kid, show some respect. You need to speak to me properly from now on..."
"Speak to you properly? What kind of thing are you? Do you even know who I am?"
"Who you are doesn't matter. You just need to know that if you piss me off, you're going to suffer."
"You dare threaten me... Do you even know that I am..."
"You're nothing at all. Now, I'm going to take back your memories and return them to you gradually once you become a true powerhouse of the universe. Consider this your punishment."
"You wouldn't dare..."
"Hh, daring to mess with me—where do you get the nerve?"
The infant felt his memories vanishing bit by bit and began to shout and scream in panic.
However, the system completely ignored him.
"Now you know what I'm capable of, right? Remember this lesson for the future. Keep in mind that I am the heavens of this universe; no one dares show me disrespect, and neither do you..."
In Gu Lingyu's courtyard, Gu Yan said to her mother, "Mother, do you hear that sound?"
Gu Lingyu had already caught the sound of an infant's continuous crying coming from the cliff.
"Whose child is that? Why is it crying so bitterly? Out here in the wilderness, where did a child come from?"
"Mother, let's go take a look."
"Alright." Gu Lingyu turned back and shouted toward the backyard, "All of you, come out."
Six servant-like guards—four men and two women—swiftly emerged from the backyard. The four male guards were Xiaochun, Xiaoxia, Xiaoxiu, and Xiaodong, and the two female guards were Xiaomei and Xiaogui. Orphans since childhood, they had been taken in by Gu Lingyu and trained as her personal guards, remaining utterly loyal.
The six of them cupped their fists in a salute: "Master, Young Miss."
"Accompany me to the cliff."
"Yes."
The group quickly arrived at the base of the cliff. Gu Lingyu followed the sound and looked up. Halfway up the cliff, there was a protruding flat platform, and the infant's cries were coming from there, clear and distinct.
"Wait here while I go up and take a look."
"Master, be careful," Xiaomei said.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Gu Lingyu looked at the platform and leapt up onto it with a single bound.
Xiaochun exclaimed in surprise, "Master's realm has improved again! That's wonderful. It looks like we have a chance to fight our way back and avenge the wrongs of the past."
"Indeed, after biting her tongue and enduring for so many years, Master can finally hold her head high."
Arriving on the platform, Gu Lingyu immediately spotted a baby resting on a rock.
She looked around cautiously before taking a careful step forward. When the baby saw her, his crying grew even louder, as if he carried a bellyful of grievances.
Gu Lingyu gently picked up the child, who looked at her while still weeping. The baby had tender, translucent skin and was exceptionally cute.
She murmured to herself, "Whose child is this, leaving such a wonderful baby out here? How truly heartless."
As if understanding her words, the baby burst into a fresh wail.
"It seems this child is starved..."
Gu Lingyu walked to the edge of the cliff, looked down, then up, and shook her head. She felt it was truly bizarre for this child to appear in such a place.
With a leap, Gu Lingyu flew down from the cliff.
"Mother!" Gu Yan rushed over.
The six guards also gathered around.
Xiaomei, one of the female guards, looked at the baby in Gu Lingyu's arms. "Oh my, what a handsome child."
The other female guard, Xiaogui, chimed in, "So cute."
Gu Lingyu said, "Let's head back. The child is probably starved. Xiaomei, go prepare some milk immediately."
"Yes," the female guard Xiaomei replied.
Back in the courtyard, after Gu Lingyu fed the baby, she gently coaxed him to sleep.
Looking at the sleeping infant, the guard Xiaomei remarked, "Who on earth could be so heartless to abandon such a child here? Thank goodness for Master—if not for Master, who knows what would have happened to this poor child..."
Xiaogui agreed, "Exactly! Master, regardless of whose child this is, now that we've rescued and adopted him to live with us, shouldn't we give him a name?"
"Yes, Mother, give him a name," Gu Yan said, tugging on Gu Lingyu's sleeve.
"Alright." Gu Lingyu looked at the baby and thought for a moment. "Let's call him Gu Hao. From now on, he will be your younger brother."
"Yay! Gu Hao, Gu Hao, I have a younger brother..."
Gu Yan clapped her hands in delight.
Gu Lingyu stroked Gu Yan's head. "Not so loud, don't wake your brother."
Gu Lingyu turned to Xiaomei and Xiaogui. "Tell the others that the child's name from now on is Gu Hao, and he is my, Gu Lingyu's, son."
"Yes, Master."
As night fell, Gu Yan and Gu Hao drifted off to sleep in their bed.
Gu Lingyu draped a cloak over her shoulders, walked out into the courtyard, and sat alone under a tree, gazing up at the moon in the night sky.
Three years ago, her husband, Gu Hongtian—then the head of the Gu Family—had been gravely wounded in a battle. Upon returning home to recover, he was poisoned and murdered by Gu Zhanfei of the Gu Family. Back then, pregnant with Gu Yan and left as a lone mother and child, she dared not cross swords with Gu Zhanfei, so she had swallowed her pride and endured in silence.
Following her husband's death, the position of family head and the family estate should have rightfully been inherited by the unborn Gu Yan.
However, Gu Zhanfei had imprisoned Gu Lingyu along with the six guards—Xiaochun, Xiaoxia, and the others. Not only did he usurp Gu Hongtian's position as family head, but he also stripped Gu Yan of her right of inheritance, installing his own son, Gu Hongwei, as the head of the family to inherit the estate.
Later, an elder of the family secretly rescued them, and they fled to the Kunlun Mountains to live in seclusion.
For three years, Gu Lingyu had practiced diligently every day, progressing by leaps and bounds. Her realm had now reached the Golden Core Realm, putting her on par with Gu Zhanfei.
Meanwhile, her six guards—Xiaochun and the others—had all reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Though young, Gu Yan possessed extraordinary innate talent for cultivation. At just three years old, she had already reached the Spirit Refining Realm—a fact that would surely drop jaws if anyone ever found out.
Their current realms gave them a fighting chance within the Gu Clan.
Originally, Gu Lingyu had been preparing to fight her way back to the Gu Family to demand justice, but the arrival of Gu Hao complicated matters and left her in a dilemma...
Just as she was feeling entirely helpless, a voice echoed in her mind. Startled, she realized it was voice transmission across space—a technique of immortals.
"Gu Lingyu, adopting Gu Hao today is a martial arts prodigy and a fortune of cosmic proportions for you. I hope you will raise him well. Three years from now, I will come to take him away and teach him martial arts..."
"Who are you?"
"Who I am does not matter. What matters is that you raise him well and protect him from harm. Do you understand?"
"Understood, Immortal. I will not fail your trust."
"Good. It seems you, Gu Lingyu, have indeed caught this monumental fortune and boundless prosperity... Not bad, not bad."
At that moment, a beam of golden light shot into Gu Lingyu's forehead.
"Gu Lingyu, I am bestowing upon you some cultivation techniques. I hope you will practice them diligently. Furthermore, I see that Gu Yan is also a cultivation genius. I wish to take her away and have my junior sister accept her as a personal disciple. Eighteen years from now, I will return her to your side. Are you willing?"
"This..." Gu Lingyu thought to herself: Could it be that to ensure I raise Gu Hao properly, she is taking Gu Yan as a hostage?
Hesitating, Gu Lingyu stammered, unsure of what to say.
"Rest assured, I am not taking Gu Yan as a hostage. I simply saw that she is a rare cultivation genius and felt moved to take her away on the spur of the moment—do not overthink it. In the future, as Gu Hao's Elder Sister, Gu Yan's martial arts must match his. When the two of them return to your side, you will feel supreme glory because of them."
"This... Immortal, I will obey all your arrangements."
"Very well."
A beam of light vanished into Gu Lingyu's bedchamber, and the entire world seemed to freeze abruptly.
Gu Lingyu rushed into the bedroom, only to find that only Gu Hao was left sleeping soundly in the bed; Gu Yan was nowhere to be found.
She hurried back out of the bedroom into the courtyard.
Her mind raced: Could he truly be an immortal? Such a divine technique was unheard of and unseen. Had she genuinely encountered a monumental fortune and boundless prosperity? Was she dreaming?
"Immortal... are you there? Immortal..."
She called out.
Yet the pitch-black night offered not a single sound in response.
As she kept calling out, Gu Lingyu suddenly felt a wave of panic and unease wash over her. Completely breaking down, she collapsed onto the ground. "Yaner..."
Tears instantly streamed from her eyes.
Awakened by her shouts, Xiaomei, Xiaogui, Xiaochun, Xiaoxia, Xiaoxiu, and Xiaodong all flashed into the courtyard.
"Master, what's wrong?"
Xiaomei and Xiaogui hurried over to help Gu Lingyu up.
Seeing them arrive, Gu Lingyu fought back her inner grief and anxiety, forcing herself to put on a calm facade.
"Nothing, nothing. An immortal just came and took Yaner away to accept her as a disciple. Seeing her leave made me emotional for a moment and I lost control of my feelings... It's nothing, you all go back to rest."
"No, Master, let us stay with you."
"Indeed, Master, since an immortal took Yaner away, we should be happy for her."
"Yes, yes, Master, immortals only exist in legends. For a million years, we are fortunate to have met this destiny—it is truly the heavens blessing our Master."
Xiaogui asked hesitantly, "Master, are you certain it was an immortal?"
"I... am certain..."