Prologue

  The Great Wei Taizu, overpowered the world, all humans, demons and gods submitted to him. The Great Wei Wu Emperor, was powerful and unmatched, all living things were frightened by him.

  Before the Wei dynasty, it was called the Middle Ancient World. Past events are no longer verifiable. The Great Wei had been around for 2,000 years, and the human race was just beginning to prosper. The Great Wei only had two emperors: Taizu reigned for 1,000 years, and Wu Emperor reigned for 1,000 years. Then, the world became turbulent, heroes rose together, demons spread all over the land, and there were fifty years of bloody chaos. People could not make a living until finally, the founder of the Great Xia Dynasty, Hong Yuancheng, rose to power and established the Great Xia Kingdom with its capital in Zhongjing.

  At the moment of the fall of the Great Wei, in the Snow Mountain Temple at the northernmost end of this world, a small wolf asked the all-knowing sage.

  "How could such a great empire as Wei perish?"

  "Because their emperor didn't want to be in charge anymore."

  "Sage, why doesn't he want to take care of it anymore? Such a rich empire, such a good place."

  Because he found himself unable to be emperor forever, so he went to find a way to make himself emperor forever, so he didn't want to take care of it anymore.

  "Has the saint found it?"

  "Found it!"

  "Why did Great Wei still perish even after finding this method?"

  Because he gathered all the most effective elixirs, the most precious wealth, the strongest warriors and the most skilled craftsmen, everything that was best and strongest, in one place, doing so not only made the world weak and empty but also exhausted his own strength, thus leading to the downfall of his country.

  "Sage, since the country is already lost, what's the point of doing this?"

  "He found a way to be emperor forever, as long as he woke up again and used the things he had gathered to become emperor once more, and could do so forever."

  "Sage, where did you put those good things?"

  They are all on one mountain.

  "On the mountain? Where is it? I also want to go find!"

  "Take it with you on someone's body!"

  "Sage, sage, how can a man possibly carry a mountain?"

  "In a square inch, there is a vast world; in an inch, there is a distance of a thousand miles. The subtlety of the Taoist arts is infinite; a single drop of water can contain a whole world, and a high mountain can be compressed into a mustard seed."

  The saint paused for a moment, made a circle with his index finger and thumb, and smiled: "It's probably about this big."

  .......

  The Great Ancestor Emperor of Xia, Hongyuan, pacified the universe and unified the mountains and rivers. The Great Ancestor Emperor of Xia was naturally wise and martial, but he also had a group of loyal ministers and righteous scholars to assist him. At the beginning of the country's founding, rewards were given to meritorious officials, including six kings, ten dukes, and twenty-eight marquises.

  Spring goes and winter comes, time flies, in the blink of an eye, Great Xia has already established a nation for 350 years. The emperors of Great Xia are not as extraordinary as those of Great Wei, each generation of rulers is also long-lived, but it's just a hundred or so years of life expectancy. Until now, it is already the tenth emperor of Great Xia, Ren Emperor Honghui.

  As for the meritorious officials of the founding period, after 350 years of wind and rain, some prospered and rose to prominence, while others were convicted and fell. There were also new emerging families of great merit. By the time of Emperor Ren, there were still four kings, five dukes, and sixteen marquises.

  The fifth year of Emperor Taixi of Daxia.

  It's the twelfth lunar month now, and Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Everywhere is filled with a joyful atmosphere, with firecrackers popping and red couplets pasted up. However, in front of a certain mansion to the east of Fongtian Street, it was cold and deserted, without any sign of festive spirit.

  People passing by in front of the door all shook their heads and sighed, some whispering a few words to each other:

  "Can't hold on for just these few days?"

  "It's probably over, poor little Gao Feng, not even four years old and already lost his mother, now not even ten years old, and his father is going to leave again, this child is really pitied..."

  "This family line is really unlucky. Not only has it been single-handedly passed down through generations, but also no one has lived past fifty. And now, Gao Quan hasn't even reached forty... this is just..."

  Outside the door, there were sympathetic comments. In this house, on the bed lay a middle-aged man with a haggard appearance, covered with a thin quilt. Judging from his looks, he was indeed seriously ill and didn't have much time left.

  There was a child standing by the bed, wiping away tears with his hand. The child's eyebrows and eyes were quite similar to those of the middle-aged man on the hospital bed, clearly indicating that they were father and son.

  "Xiao Feng, don't cry anymore, come here and put this on."

  The middle-aged man laboriously took down a pendant from his neck, the pendant was about the size of a thumb, and judging by its texture, it should be made of jade, but the color was mottled and there was no craftsmanship to speak of, it looked like a small stone that could be picked up anywhere. The jade was embedded in a tarnished silver setting, strung with silk thread.

  "This jade pendant was given by our ancestor's elder brother, it has great auspiciousness and can bless the wearer with prosperity and wealth, peace in the family. Your father couldn't leave you anything, this is a family heirloom, take it..."

  The child in front of the bed hastily took over, his father's words he didn't mind at all, because since childhood he had heard countless times, just put on, the icy jade pendant touched his chest, and his skin involuntarily shrank, at this moment, a faint voice sounded in Gao Feng's ear:

  "Come on up..."

  The low, ethereal voice was not the familiar sound of Gao Feng. Gao Feng's mind went blank for a moment, thinking he had hallucinations. In that brief moment of distraction, Gao Quan on the hospital bed had stopped breathing.

  Outside, firecrackers were going off, but inside the house, loud wailing and crying erupted.