Chapter 1: A person knelt down.

  Misty and hazy.

  Tongtian Peak is like a sharp sword, rising from the ground and piercing straight into the sky.

  This Tongtian Peak is three thousand six hundred zhang high, with cliffs and steep walls on all sides, and only one winding mountain path leads directly to the top, with 1.06 million steps. This is the flying ascension place of the founding master of Qingyang Palace, and the heavenly calamity will flatten the area within dozens of miles, leaving only this strange peak formed by the protection of sword energy.

  At this moment.

  On the halfway up the mountain, a thin figure was moving forward slowly.

  That was a young man with a delicate appearance, looking about the age of just having a coming-of-age ceremony. His face was exceptionally pale, and his thin figure was swaying in the strong gusts of wind, but his footsteps were very heavy. Within this stormy wall that had formed overnight, the young man climbed up step by step.

  Every 1,200 steps, he had to stop and rest for a long time!

  After spending a whole month, he finally walked through the 106,000 steps and arrived at the top of Tongtian Peak.

  "Master!"

  Young people behind the altar near the top of the mountain quietly adjusted their clothes and hats.

  He immediately walked slowly to the front of the altar at the summit, and with a heavy step, he knelt down in front of the white-clothed woman who was sitting cross-legged before him.

  "Alas!"

  A soft sigh echoed through the law platform, and the woman slowly opened her eyes, a golden light appearing.

  The woman in white had an otherworldly beauty, but what was most captivating were her unusual pupils, which were a deep golden color. She raised her hand and with a light wave, a force held back the young man in front of her. Then she slowly said: "In those days when I wanted to take you as my apprentice, your only condition was that you didn't want to kneel down and pay respects!"

  "Why did you give up again today?"

  The woman let out a soft sigh and said slowly: "I am your master, so I naturally cannot stand by and do nothing."

  "Since you've already come, it's enough that you have this intention."

  "Let's go down the mountain."

  The young man raised his head and gazed steadily at the woman in front of him, saying in a low voice: "Master, rest assured."

  "I will definitely find a way to help Master escape as soon as possible!"

  A seven-colored light appeared in the palm of a woman, and the figure of a young man in front of her was gently lifted up. It then broke through the surrounding storm and sent him to the foot of Tongtian Peak.

  With a sigh, the woman closed her eyes again and murmured: "Three hundred years of time."

  "For the dragon clan, it's just a fleeting moment, you don't have to worry too much about this matter! Although Qingyang Mountain is good, its rules are too strict and ultimately lack some human touch."

  "After this is over, you should go down the mountain."

  ………

  Outside Qingyang Palace.

  A young man knelt silently at the gate.

  Occasionally, the figures of monks would flash by with their swords drawn. When they noticed the young man kneeling outside the Qingyang Palace, various expressions involuntarily appeared on their faces.

  Either regretful, disappointed, sentimental or gloating.

  After a long time.

  The gate of Qingyang Palace slowly opened, and an old Taoist in gray clothes suddenly appeared in front of him, raising the dust brush in his hand and saying: "The master has allowed you to enter the Zangjing Pavilion, but you must hand over the Kunshan Sword!"

  "This is a treasured heirloom of our school, and now it must be taken back!"

  The young man still lowered his head and silently drew out a sharp sword with a bright light, holding it up with both hands.

  "Alright."

  The old man in grey robes had a hint of greed in his eyes, and he immediately raised his hand to put away the Kunshan sword. He then handed over a token to the young man in front of him, saying coldly: "Our sect has invested countless resources in you, so you'd better seize this opportunity to recover your cultivation and make contributions to the sect! Perhaps I can also put in a good word for you with the Sect Master, so that your master will be punished less!"

  After finishing speaking, the old man in grey clothes disappeared into thin air once again.

  The young man slowly raised his head at this time, he silently looked at the closed Qingyang Palace in front of him, turned around and left without looking back.

  From today on, he is no longer the chief disciple of Qingyang Palace in this generation.

  The young man walked down the mountain and arrived at a small courtyard halfway up the hill, then entered an unassuming room to pack his luggage. Since he woke up from his serious injury, his residence had been arranged in the lower courtyard, and Qingyun Peak had already welcomed its new master long ago. That woman must have waited for this day for a very long time, and over these twenty years, she was probably thinking about how to surpass herself every moment.

  Li Qingyun turned and left.

  As he left the Lower House, several gazes nearby also gradually withdrew.

  "Older sister."

  On the cloud layer, a beautiful woman in pink clothes gently lifted her long hair and sighed: "It seems that Li Qingyun's cultivation is really exhausted! Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to discover us here."

  "What a pity."

  Su Yao's eyes carried a hint of regret, more was a kind of pity, and some schadenfreude, she slowly said: "If he hadn't failed to transform his yuan infant, it would be difficult for anyone in this generation of disciples to surpass him!"

  "After all, he is a man of innate wisdom."

  Yes.

  "It's been less than twenty years since I started cultivating, yet I've already reached the peak of the Golden Core stage."

  "I'm afraid that in the thousands of years since the founding of our sect, there haven't been many people who could achieve this? If it weren't for him having an extra soul from birth compared to others, perhaps ascending to immortality within a hundred years would also be possible!"

  "Right."

  "Sister? Do you know why he can't transform his yuan infant?"

  "I've actually heard Master mention this before."

  It is said that the master used the sect's treasure, the yin-yang mirror, to examine his soul and discovered that he actually had four souls and seven spirits! Apart from the three souls of heaven, earth, and man, there was another vague and wandering spirit floating between the three souls and seven spirits. The master said that it was possible that during his reincarnation in his past life, an accident occurred, resulting in a residual soul from his previous life also being left in his body.

  "The cultivator's refinement of the primordial infant is a transformation of the divine soul's power. The extra, muddled and broken divine soul he has means that he will forever be unable to enter the primordial infant stage!"

  "Not to mention the later stages of cultivation."

  "Even if his master spared no expense in stealing the sect's precious Rebirth Dan to rebuild his body, at most it would only be rebuilt as a Golden Dan."

  "The four souls and seven spirits have merged into one body, unless they are reborn through reincarnation."

  "Otherwise, even if the Great Luo Golden Immortal descended into the world, it would be impossible for him to break through the shackles of the Golden Elixir stage! That one strand of residual soul has restricted his cultivation advancement, and if he tries to break through again, it will only lead to another case of going mad from the flames!"

  "Otherwise, do you think the sect leader would easily give up on a disciple with such exceptional talent?"

  "What a pity."

  The woman in pink watched Li Qingyun disappear into the distance, and sighed softly: "You know that many female disciples of Bahu Valley used to consider him as their best partner for dual cultivation."

  Su Yao's eyes fluttered, and a hint of a sly smile appeared at the corner of her mouth as she slowly said, "I'm afraid Yun Yao Shimei is also like that?"

  "Sister, you're teasing me again!"

  Yun Yao didn't look back at Li Qingyun this time, she just sighed and said: "Master will be back soon."

  "Let's go back."

  A person who will forever be stuck at the Golden Core stage and has no possibility of advancing further is already insufficient to attract her attention.

  What's more, he has now become utterly useless.

  After his meridians shattered throughout his body, he didn't know how much longer it would take for him to recover to the Golden Core stage.

  At that time, I'm afraid I had already broken through the Yuan Ying period.

  The great road is emotionless!

  The subtle emotions and intentions of the past have long since dissipated like smoke in the air.

  I'm afraid Su Yaoshi is probably the same too.

  ………

  Li Qingyun

  The chief disciple of this generation of Qingyang Palace.

  It is said that Ling has an exceptionally good spiritual root and a first-class innate talent, which is rare even in the entire cultivation world!

  He is also one of the few people in the entire Xianxia world who has innate wisdom.

  The so-called innate wisdom is that in the six paths of reincarnation, some living beings can still retain part of their memories from their previous life. People like this are all extremely talented and many are born with knowledge. It is said that such people are either immortals reborn or were previously cultivators who failed to transcend the calamity or had no hope of transcending it, and thus were forced to abandon their cultivation and reincarnate. Generally speaking, people like this are child prodigies from birth, even if they cannot retain memories of cultivating the Tao, but they have inherited a lot of knowledge and experience from their previous lives.

  Li Qingyun is just like that!

  It is said that at the age of seven, he knew astronomy and geography, and was a freakish existence.

  Little is known about his past, and even the other inner disciples in Qingyang Palace only know that he is proud and rarely communicates with others.

  Even when Longnü Shīshū wanted to take him as a disciple, the only requirement for the seven-year-old boy to pay homage was not to kneel down!

  Twenty years of entry.

  Li Qingyun's cultivation had already reached the Golden Dan period of perfection if it weren't for this failure in breaking through to the Yuan Ying period.

  He is still an existence that many people must look up to!

  But now.

  Even if his master had used the sect's precious Rebirth Dan to reconstruct his body, it would be difficult for him to recover to his former cultivation.

  The alchemical elixir failed to form, and the golden pill shattered.

  Li Qingyun was almost completely destroyed in body and soul when he failed to break through the Yuan Ying period!

  If it weren't for his master's selfless sacrifice of being confined for 300 years, he would have stolen the sect's precious treasure, the Cihua Dan, and then knelt before the sect leader asking to be punished.

  He was probably already dead at that time!

  ………

  Scripture Library

  Li Qingyun turned around and took a glance at the location of Tongtian Peak before resolutely stepping into it.

  From the start of his apprenticeship, his relationship with his master was neither cold nor warm. Perhaps because he wasn't human, his master kept a respectful distance from many people. Since Li Qingyun came of age, the two had hardly any contact or met in person, except when breaking through boundaries to impart techniques, sometimes even going two or three years without meeting once. For someone with exceptional innate talent for cultivation like him, this master was essentially an existence that could be taken or left, merely leading him into the gates of cultivation.

  But!

  Not even he himself had thought of it.

  After his own failure to refine the yuan infant, a master who had always been somewhat distant from him surprisingly used the sect's precious creation and transformation pill for him. This creation and transformation pill was prepared for cultivators in the tribulation period, with it even if one failed in the tribulation they could guarantee rebirth and re-cultivation, or at worst re-refine the yuan infant to become a loose immortal.

  Although they rarely communicated with each other, Li Qing Shan knew she was a very proud person!

  Even more proud than oneself.

  Because she is a dragon!

  But such a proud person would actually kneel down in front of the sect leader and ask for help.

  He remained unmoved by this, as was his usual nature.

  Since he came into this world, he had never knelt down to anyone, but this time he was willing to kneel.

  Three hundred years.

  The Qingyang Palace has strict rules and regulations, with a 300-year ban on closure that is almost impossible to change!

  Three hundred years of confinement, three hundred years of solitude.

  Li Qingyun was very clear what this represented! So he must rescue his master!

  At all costs!

  Even if it means a final break with Qingyang Palace! He will never regret it! Because his master would not have been punished so severely if it weren't for him!

  For this, he knelt down in front of Qingyang Palace for the first time and begged the master to allow him to enter the Scripture Pavilion.

  He gritted his teeth and ignored the various gazes of others, disregarding the provocations of those small characters who had been trampled under his feet.

  Just to recover from cultivation as soon as possible, let Master leave Tongtian Peak that haunted place!

  Now.

  This is the only chance!

  He must find a way out from within to restore his cultivation and break through the Golden Dan prison!

  If not.

  Then he created his own Taoist doctrine!

  Because he was very clear about why he had four souls and seven spirits, he was not a powerful cultivator of reincarnation, but a lonely soul from another world.

  ………