“Isn’t the Ice Phoenix Hall that female-only sect among the 10 great sects? Focusing on only ice-attributed cultivation?”

This surprised the City Lord. Why was Ao Lan mentioning bringing Qin Dongmei’s brat to one of the 10 great sects!?

“Do you accept or not!?” Even though Ao Lan was asking, she was determined to take Qin Lin away no matter what!

She needed to do this for her own sect!

“Y-Yes! Thank you, Miss Ao Lan! I would love for my daughter to be taken to the Ice Phoenix Hall!” Qin Dongmei nearly tripped over herself, bowing in deference, accepting the offer.

“I’ll bring her back with me and have her join the Ice Phoenix Hall,” Ao Lan stated with a serious expression.

“E-Excuse me, Miss Ao Lan?” City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng called out.

Ao Lan looked over her shoulder to give a side glance to him.

“Yes?” she asked.

“I thought you were a disciple of the Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect. Are you not?” he asked in confusion.

“I am,” she answered coldly.

He continued with his questions after her affirmation. “May I then ask as to how you are able to bring her to the Ice Phoenix Hall?”

“None of your business!” She roared in irritation.

“Of course, of course! Miss Ao Lan’s matters are not my own,” City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng laughed shamelessly.

The old expert below quickly calmed down and, with a sweep of his sleeves, swept the ice from the arena.

‘A platinum destiny along with a Cold Heart True Ice physique! Incredible! Ice Phoenix Hall will be sure to reward us greatly for this!’ Ao Lan inwardly smiled.

“Eh? Something is wrong with her cultivation…” one of the spectators commented.

“What are you talking about? She’s just a 3rd Duan Cauldron Forging expert, isn’t she?”

“Wait, she’s 14, right?”

“…”

“Oh, my GOD! A 14-year-old 3rd Duan Cauldron Forging expert!”

How could they not be surprised? It wasn’t uncommon for regular cultivators to take up until their early twenties to break through to the Cauldron Forging Realm.

Yet, this 14-year-old girl one-upped every average person ever!

Weisheng Zu might have been a genius, but this is girl was a genius among geniuses!

It took everyone a long time to calm down. This was definitely something that could only happen once every one thousand years!

It took a long time, not only for the family leaders but for the audience to calm down as well.

This was something that would raise the prestige of the entire city!

Once the stage was cleared, there was only one child left to test… Long Di.

Ao Lan was annoyed. She just wanted to take Qin Lin and go. She knew there was nothing more here that could interest her.

However, she fought the urge and returned to her seat. There was only one child left to test, anyway.

“Long Di.”

The sonorous voice of the elder on the stage spread out.

Everyone stared as a young boy who couldn’t be more than ten or eleven years of age walked forward.

He didn’t look impressive. There was nothing outstanding that garnered attention. However, everyone’s eyes were on him as walked up to the Destiny Scale.

He nodded at the grandpa before him, before he proactively placed his hand on the Scale.

He expertly channelled the surrounding spirit energy around exquisitely, not causing any commotion.

“Not bad!”

The deft control of his energy surprised even Ao Lan.

As soon as the steel stele was fed his energy, the now fading platinum clouds ominously covered the area once more, but quickly lost their lustre.

B-Boom! Dum! Bong!

“Wha-what is happening!? Is it another platinum destiny!?”

The old man was surprised once again. The trembling this time was even more intense than Qin Ling’s phenomenon!

The family leaders all took solemn looks heavenward to see the colour of the clouds. Though they might not be able to trigger these kinds of phenomena themselves, it didn’t mean they weren’t knowledgeable, but this escaped their scope of knowledge!

Ao Lan stared at the black clouds overhead with a pensive gaze. “I—It can’t be…”

Her mumbling didn’t go unnoticed as the City Lord stood beside her. He himself was aware of a legend, of a certain story that was all but buried in the river of time.

Where long ago, the people of this world had paid respect to a single expert. Even his enemies had no choice but to admire his peerless prowess.

It is said that this expert possessed something called an ancient destiny. That, on the day of his test of destiny, the heavens opposed his existence and sent down its hammer to erase him.

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However, against all odds, he managed to survive and embarked on the road of cultivation.

Possessing unparalleled momentum, his explosive growth shocked the world!

His strength was said to be beyond measure, as even the heavens eventually failed to take him down, granting him the title of heaven’s assailant.

His knowledge, power and charisma allowed him to lay down the foundations for a mighty empire where he assumed its throne. He gave it a name that he took from the cultivation realm he had achieved.

All the humans, sacred celestics, demons, ren’duans, even the elusive nymphs and other minor races, all over the world, paid homage to him as he unified the world under his banner.

However, after thousands of years, his main empire suddenly vanished, and his feats, deeds, and exploits all disappeared with him.

Since then, countless eras have passed with most people only knowing this vague story as a myth and nothing more. A way to encourage aspiring young cultivators to never give up and to reach for the heavens.

Boom!

Another explosion rocked the arena!

“What’s happening!?”

“Get the people out of here now!”

The City Lord quickly ordered the guards stationed outside the coliseum to usher the people out!

Krrshh!!!

Suddenly a powerful fluctuation could be felt from above, and the city lord’s head snapped upward where he saw something swimming in the black clouds above with an ominous light!

“What is that!?”

Its might and pressure reverberated across the entire continent!

Ao Lan’s eyes shrank when she saw this. “Heavens… what is this!? What’s happening!? Were the myths true!? Ah!”

As soon as she tried to use her heavenly gaze to peer into the clouds, her eyes cried tears of blood.

No one could resist the prestige of the heavens!

A thunderous crash came from above and no one was able to stare upward anymore. The pressure from above bowed their heads and disallowed them to see whatever it was that was going on above!

Long Huangdi didn’t care about this and rushed to the arena where he saw his son’s hand still placed on the steel stele with his eyes closed and his figure unmoving. It was as if everything else that was going on had nothing to do with him.

…

At that moment, Long Di’s consciousness sank down into his mental space. He looked all around and could see nothing at all save for what appeared to be a giant body of water. There was no shore to be found here, but there was a collection of clouds that hovered near the surface.

He quickly came to realise that he was within the space where his mind sea should be and that something had dragged him here, but what?

Shing!

A light cast the entire mental space in a bright glow. Long Di’s consciousness turned in the direction of this, and it was then that he saw it.

‘I—Is that the Destiny Scale? Why is it here?’

The Destiny Scale suddenly appeared in his mind. However, it looked different somehow. Gone was the mottled and timeworn look.

It somehow appeared to have regained its imperial lustre and royal divinity. Even with this, though, its venerable prestige gained through the years faded none at all.

The words on it lit up whilst they were continuously changing like it was someone or something’s message to him.

[It is here that we find ourselves true frogs at the bottom of a well, the biggest well of all; this world. I stretched out my hand and reached outward, to step from the confines of a lie, to discover the truth. I had yearned to touch it, and in doing so brought upon myself my own destruction. Through the ebbing of my life, I had divined the answer. My last breath was upon me, so I hesitated not. I used the fading vestiges of my strength to create this Destiny Scale to resist the heavens one last time! Let the fated one know that this Scale will vilify above to weigh thy destiny, a destiny beyond ancient, a destiny I did not share. It shall assail for you lest that which looms will destroy you!]

‘Hm, mysterious, but not really,’ Long Di thought to himself. ‘Well, I’m not stupid and that sounds like a message from that emperor back then. I mean, it’s not even trying to hide it. But what happened? Why do these people all talk in riddles? I mean, really. Couldn’t you have just said this happened and then this happened?’

As soon as Long Di said this to himself, he could feel a force repelling him from here.

The minute he finally came to, he witnessed a scene that would embed itself in his memory for years to come.

The steel stele had disappeared while black clouds rolled overhead. Deafening thunder shook the land and jarred the senses.

Long Di himself was isolated from the pressure that came from above, so he could see this.

Curiously, however, while he could tell that this was all happening, he heard none of it. Not one thing. Not even as monstrous lighting struck the land and destroyed the surrounding arena.

He stared to the left with that same look of indifference where he saw his father, Long Huangdi, trying to reach him, but something blocked him, he was shouting something, but whatever it was blocked even that.

He began punching away at whatever it was that shielded him from his son, but it wouldn’t budge. He cared not for the lighting that struck all around him. His son was still here!

Even though everyone had left because the place near Long Di had become too dangerous, he remained. He had promised his wife that he would protect their son, but he couldn’t even reach him!

Long Di looked above where he saw something of a golden projection of the steel stele towering above him. From it spawned a shield that blockaded him from the outside, this was what isolated him from his father and the pressure from the outside.

Boom!

The land shook once more, and Long Di’s gaze shot upwards with an indifferent expression.

A bold of black lighting finally descended from the firmament like a true dragon straight towards the golden shield that covered him.

He didn’t even get the chance to flex his cultivation to everyone. What was he to do with all this?

He walked to where his father frantically beat the shield with bloodied fists in an attempt to spirit his son away from here!

Long Di placed his hand on the shield that held stains of blood from the outside. When Long Huangdi saw this, tears filled his eyes. It was like his young son, his own child, was saying goodbye to him, resigned to his fate.

Little did he know that Long Di was actually saying. ‘Worry not, old man. I won’t die, cuz been there done that. I am going on my adventure.’

The young child could see his mother in the distance too, unable to come any closer, grabbed by those closest to her so she wouldn’t run to her death.

Tears streamed down her face as she bawled and wailed with reckless abandon without any regard for her status.

Before Long Huangdi could place his hand at the spot where his son’s smaller hands were, that unholy bolt of lightning crashed into the shield.

The shockwave knocked Long Huangdi away, causing him to cough up blood as he flew. The shield dimmed from the impact, but it still held steady. The projection of the golden steel stele grew brighter and brighter before it fired a beam of light into the clouds above, scattering a portion of the black clouds away.

Not just Long Huangdi, but everyone else who surrounded the coliseum felt a sliver of hope from this disaster. Though they could no longer look above to see the situation, they were still able to feel the difference when the dark clouds scattered.

However, before the last bits of clouds receded, another bolt descended.

This time, even the light of day dimmed, as if this bolt took with it the power that lit this world to rid this land of a scourge that should not be.

It smashed into the shield, running spiderweb cracks across it before it shattered!

“NO!”

A scream escaped both Long Huangdi and Long Nuhuang as a golden and black explosion engulfed their child, ripping him away from their world.