Meng Tingfeng did not stand out amongst his fellow cultivators. He was handsome enough, but that went for all immortals. Even if they were born ugly, their features would become perfected as they ascended to higher realms of cultivation, making them visually flawless at the very least.

He stood at one point eight meters tall, but that was also par for the course. Meng Tingfeng had a sleek physique like that of an Olympic swimmer, but he was one of many. Only the sword slung over his back appeared of note. The hilt was a pure white, and so was the scabbard. It didn’t have many embellishments, but it still exuded an aura of extraordinariness.

Rhythmically, it would brighten and dim like the stars in the sky.

Still, that did not mean Meng Tingfeng did not stand out. Although plain, he exuded an aura of confidence that made it hard not to attract gazes. Of course, the gazers would not be able to differentiate what made him different. At least, until he drew his sword.

His simple white robes fluttered in the wind as his gaze surveyed the Numinous Sword Sect from his peak.

The Numinous Sword Sect didn’t only have the five peaks representing the four Immortal Extermination Swords and Qingping Sword. Anyone who became an immortal emperor would have a peak of their own. The five main peaks were known as the major sword peaks and the lineages created by the immortal emperors would be known as minor sword peaks.

Thus, Meng Tingfeng stood atop the Seven Star Sword Peak. Creating a new peak required one to be an immortal emperor, but inheriting one only required you to be of their lineage and reach the Seamless Immortal Realm.

In total, there were over three hundred minor sword peaks. Less than a third of them were occupied by immortal monarch peak lords, while the rest remained vacant after the passing of their creators. So many minor sword peaks existed because most immortal emperors would choose to create their own peak if they could not gain the recognition of one of the four Immortal Extermination Swords.

The Numinous Sword Sect wasn’t satisfied with just three hundred sword peaks. They wanted at least ten thousand sword peaks in total. It was an age-old goal set by the founder of the Numinous Sword Sect. The Numinous Sword Sect inherited the legacy of the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasures, and he led the Interception Sect. In its prime, the Interception Sect had over ten thousand immortals, leading it to become known as the Sect of Ten Thousand Immortals.

The founder of the Numinous Sword Sect wasn’t clear if the so-called ten thousand immortals of the primordial era were divinities or actual immortals, but he wanted to replicate the Interception Sect’s glory. Thus, he set down a goal for his descendants.

It took millions of years just for three hundred peaks, so Meng Tingfeng didn’t think it would be accomplished anytime soon. According to what his new sect mates told him, it was because of the inferior environment of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System compared to the Three Realms System.

Sect mates, that was a word Meng Tingfeng thought he would never use.

As Sovereign Yanxu had informed Bao Ling, Meng Tingfeng wasn’t a native of the Numinous Realm. No, he ascended to the immortal-rank realm from a lower-rank realm.

His tale was a common enough tale. It was an accident, really. He had been a simple farm boy who knew not the first thing about cultivation. Cultivators and immortals had just been fairy tales his mother regaled him with before bed. Then, war broke out, and the farmland he once inhabited became a casualty. His parents had taken him and fled.

Sadly, they were killed by pursuing soldiers. Bastards, the lot of them.

Meng Tingfeng had only survived because he stumbled upon the Seven Star Sword Emperor’s inheritance. Like he said, it was a common enough tale, cliche as it was.

The realm Meng Tingfeng lived in was a low-rank realm where the highest a person could cultivate was the Foundation Establishment Realm. Once they reached the Core Formation Realm, they would have to ascend within a month or face punishment from the heavens.

Thus, he embarked on his path of cultivation. Meng Tingfeng cultivated the most prized method of the Seven Star Sword Emperor, the Seven Star Scripture.

The Seven Star Sword Emperor had created a cultivation technique based on the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art and a broken divine artifact he discovered, the Seven Star Sword. The Seven Star Sword Emperor named himself after the divine artifact, but he never cultivated the Seven Star Scripture.

Not for lack of trying. By the time the Seven Star Sword Emperor had begun creating the technique, he was already an immortal monarch, and by then, it was too late to change his foundation. For an immortal to change their foundation, they would risk falling from the heavens, transforming from immortal to mortal. And that’s what the Seven Star Sword Emperor did.

The Seven Star Sword Emperor found himself stuck in place, with no progress for over a hundred thousand years. In an attempt to advance, he wanted to change the foundation of his cultivation base. But he failed.

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Once the Seven Star Sword Emperor failed, he weakened incredibly fast as the passage of time once again enacted its influence upon him. His soul had also started to dissipate, and he would not have a chance to enter reincarnation similar to those earth immortals who failed their Inner Devil Tribulation.

At that time, Meng Tingfeng hadn’t known of the Seven Star Sword Emperor’s divine might. He only thought his late master was amazing. Only after reaching his current level did he know how amazing the late immortal emperor was. Although he hadn’t reached the same height, Meng Tingfeng had the confidence to reach and surpass the Seven Star Sword Emperor.

But back to his story.

After accepting the inheritance, Meng Tingfeng did everything he could to increase his strength. He didn’t have the raw talent for cultivation, possessing only a fractured spiritual root. Ordinarily, he would have never been able to make something of himself in a lower-rank realm, but he had the broken divine fragment.

Every night, the Seven Star Sword would absorb the starlight and transform it into stellar true qi for him to absorb. It was thanks to this stellar true qi and all the resources he acquired that Meng Tingfeng reached the Core Formation Realm.

During his journey, he had defeated the empire that caused his parents’ death. Like his own tale, it was a common enough story. The empire wanted to expand and control more resources, so began the war. Although Meng Tingfeng could understand logically, his heart couldn’t. So, he killed the imperial family and caused the empire to disappear like loose sand.

With his immediate goals satisfied and nothing else left for him in the lower-rank realm, Meng Tingfeng ascended. Along the way, he had come to enjoy the feeling of cultivating, and so he embarked on a new journey. A journey to reach the peak.

It wasn’t always easy. For someone as talentless as him, he had to rely on external methods like the Seven Star Sword. Not only that, he faced many enemies. As a loose cultivator, most people saw him as easy prey. They would hunt him down but fail, forming a bond of enmity. Once Meng Tingfeng defeated or killed his enemies, the force behind them would attempt to destroy him.

It happened in the middle-rank realm, the high-rank realm, and even the immortal-rank Numinous Realm. Although he was thankful that his enemy wasn’t the Numinous Sword Sect. Far from it, they backed him up. Meng Tingfeng wasn’t afraid of making an enemy out of the Numinous Sword Sect. He had already prepared to do so when he fought against their vassal sect. Luckily, they recognized the Seven Star Sword and his talent. Otherwise, they might have attacked him and claimed him as a thief for stealing the Seven Star Sword Emperor’s artifact from them.

At this, Meng Tingfeng smiled. No, not at the Numinous Sword Sect, but because of his talent. His talent had not stayed stagnant. The farther he progressed on the path of cultivation, the stronger his talent became, especially in the Law of Stars.

In the high-rank realm before his Unity Heavenly Tribulation, an accident had occurred. He was preparing for a ritual formation to transform his ordinary physique into the Seven Vermillion Mansion Physique, but an accident occurred. The excess yang energy had filled his body, and if he didn’t release it, Meng Tingfeng would have quite literally exploded.

Then came the second factor. Before starting the ritual formation, Meng Tingfeng had met an injured woman. He thought she was a weakened unity venerable, but now he knew the woman was likely an immortal. They had only met by chance.

In his abnormal state, Meng Tingfeng had laid his hands on her. When his strange state ended, he wanted to apologize, but the woman had disappeared before he had awakened.

To Meng Tingfeng’s surprise, he hadn’t achieved the Seven Vermillion Mansion Physique, but the Vermillion-Azure Mansion Physique. It had puzzled him how this had happened. After some investigation, he discovered that the woman likely possessed a heavenly water spiritual root or a yin-related physique or spiritual root. Because of the ritual formation and her participation, he had accidentally made her into a Living Pill.

Meng Tingfeng felt guilty. He truly did and wanted to make it up to the woman. As a man, he had to take responsibility.

He searched the entire higher-rank realm, but he couldn’t find her presence at all. After delaying his immortal ascension heavenly tribulation for a hundred years, he gave up. Meng Tingfeng harbored a small amount of hope that the nameless woman had ascended to a higher realm, but it wasn’t likely. From the time of the incident and until now, there was no record of anyone but him attempting the immortal ascension heavenly tribulation.

After becoming the Seven Star Peak Lord, Meng Tingfeng immediately put up a reward for any information on the woman. He may not know her name, but he still recalled her appearance. It would be hard not to, given how beautiful she was.

Meng Tingfeng had seen many women. Some were just regular mortals bestowed with heaven-sent beauty, others were the daughters of powerful cultivators. A few even pursued him for a relationship, but he rejected them all. Compared to them, that woman’s beauty was more ephemeral, grand, and unforgettable.

As for the reason why he hadn’t ordered his subordinate to do anything? He was a peak lord, after all. That was because he had none. Most of the Numinous Sword Sect disciples only respected his title, and he was only recently appointed as a peak lord, to the objection of many.

He had battled a sword emperor before, but most of the Numinous Sword Sect didn’t know. However, that would change.

According to Grand Elder Yanxu, there would be a conference with the Numinous Sword Sect’s sole rival in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System, the Buzhou Immortal Court. Part of the reason why the Numinous Sword Sect appointed him as a peak lord was to gain prestige through him. Although Meng Tingfeng had never met the Buzhou Immortal Court, he was confident that they didn’t possess an immortal monarch as strong as he was.

After all, he was the only immortal monarch to battle an immortal emperor on equal grounds in the entire Numinous Sword Sect. Even then, he had kept his trump card hidden, mostly because he didn’t know if he could successfully kill off the immortal emperor. It was fine if he could, but only endless trouble would await him if he couldn’t.

“Peak Lord.”

Meng Tingfeng broke out of his thoughts and stared at the true immortal elder. “Is it time already?”

“Yes, it’s time to leave for the Jade and Numinous Conference.”