One Who is Authoritative, Can Protect Someone Else (Prologue)

There was said to be an orb, called the Zeal of Abeyance. To get to the point, this orb, in fact, could enhance one's spiritual foundation, from the lowest to the highest in terms of ranking, offering them an opportunity to successfully reach to the peek of their cultivation path to the extent where invincibility is possible. In addition, the Zeal of Abeyance holds the authority of overpowering the three Major Realms known throughout history—the Heavenly, mortal, and ghost realms.

Although this may sound like music to one's ears, the Zeal of Abeyance had caused an endless amount of suffering in the Realms of the gods. Horrendous monsters had begun to arisen, developing a suffering that lead to conflict. Countless wars have been fought between the differing immortals as they continued to oppose one another over hundreds of centuries.

There never seemed to be a resolution to the grudges they held, as many have died at the hands of their enemies, in hopes of retrieving the orb for themselves. As both worlds struggled to sustain their own territories, and to fight for the Zeal of Abeyance, none have withdrew from the wars. If it meant to have that opportunity to follow the path of their dreams simply taken from them, the best approach would be to continue your ambitions.

Furthermore, this orb happened to sustain the Heavenly kingdoms, capable of granting a mortal's life with riches and blessed with a joyous lifetime, and also happened to be the Ghost Realms' weakness. On the other hand, many mortals were unaware of the orb's existence. However, if they were interfere with the Ghost Realms' ambitions in destroying the Zeal of Abeyance, they would simply be annihilated by the overwhelmingly stronger immortals.

To prevent the Ghost Realms from wreaking havoc against the Heavenly Immortals, the previous renowned ascended gods have each taken turns pouring their spiritual energies into the orb itself, in order to strengthen the Heavenly Realms' invincibility. From time to time, it wasn't long before the orb was one of the most indestructible ancient artifacts fabricated by the hands of Gods, known throughout history. Well, this was obviously a huge advantage for the Heaven Realms.

As for the Ghost Realms, if they were to encounter such an immensely overpowering, ethereal god-like relic withholding the potential of annihilating anyone from the monster, demon, or ghost race, they would have been completely eradicated from hell.

The Zeal of Abeyance would influence not only one's existence, but also held the possibility of transforming the world, whether into a world of good or evil. If you were ever given the decision, what exactly would be your number one priority? If you were to choose pride, in other words, to obtain the orb yourself, over the lives of your people, then wouldn't that lead to a much more reckless defeat?

This was a decision that even Heavenly immortals found undecisive. If you were to sacrifice the lives of others, and only fail to achieve what you had wished for in the end, could you suffer the guilt of throwing away the lives of countless to seize the chance for yourself without placing them first?

Not to mention, how the wars will in fact worsen from time to time, to the extent where not a single existing god or ghost would be spared. Both the god and monster race will be wiped clean from the past, present, and future.

Nevertheless, if you had given up the greed for power and authority, which was highly unlikely, it could save you the trouble in the end.

As for the Ci Yao Ghost Realms, they don't typically intervene in the concerns of much greater realms because doing so would lead to a circumstance much more frightening than death. The Zhong Da Ghost Realms will only find them as nuisances, and would slap them away as if they were fruit flies; hence, it's best not to interfere.

The Ghost Realms are far much less organized than that of the Heavenly Realms—chaos occurs particularly in every corner and leaves the Realms in an overbearingly filthy state. However, that doesn't imply that the Ghost Realms are entirely debilitated, in other words, weaker in terms of strength, which puts even the most prosperous cultivators and the exceptional ascended gods in a dilemma.

Although countless have died in the hands of the threatening beasts, there still will always be someone who held an endless amount of courage, holding the potential of dragging the world hidden beneath that darkness, into the new light.

This young man, Chia Hao, was nothing more than the average mortal. However, he was said to have outstanding capabilities— he was talented in every aspect, whether it was something as simple as cooking, to archery, to martial arts, and finally, to cultivation. Not only that, but his personality and temperament held a sense of respect and honor, often smiling as if he peacefully lived a life without regret. This has made him incredibly likable between the women, and sometimes, the men as well.

When he was only a mere teenager, he once rescued five men from the sea after they were discovered drowning far from the shore. His clutch was indeed firm as he swam fifty yards back to shore, bearing two on his back and three in his arms. This all had happened at the age of fifteen.

Chia Hao had also mastered martial arts and performed cultivation in the mortal realm ever since he was ten years old. Thus, his abilities were exceedingly remarkable. He assisted in the warding off of malevolent spirits caught prowling the forests, and rescued numerous hikers from mountains reputed to be haunted by ghosts.

After he had finally caught the eyes of the heavens, they had acknowledged him by gifting him the chance of ascension. For decades, he had received missions from the Heavenly Kingdom that had chosen to appoint him as a heavenly deity from the Kingdom of Yan Yu. During the time, he had advanced his cultivation skills, where his improvements were quite noticeable.

Years later, a sudden and unexpected event had captured the attention of the world: Chia Hao had rid of the Legendary Dauntless Scarlett Devil, the ghost who had wiped out half of the Heavenly Kingdoms and wreaked havoc about the mortal realm. To be more specific, this was where the wars between monsters and gods had originated.

This troublesome ghost happened to be the former Ghost King of the Ghost Realms. Many of the ghosts had regretted agreeing to having the Dauntless Scarlett Devil become the Ghost King and lead the Cataclysmic Provinces of the most prominent Zhong Da Ghost Realms. In return for the mistreatment that they had received from him, they would bash his name, curse, and throw things at his altar.

Years ago, the battle at the spiritual mountain, Mount Meng Die within the Heavenly Realms, had been invaded by the ghosts and monsters of the Cataclysmic Provinces. At the center of the battle, was the former Heavenly Emperor of the Heavenly Realms, as well as the Dauntless Scarlett Devil, the former (and hated) Ghost King of the Ghost Realms.

However, the Dauntless Scarlett Devil appeared to be the only one standing in the midst of the fight. That was because, the former Heavenly Emperor's limbs were scattered around the cloud-like ground, blood oozing out from where the arms and legs had been severed. As for the head and torso, the head was seen hugged in between the enemy's arms, bathing the holder's hand in a dyed velvet-red blood. The torso, on the other hand, had been burnt to a crisp by the overwhelming temperatures generated from the former Ghost King's body and into their opponent's. The former Heavenly Emperor couldn't handle the immense amount of heat, rapidly pouring within their organs and had entirely erupted their torso into nothing but flesh, blood, and burnt innards.

The Dauntless Scarlett Devil glanced back down at the head he carefully held within his arms and only smiled.

As he was facing a new enemy, his smile only faltered after having just a glimpse of Chia Hao.

After his humiliating defeat, he wouldn't dare to return to the Ghost Realms, and only saved himself the suffering by taking his life, which had only been hanging by a thread.

Meanwhile, Chia Hao had been praised and cheered throughout the Heaven Realms as his name was deeply engraved into history.

This then lead to his promotion of becoming a Top Tier Combative god to the Heavenly Emperor. After he had claimed the throne as the newly found ruler of the Heavenly Kingdoms, he was also gifted the Zeal of Abeyance, which happened to be kept safely by their ancestors.

One of the first things he had accomplished after his promotion, was creating more civilizations across the Heavenly Realms. The newly constructed communities expanded at a rapid rate, in order to replace the destructed aftermath that the former Ghost King had left.

When the mortal realm learned that the ascended Chia Hao was now the current Heavenly Emperor, they rejoiced and constructed temples in his honor all around the realm. Chia Hao gained a significant amount of devotees as his abilities flourished, making him virtually invincible.

That is, until another problematic figure had risen in the Ghost Realms, who also, harbored ill intentions of retrieving the Zeal orb, and diminishing it into nothing but spirit-infused dust. And this problematic figure, happened to be the disciple of the Legendary Dauntless Scarlett Devil.

Considering that the Heavenly Emperor has fought with the former Ghost King, the Dark Arts that the disciple obtained and had learned couldn't be any different from their Shifu's. And so, couldn't Chia Hao overpower that disciple with just a flick of the wrist, and would be as easy as taking candy from a baby? Actually, the winner had already been decided before the battle had commenced.

That was instantly presumed by the single-minded mortals of the mortal realm, so they recklessly worried over this disciple. Many mortals despised the Ghost Realms, believing that those consigned there after death had made no contribution to the world. Or, to put it another way, they were quite burdensome.

However, the disciple of the former Ghost King had unexpectedly left Chia Hao hanging on by a thread. This disciple was indeed very confident in whomever he challenged, no matter their status, and of course, this confidence was backed up with exceptional dark arts abilities.

The news of the Heavenly Emperor's near-death defeat with that disciple swiftly spread over the world, as rumors were heard every now and then in all three major realms. This, of course, lead to the rise of the new Ghost King, who was also referred to as, "Zhuan Zhi". Zhuan Zhi was unconcerned when it came to rankings; if he were positioned at the bottom rank, but had enough strength to defend himself in the midst of a battle, then that would be all he had ever asked for.

Everyone figured he was ignorant towards power, but in his perspective, they were all wrong.

In truth, he had reached to the top all in favor of protecting someone. Because, if he wasn't strong enough to protect them, what worth did he possess in this broken world?