3

"Dear brothers and sisters! Who shall come with me, collect the three Divine Artefacts and bring them to His Highness? Brothers, sisters! Don't you want fame? To make a name for yourselves and swear loyalty to Jinlian? To prove your worth and your spiritual power?"

Guo Lan glanced around, adjusting his hood just enough to make himself invisible. It seemed even the Immortals from Huan-Yue knew the dangers of setting off to Wujing Yuan as well as breaching the charms that protect Shenzhou from the Demons and Devils. No one dared to raise their hands or move in the crowded temple. No one. Only a fool would risk their life for such madness!

The Xianshen Temple was once upon a time a sacred place in the settlement of Jinzhulin and the burial place of the late Grandmaster Kilian, who cultivated for over one thousand years underwater to master the Soul-Crushing Way. When he lost his life during The Long Winter, his disciples buried him in the ancient temple and settled in Jinzhulin to cultivate far away from prying eyes.

The Soul-Crushing Way was a shortcut to godhood, and the Jinlian Sect had spent thousands of years trying to master it. But the caveat of the Soul-Crushing Way, which differed greatly from all other known cultivation paths, was the fact that no one could master it unless the Soul-Crushing Way chose to. And so, no member of the Jinlian Sect was able to achieve godhood and truly rule over Shenzhou.

But Grandmaster Kilian's disciples became corrupted over the years, and instead of protecting their cultivation and its spiritual power, they conspired with Jinlian to bypass the formal requirements of the cultivation and fool it into submitting to whoever chose to master it. One of these requirements was a pure essence; the other, a Divine Bone.

Cleaning the essence was the easiest, for it required the cultivator to wash themselves in the Lingjiang River. Although a temporary solution, it was long enough to fool the Soul-Crushing Way. The other requirement was more difficult to take care of, since one did not possess a Divine Bone but was born with it.

Thus, the only way for someone from the Immortal Realm to achieve godhood was to forge a Divine Bone by collecting the three Divine Artefacts left behind from the ancient Gods and Goddesses that once roamed heaven and earth.

Finding and collecting all the Divine Artefacts required not only a lot of spiritual power, which could easily kill the immortal, but also immense cultivation skills to stop the Divine Bone from rejecting its host once it has been forged. But as this was more or less impossible, the disciples turned to the Forbidden Arts to keep the Divine Bone sealed within its host. But each of their attempts to tame the dark arts was met with failure.

The use of such dark cultivation came with its own set of consequences, however, either killing the one trying to tame it or driving them into madness. But such things did not prevent the Jinlian Sect, which sought to cultivate their own god and truly rule over Shenzhou. And so it was no coincidence that a faction of their mightiest cultivators had now gathered in the Xianshen Temple.

To seal the Divine Bone according to the Forbidden Arts required an ancient talisman from the time before The Long Winter – an artefact forged by the God of Space before she sacrificed her physical body for the safety of the Mortals and Immortals alike from the Demon God and his army of Demons and Devils. This artefact was commonly known as Jade of Tear and was thought to have been forged from the God of Space's tears as she imploded and fell to the Mortal Realm. From this implosion was created the abyss, Wujing Yuan, where the Demon God and his minions were subsequently imprisoned.

Thus, to retrieve the last artefact, one had to breach the seals imprisoning the Demon God in Wujing Yuan and then search for it. It could take several weeks – perhaps years – before anyone could locate it, and by then, the imprisoned Demon God and his Demon Army might find a way to escape. The risks, therefore, were too many. No one in their sane mind would put their life on the line for something as ridiculous!

But just as Guo Lan thought no one dared to join this quest of madness, he was proven wrong – as were the disciples and Immortals all around him.

"I shall follow you not only to Wujing Yuan, Commander, but to the end of the world if you allow me."

Guo Lan frowned as did everyone else in the temple. Who was this fool? As he looked around, confused, he finally caught a glimpse of the young woman who proudly raised her hand high in the air. She wasn't from Huan-Yue, nor did she wear the robes of Grandmaster Kilian's disciples.

Instead, she was clad in a crimson gown with the emblem of the clan of Nivarra, who had long since been wiped out during a fallout with the Jinlian Sect during The Long Winter. Those who survived were sold as slaves to Huan-Yue or lived in seclusion on the outskirts of the ruins of Nivarra. How was this even possible?

Something in Commander Taohua's expression changed, albeit only subtly, so much so that Guo Lan arched a brow as he recognised this. Did those two… know one another? Guo Lan never had the chance to muse further than this, for as he was having these thoughts, some Immortals from Huan-Yue broke out in laughter. One by one, they each derided the young woman.

"What business does a girl have in Wujing Yuan?"

"Has the disciples of the Grandmaster nothing better to offer but a girl?"

"What does a girl even know about Wujing Yuan!? She's going to get herself killed, and that's a fact!"

These hurtful remarks, however, did nothing to fluster the young woman who went by the name of Xiyan. She'd been adopted by the Tuos, a noble household serving the Jinlian Sect, after the Immortals wiped out her entire bloodline during The Long Winter. Alongside Commander Taohua, she was brought up as a noble lady who knew nothing about her past, not until she learnt the truth of her origin and the calamity Jinlian brought upon her clan.

That was when she decided to part ways with the Tuos and seek her own truth in a local rebellion group on the outskirts of Nivarra. It was there, alongside the unfortunate rebels, she truly belonged. But she wasn't here to serve Jinlian; she was here to seek vengeance. And thus, she was willing to do anything to avenge her bloodline – even pretend to help the Moonshadow Guards to prove her worth and get the opportunity she needed to infiltrate the Jinlian Sect and kill Immortal Lord Zhenhai, whose clan had shed the blood of the innocent for far too many moons.

"What are you doing here. Xiyan? Does Father know—"

"Father?" she repeated, snapping. "I never once considered the commander my father! Nor the Tuos my family!"

These arcane exchanges soon became a topic of discussion among the disciples and Immortals, and the mingling crowd only grew louder with each passing second. Guo Lan had been right. Those two indeed knew one another, and it seemed there was some kind of bad blood between them.

"Anyone else? Doesn't any other brave soul want to seek approval from His Highness and the Jinlian Sect? To lead his own legion and—"

"I might be up for the task – but only on one condition."

Guo Lan glanced behind him as a cold hand fell on his shoulder, and his eyes grew wide open as he noticed who had just arrived and made his presence known to all.

"Master—"

Kaolin hushed him into silence with a single glance before addressing Commander Taohua once more, "What do you say, Commander? Can you grant my wish?"

"Master Kaolin? What a pleasant surprise! I haven't seen you since we crossed paths during the Cultivators' Night! How many moons have it been?"

Kaolin, "Too many if you ask me, Commander."

They went in for a brotherly embrace and smiled in unison. Meanwhile, everyone else in the temple clammed up. They'd heard rumours about Master Kaolin and his outstanding cultivation techniques that stretched far and wide, yet none of them knew how he looked. Until now, that is.

It was a well-known fact that Kaolin did not associate himself with commoners or announce himself to be the master cultivator of the Forbidden and Demonic Arts to anyone he did not know prior. Yet what surprised most was how young he looked for someone who had defied time and staved off the abyss.

Behind Kaolin, Wei Lan followed, disguised in a hood and the emblem of the Yinlin Rebels attached to his attire. He was also the one who now stood beside Guo Lan and made sure he made not a single sound. But not even Wei Lan's piercing eyes were enough to keep Guo Lan hushed.

"What's going on? Why's the master here?"

"Not now. I'll fill you in once we set out."

Guo Lan frowned. "Set out where?"

It was clear that Wei Lan was smiling under the hood.

"Where else but Wujing Yuan?"

"Wujing Yuan—!"

"Toughen off! With Kaolin with us, not even the Demon God can hurt us!"

"B-But I don't understand! Why would Master go to such lengths to—"

Wei Lan leaned in, "Keep your voice low, dimwit!"

"What I'm trying to say is… is…"

"This is not the time or place to discuss these kinds of things! All you need to know is that something's not right in Huan-Yue. Master suspects foul play. Immortal Lord Zhenhai might be in danger."

"His Highness? But how do you—"

"Shh!"

Wei Lan nudged him in the side so hard that he doubled over with a grunt, only to straighten his spine and beam like a fool upon seeing the suspicious eyes now closely following his every move. Instead, he clenched his teeth to keep the pain in and redirected his focus to Kaolin and the commander, who were now in deep conversation several rows in front of them.

Even though he had joined the Yinlin Rebellion as a boy no older than ten and seen the master enough times to memorise his face, he'd never once seen him smile so warmly before as he did now. But why was the master so close to the Tuos, who were known to be the loyal servants of Jinlian – their very enemies?

"Wei Lan, just how did Master get close to both Immortal Lord Zhenhai and the people of Tuo?"

Wei Lan, who had hoped Guo Lan would just stay hushed for the remainder of the night, drew a deep breath before breaking the silence.

"Have you heard of the Cultivators' Night, child?"

"The Cultivators' Night? What's that?"

Wei Lan wrapped his arm around him and sighed.

"Two hundred years ago, the Jinlian Sect invited cultivators from all over Shenzhou for a night unlike any other…"