World’s No. 1 Swordsman

"Does my bloodline... still have a worthy successor?"

In the conference room, several elders had already stood up and leaned forward as they watched light flow across the surface of the jade talisman in Qing Yanzi's hand. After an ancient-sounding sigh echoed, streams of green light intertwined and chased each other, eventually forming the image of a Daoist in green robes.

Ma Zibin, who had already received Qing Yanzi's prior instructions, pointed his phone's camera at the green-robed Daoist and pressed the record button.

It really is the forefather!

Wang Sheng had seen the formation spirit's incarnation of Lu Dongbin before. Looking at it now, he noticed that the green-robed Daoist was somewhat thin and had a faintly desolate expression. Other than that, he did not appear much different from the one he had seen before.

The green-robed Daoist on the jade talisman sometimes paced slowly, sighing and speaking softly. Sometimes, he'd grow agitated, even breaking into furious outbursts.

Wang Sheng and Mu Wanxuan, who could understand some of his archaic tones, exchanged a glance. Mu Wanxuan pressed her lips together, while Wang Sheng merely shrugged, his eyes telling his senior sister not to worry.

After about half an hour, the green light gradually receded. Qing Yanzi closed his eyes, carefully drew all of the green light back into the jade talisman, and then used true essence to wrap and seal it.

Beside him, Ma Zibin stopped recording. He immediately uploaded it to the confidential archive of the research institute's closed local network.

An elder impatiently asked, "Daoist Master Bu Yan, who was that immortal, and what did he say?"

Qing Yanzi replied, "The founding forefather of my sect. He's more commonly known as Lu the Progenitor, one of the Eight Immortals."

"Was that really Lu Dongbin? What is that artifact, and what was he trying to tell us?"

"It is likely a messaging jade talisman used by immortals," Qing Yanzi explained. "This box is a treasured artifact of my sect, and those below the Golden Core Realm cannot open it. My late master passed it down to me and died protecting it. Anyway, please give me a moment. I have prepared a translation of Lu the Progenitor's statements, which I will now read to you all."

Qing Yanzi retrieved a sheet of white paper from within his robes. "To help you understand the turmoil in our forefather's heart, I'll try to imitate his tone and style as best I can."

Wang Sheng tugged at his senior sister, and the two sat off to the side. Ma Zibin then sat down beside Wang Sheng, quietly waiting.

"Take your time. Give us a few minutes as well," the elderly man in the wheelchair replied. He then turned to one of his subordinates. "Have the guards seal off the area outside the conference room and instruct them not to let anyone approach. Encrypt the document that Professor Ma has just uploaded as well."

Qing Yanzi nodded, then continued preparing himself emotionally.

Outside the conference room, dense footsteps echoed as they gradually faded into the distance.

Finally, the elder said, "Alright, Daoist Master Bu Yan. Please proceed."

Qing Yanzi sighed and made a sorrowful expression. He managed to quite convincingly imitate their forefather's demeanor.

"Does my bloodline... still have a worthy successor? I never thought that even I, Lu Dongbin, would one day leave behind a final testament. The unpredictability of the world can truly make anyone sigh in lament.

"In my years, I have already achieved the fruit of longevity and wandered freely through the heavens and the stars. I never expected disaster to arise among the immortals and saints. Now, all that remains are empty sighs.

"My successor, if you are able to open this treasure box, then the seal we placed on it must have automatically released after tens of thousands of years. Ten thousand years may have passed in this realm, and beyond it, perhaps a million. Even so, I doubt anyone is already searching for the whereabouts of this world. You should be able to walk the path of cultivation steadily.

"I will recount everything truthfully in the hope that when you one day ascend and leave this realm, you will not bring disaster upon yourselves because of any misstatements. But where should I begin? Ah, yes, I should start at the peak of the Heavenly Court. That... was so long ago that I can no longer count the years that have since passed."

Qing Yanzi's tone grew slower and more deliberate as he expanded the originally concise message into far more detail.

Wang Sheng gradually became entranced as he listened, as if a boundless starry universe had begun to unfold in his heart...

***

Too much information had been preserved in the recording that Lu Dongbin had left. It even touched upon the origin of the universe. All this time, the immortals' interpretation of the cosmos had been within the widely circulatedDao De Jingin the Hua Republic. What the immortals considered the beginning of all things in the universe was a state without shape or color—the concept of nothingness.

When the faintest fluctuation appeared within that nothingness, regardless of its source or reason for emerging, it marked the transition from nothing to existence. What first came into being was the Dao. The process of the Dao's birth was simply referred to as the Great Dao, but immortals revered it as the Supreme Dao of Tai Chi.

The Great Dao, nurtured within nothingness, was the most profound truth that immortals had endlessly pursued. It had no beginning and no end; it was infinite and boundless. When it gave rise to the Dao within nothingness, the Dao became a concept that could be comprehended and perceived. Thus, existence transformed into form, completing the process of "the Dao giving birth to One."

Wang Sheng's knowledge of physics was limited, but he could understand this "One" as a singularity.

The phrase "One gives birth to Two" referred to the singularity's explosion, the Big Bang of the universe. From it emerged "Two"—space and time, the fundamental concepts of existence. The birth of space and time allowed the depiction of the dynamic changes of the material world. This was the earliest stage of the universe's formation.

In the infinite extension of time and space, "Three" then came into being. It was the interweaving of spatial folds and temporal fissures, referring to all matter. The earliest matter was basic and minuscule, but it could continuously gather and grow—from particles to stars. This was what Daoist sects referred to as all things between heaven and earth.

That was the principle behind the phrase, "the Dao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives rise to all things."

This entire process was encompassed within the Great Dao. Its projection in the material world was the forefathers that the Daoist sects worshipped—the Three Pure Ones.

According to Lu Dongbin, the Great Dao would at times appear and at times vanish. The Three Pure Ones were sages who resided in the Boundless Heaven, observing those changes in the material world.

When the Three Pure Ones manifested, they created all things, within which existed countless living beings. Later, as the Great Dao withdrew, the Three Pure Ones stopped appearing, yet on the boundary between the formless and the material, they nurtured a world of their own. That place was the Sacred Immortal Domain.

The Sacred Immortal Domain was not the center of the universe. According to Lu Dongbin's understanding of the Great Dao, the universe had no true center. The positions of various starfields were relatively fixed, and what expanded was only the original Two—time and space.

Throughout the endless passage of time, the Three Pure Ones would occasionally appear and then disappear again. Life within the Sacred Immortal Domain increased, and species multiplied, gradually crowding the domain. Eventually, living beings began to spread across the vast and ever-expanding universe.

As their understanding of the Dao differed, so too did the power they could command. Gradually, they each reached their own limits, and distinctions of strength and weakness emerged.

These were the earliest immortals.

Later, the Sacred Immortal Domain gradually became the land of immortals. Countless races either left of their own accord, were driven out by immortals, or were enslaved by them.

The world of immortals was not without waves. It went through constant changes as well, alternating between turmoil and peace.

No one knew how much time had passed, but the expansion of living beings throughout the star domains eventually reached a limit, one defined by the ability to maintain contact and communicate. Those who had gone even farther into the universe had already lost all connection with the Sacred Immortal Domain.

The Sacred Immortal Domain was where the Great Dao resided—it was the most suitable place for cultivation. Hence, generally speaking, the closer a race was to it, the stronger they were, the more deeply they could comprehend the Dao, and the more they could access the Daoist Canon.

The Sacred Immortal Domain gathered countless powerful beings who directly or indirectly ruled over the surrounding star domains. In the endless passage of time, far too many events took place within it for history to be completely preserved.

Several million years ago, an immortal emperor named Haotian rose to power. Leading his commanders and clansmen, he waged war across the Sacred Immortal Domain. After hundreds of thousands of years of battle, he finally swept away the unrest that had lasted for who knew how many ages, unifying the Sacred Immortal Domain and half of the nearby star domains.

Haotian then established the Heavenly Court, revered the Three Pure Ones, and received the protection of the Great Dao. Moreover, he divided the regions around the Sacred Immortal Domain.

The Sacred Immortal Domain was renamed the Immortal Realm, while the star domains became the Mortal Realm. Lastly, the land that governed the cycle of rebirth was named the Nether Realm. From then on, he ruled over the Three Realms. The Great Dao bestowed upon him the title, "Jade Emperor Haotian, Supreme Sovereign of the Golden Palace and Divine Ruler of Cosmic Truth."

The powerful beings who had followed Haotian in his campaigns across the realms were each granted honors, including the Four Heavenly Ministers, the Five Emperors, and many other peerless experts who had fought by his side for hundreds of thousands of years. Haotian's own clan also became known as the "Celestial Race" of the Immortal Realm, with black hair and black eyes. They flourished at their peak.

However, the Great Dao was ever-changing, and so was the world.

According to Lu Dongbin, the Great Dao revealed the Three Pure Ones about ten thousand years ago by Earth's reckoning, or about a million years ago in the time of the Sacred Immortal Domain. In response, Haotian did something truly mad.

Believing that he had reached the end of the immortal path, Haotian sought to merge with the Great Dao and take the final step into the legendary Saint Realm.

Before he could, the Three Pure Ones manifested. The Celestial Venerable of Morality merely opened his eyes and lightly tapped a finger. Haotian immediately crumbled, vanishing into thin air. Not long afterward, the Five Heavenly Declines[1] began to sweep through the Immortal Realm. Countless immortals fell one after another, and their once-flourishing empire quickly declined.

At that very moment, countless powerful beings from beyond the Three Realms suddenly returned to the Immortal Realm. With no one left to lead it and internal strife rising, even the Four Heavenly Ministers and Five Emperors became divided.

A great war broke out that lasted tens of thousands of years, engulfing countless star domains. Rebellion erupted within the Heavenly Court. In the end, a coalition of powerful foreign races breached it.

Even Great Emperor Ziwei was ambushed and seriously wounded. Nevertheless, despite his injuries, he and the immortals of the Heavenly Court risked everything to help Haotian's children escape the Immortal Realm. At this point in the text, Qing Yanzi specifically pointed out that the corpse from the far side of the moon was Haotian's daughter; she had been of exceedingly noble status.

With nowhere else to turn, they were forced to go to a place known as the Realm of Exiled Immortals—a place where the Great Dao did not manifest and time and space were distorted. Unless one was a powerful immortal, it was easy to get lost within it.

For reasons unknown, the place they had entered had experienced a temporal anomaly. There was no primal qi, no spiritual roots, and the flow of time was nearly a hundred times slower than that of a normal star domain. Cultivation was utterly impossible.

The immortals thought they had reached a dead end until they discovered a blue planet. To their astonishment, it was home to many living beings who naturally radiated abundant primal qi.

After careful calculation, they determined that tens of millions of years ago, the place had been used as a place of exile. Dozens of races had once been banished here one after another. Now, only three remained.

Among the three races, one shared the same lineage as Haotian and the other immortals. At the time, they were just a collection of tribes surviving along the great rivers, the strongest of which was... Youyan.

1. when a divine being is near their end, they would experience the Five Heavenly Declines. This includes their clothes soiling, withering head ornaments, sweating from armpits, foul body odor, and restlessness ☜