The first rays of dawn had yet to touch the mountains when the laughter began.“They said Heaven had abandoned him before he was even born.”The words drifted through the cold morning air like a curse that refused to fade, repeated so many times over the years that no one even remembered who had first spoken them.By now, no one in the Azure Heaven Sect bothered to question whether they were true.Perched atop towering emerald peaks that pierced the clouds, the sect stood as one of the great cultivation powers of the Eastern Frontier.Waterfalls cascaded from floating cliffs, spiritual cranes glided between jade-green pavilions, and dense rivers of spiritual qi coursed through the mountains like invisible veins.Every morning, disciples gathered in the vast cultivation plaza to absorb the purest essence of dawn before the sun fully rose.To outsiders, the sect looked like a sacred paradise, a place blessed by Heaven itself, but to Chen, it had always felt more like a prison.Hundreds

Chen did not notice it at first.His entire world had narrowed to the shattered fragments lying across the forest floor, each broken piece of jade catching the pale morning light for the briefest instant before sinking back into shadow.Only moments ago, the pendant had rested in his palm with an inexplicable warmth, as if something inside it had still been alive. Now it was nothing but wreckage: broken jade, dirt, and blood stains.Behind him, Zhao Feng’s laughter rang through the ancestral mountain, loud and ugly against the hush of the ancient trees.“I almost believed he’d stumbled onto some ancient treasure,” Zhao Feng said, shaking his head with exaggerated disappointment.He nudged one of the fragments with the tip of his boot and sneered. “But I suppose this suits him. Even Heaven only gives Chen broken things.”The others burst out laughing.One disciple bent over so hard he had to brace his hands against his knees. “I have seen beggars at the foot of the mountain with better

Darkness pressed against Chen from every direction.It was not the darkness of night, nor the soft emptiness that waited behind closed eyes. This darkness felt older than either of those things, deeper than shadow, as though he had drifted into a place where light had never been born.His consciousness moved through the endless void like a leaf carried by an invisible current. He did not feel himself falling. No wind brushed against his skin.No sound reached him except the slow, steady rhythm of his own heartbeat, which seemed unnaturally loud in the vast silence.Am I... dead?The thought rose instinctively.The last thing he remembered was collapsing beside the ruined statue after the broken jade dissolved into golden light and vanished into his body. After that, there had only been pain, a whisper in his mind, and then nothing.Had Zhao Feng returned while he lay helpless?Had the strange power hidden inside the pendant consumed him?He tried to move. Nothing happened. His body re

The words lingered in the silent hall. “The last keeper... of the Primordial Immortal Scripture.”Chen had never heard that name before, yet the moment the title reached his ears, something deep within his soul trembled in response.Above the jade chessboard, countless golden symbols spun faster and faster, their soft radiance washing over the old immortal’s weathered face and revealing an expression shaped less by age than by an unbearable loneliness.Chen swallowed hard before asking, “Was it... the Scripture that brought me here?”The old man gave a single nod. “It did.”A chill ran through Chen. “Am I dead?”A faint smile touched the old man’s lips. “If you were, we would be having a very different conversation.”Relief swept through Chen, but it lasted for only a heartbeat before another question rose to take its place. “Then... where is my body?”“It remains beneath the abandoned ancestral mountain,” the old man said, pointing towards the sky.As he spoke, the old man calmly mov

“The first seal...”The Forgotten Immortal’s fingertip came to a halt a breath away from Chen’s forehead.Golden light gathered at its tip. It was no brighter than a candle flame, yet its radiance made the entire celestial palace tremble as though it could no longer bear the force awakening within it.Beyond the open hall, billions of stars pulsed in unison, while the endless rivers of starlight flowing through the void suddenly reversed their course.Beneath Chen’s feet, the giant chessboard dissolved into countless glowing runes that spiraled upward around him like living dragons.Every instinct within Chen screamed at him to retreat.His body wanted to step back, to turn, to flee, because every fiber of his being understood that the moment the old man’s finger touched him, the life he had known would vanish forever.The Forgotten Immortal seemed to read the fear in his eyes. “There is still time to refuse.”Chen blinked, startled by the offer. “...Refuse?”“If I break the first sea