That night, thunder and lightning raged violently.
It was the first time in both of Jiang Xingyan’s lives that she had ever seen such enormous bolts of lightning—they seemed to stretch all the way from the eastern horizon to the western one.
She was jolted awake from her dreams, and the very first thing she saw was Yun Chunfeng’s face, which had turned even paler than before.
Her heart lurched with alarm: Could it be that all these thunderbolts from the heavens were actually aimed at Yun-ge?
The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Especially when she noticed that after every massive clap of thunder, Yun Chunfeng’s complexion grew a shade whiter.
Jiang Xingyan couldn’t sit still. She paced back and forth inside the tent, racking her brain for any way she could help Yun-ge.
Then, suddenly, she remembered the time when they were attacking the capital of Beiluo. Yun-ge had used every last ounce of his cultivation to intercept the cannonballs from the red-coated cannons. Afterward, the gratitude of the soldiers seemed to take on a tangible form, turning into flecks of golden light that wrapped around him and carried him safely to the ground.
Perhaps that same power of heartfelt gratitude could also give Yun-ge a helping hand now.
With that thought, Jiang Xingyan pressed her palms together, silently chanting Yun-ge’s name in her heart. She thought of all his kindness, all his hardships, and everything he had given for her and for all living beings—and before she knew it, two streams of tears were rolling down her cheeks.
Yun-ge, I’m waiting for you. You have to hold on.
She didn’t notice that a tiny speck of pure golden light had drifted out from the center of her chest, rising higher and higher, piercing through the clouds until it flew straight into Yun Chunfeng’s heart.
The assembled immortals and Buddhas had just forced back the first wave of heavenly thunder and were taking a moment to recover.
Yun Chunfeng’s master was in the middle of reshaping the sage’s bones—which he had previously shed—back into his very soul.
At this moment, it was as if the clouds had parted and the moon had emerged in everyone’s hearts; everything became crystal clear.
In ancient times, Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong were the three sages. They governed the Heavenly Dao, rewarding good and punishing evil with order and precision.
But after Nüwa created humanity, the realms of mortals and ghosts came into being, and the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Dao expanded greatly.
Yet in the beginning, mortals were the weakest of all. They had neither sturdy bodies nor sharp claws or fangs, and for the most part, they could only end up as prey for fierce beasts.
So Nüwa lowered her own status, becoming a Heavenly Sovereign, and personally descended to the mortal world to guide humanity.
Fearing that their sister would suffer, Fuxi and Shennong followed suit, also becoming Heavenly Sovereigns—one teaching mortals the way of survival, the other leading them to taste every kind of herb in order to cure all illnesses.
The human race truly lived up to being the children of the sages.
They possessed an astonishing capacity for learning, and some among them even carried traces of spiritual power.
Thus, mortals formed nations, and those with spiritual power became cultivators of immortality.
There were also prodigies so extraordinary that they were not content with the path of immortality and instead founded Buddhism, giving rise to the three Buddhas of the past, present, and future.
In this world, the Four Great Continents had lived peacefully and orderly for countless years under the support of both the immortal and Buddhist paths.
But what they never expected was that, after eons upon eons, the Heavenly Dao itself actually developed sentience.
And with sentience came greed, anger, obsession, and hatred.
It no longer wanted to be restrained. It no longer wanted to follow the course that had been set for it.
So it connected with the Heavenly Daos of countless other worlds and began to draw in outsiders—beings that did not belong to this world—to enter it.
Its goal was singular: to prevent any sage from ever arising among the Four Great Continents.
It sent those otherworldly visitors to the side of the favored children of fate or the destined daughters of heaven, using them to weaken their power, to make them perish ahead of time, and to return them to dust.
That way, there would be no one left to restrain it, and it could do whatever it pleased.
That was, until Yun Chunfeng came along.
His mother, Liu Ruoniang, was an ancient great serpent demon who had taken human form and was traveling through the mortal world. By chance, she met Yun Chen, a supremely good man who had cultivated virtue for ten lifetimes.
The two fell in love at first sight.
Yun Chen knew full well who Liu Ruoniang truly was, yet he still overcame every obstacle to marry her.
Their love was deep and true, and they were inseparable. Soon, they gave birth to Yun Chunfeng.
When Yun Chunfeng was born, his hair was already pure white, and the room was filled with golden light. Heaven and earth shifted in color—the very mark of a sage’s bearing.
This unusual sign was quickly detected by the Heavenly Dao.
It sent countless otherworldly visitors—some to seduce Liu Ruoniang, some to seduce Yun Chen—determined to destroy Yun Chunfeng’s family and have him die young.
Liu Ruoniang was the first to sense something was wrong. She quickly sent a message to her closest confidante, the one who would later become Yun Chunfeng’s master, Bu’er.
Unfortunately, Yun Chunfeng’s master was in seclusion at the time and never received the message.
Liu Ruoniang had no choice but to save herself.
She secretly killed countless otherworldly visitors, but in the end, it was all in vain.
The Heavenly Dao went so far as to alter Yun Chen’s fate, afflicting him with a terrible illness that lingered and never healed.
Liu Ruoniang knew that the Heavenly Dao was behind it, but she was powerless to stop it.
She spent her days drowning in tears, all while channeling her own spiritual power to Yun Chen, hoping to keep him alive until her friend emerged from seclusion.
But Yun Chen’s body was like a bottomless pit—no matter how much power she poured into him, it never made the slightest difference.
He held on for only five years.
When Yun Chunfeng was five years old, Yun Chen passed away. Liu Ruoniang, heartbroken and utterly drained of her power, followed him soon after.
The villagers called Yun Chunfeng a cursed star of solitude, saying he had killed his parents and would kill the entire village next. They wanted to tie him up and drown him in a pond.
Yun Chunfeng barely escaped with his life and was saved by Jiang Haiji.
At the time, Jiang Xingyan was only two years old. She grabbed his thumb and flashed him a sweet, babbling smile—and in that moment, she became a ray of light in his life, the very reason he went on living.
But precisely because of that, the Heavenly Dao ruthlessly altered her fate.
It twisted what should have been a perfect match between her and Huo Ci into a union of bitter resentment.
Jiang Xingyan died with a heart full of grievances, which moved Yun Chunfeng to willingly give up his sage’s bones in exchange for the chance to overturn fate and come back to save her.
His master, Bu’er, had long sensed something uncanny about the whole affair and had secretly kept his sage’s bones.
Now, they came in handy after all.
“This thing—you can choose not to use it, but you can’t afford not to have it.
See? If I hadn’t kept them for you, we’d be losing a huge chunk of our fighting power!
Don’t you forget to repay me later, hear?
If it’s anything less than five million taels of silver, don’t even tell people you’re my disciple.”
Heavenly Sovereign Nüwa covered her mouth with a light laugh, while Heavenly Sovereign Fuxi gave a helpless shake of his head.
Even at a time like this, he still couldn’t resist squeezing his disciple dry.
When the sage’s bones had first been extracted, it had nearly cost Yun Chunfeng half his life. And now that they were trying to put them back, the bones weren’t exactly cooperative.
They kept stubbornly resisting, leaving Bu’er drenched in sweat from frustration—but he didn’t dare say a single word against them.
Then, a speck of golden light shot straight into Yun Chunfeng’s heart.
Suddenly, a wave of warmth surged through his entire body, and the sage’s bones fused with him instantly.
His master, Bu’er, was stunned: “That’s incredible?”
In an instant, heaven and earth changed color, and wind and rain howled wildly.
Only behind Yun Chunfeng did a blaze of golden light burst forth, so brilliant that even the immortals and Buddhas had to shield their eyes.
The Heavenly Dao flew into a rage. A thunderbolt carrying the force of a million strikes came hurtling straight toward the crown of Yun Chunfeng’s head.
Yun Chunfeng’s white hair streamed in the wind, and he showed not a trace of fear.
Just as the thunder was about to strike him, he suddenly reached out with his right hand and caught it.
His eyes snapped open—and within them, there were no longer any pupils, only an infinite sea of golden light.
“The Heavenly Dao is the principle by which all things in creation abide.
But now, driven by selfish desire, you have cast aside the lives of countless beings—how can you still call yourself the Heavenly Dao?
Today, I shall carry out the will of the sages: I will erase your sentience and banish you to the endless abyss for tempering.
The Heavenly Dao endures eternally—it should never harbor improper thoughts. Surrender now, and spare yourself the agony of having your bones stripped away!”
The Heavenly Dao roared in fury: “Enough nonsense!”
Another bolt of lightning shot toward Yun Chunfeng’s face with blinding speed.
He snatched it out of thin air with his left hand, and now he held two heavenly thunderbolts—one in each hand.
“How dare you!”
Yun Chunfeng suddenly pulled his arms outward.
The devastating power of heavenly thunder, enough to destroy worlds, was instantly torn to shreds by him.
“Heavenly Dao. It’s time for all of this to end.”
