Prologue
"**, still training with the sword? The cafeteria has been open for ages, if you don't come now, there won't be any meat left... No matter how hard you try, the Inner Sect disciple slots are all predetermined."
"**, it's good that you're so diligently practicing swordplay, but the pressure among the Inner Sect brothers is truly overwhelming, you should consider the others."
"**, you're already the True Inheritor Chief, why do you still forsake sleep and food? Our medium-grade sect, no matter how much we strive, can never surpass the top-grade sects."
"** Immortal, though you are devoted to the sword, winning top honors in the World Sword Assembly, becoming a model for the young generation of sword cultivators. But He Yue Fairy confesses her affections to you, such a rare opportunity, and you discard it like an old shoe, you've gone too far..."
In the haze, "he" suddenly recalled the long-buried old days.
The times when he was still human.
In a brief fifty years, from a naive child to number one in the world.
From human to non-human.
Indeed, it was a dreamlike time.
His parents were nameless sword cultivators, abandoning him at the Sword Pool upon birth. Through heavenly chance, the crisscrossing Sword Qi of the Sword Pool did not kill him, but nourished him. The first light he saw upon opening his eyes was the purifying swordlight within the pool.
From that moment, he did not consider himself human. Fifty years of cultivation just to rid himself of human constraints, and upon finally reaching the peak of cultivation, even his name was forgotten; people only knew him as the world's number one Nameless Sword God.
Yet to him, the title of Sword God meant little, whether as an Immortal or Sword Immortal, even Sword God was just a human title, whereas he long sought more than humanity, yet regrettably the path of cultivation seemed to have reached its end.
Fortunately, it was an era of miracles.
Of course, some said it was the worst era.
——
When the corner of the Nine Heavens collapsed and blood and lava poured down, Jiuzhou Continent's immortal civilization neared extinction.
They were dubbed the Demon Race, descending upon Jiuzhou during the Night of Blood and Fire, signaling the dawn of the dark age.
For over a century, the Demon Race wreaked havoc on Jiuzhou, scarring the land, reducing a multitude of glorious cultivation sects to ashes, powerful great cultivators dying tragically at demon hands. The Myriad Immortals Alliance retreated from West to East, from Yun Province to Central Province, then from Central Province to East Province, in a hundred years, half of Jiuzhou Continent succumbed, three of the seven super sects extinguished, the Myriad Immortals Alliance's once radiant Aerial Sanctuary now precariously dim and dark.
In utter despair, peerless heroes shouldered the collapsing Jiuzhou. Li Jiulong, Shen Kaishan, Lu Jintong, Zhu Junsen, Zhao Yuming, Feng You, Shang Lanfei, Jing Hong, Rakugo, the Nine Great Immortal Venerables, the most formidable cultivators beneath the sky, launched a counterattack against the bedraggled Demon Race.
They dug out ice from the South Pole Mysterious Cave, borrowed fire from Beiming Red Mountain, snapped the East Forest Ancient Wood Divine Branch, captured the Cangxi Desert Flowing Wind, using Immortal Heart Blood as the guide, forging the Fengzhou Sword Pool, a hundred days of blood sacrifice, pleading an unmatched Divine Sword from Heaven-Reaching Tower in Central Province. With this Divine Sword, the Nine Great Immortal Venerables slaughtered Demon Generals and broke Demon Armies, advancing relentlessly. Though the Demon Race was strong and the Demon Army fierce, none could withstand the sword's edge. As if overnight, the tide of the Immortal Demon War was decisively reversed, as if a miracle.
Yet in this world there were never true miracles; the sword petitioned from "beyond the heavens" was once a living person. The Nine Great Immortal Venerables extracted Jiuzhou's essence at Fengzhou Sword Pool, a hundred days of blood sacrifice, refining the world's number one Nameless Sword God—sacrificial refining of a living man, thus birthing the so-called "Celestial Divine Sword".
Such a method naturally stood apart from righteousness, the most sinister of twisted paths, the sacrificial offering being a model for cultivators worldwide—an unnamed Sword God reaching the peak of cultivation in a mere fifty years, even amidst the impasse of the Immortal Demon War, was a grand and tragic affair no one wished to mention.
However, for the involved, this was the world's greatest fortune.
Gathering the strongest from the world to assist, concentrating Jiuzhou's strength, finally freed him from humanity's shackles, transforming from Sword God to Divine Sword.
In the moment when his immortal body became the Divine Sword Body and his Primordial Spirit ascended to Sword Spirit, he felt reborn.
From then on, his memory became clear, no longer scattered and dim fragments, but coherent and rich scenes.
As the Celestial Divine Sword, he possessed power beyond human form; in the ensuing years, he traveled battle to battle with the Nine Great Immortal Venerables, winning without pause.
Finally, the grand and dignified Great Demon Hall collapsed a corner.
The Infinite Demon Tower, symbolizing the Demon Race's supreme authority, broke midway and fell with a roar.
The Demon Race's supreme leader, the invincible Great Demon God Emperor, gazed indifferently upon the ruins beneath, his two pairs of golden-red pupils sweeping over the nine audacious human cultivators before him.
A fight to the dragon's den persisted ten days and nights, the Great Demon Hall was razed to the ground, the Nine Heavens Demon Eye turned to ashes, Tongyou Abyss permanently closed. The Great Demon God Emperor who swept across Jiuzhou without shedding a drop of blood, finally had his Indestructible Golden Body breached, golden blood flowed from the deep wound on his chest, burning the ruins of the Great Demon Hall as lava.
A hundred years of Immortal Demon War yielded unprecedented glorious results, albeit at a heartbreakingly severe price.
Eight of the Nine Great Immortal Venerables fell, along with their exquisite immortal artifacts, bodies never to be found. Li Jiulong, wielding the Divine Sword, struggled to stand unwavering before the Great Demon God Emperor, yet his Immortal Heart shattered, Divine Sense destroyed, powerless to fight further.
"Mere ants, to have come this far truly surprises me."
As Li Jiulong's Primordial Spirit gradually dissipated, the Great Demon God Emperor slowly spoke, his voice seeming both near and far, both masculine and feminine, all-encompassing yet void, simply put, a mere sentence caused the sky's black clouds to roll like turbulent waves.