Jian Heng began to tell his story.
To an avid Xianxia reader like Wei Chen, the tale wasn't anything new.
The story was straightforward: his childhood sweetheart, Su Yurong, the daughter of the village chief where Jian Heng lived at the time.
She was a genius with top-tier spiritual roots and strong determination to walk the path of cultivation.
For a farmer boy like Jian Heng, back then his name was just Ah-Heng, the words "cultivator" and "immortal" were as distant as the stars in the sky. Cultivators flew like gods, capable of leveling mountains with a single palm.
In the eyes of Ah-Heng, they weren't even the same kind of beings as mortals like him.
Su Yurong eventually went to the Azure River Capital to undergo the sect recruitment for the Heavenly Sword Sect.
At that time, Gu Tianhe, a genius from the Gu Clan, also participated. With his unparalleled talent and domineering attitude, Gu Tianhe was the first to secure a spot.
In the city, Gu Tianhe happened to see Su Yurong's beauty and decided to make her his concubine. He immediately used his domineering methods to try to force her into submission.
But Su Yurong refused. She liked Ah-Heng.
Naive and hopeful, Ah-Heng still believed everyone in the world was as kind as the people in his village. He tried to reason with Gu Tianhe, but it backfired terribly.
Gu Tianhe beat him half to death while his lackeys restrained Su Yurong and forced her to watch.
Ah-Heng, just a mortal, had no chance against Gu Tianhe, who was already at the peak of Qi Refining. He was beaten nearly to death.
Gu Tianhe then gave Su Yurong an ultimatum: become his concubine, and he would order a doctor from the Gu Clan to heal Ah-Heng.
Su Yurong agreed, but begged Gu Tianhe to let her undergo the sect recruitment first. This was her last gamble. If she succeeded, she hoped the Heavenly Sword Sect might help save Ah-Heng.
But Gu Tianhe wasn't willing to wait. He used his connections and bribed a lowly outer disciple in charge of the recruitment to sabotage her assessment.
The disciple, not daring to offend the Gu Clan, ensured she failed.
Stripped of her chance, Su Yurong had no choice but to follow Gu Tianhe's arrangements. But before submitting, she asked about Ah-Heng. Gu Tianhe lied, telling her that Ah-Heng had fully recovered and returned home.
In truth, Ah-Heng was thrown off a cliff to die.
Yet fate intervened. At the bottom of the cliff lay the secret realm of a Sword Saint, and the vestige of the Sword Saint's soul imprint saved Ah-Heng's life.
As if destined, Ah-Heng awakened to the sword path. Though his spiritual root was of common quality, the humiliation and pain he endured sharpened his heart like an unsheathed blade.
The Sword Saint's soul imprint accepted Ah-Heng as his disciple, binding him with a promise: within 10,000 years, Ah-Heng must ascend to the upper realm, join his sect, and help him vie for the Immortal Emperor's throne.
From then on, Ah-Heng trained day and night, fueled by the determination to return and protect Su Yurong.
Meanwhile, before marrying into the Gu Clan, Su Yurong overheard servants gossiping about Ah-Heng. Amid their mocking words, she caught a vital truth: Ah-Heng was dead, thrown from a cliff near the Azure River Capital.
It had already been a week. She held no hope that he had survived.
In despair, she went to the cliff and leapt. Unlike Ah-Heng, she didn't fall into the Sword Saint's secret realm. Instead, fortune placed her in a frozen cave beneath the waters nearby, where she was sealed in ice.
Ten years passed. Ah-Heng reached the Core Formation Realm and finally emerged, determined to take revenge and save his childhood sweetheart.
In those ten years, he came to understand his own heart. With growing power, his confidence and resolve only deepened.
As long as she was alive, he didn't care whether she had retained her chastity. He would still love her and spend his life with her.
But on his journey, he discovered a massive ice crystal beneath the water. Within it was the girl he longed for most… Su Yurong.
He didn't know how she ended up there, but when he tried to cut the ice, even with his Core Formation strength, he couldn't leave a single scratch.
Outside the screen, in Mo Xingyao's medical room, she was watching the broadcast as it reached this part.
"That ice must be the Ten Thousand Years Eternal Ice. No one below the Soul Transformation Realm can leave even a scratch on it. Even my father, who is at the Void Refining Realm, would need to use at least half of his power to cut through that ice," Mo Xingyao commented.
Within the broadcast, the story continued.
Ah-Heng went to the Gu Clan to take his revenge, but Gu Tianhe wasn't there. In anger, he immediately destroyed the Gu Clan's ancestral tomb to force Gu Tianhe to appear.
He fought the Gu Clan Protector, who was at the half-step Soul Transformation Realm, and though it was a difficult and costly battle, he still emerged victorious.
Ah-Heng killed the Gu Clan Protector and shattered their ancestral tomb, causing the clan's fortune to rapidly decline. At this time, Gu Tianhe, who was at the Heavenly Sword Sect, rushed back and saw his ancestral home razed to the ground.
He fought against Ah-Heng, but Ah-Heng had already slain the Gu Clan Ancestor, who was far stronger than Gu Tianhe. At that time, Gu Tianhe was only at Peak Core Formation Realm.
The battle quickly turned one-sided, and Gu Tianhe was beaten like a dog. Ah-Heng intended to kill him, but Gu Tianhe's father activated the clan's trump card, summoning the will of the Gu Clan Ancestor.
Facing overwhelming power, Ah-Heng was about to be killed, but then the sword saint's soul imprint, the strain of will left behind by his master, intervened, negotiating with the Gu Clan Ancestor's will.
The sword saint's will declared: either the Gu Clan Ancestor must withdraw, or he would use his real body in the Upper Realm and personally hunt him down.
The Gu Clan Ancestor did not dare go against the sword saint. He only asked that his bloodline be spared. As for Gu Tianhe's fate, as long as he lived, the Ancestor did not care.
Thus, Ah-Heng destroyed Gu Tianhe's dantian, causing all of his accumulated vitality and cultivation to dissipate. Because Gu Tianhe's foundation was already weak, due to excessive use of elixirs to push his cultivation, the loss of vitality hit him even harder.
As for the Heavenly Sword Sect, the sword saint happened to be the sect's founder. Because of that, they did not interfere. However, Ah-Heng was required to join the Heavenly Sword Sect in order to uphold his promise to the sword saint.
"That's about it," Jian Heng finished his story.
"May I ask if Miss Su Yurong is still beneath the water under that cliff?" Wei Chen politely asked.
Jian Heng smiled. "No, I already brought her here. Come, follow me."
Jian Heng led Wei Chen into his dwelling, a large courtyard reserved for the vice sect leader. The camera followed the two into a grand hall more than six meters tall.
The moment Jian Heng opened the door, frigid air poured out from within.
They entered the hall where ice covered the floor and pillars, resembling a palace of frost.
At the end of the hall stood a massive ice crystal, more than four meters tall. Inside, a beautiful woman rested as if sleeping, her face carried traces of sorrow, yet her lips held a faint smile of relief.
Seeing this, Wei Chen inquired,
"Vice Sect Leader Jian Heng, you are strong enough now to cut the ice. Why don't you release Miss Su Yurong? Or is there something I'm not aware of?"
Jian Heng smiled. "Oh… it's not that simple. In order to cut this ice, I need to use my full power, and even then it would only be just enough. But without absolute control over my strength, cutting it would only harm her. That is why I cannot bring her out yet," he explained.
Hearing this, Wei Chen nodded.
Jian Heng lingered a moment, gazing at Su Yurong within the ice in silent reminiscence, before leading Wei Chen out and locking the hall behind them. They returned to the same pavilion where they had spoken earlier.
After the two had sipped tea and calmed themselves, Wei Chen turned to the camera.
"As you can see, brothers and sisters, the life of Vice Sect Leader Jian Heng has been full of ups and downs. He possesses an extraordinary destiny, and it seems even Heaven itself watches over him. Even his most important person has received Heaven's protection." Wei Chen paused, adjusted his posture to a more serious tone, and continued.
"From what we heard from the Vice Sect Leader, Miss Su Yurong was still a mortal when she leapt from that cliff. And yet, she was immediately encased in ice. This kind of fortune is extremely rare. If I were a mortal and jumped off that cliff, my head would have split open on the Ten Thousand Year Eternal Ice, no question asked."
Wei Chen added with a touch of humor, as an infographic appeared showing a chibi version of him leaping down, smashing his head against the Eternal Ice, and his soul comically flying out of his body.
"From what I know, the chances of the underwater frigid river shifting in such a way to allow someone to be encased in ice are unimaginably slim. But by some miracle, Miss Su Yurong, even though she was still a mortal, happened to fall into that one slim chance."
Wei Chen paused again, and an infographic appeared to visually explain what happened for the audience.
"The odds of this occurring are almost impossible. If someone claimed no higher power or Heaven's intervention was involved, I simply wouldn't believe it.
"And this… this kind of chain of impossible events happening one after another, yet still unfolding perfectly, is the mark of the Heaven Chosen. Even if you don't believe it, Heaven Chosen truly exist. They are as real as the stars in the sky during the day, you cannot see them because the sunlight obscures their presence." Wei Chen concluded firmly.
"Thus… this brings us to the climax of today's broadcast… how do we determine if someone is truly the Heaven Cho—"
Wei Chen was about to continue when suddenly, a loud boom erupted from the direction of the sect gate.
The sound caused Jian Heng to immediately rise to his feet and fly toward the source of the commotion.