Nie Yun's eyes were wide open, fixed on the rectangular stone rising into the clouds like a black pillar. On its surface, layers of light in four colors shimmered—first white, then yellow, brown, and finally green.
The elder beside Nie Yun watched this and let out a quiet sigh, a subtle hint of disappointment flickering in his gaze—something he concealed well as he turned his eyes toward a man a hundred zhang to the right of the pillar, seated upon a majestic crimson throne.
He was handsome, with silver hair bound beneath a royal crown and a youthful face that appeared barely in his twenties, yet his eyes held the depth of many decades.
Observing Nie Yun, Emperor Xia showed no reaction on his face. He simply curled his fingers, pointing first at the boy with an intense gaze, then back at himself.
"Nie Yun, the Emperor is calling you," the elder warned.
Hearing the old voice, Nie Yun turned his head aside, ignoring the elder. He looked only at the man seated on the throne, accompanied by a middle-aged scholar behind him.
As he approached them, Nie Yun's heart began to race with anxiety. He had come here because of the letter his mother left, asking him to find his grandfather—yet now he felt he had disappointed him with the green color.
With his head lowered, the ten-year-old boy—whose hair was as black as the darkest night, almond-shaped eyes with deep-blue pupils and star-shaped irises—stood before the Emperor, not daring to look directly at him, staring only at the floor of the platform.
"Sorry… I disappointed you, Grandpa." Nie Yun whispered softly, almost inaudibly. But the Emperor heard it.
He remained calm, his red eyes fixed on the boy, their light dim and empty. "You cannot stay here. This place is far too great for you."
Those words struck every fragile point within Nie Yun like lightning, sending waves of shock throughout his entire body. His eyes welled up, tears gathering silently, threatening to spill at any moment. But he held them back. Nie Yun refused to cry.
"Grandpa is right… I'll leave." Still not daring to look at the Emperor—not even in the end—Nie Yun turned halfway toward the stairs that led down and out of the throne hall. But before he could take another step, a voice echoed in his right ear.
"Where are you going? I've already prepared a place for you to stay," the Emperor said, glancing at the scholar with authority. "You will be responsible for escorting him."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The scholar bent his knees to the ground and clasped his hands respectfully.
Nie Yun stopped walking and returned to where he had been standing. Looking at the kneeling man and recalling the Emperor's words, he wanted to ask: "Where am I going?"
But the question never left his lips—because of their difference in status. Nie Yun felt unworthy of being the Emperor's grandson.
"Okay," he agreed quietly.
"Good. Wei Han, take him now," Emperor Xia ordered, not wasting a second after Nie Yun's assent.
Kneeling, Wei Han rose from the ground and walked a few steps forward. When he reached Nie Yun, he placed his left hand on the boy's shoulder and looked back at the Emperor one last time.
After five seconds of silent acknowledgment, he circulated the qi from his lower dantian into his right arm, which turned purple in color—seeming almost inhuman.
Seeing this, Nie Yun's eyes lit up. All his earlier melancholy vanished instantly. The excitement of witnessing such a sight for the first time overwhelmed everything else within him.
Focused solely on the task, Wei Han extended his glowing arm toward the air and grasped the fabric of space itself. With a twist, the purple energy distorted reality, opening a spatial fissure shaped like a two-meter wind blade, revealing nothing but emptiness inside.
"Your Highness, shall we?" Wei Han politely lowered his hand from Nie Yun's shoulder to his arm, guiding him toward the rift. But before they entered, Wei Han noticed the boy had frozen like stone.
"Do not fear, Your Highness. Crossing through this is not dangerous—I promise." Wei Han reassured him.
This promise allowed Nie Yun to relax his arm, letting Wei Han lead him inside. Upon entering, the two appeared in a realm of nothingness. No sky, no ground, no ocean, no time, no space. Only absolute void.
Anyone not proficient in the Dao of Space would be reduced to dust within it. But Wei Han, a trusted man of the Emperor, possessed mastery over this path, capable of traversing the entire Xia Empire.
Without releasing Nie Yun's hand, he guided him through the void. Emerging from the nothingness, they arrived before a large building constructed on the peak of a mountain. Surrounding it was a bamboo grove, and on the ground a narrow lake cut through the yellow earth, descending along the slope, giving the place a unique appearance and beautiful crystalline tones.
At the entrance of the hall, a middle-aged man dressed in an embroidered black robe, with a neatly trimmed beard, knelt alongside six other figures.
"This humble one greets Adviser Wei."
"Fine."
Wei Han paid no attention to their greetings. He simply pointed at Nie Yun. "Remember the imperial decree issued earlier. If you fail to fulfill it… I don't need to say what will happen, do I?"
The threat made all seven swallow dryly, before shouting in unison:
"Yes!"
Nie Yun watched everything without asking a single question. His mother had taught him what to ask, what not to ask, and when questions should be asked.
Right now, he had to remain ignorant. He understood that his current self was nothing and depended entirely on the Emperor. His mother had left with his father to some unknown place, entrusting him to his grandfather. At ten years old, he had no way to survive alone. Ignorance, for him, was simply a form of self-protection.
"But Grandpa doesn't care about me… And what is this place?" he wondered.
Gathering courage, Nie Yun tugged at Wei Han's sleeve. "Uncle, what am I supposed to do here? What does Grandpa want me to do?"
"Do whatever you want, with no restrictions. This entire place belongs to you. These elders are here to protect you while you stay. That is the Emperor's wish. It may not seem like it, but he cares about you," Wei Han explained.
The seven elders frowned at being treated like subordinates. But they did not complain. After all, the boy belonged to the royal family. If they dared cross him, their poor sect would drown in blood.
The world of immortal cultivation belonged to the strong.