Prologue
Better that I betray the world than let the world betray me.
Yuncang City—the largest city within the territory of the Yun Clan.
On one of its bustling streets, a red-haired youth stood beside a wooden table, loudly hawking his wares. He wore a gray Daoist robe embroidered with drifting white clouds, its hem fluttering slightly in the crowd.
Spread across the table were nearly a hundred talisman papers, each one a dull yellow, covered in intricate crimson markings.
"Step right up, don't miss your chance!" the boy shouted at the passersby without pause."Authentic Sky-Cloud Temple exorcism talismans! Clearance sale—practically giving them away! One silver tael per piece!"
His loud sales pitch quickly drew attention. Curious pedestrians slowed their steps, and before long, a small crowd had gathered around his stall.
A middle-aged man in a gray tunic stepped forward, skepticism written all over his face."Kid, are these really Sky-Cloud Temple exorcism talismans?"
The red-haired youth shot him a look brimming with confidence. With a deliberate motion, he tugged at his own robe, showing off the drifting cloud patterns embroidered in pale white."You don't trust me," he said lightly, "but surely you trust this robe?"
"It is the White Cloud Daoist robe," said a man nearby who clearly knew his stuff.
"The Sky-Cloud Temple is the largest Daoist sect in Yun Clan territory," an elderly man added with a note of awe. "No ordinary person would dare steal their name. Anyone who did would be hunted down by their Daoists to the ends of the earth."
At that moment, a frail old woman pushed her way shakily through the crowd. Her back was bent with age, and her steps unsteady, but she wore a finely made brocade cloak embroidered with cloud patterns—clearly someone of comfortable means.
"Little Daoist," she asked anxiously, "can your talismans deal with vengeful spirits that've lingered for ten years?"
"They can drive away any low-tier ghost!" the red-haired youth declared. He snatched up a yellow talisman, raised it high, and shouted at the top of his lungs,"Only one hundred in total! One hundred only! Massive clearance—once they're gone, they're gone!"
"Ten of them!" the old woman blurted out, clutching a handful of silver that clearly exceeded ten taels. "Give me ten!"
The boy swiftly counted out ten talismans and pressed them into her hands. In the same breath, he scooped up the silver and stuffed it into the cloth pouch strapped to his chest.
"Only ninety left! Ninety left!" he cried, waving the remaining talismans high in the air."Limited stock! Limited stock! Anyone with ghosts haunting their home, now's the time to act!"
Shouts erupted one after another.
"I'll take one!"
"Me too—one for me!"
…
The stack of yellow talismans on the wooden table dwindled at a visible pace, while the coarse cloth pouch hanging at the red-haired youth's chest grew heavier by the moment.
"Last ten!" he bellowed."Final clearance! Buy one, get one free!"
"What?!"The crowd burst into stunned exclamations.
"Little Daoist—does that mean," a middle-aged woman asked, her eyes wide as saucers as she swallowed hard, "that with silver for five, you get ten talismans?"
She could hardly believe her ears. Other Daoists sold talismans like they were carving flesh from their customers—yet this boy was offering buy one, get one free?
"Yes, that's right," the red-haired youth replied earnestly."They're the last ten, and I need to hurry back to White Cloud Temple. So I'm letting them go at cost—consider it a gift to everyone."
"I'll take five!" shouted a man in his fifties who looked pale and worn.
"Give them to me—I want five!" an elderly man who had looked half-dead moments ago suddenly sprang to life.
"Move aside!"A burly man shoved through the crowd. "I'll take all of them!"
Hands stretched out from every direction, silver clutched tightly in sweaty palms. For the residents of Yuncang City, one tael of silver was neither cheap nor extravagant—but trading it for a Sky-Cloud Temple exorcism talisman, for a single night of peaceful sleep?
That was more than worth it.
This was the Yunhuang Continent.
A million years ago, in the primordial age, the Thirty-Three Heavens shattered. Demons, monsters, and malevolent spirits flooded the mortal world. Taking pity on humanity, the gods bestowed the path of cultivation.
Thus began the era of universal cultivation among humankind.
Over the countless centuries that followed, many humans—driven by greed for immortality—abandoned their morals and allied themselves with demons. Today, the righteous and the wicked stood locked in irreconcilable conflict.
The righteous path devoted itself to exterminating evil and upholding order.The wicked path dreamed endlessly of seizing the Yunhuang Continent and monopolizing its boundless cultivation resources.
The righteous world was divided into three great factions:the Daoist Sect, the Buddhist Order, and the Confucian School—alongside aristocratic clans and wandering cultivators.
The wicked path was led by the Demon Race, beneath which gathered all manner of monsters, fiends, and fallen human cultivators.
Sky-Cloud Temple stood as the undisputed leader of the Daoist Sect within Yun Clan territory.
And the red-haired youth hawking talismans on the street?
He was one of Sky-Cloud Temple's Daoist novices.
His name was Ye Yun.
Ye Yun weighed a silver tael in his palm and broke into a satisfied grin.Another highly profitable day.
Those hundred yellow "talismans"?
Heh.
They weren't first-grade exorcism talismans at all—just plain yellow paper. Ye Yun had copied the patterns carved outside the temple gates and scribbled them on with a cinnabar brush, nothing more.
He hadn't even reached the most basic stage of cultivation—the Spirit-Perception Realm.Crafting real talismans? Don't make him laugh.
After returning the wooden table to the tea shop owner behind him and tossing the man a tael of silver, Ye Yun immediately headed to a tailor's shop. There, he bought himself a lavish outfit woven from cloud-patterned brocade.
Then, without hesitation, he made his way—by pure instinct—to Blossom Pavilion.
It was just past noon. The grand hall on the first floor was empty save for Ye Yun alone.
The table before him overflowed with wine and meat, accompanied by a jug of ten-year-aged Yuncang Immortal Brew.
Naturally, the most important part was not missing.
With one arm around each of two courtesans, Ye Yun leaned back comfortably, his eyes leisurely admiring the sultry dance of two tall women swaying across the floor in heavy makeup.
After eating, drinking, and indulging to his heart's content, Ye Yun took up his brush in the hall and, with a flourish, wrote down a poem titled "Yu Meiren."
Though in truth, he only remembered two lines:
The carved balustrades and jade steps must still remain,Yet rosy faces fade with time.How much sorrow can one ask of life?It flows east like an endless river of spring.
Yet even with only those two lines, the poem spread through Yuncang City like wildfire.
Countless scholars flocked to Blossom Pavilion, faces flushed with shame, humbled to the point of despair. Some left in silence, others drank themselves senseless—and there were even those who, overcome by humiliation, leapt from the upper floors to their deaths on the spot.
Of course, Ye Yun knew nothing of any of this.
In his heart, he carried a secret known only to himself:his soul did not belong to this world.
It came from a blue planet far away.As for how he had arrived on the Yunhuang Continent—he had no idea.
With a half-full jug of Yuncang Immortal Brew in his left hand and a greasy roasted chicken dangling from his right, Ye Yun tilted his head to glance at the sky.
An entire afternoon had slipped by in Blossom Pavilion.
After finishing off both the chicken and the wine, Ye Yun ducked into a narrow alley and changed back into his gray White Cloud Daoist robe. He patted his cloth pouch.
Empty.
Every last tael was gone.
Swaying slightly, still drunk, Ye Yun staggered out of the alley and headed toward the outskirts of the city. In the distance, atop the mountains, Sky-Cloud Temple could just barely be seen.
With unsteady steps, he entered the small stretch of forest that lay along the only path back to White Cloud Temple.
"ROAR—!"
A thunderous tiger's roar suddenly erupted from within the woods.
Ye Yun rubbed his eyes.
A massive white tiger, striped with dark markings, emerged into his field of vision.
"Holy hell—what a gigantic striped man-eating tiger!" Ye Yun jumped straight up, pointing at it as he shouted—completely forgetting that tigers, in fact, ate people.
"ROAR!"
The tiger opened its jaws wide, razor-sharp fangs flashing as it let out a furious roar and leapt straight toward him.
Only then did Ye Yun snap fully awake.
All the alcohol in his system vanished in an instant—but it was already too late to run.
"AAAH—This Daoist is dead for sure!" Ye Yun screamed, squeezing his eyes shut.
Suddenly, a strange sensation surged through his body.
Just below his navel, a profound sense of openness spread—front and back connecting as if a barrier had shattered. A cool, refreshing energy flowed inward, rushing through him before converging at the dantian in his chest.
I… broke through?I entered the Innate stage?!
His heart seized. What had been resignation to death turned instantly into desperate hope.
Ye Yun's eyes flew open.
His right fist clenched tightly as the newly gathered vital energy exploded outward, surging through his entire body. With a fierce gust of wind trailing behind it, he threw a punch.
The blow slammed squarely into the tiger's face.
The white-striped tiger was sent flying backward, tumbling across the ground before letting out a few choking sounds—and then falling completely still.
Dead.
Ye Yun stared blankly at his own fist.
Then he slowly raised his head to the sky.
Above him, a vast stretch of auspicious clouds spread across the heavens—ten miles wide.
For mortals, the first step onto the path of cultivation was the opening of the meridians before and behind the navel, drawing vital energy into the dantian. This laid the foundation for cultivation and marked the first realm: the Spirit-Perception Realm.
Cultivators who reached this stage were known as Innate beings.
When one stepped onto this path, the heavens responded with auspicious clouds as a sign of acknowledgment.
A hundred miles was the bare minimum.A thousand miles was considered average.Three thousand miles marked true talent.Ten thousand miles—heaven-defying genius, unseen for ten thousand years.
Ye Yun's clouds stretched… ten miles.
"This body really is top-tier trash," Ye Yun said calmly.
Then he passed out.
Freshly broken through and utterly ignorant of how to control his power, he had expended every last trace of energy in his dantian with that single punch. His body, completely drained, collapsed into unconsciousness.
At that very instant—
The ten-mile auspicious clouds suddenly spread outward… and turned black.
Dark clouds swallowed the sky across the entire Yun Clan territory. Daylight fell into darkness, as if the sun itself had been blotted out. It felt like the end of the world.
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM—!
One hundred and eight bolts of heavenly lightning crashed down without pause, bombarding the small forest as though the heavens themselves intended to erase it from the Yunhuang Continent forever.
At that moment, countless powerful figures and ancient beings opened their eyes simultaneously.
Their expressions were filled with confusion—then disbelief—then fear.
Who…Who could possibly have provoked the wrath of the heavens to such a degree?