"Once, there was an ordinary boy. He possessed worse than average spiritual roots that made his immortal path rocky and full of thorns. But, the boy was tenacious if nothing else."

"The heavens did not forsake the boy."

"Through luck, or perhaps the grace of heaven, the boy stumbled upon a fortuitous encounter. Though the boy could not ascend to heaven in one step, the path of greatness had been opened to him."

"He shed his status as a weakling and rose above those proud geniuses nurtured by the forces behind him. Enraged, those arrogant geniuses brought trouble and calamities to the boy, but he overcame them all, slaying them and taking their wealth as his own. Yet, how could those elders behind those fallen geniuses allow the boy to run rampant after his crime?"

"So, those elders sought revenge upon the boy. Through skill and perhaps a bit of luck, the boy managed to evade elders' revenge and found safety. Still, how could the boy be content to remain silent under their vengeance? They, the exalted immortals freed from finite years, descended onto the red dust to kill a junior who had not even reached the rank of venerable."

"The boy hid and fled the continent to seek distant safety, but he had carved the hatred into his very soul and swore that he would wash away the disgrace. And so, the boy reached a new continent. Freed from the pursuit of those immortals, the boy developed and grew stronger."

"He gained enemies and allies alike. Every enemy turned into another stepping stone for him and fueled his and his allies' growth until he finally transcended his Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation and attained the coveted status of immortality."

"Still, upon the boy's success, his old enemies discovered news of him. They chased after the boy with the intent of murder. They failed to kill the boy but brought his allies to ruin, and thus, the boy's hatred deepened."

"Years passed as the boy continued to flee from the immortals. With each instance, he grew until he finally slew all those who dared to chase him like a beaten dog, attaining vengeance for his humiliation and the destruction of his allies."

"The force behind the elders grew weak under the boy's vengeance, so they sought shelter with the overlord of the continent, the most powerful sect in the realm. The sect thought the boy nothing more than a triviality and sent a supreme immortal to exterminate the boy."

"But the body survived, and the seeds of hatred were sown. The boy sought vengeance and, like with the previous sect, grew stronger with each encounter until the once trivial problem in the eyes of the most powerful sect in the realm turned into a major threat."

"The boy knew that he could not defeat the continent's overlord alone, so he sought allies. Tragically, the sect sieged him with numbers before he could accomplish his plan. The battle was calamitous, and the sect lost many immortals, but they forced the boy to self-detonate, injuring far more. It was a pyrrhic victory, but a victory nonetheless. So, once more, the sect returned to its uncontested position."

"The boy, no, the Great Rebeller became a legend, a beacon of hope against all those oppressed by the sect."

"Little did the realm know that the boy did not die. He had sought life in death, reborn as the prestigious son of one of the sect's grand elders."

"His name? Xi Longyi."

"Xi Longyi hid himself within his enemies, slowly growing more powerful until the day he could attain vengeance for all the injustice he experienced."

"So, who was Xi Longyi's opponent? Someone with the potential to stand against him as his equal!"

"He was the successor to a great clan living in the desert. His family had no immortals, but they still held a vaulted status within the city they resided in."

"It would seem like life would continue on for him, and he would slowly take his father's position as patriarch that day. That is, if Xi Longyi hadn't appeared. Xi Longyi slew and destroyed his family, planting the seed of vengeance within him."

"He sought vengeance against Xi Longyi, but he lost everything in the process. His meager wealth, his lover, and even his own life. However, against all odds, he didn't die and awakened back in his clans years before their destruction."

"He thought it was an illusion, a trick Xi Longyi had conjured just for him to experience the deepest pits of despair, but he was wrong. He, Lei Jingye, had truly come back from the dark future he had experienced."

"From there, Lei Jingye sought and strengthened his family using any method he could. Thanks to his effort, the Lei Clan rose and became the overlord of the city they resided in and grew far stronger than they could have had in a thousand years."

"Lei Jingye himself did not lag behind. He rose to the rank of venerable but held strength that equaled those long-lived earth immortals. He even managed to attain a broken divine artifact and another fragment of a divine artifact."

"His future was boundless and his potential limitless. Though he may experience great danger that would have felled lesser men, he rose above, growing with each crisis. Truly, Lei Jingye had the chance to reach the peak of the realm."

"And now, these two legends, one past and one future, faced off against each. Not just for the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus, but to sever the cause that had been sown in another future," Tianyi solemnly narrated before turning to Daoyi. "Well, how about it? Doesn't it sound epic?"

Daoyi sighed and covered her face with her palm. "Tianyi, do you really have the leisure to spectate? You even brought me out to watch. Just slap them both dead and be done with it."

"I can probably do that for Lei Jingye, but what about Xi Longyi? The Buzhou Immortal Sect still treats him as their own, and I don't fancy bearing the brunt of all the Buzhou Immortal Sect," Tianyi said with a shrug. Still, I don't want Xi Longyi to have good days, so Lei Jingye has to live."

"You really hate him that much?"

Tianyi said nothing as he reached forward and grasped the empty air with his hand.

"Xi.Long.Yi!" Lei Jingye said each syllable through gritted teeth.

"Are you worthy of calling my name?" Xi Longyi asked. The disdain in his eyes couldn't be more obvious. "Had it been someone beautiful like your companion, I might have given some leeway, but you?"

Tianyi hummed and glanced at Daoyi. "I know I probably should've asked much earlier, but whatever happened to your heavenly water spiritual root? I know it disappeared into your spiritual core when you ascended the Core Formation Realm, but didn't you have to abandon your body?"

"Gone with my old body. When Master recreated my body, it was blank, but I transformed it into a martial body. It couldn't gain a spiritual core, but that was fine. The most important thing was my soul. Besides, that doesn't matter anymore now that I've reached the Immortal Realm."

"Point," Tianyi said. "Are you going to get revenge on Jiang Chunye?"

"Of course," Daoyi said as a dark light flashed through her eyes. "She made me abandon my body. How could I not get revenge? It's just a matter of the most opportune time to take revenge without risking too much."

Tianyi stayed silent and directed his attention back to the fateful enemies.

"What was her name? Daoyi, I believe? Yes, truly a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. One too good for you," Xi Longyi said. Who was good enough was left unsaid.

"Shut up! Don't you dare sully her name with that mouth of yours!" Lei Jingye shouted. His eyes burned red from rage, but he took a deep breath to calm himself down. He knew that blind rage would do him no good.

Xi Longyi smirked and materialized a horse chopping saber from his spatial ring. The blade was over two meters long and the handle large enough for two hands to hold comfortably, but he held it with one.

Lei Jingye snorted and unsheathed his own sword. It was a standard sword, except it had a black hilt with a crimson blade. The blade shimmered red as Lei Jingye brandished the tip at Xi Longyi. "You won't be speaking anything else from that dirty mouth of yours after today."

"Many people wanted to kill me. They all died under my saber in the end," Xi Longyi said as a golden sheen shrouded his saber, saber intent.

Lei Jingye growled as a red sheen appeared on his sword, shrouding it in a blood-red aura.

"Sword intent?!" Tianyi said. "Are you kidding me, how can he get sword intent?"

"He had two hundred years. If Master wanted to, she could probably also cultivate sword intent, but she seems to be cultivating another intent," Daoyi said.

"I know it's two hundred, but why of all people is it him?" Tianyi asked, petulantly pointing at Lei Jingye.

"Why do you sound so offended? Even if he has sword intent, you are over a hundred times stronger than him, are you not?" Daoyi asked.

"That's not the point, he has sword intent!" Tianyi said.

He could still recall it. He had gained sword light in his Inner Devil Tribulation. Although he had some suspicion about how he gained the sword light and his inability to control it, Tianyi loved it. Swords were cool, and sword immortals even more so, so gaining sword intent was one of Tianyi's goals.

Logically speaking, Xi Longyi's true identity, the Dragon Emperor, was his greatest foe and the one he hated the most, but it wasn't. Tianyi hated Lovespot the most, just because of his repulsive... personality. Had it not been for Lovespot being part of the same sect, Tianyi would have already found a chance to kill him.

Still, the Dragon Emperor was his second most-hated enemy, with Lei Jingye following closely behind. The third most-hated was not far from the top, so seeing Lei Jingye possessing the sword intent he had always wanted made Tianyi incredibly jealous.

"Should I just slap him dead and just take the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus?"

Red and gold clashed over and over again. With each clash, the tune of steel against steel echoed in the Lightning. Lei Jingye was forced back a step with each strike, but he remained unharmed in the clash of two.

With each confrontation, Xi Longyi's face turned increasingly dark. Simultaneously, Lei Jingye's face turned more wrathful as if to compete with him.

"Enough!" Lei Jingye shouted as a red lotus appeared above his head. The petals unfurled and clad Lei Jingye in a red aura that exponentially increased his aura.

He slashed out, and Xi Longyi actually backpedaled from the clash. His face was full of disbelief, as if he couldn't believe what had happened as he stared at the Red Dragon Lotus above Lei Jingye's head. "I got pushed back by an insect like you?"

Xi Longyi roared, and the apparition of a dragon appeared coiling around his body. Golden scales wrapped around his body as two horns grew out of his head, turning him into a human-shaped dragon. "Congratulations, brat. You’ve successfully enraged me. Consider yourself dead.”

He raised the large saber above his head with both hands grasped around the hilt. A towering pillar of gold shot into the sky and pierced the thunder clouds. No, it wasn't a pillar but a golden saber formed of qi and intent.

"Die!"

Lei Jingye wanted to dodge, but he felt as if invisible and unbreakable walls had miraculously appeared on both sides, trapping him. No matter what he did, he could not evade the oncoming blow.

Left with no choice, he formed a one-handed seal. The Red Dragon Lotus enlarged itself and covered his whole body like a shell. A faint dragon's roar could be heard as an illusionary red dragon coiling around the layers of petals. Once more, it roared as Xi Longyi's strike reached Lei Jingye's defense.

Red and gold clashed, sometimes mixing and other times devouring the other. It took a full ten seconds for the clash to subside, and by then, the Lightning Sea had been dispersed, allowing the sunlight to shine upon the two fated foes.

Lei Jingye huffed inside the Red Dragon Lotus. The illusionary dragon had been crushed, and the Red Dragon Lotus had lost some of its petals and dimmed in radiance. But aside from that, Lei Jingye was unharmed.

Xi Longyi glared at his still-living enemy. He brandished his blade and prepared to strike at Lei Jingye. The Red Dragon Lotus shrunk and floated above Lei Jingye as he also entered a stance.

Suddenly, Xi Longyi twisted his head and looked up. Then, he snapped towards the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus, or at least where it used to be. Lei Jingye followed his gaze and his expression darkened.

The Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus was vital to him. He lacked the talent in soul cultivation, so he wanted to use the lotus to raise his soul cultivation to perfect and merge it with his spiritual and martial cultivation. When he ascended the Immortal Realm, he would have the perfect foundation to go farther than anyone before him.

Lei Jingye didn't bother fighting with Xi Longyi anymore. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind them. Neither wanted a third party to take advantage of their fight to get all the benefits and maybe kill them.

Xi Longyi used a secret technique and scanned the area around him. His eyes narrowed and suddenly unleashed a crescent-shaped saber formed of energy at a certain spot, but it just passed through the spot harmlessly. "Whoever you are, get out before I make you."

Seeing no response, Xi Longyi unleashed several more saber strikes at the empty space but no reaction. He hesitated a bit and glanced at Lei Jingye, but after a moment, the horse chopping saber in his hand disappeared, and in its place, a smaller saber appeared.

The pommel was shaped in the form of a dragon's head, and the blade curved wickedly. Xi Longyi took a deep breath and leaped forward with his saber slashing out.

A crack appeared in space, one smaller than a quarter of a meter. The crack shattered as a milky white hand appeared and, with a finger, halted the saber in its track.