Huo Yi was inside of his isolation chamber, legs crossed as he sat in the center of a massive sealing array. He had been there ever since the meeting with Emperor Cì Shā.

He was at the peak of the Human Limit Realm like the other Four Great Pavilion Sect Masters. And just like the others, he had been attempting to break into the Deva Realm. Also, just like the other sect masters, he had been unsuccessful.

Cultivators hoping to break through to the Deva Realm could not use alchemy pills. It required pure willpower to break through. What’s more, doing so brought down the Heavenly Tribulations, a well-known phenomena that killed more than half the cultivators who attempted to reach this realm. This was also why many cultivators stayed at the Human Limit Realm and didn’t even try breaking through. Of course, corwards like that would never be able to break through anyway, so perhaps they were better off.

Huo Yi was not one of those people.

He wanted to soar above everyone else.

He wanted to be so powerful that even the Xia Dynasty and the Zhou Clan had no choice but to kowtow to him.

Though he was a long way off from reaching those lofty heights. It was the dream of every sect master who controlled one of the Four Great Pavilions, sans maybe Zé Měilì of the Water-Moon Pavilion. She was the only sect master who hadn’t joined their alliance. The excuse she used was that her Water-Moon Pavilion was too far from the Shang Kingdom and she therefore would not be able to maintain control of whatever section of land they gave her.

She’s a shrewd one, but she should know that such cleverness will get her into trouble one day.

Huo Yi had been smitten with Zé Měilì ever since their first meeting, but so were the sect masters of the Wind-Lightning and Martial God pavilions. The shrewd leader of Water-Moon Pavilion had manuvered herself in such a way that any attempt from one of the other sect masters to conquer her would result in the other two coming to her defense. Even though they all knew she was using them, they still protected her from each other.

But that will change soon.

While they had all formed an alliance to conquer the Shang Kingdom, none of them were interested in letting the other sects have a slice of the pie. Huo Yi had every intention of destroying both the other two pavilions. He would not allow them to gain the same benefits as himself. His desire after conquering the Shang Kingdom was to kill both Duo Long and Xao Wen. He would then subsume their sects into his own to increase his own power base. When that happened, Zé Měilì would have no choice but to become his.

Steeped in his desires and imagination, he almost missed the sound of someone banging on the door to his chamber, but there was no way he could miss the shouting.

“Sect Master! We have an emergency!”

Huo Yi frowned as he stood up. The flames coating his body dispersed as he grabbed his burning red hanfu and slid his arms between them. He tied the outfit closed as he walked over to the door.

One of his elders stood on the other side. He was relatively young and had only just reached the Human Limit Realm recently. If Huo Yi wasn’t mistaken, his name was Guo Jie, and he was in charge of the Soul Crystal Hall. The man’s face was pale and covered in sweat.

He suddenly had a bad feeling.

“What is the emergency?” he asked.

“It’s… the ancestor’s soul crystal. It shattered!”

What?

Huo Yi froze. He could hardly fathom what he was hearing, and he even thought he had misheard for a moment. Yi Fu’s soul crystal had shattered? Someone had killed their ancestor. This must have been a joke. He wanted to tell this man not to make such crude jokes, but he knew there was no one in his pavilion dumb enough to do such a thing.

“Take me to Soul Crystal Hall,” he demanded.

“Y-yes, Sect Master.”

The elder gave him a quick martial bow before hurrying back to Soul Crystal Hall. Thousands of soul crystals sitting on shelves and pedestals greeted them as they entered, their sparkle almost dazzling, but Huo Yi paid them no mind. He marched to the back of the room, where a single pedestal stood. A soul crystal should have been sitting there, but now only shards remained.

Many emotions went through Huo Yi. Fear. Anger. A blend of negativity that congealed inside of him like a thick soup.

Yi Fu was a Deva Realm Cultivator, and he had taken over the Burning Hand Sect in preparation for their invasion into the Shang Kingdom. No one should have been strong enough to kill him--not in that tiny speck of a nation, at least. Could someone from the Heavenly Sword Sect have caught on to what they were doing and killed their ancestor? If that was the case, then it meant their invasion was already doomed.

“Do you know who killed him?” He asked.

Elder Guo Jie shook his head. “The soul crystal only shattered a few minutes ago. The most I could figure out is that the person who killed them uses an ice cultivation method.”

“Ice? Then it’s not someone from the Heavenly Sword Sect…”

Everyone from the Heavenly Sword Sect practiced a sword cultivation method--minus a few special cases. The Heavenly Sword Sect was not suitable for people to practice ice cultivation techniques since those relied on locations steeped with cold yin chi. It was good that the Heavenly Sword Sect had not acted, but now they had an unknown cultivator with enough power to kill an elder on their hands.

He sighed and quickly made the most rational decision he could. “Contact the other pavilions and Emperor Cì Shā. Inform them that someone in the Shang Kingdom who uses an ice cultivation method has reached the Deva Realm, but do not tell them our ancestor has been killed. We cannot let the others know we have been weakened.”

“Yes, Sect Master.”

As the elder hurried to do as he was bidden, Huo Yi glanced at the shattered remains of the soul crystal. It felt like his desires were already slipped through his fingers.

***

Standing on the bow of an airship that cut through the air like a blade through butter, Húndàn Wang gazed at the mountain several lî in the distance. It was not a very big mountain, all things considered. However, the mountain itself was special. This was where the entrance to the Heavenly Sword Sect resided.

There were hundreds of other people around him. While a few were dressed in the black and silver hanfu of the Heavenly Sword Sect, everyone else wore a variety of different clothes. Some wore the clothing of peasants. Others were dressed like nobles. All of them carried a sword at their side. These people were all cultivators who hoped to pass the test and enter the Heavenly Sword Sect’s ranks as disciples.

Even Húndàn Wang was required to take the test, for the Heavenly Sword Sect did not discriminate. Even the son of the Saintly Sword Sect’s sect master was not exempt from having his mettle tested.

Húndàn Wang had been cultivating his dao of the sword even more diligently ever since his loss at the hands of Mei Xilan. He now understood how vast this world was. There would always be someone stronger than him. Not only had he lost to Mei Xilan, but Jian Wu had defeated the woman he could not, so there were at least two people stronger than him that were even younger than he was. If he wanted to truly reach the peak of the martial dao, he would need to train even harder.

He wanted to become strong; he wanted to reach the lofty heights those two had, then go beyond them.

Something appeared in the air before them, a small speck that soon grew into several specks. The person manning the helm called out, “the elders are here! Everyone, show some respect!”

All the Heavenly Sword Sect Disciples lined up, and they bade him and the other sect hopefuls to line up as well. Húndàn Wang glanced to his left and right. He was sandwiched between a pair of young men he didn’t know. Then he glanced at the elders, whose features he could now make out.

There were three of them. They all looked very young. At a glance, he would say they weren’t much older than him--maybe they were even younger than him. The one in the center, who seemed to be the leader, looked no older than seventeen. Silver and black robes adorned their solid frames and they each carried a sword that vastly differed from the person next to them. The elder in the middle had a sword with a single edge and was longer than he was tall. The handle alone was about the length of two forearms, showing it was meant to be wielded with two hands.

“Everyone, bow!” someone shouted.

The Heavenly Sword Sect disciples pressed their right fists into the palm of their left hands. A clapping noise echoed around them. Then they bowed low at the waist. Seeing this, the people hopefuls like himself all followed suit and performed the same bow.

“Welcome, Elder Shien,” said a young man standing at the front of the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples. He was a handsome young man with dark hair tied into a ponytail and ice blue eyes. His feminine features gave him a graceful beauty that even Húndàn Wang found envious. He surely had many young woman lining up to warm his bed every night.

“Zhe Fēnglì, well met! I’m still surprised to see you decided to gather the new recruits. It’s not really something the sect master’s son should bother with,” said Elder Shien, who was the young-looking elder in the center.

Zhe Fēnglì shrugged. “I figured it was time to get outside and stretch my legs.”

“Ha ha. Very well. Let us escort you and the hopefuls to the sect.”

The three elders soon took up formation around them, and the airship continued traveling until they reached a massive gateway hovering in the sky. It was similar to the portal used by the Saintly Sword Sect that transported them to the sect’s outer courtyard. This was many times bigger, however, and something about it felt different.

The airship soon passed through the portal. Húndàn Wang felt a chill crawl up his spine, but it was quickly replaced with awe as the mountain they had been flying near disappeared, replaced by a mountain many times bigger. Majestic was the only word he could use to describe it. Tall peaks ascended into the sky, disappearing into the clouds. These peaks surrounded them on all sides. Directly below the airship was a sprawling city.

This is Heavenly Sword Mountain…

Heavenly Sword Mountain was located inside the Xia Dynasty, technically. The mountain itself was just a gateway that led to the sect, which was located inside of its own closed world. While still called Heavenly Sword Mountain, it was, in fact, a realm separated from the rest of the Xaio Continent. Húndàn Wang didn’t quite understand it, but his father had told him to think of this place as its own world.

“Everyone,” Elder Shien said. Those who had been in awe of their surroundings looked at him when his powerful voice invaded their ears. “We’ll be traveling down to Heavanly Sword Village. That’s the village down below. There, you will take the test to see who among you are deserving of joining our ranks. Those who fail shall be sent back. I hope you have all stealed your resolve to leap through the dragon’s gate.”

Húndàn Wang took a deep breath to center himself, reaffirming his decision to join the Heavenly Sword Sect.

The airship was just about to descend toward the village when, without warning, storm clouds gathered over one of the peaks. A strong breeze kicked up. The airship groaned as like it was about to break apart as the powerful winds tried to suck it toward the forming thunder clouds.

“My brethren!” Elder Shien suddenly shouted.

He and the two elders with him quickly assumed a protective formation and created a powerful shield. The boat stopped shaking, the winds died down, and the students who had been screaming suddenly stopped.

Húndàn Wang could not take his eyes off the thunder clouds. He knew what this was, but it was the first time he had seen it happen. The whispers around him confirmed it.

“Someone’s attempting to break through the Deva Realm.”

“Are you sure that’s a breakthrough? Look at the size of those thunder clouds!”

“I’ve never seen a breakthrough with such powerful Tribulation Lightning forming. This has to be someone attempting to break through the third subrealm.”

“Who do you think it is?”

“Do you even need to ask? Look at whose peak those clouds are forming over.”

“Ah.”

“It looks like she’s reached the Deva Realm,” said Zhe Fēnglì with a luminous smile.

Húndàn Wang looked his way. “Who are you talking about?”

Zhe Fēnglì glanced at him, then blinked several times. “You are the son of the Saintly Sword Sect’s sect master, yes? Forgive my late introduction. I’m Zhe Fēnglì. As for who you are talking about…” Zhe Fēnglì trailed off for a moment, then smiled. “She is the most prominent member of the Core Disciples aside from myself. Her name is Wu Meiying, but we call her our Jade Goddess of the Sword.”