Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Five Years of Grave Guarding
“A person is destined to die. Unless one ascends to the Grand Ascension Realm, anyone will eventually die. Looking back on my life, I repaid kindness to those who showed me favor and showed merciless vengeance to my enemies. Because of that, I have also tasted boundless honor. I have no regrets even if I die now.”
In a small, dilapidated thatched cottage, a man in his thirties lay on a bed. There was a large wound on his abdomen. The injury was so deep it nearly split him in two. And yet he was still alive and even able to speak—nothing short of a miracle.
Beneath his sharp and refined eyebrows, his eyes gleamed brightly. Though his body was covered in blood, his outstanding appearance was not obscured.
At the bedside, a boy who appeared to be around ten years old knelt, tears streaming down his face. Then he cried out in a choked voice.
“Master, who did this to you? I will pursue them to the ends of the earth and take revenge. This disciple swears it.”
“Shut your mouth!”
The handsome middle-aged man rebuked him. Just uttering those few words made him cough violently, and a mouthful of bright red blood surged up from his throat.
“The strength of the one who did this to me is beyond anything you can imagine. Do not even dream of revenge until you have reached the Heavenly River Realm.”
The boy froze in shock upon hearing his master’s words.
The Heavenly River Realm! Wasn’t that a level beyond imagination?
His sect, the Genwon Sect, was the foremost sect in Cheongju, yet he had never heard that even the sect master had reached the Heavenly River Realm.
It was said that upon reaching the Heavenly River Realm, one could communicate with billions of stars, and even manipulate the nine great galaxies spanning the universe.
It was the meaning of becoming the strongest among the strong.
The one who had reduced his master to such a state was that powerful?
“Listen carefully to what I am about to say. After I die, guard my grave for five years. During those five years, you must not go anywhere. Every day, cultivate the Paedarayeop Geumgyeong in front of my grave. Do not waste a single day. Your aptitude is mediocre, so others can easily bully you, and without me, there will be no one to protect you—would that not be dangerous? Before five years have passed, you must never draw attention to yourself. No matter how much someone provokes your temper, you must not respond. Remember only one word. Endurance! After five years have passed, dig open my grave. My intent will be inside.”
“...Yes?”
The boy’s eyes widened as he listened, then opened his mouth as if to object.
“But Master….”
To dig up his master’s grave. How could he be ordered to commit such a rebellious and unfilial act?
“Are you saying you won’t obey me?”
As the handsome middle-aged man raised his voice, blood surged from his mouth.
“Must I die without being able to close my eyes in peace?”
Seeing his master’s resolute attitude, the boy nodded, tears welling in his eyes.
“I will follow exactly as Master has instructed.”
“That’s how it should be!”
The handsome middle-aged man burst into loud laughter, then suddenly his entire body began to tremble violently. Fresh blood sprayed from his mouth.
He let out a long sigh and muttered.
“I possess a single grain of benevolent intention, yet it has been buried in the dirt and unable to reveal itself. When the soil is removed and it regains its light, it will illuminate the mountains and rivers of the world….”
His voice gradually faded until it finally fell silent. He lay on the bed as though merely asleep. Even the corners of his mouth held a faint smile.
The boy knelt on the floor, bowing low as tears streamed down his face. Then, with firm resolve, he muttered to himself.
“Master, don’t worry. I will follow your words. After guarding your grave for five years, I will dig it open. If I continue cultivating without rest, won’t the day come when I can find and avenge the one who killed you?”
After speaking, the boy carried his master’s body outside. He dug a grave by hand beside the thatched cottage, laid his master to rest, and formed a burial mound.
His hands were soaked in blood, yet he felt no pain. Though his tears had dried, his determination for revenge burned fiercely. A strong desire to become powerful took root within him.
The death of Yeon Cheong-u, known as the greatest genius of the Genwon Sect, did not cause any upheaval within the sect.
The Daejin Empire spanned a distance of one hundred thousand li in all directions. Within it, Cheongju stretched for tens of thousands of li, and within Cheongju, Danyang County extended for ten thousand li.
Within Danyang County were more than a dozen sects, among which the Genwon Sect was a fairly well-known lower-tier sect. Yeon Cheong-u had joined the Genwon Sect twenty-five years ago. At the age of eleven, he reached the ninth level of the Houtian Realm, and at twelve, he broke through Houtian and opened the Gate of the Divine Portal, reaching the first level of the Divine Portal Realm.
Prior to that, the youngest record in the Daejin Empire to reach the first level of the Divine Portal Realm had been thirteen years old.
The Divine Portal Realm was also called the Mystical Realm, and the Divine Portal itself was known as the Gate of Creation. Only upon reaching the Divine Portal Realm and opening the portal could one truly enter the Mystical Realm.
Within the Mystical Realm lay boundless treasures.
There, some obtained powerful martial souls, others acquired their innate divine weapons, some gained divine abilities, and others transformed into bodies suited for cultivation. It is even said that some individuals obtained fragments of the laws of heaven, remnants left behind after the collapse of the Heavenly Dao in ancient times.
Such individuals could only be described as destined to become peerless experts.
All of this meant that once the Divine Portal was opened, one’s power would surge dramatically, becoming incomparably stronger than before.
Even a strong practitioner at the ninth level of the Houtian Realm could not withstand a single move from a Divine Portal Realm expert.
After opening the Divine Portal, Yeon Cheong-u obtained his innate divine sword. In terms of swordsmanship, none could match him. It was a powerful Mystical Realm that all sword cultivators longed for day and night.
When Yeon Cheong-u entered the Mystical Realm, seven beams of yellow light burst forth in succession.
This indicated that he had the potential to reach at least a seventh-grade yellow-tier Mystical Realm. Such a level was extremely difficult to attain—only one in a hundred thousand warriors might reach it.
News of his attainment of the innate divine sword shook the entire empire. Yeon Cheong-u earned the title of the number one genius under heaven. It was a glory no one in the world had ever experienced.
After that, Yeon Cheong-u’s cultivation continued at a rapid pace, but one day, a sudden incident occurred.
At the age of seventeen, while out, he was ambushed by an unidentified assailant and suffered severe injuries. The attacker was a master five levels above him in cultivation. As a result, Yeon Cheong-u’s meridians were severed, making further cultivation impossible. He was permanently stuck at the fourth level of the Divine Portal Realm.
From being hailed as a genius, he plummeted to the very bottom. Expectations turned into disappointment, praise into ridicule. Relentless curses and malicious insults rained down upon him without restraint.
From the core ranks of disciples, he was pushed to the margins. Eventually, he was reduced to an outer sect disciple. The sect elders, perhaps out of past ties, granted him the title of Outer Sect Elder, but it made no difference—he remained someone destined to pass his days in obscurity.
Yeon Cheong-u did not care about such treatment. At the foot of Mount Zhongnan, he built a small thatched cottage and lived quietly. He also took in a young disciple named Jin Feng.
Jin Feng’s aptitude was severely lacking. His meridians were blocked, and his dantian was as hard as iron, making his cultivation progress painfully slow. After six years of training, he had not even reached the second level of the Houtian Realm. As a result, he was mocked even within the outer sect of the Genwon Sect. The master and disciple came to be known by the nickname “the trash pair.” Yet Yeon Cheong-u never gave up on Jin Feng. He taught him with patience, treating him as if he were his own child.
Day after day, Jin Feng knelt in front of the grave with unfocused eyes and a blank expression. If not for the rise and fall of his chest, people would have thought he was already dead.
Jin Feng was cultivating the Paedarayeop Geumgyeong taught by Yeon Cheong-u. Without even knowing what purpose the technique served, he devoted nearly five years to the same cultivation method. With no innate talent, his progress was negligible, and in the eyes of others, he seemed like a useless person. But Jin Feng did not care. It was something his master had instructed, and he obeyed silently.
Among the members of the Genwon Sect, rumors spread that the trash master Yeon Cheong-u’s trash disciple had finally gone mad.
Some people came to Yeon Cheong-u’s grave to humiliate Jin Feng. They cursed him, insulted him, and even spat in his face. Yet Jin Feng did not retaliate.
This only worsened their behavior. They destroyed the thatched cottage where Yeon Cheong-u had lived and took away the treasures inside—precious artifacts and elixirs that Yeon Cheong-u had collected while traveling the empire during his days as a genius.
But no matter what they did, it seemed as though Jin Feng could not see it. He did not stop them. Nothing could move his heart.
Half a year after the cottage was destroyed, a woman dressed in white came to the grave. She appeared to be around twenty-six years old, with a refined beauty and an elegant bearing, like that of a celestial maiden. A surging flow of true energy emanated from her body, indicating she was at least a cultivator of the Divine Portal Realm.
She stood before the grave, looking at the burial mound with a complex expression.
Jin Feng, as always, looked at her with unfocused eyes. Then suddenly, as if regaining his senses, he sprang to his feet.
In an emotional voice, he shouted,
“You are Yan Yuxue… Senior Aunt Yan, aren’t you!”
Five years ago, Jin Feng had once gone with Yeon Cheong-u to the outer sect to receive spirit stones, and from afar he had seen her. At the time, she was surrounded by core disciples and inner sect disciples. Even the arrogant outer sect experts had worn flattering smiles toward her.
Amid the crowd, neither Yeon Cheong-u nor his disciple had caught her attention. She had walked past with her head held high in a proud demeanor.
After returning, Yeon Cheong-u had drunk heavily and, in his drunken state, spoke at length about Yan Yuxue.
In the days when Yeon Cheong-u was like the sun in the sky, there had been a young girl as pure as jade who followed him closely. She would call him “Brother Cheong-u” in a gentle voice.
Yan Yuxue was Yeon Cheong-u’s junior martial sister, and she too possessed extraordinary talent like him.
The two of them were regarded as a perfect pair, like mandarin ducks, and had even gone out to cultivate together. The reason Yeon Cheong-u was gravely injured was because he had tried to protect Yan Yuxue. If it had been only him, he might have easily escaped that situation.
What happened afterward was never mentioned. After Yeon Cheong-u sobered up, Jin Feng asked again, but he refused to speak further.
Jin Feng assumed that Yan Yuxue had come to pay her respects to his master because of their past connection.
However, contrary to Jin Feng’s warm expectations, Yan Yuxue’s attitude was extremely cold. She swept her sharp gaze over Jin Feng and frowned. With her level of cultivation, she could immediately assess his condition at a glance.
“Your meridians are blocked, and your dantian is as hard as iron without a single crack. You have a constitution unsuited for cultivation—utterly useless.”
She spoke with disdain.
Jin Feng felt a chill sweep through his entire body, as if a basin of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe.
“It seems that a trash master can only produce a trash disciple. Master and disciple alike—no different.”
Having said such harsh words, Yan Yuxue no longer spared him a glance. She turned sharply and walked away.
Watching her retreating figure, Jin Feng clenched his fists tightly and ground his teeth.
“Yan Yuxue, just you wait. One day, I will make you see both me and my master in a completely different light!”