Heavenly Sword Saint
Time was the most merciless force in existence.
It spared no one.
Not kings.
Not saints.
Not even the greatest geniuses who had once shaken the heavens.
As the endless river of time flowed onward...
One year became ten.
Ten years became a hundred.
A hundred years became a thousand.
During those thousand years...
Countless empires rose and fell.
Ancient sects vanished into history.
New legends were born.
Old legends became myths.
The Divine Realm continued moving forward as though the loss of any single person meant nothing.
Yet...
There was one death that changed the fate of countless people.
Jian Chen.
The greatest genius of the Jian Clan.
The peerless swordsman who was hailed as the person most likely to reach the legendary Emperor Realm before the age of 100.
His disappearance inside the Heavenfall Secret Realm shocked the entire Divine Realm.
When the Secret Realm closed...
The surviving geniuses returned one after another.
The disciples of the Jian Clan waited anxiously at its entrance.
But Jian Chen never appeared.
Day after day...
They waited.
Until the entrance to the Secret Realm completely vanished.
Only then did they accept the cruel reality.
Jian Chen was gone.
The news spread throughout the Divine Realm like a storm.
The Jian Clan immediately launched an investigation.
Every disciple who had entered the Secret Realm was questioned.
Every clue was carefully examined.
Very quickly...
Suspicion fell upon the Lin Clan.
After all...
Lin Xue'er had been Jian Chen's fiancée.
The two had entered the Secret Realm together.
Yet she returned alone.
When questioned, Lin Xue'er claimed they had become separated while searching for opportunities.
She insisted she knew nothing about Jian Chen's disappearance.
The Great Eternal Divine Dynasty supported her testimony.
Long Tian also claimed he had never encountered Jian Chen inside the Secret Realm.
Without witnesses...
Without evidence...
The Jian Clan could prove nothing.
Even so...
No one within the clan believed Jian Chen had simply died by accident.
The atmosphere between the Jian Clan, the Lin Clan, and the Great Eternal Divine Dynasty gradually turned colder.
Their disciples became hostile whenever they met.
Conflicts frequently erupted over resources, territories, and ancient ruins.
Although no all-out war broke out...
Everyone knew...
The friendship between the three great powers had ended forever...
No one knew...
That after killing Jian Chen...
Lin Xue'er and Long Tian searched every inch of the ancient palace.
They searched Jian Chen's body.
His spatial ring.
Every corner of the ruins.
Yet...
The inheritance they had betrayed him for had completely vanished.
It was as though it had never existed.
Long Tian flew into a furious rage.
Lin Xue'er could not believe what she was seeing.
They had sacrificed everything.
Committed an unforgivable betrayal.
Yet in the end...
They obtained nothing.
The greatest opportunity within the Heavenfall Secret Realm had disappeared along with Jian Chen.
That mystery remained unsolved for an entire thousand years...
One thousand years later.
Far beneath the Divine Realm...
Separated by countless worlds...
Lay the Mortal Realm.
Azure Cloud Continent.
Compared to the boundless Divine Realm...
The Mortal Realm was insignificant.
The spiritual energy here was thin.
The cultivation techniques were crude.
The strongest experts here were insignificant compared to even ordinary disciples of the Divine Realm.
Few people living here even knew higher worlds existed.
Yet...
Every towering mountain began as a single stone.
Every supreme expert once took their very first step.
Sometimes...
The destiny of countless worlds began with one ordinary youth.
Within the Azure Dragon Empire...
Nestled beside a quiet river...
Stood Moonriver City.
Among its four great families...
The Jian Clan had once stood at the very peak.
But generations of decline had reduced its former glory.
Inside the western corner of the clan grounds...
Far away from the bustling training fields...
Stood a lonely, dilapidated courtyard.
Its walls were cracked.
Its roof leaked whenever it rained.
Weeds grew between the broken stone paths.
Very few people ever came here.
Because this was where the clan's greatest disgrace lived.
The young master...
Jian Chen.
At that moment...
The sixteen-year-old youth lay unconscious in a pool of blood.
His clothes were torn.
Bruises covered nearly every part of his body.
Fresh footprints marked his chest.
Blood slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Outside the courtyard...
Several youths laughed as they walked away.
"Hahaha!"
"The useless fool finally learned his lesson."
"He actually dared to provoke Young Master Jian Hu."
"Serves him right."
Another youth sneered.
"If not for his mother protecting him..."
"He would've been driven out of the clan years ago."
A third youth spat onto the ground.
"What a disgrace."
"The son of the former Young Patriarch can't even cultivate."
"The heavens truly have a cruel sense of humor."
Their laughter gradually disappeared.
Silence returned to the abandoned courtyard.
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves.
Dark clouds drifted across the evening sky.
For a long time...
Nothing moved.
Then...
The young man's finger twitched.
Deep within his sea of consciousness...
A weathered golden scroll silently emitted a faint glow.
His heartbeat...
Which had nearly stopped...
Began beating once more.
Slowly...
Very slowly...
The young man's eyes opened.
He did not know...
That a thousand years had passed.
He did not know...
That his clan had searched tirelessly for the truth of his death.
He did not know...
That the people who betrayed him had hidden the truth for an entire millennium.
Nor did he know...
That the inheritance they had killed him for...
Had never left him.
A legend that had vanished from the Divine Realm one thousand years ago...
Had awakened once more.