In the very beginning, the Northern Qian Continent was ruled by three dominant sects: the Ethereal Sect, the Ten Directions Sect, and the Primordial Pole Sect.
Later on, the lesser-ranked Tianxuan Sect stumbled upon a unique trial realm, which allowed it to rise to equal footing with the other three. Thus was born the current four-way power balance.
That trial realm was a rare space-time domain—time flowed ten times faster inside than in the outside world. Ten days of cultivation inside equaled just one day outside.
On top of that, the realm had a fivefold Spirit Gathering Formation, drastically speeding up cultivation.
Such advantages were beyond compare. Constructing even a twofold Spirit Gathering Formation within a sect would require untold heavenly materials—and even then, success wasn't guaranteed. It was simply too difficult.
As a result, every year the major sects sent disciples to train at the Tianxuan Sect, and the sect reaped massive profits from it.
"A trial realm? That's nothing!" Elder Xu Wen scoffed. "What I've got to share will blow your minds."
"Xu, don't start bragging," said Lin Danhua with a raised eyebrow.
"When have I ever bragged?" Xu Wen glared at Lin and rolled up his sleeves.
"Elder Xu, please, don't keep us in suspense," urged Li Changtian, elder of the Myriad Beasts Sect, stepping between the two. The two old men bickered like roosters whenever they met.
"I saw a dragon and phoenix," Xu Wen declared after clearing his throat.
The grand hall fell so silent, a pin drop would've echoed.
Then Lin Danhua burst out laughing. "And you say you're not bragging..."
But for once, Xu Wen didn't fire back. With a wave of his hand, he conjured a soul-scroll in midair.
The scroll slowly unfurled—dragon and phoenix cries echoed in the air, shaking hearts and minds.
Lin Danhua choked on his laughter, words caught in his throat. He stared, dumbfounded.
Sect Master Gu Chenyuan and the others stood straight in alarm. "Elder Xu… is that…?"
Lin finally recovered and stammered, "That's… that's real? Not some dream you made up?"
Xu Wen glared again. "This was crafted from a recovered soul shadow."
With a recovered soul shadow, one could use Soul Searching Arts to create such a scroll.
"Where did you see them?" Gu Chenyuan asked, barely breathing.
"Yongan City," Xu replied calmly.
Gu frowned. "A remote place like that? Why would dragons and phoenixes appear there?"
"Elder Xu, wasn't that brat Zhao Wuwei from your peak originally from Yongan?" Li Changtian asked.
It wasn't that Zhao was talented—he was just a toad lusting after a swan, daring to pursue Li's precious disciple. He'd been taught a harsh lesson for that.
"Don't mention him. Bad luck," Xu Wen waved a hand in disgust. "I'm expelling him from Wanjian Peak as soon as we're done."
"What happened?" Gu asked.
"His family offended the one who commands the dragon and phoenix," Xu replied, dropping a bombshell.
"Commands...?" Everyone gasped.
Such supreme divine beasts… had a master?
What kind of existence could that be?
"They were just pulling a carriage," Xu added, and with another wave of the scroll, the dragon-phoenix chariot appeared fully.
"Pulled by divine beasts… this…" Gu Chenyuan was speechless.
Then came the scene of Tara York boarding the chariot with Jiang Wanwan.
Jiang was clearly visible—her eighth-grade spiritual root and Frost Marrow Sacred Physique easily discerned, even through the scroll.
But Tara York's face was completely blurred. Even her clothing was hard to make out—only vague colors could be distinguished.
When a soul scroll couldn't clearly depict someone, there was only one explanation: the gap in cultivation was unimaginably vast.
Even someone at Gu Chenyuan's Immortal Emperor level would show up clearly in a scroll. Yet here…
Everyone stared at one another in silence until Saint Child Xiao Huohuo finally broke it:"Elder Xu, your soul shadow was present—did it detect that person's cultivation?"
"No," Xu shook his head. "She retracted all of her aura—completely like a mortal."
"But the laws of Heaven and Dao flowing around her were the densest I've ever seen."
"Even the Ancestor of Haoran Sect in Central Continent can't compare."
Another collective gasp.
That ancestor was at the Immortal Emperor realm—one of the Nine Supreme Powerhouses of the world.
And they'd never heard of anyone surpassing that realm.
Besides, why would someone that powerful visit a remote place like Yongan, just for a girl with an eighth-grade spiritual root?
Xu Wen dropped another bomb: "That woman… her bone age was no more than twenty-five."
"Twenty-five?!" Lin Danhua's voice cracked.
"I'm certain," Xu insisted. "She's a half-step Divine Being."
Gu Chenyuan took a sharp breath. "That's… absurd!"
The Ancestors of Central Continent were thousands of years old—and still only Immortal Emperors.
Why would a twenty-five-year-old surpass them? And show up… in the middle of nowhere?
Then came her voice through the scroll: "Elder Xu, await good news."
Everyone turned back to Xu, eyes burning with curiosity.
"She has founded a sect of her own and asked me to recruit disciples on her behalf," Xu said, bringing out the Azure Flame Mirror.
"Holy—! A ninth-grade artifact!" Lin Danhua's eyes bulged.
"High-grade, too?!" Even the usually icy Jadepeak Elder, Yu Ruyi, swore aloud.
"Where did you get that?" Gu's voice was trembling.
"As I said, she gave it to me as a reward," Xu replied smugly.
"You're drooling over this mirror, but to her it's just 'a ninth-grade item.' She writes with seventh-grade spiritual paper daily."
The room filled with shocked gasps again.
After a moment, Gu asked, "Does she only accept disciples with Sacred Physiques?"
"I have a list she gave me," Xu said, slapping a sheet of paper on the table.
"Seventh-grade paper," Li Changtian whispered as he stroked it. "I've never seen this before in my life."
"Don't block the words," Lin snapped, slapping his hand aside.
Everyone leaned in—and the hall was once again filled with sharp intakes of breath.
Aside from the collective sharp intake of breath, the grand hall of the sect fell into complete silence.
Those few lines of text were read over and over again.
Each time they read them, they were shocked all over again.
Xiao Huohuo pursed his lips, his entire body slightly numb.
Ninth-grade spiritual roots—Outer Sect elite disciple.
Just these simple words stirred a storm of emotion in Xiao Huohuo's heart.
He was a heaven-chosen child.
At the age of ten, he was discovered to possess the 28th-ranked Starry Physique and a ninth-grade spiritual root.
He was taken in by the sect leader on the spot and brought to Misty Sect.
Groomed as the Holy Son.
And he lived up to expectations, working diligently over the years.
Now, at just twenty years old, he had already reached the eighth level of the Guiyuan Realm.
Across the entire Northern Dry Continent, he was undeniably a standout.
Yet this very standout—Misty Sect's second-in-command, the future sect leader—
In the eyes of Star-Moon Sect, was merely qualified to be an Outer Sect elite disciple.
Not even eligible to enter the Inner Sect.
That thin sheet of paper hit Xiao Huohuo like a hammer to the head, making him dizzy and unsteady.
"Something's not right." At that moment, Yu Ruyi slammed the table, lips trembling with excitement.
"What's not right?" Li Changtian asked.
"It's true," Gu Chenyuan took a deep breath, finding it hard to believe. "This ink… this ink…"
"This isn't ordinary ink…"
Meaning it was above ninth-grade.
"Yellow-grade—high level," Yu Ruyi swallowed hard, her voice breaking as she trembled.
The once aloof beauty had now completely lost her composure.
Her mouth gaped wide enough to fit two eggs.
The others were stunned again.
Their sect's treasure was merely a low-level yellow-grade artifact, and it was even half-sealed.
Yet that mysterious figure used high-grade yellow ink for casual writing.
How extravagant was that?
Xu Wen pressed his lips together and said, "With the Holy Son's aptitude, he qualifies only as an Outer Sect elite disciple."
Lin Danhua frowned. "Xu, what are you implying?"
"Our Holy Son, the future sect leader, reduced to an Outer Sect disciple?"
Li Changtian also shook his head. "That's right. Huohuo is destined to lead the sect."
This was the sect's foundation. How could it be handed over so easily?
If word got out, Misty Sect would be the laughingstock of the Four Great Sects.
Xiao Huohuo pursed his lips and said firmly, "I, Xiao Huohuo, will not leave Misty Sect."
Although the images from Xu Wen's soul scroll stirred a longing in his heart, he was not one to abandon his roots.
Aside from his birth family, he had already regarded Misty Sect as his second home and Gu Chenyuan as his father.
If he truly left for Star-Moon Sect, Misty Sect would become the butt of jokes.
He would never bring shame to his sect.
Xu Wen glanced at them. "Is that all the vision you have?"
"Across the entire Great Wilderness, who else can command dragons and phoenixes to pull a carriage?"
"Who else uses yellow-grade ink on seventh-grade spiritual paper so casually?"
"Who else disdains even ninth-grade spiritual roots?"
"Who else can reform deadlands?"
"I'm a cultivator at the Immortal Realm, yet in her presence, I feel like an ant—no, even less than an ant."
"And that's when her cultivation is completely concealed."
"Even in front of the Haoran Sect Patriarch in Central Continent, I never felt this way."
"With such a powerful backer, and you're worried about face?"
"Future sect leader? That's an easy fix."
"We can just do what the Jiang family did—make use of Huohuo and become a subordinate sect of Star-Moon Sect."
"Let Huohuo take charge, since a subordinate sect must be overseen by a disciple anyway."
"This way, we latch on to Star-Moon Sect's leg, and Huohuo doesn't completely leave the sect."
Li Danhua still felt uneasy, though he couldn't find fault in the logic. "We're one of the Four Great Sects of the Northern Dry Continent."
"To become a subordinate to some unknown new sect?"
"What would people think?"
"What would they think?" Xu Wen sneered. "They'd be green with envy, and mad with jealousy."
"Elder Xu, you really believe in this Star-Moon Sect?" Gu Chenyuan asked.
From the soul scroll, Xu Wen's words, and the artifacts he presented, Star-Moon Sect did seem impressive.
But Misty Sect was no pushover either.
He couldn't possibly bet the whole sect on this.
Once they became a subordinate sect, Misty Sect would lose its status as one of the Four Great Sects.
"If the Sect Leader is willing to let Huohuo try, just send someone along and take a look. If it doesn't work out, bring him back," Xu Wen said lazily.
"Fair enough." Gu Chenyuan nodded.
"Master." Xiao Huohuo hurriedly knelt. "I don't want to leave you."
"Silly child, this is your destiny," Gu Chenyuan raised him up.
"If Star-Moon Sect is truly this powerful, Misty Sect will benefit greatly from your association."
"But…" Xiao Huohuo wanted to protest.
"Enough, it's settled," Gu Chenyuan interrupted. "Prepare to activate the teleportation array at first light tomorrow."
"Sect Leader, I have a request," Xu Wen turned to Gu Chenyuan.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Based on my aptitude, I qualify as an ordinary Outer Sect disciple. I'd like to try as well," Xu Wen said.
"You're so old already," Lin Danhua scoffed.
"Let me try. If it doesn't work out, I'll come back and resume my duties as elder," Xu Wen replied.
Lin Danhua stared at him, dumbfounded. "How can you say something so shameless with such a straight face?"
"I've already agreed to let Huohuo go—what's one more?" Gu Chenyuan nodded.
"Thank you, Sect Leader," Xu Wen said with a grin, shameless and unfazed. "Also, I'd like to bring my disciple along, if that's alright?"
His disciple was named Shi Jingjing, eighth-grade spiritual root, already in the Transformation Realm.
"Take her along," Gu Chenyuan nodded again. "Anyone else who wants to go, meet at the back mountain teleportation platform tomorrow morning."
With that, he turned and left the sect hall.
Activating a teleportation array consumed many resources and required preparation to avoid mistakes.
A misstep might land them in spatial turbulence, which was no joke.
After Gu Chenyuan left, Lin Danhua immediately sidled up to Xu Wen with a fawning smile. "Old Xu, let me see that mirror of yours?"
Yu Ruyi and Li Changtian also looked at him with eager eyes.
Xu Wen generously pulled it out and gently placed it on the table, declaring proudly, "Look all you want."