The last thing Chu Yanling remembered was, a sword enveloped with dense qi¹Vital/life energy coming towards him.

Then it was dark.

Chu Yanling thought that he had died by the hands of the heavenly demon, Mo Tianjun.

From way back, the orthodox faction and the demonic faction had been at odds with each other. It wouldn't be strange for one to suddenly attack the other in the middle of the night to put them under their feet.

They hated each other to the core. The people of the orthodox faction always regarded the people of the demonic faction as vile people who lived just to kill and the people of the demonic faction always thought that the people from the orthodox faction was hypocrites.

However, Chu Yanling never thought so. He was once a disciple of a renowned sect of the orthodox faction and obviously, it was ingrained in his mind that the demon people are people of absolute evil. It was until he had stepped foot into Jianghu²martial arts society that he began to understand that things weren't necessarily black and white.

He had seen the good and bad things of the world. Although indeed, the demonic faction had done a lot of unforgivable things in the past, they had been staying low profile these past few years under the rule of the new heavenly demon. Chu Yanling then blended in the demonic faction and stayed there for several years. To his surprise, the demonic faction wasn't exactly as what he had expected. He came to understand the people and came to care for them. 

However, a few years after he roamed about the demonic faction, he was called back by his master to attend the martial arts alliance conference as the representative. There, he, together with his sect, were ordered to attack the demonic faction and annihilate them in the pretext of purging evil. Chu Yanling, of course, refused in the behalf of his sect. He was sure that the sect wasn't going to reprimand him for refusing to take part in this 'purge'.

Exactly because of this, Chu Yanling was imprisoned deep in the basement of the martial arts alliance leader and was fed some medicine, locking his dantian³A place to store qi to prevent him from using martial arts. He had never expected to get deceived by his friend and was drugged. He felt despair for the first time. He didn't know just how long he was imprisoned down there for. Days? Weeks? Months? Years?

In the end, the purge happened. It was a one-sided massacre. Countless innocent people who didn't know martial arts died in the hands of these so called 'righteous warriors' of the orthodox faction. The people Chu Yanling had spent his time with, the people he had come to care for, the people he made promises to... All was dead. 

It was until the purge was done that he could get rid of the drug and escape the underground dungeon. By then, his sect was no more. The corpses inside his sect were either already eaten by wild animals or burned to ashes. Nothing was left.

The only surviving people in the demonic faction were the Heavenly Demon and his direct subordinates. They went to take revenge on the orthodox faction and Chu Yanling's sect also got annihilated. The entire Zhongyuan⁴central plains was in ruins. 

Chu Yanling could only grit his teeth. No, this wasn't the heavenly demon's fault exactly. Chu Yanling knew that but... the people who were supposed to be the target of his revenge. the leading figures of the orthodox faction, were already dead. On who should he vent this frustration out?

Chu Yanling decided and went to the demonic faction, killing every martial artists coming his way, not caring whether they're from the orthodox faction or the demonic faction. After killing his way for several months, he finally arrived at the Heavenly Demon's abode and challenged him on a one-on-one. 

Even in his last moments, Chu Yanling never hated Mo Tianjun. In fact, Chu Yanling had respected the heavenly demon from the very bottom of his heart. 

He wished... If he could, he wanted to get to know more of the heavenly demon and start over. 

And as though the heavens were answering his prayers, he opened his eyes. He recognize this place. This place where he had grown up in... He had missed this dearly. Was this the after life? If so, he wanted to thank Buddha for giving this chance for him to bid this place goodbye for the very last time. Tears streamed down his eyes and dripped down his chin.

At that moment, someone yelled out, "Shidi⁵Junior brother, watch out!"

Chu Yanling: "Huh?"

Chu Yanling turned his head towards the source of sound and saw someone from his sect. She was the one in charge of the medicine house of the sect when he got out of the sect as a wandering warrior. Although she was a little bit annoying because of her nagging, Chu Yanling had to admit that he quite miss this shijie⁶Senior sister of his. His shijie's face paled in horror as she pointed on the space above him. 

"T-that! That above you!"

"Huh?"

While he was out of daze, she ran past him and yelled out to him some more, "Don't just stand there and run!"

Chu Yanling didn't have anytime to react and just ran with all his might. He didn't know why but he felt shivers down his spine and he instinctively wanted to avoid whatever it was. It was dangerous staying here!

Just as he thought that, a boulder as large as five people combined descended from the sky and landed with a 'bang'. It sent vibrations all over the sect and Chu Yanling who was the closest to it, stumbled and toppled on the ground. He thought that it was an earthquake but he couldn't be more wrong. 

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

If he wasn't running a while ago, he might as well be crushed to a paste by this huge ass boulder! Who the hell was crazy enough to throw such a thing in the sect? Unless it was the elders and the sect leader himself, no one would there do such a thing...

Chu Yanling had a bad feeling about this and he was never wrong about it. 

Just then, heavy footsteps could be heard behind him. He slowly turned his head and saw a tall man in white robes slowly walking towards him. His heart almost stopped beating. 

Not because he was surprised or he suddenly felt melancholic about this person. Rather, it was fear. This man was fuming so much he actually let out steam from his nostrils. 

"CHU YANGLING!"

Chu Yanling couldn't help but squeaked when he heard his name coming out of this man's mouth.  Even so... He also couldn't help wailing in front of this person. He actually cried this time. 

"Shizun⁷Master!"

In that moment, he jumped off and hugged that man's thigh, clinging to it tightly. Snot and tears stuck to the man's white robes and the man almost exploded in rage. However, Chu Yanling certainly looked so miserable his shizun didn't have the heart to scold him any longer. 

"Shizun! Wahhhhhhh!"

"W-what's wrong with you?!"

"I don't know! I can't stop it, shizun! Uwaaaa!"

"Chu Yanling, get off of me!"

"Waaa!!"