Chapter 1

Chapter 1

On the day my Master, Xuanyangzi, ascended, golden light pierced the clouds and poured over the mountaintop of the Azure Cloud Sect.

Purple qi gathered from thirty thousand miles to the east, condensing into an enormous auspicious cloud that hovered above the Ascension Platform.

“The hour has come!”

Eldest Senior Brother Lu Qingxuan’s voice rang out, bright with excitement.

Within the mountain gate, more than a thousand disciples dropped to their knees in unison. Facing the white-robed figure on the Ascension Platform, they bowed three times and kowtowed nine.

“We respectfully send off the Patriarch!”

“We respectfully send the Patriarch to his ascension!”

Wave after wave of voices rose higher and higher, shaking echoes from the pines.

I knelt in the very front row. Like everyone else, I had my head tilted up.

Master’s body was slowly rising. His white robes snapped in the heavenly wind, his expression serene, his eyes empty.

But as I looked at him, a chill spread through my heart.

Because I saw it.

From within that dense auspicious cloud, a hook emerged.

A silver-white hook, barbed, cold and ill-omened.

Soundlessly, it pierced straight through Master’s throat.

There was no blood.

Master’s body jerked violently. His hands clenched inside his sleeves, veins bulging.

He tried to struggle, but he couldn’t make a sound.

The hook was dragging him, pulling him into the depths of that false auspicious cloud.

His feet left the ground, kicking weakly in the air.

Like a fish being hauled out of the water.

Blood rushed to my head.

“Master!”

With a hoarse scream, I sprang up from the ground and charged toward the Ascension Platform like a madwoman.

The disciples around me stared in shock.

“Shen Yuan! What are you doing?!”

“She’s lost her mind! She’s gone mad!”

I couldn’t hear any of it. All I could see was Master’s figure rising higher and higher, and that fatal hook lodged in his throat.

I threw myself forward and, at the very instant Master’s feet were about to leave the Ascension Platform, locked my arms around his ankles with all my strength.

“Let him go!” I roared at the sky.

Master’s body stopped.

He lowered his head and looked at me. A faint glimmer passed through his empty eyes. Was it pain? Or release?

“How dare you, Shen Yuan!”

A thunderous shout came from behind me, wrapped in a fierce palm wind.

It was Lu Qingxuan.

I had no time to dodge. Pain exploded in my back, and my whole body was sent flying. I crashed hard onto the cold stone steps.

Something sweet surged up my throat.

“Pfft-”

A mouthful of blood sprayed across the bluestone, like a glaring red plum blossom.

“You madwoman!” Lu Qingxuan stood on the Ascension Platform, looking down at me from above. His gaze was vicious, his killing intent laid bare. “You ruined the Patriarch’s ascension ceremony. Can you bear the consequences of that crime?”

I lay sprawled on the ground, feeling as if all my organs had been knocked out of place.

I lifted my head and looked at the sky.

Master’s figure had already been dragged completely into the auspicious cloud and vanished.

That cloud was still so holy. Still so peaceful.

Golden light shone everywhere, and heavenly music rang in chorus.

The disciples knelt properly again, their faces filled with reverence and fervent worship.

As if what I had just done had been nothing but an absurd illusion.

Blood trickled down from the corner of my mouth.

I looked at Lu Qingxuan, at that righteous, awe-inspiring face of his, and laughed.

“Ascension?”

My voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the solemn ceremony like a knife.

“Lu Qingxuan, are all of you blind?”

Bracing myself against the ground, I staggered to my feet and pointed at that auspicious cloud.

“That wasn’t ascension!”

“That was fishing!”