“The Lightning Sword Sect… It should be right up ahead.”
After he arrived by the galaxy teleporter, the young man clad in white from head to toe stayed afloat in their air. He stared out in the distance as he muttered under his breath, his gaze fixed on the buildings nestled in the midst of the tips of blades.
The galaxy teleporter was behind the young man. On it, the coordinates were clearly marked out:
Hengliu galaxy.
The Tielao planet.
The Lightning Sword Sect.
The young man clad in white was Zhou Donghuang, who had just left the Tianxuan planet of the Luohe galaxy, and traveled all the way to the Tielao planet in the Hengliu galaxy.
“This time… Third Senior Sister should still be in the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect.”
Zhou Donghuang came to this place because there was someone he knew here. More accurately, someone he knew from his previous life: his third senior sister.
He did not care for many people in his previous life, but this person was one of the people he held close to his heart.
He was not the reason for her demise, but he did owe her a great debt of gratitude since she had saved his life on multiple occasions, and it was because of this that the man was heartbroken when she had passed.
His heartbreak had translated into a self-hatred. Why was he not strong enough to prevent her death? Why could he do nothing but watch as she died in front of him?
Although he avenged her eventually, there was no way to bring her back to life.
But he had the power to alter history now that he had reincarnated into a life that existed a millennium before his previous one, and there was no way he would let the person he cherished like his own mother and sister slip through his fingers again.
“In my last life, the Lightning Sword Sect was tragically wiped out, but she was lucky to have escaped with her life. After they left the Hengliu galaxy, she joined the same sect and served the same master I did.
“I’d even go as far as to say that the only reason I was able to join that sect was because of her… Otherwise, there was no way the master would have even taken a second look at me.”
His Third Senior Sister went by the name, “He Mengxi” and was an entire decade older than he was.
In his previous life, she had already been an ultimate Primordial Soul adept by the time he met her, and her powers were simply astonishing.
An adept at the Primordial Soul stage who had not even been 200 hundred years old was considered gifted, even when compared to the vast universe.
It was important to note that plenty of people improved by leaps and bounds in a short time when they were still in the early phases of their training, but they would also hit a bottleneck and cease to improve.
In his previous life, Zhou Donghuang knew of a person who crossed into the Dharma stage before she turned thirty, then into the Primordial Soul stage before fifty.
However, that person had been stuck at the Primordial Soul stage all the way until the last second of the thousand-year limit before eventually dying in his sleep.
It was worth noting that he had already crossed into the Primordial Soul stage before he turned 300.
He had not been able to cross into the Divine Transformation stage in the 700 years that followed and had ended up dying when his lifespan expired.
The average Primordial Soul adept lived to a thousand years.
Of course, if the adept trained using the Technique of Everlasting Youth, they could extend their lifespan to 1,500 years.
“Your Highness, why have you come to the Lightning Sword Sect?”
Zhou Donghuang was stopped by someone the moment he came close enough to the perimeter of the buildings that were nestled in the midst of blade tips.
He was stopped by two young men who looked to be about 30 years old. The golden inner Yuan that swirled around them made it clear that the both of them were Golden Essence adepts.
One of the men had a lanky build, and strapped to his back was a sheathed long sword.
The other man had a large, unsheathed blade strapped horizontally to his back. Well, a good craftsman never blamed his tools.
The two men were the two people from the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect who were on patrol duty. They had managed to stop Zhou Donghuang in time when they found him getting closer to the sect.
“Gentlemen, I’m looking for He Mengxi from your sect,” Zhou Donghuang said.
“You’re looking for Junior Sister He?”
At Zhou Donghuang’s words, the two men on patrol squinted a little, and the cold expression they had on their faces a while ago melted into something more friendly.
He Mengxi was none other than the daughter of the Autumn Valley Head of the Lightning Sword Sect, the cherished daughter of the sect.
“Who are you, boy? Why are you looking for Junior Sister He?”
There was a hint of a smile on the lanky disciple’s face as he asked very politely. The man’s condescension had nothing to do with the fact that Zhou Donghuang was only a Silver Essence adept.
The silver inner Yuan surrounding Zhou Donghuang’s body at this very moment was a clear indicator of that.
“She’s my senior.”
Zhou Donghuang chuckled blandly.
“Your senior?!”
Zhou Donghuang’s response shocked the two disciples. Was this man saying that he was a disciple that the Autumn Valley Head had accepted outside of the sect?
He seemed to be about 20 years or so, slightly older than 20 at most, but he was already a Silver Essence adept.
It could be possible.
“Junior Brother, I’ll bring you to Autumn Valley right now.”
The lanky disciple brought Zhou Donghuang into the sect after he exchanged greetings with someone else.
On the way there, Zhou Donghuang scanned the mountains that had stood tall, resembling sharp blades that were piercing through the clouds with their tips. It was rather obvious that these blade tips were carved to look the way they did now; every single one of them looked like a sword.
It must have taken quite a bit of effort to carve the dozens of these mountains into such sharp blades, even if the one doing the carving were Diving Transformation adept.
“Junior Brother, you’re the disciple our Autumn Valley Head accepted outside of the sect, right? Why are you only here now?” the lanky disciple questioned curiously.
“There were some issues I had to deal with.”
Zhou Donghuang responded flippantly. It was not like he could admit that he did not know the man and had never even seen him, right?
When he had been acquainted with his third senior sister in his past life, her father—who was the Autumn Valley’s Head—had long passed following the collapse of the Lightning Sword Sect.
Now, his priority was meeting his third senior sister.
Everything would be easier if he met her.
“How do I address you?”
“Zhou Donghuang.”
“So it’s Junior Brother Zhou, huh… Junior Brother Zhou, I’m Liu Ping. I’m a disciple of the Lightning Sword Sect.”
Liu Ping was leading the way to the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect. He was very enthusiastic and hospitable, so much so that it was unnerving Zhou Donghuang.
Why was that?
Zhou Donghuang was growing suspicious of his enthusiasm. This Liu Ping, did he know that he had been an adept at the Heavenly Stage in his previous life?
Why else would he be this enthusiastic, to the extent of bootlicking?
The sect divided its disciples into outer and inner disciples, and only the inner disciples could join the Autumn Valley, which was part of the Four Valleys, to become a disciple of the Four Valleys.
The four valleys were as followed: Spring Valley, Summer Valley, Autumn Valley, and Winter Valley.
Generally speaking, there was only one way for an outer disciple to become an inner disciple is to enter the four valleys: that was to reach the Dharma stage and become a Dharma adept before turning 30.
The other way was to catch the eye of the four Valley leaders and have them accept you personally… And it was precisely because of this that there were a few young disciples in the four valleys that were not yet at the Dharma stage.
These young disciples who had joined the Four Valleys were still considered inner disciples of the Lightning Sword Sect even if they were not at the Dharma stage yet.
Liu Ping, who was currently leading the way for Zhou Donghuang, was but an outer disciple of the Lightning Sword Sect. He was about 30 years old and not yet at the Dharma stage.
The inner disciples were all individuals who were naturally gifted, and even the worst of them could become an elder in the Lightning Sword Sect in the future when they were more experienced.
They were not like the outer disciples who could spend their whole lives training and still become nothing more than an in-charge for matters outside of the sect.
Liu Ping thought that this Junior Brother Zhou standing in front of him must be someone who was born with a talent that set him apart from his peers, someone who had a limitless potential within him, for the Autumn Valley head to have made an exception to take him in.
He had the chance to exchange words with this guy and make a friend out of him now.
In the future, he might not even have the opportunity to speak to him.
It was best that he got acquainted with Zhou Donghuang now before that happened; there were only pros and no cons to doing so.
“Junior Brother Zhou, we’re at the Autumn Valley.”
Under Liu Ping’s guidance, Zhou Donghuang came to a stop in front of a spacious valley. The maple leaves were floating in the space of the valley, and it made for quite the picture of autumn.
The ground was covered with red maple leaves, and many of the flowers and grass had withered to nothing. Some of the fruit trees had ripened fruits hanging from them.
“This is the Autumn Valley?”
Zhou Donghuang’s heart skipped a beat.
“An outer disciple? What are you doing here?”
A shadow flew out from a side of the hillside of the Autumn Valley. It was an impressive young man clad in green robes. Though he was walking on air, not a trace of inner Yuan was visible around his body. It was clear that this man was a Dharma adept.
One had to at least be a Dharma adept to be able to conceal their inner Yuan.
“Outer disciple Liu Ping. I offer my greetings to you, Senior Brother Huang.”
Liu Ping greeted the man respectfully, introducing Zhou Donghuang in the same breath. “Senior Brother Huang, this is Junior Brother Zhou. He’s a disciple who’s been accepted by Valley Head He from outside. Today is his first day here with us at the Lightning Sword Sect.”
Without waiting for the other man to respond, he smiled and turned to speak to Zhou Donghuang, “Junior Brother Zhou, I’ll be taking my leave now since I’ve already brought you here to the Autumn Valley.”
The man in green robes took a good look at Zhou Donghuang after Liu Ping left. “You. You’re a disciple the Valley Head accepted from outside?”
Zhou Donghuang did not respond. Instead, he smiled blandly at the man. “Please take me to Senior Sister Mengxi, if you don’t mind.”
“Follow me.”
The young man decked in green did not ask any more questions after he heard that Zhou Donghuang wanted to meet Mengxi, someone his Valley Head cherished like gold. He moved ahead to lead the way.
“Junior Sister Mengxi, someone’s here for you.”
The young man brought Zhou Donghuang to the other side of the hill where there was a spacious courtyard built atop an expansive stone platform.
Not long after the young man spoke, a charming silhouette floated out from the courtyard. It was a young lady dressed in a long, sky-blue dress.
The lady looked to be about 20 years old—it was impossible to tell that she was over 30 just by looking at her. She had beautiful eyebrows that looked drawn on and eyes that shone like stars. Her cheeks were stained with delicate beauty, and her long hair was draped on her back like a waterfall. She stood there, a slim woman 1.7 meters tall with long legs that caught one’s eye.
Zhou Donghuang’s gaze was completely fixed on her as she walked out. His body was trembling inconspicuously, and he could not keep his calm any longer.
More than 800 years.
It had been more than 800 years since he had seen his third senior sister.
She looked exactly like the memory he had of her, just a little younger and not as mature as he had remembered her to be.
“Who are you, and what are you here for?”
He Mengxi stared at the young man in white robes who stood to the side of the one clad in green, confusion clouding her features.
“Junior Sister Mengxi, you… you don’t know this man?”
The man’s face changed in an instant.
“The Lightning Sword Sect… It should be right up ahead.”
After he arrived by the galaxy teleporter, the young man clad in white from head to toe stayed afloat in their air. He stared out in the distance as he muttered under his breath, his gaze fixed on the buildings nestled in the midst of the tips of blades.
The galaxy teleporter was behind the young man. On it, the coordinates were clearly marked out:
Hengliu galaxy.
The Tielao planet.
The Lightning Sword Sect.
The young man clad in white was Zhou Donghuang, who had just left the Tianxuan planet of the Luohe galaxy, and traveled all the way to the Tielao planet in the Hengliu galaxy.
“This time… Third Senior Sister should still be in the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect.”
Zhou Donghuang came to this place because there was someone he knew here. More accurately, someone he knew from his previous life: his third senior sister.
He did not care for many people in his previous life, but this person was one of the people he held close to his heart.
He was not the reason for her demise, but he did owe her a great debt of gratitude since she had saved his life on multiple occasions, and it was because of this that the man was heartbroken when she had passed.
His heartbreak had translated into a self-hatred. Why was he not strong enough to prevent her death? Why could he do nothing but watch as she died in front of him?
Although he avenged her eventually, there was no way to bring her back to life.
But he had the power to alter history now that he had reincarnated into a life that existed a millennium before his previous one, and there was no way he would let the person he cherished like his own mother and sister slip through his fingers again.
“In my last life, the Lightning Sword Sect was tragically wiped out, but she was lucky to have escaped with her life. After they left the Hengliu galaxy, she joined the same sect and served the same master I did.
“I’d even go as far as to say that the only reason I was able to join that sect was because of her… Otherwise, there was no way the master would have even taken a second look at me.”
His Third Senior Sister went by the name, “He Mengxi” and was an entire decade older than he was.
In his previous life, she had already been an ultimate Primordial Soul adept by the time he met her, and her powers were simply astonishing.
An adept at the Primordial Soul stage who had not even been 200 hundred years old was considered gifted, even when compared to the vast universe.
It was important to note that plenty of people improved by leaps and bounds in a short time when they were still in the early phases of their training, but they would also hit a bottleneck and cease to improve.
In his previous life, Zhou Donghuang knew of a person who crossed into the Dharma stage before she turned thirty, then into the Primordial Soul stage before fifty.
However, that person had been stuck at the Primordial Soul stage all the way until the last second of the thousand-year limit before eventually dying in his sleep.
It was worth noting that he had already crossed into the Primordial Soul stage before he turned 300.
He had not been able to cross into the Divine Transformation stage in the 700 years that followed and had ended up dying when his lifespan expired.
The average Primordial Soul adept lived to a thousand years.
Of course, if the adept trained using the Technique of Everlasting Youth, they could extend their lifespan to 1,500 years.
“Your Highness, why have you come to the Lightning Sword Sect?”
Zhou Donghuang was stopped by someone the moment he came close enough to the perimeter of the buildings that were nestled in the midst of blade tips.
He was stopped by two young men who looked to be about 30 years old. The golden inner Yuan that swirled around them made it clear that the both of them were Golden Essence adepts.
One of the men had a lanky build, and strapped to his back was a sheathed long sword.
The other man had a large, unsheathed blade strapped horizontally to his back. Well, a good craftsman never blamed his tools.
The two men were the two people from the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect who were on patrol duty. They had managed to stop Zhou Donghuang in time when they found him getting closer to the sect.
“Gentlemen, I’m looking for He Mengxi from your sect,” Zhou Donghuang said.
“You’re looking for Junior Sister He?”
At Zhou Donghuang’s words, the two men on patrol squinted a little, and the cold expression they had on their faces a while ago melted into something more friendly.
He Mengxi was none other than the daughter of the Autumn Valley Head of the Lightning Sword Sect, the cherished daughter of the sect.
“Who are you, boy? Why are you looking for Junior Sister He?”
There was a hint of a smile on the lanky disciple’s face as he asked very politely. The man’s condescension had nothing to do with the fact that Zhou Donghuang was only a Silver Essence adept.
The silver inner Yuan surrounding Zhou Donghuang’s body at this very moment was a clear indicator of that.
“She’s my senior.”
Zhou Donghuang chuckled blandly.
“Your senior?!”
Zhou Donghuang’s response shocked the two disciples. Was this man saying that he was a disciple that the Autumn Valley Head had accepted outside of the sect?
He seemed to be about 20 years or so, slightly older than 20 at most, but he was already a Silver Essence adept.
It could be possible.
“Junior Brother, I’ll bring you to Autumn Valley right now.”
The lanky disciple brought Zhou Donghuang into the sect after he exchanged greetings with someone else.
On the way there, Zhou Donghuang scanned the mountains that had stood tall, resembling sharp blades that were piercing through the clouds with their tips. It was rather obvious that these blade tips were carved to look the way they did now; every single one of them looked like a sword.
It must have taken quite a bit of effort to carve the dozens of these mountains into such sharp blades, even if the one doing the carving were Diving Transformation adept.
“Junior Brother, you’re the disciple our Autumn Valley Head accepted outside of the sect, right? Why are you only here now?” the lanky disciple questioned curiously.
“There were some issues I had to deal with.”
Zhou Donghuang responded flippantly. It was not like he could admit that he did not know the man and had never even seen him, right?
When he had been acquainted with his third senior sister in his past life, her father—who was the Autumn Valley’s Head—had long passed following the collapse of the Lightning Sword Sect.
Now, his priority was meeting his third senior sister.
Everything would be easier if he met her.
“How do I address you?”
“Zhou Donghuang.”
“So it’s Junior Brother Zhou, huh… Junior Brother Zhou, I’m Liu Ping. I’m a disciple of the Lightning Sword Sect.”
Liu Ping was leading the way to the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect. He was very enthusiastic and hospitable, so much so that it was unnerving Zhou Donghuang.
Why was that?
Zhou Donghuang was growing suspicious of his enthusiasm. This Liu Ping, did he know that he had been an adept at the Heavenly Stage in his previous life?
Why else would he be this enthusiastic, to the extent of bootlicking?
The sect divided its disciples into outer and inner disciples, and only the inner disciples could join the Autumn Valley, which was part of the Four Valleys, to become a disciple of the Four Valleys.
The four valleys were as followed: Spring Valley, Summer Valley, Autumn Valley, and Winter Valley.
Generally speaking, there was only one way for an outer disciple to become an inner disciple is to enter the four valleys: that was to reach the Dharma stage and become a Dharma adept before turning 30.
The other way was to catch the eye of the four Valley leaders and have them accept you personally… And it was precisely because of this that there were a few young disciples in the four valleys that were not yet at the Dharma stage.
These young disciples who had joined the Four Valleys were still considered inner disciples of the Lightning Sword Sect even if they were not at the Dharma stage yet.
Liu Ping, who was currently leading the way for Zhou Donghuang, was but an outer disciple of the Lightning Sword Sect. He was about 30 years old and not yet at the Dharma stage.
The inner disciples were all individuals who were naturally gifted, and even the worst of them could become an elder in the Lightning Sword Sect in the future when they were more experienced.
They were not like the outer disciples who could spend their whole lives training and still become nothing more than an in-charge for matters outside of the sect.
Liu Ping thought that this Junior Brother Zhou standing in front of him must be someone who was born with a talent that set him apart from his peers, someone who had a limitless potential within him, for the Autumn Valley head to have made an exception to take him in.
He had the chance to exchange words with this guy and make a friend out of him now.
In the future, he might not even have the opportunity to speak to him.
It was best that he got acquainted with Zhou Donghuang now before that happened; there were only pros and no cons to doing so.
“Junior Brother Zhou, we’re at the Autumn Valley.”
Under Liu Ping’s guidance, Zhou Donghuang came to a stop in front of a spacious valley. The maple leaves were floating in the space of the valley, and it made for quite the picture of autumn.
The ground was covered with red maple leaves, and many of the flowers and grass had withered to nothing. Some of the fruit trees had ripened fruits hanging from them.
“This is the Autumn Valley?”
Zhou Donghuang’s heart skipped a beat.
“An outer disciple? What are you doing here?”
A shadow flew out from a side of the hillside of the Autumn Valley. It was an impressive young man clad in green robes. Though he was walking on air, not a trace of inner Yuan was visible around his body. It was clear that this man was a Dharma adept.
One had to at least be a Dharma adept to be able to conceal their inner Yuan.
“Outer disciple Liu Ping. I offer my greetings to you, Senior Brother Huang.”
Liu Ping greeted the man respectfully, introducing Zhou Donghuang in the same breath. “Senior Brother Huang, this is Junior Brother Zhou. He’s a disciple who’s been accepted by Valley Head He from outside. Today is his first day here with us at the Lightning Sword Sect.”
Without waiting for the other man to respond, he smiled and turned to speak to Zhou Donghuang, “Junior Brother Zhou, I’ll be taking my leave now since I’ve already brought you here to the Autumn Valley.”
The man in green robes took a good look at Zhou Donghuang after Liu Ping left. “You. You’re a disciple the Valley Head accepted from outside?”
Zhou Donghuang did not respond. Instead, he smiled blandly at the man. “Please take me to Senior Sister Mengxi, if you don’t mind.”
“Follow me.”
The young man decked in green did not ask any more questions after he heard that Zhou Donghuang wanted to meet Mengxi, someone his Valley Head cherished like gold. He moved ahead to lead the way.
“Junior Sister Mengxi, someone’s here for you.”
The young man brought Zhou Donghuang to the other side of the hill where there was a spacious courtyard built atop an expansive stone platform.
Not long after the young man spoke, a charming silhouette floated out from the courtyard. It was a young lady dressed in a long, sky-blue dress.
The lady looked to be about 20 years old—it was impossible to tell that she was over 30 just by looking at her. She had beautiful eyebrows that looked drawn on and eyes that shone like stars. Her cheeks were stained with delicate beauty, and her long hair was draped on her back like a waterfall. She stood there, a slim woman 1.7 meters tall with long legs that caught one’s eye.
Zhou Donghuang’s gaze was completely fixed on her as she walked out. His body was trembling inconspicuously, and he could not keep his calm any longer.
More than 800 years.
It had been more than 800 years since he had seen his third senior sister.
She looked exactly like the memory he had of her, just a little younger and not as mature as he had remembered her to be.
“Who are you, and what are you here for?”
He Mengxi stared at the young man in white robes who stood to the side of the one clad in green, confusion clouding her features.
“Junior Sister Mengxi, you… you don’t know this man?”
The man’s face changed in an instant.
