The life of a mortal is spent in mediocrity in this world. When gazing up at the galaxy in the deep of night, they inevitably develop endless fantasies about that vast starry sky—thinking of the alternation of sun and moon, the shifting of stars and constellations, the rotation of day and night. They desire to glimpse the truth, yet the heavens remain forever beyond reach. Their fate is numbered, their strength finite, and all thoughts of transcending this realm ultimately remain just “thoughts”—difficult to realize.

Only immortals have long life and great strength to perceive the mysteries.

When Jian Chou first attended the Left Three Thousand minor assembly, she was barely at initial Golden Core stage. But the scene she witnessed that day when stepping onto the Heavenly Ascension Path and ascending that One-Person Platform has remained in her memory, never worn away by the years, and remains clear even today.

That was when a palm print fell, and day suddenly turned to night. On the pitch-black firmament, countless stars lit up, converging into a magnificent galaxy.

The vast aura of the universe opened its embrace to her for the first time.

And on such a night when darkness fell, she threw herself into the universe’s embrace, into the torrential flow of the galaxy.

There were no strange five-colored rays of light like when other cultivators of the Nineteen Continents ascended, nor those heart-palpitating spatial fluctuations. What enveloped Jian Chou was only a powerful aura belonging to herself alone.

The earth of the Nineteen Continents shrank beneath her feet.

Mountains, rivers, and streams all became a small painting, like a chess piece placed on a board, moved about at will.

She rose higher and higher, and those once-distant stars rapidly enlarged before her eyes. She passed through a certain boundary with ease.

At this moment, there was not a single wisp of cloud left in the world.

Grains of stars rotated in the dark and silent void, their emitted light falling into Jian Chou’s eyes and becoming various brilliant colors. Some hung lonely in distant corners, others clustered together, hidden in star dust like thick fog, forming beautiful and mysterious nebulae throughout the universe. They seemed eternally still, yet also appeared to be constantly rotating.

Human eyes seemed to lose all function here.

Without air, without weight, even all familiar knowledge was lost.

Jian Chou’s heart suddenly became completely quiet.

The void before her twisted when she broke through that boundary, like ripples spreading, forming a vortex that engulfed her.

But she turned to look behind her.

The Nineteen Continents had become a vast landmass that she could overlook at a glance, floating beside the vast Western Sea, with mountains and rivers becoming thin veins!

A huge star!

Jian Chou knew its name was called “Primordial Beginning.”

The “Nine Curves River Map” recorded everything related to it: Legend had it that this was the first star where the Great Sage Pangu led the human race to this universe after opening heaven and earth. Taking the meaning of beginning and starting point, it was thus named the Star of Primordial Beginning.

The human race gradually originated from this beginning.

During these nearly four hundred years, she had looked at the “Nine Curves River Map” countless times, sketching its shape in her mind. But no matter how realistic the calculations and depictions were, they could never compare to what she witnessed with her own eyes at this moment.

Compared to a star, a human was already dust.

If merged into this vast universe, one would be even more insignificantly small.

Existence and non-existence, under such comparison, seemed to lose their meaning.

In the instant she was swallowed by the vortex behind her, Jian Chou felt her consciousness had completely merged with this vastness. She couldn’t distinguish whether she was herself or the universe at this moment, or perhaps she came from the universe and had always been its appendage.

Only her mind remained clear.

She knew that after this “journey” of unknown length or brevity, when she opened her eyes again, she would no longer face the familiar Nineteen Continents, but the strange and magnificent Upper Void Immortal Realm!

Stars form galaxies, galaxies form nebulae, and nebulae cluster together to become large and small star domains scattered throughout the universe with no fixed direction. Some spread out, some cluster together, some are like long flowing ribbons, while others resemble swaying lotus blossoms.

Endless galaxies scattered are millions upon millions of small worlds.

Yet in the depths of the galaxy, in a certain corner of the universe, over a hundred star domains regularly clustered into a sphere, rotating according to their different laws, yet vaguely giving a sense of harmony.

This phenomenon was naturally unusual in the seemingly chaotic universe.

But all the people within it either hadn’t noticed or had long grown accustomed to it.

Because this was the Upper Void Immortal Realm!

Any cultivator, regardless of which corner of the universe they came from or how they cultivated, even demon cultivators who achieved the Dao, would be drawn by powerful law forces to this realm after breaking through their world’s power limitations.

After having immortal power infused into their bodies and their immortal bodies reforged through the Ascension Pool, they would be considered “Earth Immortals.”

Above Earth Immortals were Golden Immortals, and above Golden Immortals were Sacred Immortals.

The power of immortals was divided into these three broad levels. Because the Upper Void Immortal Realm was vast and boundless, and immortals came from throughout the universe, even though they were all prodigies of their respective realms, they were merely ordinary among countless immortals here. So the power differences between different levels of immortals were like vast chasms, and even immortals of the same level could be worlds apart.

Sun Cheng was just an ordinary Earth Immortal here.

Before ascending, he had achieved some modest success in his own realm and had been brought to this realm nine hundred years ago.

But now, nine hundred years later, he had never left this star domain.

Not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t.

Sun Cheng had originally thought that the legendary Upper Void Immortal Realm would be a place that stirred the heart no matter what, but he had truly underestimated the vastness of this universe.

Only when leaving one’s original realm did one discover how small that original realm was.

Even after ascending, they were still frogs observing the sky from a well.

Suddenly thrown from a well into this enormous world, no matter who it was or what experiences they’d had, they would inevitably feel suppressed. First, they felt the world’s vastness and their own ignorance; second, heroes, overlords, and prodigious talents were everywhere. Coming to the Upper Void was no different from starting over—all previous accumulations became worthless here.

Original spiritual consciousness was powerfully suppressed; even if one had comprehended spatial laws and could open their own small world in the past, it was compressed here; teleportation and displacement distances were also greatly shortened.

Moreover, a star domain was inherently vast?

Even as an Earth Immortal, crossing a star domain effortlessly was extremely laborious. For someone like Sun Cheng, whose cultivation had made little progress over hundreds of years, it was naturally even more impossible.

When cultivators first ascended and were guided by the rules, they often landed on the edge stars of the Upper Void’s peripheral star domains. Only immortals with sufficient cultivation had the ability to easily cross star domains, so over time, the Upper Void Immortal Realm gradually developed hierarchies.

The outer regions were mostly low-level Earth Immortals, terrifyingly numerous due to constant accumulation;

The inner regions were generally high-level Golden Immortals, sharply reduced in number compared to Earth Immortals;

The central star domains naturally became the territory of those few Sacred Immortals, respectively called the Non-Evil Heaven, the Free Heaven, and the Great Luo Heaven.

Non-Evil Heaven was the domain of ascended demons or immortals who had fallen to the demonic path; Free Heaven was mostly the domain of Buddhist cultivators from various Buddhist sects who had ascended; Great Luo Heaven was the largest among the “Three Heavens of the Upper Void,” occupying a full seventy percent of the central area, covering three star domains and encompassing all non-Buddhist, non-demonic immortals—whether Dao cultivators, sword cultivators, talisman cultivators, or other more exotic cultivators could all be found here.

Since ascending to the Upper Void, Sun Cheng’s greatest wish had been to someday have the opportunity to enter Great Luo Heaven and behold the legendary bearing of the White Crane Great Emperor, Ancestor Luye, and Lord Bixi.

Unfortunately, his luck was truly poor.

Originally, he had his own sect in the lower realm and thought that after ascending, previous seniors from his sect would have established a sect here that could directly accept him into Great Luo Heaven. But who would have thought that after ascending here, he learned that the sect’s seniors had all died in a conflict between Great Luo Heaven and Non-Evil Heaven. Not only was there no sect, not even half a person remained.

So until today, Sun Cheng remained trapped in this outer Haotian Star Domain, selling Upper Void Immortal Realm maps and basic information near the Ascension Pool of Pleiades Star, relying on guiding newly ascended Earth Immortals to obtain their good items in exchange for the immortal essence stones he needed for cultivation, while also tempering his state of mind in this process.

By rights, after so many years, his heart should have long been calm.

However, in recent years, he couldn’t calm down no matter what.

The Ascension Pool was built like a huge altar, and people didn’t constantly emerge from it. Sometimes, one might not see a new ascender for three or four days.

But Sun Cheng didn’t dare slack off because of this.

When no one was around, he would often lean against the huge white dragon pillars of the Ascension Pool to cultivate. But today, he was only staring at the piece of sheepskin on his lap.

Black sheepskin.

On it, white lines outlined a female cultivator’s cold and beautiful face, but beside it was branded a crimson death order mark!

Below was only one line of small text:

Jian Chou of the Primordial Beginning Realm, possibly ascended. Ten Death Order bounty: A Sacred Immortal’s promise!

Sun Cheng knew that several years ago, such mysterious black sheepskin had quietly spread throughout the outer regions of the Upper Void Immortal Realm, stirring countless people’s interest.

Everyone knew what it meant.

Such a paper was collectively called a “Ten Death Order” in the Upper Void.

In early years, Non-Evil Heaven had many evil demons and heretics. When they failed to hunt down a Golden Immortal, they would issue an order to the entire Upper Void, promising that whoever could kill them would receive the benefits promised in the order.

Initially, only Non-Evil Heaven used them.

But later, those hidden behind these “Ten Death Orders” were not just cultivators from Non-Evil Heaven—many also came from Great Luo Heaven.

However, having spent these hundreds of years in the Upper Void, this was the first time Sun Cheng had seen such a bounty on a Ten Death Order!

Killing this “Jian Chou” could earn a Sacred Immortal’s promise!

Did this mean that the one wanting to kill this Jian Chou was someone whose status was absolutely high even in Great Luo Heaven—

A Sacred Immortal?

But why would a mighty Sacred Immortal go to such trouble to kill someone who “possibly ascended” and might not even have ascended yet?

Even willing to make a promise!

How strange indeed.

Sun Cheng mentally counted all the notable Sacred Immortals in Great Luo Heaven but couldn’t figure out who was behind this Ten Death Order. He simply put the order away and prepared to begin cultivating.

But just as he crossed his legs, the void above the Ascension Pool suddenly twisted, and the golden pool water surged.

Splash!

In an instant, an upright figure had landed on the water’s surface. It was a female cultivator whose robes were embroidered with an indescribably elegant landscape pattern. Her neck was slender, her black hair cascaded like a waterfall, and her refined features carried a touch of indifferent transcendence.

The moment she raised her head to look around, Sun Cheng saw her face clearly. A thunderbolt immediately struck deep in his mind, exploding into the name he had just seen!

Similar!

Really too similar!

Could it be that after all his suffering had ended, his opportunity had arrived, and he had actually waited for this pie to fall from the sky?