In the moment the wine flask fell to the ground, a sword shadow burst through the dust clouds extending dozens of miles above Huawei Mountain, flying out from the mountain ranges of Tianxi Region toward the distant Dead Sea.
The black sea surged with violent waves, slowly lifting a sun bursting with golden light.
Xian Jianchen stopped his sword, sat on it swinging his legs, breathing in the slightly salty sea breeze and listening to the endless roar of waves.
Black sea birthing golden sun—a pity there was no one to share this moment at the edge of the world with him.
Most cultivators in the world wouldn’t come to such a place, and coming would only mean death.
The level of seeking death here was second only to borrowing his name, relying on his prestige, or pretending to be his disciple.
Xian Jianchen had originally intended to teach Song Qian Ji a lesson, to let him know young people shouldn’t tell lies carelessly.
For over two hundred years as the Premier Swordsman, he had never seen anyone dare to “swindle” using his name.
And the boy didn’t deceive ordinary mortals or common cultivators, but specifically targeted major sects like Huawei Sect, as well as powerful figures like the Calligraphy Sage, Chess Ghost, and Zither Immortal.
Deceiving them until they were utterly confused, beating their chests and sighing with regret.
Song Qian Ji shouldn’t be called the “King of Thousand Channels.”
He was the “King of Kings.”
However, when he truly saw the young man in “Huawei Floating City,” facing the overwhelming remnant of souls without retreating, stubbornly trying to break through death energy with his full vitality, he suddenly changed his mind.
Xian Jian Chen pulled out a new wine flask, tilted his head back, and took two sips. At the horizon’s edge, the morning sun had already leaped out from the black waves, shining across the great sea.
Song Qian Ji was just like this newly rising sun.
“I’ll properly teach you when I have time later,” Xian Jianchen thought, I have many things I can teach you.
He stood up, opened his arms wide, and laughing, threw himself toward the Dead Sea like a meteor falling from beyond the sky.
The great sea split in two, angry waves reaching to the heavens.
In an instant, the sky shattered, and the earth split, sea beasts howling.
“Come out!” Xian Jianchen shouted.
His voice echoed and reverberated, overwhelming the sky-high wave sounds.
“Come out!”
He was searching for something, or perhaps someone.
…
The young “King of Kings,” no, “King of Thousand Channels,” Song Qian Ji, stood in the devastated wheat field, watching clusters of white human-shaped lights jumping up and down, running wild within his domain.
The remnant souls of Huawei Sect’s historical powerhouses, awakened by Xian Jianchen with the “Name Curse,” gradually regained their consciousness.
That man had patted his sleeves and floated away lightly, leaving Song Qian Ji with a massive family reunion scene.
“Oh, where is this? So many earth-yellow spirit plants!”
“Grand Master! Great Grand Master! How did you all come here too?”
“This poor Daoist is Huawei Sect’s sixth-generation Sect Master, True Person Heng Xuan. Who might you all be?”
“I am Huawei Sect’s second-generation Sect Master, Ancestral Master Hantian. Before my demise, a trace of my remnant soul resided in the longevity spirit tablet. Where am I now?”
The last stern and ancient voice sounded: “I am Huawei Sect’s founding patriarch, True Person Huawei. What year is it now? How fares the sect?”
Huawei Sect had dominated Tianxi Region for many years after all, and had been prosperous in its ancestry.
One by one, names that illuminated the sun and moon were announced, enough to frighten most of the current world’s cultivators to death.
Song Qian Ji paid them no mind.
He bit on a wheat stalk, arms crossed, leaning against a wheat stalk: “How did you all come here? Can’t remember? Let me help you recall?”
This was his domain; he feared no one, especially not a group of toothless tigers without death energy or spiritual pressure. He immediately launched a face-to-face verbal assault, starting with Thousand Channels County’s farming and ending with “Huawei Sect’s inevitable decline.”
In his previous life, after Song Qian Ji advanced to the Divine Transformation stage, Huawei Sect had already turned from prosperity to decline, falling from a first-class major sect to an ordinary middle-tier sect in the Tianxi Region.
He didn’t tell a single lie.
Moments later, the white lights were jumping with rage.
Masters cursed disciples for being unfilial, ancestral masters cursed masters for being incompetent.
The light clusters argued and fought on his wheat field, bumping into each other, and passing blame.
“You brat passed the Sect Master position to Xu Yun, leading the sect to this state—if I don’t crash into you, who else should I crash into?”
“Grand Master, don’t be in a hurry to crash into me. That fool over there accepted Zhao Taiji as a disciple, he should be crashed into first!”
Upon discovering they couldn’t harm each other, they sighed again:
“Children have their fortune; I suffered hardships my whole life and have already done right by the sect. In death, all turn to emptiness. I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“When I first joined, how glorious and magnificent was the sect, the two words ‘Huawei’ commanding universal respect. Now the way of heaven turns… never mind.”
“What are you arguing about? Is it New Year’s?” Song Qian Ji spat out the wheat stalk, straightened his back, and stood properly: “You were purified by my vital energy and didn’t completely dissipate, which is already a miracle in the cultivation world. Don’t be unruly here!”
The white lights quieted down, neither sighing nor complaining, but all laughed at him together:
“Whose young offspring are you? Which mountain, peak, or cave do you currently reside in?”
“Who is your master? Tell him to come to discipline you!”
Song Qian Ji shouted: “I have no master! I need no master!”
True Person Heng Xuan said: “Young man, even if you’re arguing with your master, you shouldn’t speak nonsense. There’s no overnight grudge between master and disciple.”
True Person Huawei said: “The red mark above your eyebrow is the contract left by your master. This is our Huawei Sect’s ancient contract. Your master ordered you to take care of us, correct?”
Contract? Song Qian Ji touched his brow bone, where Xian Jianchen’s fingertip had brushed and remained slightly warm.
It seemed as if vaguely a thin line entangled, establishing a connection between him and someone, binding these souls to his domain.
Song Qian Ji sneered: “Only spirit beasts have contracts! What can this thing do to me?”
You, Xian Jianchen.
If you found them useful, why didn’t you keep them in your domain?
Your domain is a forest of ten thousand swords, piled with white bones, unable to sustain even a blade of grass—so you coveted my thriving vitality, my wheat field with no killing intent but only life force?
What do you take this place for, a “Wheat Field Retirement Home”?
The white lights all chattered at once, adding fuel to the fire:
“Young man, since it’s your master’s entrustment, you must be filial to us from now on.”
“What other good things do you have in this domain? Bring them out quickly!”
“Go gather treasures to nourish our souls!”
Song Qian Ji thought, filial to your head.
My birth parents passed away early; I never had the chance to show them filial piety.
Now after living two lifetimes, I’m supposed to provide for a group of Huawei Sect’s ancestors?
Where in the world is there such a good deal?
He pointed one hand to the sky and shouted: “Rain, come!”
The Undying Spring showed no reaction. The wheat field remained silent.
The white lights had no facial features, but Song Qian Ji saw confusion in each light cluster. The air was filled with awkward question marks.
Song Qian Ji coughed lightly.
He silently recited a few kind words to placate the Undying Spring: “I know what you mean. It’s my fault for bringing a group of people here without permission. I didn’t want to either. But can you give me some face at this moment?”
“Thunder!” He pointed to the sky again.
“Boom!”
Lightning flashed and thunder roared, torrential rain!
The peaceful and tranquil wheat field instantly turned dark, with flying sand and rolling stones.
The rain from the sky was like needlepoints, the wheat awns on the ground even sharper.
They pierced the white light clusters, making them scatter and flee, cursing Song Qian Ji as the cultivation world’s most unfilial son.
“Do you see now? This is my domain, I make the rules here!” Song Qian Ji waved his arms and sleeves, his aura like a demon under the lightning: “Xian Jianchen may decide you stay here, but he can’t decide how I treat you. Face reality early and give up your illusions!”
“How can we endure such humiliation!”
More than ten clusters of white light rushed toward Song Qian Ji, only to be swatted down to the wheat field by his sleeve.
Another group of white lights stared at him blankly, trying to shrink themselves into tiny balls.
The final group of white lights remained steady and motionless—these were the founding patriarch-level figures led by True Person Huawei.
“Even if you don’t care about your disciples and their descendants, don’t you want to see Huawei Sect’s outcome? The sect you once lived in and gave everything for—don’t you want to look at it a few more times?” Song Qian Ji made empty promises, “As long as you follow my rules, I can let you see it. My rules are very simple.”
The white lights looked at True Person Huawei, who slowly opened his mouth: “There’s no harm in hearing them.”
Song Qian Ji coughed lightly: “No arguing or making noise daily, no fighting, grabbing, or disturbing—these are the basics. Beyond that, there’s also a point system. After three years, whoever scores highest, I’ll take them out with me.”
“When my Thousand Channels County was just starting, the library was newly established and lacked texts, needing supplements. Those who transcribe enlightenment books get one point; those who transcribe rare Daoist scriptures get three points…”
“When my domain is rebuilt and crops regrow, harvesting ten catties of wheat also earns one point…”
The white lights looked at each other, pondering for a moment.
“This system is very familiar like I’ve seen it before.”
“Something feels off about it.”
True Person Hantian suddenly shouted: “Isn’t this exactly the ‘Outer Sect Twelve-Hour Labor System’ that I created?! Dividing outer sect disciples based on contributions to the sect, with only the hardest workers entering the inner sect?!”