Prelude

Millennia pass in an instant, eons transpire in a moment.

***

In the vast expanse of space are countless life forms, toiling away day after day.

A person's life and death, a tree's flourish and demise, the vicissitudes of mountains and seas, the birth and destruction of planets, the changes and shifts of the cosmos...

There is no comparison between them, nor can they hope to understand one another.

***

In the vast heavens, countless powerful beings were fighting for the right to survive and pursuing the path to eternal life. There was a galaxy formed by countless stars, within which was an elegant and ethereal celestial maiden that had existed since the beginning of time.

She wandered through space, and Her existence and the divine power She emanated made the stars in this galaxy even brighter and more radiant.

***

As She became more powerful, more and more space debris began to gather around Her, and under the influence of Her power, it slowly merged to form more celestial bodies that became a part of this galaxy, orbiting around the celestial maiden and glowing radiantly.

As time passed, life began to appear on these celestial bodies that had been newly formed by space debris. Meanwhile, the celestial maiden continued to wander through space, constantly encountering other powerful beings She would fight, flee, confront, or befriend.

All of the life forms on the countless celestial bodies that were dependent on Her were completely oblivious to all of this. They strove to survive, reproduce, and pass down whatever they could to the successors.

Unbeknownst to them, if this celestial maiden were to perish someday, then this entire galaxy would slowly disintegrate into dust. It was exactly because of their oblivious nature that they were able to focus on their own lives.

Unbeknownst to them, eons for them were nothing more than the span of a breath for the celestial maiden.

***

Around the celestial maiden were many more beings like Her. To the west was a giant wolf, to the east was a menacing scorpion, while to the south was a huge bear.

There were countless more powerful beings of all shapes and forms even further away, and around every single one of them was a grand galaxy thriving with vitality.

They battle against each other, forged alliances with each other, and depended on each other in accordance with the rules of survival, which applied even to powerful beings of their caliber, ultimately boiling down to survival of the fittest, the same concept that governed the actions of all of the living beings on the planets that they presided over.

Even further away in space, there was a vast sea formed by countless stars, on the edge of which was a galaxy that had become dull and devoid of luster. The being that the galaxy depended upon was long dead.

Somewhere in the galaxy, a gargantuan beast stood completely still, with Their head raised. They had once been an almighty deity.

They possessed the head of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, the neck of a dragon, the limbs of a bear, and a pair of wings that could obscure the entire sky. They were a powerful flying bear.

Their eyes were still locked intently on the space above, while Their paws were poised and ready to strike. Their body was still giving off scorching heat that provided energy to support the galaxy, but Their life force had already faded.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

They were dead, but even in death, Their residual power was still enough to keep this galaxy alive. The life forms in the galaxy were completely unaware that the being that they depended upon was already dead.

Before long, the planets upon which they resided would disintegrate into space debris due to loss of divine power, and it was in their blissful unawareness that they continued to toil away in their daily lives.

Not far away from the giant, flying bear was a massive centipede, around which was a dazzling galaxy. Their entire body was giving off a peculiar blue light that was constantly eroding the flying bear's galaxy...

Clearly, this centipede was the one that had killed the flying bear, and They were now claiming the spoils of their victory.

The flying bear stood still, waiting to be erased from existence, to be completely devoured by the centipede, or to be superseded by a new deity.

***

Inside the flying bear galaxy was a resource planet by the name of Erth.[1]

Two of the factions on Erth had already been at war with one another for over ten thousand years.

One faction believed that kindness was the foundation of everything. All living beings had kindness in their hearts, and as long as everyone was willing to nurture this kindness, then the world would surely be a peaceful and prosperous one.

The other faction believed that evil was eternal. All living beings were born evil. Even many plants outcompeted other plants by suffocating them with their canopies or root systems, let alone sentient beings.

The world was one big arena where there was no place for moral superiority. Even ants clung to survival with all their might. Living beings were constantly competing against and slaughtering one another, and by that logic, preaching kindness was nothing more than empty virtue signaling.

These conflicting ideologies gave rise to the two major factions, both of which had immense conviction in their beliefs.

The beliefs of the kind faction were beneficial to rulership and maintaining order in society, so it had gradually become the dominant, ruling force on the continent, but the evil faction had never been completely stamped out.

Furthermore, it also commanded tremendous power and had influence in every single industry across the entire continent.

One faction was the orthodoxy, while the other was the enemy. Their irreconcilable differences constantly pit them against one another, and countless battles had been waged between the two factions throughout history.

However, at some point, the evil faction changed their beliefs and began to worship the centipede deity, and it was from that day forth that the powerful balance had begun to gradually shift...

***

Inside a dilapidated, long-abandoned temple was a statue of some type of deity. It was a beast that possessed the head of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, the neck of a dragon, the limbs of a bear, and a pair of wings.

According to the older generation, this was the ancient flying bear deity. No one knew what purpose the flying bear deity served. There were legends of countless deities, but none of them denoted exactly what the flying bear deity was responsible for.

As a result, there was barely anyone left to worship Them.

The flying bear deity's wings had already snapped off, as had Their tail, leaving only a lump on Their backside. They were also missing one of Their front paws, Their ears, and even one of Their eyeballs had been gouged out.

At the moment, there were seven people taking shelter in the temple from the torrential storm outside. The temple had developed quite a few leaks over many years of disrepair, but it provided sufficient shelter for the seven.

The rainwater flowing down their backs was tinged with bright, red blood, and all seven of them were severely wounded.

It was no wonder that they had huddled up together in this tiny temple. Given the severity of their wounds, it wouldn't have taken them long to meet their demise traveling in such a heavy storm.

The atmosphere was very grim.

"This has been one of the most frustrating missions I've ever had to undertake! I wanna tear all of those bastards from the Church of the Self-Righteous to shreds!" one of the seven sighed. "One hundred and seventy thousand lives! Two small cities' worth of warriors and ordinary civilians, all dead without a single survivor! I wanted to throw up when I saw all of those bodies!"

Everyone else remained silent, and the atmosphere became even more oppressive.

Only after a long while did some chime in in a hoarse voice, "The Church of the Self-Righteous has committed far too many heinous crimes to count. We've already witnessed the aftermath of four mass slaughters, and there are countless more that we've heard of. The Church of the Self-Righteous has already existed for tens of thousands of years, yet not one has been able to put an end to them!

“Apparently, they slaughtered the residents of those cities as a display of authority and discontentment because they caught one of our spies. What does that have to do with all of those ordinary people? Those Church of the Self-Righteous bastards have no humanity!"

"When

haven't

they carried out mass slaughters after plucking out one of our spies?" someone else sighed.

"This has always been one of their intimidation strategies. Whenever a spy is caught, that spy's hometown will inevitably be razed to the ground. If the spy has no home, then they'll slaughter two cities at random. When have they ever cared about taking innocent lives? The only thing that the Church of the Self-Righteous cares about is ensuring that they never come under threat, and in order to achieve that goal, they would gladly slaughter the entire world!"

"It's so frustrating that we haven't been able to find their headquarters! Otherwise..."

The voice trailed off into a dejected sigh, further souring the mood. The Guardians had worked for countless years and sacrificed countless elite personnel to try and track down the headquarters of the Church of the Self-Righteous, but it remained as elusive as ever. Worse still, the hope of ever finding it continued to dwindle as the Church of the Self-Righteous went from strength to strength.

An oppressive silence even gloomier than the storm clouds up above settled over the temple, only punctuated by the occasional sigh.

***

After a long while, someone finally spoke up, and it seemed that they were intentionally trying to lighten the mood as they asked, "Can I take a break after this mission, Boss? I'm really hurting this time..."

Someone else pressed a hand over their own chest as they sighed, "I want to take a vacation."

"Vacation my arse, you single dog! You just want to go on dates, don't you? I heard that you received a letter from back home a few days ago," Boss sneered. "Don't get your hopes up, Four. Who's to say that the girl that your family set you up with isn't as fat as a pig, as dumb as a donkey, as short as a gnome, and as ugly as you?"

The other five burst into laughter upon hearing this, but the chorus of laughter was short-lived and quickly trailed off into pained groans as the motion of laughing agitated their wounds.

"Your tongue is still as sharp and toxic as ever, Boss! You're really living up to your nickname of Drunk Swordsman!" [2]

Four's hopeful expression instantly crumpled as he wailed, "I just want a fucking vacation! Did you have to curse me like that?"

Boss was resting his head on the crotch of the flying bear deity statue, and there was a large puncture wound on the right side of his chest.

"You have to be alert and objective at all times, Four. Life isn't just filled with dates and romance, you have to suffer through the bad times first before you get to the good times."

He was doing his best to control his breathing as he poured some medicinal powder back and forth over his wound, and he continued in a lazy manner, "Right now, we still haven't shaken off the Church of the Self-Righteous yet, so don't think about your date until we're truly out of the woods."

"But after what you just said, I don't even want to go back anymore," Four complained.

"Don't be too pessimistic, maybe it really is a woman this time," Boss said as he closed his eyes, and this time, Four didn't even want to respond anymore.

"I'm also taking a break once we get back. My daughter was born two months ago, and I haven't even gotten the chance to see her yet," Seven said with a gentle look on his face.

Everyone else immediately gathered around him with sinister smiles as they asked, "Do you need help naming her?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Seven replied in a stoic manner, clearly not interested to hear what terrible names his comrades could come up with.

Boss's eyes remained closed as he reminded, "Don't forget to take my present for your daughter with you."

"I won't," Seven replied with a nod.

"Don't forget ours, either."

"We've made quite a name for ourselves this time. Surely our ninth team should be able to receive a promotion," Five mused.

"We've earned over a hundred merit points, and that should be enough for a promotion to Golden Guardian," Two calculated. "However, it won't be enough for the entire team. Boss will be able to become a Golden Guardian, while we can only be promoted to Silver Guardians. Each of us will still have to do three to four hundred merit points' worth of missions to get there."

"I'm already very content with a promotion to Golden Guardian. There are many Venerables that are still only Golden Guardians, while we're only Kings, so we're already punching above our weight class."

Everyone nodded in contentment.

"Does that mean Boss can call himself Golden Drunk Swordsman from now on?" Five asked.

Everyone immediately erupted into laughter upon hearing this.

"Yes, his official title will be Golden Drunk Swordsman Fang Zhi."

Fang Zhi rolled his eyes as he complained and shifted a bit, "This flying bear deity's crotch is really uncomfortable to rest on. Do they carve that thing even for deity statues? I can't move right now, can one of you help me out?"

"What do you want us to do? Make it flaccid for you?" Four jibed, but he still rose to his feet to move Fang Zhi into a more comfortable position.

Right at this moment, the sound of howling wind suddenly rang out, followed by a resounding boom. It seemed as if two powerful beings had just clashed in mid-air, causing the entire earth to shudder. The seven bounced up from the ground slightly from the tremors as they exchanged looks of bewilderment and panic.

Fang Zhi's backside just so happened to land on the bulge on the deity statue, and his eyes widened as he opened his mouth in a silent scream, while large droplets of sweat began to pour down from his forehead.

What the hell is this thing?!

He reached down to discover that it seemed to be a piece of scrap metal.

He pulled it out of his backside with all his might, yet before he even had a chance to catch his breath, a figure suddenly descended in front of the temple, wielding a spear that was illuminated a deathly white color under a flash of lightning.

It seemed to be made of bone.

The seven of them were instantly plunged into the depths of despair. Only one such spear existed under the heavens.

"That's the White Bone Dream Shattering Spear on the Cloud Weapon Archive!"

Why has someone so powerful come here? To hunt us down? This is like blasting seven mosquitoes with a cannon!

In the instant that the figure descended before the temple, the torrential storm abruptly ceased, and there wasn't even a single drop of rain within a radius of a thousand feet around him. However, it was clearly still pouring with rain in the distance.

The spear-wielding figure was very thin and lanky, yet it was as if he were supporting the entire sky, and the space behind him had descended into complete darkness, as if he were single-handedly blocking out all the light!

It was immediately clear to him from the panicked looks on the faces of the seven that they were not his allies, and he lashed out without any hesitation.

“Die!” He thrust his spear toward the temple, releasing seven spear projections at once.

The seven men in the temple were so severely wounded that they could barely even move, reducing them to sitting ducks. On top of that, their assailant was far more powerful than them; they wouldn't have stood any chance even if they had been in peak physical condition.

A faint sigh rang out as Fang Zhi suddenly flew up from the deity statue, moving completely on instinct.

He spread his arms open as he leaped toward the spear projections like a moth to a flame, still clutching in his hand the bloodstained piece of metal that he had just pulled out of his own backside. He had instinctively clung onto it as a weapon.

A faint clang rang out, following which blood splattered in all directions.

"Boss!" the six men roared in unison in a collective, grief-stricken voice.

Fang Zhi had been torn to shreds by the spear projections before he even had a chance to leave behind any final words.

However, he had managed to keep all of the attacks at bay. A saber projection had descended from the heavens in the instant that he sprang up into the air in his gesture of self-sacrifice.

The saber projection was even brighter than the lightning, and it intercepted the assailant's spear in front of Fang Zhi's chest.

The saber projection and the tip of the spear clashed in front of Fang Zhi's chest, but in the face of the White Bone Dream Shattering Spear's power, even the saber was unable to save Fang Zhi. It was only able to prevent the spear projections from reaching his comrades.

The sight of the saber struck the beholder with a peculiar sensation, as if it were capable of severing all of the ties in this world. A burst of intense light and energy erupted forth from the clash between the saber and the spear, and the light lingered, refusing to fade.

Fang Zhi's entire body had exploded into crimson scraps, forming a bright red halo around the burst of light, and both the wielders of the spear and the saber were very much taken aback to see this.

Fang Zhi had only been able to stop the spear-wielder for less than a second and at the cost of his life, but that was enough.

A thin figure dressed in pristine white descended within the dilapidated temple, completely untouched by the belting rain. She cut a rather lonesome figure and held a long saber that gave off a bright gleam.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size, Duan Xiyang!"

Another item right off the Cloud Weapon Archive: Dream Passion Severing Saber. Yet another legendary figure had arrived.

The two of them confronted one another. The background of one was boundless darkness, while the world remained the same behind the other, in a classic clash between light and dark. Under normal circumstances, this would've been an exciting spectacle, but in this moment, all that the six bystanders could feel was crushing grief at the demise of their leader.

They felt as if their hearts had shattered into pieces, and all of them were glowering intently at the spear-wielder through bloodshot eyes, cementing his deplorable face into their minds.

The ball of light continued to linger at the point where the saber and the spear clashed, and all of a sudden, it brightened considerably, much to the surprise of the two combatants, who both sprang back in retreat.

Immediately thereafter, the ball of light abruptly rose up into the sky, racing through the pelting rain before vanishing into thin air, right as a long arc of lightning split the heavens into two.

A deafening thunderclap rang out, and the earth shuddered in its wake.

"What was that?!"

The two combatants were both momentarily stunned. Then, in unison, they swept their spiritual sense over the surrounding area, but neither of them were able to detect any scattered soul power; it was as if no one had perished here at all.

The only residual sign of Fang Zhi's demise was a slight mark on the tip of the White Bone Dream Shattering Spear, but that was also quickly fading away. Both of them reached out in unison to point at the tip of the spear, having only caught a fleeting, final glimpse of it before it disappeared altogether.

"You severed his self?" the saber-wielder asked with tightly furrowed brows.

Duan Xiyang's brows were also furrowed as he replied, "Not completely, only less than a third."

Both of them then swung around to face the six men in the temple as they asked in unison, "Who was that man?"

Immediately thereafter, the saber-wielder turned back around and lashed out at Duan Xiyang with her saber in a ferocious barrage of several thousand slashes, releasing a wall of saber projections that formed a huge screen of light.

After that, she spun around to conjure up a whirlwind that swept up the six men in the temple, following which all seven of them sped away as a streak of light, instantly vanishing into the distance.

Duan Xiyang rose up above the clouds atop a boundless expanse of darkness, but at this point, the streak of light in the distance was already too far away to pursue.

***

"Launch an exhaustive investigation! He's definitely not dead!"

***

Since that incident, both factions had begun carrying out all types of secret investigations pertaining to soul-related phenomena.

One side regarded Fang Zhi as the chosen one and their future hope, while the other perceived him as a formidable foe of the future that had to be eliminated.

Many years of searching passed by with no meaningful outcome yielded, but there were still people toiling away.

***

It was only after a century that the pursuit was finally abandoned. At the very least, no further investigations were carried out on an official basis.

As for whether there were still people searching in secret, that remained unknown.

Fang Zhi's six brothers never forgot about him, and they continued to persevere, employing their own methods to search for him year after year.

They firmly believed that their leader was still alive.

One hundred years, two hundred years, five hundred years passed by...

No luck.

***

1. No, this is not a typo. The author uses a somewhat unusual word (as in, not in the dictionary) that

is

immediately understandable as “Earth” but is not the common word for it in Chinese. ☜

2. This is a play on words as the Chinese term for Drunk Swordsman (醉剑客) is a homonym for Most Contemptible (最贱客). ☜