Chapter 203

“A long long time ago, before humans roam this world and the world was named, there was a clear border between the ocean and land. There was only one land and one ocean. The essence power here was dense, and the plants and animals lived a free life. They could grow because of the essence power. Some even attained intelligence. However, instead of going for the spiritualization route, they started to instinctively absorb essence power. Once they were knowledgeable enough, they started to search for the path of cultivation. That is the origin of demonic monsters.”

The headmaster paused before continuing, “If they had continued to develop in that manner, battles between different species would have happened, and the victor would be the one to unite the whole world and create a demonic monster kingdom. However, an incident happened. The arrival of a celestial being changed the route of their development. The celestial being was known as Qian Yuan or the Heaven Essence. Qian Yuan started to take the entire world for his own. He hunted demonic beasts, gathered spiritual stones, and harvested spiritual herbs. The resources in this world were so abundant that they could help him evolve. However, doing that alone was too slow. Thus, he searched for mortals in other worlds and brought them here. He taught them the path of cultivation and named the world the Heaven Essence Realm. However, words about the world got out and other celestial beings started to come. The celestial beings waged wars against one another. That was the beginning of a bloodbath that lasted for a thousand years.”

“What happened after that?” asked Chen Jingzhai.

“The sky and earth cracked, the stars fell, the sun dimmed, and the land was divided. The shift in the leyline formed the nine territories we know now. Qian Yuan was losing the war. He knew that if he fell, the world would fall into the hands of his enemies. That was why he secretly summoned his allies to join the battle. However, Qian Yuan was not the victor despite the help he received. He was cursed by his enemy and died 10 years later. Nonetheless, the Heaven Essence Realm fell into his allies’ hands instead of his enemies. The world became a place for their celestial clans to spread their paths and harvest resources. They even brought more mortals from other worlds and educated more cultivators. The world shifted from the Age of Celestial Descend to the Age of Celestial Clans. That caused a huge change in this world. In just a few hundred years, mortals spread throughout the nine territories and the number of cultivators multiplied. To manage these cultivators, the celestial beings created immortal sects. At first, there were only nine immortal sects, one in each territory. The immortal sect of Pulao Territory is Luo Tian Immortal Sect founded by Archmage Luo Tian. That was how the nine territories were formed.”

The headmaster’s tone was calm when he told the story. On the other hand, Chen Jingzhai could not remain calm. The history of the world began to unfold before him as he listened to the story.

“What then?” Chen Jingzhai asked in a hoarse voice.

“The nine territories were peaceful at the beginning as every territory had a lot of resources. Since the nine celestial beings were from the same clan, they interacted with each other a lot. However, as time passed, the number of cultivators skyrocketed to the point where the consumption of resources was overwhelming. The essence power in the Heaven Essence Realm started to deplete too. The celestial beings couldn’t bear to stay here any longer. Things took a worse turn when the first group of celestial beings were summoned back by their clan. Among these beings was Archmage Luo Tian. The moment he received the order, the Archmage knew that he had to do something to prevent Luo Tian Immortal Sect’s destruction. That was why he created hidden branches. That is the origin of Luo Sheng Sword School.”

The history of their clan would be relayed to every cultivator who was about to begin their journey to the Woods Ocean Ancient Path.

Since Chen Jingzhai did not have a master, the headmaster was the one who had to tell him the story.

Besides, Fuyunzi was satisfied with his junior brother’s reaction.

At the very least, it showed that Chen Jingzhai cared about the clan. That was more than enough.

“A hidden branch? Does that mean Luo Sheng Sword School is older than 5,000 years old?” asked Chen Jingzhai slowly.

“Of course. To be more precise, we are part of an immortal sect founded during the Age of Nine Territories. We simply changed our name and joined the rest of the sects in Pulao Kingdom. More than 10 thousand years of hard work results in the cultivation world in this kingdom we are familiar with.”

Just like other headmasters, Fuyunzi was extremely proud of his own sect, but he was not obsessed with it.

Nevertheless, whenever he told the history of the sect, especially to his disciples, he could not help but feel proud.

“What comes after the Age of Nine Territories?” Chen Jingzhai then asked.

“The Dark Age.” Headmaster Fuyun’s expression turned serious. “After the first batch of celestial beings left, five new beings replaced them. Each of them managed a territory, leaving four unattended. As you can expect, wars erupted in these territories. A lot of cultivators died because of that. The resources of the Heaven Essence Realm were exploited, which caused huge damage to this world. A lot of sects fell while others emerged. Luo Tian Immortal Sect fell during the Dark Age. The sect’s hidden branch replaced the sect and reached the edge of Pulao Territory with Elixir Twilight Clan, Will Celestial Clan, and Serenity Hollow Clan. They set up base here and fought beasts and monsters. Hongdu Immortal arrived here at the end of the Dark Age. With the immortal’s help, they cleared out the demonic monsters in the vicinity. He left his inheritance, allowing the master of Soaring Cloud Clan to create a new clan.”

The Age of Celestial Descend, the Age of Celestial Clans, the Age of Nine Territories, and the Dark Age had taken place over more than a million years. It was so long in the past that some of the events were lost with time. Only a handful of old sects had partial records of what happened.

Chen Jingzhai could not help but imagine how interesting the stories that span such a long time would be.

“But something is off, Senior Brother!” Chen Jinghai suddenly exclaimed. “I’ve heard about Hongdu Immortal. They said he only became an immortal around a few thousand years ago.”

“You’re being naive, Junior Brother. Due to certain circumstances, Soaring Clouds Clan had told some lies to the rest of the world. They can do so because they are one of the oldest clans. Since Hongdu Immortal was extremely famous during the end of the Dark Age, Soaring Clouds Clan is afraid that people might seek revenge for some of the things they did. The one who actually became an immortal a few thousand years ago was the celestial being from Mystic Evil Clan.”

“Mystic Evil Clan? Wait, doesn’t that mean the stories of our clan’s second and third master are made up as well?” Chen Jingzhai gasped as he finally voiced his thought.

“You’re right. We have hidden some facts from our disciples, including stories of our masters. The truth is that our second master arrived here during the Dark Age, even earlier than Hongdu Immortal. Our third to fifth masters were active after the Dark Age, which is the Time of Celestial Alliance. I’m the 15th master of the clan.”

The disciples would not learn of the truth until the time was right. That had been the rule of the clan for thousands of years.

Headmaster Fuyun was always excited to see their shocked expressions when they learned the truth. It was just something he enjoyed.

“The Time of Celestial Alliance? That’s after the Dark Age, right? Then, what age are we in now?” Chen Jingzhai’s head was filled with all sorts of questions. There were just too many things he did not know, and he wanted answers for all of them.

Although he was a genius talent the clan treasured, he instantly realized that he did not even know the history of his own clan.

He thought he already knew all there was to know about the Heaven Essence Realm and the nine territories. He thought he knew how big the world was. However, he was proven wrong after hearing the headmaster’s story.

The story was just the tip of an iceberg. He was just another disciple who did not even know the origin of the clan he belonged to until now.

When he learned that the second master was even older than Hongdu Immortal, he could not help but gasp at how amazing Master Hongluan was.

Nonetheless, his mind was starting to get dizzy from all the information he was receiving.