Number One Under Heaven

The Phoenix’s Continent, inside the Xuan Family, Xuan Yuming and Xuan Cheung stared at each other with wide eyes.

“D-Dear, why is…” Xuan Yuming pointed to the illusion behind Xuan Cheung.

 “I-I can ask you the same thing… Why is our daughter behind you?!” he said, bewildered.

Behind them was the illusion of their beloved daughter, Xuan Wanshan!

The Xiangliu Continent, inside the Guo Family, Guo Dai was staring at the reflection of himself in the river with trembling eyes, behind him was the figure of Han Yixue!

The Holy Continent, inside the Jade Lotus Temple, ranked second in the rankings of the ‘Holy Stone’, a beautiful young woman in her late twenties who had been in closed cultivation for the past decade snapped her bright eyes wide open for the first time, shooting out countless profound lights from within.

‘A zither play?’

Standing up, she watched as ripples upon ripples pass through her figure, and her body began shivering from excitement and admiration.

‘Who is playing this song?!’ she cried to herself.

These ripples were profound and endless as if it contained an entire universe within, and it was just one note!

When she tried to touch the ripples with her Divine Sense, trying to decipher the profoundness within, her entire body trembled even more, and cold sweat began pouring out of her body; she felt as if her entire soul was swallowed by an endless thick fog, making her unable to tell from left or right.

The moment her soul experienced the terrifying strength of the ripples was the exact moment this young woman found out just how deep she was in the well of cultivation! Let alone a frog, she was no better than a water flea in a well as deep and mysterious as the path of cultivation!

“I cannot even touch it, let alone trying to read the mysteries within! Which expert is creating this divine masterpiece… no, calling this a masterpiece is still underestimating it!”

She was a peak Heaven Realm expert, yet one ripple out of thousands was already more than enough to make her kneel on the ground in defeat!

However, even though she felt inferior to whoever was creating these ripples, she felt even more joy and excitement! Whoever was playing this song would definitely be able to play their Silent Wind Zither with ease!

No matter who this mysterious existence was, no matter where he or she is, she swore that she will find him at all cost!

Walking out of the place she had spent the past decade in cultivating, she flew straight towards the Seven Lotus Meeting Halls, a place where all of the highest ranking figures within the Sect would go for important meetings.

While she was flying, thousands upon thousands of dumbfounded disciples of the sect stood there like frozen statues, clearly shocked beyond belief.

And the most shocking thing was that behind all these disciples was an illusion of a figure or an object.

Some people had an illusion of their fellow disciple whom they admired behind them, some people had an illusion of a treasure they had lost in battle behind them, some even had the same illusion as others!

Another thing in common was that every time a ripple passed through them, the illusion gets clearer!

‘This song is the cause of that phenomenon?’

The young woman pondered as she soared through the dimmed sky that also seemed to have been affected the by song.

The Jade Lotus Temple was huge, spanning hundreds of miles, and every single disciple the young woman passed by either had their eyes popping out of their sockets or their jaw trying to separate from their mouth.

Even the beasts she passed by were acting weird. The usually rampaging beasts are all quiet, laying down with their eyes closed without any putting up any guards, leaving them defenseless.

She then flew by a small ocean, one that was known for its random and unforgiving waves.

‘This ocean that’s notorious for its destructive waves is actually calm like a sleeping baby…  There’s not even a single ripple on the surface of this always chaotic ocean… I have never seen it this quiet before,’ she could feel the cold sweat coming back out.

After flying for few more miles, the young woman could see a gigantic frame curling around an entire mountain.

It was a huge beast with a snake-like body with a pair of nearly invisible wings behind its back, one of the rulers of this domain, a Sky Serpent known for its lightning fast speed and aggressive characteristics.

Afraid it might get aggressive and attack her, the young woman slowed down her flight speed and prepared herself. Although she was one of the strongest cultivators in this Holy Continent, she still had to be careful when around these overlords.

However, to her surprise, the Sky Serpent ignored her. Let alone looking at her, it didn’t even notice her presence! Its eyes were narrowed, looking into the distance where the ripples were coming from, carrying its emotions and melody within.

Seeing that, the young woman began soaring through the sky again, but not even a few minutes later, she had run into another overlord.

Its figure was rather small when compared to the Sky Serpent just now, but its aura was definitely more formidable and tyrannic! Standing on its two legs, its bulky frame was covered in red furs, it was a Demonic Ape known for its notorious strength that could shatter a large mountain with a mere finger flick.

However, just like Sky Serpent, it also ignored the young woman to stare at the distance; its profound eyes were flickering with admiration and sadness.

Seeing the familiar lights flickering in the Demonic Ape’s eyes, the young woman sympathized with the Demonic Ape and sighed in her heart, ‘Ah, so it had also realized how it has been living in a well as well, huh…’

Many moments had passed by in the blink of an eye, and the young woman had finally arrived at her destination, the Seven Lotus Meeting Halls.

The moment she arrived was also the moment the never-ending ripples had disappeared, returning the staggered world to its calm state.

While the song felt like it would continue on for an eternity, it was actually pretty short, lasting a few minutes at most.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR.

The calm state did not last long as thousands of thunderous roars resounded throughout the Holy Continent as if they were trying to defy heaven.

Unwillingness, anger, sorrow, reluctance, defeat, rage, all sorts of emotional roars appeared throughout the Holy Continent, shaking the heavens.

Those roars were the emotions of the beasts that had finally seen the sky after realizing that they have been living in a well their entire life.

For an entire minute, the entire Holy Continent was filled with powerful roars, making those who heard it turn pale-faced.

The young woman shook her head and turned around to walk towards the door to the Seven Lotus Meeting Halls.

Opening the doors, there were seven chairs around a jade table, with six seats already occupied by six figures with illusions created by the music behind their back.

Each of the six figures was females, each giving off their own unique and powerful aura, each having their own beauty, and each with the responsibility of bearing the future of the Jade Lotus Temple on their shoulders.

The six females in the room had already noticed her arrival before she had even opened the doors.

Standing up, they all bowed to the young woman stand at the doors, “Greetings, Sect Master, how was your closed cultivation?”

The beautiful young woman who was actually the Jade Lotus Temple’s Sect Master nodded, “The results of my closed cultivation are the least of our worries now,” she said.

“....”

The room had turned quiet.

“Do you have any clues as to what happened just now?” one of them asked.

“If I knew, would I be standing here?” the Sect Master said.

“...”

The room had turned quiet once again.

Stepping into the room, the Sect Master sat down and tapped the jade table with her slender fingers, breaking the silence.

“We cannot determine the exact location of that Senior, but we can pinpoint the direction it was coming from. And even if we do find this Senior somehow, how will we get him to help us?” one of the six spoke up.

“This is a matter of life and death for every living being in this realm, how can that senior refuse?! Can he even shoulder the guilt of killing us all because he or she refused to help?”

“Hmph, to create such a heaven-defying song, he is definitely someone with a cultivation so deep that even we will not be able to see it no matter how hard we try. Would someone with that kind of cultivation care about something like guilt?”

“The real question is why would someone with such a high cultivation be down here in the Mortal’s Realm?”

“A Bronze Immortal… no, maybe a Silver Immortal from the legends?”

The Sect Master who has been quiet this entire time finally opens her mouth to speak, “Our ancestor was a Silver Immortal before she decided to ascend to the Spirit Realm. The cultivation I felt from the ripples were higher… no, so high that they cannot be compared on the same page!”

“That high?! Why would somebody like that be here?”

“I do not know, but our ancestor wanted to be prepared and would not dare ascend to the Spirit Realm unless she was absolutely sure that hardly anything there will be able to hard her. To be able to become a Silver Immortal with the quality of Spirit Power here is already a miracle, something only the ancestor who was hailed as the number one genius for the past thousand years could achieve.”

“So what Sect Master is saying is…”

The Sect Master narrowed her eyes and slowly nodded, “This individual came from a higher realm!”

The six figures sucked in a deep breath of cold air.

Having someone from a higher realm traveling to a lower realm was already rare enough let alone this unknown cultivation monster.

And the reason as to why nobody was willing to travel to a lower realm was because of the low-quality Spirit Power and the lack of treasures in the lower realms.

Why would one go through the hassle of traveling down a realm when they had better cultivation resources at their current place? Why would they lower themselves and be surrounded by weaklings? How will they gain enlightenment and advance when literally nothing can harm them in the lower realms?

The only reason why these experts from the Holy Continent did not ascend was because there was no point! The other Continents were not aware of this fact but the Holy Continent actually used to be a small Continent from the Spirit Realm! That was why the Spirit Power quality here was way better than the other Continents, and it was also why everybody here had a cultivation so high that the other Continents found it to be illogical!

As for why or how the Holy Continent fell from the Spirit Realm, it was a mystery even for those who dwelled there.

“It does not matter who that senior is, I will go and find this individual myself. This is a matter that will determine the future of my sect and its disciples. I will not sit here and do nothing when my entire sect is in peril!”

The Sect Master stood up, her body radiating with determination.

“What if this individual refuses?” asked the others.

“For this senior to be here, he or she must be looking for something. I will find out and see if I can assist,” she replied.

“What if this senior starts demanding things from us?” asked another.

“As long as I am able to fulfill it, I will give him whatever he wants! Be it my wealth or my body, I will discard it for the sect, for my dear disciples!”

The heroic aura from the Sect Master thickened, making the other six in the room sigh in admiration.

A Sect Master like her was truly hard to come by…

‘Hopefully this senior is reasonable…’ they all thought.

They all silently watched as the Sect Master step outside again, preparing to take off.

“Sorry, but like always, I will have to make you girls take care of the sect in my stead a little bit longer,” she told them before soaring through the bright sky.

The six in the room made a bitter smile as they watched her disappear off into the distance.

“This matter involves the entire realm, yet the other sects only care about themselves, making our Sect Master do all the work by herself.”

Spreading their Divine Sense across the Holy Continent, they sighed even more.

“They are still not willing to move even after witnessing that… what a shame…”

“There is nothing you can do to make wimps like them walk towards someone as mysterious and strong as that senior playing the zither.”

“Our Sect Master is truly brave and caring, willing to walk into the unknown darkness…”

“May Heaven be with her and make things easy for her…”

They prayed for her safety before returning to their own work.

The entire Holy Continent… no, the entire world was dumbfounded on this day by the heaven-defying zither play, and they will remember it as such for the rest of their lives.