Early winter. Heavy snow sealed the mountains. Outside Yunzhou City, the peaks were draped in a silver-white blanket, a boundless expanse of snow meeting the eye.
The frigid wind howled past, its icy breath seeping silently into skin and bone, slipping under collars and slashing across faces like a knife scraping bone to cure poison.
A child wrapped in a snow fox fur coat couldn’t withstand this magical attack. His small body shivered, and he snuggled closer to his father’s neck.
The toddler’s skin was tender and fair, unable to withstand the wind; the slightest chill would leave it flushed red.
Upon closer inspection, the child was a three- or four-year-old boy with delicate, refined features and a charm as pure as jade and snow.
He sat nestled in the arms of a man in long robes, his cheeks plump with baby fat.
A trim of clean fox fur framed his face, making it appear as white and soft as a handful of chewy, glutinous snow, timid and endearing.
“Daddy, so cold, cuddle me!” his voice mewled like a newly weaned kitten.
The man holding the child wore blue robes and had black hair. His features were as lofty and austere as snow-capped mountains in the distance.
The shadow at his feet harbored an indelible crimson hue, while the distant, undulating snow peaks reflected a glacial blue light that cast a breathtakingly dark gloom over the shaded parts of his face.
Without a word, he tightened his hold on the child.
The moment that murky crimson aura touched the boy, it transformed into a jade-like luster.
Beneath the thin skin of the man’s hand were long, slender fingers with well-defined knuckles, his every movement perfectly human.
Witnessing this, the lingering soul nearby revealed a flash of terror in its eyes, its mind thrown into turmoil.
His voice echoed in Ye Qing’s mind: “Qingqing, you’re three years old now. You were born with a delicate constitution and a cold-prone body. I’ll teach you a Cold Resistance Technique so you won’t have to rely on your father in the winter.”
Ye Qing heard him, his voice soft and fluffy. “But I’d rather cuddle with Daddy~”
He had always been a sucker for good looks, loving handsome men and beautiful women since his past life, and he loved cuddling with them even more.
Yes, in his past life, Ye Qing had actually been a transmigrator.
The story began three years ago.
After a car accident, he woke up to find he had been reincarnated. In this cultivation world where Golden Core cultivators walked the streets and Foundation Establishment was common as dirt, he had become an ordinary human child in Ye Family Village, Yunzhou City.
His cultivation talent was poor, his constitution was average, and he lived with his father, just one step away from the “orphan child” trope.
What was truly unusual was that his widowed father possessed a peerless, breathtakingly handsome face. Even more extraordinary, a lingering soul had been by his side since the moment of his birth.
The soul’s name was Tang Xi.
He wasn’t some ancient grandmaster acting as a personal mentor, but merely a young cultivator who had perished on a battlefield, his cultivation only at the Golden Core Stage.
For three years, he had drifted beside Ye Qing like an older brother, teaching him various tidbits of knowledge about the Cultivation World.
Right now, for example, he was teaching Ye Qing a Cold Resistance Technique, his tone grave.
“Qingqing, you must understand that the Cultivation World is a place of ruthless survival of the fittest. Your destiny is fraught with many tribulations, the greatest of which comes from a single man.”
Ye Qing listened intently, his voice soft. “You’ve told me this before.”
Tang Xi’s patience in soothing the child never wavered.
“Then listen again. Your greatest tribulation will be the cold-blooded demon of the Cultivation World, Pei Xuan. He has reached the Transformation Realm, a level of immense power. That man is a madman. Years ago, he burst onto the scene and unified the Demon Realm through brutal, tyrannical means. Every demon and monster now submits to him, for they are all bloodthirsty creatures who thrive on slaughter. Wherever he goes, panic spreads…”
At this point, the lingering soul sighed softly.
In tens of millions of years, the world had only produced one such stunningly brilliant figure. Yet Pei Xuan was a lonely star of misfortune; as long as he lived, the Cultivation World would remain in peril.
How did Tang Xi know all this so clearly? Because he came from the 19th year of Tian Shou.
In that future year, Pei Xuan commanded three hundred million demons from the Demon Realm to invade the Cultivation World.
The war raged for several years, claiming the lives of tens of millions of cultivators from the Immortal Sects. Among the fallen were 223 Spirit Transformation Stage masters, 746 Nascent Soul Stage cultivators, and 1,372 Golden Core Stage cultivators.
The number of those below the Foundation Establishment Stage was simply beyond count. Countless disciples of exceptional talent perished, and Tang Xi was one of the unfortunate Golden Core cultivators to fall.
Tang Xi died before the war even ended.
Afterward, he drifted through the world as a wisp of a lingering soul, witnessing the Divine Continent run red with blood.
This catastrophe brought ruin to the Nine Provinces, with plagues raging and demons running wild, plunging the mortal realm into eternal darkness.
Then, Pei Xuan struck another blow, a single, world-shattering sword strike.
A deep, jagged chasm tore across the scarred earth, and the protective barrier of the Cultivation World shattered completely.
The Divine Continent Catastrophe had begun at the hands of a single man, leaving hundreds of millions of gasping survivors to weep in despair.
No one knew why Pei Xuan had suddenly gone mad. After unifying the Demon Realm, the two realms had existed in peace. Yet, the survivors’ later analysis of the war’s cause was utterly shocking.
It turned out that Pei Xuan’s only son had died.
Years ago, while living incognito in Yunzhou City, Pei Xuan had fathered a son named Ye Qing. The boy was frail and sickly, yet he became Pei Xuan’s most cherished weakness, his reverse scale.
Though the child was delicate and short-lived, he was the one vulnerability of a man as powerful as Pei Xuan.
Ye Qing had died, a sword piercing his abdomen. The young boy had perhaps died with his eyes open, unable to rest in peace. His unexpected death had triggered Pei Xuan, unleashing the Divine Continent Catastrophe.
Recalling those events, Tang Xi still trembled with lingering fear.
After his rebirth, he found an infant before him.
The baby looked only a few months old, with sparse fetal hair on his head and a face as soft and tender as tofu.
He seemed to be having a sweet dream, his little mouth smacking twice. Pei Xuan sat by the bed, his gaze cold and detached, yet he allowed the baby to sleep in his arms, his posture that of a guardian.
After his initial terror, Tang Xi wept with joy. He had returned to the Year of Tianshou 1! At this point in time, Ye Qing was not yet dead, and Pei Xuan had not yet gone mad!
With the past revisited, Ye Qing’s importance to the entire Cultivation World was self-evident. This time, Tang Xi would risk everything to protect the child!
But for Ye Qing, this bedtime story was terrifying.
This demon named Pei Xuan was so horrifying that he had become a household name in Yunzhou City. “If you don’t behave, Pei Xuan will come for you,” parents would warn, a figure capable of silencing a crying child instantly.
The more he thought about it, the more scared he became.
Ignoring Tang Xi’s attempts to soothe him, Ye Qing toddled off, clutching his small pillow as he went to knock on his father Ye Xuan’s door.
He pounded on the wood, his voice erupting in a loud, milky-sweet tone laced with a heart-tugging fear. “Daddy! I’m scared! Pei Xuan is coming!”
“Daddy! I want to sleep with you! Waaaaah!”
The door swung open almost immediately.
Inside, a man in a blue robe stood. As the door creaked, the black silk blindfold covering his eyes fluttered to the floor. He slowly opened his half-lidded eyes, and the spiderweb-like crimson veins within them receded completely, like a tide pulling back from the shore.
The man was suddenly slammed into by the fragrant human toddler.
The frightened child wrapped his two little lotus-root arms around the man’s leg, his small body still trembling. “Daddy, the great demon Pei Xuan is so scary! I heard he eats three little kids in one meal!”
And he wasn’t even enough for the man to eat in one go!
Ye Qing sobbed softly, oblivious to the man’s sudden stiffening. A storm of emotions surged in the man’s eyes, but he subtly concealed them.
Seemingly terrified, Ye Qing scrambled up the man’s body like a little monkey. Only after reaching the top and settling comfortably into his arms did he finally stop trembling.
“Don’t be afraid. Daddy will protect you.”
The man pulled the child into his embrace, soothing him with a gentle voice.
Tang Xi drifted over. Seeing this tender scene between father and son, his first reaction was a shiver of dread.
The demonic lord’s effortless control over his aura was a stark reminder: at this point in time, Pei Xuan had already fallen to the demonic path, yet he showed no trace of it. His cultivation must be unfathomably deep.
His eyes were as dark as a bottomless pool, appearing as still as a mirror. In truth, Pei Xuan was merely suppressing the chilling slaughter of a demonic cultivator to the deepest recesses of his being, revealing only his lonely and noble side to the child.
Tang Xi had almost forgotten that before the ancient prophecy appeared, Pei Xuan had been a renowned Immortal Lord. “Of divine and noble stature, with peerless beauty”—this was the description of him before his fall.
__
Winter was drawing to a close, and Ye Qing had barely managed to master the “Cold Resistance Technique.”
He sat in the courtyard of his own home, taking stock of his assets after transmigrating.
Before his transmigration, his family lived in a detached villa; here, he also had a detached house. Every household in Ye Family Village lived in a detached house, so this point was a wash.
Before his transmigration, his family had a swimming pool and a garden; now, he had a small pond and a few acres of fenced-in fields. Compared to that, it wasn’t too bad.
Ye Qing was a little kid who found contentment in simplicity and went with the flow.
Before transmigrating, he had read a farming novel where the protagonist raised chickens and pigs, farmed the land, punched arrogant relatives, kicked corrupt merchants and landlords, and led the entire village to prosperity.
The plot flowed gently yet was filled with ups and downs, keeping him glued to the story.
As a result, after transmigrating, he was once convinced that he was destined to farm. However, after turning one, he discovered he was in a cultivation world… But that didn’t seem to matter much. His aptitude was so poor that it seemed cultivation wasn’t meant for him anyway.
What do ordinary people usually do in a cultivation world? Huh, it seemed they also farmed.
Although he still couldn’t tell wheat from rice, farming was a part of a Huaxia person’s soul and bloodline.
Sooner or later, he would rely on making tofu, weaving bamboo baskets, and building mulberry-pond systems to reach the pinnacle of his life in this cultivation world. By mastering the skill of farming, even an ordinary person would have no need to feel inferior, even after transmigrating to the Cultivation World.
“Qingqing, what are you doing?” Tang Xi floated around him, his voice sounding eerie.
It had taken him an entire winter to teach Ye Qing the Basic Cold Resistance Technique, which made the Golden Core cultivator feel utterly defeated.
There was a clear divide between immortals and mortals; mortals had limited lifespans. Unless the Heavenly Dao showed favoritism and gave Ye Qing a cheat, it would be difficult for him to even live to a hundred.
“Hmph.” Ye Qing lifted the hoe. It was made of iron and quite heavy. Under Tang Xi’s terrified gaze, his little hand tremblingly set the hoe back down.
This all happened in a couple of seconds, nearly scattering Tang Xi’s lingering soul in fright.
He shrieked hoarsely, “Qingqing! The hoe is dangerous, don’t touch it! Farming is too dangerous for a human cub like you!”
“I won’t farm anymore.” Ye Qing had also realized that with his current small arms and legs, he couldn’t even swing the hoe.
He decisively changed his mind: “I want to raise chickens.”
Yes, if I can’t farm, I might as well raise chickens.
Hens could lay eggs. Things like eggs, he and his father would only eat two a day, and the rest could be sold at a stall or supplied to restaurants. They would strike it rich tomorrow.
The more Ye Qing thought about it, the more reliable it seemed. He waddled over on his little feet and excitedly ran to find someone. “Dad, can we raise chickens?”
Pei Xuan had no reason to refuse.
He was born extraordinary and powerful; how could he ever let his son settle for such mundane things? His gaze was fixed on Bai Ze Mountain, a place where spiritual energy was dense, immortal mist swirled, and the Feather Clan held dominion.
Meanwhile, in Yunzhou City…
Amidst the countless carriages parked outside the inn, a white crane stood out, drawing the envious gazes of the crowd.
A young man, perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old, dismounted from its back. He wore a jade crown, his long eyes and thin lips framing a face that exuded an innate, effortless nobility.
The white crane was merely a one-time-use talisman, the most common flying mount in the Cultivation World, yet the commoners of Yunzhou City still stared in open-mouthed awe.
Qin Xun basked in their attention, his gaze sweeping casually over the bustling crowd before turning away, completely unconcerned if his demeanor appeared too arrogant.
A jade pendant hung from his waist.
From within the pendant, an old man emerged. He wore a gray robe, his hair as white as a crane’s, his form as ethereal as an unformed mist. If any cultivator present had witnessed this, they would have been struck with horror, the old man was a lingering soul at the Mahayana Stage!
What was the Mahayana Stage?
It was a realm second only to the greatest demon lord of Shenzhou, Pei Xuan.
Cultivation was a path that defied the heavens. The higher one’s realm, the more Lightning Tribulations they had to endure. Cultivators who perished in their attempts were as numerous as ants, yet those who reached the Mahayana Stage remained rare and elusive.
Now, such a being was merely a companion bound to a young man’s jade pendant.
The young man’s name was Qin Xun, and he had come to Yunzhou City to perform a divination.
Yunzhou City was a bustling metropolis, one of the premier cultivation hubs where hidden masters and formidable experts congregated.
Its streets were lined with shops selling all sorts of pills, talismans, and magical artifacts, drawing in rogue cultivators from across the lands.
Qin Xun paid no heed to the old man with the jade pendant’s warnings. He had come seeking a diviner, one who had opened his Heavenly Eye and could foresee auspicious omens, impending calamities, and the threads of past and future.
The diviner accepted a pouch of high-grade spirit stones and began his reading. Gradually, his nonchalant expression vanished, replaced by a look of profound shock and awe.
“Well?” the youth asked, his gaze darkening.
“A lone swordsman sweeping across the Eight Desolations, with a mortal confidante by his side,” the diviner proclaimed, his eyes shining with brilliance.
“He shall quell the war between immortals and demons, saving all living beings. From the Immortal Sects and Dao States to the Demon Realm and the Barbaric Wilderness, the world is his to conquer!” Such a vision was unprecedented, and the diviner couldn’t contain his admiration.
Before he could even finish his sentence, the Bone-Chilling Dagger slashed across his throat.
The diviner was merely at the Qi Refining Stage, utterly outmatched by the Foundation Establishment youth.
“My apologies,” Qin Xun said to the corpse, his voice devoid of any guilt. “But the secrets of heaven must not be revealed.”
It seemed the old man with the jade pendant had spoken the truth. In the 19th year of Tian Shou, he would indeed defeat the demon lord Pei Xuan single-handedly.
He was the Son of Salvation, chosen by the Heavenly Dao itself.
Since this was true, the diviner could not be left alive. Qin Xun had only recently entered the cultivation world; he could not afford to expose his name or his extraordinary destiny.
“You did well. You are only at the Foundation Establishment Stage; that demon lord could crush you with a single finger. You must proceed with the utmost caution.” The old man with the jade pendant praised him, clearly impressed by his ruthlessness.
“Where to next?”
“To the Bai Ze Mountain Range.”
“Bai Ze Mountain is the territory of the Feather Clan. Those birds are extremely wary and hostile toward humans. Why go there?” The young man frowned, his confusion evident.
The old man with the jade pendant spoke unhurriedly.
“The previous leader of the Feather Clan was the Ancient Phoenix Divine Bird. Due to difficulties in reproduction, it has since gone missing. Its successor is a Peacock who inherited its bloodline, a young lord of the Great Demon Clan. Not only is he stunningly beautiful and immensely powerful, but he also carries the blood of the Phoenix Clan in his veins, making his status incomparably noble…”
The more the old man spoke, the more astonished the young man became.
“If you can tame him, the Feather Clan will be yours to command.” At these words, Qin Xun was completely captivated.
The old man with the jade pendant stroked his beard. What he left unsaid was that a divine bird’s wild nature was nearly impossible to tame, let alone by someone from the mortal realm but one had to try.
Prisha On IMMFBCG Chapter 2