Dawn broke with golden light reflecting off the crystal ice surface of the Ice Moon Pavilion, creating a stunning spectrum of colors. But that beauty meant nothing to Bai Xuanqing who sat cross-legged in his closed cultivation room, surrounded by a cold aura sufficient to kill ordinary cultivators in seconds.
His eyes were closed, but his consciousness was tracing every detail from Zhang Wei's memories about the novel. Like a giant library inside his mind, he opened "chapter" after "chapter" with perfect precision, searching for specific information he needed.
"The first opportunity Feng Tianyu will get," he murmured softly, his voice echoing in the silent room. "The legacy of the Azure Heaven Sword Patriarch in the Ancient Ruins of Hidden Dragon Valley."
In the novel, Feng Tianyu found that legacy "accidentally" about three weeks from now, when he was hunting beasts to increase his cultivation. Those ruins were hidden behind an ancient illusion formation that could only be penetrated by those who had "destiny" or more precisely, those who were favored by something more fundamental than mere luck.
Inside the ruins, there was a god-level cultivation manual called "Book of Nine Heaven Swords", and various rare pills that could increase cultivation by several levels at once.
"An absurd power-up," Bai Xuanqing opened his eyes, cold blue flashes radiating from the depths of his pupils. "Or more precisely, a power-up that shouldn't be possible unless there's something bigger orchestrating this game."
He rose from his cultivation position with a fluid movement, making no sound at all. His body had fully recovered from last night's intensive cultivation session, even stronger than before.
"Three weeks," he said while walking toward a large table in the corner of the room filled with maps and ancient scrolls. "That's too long. I need to claim that legacy before my little protagonist even knows of its existence."
But there was a more fundamental problem here. A problem that even Zhang Wei as a novel reader never really questioned when reading the original story.
How could an orphaned youth from a remote village "happen to" find so many legacies and opportunities? Once or twice might be called luck. But dozens of times? Hundreds of "coincidences" that always benefited him?
"Plot armor," Zhang Wei always called it cynically. Protagonist protection that made everything go his way without logical explanation.
But now, after actually being in this world, feeling the flow of spiritual energy, understanding the laws governing reality... Bai Xuanqing began to suspect there was something deeper.
"What if that 'plot armor' isn't just a narrative concept?" he murmured softly while staring at his own hand. "What if there's a real power in this world pushing certain destinies? Something more fundamental than cultivation, more ancient than the gods..."
That thought disturbed in an unpleasant way. Because if there really was such a power, then his plan to steal Feng Tianyu's opportunities might not be as easy as he imagined.
"But," a cold smile appeared on his face, "I won't know until I try, right?"
He opened a secret drawer in his desk and took out various items that might be needed: recovery pills, several scrolls containing techniques that might be useful for emergency situations. Just minimal preparation for a journey that would rely heavily on his own abilities.
"Preparation is the key to success," he murmured while checking each item carefully. "And failure is not an option."
***
Four hours later, Bai Xuanqing had already left the Nine Heavens Sky Sect complex. He flew across the sky with sword flight technique, standing on top of the Eternal Ice Moon Sword that emitted pale blue light. Below him, views of mountains and forests stretched wide, but he didn't waste time enjoying the natural beauty.
His flying speed was extraordinary, cutting through the air at a speed that could make ordinary cultivators bounce off from wind pressure. But for a Divine Transformation cultivator like him, this was just leisurely speed.
Hidden Dragon Valley was located in a remote area on the border between the Nine Heavens Sky Sect's territory and the Eternal Heaven Sword Academy. That area was known to be dangerous, filled with high-level beasts and strange natural phenomena due to unstable spiritual energy concentration.
"The perfect place to hide a legacy," thought Bai Xuanqing while accelerating his flight. "Far from civilization, dangerous to explore, and filled with spiritual energy disturbances that make detection with spiritual sense difficult."
It took almost a full day of non-stop flying before he finally arrived at the area he was looking for. From above, Hidden Dragon Valley looked like a scar on the earth's surface, a very deep ravine surrounded by high cliffs covered in thick fog.
That fog wasn't ordinary fog. Bai Xuanqing could feel the chaotic spiritual energy concentration in it, mixed with an aura of death and danger. High-level beasts nested there, and careless cultivators could easily get lost or killed.
"But I'm not a careless cultivator."
He lowered his flight altitude, entering the fog carefully. His spiritual sense spread in a radius of tens of kilometers, scanning every anomaly and potential threat. The spiritual sense technique he mastered was very sophisticated, capable of distinguishing between natural spiritual energy and energy from living creatures with high precision.
Several Nascent Soul level beasts tried to attack him from behind the fog, a Fire Garuda with wings spanning twenty meters and claws that could tear steel like paper. The creature screamed with an ear-splitting sound, its aura of hostility thundering in the air. The golden fire enveloping its body looked like a mini sun.
The heat coming out from its body wasn't just capable of burning flesh; it made the air around it vibrate and distort, as if the world itself was melting. Stones on the ground began to crack, reddening like metal just out of a blacksmith's furnace. Even spirit-grade metal would begin to soften if staying too long within a few steps of it.
But that was just the beginning.
As soon as the creature flapped its wings, a storm of fire was hurled in all directions, not ordinary wind, but a vortex that stripped the air until it creaked. Hundred-year-old trees burned without turning to ash, only igniting then disappearing, like memories forced to be forgotten.
That heat was like a curse that rejected form, rejected color, rejected the existence of anything approaching.
As if everything in this world was just wax waiting to melt in its grasp.
Even light seemed to bend, surrendering to that temperature's pressure, until the Fire Garuda's form looked like an illusion of the sun descending too close to earth.
That extremely hot fire was even capable of burning a cultivator's soul until nothing remained.
One gaze from that Garuda's eyes, and it felt like being judged by the sun itself.
However, Bai Xuanqing didn't even bother lifting his sword. He only released a small part of his aura, the pressure of a Divine Transformation cultivator that made the air around him freeze in an instant.
The Fire Garuda immediately stopped in the air, its large body trembling with primordial fear. Beast instinct told it that the creature before it was a predator far beyond its level. With a scream of fear, the beast fled as fast as its wings could carry it.
However, that Beast could no longer escape from the predator.
Ice aura exploded from Bai Xuanqing's body, a power that almost sounded like a silent eruption, creating a freezing sphere with a hundred-meter diameter around him. The temperature inside dropped so low, to the point where molecular motion stopped, until even qi couldn't flow. The air itself seemed to freeze; space became rigid, as if being forced to stop breathing.
A Fire Garuda that was trying to flee with desperate speed was suddenly trapped by the cold temperature that reached absolute zero level. Its movement stopped in mid-air, as if time that bound it became a statue, not gravity.
The beast froze in an instant, momentum that previously shook the air now vanished as if never existed, even the hot golden fire that could burn souls also froze. Its body began to crystallize from extreme cold; feathers, flesh, and bones slowly turned into fragile ice glass forms.
Eyes that were previously filled with predatory rage now only displayed frozen surprise, corneas covered in ice layers, freezing that expression forever before shattering into ice flower crystals.
"The difference in cultivation level is an absolute law," he murmured while continuing to fly deeper into the valley. "No matter how talented or lucky someone is, a power difference that's too great requires something extraordinary to overcome."