In the first year of the Taichu Era, heaven and earth shattered, and all the myriad immortals of the Upper Realm fell. From then on, the world was filled with spiritual energy.
The Heavenly Dao would not allow living beings to hoard spiritual qi for themselves. Thus, at the absolute extremes of heaven and earth, it birthed the "Formless Spirits," which hunted down cultivators to return their energy to the world.
To protect themselves, humanity built the Great Wall of Formations in the Northern Border. Bordered by the Thousand White Mountains and the Ever-Ice Pool, it isolated the Far North Ice Plains and secured five thousand years of peace for mankind.
—These were all things Lu Yan only learned later.
At the time, he was only six years old, curled up on the bed of Lu Buqi, the Sect Leader of the Ten Thousand Formations Sect. He listened to the stingy old man flip through yellowed pages, recounting in a dry, raspy voice the same old tales he had already heard a hundred times.
“Nine fortresses and eighteen cities of the Northern Border...” The old man’s finger slowly traced across the page.
Lu Yan yawned, staring at the half-broken wooden beam above him. Finally unable to hold back, he said, “Old Man Lu, look at how stingy you are. Half a spirit stone could power a Light-Gathering Formation for three days, yet you refuse to use it. And you call yourself a Sect Leader.”
The old man laughed in exasperation. “What do you know? Do you have any idea how many spirit stones the Great Wall of Formations consumes every day? We must save wherever we can! It’s not like lamp oil doesn't give off light.”
“You’re just stingy.”
“I am doing this for the sake of the millions of people in the Northern Border!”
“You’re still just stingy.”
Choked up, the old man tapped Lu Yan's head with the book. “You little brat. With your five-element spiritual root talent, you still dare to be picky? You’ll be lucky to even become an outer sect deacon in the future.”
Lu Yan sat up, indignant. “Once I become the Sect Leader, I’ll live ten times better than you!”
The old man burst into a hearty laugh. “With your skills? If you can become the Sect Leader, that yellow dog at the sect gate could cultivate into a True Immortal!”
Lu Yan’s face flushed red with anger. He wanted to say so much—to tell the old man that he would prove him wrong, that there were always strange thoughts not belonging to this world bubbling up in his mind, that he had a gut feeling he wasn't meant to be a useless nobody.
But those thoughts were too chaotic, and he couldn't make sense of them himself. In the end, he simply turned over in a huff, giving the old man the cold shoulder.
“Go to sleep.” The old man’s voice suddenly softened as he tucked him in. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to see the Great Wall of Formations.”
Lu Yan gave a muffled grunt of agreement.
Outside the window, the northern wind howled.
...
The scene shifted to the Needle Forest Snowy Plains.
A fifteen-year-old Lu Yan sat on a large boulder, cradling a wine gourd he had swiped from the Sect Leader's room. Sitting beside him was a younger boy named Lin Yuan, his closest junior brother.
Lin Yuan stared at the wine gourd and swallowed hard. “Holy Son, aren't you afraid the Sect Leader will beat you for stealing his spiritual wine?”
“Nonsense, would he dare beat me?” Lu Yan grinned, uncorking the gourd. “Besides, what do you mean 'stealing'? We borrowed it together!”
Lin Yuan panicked. “Holy Son!”
Lu Yan had already taken a massive gulp. The fiery liquid made him gasp, his eyes watering, yet he still put on a brave front. “Great wine! Want a sip?”
Lin Yuan stared at the gourd. Steeling himself, he picked it up and took a heavy swig.
“Cough, cough, cough—”
He coughed violently from the spice, his face turning beet red. Lu Yan doubled over with laughter. Lin Yuan tried to speak, but when he looked up, his eyes were already glassy. “Holy Son... why do you have two heads?”
Lu Yan laughed and cursed, “You little rascal, you usually claim to be the best drinker. Were you faking it all along? Did you use spiritual energy to cheat every time we drank just to make us pay for the wine?”
Anxious to prove he wasn't drunk, Lin Yuan stumbled to his feet, weaving an uneven path through the deep snow. “Holy Son... I'm not drunk... I can still—”
His voice cut off abruptly.
An ice blade pierced straight through his chest, spraying warm blood all over Lu Yan’s face.
The smile froze on Lu Yan's face. He watched Lin Yuan look down, watched the translucent ice blade slowly withdraw from his body, and watched him collapse into the snow like a puppet with its strings cut. The pool of blood beneath him was instantly frozen into dark red slush by the icy wind.
“Lin Yuan!”
He lunged forward, catching his junior brother in his arms. In a frantic rush, he pulled out a formation plate to activate a formation, his spiritual energy as chaotic as his racing heartbeat. Lin Yuan’s lips had already turned blue, his pupils dilating. With the last vestige of his strength, he whispered in Lu Yan's ear, “Holy Son... I don't want to die...”
“You won't die, you won't die!” Lu Yan gritted his teeth, burning his sea of consciousness to activate the formation plate, tearing open a teleportation formation in the snowy plains. “I'm taking you back. The Sect Leader will have a way. He won't let you die—”
He hoisted Lin Yuan onto his back and stumbled into the formation.
Behind them, countless ice blades rose from the snowy plains.
It wasn't just one. It was a pack.
They burrowed out from the ground, stepped out of the blizzard, and closed in from all directions. Lu Yan glanced back, his heart sinking to rock bottom.
—This was an ice calamity. An organized hunt. Not an accident.
...
At the other end of the teleportation formation was the Ten Thousand Formations Sect.
Lu Yan tumbled out of the formation and fell to his knees. The person on his back had already grown ice-cold.
He looked up.
The sect was gone.
In the direction of the Great Wall of Formations, a massive crack split the sky, and spiritual qi poured out like a ruptured dam. The sect-protecting grand formation was only half-active, its remaining formation bases exploding one by one amidst the flames. There was blood everywhere, ice everywhere, and corpses everywhere.
In the sky, a massive Ice Sovereign was locked in combat with a white-haired figure. The figure was covered in wounds, his robes soaked in blood, and every palm strike he unleashed carried shattered ice.
“Sect Leader!” Lu Yan's voice cracked.
Lu Buqi looked back. When he saw him, his expression changed drastically. “Kid Yan! Why did you come back? Get out of here!”
In that split second of distraction, the Ice Sovereign's sharp claws tore a gash across his chest. Blood sprayed out, scalding hot against the snow.
Lu Buqi groaned, throwing the Sect Leader's seal plate far toward Lu Yan. “Go to the Central Plains! Seek help! Save the people!”
Forming a hand seal with one hand, he opened a teleportation formation beneath Lu Yan's feet.
Lu Yan stood frozen. The Lin Yuan he held in his arms was already cold, the blood freezing onto his clothes.
“Go!” Lu Buqi roared at him.
“Old man...” Lu Yan's voice trembled. “What about you?”
Lu Buqi did not look back. He stared at the Ice Sovereign before him and suddenly laughed.
“Someone has to protect the people of the North.” With his back to Lu Yan, his voice was as calm as if he were speaking of everyday trivialities. “The legacy of the Ten Thousand Formations Sect... rests on your shoulders now.”
With a sudden thrust of his palm, he pushed Lu Yan into the teleportation formation.
“Father!—”
Lu Yan cried out the word with heart-wrenching agony. He had never called him that to his face. Lu Buqi’s entire body shuddered, and he finally turned his head.
Across the closing teleportation formation, through the mist of blood and ice shards filling the sky, the old man gave him a look. It was a brief glance, but Lu Yan would remember it for the rest of his life.
Then, Lu Buqi turned around, faced the Ice Sovereign, and spread his arms.
“Lu Buqi, sixty-third Sect Leader of the Ten Thousand Formations Sect—”
His voice echoed across the entire battlefield, and all the disciples raised their heads.
“For the millions of humanity, I go to my death!”
Using his own body as a formation, he detonated his Life Formation Plate.
At that moment, the world fell silent.
A blinding white light swallowed everything, and a wave of heat overturned the Ice Spirits for a hundred miles around. The disciples saw a sun rise from the direction of the Sect Leader, which then shattered into a rain of fire, crashing down upon the horde of Ice Spirits.
“Sect Leader!”
“Sect Leader!”
Some wept and wailed, some fell to their knees, and even more had their eyes turn blood-red.
“Formations lock the heavenly spirits, humanity shall flourish!”
An elder detonated his own formation plate.
“Formations lock the heavenly spirits, humanity shall flourish!”
Then another.
One after another, the explosions of Life Formation Plates sounded like firecrackers on New Year's Eve, each blast taking a life with it. The Ice Spirits were suppressed, even beginning to retreat, but with every step back they took, another corpse was left on the ground.
Lu Yan knelt within the teleportation formation, his fingernails digging deep into his palms as blood dripped from his fingers. He wanted to rush out, but his body refused to obey. He could only watch—watch his fellow disciples fall one by one, watch their blood freeze into icy statues upon the snow.
“Ahhhhhh—”
He roared to the heavens, tears of blood streaming from his eyes.
“I swear! One day, I will slaughter every last Ice Spirit in this world! I will make karmic fire incinerate the heavens of this Northern Land!”
He glared at the sky, but there was nothing there. No Heavenly Dao, no immortals, no response whatsoever.
“Heaven! You are blind!”
The teleportation formation closed.
Lu Yan sat up abruptly from his bed.
Drenched in sweat, his cold perspiration had soaked a dark patch into the quilt. He gasped heavily, like a drowning man just dragged ashore. His heart pounded like a war drum in his chest, making his fingertips tremble.
It was that dream again.
Groping around, he found the porcelain bottle by his bedside, poured out a Mind-Calming Pill, and swallowed it dry. The bitter taste of the medicine dissolved at the back of his tongue, and his heartbeat gradually slowed. He pulled off his blindfold, revealing two cloudy eyes. His pupils were covered in a grayish-white film, completely blind.
He felt around for a match, struck it, and lit the oil lamp on the table.
The faint glow dispersed the darkness. He could not see the light, but he could feel its warmth. The gentle heat of the flame licked the back of his hand, serving as a silent confirmation—he was still alive.
Outside, a gentle rain pattered against the window.
Draping an outer robe over his shoulders, he pushed open the door. Damp air rushed in, carrying the scent of soil and vegetation. He reached out, and a drop of rain fell onto his palm. It felt cool, wetting the scar on his fingertip left by alchemy fire.
It was raining.
He used to love rainy and snowy days. The Formation Sect was in the north, where snow was more common than rain. He used to run wild in the snow with Lin Yuan, building snowmen, having snowball fights, and stealing the old man's wine to drink.
Now, he hated rainy days.
The roads were slippery on rainy days. As a blind man, he couldn't even step out the door without taking a Focus-Stabilizing Pill. If he forced himself to go out, he would inevitably end up falling in a pathetic state. However, the ingredients for the Focus-Stabilizing Pill were becoming increasingly difficult to find; a single batch yielded only three pills, and each one he took was one less remaining.
He felt the bamboo cane by the door. After a moment of thought, he pinched a hand seal to cast a Water-Repelling Spell and stepped into the rain.
Rate on N.U.
