Prologue:
Heaven Official’s Blessing
AMONG ALL THE DEITIES of heaven, there was one famous laughingstock of the three realms.
Legend has it that eight hundred years ago, there was an ancient kingdom in the central plains called the Kingdom of Xianle.
The Kingdom of Xianle was a vast and bountiful land. There were four treasures within it: abundant and handsome beauties, vibrant music and marvelous literature, gold and gems, and their one infamous crown prince.
What would be the best way to describe this crown prince? Well, he was a unique man.
He was beloved by the king and the queen, and they doted upon him exorbitantly. They would often say with pride, “My son will become a great ruler in the future, and his good name will echo down through history!”
However, the crown prince was not interested in imperial power or wealth in the mortal world at all.
What he was interested in, in his own words, was:
“I want to save the common people!”
When he was young, the crown prince focused solely on his cultivation, and there were two short tales that were widely spread of his time on that path.
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The first tale took place when he was seventeen years old.
That year, a grand Shangyuan Heavenly Ceremonial Procession took place in the Kingdom of Xianle.
Although the custom of conducting these divine ceremonies has been out of fashion for centuries, it is still possible to deduce what a grand, jubilant occasion it must have been from remnants of ancient books and oral tradition.
The wondrous Shangyuan Festival, upon the Grand Avenue of Divine Might.
Seas of people gathered on either side of the grand street, with royals and nobles talking and laughing in merriment atop the high platforms. The glorious royal warriors bedecked in armor opened the paths, while maidens danced elegantly, their fair hands scattering flowers—and who could say whether the flowers or the maidens were more beautiful? From within the golden carriage came marvelous music that drifted across the entire imperial city. And at the rear of the procession was a grand stage pulled by sixteen white horses in golden bridles.
Upon this towering grand stage stood the God-Pleasing Warrior, the focus of everyone’s attention.
At the Heavenly Ceremonial Procession, the God-Pleasing Warrior wore a golden mask. Dressed in glamorous attire and with a sacred sword in hand, he played the role of the subduer of evil, the number one martial god for the past thousand years: the Heavenly Emperor, Jun Wu.
It was the greatest of honors to be chosen for the role of the God-Pleasing Warrior, which was why the selection criteria were exceedingly strict. Thus, the one chosen that year was that crown prince. People across the kingdom believed that he would give the most thrilling performance as the God-Pleasing Warrior.
However, an accident happened that day.
During the third tour of the procession, it passed by a city wall that was hundreds of meters tall. At the time, the martial god upon the grand stage was just about to strike the demon down. It was the climax of the performance, with people on both sides of the street at the height of excitement. The top of the city wall swarmed with crowds clamoring to watch the show, pushing and shoving each other to get the best view.
At that moment, a small child fell from the edge of the wall.
The screams of the crowd reached to the heavens. Just when everyone thought this child would stain the Grand Avenue of Divine Might with blood, the crown prince looked up, leapt into flight, and caught the boy.
The people only saw a glimpse of a white silhouette that flew like a soaring bird before the crown prince landed with that small child in his arms. The golden mask fell, revealing the young, handsome face behind it.
In the next second, cheers erupted.
The people were thrilled and joyous, but the state preceptors of the royal cultivation hall were troubled.
They had never imagined such a huge mishap would occur.
This was ominous luck! The gravest of misfortunes!
Every trip the grand stage made around the imperial capital symbolized one year of peace and harmony within the kingdom. Now that it was cut short, did that not mean the invitation of disaster?!
The state preceptors were so distraught, they were losing hair as fast as the rain fell. After much contemplation, they called the crown prince over to speak to him. In the softest manner possible, they requested: “Your Highness, might you be willing to face the wall in reflection for a month? It does not really need to be a month, as long as the intention is there.”
The crown prince smiled. “No.”
This was what he said: “There is nothing wrong with saving people. Why would the heavens condemn me for doing the right thing?”
Uh…but what if the heavens do condemn you?
“Then it is the heavens who are wrong. Why would I apologize to those who are wrong?”
The state preceptors could not argue.
This crown prince was such a person.
He had never encountered anything he could not do, nor had he ever met anyone who did not love him. He was the justice of the Mortal Realm, the center of the world.
Although the state preceptors were frustrated—“What the heck do you know?!”—it was not their place to say much, and they did not dare say more on the subject either. His Highness would not have listened anyway.