Chapter 1: Exiting Seclusion After Becoming Invincible

In a secluded, dust-covered mountain cave hidden behind a waterfall, Jiang Yun opened his eyes.

"Finally... I have reached the pinnacle!" he shouted, his voice echoing like rolling thunder as he stood up. The cave walls trembled, unable to fully contain the lingering pressure of his breakthrough.

In this world, cultivation was divided into nine mortal levels: Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Formation, Void Solidification, Integrating Soul, Tribulation Transformation, and Mahayana. Each of these mortal realms was further divided into nine distinct stages.

Above the mortal world lay the dazzling Immortal Realm, separated into seven grand tiers: Loose Immortal, Earth Immortal, Heaven Immortal, True Immortal, Golden Immortal, Immortal King, and Immortal Emperor. Each of these immortal stages consisted of early, mid, late, and peak phases.

Finally, towering above all else, was the legendary, mythic Dao Realm, consisting of just three profound steps: Beginning Dao, Forming Dao, and Dao Unification. To reach Dao Unification meant one could do anything; you were no longer bound by the world’s laws.

Jiang Yun had reached Dao Unification after a mere 500 years in the outside world. Though this timescale seemed impossibly short to everyone else, Jiang Yun had long since mastered the absolute laws of time, manipulating his own flow of time. Even though around 500 years had ticked away in the mortal world, he had spent an unknowable, staggering eternity cultivating to be where he is today.

As Jiang Yun exited the cave, the blinding sunlight washed over his face. He reminisced about the blood, sweat, and effort of his journey while slowly descending the rugged mountain path, his footsteps light and untethered. When he reached the base, a vibrant, bustling town came into view, and he decided to experience mortal life once again. Now that he had reached the absolute pinnacle, he found himself facing a strange, hollow void; he no longer knew what to do. His entire life had been a frantic, desperate race to cultivate, and now, that driving need was entirely gone.

Upon reaching the town, he blended into the crowd, walking through the paved streets, smelling the roasted meats and spices, and observing the simple, fragile hustle and bustle of ordinary humans. Amused and nostalgic, Jiang Yun decided to take part in the festivities. He ordered a simple meal, tasting food he had not consumed in an unknown number of centuries.

A genuine look of surprise surfaced on his face as he chewed, wondering to himself why he had ever stopped eating in the first place. After all, once he had begun cultivating, food became less and less necessary, and by the time he had crossed the threshold into immortality, he had stopped needing mundane sustenance entirely.

As Jiang Yun finished his meal and wiped his hands, the peaceful atmosphere cracked. He heard a sudden commotion up the street, accompanied by the panicked rustling of the crowd and bitter murmurs around him.

"It looks like the Young Master is back to show off again," an old vendor whispered, quickly pulling his cart back.

"Yeah, this happens every once in a while," another local sighed quietly. "He loves flaunting his authority over us helpless mortals."

Hearing this, Jiang Yun turned his gaze and saw an elegant, jade-trimmed carriage approaching at a dangerous speed. The arrogant coachman was whipping the armored horses erratically, barking curses and not caring in the slightest who was in his path. Suddenly, a young girl with distinctive pink hair, seemingly in her teens, found herself directly in the rampaging carriage's path. Frightened by the thundering hooves and trying to scramble out of the way, her foot caught and she tripped—it seemed absolutely certain she would be trampled to death.

In that split second, Jiang Yun decided to intervene, a deep memory stirring within him as he remembered exactly how it felt to be a weak mortal who lived in constant fear of the powerful.

With a single, effortless thought, he vanished from his spot and reappeared instantly in front of the charging carriage. Raising a casual hand, he slapped the horses aside. The sheer force caused the heavy carriage to tumble sideways with a violent crash, sending the arrogant coachman flying through the air to land face-first into the dirt.

Immediately, the coachman scrambled to his feet, his face red with embarrassment and furious rage. "How dare you get in the Young Master’s way! Do you have a death wish?!"

Jiang Yun stood perfectly still, replying coldly, "So what if I did?"

The coachman screamed, his chest puffing out with pride, "The Young Master is the sole heir to the Flaming Phoenix Sect! Our grand Sect Leader is an esteemed Nascent Soul expert!"

The carriage door burst open, and the Young Master stepped out, looking slightly disheveled and incredibly irritated. He sneered at Jiang Yun, "Do you even know who I am, you ant?"

Jiang Yun felt a sudden wave of dark nostalgia wash over him. He had seen this exact, cliché scene play out countless times during his early, vulnerable cultivation days. He replied with a thin smile, "I have offended you. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

"I’ll kill you!" the Young Master roared, his pride wounded.

Prompted by his master's command, the coachman lunged forward, circulating his spiritual energy. He was fully confident that his Golden Core cultivation—a powerhouse level in this small town—was more than enough to instantly obliterate this ignorant stranger. To his absolute shock, however, he never reached his target. A giant, glowing hand manifested from the thin air above him, descending with the weight of a collapsing mountain. The coachman's expression shifted to one of pure, unadulterated horror; he couldn’t even raise his arms to react before he was violently slammed into the ground.

When the dust cleared, there was nothing left of him but a deep, smoking crater where he had just stood.

The Young Master, his arrogance instantly evaporating as he comprehended the terrifying gravity of the situation, stumbled backward. He yelled, his voice cracking, "How dare you kill my servant! Just wait until my father arrives to execute you! You're dead!" He frantically reached into his robes for his jade communication tablet to summon his sect.

Before the Young Master could finish channeling his energy into the device, Jiang Yun closed the distance instantly, grabbing him tightly by the neck and effortlessly snatching the tablet away.

"I am Yun Che, son of the Sect Master of the Flaming Phoenix Sect!" the boy shrieked, suffocating as his legs dangled in the air. "If you kill me, my sect will hunt you to the ends of the earth and never let you go!"

Upon hearing that specific name, Jiang Yun paused, his grip tightening slightly. Hundreds of years ago, when he was just a weak cultivator, he had held a bitter, burning grudge against an organization called the "Flaming Phoenix Sect." He hadn't connected the dots earlier because the world was vast and so many minor sects shared similar, generic names, but the surname "Yun" instantly reminded him of the tyrannical sect leader who used to hunt him down like a dog—a man who had been a Nascent Soul cultivator at the time.

"Is your father's name Yun Beicheng, and your brother's name Yun Zheng?" Jiang Yun asked, his voice dripping with an icy calm. He had no idea who this specific boy in his hand was, as he only remembered Yun Beicheng having one arrogant son back then: Yun Zheng.

Yun Che, misinterpreting the pause as fear, retorted through his teeth, "That’s right! Are you scared now? Let me go this instant, and perhaps my father's punishment for offending me will be a little lighter!"

Jiang Yun smiled thinly, a dark, amused glint in his eyes. "Good. Very good. I have hated your father for hundreds of years. Now, I can finally take my revenge. I’ll show you exactly what it means to offend me."

Saying that, Jiang Yun knocked the Young Master unconscious, tossing him aside like a sack of grain. I'll let you see firsthand what happens to arrogant, overconfident fools like you, he thought grimly.

Turning his attention back to the trembling girl with pink hair, his expression softened considerably. He asked, "Are you alright?"

"I... I am fine," she replied, her voice shaking as she looked at the deep crater in the street.

Jiang Yun looked at her properly for the first time. "Do you have a place to go?"

"No, I am an orphan," she answered, looking down.

Jiang Yun smiled sadly, remembering his own lonely past. "I am an orphan, too. Perhaps it is fate that we met today. How about you come with me?"

The girl thought for a long moment, looking from the unconscious Young Master to Jiang Yun's calm, reassuring face. "Alright. You don't seem like a bad person, Mister. You saved me from dying, and staying with you might be better than how I live now."

"Alright," Jiang Yun said, offering his hand. "Since you will be with me from now on, what is your name?"

"I am Bai Yue," she replied, taking his hand.

"Alright, Bai Yue, let’s go," Jiang Yun said. "I have some long-overdue business to finish with this so-called Young Master. Since you are coming with me, I will start teaching you how to make your way in this world and protect yourself from people like him."

After saying that, Jiang Yun grabbed the unconscious young master with one hand and held Bai Yue with the other. In a flash of distortion, they suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving the gathered spectators below completely perplexed and in absolute awe of the miracle that had just occurred.

An instant later, Jiang Yun and Bai Yue reappeared high in the sky, suspended over a magnificent, sprawling sect nestled high upon a jagged mountain peak. The sect was as large as a city.

Upon arriving, Jiang Yun didn't bother hiding his presence. He projected his voice using his profound cultivation, sending massive shockwaves across the mountain grounds: "Yun Beicheng, get out here! I have your son. Let’s settle our old accounts, and I will destroy your sect today."

Soon after, several powerful figures came flying forward on swords and clouds, including a middle-aged man Jiang Yun knew all too well: Yun Beicheng, the very man who had caused him so much misery and desperation in the past.

"Who dares?! What business do you have with me that you dare take my son and threaten my sect?" Yun Beicheng demanded, his Nascent Soul pressure flaring,.

Jiang Yun replied, "Don’t you remember me, you old fool? Back then, your precious son tried to steal a woman away from me, causing me endless trouble and humiliation. In the end, he succeeded, leaving me in heartbreak and forcing me into hiding. It has been such a long time that even I nearly forgot about my grudge with you."

Yun Beicheng’s eyes widened as he scanned Jiang Yun's face, a memory clicking into place. "Wait... that was you? I remember you now! You dared to fight my son back then, stubbornly refusing to give up your woman and even injuring him! You were lucky his injury wasn't permanent, or we would have hunted you down to the ends of the earth without rest—you would have been dead by now! How dare a cockroach like you return for revenge?"

Jiang Yun responded coldly, his eyes narrowing, "Not only have I returned for revenge, but I am going to destroy your entire sect."

Without waiting for a reply, Jiang Yun raised a single hand manifesting a giant palm in the sky above Yun Beicheng. With a casual downward motion, he slammed it down. The palm created a deep crater in the mountain and leaving Yun Beicheng heavily injured coughing up blood on the brink of death.

"How... how could you possibly become so strong?" Yun Beicheng gasped in absolute horror, clutching his chest as he looked up at the god-like figure in the sky. "It has only been 500 years! Back then, you were just measly Qi Refining trash!"

"That doesn't matter anymore," Jiang Yun said, looking down like an indifferent deity. "Just know that I am far stronger than you could ever conceive. I allowed you to survive that strike so you could experience the agonizing pain of constantly being in fear just as I was back then."

Yun Beicheng coughed violently, grasping at straws to save his life. "Wait! Aren't you curious about your former lover? She is still here in the sect, cultivating! She has recently reached the Nascent Soul stage and has even become a elder. Don't you want to see her? If you kill me, you will leave a terrible impression on her! We... we have taken good care of her over the years!"

Jiang Yun replied with pure indifference, "Why would I care about her? She willingly left me to be with your son, Yun Zheng, and let me run away alone like a dog. A fickle woman like that is not worth a single second of my time."

As Jiang Yun prepared to flick his wrist and finish Yun Beicheng once and for all, another streak of light approached, and a figure appeared in his field of vision: his former lover, Tang Mei. She looked beautiful, dressed in elder's robes, but upon seeing her face, a long-buried sense of anger and betrayal briefly rose in Jiang Yun’s heart.

He turned his cold attention to her and asked, "What business do you have with me?"

"You misunderstood me back then, Jiang Yun," Tang Mei replied, her voice trembling as she looked at his overwhelming power. "Please, just let me explain what really happened."

Jiang Yun was mildly curious, so he decided to hear her out—but not before finishing his primary business. Without breaking eye contact with Tang Mei, he continued his downward pressure, instantly annihilating the screaming Yun Beicheng into nothingness.

Tang Mei’s expression instantly shifted to one of profound shock as she witnessed the absolute, casual execution. Jiang Yun looked back at her, his voice calm, and said, "Do you have something to say about this?"

Tang Mei stood completely still in the sky. After a tense silence, she replied, "No. In fact... I wanted to do that myself for a long time. Now, please, let me explain what actually happened back then."

Jiang Yun then calmed his lingering anger and listened.

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