Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lan Hua was a genius. Whether he was training as an immortal cultivator or a demon, he was always one of the best in his field. He had never doubted this at any point in his life.
He was born in one of the top aristocratic families in the lower realm, which excelled in producing immortals. He had a top-grade, one in ten thousand Five Elements spirit root, which allowed him to improve several times faster than people with the celestial spirit root. He could choose any training path. In the end, he chose to take a different path from everyone else – he did not just train himself in one path, but trained in every single one, including pills, talismans, weapons and arrays. He was considered the only cultivator in both the mortal and immortal realm who was good at everything.
He had spent a total of about 500 years training before he ascended to immortality. After he entered the upper world, he took a hundred years to become a Golden Immortal, another 150 years to become a Mystic Immortal, 300 years to become a Stygian immortal, 600 years to become an Exalted Immortal, and 1000 years to become an Emperor. In another 1000 years, he became an Immortal Emperor. Within 4000 years, he became the supremacy of the Celestial Immortals, who was greatly and widely feared. His immortal journey…
“Is it considered fast to ascend to immortality in 500 years?” Shen Ying interrupted.
“Of course!” Lan Hua answered proudly. “The spirit Qi in the mortal world is not like the immortal Qi, and it has always been relatively thin. It’s not easy at all to ascend to immortality. Without a thousand years of rigorous training, ordinary people would not even be able to dream of becoming immortals. I’m not bragging, but I haven’t found anybody in the immortal realm who made it here faster…”
Before he could finish, Lonemoon interrupted, “Oh, I took about 400 years.”
“… Huh?” Lan Hua felt like he had been shot.
Before he could question Lonemoon, everybody who had been listening began to discuss how long they took to ascend to immortality.
Yi Qing: “I took less than 200 years.”
Yu Hong: “I took about 180 or so years. How about you all?”
Si Yu: “I took less than about 90 years.”
A third disciple: “I think I took 45 years.”
A fourth: “I only took about 20 years.”
A fifth: “Hey, stop talking about it. I did not even train to become an immortal before this. About two months after I entered the sect, Senior Sister Hong came to inform me that we had all ascended to immortality.”
Pew, pew, pew. Lan Hua felt like he had just been stabbed several times!
Who are you guys lying to!
He was going to take the 400-year response seriously, but what the hell were the rest talking about? How was it possible to ascend to immortality that quickly? Show me how any person can take freaking 2 months to ascend to immortality!
“Heh… Heh heh… Heh heh heh…” Lan Hua gave a deep sigh. That’s right, that’s right. This bunch of people are being ridiculous. He immediately felt furious. “You beat me to a pulp and come as a group to threaten me – what is the meaning of that? Are you still interested in what I have to say?”
“Er…” They were all telling the truth. Upon seeing his crazed expression, everybody stopped their discussion. “Alright, go on, go on…”
Please continue your performance!
“Pfft!” Lan Hua scoffed. Then, he carried on with his story.
Lan Hua’s story was quite contrived. It could be summarised in a few words: conflict between brothers.
Lan Hua was crazy about his training. He wanted to breakthrough in every single training path. Apart from cultivating himself, he was not interested in anything else. His entire life revolved around three things: seclusion, training and epiphanies. This extraordinary focus was the reason why Lan Hua became the most powerful Celestial Emperor in the shortest amount of time.
As for human relations and other matters, Lan Hua was far less skilled. That was how he made the grave mistake of bringing his younger brother, Lan Yu, into the immortal realm. He also carelessly gave him an entire continent to govern.
Now, looking back, he could not understand why the younger brother he had taken care of since they were little had grown to hate him so much so that he lured Lan Hua to train as a demon.
Shortly after Lan Hua became a Celestial Emperor and began to control a continent, he was already a professional in the various paths in which he trained. He seemed to have lost his goal in life. It was at that time that Lan Yu told him he had found an ancient immortal technique by accident. Lan Yu handed it over to Lan Hua.
Lan Hua was elated to hear this. He tried to train according to the technique and found that his power was increasing. He set his heart and mind on continuing to learn this technique. He did not expect that it was an immortal training technique that belonged to the demonic race. Inside it, there were planted many demonic seeds. He did not guard himself well against Lan Yu. By the time he realised the path he was on, it was too late.
He could not stop himself from becoming a demon. In just a thousand years, half of the immortal Qi in his body changed into demonic Qi. In the beginning, he was extremely angry. He could not wait to get his hands on Lan Yu so that he could kill him. But as he trained, his demonic skills improved, and he found himself growing instead of deteriorating. The demonic training made immortals vastly different. Like an eager student, he could not bear to give up. Therefore, he continued to work hard to follow the technique, thereby becoming a full demon.
But that wretched younger brother of his did not let him off that easily. Immediately, Lan Yu spread the news that Lan Hua had become a demon. Lan Yu also gathered the nine other Celestial Emperors and led them to Lan Hua’s hide-out, intending to ask for all of their help to kill him.
In a fit of rage, Lan Hua rolled up his sleeves and fought it out with all of them. One against nine, Lan Hua battled hard for nine days in a row. The Heavens beyond Heaven was almost turned upside-down.
“And then… you lost?” Shen Ying guessed.
Lan Hua was stabbed once more.
He flushed, and angrily answered, “Who lost! There were no winners or losers, alright? I held on for so long and managed to escape alive. Given all of that, I think I won!”
“Oh…”
“…” Get your suspicious self away from me. “Pfft! If not for the fact that I have not yet become a Skyfiend, I would have taken my revenge on them already.”
“That’s why you’ve been hiding for the past thousands of years?”
“…” Pew! Another knife into his chest. Can’t they just talk amicably with me?“You call this hiding? I’m training! I’m not afraid of them. They’re just a couple of emperors. If I take each one of them on their own, do you think they would even last for two hours?”
“So… you still lost to Chef?”
“…” Oh, how his heart hurt!
He could not continue chatting with them!
Lonemoon patted his shoulder, giving him a sympathetic look. Are you so bored that you’re talking to the cheat about life? Isn’t it better to just live your own life?
“Boss, what happened next? What happened to your back-stabbing younger brother?” Shen Ying was quite excited by the story. She cracked a seed and ate it.
“Get out!” I’m not talking anymore. You’ve hurt me too deeply.
“Lan Yu? Lan… Could it be His Majesty Lan Yu!” Bitao’s expression was one of absolute shock. Agitatedly, he said, “Great Immortal, Great Immortal, I remember now. Lan Yu is the Celestial Emperor of Yun Feng continent. His younger brother has replaced him as the Celestial Emperor!”
“Shut up!” I don’t need you to fill in the gaps in my story!
This Invincible Sect is here just to annoy me, aren’t they? They aren’t respecting me just because I’m a demon?
“Alright, alright! Stop being nosy, all of you.” Lonemoon lowered his voice and addressed his disciples. “It’s getting late. We have to get to the Heavens beyond Heaven quickly.”
Lonemoon had already made his mind up about the Mystic Spirits and Immortals Meeting. His sect would only take part in the Earth Immortals and Mystic Immortals competition. That was why he already selected 15 disciples to go up with them. Together with the three of them, they would make less than 20 people. Lan Hua’s appearance ruined his plan. For the sake of the disciples, and erring on the side of caution, Lonemoon had no choice but to bring Lan Hua along. All of their cultivation levels were different. In order to make it to the Heavens beyond Heaven on time, they had to take the huge flying equipment, the Ten-Direction Ship, that Boss Lan had so kindly provided.
“Yu Hong, Si Yu, go to the front of the flying equipment. Change shifts with Qi Chengyu and Feng Ying. Everybody else, get some rest. Don’t forget that you have a competition ahead of you! Less chatting; more training!”
“Yes, Elder!” The disciples answered in unison. Each of them went their separate ways and Yu Hong and Si Yu went to the front to take their shift.
Only Lan Hua remained in the array, his expression as dark as ink. Did you not press me for my confession? When did his statement become nosy gossip? Since they did not care to listen, why did they beat him up and take him here for the entire night? All of you better come back and listen!
He had remained in hiding for so many years as a demon, and now they’re kidnapping him and taking him to the Heavens beyond Heaven to be killed.They have it easy!
This was all thanks to that stupid good heart of his!
When this thought sprung up in his head, he turned to glare at the woman who was still eating. He began to shout, “It’s all because of you- Wait! What are you eating? What kind of messed up fruit is that? Are you eating something that doesn’t even have any immortal Qi in it?” His expression changed.
“Throw it away, throw it away. Here, this is a Green Rosy Fruit that I picked last night. If you want to chew on something, eat this!”
“And why are you still wearing that rotten grey robe? Where’s the robes that I gave to you? Why don’t you change into that? The flying equipment is going so quickly – what if you get blown off?”
“Eh? Why are you sitting so far away? You’re so close to the edge over there – if you fall over, how would I catch you? Come here, quick!”
“And-”
Shing!
A familiar sword appeared just under his neck once again. Someone spoke in a very serious tone.
“Master, why don’t I kill this person? He’s a burden to our sect!”
Lan Hua: “…”
Shen Ying: “…”
Lonemoon: “…” Motherf*cker!
