Among the ferocious beasts in the mountains, each had its own territory.
To make the little one who kept running around safer, Gu Changqing and the she-leopard began expanding their territory.
During that time the she-leopard died tragically, so Gu Changqing gained another little leopard companion.
Overall, that period went by relatively smoothly.
Until Gu Changqing met someone who stirred waves in his peaceful life again.
…
He was a young boy.
Dressed magnificently, bearing extraordinary looks, like an immortal descending to the mortal world.
However, when Gu Changqing met him, the fellow looked rather bedraggled.
He was surrounded by a pack of wolves and panicking. At the critical moment, a cleaver sliced through the air, plunged into the ground, and burst forth with boundless sword qi, forcing the wolves back.
And the owner of the cleaver was the Young Heavenly Emperor.
“I didn’t expect that in just a few months, the Heavenly Emperor’s sword Dao attainments would have reached such a level.”
“But now it seems he has entered a bottleneck. His sword Dao cannot advance any further — after all, there’s no one to teach him.”
“What is laughable is that this once-in-a-millennium sword Dao prodigy’s first weapon is a mere cleaver.”
Those watching outside the mirror sighed.
Sword Dao differed from most other cultivation systems.
It not only required tempering, but also guidance. The boy was clearly a prodigy of his generation, yet he was standing in the mountains with a cleaver claiming to be king — it was truly lamentable.
At that moment, someone seemed to notice something.
“Hey… the youth in the scene, his brows are somewhat similar to Emperor Jiang’s?”
Everyone looked over and found it indeed so.
They immediately looked toward Jiang Minghuang.
Jiang Minghuang gave an embarrassed, deadpan nod, as if some awkward past had been exposed.
After all, he was now Emperor Jiang, a man who could suppress an era with a mere gesture.
“That’s not right.”
Someone quickly said, “Emperor Jiang was born into an ancient noble family, so even in his youth he would have set foot on the path of cultivation — how could he have been driven to such a state by wolves in the mountains!”
Everyone was equally baffled.
Only three families in all of Beixuan Continent could be called ancient noble families, and they were families with immense resources at hand. Jiang Minghuang was now the head of the Jiang clan. How could he, as a child, possibly go to the mortal world and be driven to this point by a pack of wolves?
Jiang Minghuang replied with a somewhat ugly expression, “My father’s offspring consisted only of me. As a youth I was overly doted upon, which made my temper weak. I had not even stepped into cultivation before the age of seven.”
“In a moment of urgency, my father threw me into the mortal realm to experience the real world.”
Everyone suddenly understood and thought to themselves: this is not experiencing the real world — it’s clearly forcing you to experience the hardships of the mortal realm to spark a desire to cultivate.
In fact, this kind of thing was quite common in some prestigious families.
To temper a child’s character, many would send their children into the mortal world to experience hardship.
They just hadn’t expected that even Jiang Minghuang would suffer such an ordeal. The Jiang family had only this one heir. How wild must Jiang Minghuang have been to make the head of the Jiang family so heartless back then?
“So then, it was at this time that Jiang Minghuang met the Heavenly Emperor and became brothers?” someone asked.
Jiang Minghuang expressionlessly shook his head, “This time was only a meeting. My formal acquaintance with him should have been a year later.”
When he said this, a tinge of bitterness rose in Jiang Minghuang’s heart.
He silently added in his heart, “Would we have become like this if we hadn’t met during this time?”
…
That year.
One was seven.
The other was eight.
Although the two boys were close in age, their appearances showed a vast gap.
Even a scion of a great family like Jiang Minghuang, compared to the Young Heavenly Emperor, lacked steadiness in his gaze. In fact, comparing Jiang Minghuang now to the Heavenly Emperor, he looked extremely immature.
“My name is Jiang Minghuang. I never like to owe people. You saved my life, so I’ll give you a cultivation manual.”
The life-saving favor did not inspire great gratitude in this young master of the Jiang family. He merely casually tossed a cultivation manual to the other.
“I think your sword Dao is good. If you join a sect and become a cultivator, you’ll ascend in no time. Why stay in these mountains among tigers and leopards?”
Perhaps unwilling to see a peer remain here, Jiang Minghuang couldn’t help saying this before leaving.
“Cultivator? One that’s enveloped in black mist on the body?”
Those outside the mirror, hearing the Young Heavenly Emperor ask this, immediately tightened their expressions.
So much time had passed.
Gu Changqing had never mentioned the past all this time.
People had assumed his hard struggle for survival had made him forget the hatred of his annihilated clan.
They didn’t expect that the boy had been silently keeping it in his heart all along.
…
The young Jiang Minghuang evidently didn’t understand Gu Changqing’s words.
“Some cultivators have immortal light around them, others have divine radiance. In short, depending on the cultivation method, different extraordinary manifestations appear on their bodies.”
“But that’s not the point. The point is, cultivators are very powerful — they burn mountains and boil seas, able to do anything.”
“That manual might be useful to you.”
Jiang Minghuang did not continue talking to this somewhat foolish-looking boy. Instead he left the forest without looking back.
“At that time I was thrown into the mortal world thinking I was out traveling. I was expecting to experience the beauty of the mortal realm, so naturally I wouldn’t stay in these mountains with him,” Jiang Minghuang explained outside the mirror.
Back in the mirror.
Gu Changqing watched Jiang Minghuang’s departing back and clutched the cultivation manual.
A brilliance that had never been seen before suddenly appeared in his eyes.
Everyone could feel that at that moment, something was born inside the Young Heavenly Emperor.