Nearly three thousand years ago, during a summer marked by various causes and effects, the Five Heroes of the Bright Mirror Sect’s golden era gathered outside the sect for the first time.
In the dungeons of the Dust Li Hundred Tribes.
Gu Fei (Chenyinzi’s real name) meditated on the filthy, bloodstained, muddy, and decaying straw and human teeth and nail fragments-covered ground of the dungeon. His eyes were closed, listening to the moaning and wailing of prisoners nearby.
Amid the stench of rotting meat and sour decay, his breathing did not waver in the slightest, as regular as a machine.
Except for the fleeting ice-blue spiritual light of Xuanming on his face, Gu Fei looked as if he were cultivating in the seclusion room of his sect.
But in fact, he was a prisoner beneath the dungeon.
Gu Fei’s body was bound with iron chains, restricting his limbs, though they did not pierce his clavicles or scapulae.
The ones imprisoning him seemed exceedingly wary of the Bright Mirror Sect’s robe he wore; even though they locked him in a dungeon, they hadn’t made up their minds to completely strip him of his ability to resist.
Poison, venom, elixirs—these methods of control ultimately had their limitations.
They might work on rural Martial Artists, but not on a True Transmission like him.
With the circulation of the Complete Circuit within his body, the array [Positive Yang Shadowless] expelled all cold poison from within. When he opened his eyes again, Gu Fei exhaled a mouthful of ice-blue poisonous gas, his eyes shining with brilliant purple light, already restored to his peak condition.
Rising to his feet, under the startled cries and obstruction of two awakened jailers, the young Martial Artist raised his hand, and a palm of invisible Qi Force blasted open the dungeon door. The scorching, dense Qi wave swept the jailers aside, sparing their lives.
With the way out opened, Gu Fei withdrew his hand and strode out of the dungeon gate.
Simultaneously, in other parts of the prison, similar violent disturbances erupted almost at the same time.
Before long, on the surface, five True Transmissions from different peaks of the Bright Mirror Sect who had seen each other a few times but never met privately, encountered each other above the dungeon of Jue’er Tribe of the Dust Li Hundred Tribes.
The five of them surveyed each other with slightly playful expressions. Gu Fei laughed heartily, took a step forward, saluted everyone, and spoke first, "Brothers and sisters, who used the secret technique of optical and acoustic transmission to teach me the method to detoxify just now?"
"It was a lifesaving grace, I, Gu Fei, thank you all!"
"It was I, Sun Xuan (Fu Jing True Lord’s real name) of Shihui Peak."
A youth with a round face and eyes, exuding an aura of prosperity but without seeming plump, only a sense of good fortune gathered, smiled as he stepped forward.
He returned Gu Fei’s salute and then turned his head to look at the tall young man with brows like fierce flames and bright, piercing eyes, whose entire being seemed as if cast from iron, humbly saying, "But the method to detoxify wasn’t my idea; it was Senior Brother Nan Huaijing who came up with it and told me, and then I passed it on to everyone."
"Senior Brother Nan Huaijing!"
Hearing Sun Xuan’s words, Gu Fei couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, curiously looking at the tall young man—this was the first of the True Transmissions from Bright Mirror Sect’s previous class, now at the peak of Martial Meridian and preparing to break through to Divine Repository, unlike someone like him who had just broken through Martial Meridian: "I’ve long admired your name; I never thought our first meeting would be here!"
"Not the best occasion. If the Five Peaks’ True Transmissions were to meet under better circumstances, we should have had a good drink."
Nan Huaijing (True Lord Xiyi’s real name) slightly lifted the corner of his mouth but remained serious: "But is it just us? What about the other inner and outer disciples?"
"They don’t possess Martial Meridian, so they should be held in the outer layers’ mortal prisons." A slender youth with long eyebrows and an indifferent expression said. He was quite handsome, but his appearance seemed overly unfeeling.
However, his words proved otherwise: "Next, we should rescue all of them. If our dungeon reeks this much, imagine what our fellow disciples are enduring."
"Junior Brother Qi Hezheng (Concealing Shadow True Lord’s real name), don’t rush."
Another petite-looking girl holding a hammer as large as herself shook her head slightly: "Right now, the most important thing is to figure out why the Jue’er Tribe, a once close ally of our Bright Mirror Sect, suddenly rebelled and captured us all."
"Capturing us is one thing, but not killing us or crippling us is very strange."
"Junior Sister Qu Yan (Universal Brightness True Lord’s real name) is right."
Gu Fei frowned tightly: "The urgent task now should be to capture a high-ranking member of the Jue’er Tribe for questioning—if they are indeed corrupted by the Heavenly Demons, then we cannot hold back."
All of this took place during the ’Demon Hunting Era.’
In recent centuries, the activities of the Heavenly Demons had grown increasingly rampant, even infiltrating the various tribes of the Dust Li. Although such events happened every few hundred or thousand years, this time it was particularly intense; some Heavenly Demons even infested talented children of the Dust Li, entering the Five Sects and stirring up great chaos, leading the Dust Li to wage the decades-long ’Hundred Tribes War.’
After being discovered, the Heavenly Demons began outright war; many tribes they had already controlled turned into strongholds of demonic progeny. The infighting among the Hundred Tribes became a ’Great Demon Hunting,’ a struggle between the Five Sects and the Heavenly Demons.
To counter the well-established Demon Army, the Five Sects dispatched their disciples to support various tribes and suppress the Heavenly Demons. Gu Fei and other disciples of the Bright Mirror Sect descended from the mountain for this purpose.
The Jue’er Tribe was one of the royal tribes of the Dust Li.
The so-called royal tribes possessed their own Divine Repository inheritance. While not as strong as the lower sects, they had a certain foundation. They were also prime targets for the Heavenly Demons’ corruption. In this major demon hunt, half of the Dust Li royal tribes were corrupted and fallen to the Heavenly Demons, causing enormous casualties and even wiping out several tribes.