My father is a poor scholar who writes the finest calligraphy in town. My mother is a skilled seamstress whose embroidery is the most beautiful.
Our family is poor but warm, filled with the comforts of everyday life.
Then, at the age of twelve, the immortal sects held their selection. The young lady of the Lin family, my childhood sweetheart, and I were both found to possess “millennium spirit roots,” and we were about to soar to greatness.
On the night before we left, Mother quietly packed my belongings, while Father fastened a smooth jade pendant around my waist, his expression complicated.
“Son, when you're away from home, don't let our family lose its… dignity.”
I only half understood him, but I set out on the path to immortality.
From then on, I kept encountering extraordinary opportunities, and inspiration always struck when I was at my lowest. The depth of my foundations astonished the sect's elders, who praised me as the “Child of Destiny.”
I always thought I was simply lucky and hardworking.
Until the blood moon rose overhead, my homeland was struck by upheaval, and enemy forces trampled across our land. A bloodstained “imperial edict” made its way through the flames of war and landed in my hands.
The edict bore my father's familiar handwriting, but it was sealed with the very [Imperial Jade Seal for Guarding the Nation] I had only ever seen in epics.
“My son, reading this edict is like speaking with me face to face. Your father and mother are the emperor and empress of Great Xia. We raised you in poverty not because we abandoned you, but because we used the strength of the entire nation to forge your invincible foundation.”
“Now that our nation has fallen, this body may be imprisoned, but our will will never die. One day, when you hear the name ‘Great Xia’ resound through the heavens, that will be the day your father… brings you home.”
I clenched the jade pendant. The vast dragon aura of the nation's destiny within it finally awakened with a thunderous roar.
