A thousand years of blood and tears, nothing more than a game to an alien race.
When a blood-red meteor tore through the heavens in the year 1 AD, divine envoys from beyond the stars descended upon Earth, bringing what they called heavenly techniques and divinely bestowed arts. Humanity believed the golden age of the gods had finally arrived. For a full century, these visitors from beyond the sea of stars were hailed as saviors. Temples sprang up everywhere, and the incense never ceased to burn.
Then, on the winter solstice of 100 AD, an army of a million demons swept across the lands of the Nine Provinces like a tidal wave. Blood stained the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers red, and corpses piled into mountains. Only then did humanity realize they were no more than insects being raised in a gu, and Earth was merely a training ground chosen by the demons of the outer realms. Every three years, a bloody purge came, like a regular harvest, keeping humanity on the brink of collapse but never quite wiping it out.
A thousand years have passed. Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and martial arts have flourished. Humanity has produced blade tyrants who can split mountains and divert rivers, staff kings who can sweep away a thousand soldiers, and spear gods whose thrusts strike like dragons. Yet the way of the sword seems shackled by invisible chains: in a thousand years, not one person has broken through to the innate realm. A wise man lamented, “The demons have stolen the fortune of my sword path and cut off the road to becoming a sword immortal!”
Autumn, 2025.
In the classroom of Class 7, Senior Year Three, at Nancheng No. 3 High School, a boy jolted awake at his desk, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
At the lectern, the history teacher was talking about the “Battle of Jinling,” fought three hundred years earlier. “...In this battle, twelve innate experts of our race died in combat. Mu Baiyu, the last innate sword cultivator, burned up his sword soul atop Purple Mountain
