A new story. When Hongmeng first began, the Three Realms were divided: the Human Realm, the Immortal Realm, and the Demon Realm. The Ten-Thousand-Year Hongmeng Barrier marked their borders and guarded the gaps between them, keeping the remnants of ancient demon gods sealed away. The barrier had been forged by the founding sect master of the Tianyuan Sect, who joined his divine soul with the Tianyuan Divine Sword. For ten thousand years it had remained intact, keeping the Three Realms at peace.
As the millennia passed, greed, anger, and delusion took root among humanity, spiritual energy in the Immortal Realm gradually waned, and the Qingqiu of the Demon Realm was torn apart by internal strife. The Hongmeng Barrier's power weakened year by year. Cracks spread like a spiderweb across the Demon-Suppressing Stone at its core. Black demonic mist poured through them, coiling around the remnants of an ancient demon god and gathering into a vague human shape deep within the barrier.
The remnant soul howled, its demonic roar shaking the gaps between the Three Realms. The barrier's hum rang through the heavens. Far away, atop the Three Realms, the Tianyuan Divine Sword, enshrined on the Tianyuan Sect's Altar of Heavenly Worship, suddenly sprang from its sheath. Its ringing cry pierced the clouds, warning the Three Realms: the Demon Venerable was about to be reborn.
Meanwhile, in Jiangnan in the Human Realm, misty rain veiled the landscape. Ling Xuancheng, young master of the Ling family, leaned against a painted pleasure boat and smiled at the Qinhuai River stretching ten miles into the distance. He had no idea that his fate was already bound tightly to the survival of the Three Realms.
