Chapter 1

Within the seas lie the Ten Isles and Four Immortal Mountains, clouds and seas rise together, and all around are circled by immortal cranes and strange beasts.

On Penglai, fallen blossoms fill the island; an immortal crane flaps its wings, passes a waterfall, and arrives at a delicate little courtyard—this is a spiritual field, covered with various plants growing vigorously.

Even someone with a little knowledge of herbs, upon seeing this spiritual field, would surely not believe their eyes; these are treasures they could not find after climbing mountains and wading through water, yet they are all planted here in this field.

By the edge of the spiritual field squats a youth not yet grown, clad in robes of moonlight, as if draped in bright white moonlight upon his shoulders.

The youth flips through a book in his hand, carefully comparing the illustrations on the page with the plants in the spiritual field; his wide sleeves bunch up on his arms from the motion, revealing a section of his beautiful wrist.

An immortal crane, holding a stalk of herb in its beak, stops beside the youth, hands the herb to him, then proudly stretches its neck awaiting praise.

"Thanks, Baldy."

Wen Qingyin takes the herb offered by the immortal crane, reaches out and gently strokes its head as praise. This crane is an immortal beast raised by the Cloud Immortal Sect; since childhood its crown has lacked a few tufts of hair compared to other cranes, so Wen Qingyin affectionately calls it "Baldy".

Having received its reward, Baldy happily flaps its wings and flies off satisfied.

Meanwhile, Wen Qingyin compares the herb illustration in the manuscript, repeatedly ensuring there is no mistake, and he can hardly conceal his inner excitement.

He has sought this medicinal ingredient for a long time, but it is rare and grows unpredictably; fortunately, Baldy helped him find it.

"Young Sect Master!"

A youth of roughly the same age rushes in from outside the courtyard; hearing the voice, Wen Qingyin quickly hides the book in his hand behind his back.

Seeing Wen Qingyin still fussing with the herbs, Zi Shu Zhi is almost moved to tears.

No wonder he is their Cloud Immortal Sect's Young Sect Master, studying herbs diligently every day; the Young Sect Master will surely become the light of medicinal cultivation, leading their Cloud Immortal Sect to crush the Wanzhou Sword Sect soundly!

"The ship is ready; we await the Young Sect Master to go together to Yingzhou Academy." Zi Shu Zhi, envisioning a bright future, looks at Wen Qingyin with shining eyes.

Wen Qingyin nods: "I'll change my clothes and come."

He turns, rolls up the book, and stuffs it into his sleeve; if Wen Qingyin's movements were a bit slower or Zi Shu Zhi looked a little more closely, he would discover that what Wen Qingyin holds is not some ordinary classic, but the Cloud Immortal Sect's forbidden book—"The Ten Great Forbidden Formulas".

The page Wen Qingyin had just been flipping through is precisely the method for making the love charm from that formula.

As the Young Sect Master of the Cloud Immortal Sect, Wen Qingyin has shown exceptional talent for pharmaceutics since childhood; while his older senior brothers were still struggling to find and plant herbs, Wen Qingyin had already used rare herbs he himself cultivated to concoct high-grade pills.

Consequently, the sect's curriculum is too simple for Wen Qingyin; finding it boring, he turns his mind to the Cloud Immortal Sect's forbidden book.

This forbidden book contains ten vicious, unsolvable formulas; they are difficult to make and extremely harmful, and no one has succeeded in making them in nearly a century, so they have long been lost, surviving only within this forbidden book.

This time Wen Qingyin attempts to make the simplest of those formulas in the forbidden book—the love charm.

After several months, he lacks only one herb to gather all the materials; once he has it, he will be able to succeed immediately.

The Cloud Immortal Sect's Myriad Treasure Ship is a treasure passed down since the sect's founding; when shrunk it is the size of a nutshell, exquisitely crafted, and after a spell it can expand to normal size, capable of holding hundreds of people.

Disciples of all sects from the Ten Isles and Four Immortal Mountains, upon reaching adulthood, are sent to Yingzhou Academy for unified cultivation study; this time the Myriad Treasure Ship carries the Cloud Immortal Sect's coming-of-age disciples to Yingzhou Academy, among whom the sect master's sole son, Wen Qingyin, is also a member bound for Yingzhou Academy.

The black sea surrounding the Ten Isles and Four Immortal Mountains is fraught with obstacles and lurking beasts, so the route taken is through the clouds.

Cloud mist parts like river waves on either side of the Myriad Treasure Ship; Wen Qingyin leans lazily on a couch inside the ship, with tasty pastries placed beside him, as if he were not going to the academy to study but to rest and vacation.

Outside suddenly came a clamor; just as Wen Qingyin rose to his feet, a disciple burst in and said, "Young Sect Master, outside is that bunch of foul sword cultivators from the Wanzhou Sword Sect trying to block our way!".

"Wanzhou Sword Sect?"

As Wen Qingyin softly uttered that name, Zi Shu Zhi beside him immediately frowned and glared: "What? Those broken sword cultivators again—I'll go meet them first!".

Having said that, Zi Shu Zhi strode out with that disciple, both radiating aggression.

The Wanzhou Sword Sect is the age-old enemy of the Cloud Immortal Sect.

Since the origins of the grudge are unclear, the Cloud Immortal Sect claims that the founding ancestor of the Wanzhou Sword Sect sliced off their sect's guardian stone with a single sword, while the Wanzhou Sword Sect claims that a medicine elder of the Cloud Immortal Sect secretly poisoned their founding ancestor, causing him to die mysteriously in the Heaven-Reaching Sea.

But even to this day, the Wanzhou Sword Sect and the Cloud Immortal Sect remain as incompatible as water and fire; especially, the immortal vein of Dragon Ridge Mountain that once lay between Penglai and Daiyu mysteriously vanished, and both sides believe the other seized this vein brimming with immense spiritual energy and opportunity, so when disciples of the two sects meet they inevitably engage in a war of words.

Originally they thought they would only encounter sword sect members again at Yingzhou Academy, but unexpectedly they ran into them en route.

As the Young Sect Master of the Cloud Immortal Sect and its next heir, Wen Qingyin certainly could not retreat.

He set down the pastry he had not yet taken a bite of back onto the porcelain plate, flicked away crumbs with his fingertips, then rose and walked outside.

"As expected of a precious medicinal cultivator, even this short trip to the academy requires a magical implement for transport."

A crowd of sword cultivators flying on their swords swarmed above the Myriad Treasure Ship; the leader looked down from above at the medicinal cultivators on the ship, his tone full of contempt for them.

"Pah! You yourself are standing on a sword too—if Qiu Sanchi has the ability, get down from your sword!"

Zi Shu Zhi crossed his arms and unleashed a tirade without mercy.

He regarded these sword cultivators as having gone mad, merging man and sword into sword-men.

As soon as Wen Qingyin stepped out, he saw the two groups on the ship—sword cultivators on swords—shouting at each other; the sect's disciples, upon seeing the Young Sect Master appear, seemed to have found their backbone, and their morale rose a notch.

Meanwhile, the gaze of the sword cultivators represented by Qiu Sanchi grew even more contemptuous toward this Young Sect Master of the Cloud Immortal Sect.

The Cloud Immortal Sect's Young Sect Master is famed for being delicate and precious; unlike sword cultivators who have endured wind and rain since childhood, the Young Sect Master can be said to have been raised in the palm of the entire sect, pampered beyond measure, which is why the sword cultivators look down on his luxurious and decadent manner.

Qiu Sanchi let out a cold snort.

Of course, disliking Wen Qingyin is not solely for this reason.

"I was wondering why I heard barking on the ship—turns out it's a pack of dogs from the Wanzhou Sword Sect howling madly."

Clad in neat attire, the youth's figure is outlined straight and sharp; especially the belt cinched tight makes his waist appear so slender it seems it would snap if bent.

The corners of his mouth curl into a smile; his flamboyant face is like a blooming, extraordinarily gorgeous flower, and whatever words spill from his vermilion lips make it hard to feel angry.

Unless he is the one being scolded.

Upon hearing Wen Qingyin's words, Qiu Sanchi's expression twisted for an instant, but when his gaze swept over something, his expression changed outright.

Standing on the Myriad Treasure Ship sailing through the clouds, facing the biting wind, Wen Qingyin's bound hair fluttered in the breeze; he swept his stray bangs back with his hand, revealing a conspicuous red cord tied around his wrist.

The red thread is woven into a loop, loosely encircling his wrist, with a sword tassel attached that swayed as Wen Qingyin moved.

"How did our Young Sect Master's lost sword tassel end up on you!"

Staring fixedly at the familiar sword tassel on Wen Qingyin's wrist, Qiu Sanchi demanded.

The sword tassel bestowed by the sect master upon the Young Sect Master's life‑bound sword had always hung on his sword, but one day Qiu Sanchi noticed it missing from the Young Sect Master's blade; he asked the Young Sect Master and received only an answer that it had been lost unintentionally, never expecting to see it on the enemy of the Wanzhou Immortal Sect—Wen Qingyin.

"Surely you stole the sword tassel—people of the Cloud Immortal Sect are just this sort of chicken‑stealing, dog‑snatching lot; they originally stole the immortal vein and refused to admit it, and now they've even taken the sword tassel!"

Beside Qiu Sanchi, a sword cultivator stepped forward, pointed at Wen Qingyin, and accused him.

"Stealing, do I need that?" Under the sword cultivators' blazing gazes, Wen Qingyin looked smugly at the sword cultivator on his wrist, deliberately raising his voice: "This is something I openly ripped off from his sword after defeating your young sect master in a fight back then."

His eyes narrowed, showing three parts contempt, Wen Qingyin continued to loudly mock: "What kind of lousy sword cultivator, swallowing the immortal vein all for himself and then framing our Cloud Immortal Sect for it."

Initially, when an immortal vein suddenly appeared between Penglai and Daiyu, everyone thought it was a blessing from heaven; the Cloud Immortal Sect dwelling on Penglai Island and the Ten Thousand Noon Sword Sect located on Daiyu Mountain rarely halted their hostility and reached an agreement to split the immortal vein.

As a result, the very next day after the agreement was signed, that huge immortal vein suddenly vanished; both sides suspected the other was staging a grand scheme to monopolize the vein, so the two sects, already sworn enemies, deepened their grudge.

"You……"

The sword cultivator was left speechless, but Wen Qingyin felt his words weren't enough; he shifted his gaze, and his raised chin made him look like a proud, beautiful little peacock, impossible to look away from.

"Poor your young sect master, even using his life-bound sword he's still my defeated underling."

His innocent expression paired with that face even left the opposing sword cultivator dazed for a moment, but that feigned look of regret quickly made them grit their teeth in anger.

No matter how handsome he looks, the people of the Cloud Immortal Sect have black hearts!

"Still standing here embarrassing yourselves, a bunch of defeated underlings, don't block our way."

Seeing the sword sect's bunch of blockheads rendered speechless by their own junior sect head, Zi Shu Zhi crossed his arms and stepped forward smugly.

"I scoff! Who would believe that, what's with the arrogance!"

The angry sword cultivator flew forward on his sword to point at the medicine cultivator, while the medicine cultivator likewise refused to back down, and the two sides began shouting at each other in chaos.

No one knows who struck first, but the original war of words gradually turned into mutual blows.

The medicine cultivators weren't as strong-bodied as the sword cultivators, but each carried various pills; they snatched up medicine and hurled them at the sword cultivators.

Puffs of colorful smoke exploded one after another, irritating and strange medicinal scents spreading through the air.

He reached out and stuffed a bitter pill into the mouth of Qiu Sanchi, who was grappling with Zi Shu Zhi; Qiu Sanchi's face wrinkled from the sudden bitterness, and Zi Shu Zhi seized the chance to land a heavy punch on Qiu Sanchi.

The beaten Qiu Sanchi glared angrily at his sneak attacker, only to see Wen Qingyin pinching another elixir and grinning at him.

"Where is Pei Junheng? He won't dare show his face at the academy, hiding like a scared turtle!"

Having finished his mocking words, the pill spun nimbly on his fingertip; Wen Qingyin moved his hand to launch the elixir, but a shaft of light tore through the clouds.

Like the blazing light of the rising sun, within the radiance a faint figure could be seen approaching on sword.

Wen Qingyin's hand gripping the pill tightened, his complexion visibly sinking.

That person drew ever closer, the tip of his sword beneath his feet breaking the air with a soaring momentum.

Wen Qingyin knew who the coming person was.

One sword pierces the clouds, breaks the nine heavens; the sword light's sharpness is like broad daylight, hence the sword sect is called Wan Zhou.

And only one person besides the sect master of the Ten Thousand Noon Sword Sect has cultivated sword technique to such a sublime level that when flying on sword, his whole body is suffused with sharp sword qi.

Pei Junheng.

Wen Qingyin gazed at that face before him and silently whispered the person's name.