Chapter 1: Chapter One

1. Chapter One

When the news arrived that the Beihai Sword Sect had come calling, Atian was busy gnawing on a chicken leg.

Lady Bai, who a second ago had been smilingly urging her to eat more, threw down her chopsticks and jumped up the moment she heard the report, excitedly patting the back of Master Bai beside her, successfully causing the head of the Bai Fu to choke on a mouthful of hot soup and spray it out.

"Oh my, Laoye, how could you be so careless." While helping the incessantly coughing Master Bai catch his breath, Lady Bai handed him a handkerchief, a look of disdain on her face.

Master Bai, coughing until he was nearly breathless, silently rolled his eyes.

Lady Bai did not notice her husband's small gesture; her entire attention was now focused on the servant who had come to report, "Why haven't you invited the Immortal Elder in yet!"

Upon hearing this, the servant's face turned bitter, "Replying to Furen, the Immortal Elder only stayed at the gate for a moment, saying he still had to attend to matters regarding the Ascension Ceremony, and then he left!"

"Ah!"

It was hard to say if it was disappointment or relief, but upon hearing this, Lady Bai sat back down in her chair, her brows furrowed.

Slowly and methodically finishing the chicken leg in her bowl, Atian thought for a moment, but decided against reaching out with her chopsticks for a second one; this was definitely not a good time to attract Lady Bai's attention.

"Why did he just leave like that?" Lady Bai muttered, "I was planning to ask properly about Xin Li's situation."

"Forget it, it's clear that he doesn't want to have any ties with us," Master Bai, having finally caught his breath, was quite open-minded about it, "Once he entered the gates of the Beihai Sword Sect, that brat has nothing to do with us anymore. No matter how much you miss him, it's useless. Besides, don't we still have Atian?"

Hearing the two words "Atian," Lady Bai, who had been looking displeased, instantly brightened up. She turned her head to look at the quiet girl, reached out to take the young girl's hand, and said in a sorrowful tone: "Atian, Mother only has you now."

Atian felt a jolt of energy upon hearing this, knowing that whether she could eat another chicken leg depended on this moment. Thus, her eyes were immediately filled with welling tears, and she called out "Mother" in a tone that twisted and turned with emotion.

Master Bai rubbed the goosebumps on his arms.

Lady Bai, however, was very satisfied and added another chicken leg to her bowl, feeling that this child bride could not be any more thoughtful.

Yes, a child bride.

Master Bai and Lady Bai were not Atian's parents, and the only reason the three of them could sit together and eat happily was that Atian was the daughter-in-law of the Bai family—in name only.

To explain this matter clearly, one must mention the Beihai Sword Sect and the "brat" Bai Xinli, who had caused Lady Bai's emotional fluctuations.

As an ordinary merchant family in the Qixia Kingdom, even if they knew there was a group of people in this world who pursued immortality and possessed heaven-defying abilities, the Bai couple had never thought such a heaven-sent opportunity could fall upon their own heads.

Becoming an immortal was a story found only in books.

An Immortal Elder was a high-level recluse one could never touch.

That said, the top-tier immortal sect that was one of the best in the entire Yuanguang Continent—the Beihai Sword Sect—was located within the Qixia Kingdom. Every fifteen years, they would open their mountain gates wide to harvest a crop of leeks, and even the Bai family, living in such a remote town, could hear news of the Ascension Ceremony.

And when the Bai family's only son, Bai Xinli, was five years old, he happened to catch the start of the Ascension Ceremony.

Master Bai, who was single-mindedly grooming his son for the imperial examinations, had originally not intended to join in the excitement. People with the aptitude for cultivation were one in ten thousand, and his ancestors had all been ordinary people; he had no intention of daydreaming. However, he couldn't withstand the fact that relatives and friends were all yearning for that so-called Ascension Ceremony, willing to go bankrupt just to send their children to try their luck.

Master Bai pondered it; in such a fanatical atmosphere, his own idea of focusing on grooming a scholar seemed downright eccentric. What if rumors spread that he despised the Immortal Elders? That would be disastrous. Moreover, Bai Xinli had never been one to fit in since he was young; if, in the future, his peers gathered to reminisce about their Ascension experiences and he was the only one who couldn't say a word, wouldn't that make him even more of an outsider?

Don't doubt it; bragging to each other about which stage of the Ascension Ceremony they had reached was a perennial topic of small talk in the Qixia Kingdom.

Having imagined the tragic scene of his son being ostracized by his peers and crying secretly at home, Master Bai, after consulting with his wife, decided to take his son to participate in the Ascension Ceremony once. After all, his family wasn't short on money, and he was determined not to leave any regrets in his child's childhood.

Thus, Master Bai set off on a journey with his five-year-old son, and when he returned, not only was he escorted back by cultivators from the Beihai Sword Sect, but the son he held by the hand had also turned into a younger little girl.

Bai Xinli was accepted into the Beihai Sword Sect and officially embarked on the path of Xiuxian, while the little girl Master Bai brought back was Atian.

According to Master Bai, Atian was an orphan girl the father and son had found around the Beihai Sword Sect.

"That brat of ours, he couldn't even take his eyes off the little girl when he saw her," Master Bai complained to his wife while drinking, "I thought if he liked her, it wouldn't be bad to bring her back as a child bride, but who knew! He actually got selected!"

He poured himself another cup, "I thought, having made this trip and lost a son, I couldn't possibly come back empty-handed! So I brought the daughter-in-law back."

Lady Bai was shocked by her husband's bizarre logic and wanted to reach out and scratch his old face, but fortunately, her reason remained, and she knew this matter had nothing to do with the little girl, so she did not vent her anger on the innocent Atian.

Once selected by an Xiuxianmen, a disciple had to sever their worldly ties, which meant that parents completely exited Bai Xinli's life. For him, this was a heaven-defying immortal destiny, but for the Bai couple, it was hard to call it a fortunate event.

Fortunately, just as Master Bai said, if they lost a son, they still had a daughter-in-law. The couple really did raise Atian as their own daughter, and they had been doing so for fifteen years. Since Lady Bai had not conceived again in all these years, they even considered the idea of finding a husband for Atian.

The daughter-in-law was on the verge of becoming a foster daughter, and the three of them lived quite happily.

However, this did not mean that Master Bai and Lady Bai had forgotten they had a biological son. The Beihai Sword Sect would periodically send people to check on the situations of their disciples' relatives, and this was their only chance to get news of Bai Xinli.

This was also the reason why Lady Bai had been so excited just now.

"It's time for the Ascension Ceremony again," Lady Bai put down her chopsticks, "Fifteen years have passed in the blink of an eye."

She did not bring up the previous topic again, as if she were merely discussing this grand event that occurred once every fifteen years.

In the Yuanguang Continent, cultivators were not ethereal legends. Setting aside the Beihai Sword Sect, even the common folk knew there were three other immortal sects of equal fame. As for other scattered sects, they were too numerous to count, though their influence was quite lacking, and mostly only the locals knew their names.

Being able to shake the entire continent just by opening their gates to accept disciples was a privilege only the Four Great Immortal Sects possessed. Each sect had different times for accepting disciples, but for the people of the Qixia Kingdom, the other three immortal sects were too far away, so the Beihai Sword Sect was naturally the first choice.

"Does Atian want to go participate in the Ascension Ceremony?" she asked with a smile, "This is a major event that one can only participate in once in a lifetime. Once you pass twenty, there's no chance left."

"Yes, yes," Master Bai chimed in, "We have money anyway, just consider it going to see the world."

Thus, two pairs of eyes looked at the silent girl, waiting for her answer.

Not wanting to leave any regrets in a child's childhood—even with their son as a cautionary tale—the Bai couple still insisted on their parenting philosophy, even if, at Atian's age, it was truly hard to call it "childhood."

Atian was in the flower of her youth; she was beautiful, with every smile and frown possessing a moving charm. Coupled with her tall stature and slender waist, almost every young man in town had done the foolish thing of peeking at her over the Bai family's courtyard wall.

And then, they were beaten black and blue by the beauty they had been peeking at.

Bai Tian, eighteen years of age, beautiful as a flower, kicked the town-north bailiff, punched the city-south butcher, and swept the whole town without a rival. Even the town's number one playboy would take a detour upon seeing this formidable lady.

Lady Bai had spent these years dedicated to teaching Atian to be a refined lady. Although the results were debatable, she had long since cultivated a steady, unflappable demeanor, and she explained her child bride's incredible combat power with nonchalance: "It must be from her biological parents."

Once these words were out, Lady Bai became a spiritual idol that other ladies vied to imitate.

In all fairness, when Lady Bai said she wanted to take Atian to participate in the Ascension Ceremony, she really wasn't just saying it casually; she truly believed from the bottom of her heart that her child bride might actually have a chance of being selected. If she could truly ascend to the heavens in one step, it would fulfill the affection of fifteen years of companionship. If she failed, she would just pretend she never had a son and treat Atian as her own daughter from then on.

As it happened, Master Bai thought the same.

The much-watched Atian, under the expectant gazes of the two elders, shyly lowered her head, looking every bit the refined lady, completely unrecognizable as the person who had just kicked and broken two of the neighbor Wang Laowu's ribs yesterday.

"Father, Mother, please don't tease your daughter," her voice was like a babbling brook, sounding indescribably pleasant, "The Ascension Ceremony is imminent, and we wouldn't be able to make it in time no matter what."

The couple looked at each other upon hearing this, feeling instantly deflated. Since the Beihai Sword Sect had "Beihai" (North Sea) in its name, the location was self-evident. It was at the complete opposite end of the Qixia Kingdom from Guangkai Town where the Bai family lived. With the foot speed of ordinary people, it would take at least a month or two.

Lady Bai's whim was dispelled, and she felt a bit sorry for Atian. When they sent Bai Xinli off, they had started planning half a year in advance. Even if Atian didn't know about this, it didn't stop her from feeling ashamed of her own favoritism.

Master Bai saw his wife's thoughts and opened his mouth to smooth things over, but before he could say the first word, he was interrupted by the servant who burst in.

The servant rushed through the door and shouted like a reckless youth:

"Master! Mistress! That Immortal Elder has, has returned again!"