Chapter Text
Since ancient times, cultivators throughout the continent had drawn in the spiritual energy interwoven through heaven and earth to raise their own cultivation; each needed to pass through seven stages to shed their mortal forms and ascend as an immortal.
Yet, the Qiumina Clan abandoned these ways and cultivated with their own demonic methods, bringing disaster to the other five clans. And so, the beacons were lit, and the flames of war rose. These troubled times had lasted for years, and humanity suffered.
Worshipped throughout the continent, Fengyi Xihe was reverently bestowed the title of Lumina Goddess and went on to lead the five clans in repelling the Qiumina.
Countless warriors followed her, originating from the various major factions, sects and noble families of the five clans. Two divine beasts were also under her command, a phoenix and a full-blooded dragon, creatures from the times of myth.
Amongst them, there was someone with a rather close relationship to the goddess in question, a person belonging to the Luminara Clan with her red hair blazing like the sun—the Head of the Chiyang Family.
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“You should just call me by my name.”
She was adorned in her full armour and shining like the edge of an unsheathed sword, but upon hearing the goddess say such a thing, she suddenly froze, thinking that she must have misheard.
“This subordinate wouldn’t dare.”
“It’s no trouble, it’s just the two of us for now.”
The Head of the Chiyang Family, the woman who had dauntlessly led an army of thousands on behalf of the goddess herself, was at a loss. Whenever she faced her goddess, she was always easily flustered and caught off balance.
“Chiyang, are you unwilling to?”
“…Xihe.”
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“Would all of you please kindly die.”
Having slain several demon gods herself, Fengyi Xihe saw that their own losses were heavy. Noting her visible concern and knowing that she couldn’t bear to watch them get riddled with wounds and scars, the generals at her side all hurriedly reassured her that they could still fight.
Until the very end, when Fengyi Xihe was left with no choice but to pay with her own flesh and blood, to activate a sealing formation—to seal the entire Qiumina Clan underneath the Netherlands. Her life, to end the suffering of all.
And this would certainly leave her soul in tatters, her spirit to scatter. But she had decided that this was something she had to do, and something that only she could do. The only person she couldn’t stop worrying for, was also the only person she could entrust with the great mission of protecting the people, the Head of the Chiyang Family.
Smiling at the courageous and skilled general who had accompanied her for all these years, she told her her last request.
“Chiyang, protect the people in my stead.”
“Xi He, I will.”
That day, snow fell from clear skies.
Fengyi Xihe’s divine power scattered; of the seven spirits forming her soul, five were transformed into different relics, each with powers corresponding to the various pieces of her soul. As for the two spirits that were left: she carried one with her into the cycle of reincarnation; the last, was imparted on Chiyang’s own soul.
The war had ended, the Chiyang Family Head and the various factions belonging to the five clans all came together and built the Skyward League. They brought stability to the world and peace to the people, fulfilling her promise to Fengyi Xihe.
With part of the goddess’s divine power in her hands, Chiyang’s cultivation rose in leaps and bounds, gaining a full grasp over her family’s unique cultivation method. She felt that these achievements shouldn’t belong solely to her, and selflessly chose to share their family’s techniques with the world.
As the Leader of the Skyward League, she waited until its operations had settled into a steady rhythm; as the Head of the Chiyang Family, she waited for a suitable successor to be found. Then, she resolutely passed both positions off to others, saying how she should retire and wander through the rivers and mountains.
From then onwards, no one ever saw a trace of her again.
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A thousand years later.
A woman with red hair blazing like the sun, cheerily shouted: “Xi He!”
And someone with a remarkable resemblance to the Lumina Goddess a millennium prior, softly answered, “Chiyang.”