Jiang Wu, the eldest senior sister of Yi Jian Sect, heard an inner demon’s voice in her sea of consciousness for a year, constantly telling her about her miserable end. After a battle with a Nascent Soul peak demon beast, her golden core shattered and her top-grade lightning spiritual root was dug out, leaving her crippled except for the undiggable glazed sword bone. She realized her second junior brother Xu Wuya had been poisoning her with chronic poison, motivated by twisted devotion and the influence of their sickly junior sister Mu Xue Ning. Third junior brother Zhuo Sibai suggested giving her spiritual root to Mu Xue Ning. When Mu Xue Ning appeared with Xu Wuya and Zhuo Sibai, Jiang Wu forced herself up, picked up her natal sword, and struck Mu Xue Ning’s dantian, causing the spiritual root in Mu Xue Ning’s body—originally Jiang Wu’s own—to self-destruct, crippling Mu Xue Ning. Xu Wuya was shocked, Zhuo Sibai grabbed Mu Xue Ning and left. Jiang Wu was sentenced to ten years on Sigui Cliff, a frozen peak where the cold would destroy her body. Xu Wuya and Zhuo Sibai visited her; Xu Wuya draped a cloak on her, pretending care, while Zhuo Sibai sneered. Her master, Sword Venerable Xiao Qi, the man who had personally cut out her spiritual root to give to Mu Xue Ning, came to the cliff. He tried to comfort her, saying she needed only to wait ten years. Jiang Wu looked at him with indifference and declared their master–disciple karma severed forever. Xiao Qi fled, tormented by his own demon. The inner demon then fully revealed the truth: Jiang Wu was a background cannon fodder because the world’s true Child of Fortune was the reincarnation of a Divine Venerable of ten thousand years ago. This Divine Venerable, Xi Xuan Shang, would kill immortals, slay demons, and open the Heavenly Ladder with blood during his final tribulation. He would, as a disciple of Yi Jian Sect, slaughter the entire sect. Jiang Wu, understanding her fate, stopped resisting. When she was on the verge of death, the inner demon asked if she wanted to live to see that day. Jiang Wu died but reincarnated as the sword spirit of the Heng Cang Sword, the Divine Venerable’s original weapon, renaming herself Fu Xi, her childhood name. Xi Xuan Shang, living in Luoyou Village with the kindly village chief, stumbled upon the Heng Cang Sword in the mountains. He heard a female sword spirit speaking to him and named her Fu Xi, believing the sword was the Fu Xi Sword. Fu Xi asked if he wanted to cultivate immortality; Xi Xuan Shang refused, content with his mortal life. The inner demon convinced Fu Xi to stay, saying that as the Divine Venerable’s reincarnation, Xi Xuan Shang would never betray her like her previous disciples had. Fu Xi reluctantly agreed and observed him. Xi Xuan Shang was diligent, gathering firewood and herbs to support himself and the chief. When two friends, Lu Er and Chun Ying, followed him into the mountains to gather herbs, they encountered a wild leopard. Xi Xuan Shang, unarmed except for the sword, was hesitant. Fu Xi guided him to draw the sword and use it, giving him his first real confrontation with danger. He successfully drove the leopard away. From that day, Xi Xuan Shang began to trust the sword spirit, keeping her secret. Fu Xi lingered by his side, watching over his simple yet difficult life, waiting for the moment when he would walk the path of cultivation and fulfill his destiny as the world’s true Child of Fortune.
