Chapter 1: How Did It Begin?

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Hua Cheng stared a hole through the large shelves filled with scrolls before him, a light frown making itself at home between his brows. Next to him, Yin Yu shuffled nervously, not understanding what it was that caught his Lord's attention.

Hua Cheng had just returned to the Paradise Manor from his travels for a brief rest before he was to go traveling again. After the failure that was the previous unheard-of village, Hua Cheng's list of the places his God could be in was lessening very quickly. It was frustrating, to say the least, considering he's already been through this list a hundred times before in the past seven centuries. But Hua Cheng didn't mind traveling all over the world again and again and again, if it meant he could finally follow his God once more.

Ah but, the next time (soon, soon, come soon) that he meets his God, he'll give his ashes to him no matter what, just so he could always know where his most beloved person was. He never, ever wanted to feel like he lost sight of him again, seven centuries of that is just about enough.

But that was not the reason Hua Cheng was staring daggers at the tall shelves that lined the walls of his private chambers. No, it was because of a certain unfamiliar something that was resting in it, where he himself didn't place it.

And how would he place it on the shelves of his personal library if he's never seen it before? Hua Cheng may not have entered this manor much in the past two decades, but he remembered everything that came in and everything that went out like the back of his hand.

Which was why, with his gaze narrowed, the Ghost King reached out a pale hand and grabbed a hold of the spine of the book that was unassumingly resting between two large aging scrolls.

The reason why Hua Cheng noticed this large book was because it was, well, large, and looked particularly strange sitting between all the scrolls, yet also because Hua Cheng owned only a few books, preferring scrolls. And those books were all placed inside the drawers of his table, where they still were as his little butterfly told him.

"Qing Jing" was all that was written on the cover, eliciting a deeper frown from the Ghost King. Curious, Hua Cheng turned over the cover and saw...

Nothing.

A few more pages in and still... nothing.

It was slightly (a lot) disappointing. Whoever placed this book inside his library, couldn't they have written something inside it? What was even the point?

Yet still, the book was beautiful, undeniably. The front cover was painted with beautiful shades of greens, whites and blues swirling together into a mesmerizing and twisted mess of bamboo and mountains. Clouds that seemed to blend with the high peaks, adorning them like a crown, sunlight dappled on the bamboo leaves that quietly swirled around a... sword? Ah yes, a beautiful long sword that glowed with power, except for the fact that it was covered in cracks.

Humming to himself, Hua Cheng turned to Yin Yu and, staring right at the eyes of the monster mask, asked coldly, "Where did this come from?"

Yin Yu gulped, breathing through his nose very quietly, trying his hardest to not make the slightest sound. But oh was this going to be hard to explain..

When he himself didn't know where this book came from??

Heavens, he was not paid enough for this!

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Shen Jiu finished the final layer on the cover before slowly putting his brush away, sighing lightly to himself. In a rare act of comfort (because he was all alone and nobody will know) he raised his arms above his head and stretched, a small yawn escaping him.

You've reached the end of published parts.

⏰ Last updated: Sep 05, 2022 ⏰

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