A thousand years of arduous cultivation beneath the firmament, all for the day one may stand above the heavens!

In the vital throat of the Hongwu Dynasty and the Seven-Kill Tribe of the demon race, within the Tianduan Gorge, a divine and mysterious object suddenly descended from the sky, sweeping a group of cultivation soldiers into the vast torrent of history... Brian Cooper was merely one of the less conspicuous among them.

He had read the books of sages, but was also a wolf soldier bearing crimes. He could be courteous, or erupt in violence and kill. Amidst trials of life and death, a minor border soldier climbed step by step from the depths of the abyss.

One day, he suddenly felt he could control his own fate, only to realize that this was merely the basic qualification to vie for supremacy above the firmament.

Volume One: The Young Fear No Fists, The Old Fear No Cultivators

Chapter 0001: Divine Phenomena in the Northern Frontier (Part 1)

The Huangtai Fortress, built of Xuanwu steel rock, spanned thirty li, with walls a hundred zhang thick at the base, twenty zhang wide at the top, the highest point reaching six hundred seventy zhang, the lowest five hundred ten zhang. It crouched at the perilous mouth of Tianduan Gorge like a primordial behemoth.

Two massive protruding bastions jutted forward from the fortress, where the walls were even thicker, clad externally in three layers of armor at the level of magical artifacts, reinforced within by nine tiers of extraordinary arrays, spiritual energy interlinked, utterly indestructible—like two fangs of a divine beast. Any demon that burst forth from the forbidden realm of Shenjin Mountain would be shredded to pieces by these fangs.

The towering city gate was forged from hundreds of thousands of jin of precious ancient bronze and molten gold. Directly above, dozens of thick ancient chains bound a ferocious demon dragon’s head, ten zhang in size, to the wall, with six slightly smaller dragon heads encircling below—it was the head of a mighty seven-headed demon dragon!

Three thousand years ago, the mighty sovereign of the Hongwu Dynasty, The Great Northern Emperor, split Shenjin Mountain with a single sword, leading his army north in a surprise assault into the forbidden realm, completely disrupting the Seven-Kill Tribe—the greatest demon clan at the time—and driving them into retreat.

The Great Northern Emperor even faced the Seven-Kill Tribe’s chief, the seven-headed demon dragon, alone with his sword, intercepting it a thousand li south of the Nether River.

The deep and eerie Nether River, its waters a dusky yellow, suppressed human cultivators within three thousand li. The seven-headed demon dragon was hailed as the demon race’s mightiest. The brilliance and thunder of that battle pierced thirty thousand li, turning heaven and earth asunder, primal energy surging like the tide, and for a hundred thousand li, no cultivator could cast spells for three months!

According to the annals of the Hongwu Dynasty, by the seventh day of battle, a thousand li around the battlefield was reduced to dust; only The Great Northern Emperor and the seven-headed demon dragon could stand. On the forty-ninth day, a thunderbolt of heaven-shaking might struck, the earth cracked, the heavens fell, as if the end of an era had come.

The Great Northern Emperor bore seventy-nine wounds, his imperial armor shattered, one arm severed, yet the imperial sword in his hand still shone bright, illuminating all of history!

On his severed arm was a chain, the other end fastened to the massive demon dragon’s head. He staggered out of the mountains, as a million soldiers knelt and cried out long live the emperor!

He decreed on the spot that the gorge he had cleaved with his sword be named Tianduan Gorge, and ordered the construction of Huangtai Fortress at its mouth, establishing a border garrison to guard against the Seven-Kill Tribe for generations.

From the day Huangtai Fortress was completed, the demon dragon’s head was placed above the city gate, its fierce aura forever lingering in Tianduan Gorge, intimidating all demons who dared assault the fortress for generations.

That battle established the Hongwu Dynasty’s thousand-year dominance among the seven human powers on the east bank of the Spirit River!

Yet three thousand years of wind and rain have passed, and after the mighty sovereigns came inevitable decadence and decline.

The Seven-Kill Tribe, once crushed by The Great Northern Emperor, has, in the past century, seen the emperor’s lingering might dissipate, the once-bright imperial sword sheathed and long since dulled. The tribe has produced several powerful new chiefs, their strength now surpassing even the era of the seven-headed demon dragon.

In recent years, Huangtai Fortress has been embroiled in constant warfare, several times on the brink of disaster!

Behind Huangtai Fortress, a bustling marketplace has flourished for three thousand years, with merchants coming and going in droves, rivaling any county seat in prosperity.

But after several great battles, the place has clearly quieted, with only a few hundred people left, risking their necks to do highly profitable business with the garrison.

Just after the hour of Shen, a bearded Sergeant, gnawing on an apple, barged into the barracks, crunching loudly as his heavy steps clanged, waking two dozing subordinates. “Time for duty! Get your asses up!” The hand holding the apple had only three fingers—his index and middle fingers had been chopped off.

The two soldiers grumbled, turning over, too lazy to respond. Sergeant unceremoniously hurled the remaining half apple at one of them. Without lifting his head, the man reached out and caught it, only for the apple to burst with a crack, scattering icy blue light like raindrops—hidden inside was a spell, “Frozen Rain and Icy Sun,” which exploded, jolting the man wide awake.

The ice spell “Frozen Rain and Icy Sun” came from the Hongwu Dynasty’s military secret manual, “Record of the Ultimate Ice Sword,” and could be used with thirty ignited acupoints.

In the central plains and southern regions of the Hongwu Dynasty, a martial cultivator of this level could support a small clan; in other camps at Huangtai Fortress, he could serve as a watch officer. But in the “Wolf Soldier Camp,” it was only enough to be a Sergeant.