The Eastern Continent of the Great Qian Dynasty lay beneath the heavens like a carefully woven illusion of order.
Vast plains shimmered under sunlight, broken by winding rivers that nourished mortal cities and farmlands. Kingdoms rose and fell here, yet life endured—markets bustled, incense smoke curled from rooftops, and laughter echoed through stone streets. Above them, towering sects claimed sacred peaks, their palaces suspended among clouds where cultivators pursued longevity, power, and the path beyond mortality.
To those who lived beneath this sky, the world felt stable.
Civilized.
Controlled.
And perhaps that was why they no longer remembered.
Beyond the reach of roads and imperial authority, past the boundaries marked by sect formations and warning stele, stretched a land untouched by human hands.
The Ten Thousand Beast Mountains.
An endless wilderness of layered peaks and ancient forests swallowed the horizon, each mountain more savage than the last. Trees older than dynasties clawed toward the sky, their roots crushing stone, their canopies drowning the land in eternal shadow. The air itself was thick with primal qi—wild, violent, and unrefined.
Beasts ruled here.
Some bore bloodlines so ancient their roars could fracture cliffs. Others hunted silently, their presence alone enough to freeze weaker creatures in terror. Cultivators who entered spoke of unseen gazes watching from the dark—and those who ventured too deep never returned.
Yet even within this forbidden domain, there existed a place no beast dared to claim.
Far beyond the outer territories, hidden within layers of mist and mother forest, rose a solitary mountain—isolated, ominous, and wrong.
Its name was Mount Tianluo.
The mountain did not stand proudly like the others. Its jagged silhouette seemed twisted, as though shaped by violence rather than time. Black stone formed its body, streaked with faint crimson lines that resembled dried blood veins beneath the skin of the earth. The surrounding forest bent inward unnaturally, trees leaning as if pressed down by an invisible weight.
No birds nested there.
No insects sang.
Even beast kings avoided its vicinity, circling it with instinctive dread.
In ancient times—when chaos had yet to be sealed away—Mount Tianluo was known by another title.
A name spoken only in whispers.
A name that meant calamity.
But eras passed.
Dynasties crumbled and rose anew. Immortals ascended, legends faded, and blood-soaked history was buried beneath layers of rewritten scripture. What was once fear became myth. What was once truth became exaggeration.
Cultivators began to call Mount Tianluo a dead mountain—a place of strange qi fluctuations, nothing more. Records were shortened. Warnings softened. Eventually, even sect elders spoke of it only as an ancient anomaly.
The beast that resided there was forgotten.
Not slain.
Not erased.
Simply… forgotten.
Until the earth trembled.
At first, it was so subtle that even the most sensitive beasts mistook it for distant thunder. Fallen leaves quivered. Roots deep underground shifted uneasily, as if something vast had stirred in its sleep.
Then—
a pulse.
A slow, suffocating pressure rolled outward from Mount Tianluo, pressing down on the surrounding land. Crimson lines across the mountain's surface flickered faintly, once… then again.
High above, the sky responded.
Clouds over the Ten Thousand Beast Mountains twisted unnaturally, spiraling as if dragged by an unseen force. Winds howled through valleys, carrying an ancient aura that had not appeared in this world for tens of thousands of years.
Deep beneath Mount Tianluo—beneath layers of stone, seals, and time itself—
A consciousness returned.
Cold.
Vast.
Filled with memories of shattered heavens and rivers of blood.
Power long suppressed stirred within confinement, restrained yet furious, pressing against bonds forged by immortals of a forgotten era. The seal remained intact—but it had weakened.
And in the Eastern Continent of the Great Qian Dynasty—
where mortals lived unaware,
where cultivators cultivated without fear—
No one realized the truth.
That the ancient beast buried beneath Mount Tianluo
had awakened.
And that chaos—long forgotten—
had opened its eyes once more.