Episode 2: The Forbidden Archives and the Slumbering Sword

## **Episode 2: The Forbidden Archives and the Slumbering Sword**

By the age of five, Ye Chen was a ghost within his own palace. While his siblings spent their days in the training grounds, grunting through physical tempering and basic Qi-gathering, Chen spent his time in the **Great Library of the Nine Heavens**—a place even the elders needed permission to enter.

To the guards, he was a silent child who stared at ancient, unreadable scrolls. To Ye Chen, he was proofreading.

*'The Third Emperor of the Ye Clan was an idiot,'* Chen thought, closing a dusty tome on "Flame-Heart Cultivation." *'He diverted the energy flow through the meridian of the liver. No wonder he died of spontaneous combustion. It’s a miracle this clan survived at all.'*

### **The Encounter**

"Why do you waste time with dead words, little brother?"

A tall youth entered the library. This was **Ye Feng**, the First Prince and the "Golden Prodigy" of the clan. He was twelve, already at the peak of the **Foundation Establishment** realm, and carried a heavy atmosphere of pride.

"A sword is won on the field, not in the dust," Feng said, his eyes flashing with a patronizing pity. "The elders say your talent broke the testing stone, but five years have passed and you show no cultivation base. You have no Qi. You are as empty as a dry well."

Ye Chen didn't look up. He traced a line on a map of the world that was fifty thousand years out of date. "Is a well empty because it has no water, or because the water is so deep you cannot see the bottom?"

Ye Feng frowned. "Arrogance. Come. The Clan Competition is in three days. If you cannot show even a spark of Qi, the Council will strip you of your title as a Direct Descendant. I won't have my brother be a commoner."

"Titles are just noises people make when they are afraid of being forgotten," Chen replied softly.

### **The Hidden Treasury**

That night, Ye Chen bypassed the palace's million-grade defensive formations as if they were cobwebs. He walked into the **Ancestral Burial Vault**, a place forbidden to all but the dying.

In the deepest corner sat a rusted, chipped iron sword stuck in a mound of common dirt. For ten thousand years, the Ye Clan had tried to pull it out, believing it to be a junk item left by a senile ancestor.

Ye Chen stood before it.

"Still waiting?" he whispered.

The rust didn't fall off. Instead, the rust *glowed*. The sword didn't vibrate; the entire mountain range did.

"I am back," Chen said, his voice dropping an octave, carrying the weight of the Primordial Era. "The sheath is the world, and the blade is the void. **Waken.**"

He reached out and gripped the hilt.

There was no struggle. No flash of light. The sword simply slid out of the ground like a needle from silk. The moment it touched his hand, the "Infinite Mana" within his body finally found a conduit.

The chipped edges of the blade didn't sharpen—they blurred into a black mist that seemed to drink the moonlight. This was the **God-Slayer**, a weapon forged from the first shadow ever cast by the First Light.

### **The Awakening of the Senses**

As he held the sword, a notification—not from a system, but from his own ancient consciousness—surfaced.

**[Status: Primordial Ego Re-Synchronizing...]**

**[Current Realm: Mortal Flesh (Surface), Origin Sovereign (Soul)]**

**[Warning: The World Laws are too fragile. Applying 99.9% seal to prevent planetary collapse.]**

Ye Chen sheathed the rusted blade into a simple wooden scabbard he had brought along.

"Three days until the competition," he murmured, looking at the moon. "The 'Golden Prodigy' wants to see a spark of Qi? I suppose I should give them a bonfire."

As he walked out, the grass he stepped on didn't just grow; it evolved into Spirit Herbs. The world was already beginning to react to its master's footsteps.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***