Volcanic Age

The sun could be seen going over the hill.

The sky, which had been brilliantly bright just an hour earlier, now glowed a captivating shade of red. It wasn't an ominous blood red, but a beautiful red that could charm anyone who saw it.

Whoosh.

A cool breeze softly caressed his hair. The temperature of the wind was just perfect for the warm weather.

"The time…"

On top of a hill sat a young man under a plum blossom tree with large branches.

"...has come."

His hair, reaching the middle of his back, was tied up into a ponytail. He had well-defined facial features, a sharp jawline, and elegantly arched eyebrows. Although his appearance could be considered handsome, it wasn't so bad.

Zhou Xuchuan was now eighteen years old.

Four years had passed since the Lotus Sword Gathering and three years since he graduated from the Lotus Pavilion at the age of fifteen.

Over the past four years, he had undergone various forms of growth, the most notable one being his physique. He was now close to two meters tall, and his frail-looking muscles had become toned. He was careful not to push his young muscles too far during training so his muscles weren't too bulky.

He looked a little skinny when he was wearing clothes, but his well-toned muscles were perfectly balanced, making many people envious.

His martial arts progress couldn't be left out, either. Ever since he left the Lotus Pavilion, he did not interact much with others apart from Zhang Hong, Zhang Xuen and Luo Xiaoyue and continued to focus on training. Zhang Hong and Zhang Xuen weren't within the sect at the moment since the former had set off for the world two years ago and the latter a year earlier.

In any case, he was able to focus on cultivation during the past four years, and he had immense progress.

Violet Haze Divine Art, eighth stage.

Reaching the eighth stage from the sixth stage took him four years. Although it might look like it had taken him a long time, that wasn't the case at all. If anything, it was unprecedented. Not a single person in sect history had ever cultivated the Violet Haze Divine Art to the eighth stage at the age of eighteen.

What made Zhou Xuchuan overjoyed was that there were only two stages left until he reached the tenth stage. That was when the Violet Haze Divine Art could display its true power.

As for the Violet Haze Sword Art, he was proficient in performing the second form, and he was not far from reaching the same state in the third form. His progress was relatively smooth.

Apart from that, he managed to completely master the Twenty-Four Forms of the Plum Blossom Sword and reached the fourth stage of the Eclipse Divine Archery Art. For the latter, he only needed one more stage to complete it.

He had also completely mastered the Shadow Scattering Art, a lightness art. He just had to continuously consume his internal qi to progress, so there was no difficulty in that.

He didn't forget to prepare for the future despite his training. He resolved that by exchanging information and letters with the people from the Gold Will Merchants visiting the sect.

From his exchanges with them, he found out that Li Yicai was much more capable than he had expected. He managed to do everything Zhou Xuchuan wanted, even with fragmented pieces of information. Above all, he wasn't suspicious of Zhou Xuchuan. He had simply been following his words ever since Zhou Xuchuan invested the riches of the Three-Eyed Godly Thief's treasury. He was a relatively simple man but not an idiot. Zhou Xuchuan couldn't help but think that he was an eccentric man, no matter how long he worked with him.

He had also been exchanging letters with Zhuge Shengji through homing pigeons from time to time. Apparently, Shengji was still being ostracized within his clan. This wasn't surprising since there was no opportunity for him to showcase his knowledge about mechanisms after what happened at the Three-Eyed Godly Thief's treasury.

Keep studying hard. I'll take you with me later.

He looked forward to seeing how much the genius must have improved.

For the past four years, there have been no significant deviations from the original history.

When he first returned to the sect, he was concerned about the changed future. The earlier discovery of the Three-Eyed Godly Thief's treasury and the incident with the Nine Water Gangs could potentially have cause the original course of history to deviate by a lot. Although he had been preparing for the future, he felt uneasy due to the uncertainty of his knowledge.

One of the issues he was concerned about was the Tomb of the Ominous Demon. A war had originally broken out to obtain the secret manuals contained in the Ominous Demon's tomb. This war had eventually spread out to the entire martial world.

It would later be called the Seven Swords War due to the involvement of seven major factions. This war caused the martial world to fall into war and chaos.

The seven factions were the Kunlun Sect, Mount Tai Sect, Mount Song Sect, Mount Heng Sect, Nangong Family, Demon Cult, and the Evil Valley.

In the original history, this happened in the summer of this year, which meant there were six months left.

I won't let things go your way.

He couldn't prevent the Seven Swords War from happening. The Dark Heavens Association had invested a considerable amount of effort and time into making it happen, and Zhou Xuchuan's knowledge of the future had its limits. There were things he could prevent, as well as those he could not. The Seven Swords War belonged to the latter.

However, he could still minimize the damage and thwart some of the Dark Heavens Association's plans.

"Senior brother!"

"Huh?"

A voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned around to see who it was.

"Mm!"

A heavenly maiden was walking toward him. No words were enough to describe her beauty.

Her hair was silky and resembled the dark of night, while her white skin was like milky jade and clearly outlined her facial features.

She was a young woman, just having gotten rid of the hints of her adolescence. The woman, who had the aura of a bold general, made Zhou Xuchuan remember the past.

"The Plum Blossom Sword Phoenix…"

He had only seen the Plum Blossom Sword Phoenix once in his previous life, and even then, he was on the battlefield and could not get a proper look at her.

Despite that, the impression she left on him was so intense that he could remember it to this day. She looked valiant and beautiful, executing various sword arts amongst various other heroes, including the Plum Blossom Swordsmen.

It was an image he couldn't forget even if he wanted to.

"Senior brother, what is it?" Luo Xiaoyue came over, tilting her head in confusion.

Although she matured faster compared to others, she still had some way to go before matching the figure from his memories. The Luo Xiaoyue in his memories was in her mid-twenties, while she was only seventeen in his current life.

Still, he could see the resemblance.

"Mm, nothing."

While she was still too young to be renowned as a peerless beauty among cultivators, she was certainly the most beautiful on Mount Hua.

"You were just too pretty, so I couldn't help but be charmed. It's nothing much, so don't worry about it."

He blurted his thoughts out without thinking.

"Don't you feel embarrassed when you say that?" Luo Xiaoyue asked, finding him rather ridiculous. Still, her cheeks were flushed red.

"Urgh, you're so cute even when you're trying to act tough while blushing. Are you trying to kill me?"

Zhou Xuchuan clutched his chest in agony. It wasn't an awkward act on his part. He was truly feeling pained.

"Geez…" Luo Xiaoyue grumbled.

"Anyway, what brings you here?"

"Senior uncle is calling for you."

"Master's calling me?"

*

Zhou Xuchuan headed to his residence alongside Luo Xiaoyue. Walking with the most beautiful girl on Mount Hua naturally garnered a lot of attention, with gazes of envy and jealousy from other male members of the sect. Although their stares pierced him, he was already accustomed to it.

The two parted near the residence.

"Oh, you're here." Liu Zhengmu greeted him as soon as he opened the door and went inside.

"Yes, Master. You have called for me?" Zhou Xuchuan returned the greeting politely. Despite having become a young man, he still had a great respect for his master and treated him with a very humble attitude.

"You're eighteen this year…" Liu Zhengmu smiled in satisfaction as he looked at his disciple, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.

A lot of time had passed, and Liu Zhengmu was now fifty, though he hadn't aged much. It also meant that this was the tenth year since Zhou Xuchuan had gone back in time.

"There is something I must tell you."

"This disciple awaits your words."

Zhou Xuchuan glanced at Liu Zhengmu to gauge his feelings. From his expression, this didn't seem to be something bad.

"The Upper Palace talked about you yesterday."

Zhou Xuchuan's eyes widened. He could predict what Liu Zhengmu was going to say next.

"It's about your cultivation journey."

Finally!

"Cultivation journey" wasn't anything grand. It was just a term to describe a journey for disciples who had reached the age of twenty to train and enact justice in the world.

The period was about five years. Once they returned to the sect after that, they would be acknowledged as full-fledged members of the sect.

Normally, disciples would only be sent off once they were twenty, but the graduates of the Lotus Pavilion were sent off early because they were more powerful, bringing the age down to eighteen. Zhang Hong and Zhang Xuen had also been sent off at this age.

This journey to the world could be considered true freedom.

"Honestly, I was worried about whether to send you by yourself or not, but…" Liu Zhengmu groaned and stroked his beard.

No! Zhou Xuchuan barely suppressed himself from screaming.

Normally, a guardian accompanied disciples on the cultivation journey. This was a natural course of action for ordinary disciples since it would be their first trip into the world.

However, former members of the Lotus Pavilion were different, as they already had experience out in the world during their time in the pavilion.

Because of this, a meeting at the Upper Palace decided whether former members of the Lotus Pavilion were sent out with guardians or not. Normally, they would decide to send guardians with them so as not to risk losing the disciple they raised, but sometimes, they opted not to send them with a guardian, thinking that they might be too overprotective.

Also, even if no guardians were present, the disciple could simply find others from the sect when they were out in the world, which was what most former members of the Lotus Pavilion decided to do when they left the sect.

Their primary reason behind it was safety, but loneliness played a big part as well. After all, they had lived their entire lives in Mount Hua, and their trip into the world happened when they were so young.

No matter what other connections they were to make while out in the world, the sense of affiliation and closeness would be different from what they felt toward other members of the sect.

Please!

His plan would have to change depending on who would accompany him. If he got a guardian, it would be very troublesome since running away in secret would be reported to the sect, ultimately making things worse.

"But the elders said it's a needless worry." Liu Zhengmy softly smiled.

Phew! Zhou Xuchuan inwardly sighed in relief.

He was a bit worried about the cultivation journey since he had a record of going missing as a result of the attack from the Nine Water Gangs during his first trip to the world. He thought that the sect might become overprotective of him because of that incident, but thanks to his performance at the Lotus Sword Gathering, it seemed he managed to avoid that.

"I was very surprised when Elder Shen Yulian was the first one who said that you didn't need one."

It appears that the old woman really felt bad for telling her disciple that I died!

He thanked Shen Yulian a little.

"This time, I'll be able to watch my disciple leave the sect. Do not forgive my foolishness for not being able to see you off a few years ago."

"Not at all, Master. You were on a mission last time. The world needed you, so I believe there was no other choice."

"Hahaha, you're still such a good talker. Thank you for standing up for this unworthy master."

Liu Zhengmu softly smiled and reached out. Zhou Xuchuan didn't avoid him and quietly waited for his hand.

Although he had grown up, he still got head pats from his master. He liked that gentle touch.

He felt a pang in his heart. In his previous life, no one saw him off when he left the sect. However, that was no longer true. He still had a master like the others.

"Be off."

"I'll be off."

He held back his tears because he did not want to worry his master.

Instead, he kowtowed nine times with respect and gratitude.