1685 The Past
Nearly 9000 years ago, in the Northern Continent.
The Crown Prince of the Eastern Continent, Long Tiankong, arrived atop the Intercontinental Teleportation formation of the Northern Continent. Alongside him were the delegates of this visit as well as the many participants for the competition that was to be held in the upcoming days.
The Intercontinental Tournament was the biggest event of all time in the world, and the strongest cultivators from all the continents were joining this competition to prove themselves.
Long Tiankong looked toward the front and noticed a muscular man making his way toward him with a group of people following behind him.
"Haha, welcome to the Northern Continent, my Friends," the man gave a loud laugh as he spoke.
The Crown Prince moved forward to speak. "Thank you for welcoming us to your land, senior Kuangren," he said with a small bow.
"You are always welcomed, Your Highness," Xue Kuangren, leader of the Snow Immortal sect spoke.
The Crown Prince remained polite to this man, since for all intents and purposes, he was the Emperor of this continent.
"Please, let us clear the formation so more of our friends can arrive," Xue Kuangren spoke and the Crown Prince nodded. Once everyone was away from the formation, it glowed once again, and people of the Southern Continent arrived.
Long Tiankong was a little surprised by their arrival as everyone who did arrive was mostly… weak. They were so very weak. He would've thought they would be stronger.
Then, once they were cleared, the teleportation formation glowed once again and people of the Western Continent arrived. And to everyone's surprise, it was led by a man very handsome man in a white robe with golden hair falling to his shoulders.
Peculiarly, he wore two golden earrings on either side, with a bulbous end to it which held golden spikes.
"Greetings friends, I am Xue Kuangren of the Snow Immortal sect," the man introduced himself to them. "Welcome to the Northern Continent."
The blonde man simply waved his hands. "It's been a while since I've come here. Take care of them in my absence," the man said and disappeared from everyone's presence.
Long Tiankong couldn't help but be surprised by the man's instant departure. How was he so fast? The feeling he got from this man was almost the same one he got whenever he visited the secret realm where Qing Tianchui, the Azure Dragon lived.
'No way,' Long Tiankong thought. 'Was that… the white tiger?'
Others remained in shock as well. It was only after a while that they were led out of there to go away.
"The tournament will take place north of here, in one of the Snow Immortal sect's branches, close to the Domain of the Black Tortoise. Let us proceed."
Large ships were brought out for each of the groups and they left. The path to the North went over numerous snowy mountains, surprising everyone how cold it was here.
Almost all of the people from the Southern Continent and Western Continent had never seen snowy regions, so they were more excited about it than most.
Along the way, Long Tiankong's ship had to go through a strong snow blizzard, that filled everything around them in absolute white. The blizzard lasted for such a long time, that he saw one of the painters that had come along to the tournament bringing out his tools to start painting the blizzard.
Long Tiankong couldn't understand how drawing a page all white could even be considered a painting at all. He decided to ignore it.
Sometime later, they arrived in the city called Heaven's Frost City, named after the branch of the Snow Immortal sect, the Heaven's Frost sect.
The tournament was to start in 5 days, so everyone got some free time for themselves. Long Tiankong wanted to see what a city on this continent looked like, but he was called by Xue Kuangren to talk for a while in the sect's garden.
Their conversation went from how the Dragon Emperor was doing to plans of making more connections between the two continents. It was a rather interesting talk to Long Tiankong who was looking forward to becoming the Dragon Emperor himself once his father was ready to leave the throne to him.
During his time there, Long Tiankong managed to see a beautiful woman walk the garden, surprised by her ethereal beauty.
"Who's that?" he couldn't help but ask.
"That…" Xue Kuangren's face fell a little. "She… she's one of our elders. You shouldn't disturb her."
The woman seemed to have heard the talk and quickly made her way toward the two. She smiled toward the two and folded her hands. "You can introduce who I am to others, you know. I never asked any of you to keep my secret."
The woman turned toward Long Tiankong. "I am Xue Yu'er," the woman said. "You seem like a talented young man, maybe I'll see you again in the future."
Long Tiankong quickly stood and bowed a little. "Greetings, Elder. I am Long Tiankong, the Crown Prince of the Azure Imperium," he quickly introduced himself. He still didn't understand what the woman meant by seeing him again in the future. She made it sound quite an impossibility that could be made possible because it was him.
"Oh, the Crown Prince?" the woman said with a surprise. "Who is the Dragon Emperor now?"
"My father," Long Tiankong said, wondering why it wasn't obvious to the woman.
"No, I meant the name," she asked.
"Long Gongmin," Long Tiankong answered.
"And before that?" the woman asked.
"Long Yuexin was the Dragon Emperor 6 thousand years ago," Long Tiankong answered.
The woman frowned. "Many must have changed, huh?" she thought. "What about Long Rentuan?" she asked.
"That was the Dragon Emperor from 4 generations ago. He reached Immortality and left the realm nearly 25 thousand years ago," Long Tiankong answered.
"Oh, he did? Good for him," the woman said. "That one was a pretty face for sure. I wonder what realm he went to."
"Senior," Xue Kuangren said softly.
"Alright, alright. I'm leaving," she said. "Have fun, little prince. If you do end up in the Spring Water world, look for me. I will help you with what I can."
Then the woman left.
It was a long time before the Crown Prince realized that the woman he had been talking to just then was most likely an Immortal.
Long Tiankong went on the walk around the city as he had wanted to sometime later, going to different shops and establishments to see how they differed from the ones in the Eastern Continent.
He was truly surprised by how much worse the Northern Continent was overall when compared to the Eastern Continent. He knew very well that it had to do with the amount of Qi being much less, but the surprise was still there even after the explanation.
As he continued on his stroll through the city, he ended up in front of a small building that claimed to do something rather interesting.
It claimed to tell one's future.
Interested, Long Tiankong went into the building and quickly found himself sitting in front of a man who looked no older than him, but also somehow the oldest being he had ever seen.
