The head of the Panorama Pavilion was at his wit’s end. His cherished granddaughter of less than two years old, connate peerless immortal Liu Qingmiao, was kicking up a fuss about discarding her immortal foundations to cultivate anew from the beginning!

So shocked that his soul was about to depart from his body, the Pavilion lord almost fell to his knees to beg her to change her mind. After all, her immortal foundations had been forged by a Heaven Descent Pill! When it came to her future, the sky was the limit. At the very least, she was bound to become an existence akin to the ancient primordial emperor. Why would she ever want to sever those foundations?

The Pavilion master was very unwilling, more than unwilling!

However, this little bean sprout of less than two years old, the most treasured existence of Panorama Pavilion, little princess Liu Qingmiao, wouldn’t listen to anyone other than her master Lu Yun and his wife Qing Yu.

Qing Ruyan? Forget it, she obeyed the child’s every whim, while Yue Longsha, Zhu Yan, and the small recalcitrant dragon had all been brought to heel and could be seen scurrying around her day in and day out.

About to lose his mind, the Pavilion lord streaked into golden light with Liu Qingmiao and arrived outside Lu Yun’s doors.

“Lu Yun, come out here right this instant!!”

Heads in Dao City lifted at his booming voice and stared at Lu Yun’s residence in shock.

“What’s the matter? Why is the head of the Panorama Pavilion so angry? Is the merchant alliance and Lu Yun quarreling? Are they about to become enemies?”

The sight of the Panorama lord rushing into Lu Yun’s residence with bloodshot eyes fueled the crowd’s rampant imagination.

“Dusk Province’s current strength, Dao City’s wealth… it’s all thanks to the merchant alliance. If they were to fall out with Lu Yun, we wouldn’t have much to fear from Dusk Province...”

“Not much to fear?” Yet others shrugged.

On Witherdew Major’s battlefields, Dusk Province braves had swept uncontested through the legions of several majors and conquered the territory that’d formerly belonged to Exalted Major. Additionally, the Dusk Phalanx’s showing in the battle of the North Sea had been even more magnificent. The image of the two Black Tortoises was now deeply etched in the common mind.

Even without the merchant alliance’s support, Dusk Province would lose only a little wealth at most. Lu Yun still possessed a hoard of treasures, and he could always find other channels to sell them.

When the other leaders of the merchant alliance heard the news, they scrambled toward the scene, afraid of a worst-case scenario.

……

“What’s the matter?” Xing Chen walked out and looked at the Pavilion lord in confusion. Lu Yun couldn’t be spared as he’d reached a crucial stage in his efforts to develop the body-tempering art with Qing Yu.

“Little sweet pea, did you make your grandpa angry again?” He hastily took Liu Qingmiao’s hand from her grandfather and examined her from head to toe. When he made certain she wasn’t injured, he looked up vigilantly at the pavilion head.

The one who spoiled her the most in all of Dusk Province was naturally Lu Yun. Otherwise, how would she have become such a mischievous imp?

She might have been one of the little fox’s soul-parts in her past life, but in the here and now, her soul had been reformed into a complete whole and all memories of her previous life erased.

Now she was simply Liu Qingmiao, Lu Yun’s founding disciple.

The little girl clambered onto his shoulders and pulled a funny face at her grandfather, who stared back at her, huffing with anger. Lu Yun had seemingly been chiding her, but in fact, he’d been side-eyeing the Pavilion lord all along. The demand in his eyes was clearly, “Old thing, what did you do to my dear disciple?”

“You, ask her!” The Pavilion Master glowered at Lu Yun for a long while, before finally snorting in incredulous anger. “Your cherished disciple wants to discard her immortal core and cultivate again from the beginning!”

He’d brought his granddaughter to Lu Yun in the hopes that the governor would dissuade her from this wild idea.

“Hmm?” Lu Yun blinked, then turned his head to look at the little girl sitting on his shoulders. Exquisitely chiseled like a doll, her small face was fully earnest. When she met his eyes, she nodded resolutely.

“Master~ I want to cultivate from the beginning!” she said in a sweet babyish voice.

“From the beginning?” Lu Yun nodded gently. “Let’s do that then. As it happens, I have a cultivation method that’ll fit you like a glove.”

Boom!

At that, the pavilion head lost his temper.

“Old Liu, calm down first!” Seeing him about to explode, the other twelve heads of the merchant alliance rushed forward and held him back.

Up in the sky, the human demon’s eyes slowly materialized into existence. The pavilion head shuddered violently when the cold gaze landed on him, and he hastily suppressed his strength back to the august immortal realm.

Like a giant frog, his chest heaved up and down as he shot a vicious glare at Lu Yun. The last thing he’d expected to see was the young man agreeing to Liu Qingmiao’s request—as if it was of no importance! And he even wanted to recommend a cultivation method?!

“Sir Lu, I think this matter deserves further consideration!” The master of Starcatch Atelier, one of the thirteen merchant houses, hasted to intervene. “After all, Qingmiao’s immortal foundations were forged by the Heaven Descent Pill. She has the potential to become a primordial immortal emperor. It would be a pity to let her abolish her foundations and start afresh!”

“Is a primordial emperor any good?” Lu Yun squinted at the man. “Fine, I won’t hide certain things from you all any longer. I feel that restarting from the beginning is the correct decision.”

The head of the Panorama Pavilion snorted, but he refrained from commenting and pricked up his ears, waiting for Lu Yun’s reasoning. After all, the Heaven Descent Pill was something effective only on unborn fetuses. Even if he were to refine another one now, it would be of no use to Liu Qingmiao.

“Perhaps this sweet pea heard my discussions with Little Yu.” Lu Yun gently scratched Liu Qingmiao’s jade-like nose bridge.

“Master, stop scratching my nose!” The little girl swung her small head from side to side. “If you make it smaller, I won’t be pretty when I grow up.”

Lu Yun: “...”

The Pavilion lord: “...”

“Ahem, back to the matter at hand,” Lu Yun continued after a slight pause. “In fact, connate immortals are part of a far-reaching scheme.”

“What?” Everyone looked at him in confusion, but no one interrupted him.

“From when the immortal dao was first established, to a very long period of time afterward, there was no such thing as connate immortals. Every immortal began their journey as a mortal, and they cultivated step by step and faced their tribulations before ascending to immortality.

“Then one day, the path of cultivation was severed and the void realm disappeared. It was then that the first connate immortals appeared and the so-called world of immortals came into being.

“I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt that current void-ascended immortals far surpass these connate immortals from the past, be it in immortal force or nascent spirit!

“Void-ascended immortals possess a phenomenon of ascension and tribulation essence. This is the immortal dao in its truest form, the way it was established by the founders back in the Primeval Era. As for those connate immortals in the Primordial Era, they were nothing but neutered immortals.

“The ancient primordial emperor, the four cardinal emperors, the celestial emperors of the different facets, or what have you… To me, they’re nothing but pitiful, conceited, pathetic little worms up on high.”

Everyone forgot to breathe for a split second.

“If Qingmiao has enough determination to sever her immortal foundations and cultivate again from the start, I’ll naturally fully support her decision.” Lu Yun rubbed her small head. “Come with your teacher, I’ll show you how to cultivate from the start.”

“But master!” Liu Qingmiao peeped at Lu Yun like a chick. “Grandpa has Tribulation Traversing Pills on him…”

“Those are meant for your grandpa’s tribulation. Don’t worry, your master has something better in store for your own tribulation.”