There was this Emperor Zi Yu, an absolute giant. You know, with his axe, he basically carved empires out of mountains and brought everyone under one flag. He divided the whole known world into nine massive regions – that marked the start of what they called The Nine Cauldrons later, a name born from power.
But it didn't last. After Zi Yu was gone, chaos just ripped through everything like wildfire, sending kingdoms crashing down again.
Fast forward a thousand years, maybe more? Time stretched weirdly sometimes in places like this. Then out of the Qin Mountains, which had watched empires rise and fall for millennia, came a warrior who wasn't even from this world's understanding – the Heavenly Emperor of Qin was his name. He just... showed up and changed everything with sheer strength and skill.
He cleaved through rivers that were yards wide, proving he wasn't someone to be messed with. His power swept across the land, gathering all the scattered pieces back together under his rule again.
But here's the catch – it always came back to this pattern. As soon as a strong leader like Zi Yu or Qin rose above, their fall triggered an inevitable descent into chaos and fragmentation. It felt cursed, you know?
Until one day, Teng Qingshan from somewhere else entirely, found himself suddenly whisked away here. He wasn't part of the usual cycle; his arrival was unexpected, maybe even accidental, stepping into this world's epicenter right when things were supposedly stable once more.