The night was dark.
Lightning tore open the sky, and rain poured like an unending waterfall. The wind howled through the mountains, shaking trees and scattering leaves like shards of glass.
Two cultivators stood within the ruins of an ancient temple, their robes soaked, eyes closed in resolute focus. One was Li Wei, a warrior of the Heavenly Sword Sect, his sword glowing with blue spiritual energy. The other, Mo Tian, a dark cultivator, had fists crackling with black lightning.
"Tonight, only one of us will leave this place alive," Mo Tian growled, his voice barely audible over the storm.
Li Wei tightened his grip on his sword. "Your evil ends here."
Without warning, Mo Tian charged forward, his fist striking like a thunderbolt. Li Wei barely deflected it, countering with a sharp strike of his own. Sparks flew as their energies clashed, sending shockwaves through the air.
The battle raged on, each strike fiercer than the last. The ground beneath them shattered, the air became a raging tempest, and the rain turned into a storm of daggers.
Then, Mo Tian roared, channeling all his energy into a single attack. "Wrath of the Demon!" he shouted, unleashing a massive wave of dark energy.
Li Wei's eyes widened. There was no time to dodge. He raised his sword and poured his remaining cultivation into a final counterattack.
Boom!
The explosion lit up the night like a second sun. When the dust settled, a figure lay motionless on the ground.
Li Wei staggered forward, vision blurry, body barely holding together. Mo Tian had fallen, his power spent.
The fight was over. Li Wei sheathed his sword and turned away from the defeated foe.
The rain had begun to ease, but the wind still howled through the mountains. Holding a bleeding wound, Li Wei stumbled into the dense forest. His body ached, his spiritual energy was nearly depleted. Each step sent waves of pain through him, but he refused to fall.
He found shelter beneath an ancient tree, its thick branches shielding him from the rain. Sitting down, he focused on his breathing, using the last of his energy to slow the bleeding. Exhaustion clouded his mind, and before he could think further, darkness claimed him.
By dawn, the storm had passed.
Golden sunlight peeked through the trees, falling on Li Wei's weary face. He forced himself upright using the tree for support. The journey back to the sect would be long, but he had no choice.
With unwavering resolve, he made his way through the forest. Every step was slow and painful. Hours passed before he finally saw the towering gates of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
The guards gasped at his battered state and rushed to him. "Senior Brother Li!" one of them cried.
Li Wei gave a weak smile before his vision faded and he collapsed.
The last thing he heard before darkness consumed him was the frantic voices of fellow disciples calling for the elders.
Within the mountains, in a dark, secluded chamber, two figures stood under the dim flicker of a lantern. Shadows danced across the walls, and cold wind whistled through the cracks in the stone.
The young man, his face tense with worry, clenched his fists. "Father, we sent our men to kill him… but they failed. Somehow, he survived. And now, I don't know how, but he's become crippled." His voice trembled. "But you know… he had asked to be killed personally. We failed. I don't know what he'll do to us if he ever recovers."
The old man, wrapped in a long black cloak, remained silent for a moment. His face was partially hidden in shadow, but his cold eyes glimmered with deep calculation. He exhaled slowly, the air charged with his presence.
"Li Wei..." the old man murmured, his voice a whisper in the wind. "Even crippled, that boy is dangerous."
The young man swallowed hard. "But without cultivation, he's nothing now."
The elder gave a dry chuckle. "Do you really think losing his cultivation could destroy someone like him? His will is too strong. If he's alive… he'll rise again."
A cold silence filled the air.
"What should we do?" the young man asked, barely above a whisper.
The old man turned, his robes fluttering like a storm on the horizon. "We should have killed him when we had the chance. Now… we must watch carefully. If he shows even the slightest sign of regaining power, we will erase him."
The young man hesitated. "But… what if he never recovers?"
A deep smile crept onto the old man's lips. "Then fate has done our work for us."
The lantern flickered, and the darkness swallowed them whole.
—
Li Wei sat on the edge of a cliff, gazing at the Heavenly Sword Sect, his eyes filled with uncertainty. The mysterious chant still echoed in his mind, its presence growing stronger with each passing moment. He tried to comprehend its meaning, but it was unlike anything he had ever seen.
As he focused on the chant, his vision blurred. The world around him twisted — his body trembled as an unknown force pulled him into a strange realm.
Then he saw it.
A sky darker than the deepest abyss. A storm of golden lightning.
And a dragon.
Its size was beyond comprehension. It stretched across the sky, its scales glowing like molten gold, each one larger than a city. But what shook Li Wei to his core was its head emerging from the clouds.
With a single motion, the dragon tore the sky in two — a rift so massive it seemed the heavens themselves had split. Then, its monstrous mouth opened wide.
In three breaths, it consumed a third of the mortal realm.
The earth cracked, mountains shattered, and rivers were sucked into its endless maw. Countless lives, kingdoms, and empires — all devoured as if they were grains of sand.
Li Wei clutched his head in agony. A searing pain surged through his mind, as if the dragon's very presence was ripping his soul apart. His vision blurred again, and the scene vanished, leaving him gasping for breath.
He collapsed to his knees, sweat streaming down his face. His body still trembled, his heartbeat thundered like war drums.
"What was that?"
That dragon was unlike anything ever recorded in the history of cultivation. It was beyond human understanding — beyond mortal existence. And yet… somehow, the chant was connected to it.
He gritted his teeth. Why did it show him that? Why the pain? And most importantly...
Why did it feel like the dragon was looking at him?
Li Wei clenched his fists. His body may have been crippled, but something had awakened inside him.
And now, he had to uncover the truth.
Even if it cost him his life.
—
Li Wei sat still, his body still trembling from the vision of the colossal dragon. But within the pain, within the confusion, something had awakened.
A path.
It was not cultivation as before. His broken dantian made that impossible. But now, deep within his mind, a new path had revealed itself.
The chant had changed something within him. It showed him a technique — an unconventional, forbidden method. If he could no longer absorb spiritual energy directly, he would borrow it from living things.
Not by harming them. But by drawing from the essence of life.
Plants, trees, the wind, rivers — every part of this world held energy. If he could draw it from them, he could cultivate again.
Closing his eyes, he focused. He placed his palm on the grass beneath him, sensing the faint energy within each blade. Slowly, he willed it to move — not forcing it, but guiding it.
A strange warmth spread through his body.
His broken meridians, which should have been beyond repair, stirred. His body, abandoned by cultivation, moved again.
Li Wei's eyes opened. It had worked. He had found a new path.
But this was only the beginning.
If this method allowed him to cultivate using the world's energy, then his growth would know no bounds. He wouldn't just cultivate — he would surpass every known realm of cultivation.
And if he could use this method to build his own world…
Then in that world, he would be invincible.
His enemies thought he was crippled. The sect thought his journey was over. But they were wrong.
Li Wei had been reborn.
And soon… the world would know it.
—
Li Wei looked at the ancient page in his hands, its symbols glowing like embers in the air. He could barely understand a few words, yet even that little comprehension had changed his cultivation forever.
"If just understanding a part of this has given me this new path… what would happen if I understood the entire page?"
A shiver ran down his spine. The power hidden in those words was immense. And it raised an even bigger question—
Who created this page?
It wasn't just a cultivation manual. It wasn't even a divine technique. The chants on this page were something else — something beyond mortal comprehension.
His thoughts returned to the dragon.
A creature so vast it split the sky in two. A power so terrifying it devoured a third of the mortal world in three breaths.
Such a dragon shouldn't exist. Even the most powerful sects, divine cultivators, and ancient celestial clans had never recorded such an entity.
"Then why was it in the chant?"
Li Wei clutched the page tighter.
"What if the one who wrote this page… was connected to that dragon?"
The very thought made his heart race. If such an existence was real, then the world he knew was just a fragment of true reality. And if this chant came from that being…
Then mastering it could lift him above everything — beyond the Heavenly Sword Sect, beyond the mortal realm, even beyond the heavens.
His grip on the page tightened. There was no master to guide him. No sect could teach him this path. He had to understand it alone.
But if he succeeded…
He wouldn't just recover. He would ascend.
The world thought he was crippled. His enemies thought he was finished.
But soon, they would all understand—
Li Wei's story had only just begun.