Ash drifted from the sky again.
The sky was clear. No smoke, no clouds, yet ash still fell.
"Another ashrain? Wasn't there one two days ago?" a miner muttered, staring upward.
"Yeah," another sighed while wiping sweat from his neck. "The world's getting uglier by the day."
Lin paused his work and watched the pale drizzle that blurred the horizon. "Twice in two days," he murmured. "Ashrain is supposed to be irregular. Could it really be just a weather pattern?"
"Hey, you. Stop staring and get back to work. light-refining ore doesn't dig itself!"
The overseer's shout cut through the valley.
Lin lifted his pickaxe, but before he could swing, he felt the air thicken. The ash darkened. Each flake glowed faintly red. The miners' complaints turned to choking, then coughing. One by one they collapsed, convulsing violently. The glowing ash clung to them like frost.
"Rank Four Mortal Ash residue," Lin said plainly.
A refiner could turn these ashes into Rank Four Fire Path Heavenly Shards. Even raw, they were valuable enough to feed someone for a week. Yet they were lethal. Any mortal who touched them directly died in a few seconds as the flakes burrowed into flesh and ignited the lungs.
Only those with at least twenty Fire Dao Marks in their Vessel Realm could collect it safely.
Vale Ridge, where Lin worked, was a small Scarlet Bamboo Sect resource point. A few dozen miners worked under the supervision of a single Fire Path overseer.
Lin thought, "If the overseer had come today, they wouldn't have died."
"But apparently he got sick and couldn't come."
Lin stood still, watching the corpses around him in silence.
He breathed slowly. No heat. No burning. Nothing.
"Seems as if I am unaffected as always..."
He extended his right hand. A faint shimmer appeared, thin and glass-like.
A Shard Gate. The innate ability of cultivators to send inert materials into their Vessel Realm. Even Rank One cultivators could form one, though small and unstable.
Lin guided the shimmering gate to the falling ash. The flakes slid inward, dissolving into his Vessel Sea like drops of red dye.
He continued until the Sea trembled slightly.
"That is enough. Any more would risk backlash."
He had collected over forty fragments. Enough for two weeks of food. Enough to possibly afford a cheap Rank One shard.
He sat among the corpses and wrote in a small notebook.
"Rank Four Fire material. Mortals die within thirty seconds. Vessel depletion none. Body unaffected."
He closed the notebook.
The sky trembled faintly. Crimson streaks moved behind the clouds. Two silhouettes were fighting far above, hidden from mortal sight.
Lin watched silently. "Even disasters bring opportunities."
He turned to leave. He would return to Hazelrun Village and pretend he overslept. A small deduction of contribution points would be nothing compared to the risk of explaining how he had survived the ashrain.
As he walked, the road dipped downward. Hazelrun Village came into view. Three hundred villagers lived there. One hundred and twenty of them were Dao Chosen, those born with Vessel Realms. The rest were Rootless. They could not cultivate unless awakened forcibly using rare Heavenly Shards. more than half died attempting it.
Lin inspected the three shards in his Vessel Realm mentally.
Light Information, Rank One. It stored knowledge clearly but did not grant comprehension.
Light Reflect, Rank Three. It reflected Rank One to Rank Three attacks. A Rank Four attack would be partially blocked, but the shard would be nearly destroyed afterward.
Light Cat Eyes, Rank One. It allowed him to see up to one hundred steps ahead even in darkness.
"That is all I have," Lin murmured. "If I exchange the ash too soon, elders will ask how I harvested it without Fire Truth Carvings. I am certain that they have shards capable of inspecting Truth Carvings." His stomach growled.
"And I still need food."
He stepped closer to Hazelrun's gate.
A faint vibration rippled beneath his feet.
He froze.
The sky behind him shimmered. A glow thickened and widened. Heaven was opening another rift.
And it was appearing directly above the village.
The rumble deepened. Dust spiraled. The air twisted.
Lin narrowed his eyes. "Heaven is probing something again."
The sky tore open. Light spilled through, molten and unnatural, air seemed to freeze. From the rift fell symbols, actual symbols, golden, drifting, alive with strange logic.
Villagers screamed.
Lin saw patterns.
"Dao made visible," he whispered. "This is..Compressed law."
The world slowed. His Shard Gate flickered open instinctively. He tried to close it.
It refused.
One golden symbol bent toward him; his ears began bleeding as a sound like a church bell resounded. Drawn like metal to a magnet, the symbol shot into his Shard Gate.
Lin watched in shock.
Silence consumed everything.
His Vessel Sea surged upward in blinding light, then snapped into perfect stillness. A golden speck appeared in the sky of his Vessel Realm.
It stabilized instantly, settling into place like a star that had always existed there.
His Vessel Sea quieted. Nothing moved. Nothing reacted. No ripple remained.
Lin opened his eyes.
The rift closed.
Hazelrun Village lay dead quiet. Villagers confused.
He lowered his hand. Ordinary. Untouched.
Inside his Vessel Realm, the golden star hung in the sky with absolute silence.
"Problem after problem."
His tone was flat.
"This is not something I should record."
he sighed in worry
He suppressed all Essence. His presence faded until he seemed no different from a Rootless villager returning home late. In this state, even a Rank Four Dao Chosen would overlook him entirely. This was his first anomaly. He could make his existence disappear at will, he himself did not know that this was not normal.
Voices appeared in the distance. Sect envoys rushed toward the lingering heavenly distortion.
Lin calmly adjusted his clothes and walked into the village.
He would say he overslept.
No one would ever know what truly fell that day.
The next two days passed quietly.
He stayed inside his small hut in Hazelrun Village, pretending to be sick. Sect members came, performed superficial checks, and left. They noted the mine's destruction, the missing overseer, and the dead miners. No one questioned Lin.
"Good," Lin whispered. "Too many coincidences already."
He waited until the investigation ended and the envoys fully left the village before stepping outside.
Hazelrun Village's worn paths were busy again. Children ran between houses. Farmers tended fields. Dao Chosen practiced Light and Fire techniques on the outskirts.
The Scarlet Bamboo Sect dominated the region. They controlled two large Light Path resource points, three mid-sized Light Path resource points, and three small Light Path resource points, as well as three mid-sized Fire Path resource points.
Light Path and Fire Path were closely related. Their carvings connected well. As a result, conflict between their branches was rare.
Lin approached a small market area. Several stalls had opened. Fresh produce, basic materials, and low-tier shards were on display.
He weighed the bag of ash fragments inside his Vessel Sea.
"If I exchange all of it for contribution points, I can afford food and maybe buy one Rank One Information Shard. I know too little," he sighed.
The Scarlet Bamboo Sect sold knowledge through Light Information Shards, Rank One or Two, which stored maps, politics, and cultivation texts.
But they were expensive.
Lin swallowed his irritation. "I can't cry about it... expenses are necessary." he murmured
He reached the contribution office and greeted the elder on duty, a stern man with three gray braids and a faint Fire Essence leaking from his body. Based on the Essence leak, he was a Rank Four Dao Chosen.
"What do you want?" the elder asked without interest while organizing some materials in his workshop.
"I came to exchange material," Lin said.
"Show it."
The elder finished organizing materials deeper in the office and stepped forward, stopping behind the desk. He leaned in to examine the material.
"Well then show me the material you want to exchange." the old man said impatiently
Lin opened a Shard Gate the size of a fingernail and let a single ash fragment emerge. The elder's eyes widened.
"Rank Four ashrain residue!... Where did you obtain this?"
Lin bowed his head. "I... overslept, Elder. But when I woke, the ridge was covered. I collected what little remained."
The elder clicked his tongue. "You slept through an ashrain! Lucky fool."
In his mind, the elder thought, "But how did this junior collect a Rank Four material while having Rank Three cultivation? Hmph. He is either a Rank Four Dao Chosen pretending to be Rank Three, or he has an appropriate method to harvest the ashrain even though he is Rank Three. He must be quite rich if he has such a technique. Besides, he doesn't look like a demonic Dao Chosen. I hate rich folk."
Lin lowered his gaze but said nothing.
The elder examined the ash, nodded, and accepted the rest. Lin received a small bag of contribution tokens.
Far less than he expected.
The elder was suspicious of how Lin had managed to collect Rank Four material. For all he knew, this material could even be fake. Usually, rich Dao Chosen would not be found in villages such as Hazelrun.
Lin hid his annoyance.
He bowed and left.
"Food first. Shard second."
He went deeper into the market, to a stall selling simple bread and dried meat. Half of his points vanished.
Then he approached the Light Path stall. A young disciple stood there, around twelve to fifteen years of age, bored and watching the sky.
"I want to buy a Rank One Light Information Shard," Lin said quietly.
The disciple shook, startled from his daydream.
"Of course, of course!"
The disciple lifted a shard shaped like a piece of thin glass and held it out.
Lin paid.
He stored the shard inside his Vessel Sea, letting it float among the others.
He took a deep breath and opened it inside his mind.
Information flooded into him:
The Scarlet Bamboo Sect's map. Resource point classifications. Names of important local elders and disciples. Rank systems. Truth carving theory. Cultivation bottlenecks. Regional politics. Rumors of traveling Immortals. Warning signs of heavenly rifts.
Lin absorbed every detail but remained expressionless.
"So this is the world I must climb."
He walked back home slowly.
Night fell over Hazelrun Village. Lanterns flickered. Crickets chirped.
Inside his hut, Lin sat cross-legged and stared inward at his Vessel Realm.
The Sea rested calmly. The shards floated above it. The Sky held his Light Truth carvings, which formed as dwarf stars.
And above all of them...
A silent golden star. Unlike the rest of his Truth Carvings, which had formed a cluster, the golden star was rogue. It was unknown which path it belonged to.
When Truth carvings solidify, they become dwarf stars and, based on what path they are, they form a cluster like a family. However, the golden star was rogue and far away from the cluster of Light Path Truth Carvings.
Lin studied it for a long time.
It gave off no qi. Produced no Essence. Created no carving reaction. Ignored the Sea entirely. Behaved like nothing he knew.
He whispered to himself.
"I need more information."
He closed his eyes.
Tomorrow, he would go to the sect's library.
He would risk more contribution points.
He needed to understand what he carried.
He needed to know why Heaven reacted twice in one day.
And above all—
How an entire star appeared in the sky of a Rank Three mortal's Vessel Realm without clear reason.
Morning had already come. Lin was excited as well as anxious. The first thing that came to his mind was the outer library.
"Even though I know how this world semi-functions based on the Rank One Information Shard that I bought, it isn't enough, " he murmured. "I still need to figure out more about this world. What I got was only the basics."
He sat down on the edge of his bed. His movements were calm, but his thoughts were not.
The Rank One Light Information Shard had been useful. It explained the surface rules. It explained what people were allowed to know.
Cultivation in this world did not begin with breathing techniques or tempering the body. It began with birth.
People were divided into Dao Chosen and Rootless.
Dao Chosen were born with a Vessel Realm. It was an inner organ that existed beyond flesh, anchored near the heart. Without it, no power could be stored, shaped, or converted. Rootless people lacked this organ. They could live ordinary lives, but cultivation was closed to them unless forcibly awakened.
Forced awakening was rare and dangerous. Half of those who attempted it died. The rest were left unstable.
Inside every Vessel Realm existed two spaces.
The Sea and the Sky.
The Sea was milky white and endless. It had no visible shores. It stored neutral power and Heavenly Shards. When nothing was happening, the Sea was calm and inert.
The Sky stretched above it, vast and empty. It could not store power or shards. It existed only for Truth Carvings.
Truth Carvings were condensed understanding. They appeared as either dwarf stars or stars in the Sky of the Vessel Realm. Each star represented authority over a specific path, such as Light or Fire.
Truth Carvings were not fuel; they refined it. They dictated how power behaved once it was used.
Two cultivators could activate the same shard using the same amount of Sea. The one with deeper Truth Carvings would always produce a stronger and more precise effect.
Heavenly Shards were the tools of cultivation, crystallized, glass-like fragments of law that allowed cultivators to act on the world: attack, defense, concealment, movement, storage etc..
A shard did not teach its path. It did not grant comprehension. It only worked.
But every shard demanded Essence.
Essence did not exist as a natural reservoir. It was born only when the Sea stirred and began to move. Once awakened, even at rest, the Sea produced a faint, constant flow of Essence inside the body. When a shard was activated, that flow surged, and neutral Sea power converted into Essence in overwhelming volumes for as long as the effect lasted.
Essence escaped easily if left unchecked. That subtle leakage exposed a cultivator's rank and path to anyone perceptive enough to sense it. Those who lacked the discipline to suppress it walked through the world announcing themselves without pause.
Rank measured how much a Vessel Realm could endure.
Mortal Ranks ranged from One to Twelve. Rank One cultivators could barely stabilize a Shard Gate. Rank Three were considered the basic cultivators. Rank Five formed the backbone of sect forces. Rank Ten to Twelve stood at the peak of the mortal world.
Rank Nine was rarely discussed. The Information Shard mentioned it only briefly and without explanation.
Advancement was not free.
When a cultivator reached a threshold, Heaven responded. It descended with Heavenly Blockades. Three trials for every major rank.
The first attacked thought. The second attacked emotion. The third forced a battle against a reflection with the same power but no will.
Passing granted Truth Carvings. Failure took them away. Sometimes it took more.
Lin slowly exhaled.
This was the system as it was taught. Clean. Logical. Balanced.
And incomplete.
None of it explained why his Vessel could accept Rank Four material without strain. None of it explained a Truth Carving that produced no reaction. None of it explained why Heaven had reacted twice in the same place.
He stood up.
"If answers exist," he said quietly,
"they won't be in what they sell."
He stepped outside of his hut and closed the door.
Deeper in the village was a library. However, it was costly to enter, as it was the sect's library. Different from buying an Information Shard from the market, here every piece of information was stored in written books, and one couldn't read anything inside the books due to the library having a formation built into it. Only once you paid enough contribution points or had a high enough rank would you be able to read what was written in the books. Obviously, it held much more information than an Information Shard from the market.
Lin scratched his head before setting off to the library.
"Currently, I should have enough contribution points to enter the library and still keep enough for food and basic needs."
After some time, he stood in front of the library.
It was different from the surrounding buildings. Most structures were made of wood, brick, or stone, but the library was built from wood-refining ore. When refined and molded properly, this ore greatly strengthened formations.
Formations were simply area effects created through combinations of shards and specific materials.
In this case, the library's formation was built directly into the walls, molded so that its effect only applied inside the building.
The building itself looked plain and ordinary, aside from its dark material, similar to blackened wood from Earth.
Not many people visited the library due to its cost. Even after gaining contribution points from his exchange, Lin did not feel confident. Six contribution points had gone to food, twelve to a Rank One Information Shard, and now fifteen more for the library... he would be broke after this.
"Nonetheless, I need more information."
He opened the library door. A cold chill brushed against him. It was noticeably colder inside than outside. Ahead was another door, and to the right stood a disciple. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with long hair and a sharp, stern gaze.
"Welcome. Name, path, inner, sect ,or outer, and fifteen contribution points."
Lin scoffed internally but smiled outwardly.
"Of course, sir. My name is Lin. I primarily cultivate the Light Path, and I am an outer disciple. I work in the mines. And here are fifteen contribution points," he said, adding a slight nervous tone to sound harmless. Outer disciples were rarely worth attention; they were not tightly bound by the sect, did not need to take heavy oaths, and had lower status. They usually farmed the land, mined materials, and did other physical work.
The disciple then said, "Rank Three? You can have the key to the Basic Section. One hour duration. After one hour, the formation will expire and you will not be able to read the books anymore. Obviously, don't try to copy the information or steal or anything in between. The formation will be triggered and paralyze you for a time."
Lin was somewhat surprised but nodded.
"Of course."
The disciple gave him an iron key that had "Section Basics" engraved on it in azure letters, glowing faintly.
The door in front of Lin opened automatically. Lin entered, and the door behind him closed. Three different doors were now present, all made out of unknown material. On the left, "Section Basics" was written. In the middle, "Section Experienced." On the right, "Section Honorable."
Lin didn't waste time asking questions and put the key in the Section Basics door. The door opened, and he entered.
"So many books... how come this space looks so much bigger than the building from the outside? Most likely a Space Path technique."
He continued wandering deeper. There were many sections: shard theory, history of the known world, maps, politics, basic information on formations, basic insights on fighting techniques, naming ideas, what to look for, and so on. None of it had much value to him right now.
"Is there no section about natural disasters?" he frowned.
He walked even further.
His eyes brightened. A section called "Rifts and Disasters".
He pulled a book free and began to read.
What people call rifts are, in simple terms, Heaven attempting to create something or erase something. However, for unknown reasons, entropy always appears when Heaven constructs.This entropy twists the process, forming the "rifts". From a cracked sky, anything may fall—materials, symbols, disasters, or living things, depending on what Heaven was shaping or destroying.
Lin's expression stiffened slightly.
He closed the book, then opened another. It was the same. Simplified theory. Repeated explanations. No real answers. Only safe, surface-level knowledge.
Nothing mentioned symbols. Nothing mentioned golden marks.
So that thing in his body… even this place refused to acknowledge it.
Truly, there were only basics.
"Fifteen contribution points... this doesn't pay off. At the very least, I should see something about Mortal Fragments, how to form them, or how to use them properly," he muttered, expression calm, patience thinning beneath it.
He kept searching.