In the outskirts of the Eastern Wastes, where the sun barely pierced the silver mist and the soil remembered ancient blood, a boy named Lin Fei knelt before the Awakening Stone.
At sixteen, he was one of forty youths gathered in the courtyard of the Emberleaf Sect's outer training grounds. Their robes were plain, their eyes brimming with both hope and dread. Today would decide everything—their worth, their future, their place in the heavens.
"Next," barked Elder Mo, his voice like gravel soaked in ice. The old man stood beside the monolith—an obsidian pillar ten feet tall and etched with golden runes. It pulsed faintly with spiritual energy, reacting only to those chosen by fate.
Lin Fei stepped forward. The ground felt heavier with every step, not from fear, but from the pressure of the stone. Rumors said it judged more than just your potential—it saw your soul.
"Place your palm on the stone," Elder Mo instructed.
He obeyed.
The world turned silent. The moment his hand touched the cold surface, the runes blazed white-hot. A pulse of energy surged into Lin Fei's body, sweeping through his meridians like a roaring storm. Pain lanced through his veins, then vanished.
The stone flared blindingly.
Gasps erupted from the crowd. Even Elder Mo took a step back.
"Impossible…" the elder whispered. "A Nine-Vein Heavenroot Constitution?"
Murmurs spread like wildfire. Someone shouted, "That's a sacred-grade root!"
"No one's awakened a Heavenroot in fifty years!"
Lin Fei stumbled back, his heart pounding. He didn't know what it meant—only that everyone now looked at him differently. Half with awe, half with jealousy.
Elder Mo regained his composure. "Silence! This test is not over."
But Lin Fei could already feel it. Something deep inside had changed. A presence stirred in his dantian—a seed of power, ancient and dormant, now awakened. And with it, a voice that wasn't his whispered:
"Feed me… ascend."
He didn't understand the words.
But he knew one thing.
His journey into the cultivation world had begun—and he would either rise beyond the heavens or be crushed beneath them.