The skies had forgotten peace.
Above the fractured mountain range of Northern Kyro, streaks of violet lightning screamed across the heavens like the roar of some slumbering god disturbed from its dreams.
Winds howled like grieving ghosts, clawing at the ravaged earth below. Stormclouds churned in a vortex above a lone ridge, their core pulsating with a strange white-blue radiance. Most would flee. But he stood still.
A boy no, a man now, though barely stood at the cliff's edge. Thin, dressed in roughspun linen, soaked by rain, barefoot, eyes sunken yet piercing. His name was Bai Zhen.
Something ancient stirred in his chest, and it wasn't fear. His pulse matched the rhythm of the storm. He didn't understand how he knew—but he knew. Today was not just the end of his old life. It was the beginning of something far greater.
Behind him lay the charred remains of Greenroot Village, his home for the last seventeen years. Burned to ash by wandering bandits barely worth the title.
His mother gone. His sister gone. No sect had come. No heroes had arrived. No justice had been served. The heavens had been silent. Until now. A whisper rode the thunder.
[Primordial Godseed Detected… Awakening Host.]
He stumbled back, hands to his ears. Not from the sound—but from the weight of the voice. It echoed within his soul, not his mind. It was older than language, older than the mountains, older than even the rift that had split the world a millennium ago.
[Evaluating Genetic Lineage… Unknown. Result: Originless.]
[Inheritance Path: UNIQUE. Godseed Configuration: Ancestor Nexus.]
[Initializing: "He Who Rises Through Bloodline."]
Bai Zhen fell to his knees as pain lanced through his spine. His veins lit up with eerie silver-blue light. His skin cracked—only to heal. His bones hummed.
His senses expanded in ways that defied explanation.
[You are the bearer of the Primordial Godseed, the last of its kind. Its roots thrive not in your Qi, but in your legacy. Your cultivation shall rise not by pill, technique, or flame—but through the strength of your descendants.]
[System Online. Welcome, Progenitor.]
He blinked. „Descendants?" he muttered aloud, breath ragged.
The storm began to dissipate above him. The clouds pulled back like curtains, revealing the starlit sky. The strange light that had suffused his body faded, but a mark now glowed faintly over his heart an eye within a tree, its branches curling upward like divine script.
[Progenitor Status Activated.]
[Seed Dormant: Awaiting First Sprout.]
[Mission 1: Begin the Lineage. Reward: Spiritual Foundation Awakening.]
A Year Later
The mountain winds carried the scent of spring wildflowers, earth, and something fainter, more primal. Bai Zhen sat cross legged under a blossoming qinglan tree, a small child cradled in his arms.
She was barely two months old, her eyes wide with the curiosity only infants could muster. His daughter. Named Bai Yun.
The woman who bore her had long since left. A passing traveler, grateful for his help in saving her caravan from a rogue beast. She had given him her name and little else.
There had been no love, no ceremony, no obligation. But there had been… possibility. And now, under the starlit night, that possibility bloomed.
The Godseed pulsed.
[First Descendant Registered: Bai Yun]
[Lineage Bond Established.]
[Evaluating Descendant Potential…]
[Result: Moderate. Spirit Root Grade: Azure Tier (Low).]
[Rewarding Host: Partial Foundation Awakening + Qi Sense Unlocked.]
His body jolted not violently, but with a sudden clarity. As if the world had sharpened. He could feel the warmth of the tree behind him, the pulsing life of the child in his arms, and even the distant flicker of beasts prowling miles away.
Qi. He could sense it now. He laughed, low and quiet, a mix of relief and disbelief.
He pressed a finger gently to his daughter's forehead. „Sleep well, little sprout. The heavens have no idea what's coming."
Elsewhere… In the Capital
„Have you heard? Another core beast was found near the rift lands. That makes three this month."
Two men in long robes walked through the garden of a jade palace, their hands clasped behind their backs. The taller one, bearded and lean, had eyes that shimmered like black pearls Sect Leader Han Qinglong of the Heaven-Severing Sect.
„The spirit density is rising unnaturally fast. At this rate, planets might start triggering ascension prematurely," he added grimly. The shorter man, broad-shouldered and quiet, nodded.
„Which means the Celestial Rankings will activate sooner than expected. Our planet still has no candidate capable of surviving a planetary manifestation."
„Perhaps not yet," Han murmured, then turned his gaze to the stars. „But the wind carries whispers of change. A root is stirring. Something old… something forbidden."
Back on the Mountain
The days blurred. Bai Zhen worked tirelessly not in cultivation halls, but in clearing forest land, building a home, and preparing food for the single child that now meant everything.
At night, when she slept, he meditated. And the Godseed grew. The system had told him he needed three descendants to activate his first realm a realm not recorded in any human scripture:
The Sprouting Root Realm. He had no cultivation techniques. No sect. No master.
But he had a goaland now, he had a plan. Not every child needed to come from him directly. If his descendants could spread through time… then so would his strength.
He began mapping out villages, studying bloodlines, and seeking women and men with potential those he could guide, protect, or help grow.
It was not lust. It was legacy.
[Descendant Count: 3]
[First Realm Unlocked: Sprouting Root Realm]
[Effect: Lifespan increased to 200 years. Minor passive regeneration unlocked. Qi Absorption speed: +30%.]
Bai Zhen gasped as a new wave of warmth surged through him. The world grew quieter, slower. He stood taller, his body denser, more refined. His heart beat with divine rhythm.
He was no longer a common man. He was becoming the root of a dynasty. Deep in the void between worlds, a pair of golden eyes opened. Far from Kyro. Far beyond the rift.
Beyond even what humans called the heavens. „The Godseed has awakened," a voice echoed across the black. „Prepare the Harvest."
A Week Later
Spring faded into the warmer breath of summer.
Bai Zhen stood at the edge of a low ridge overlooking a river basin below. Three villages dotted the landscape places he'd visited in passing while seeking seeds to plant.
Not seeds of crops, but seeds of future bloodlines. The Godseed System gave no moral instructions. It made no demands of cruelty, nor did it glorify purity. It only demanded one thing: Legacy.
It had already whispered the next milestone:
[Milestone Task: 1 Descendant Reaches Foundation Realm.]
[Reward: Spirit Vessel Awakening + Passive Ability Unlock.]
That meant one of his three descendants needed to reach the Foundation Realm, the first formal stage of cultivation in most sects.
But there was a problem: They didn't know they were cultivators. None of his descendants even knew what they carried in their blood. And that was by design.
The Godseed System warned him early:
[Warning: Informing descendants of the cultivation bond may interfere with their natural growth. Optimal strength gain occurs through free will and natural evolution.]
In short, if they knew, the cultivation benefits might weaken. Or worse stop entirely. So he played the role of a quiet helper, a wandering scholar, a stranger offering aid to lost talent, and when necessary… a shadow who passed through lives, seeding change without ever being seen.
In a Remote Forest Village
A boy no older than ten sat cross-legged on a boulder, eyes shut tight in focus. Around him, a soft shimmer of energy swirled, barely visible like sunlight caught in morning mist.
„I can feel it…" he whispered, „like water running through my hands."
His name was Shen Yuan. He did not know who his father was. His mother had died giving birth to him, and he'd been raised by the village midwife and her crippled husband.
But three months ago, a mysterious traveler had passed through their village. He'd given the boy an old wooden flute, then taught him a strange breathing pattern over three nights.
He never asked for anything in return. Now Shen Yuan could sense Qi. What he didn't know was that he was Bai Zhen's third descendant. And he was already on the path.
Meanwhile… In a Small City near Eastern Plains
Bai Zhen walked through the open-air market. Incense drifted in coils from the shrine nearby, mixing with the scent of spiced pork buns and roasted chestnuts.
He wore plain gray robes and carried a satchel of herbs on his back. To anyone watching, he was just another traveling healer.
But his eyes were fixed on a young girl, no more than sixteen, who was mediating the final rounds of a junior alchemy competition. Her name was Li Yueran, and she was not his daughter.
She was his granddaughter. The second-born of his second child.
Unknowingly, she was about to form her first pill using a technique Bai Zhen had taught her mother in a forgotten village two years ago. A technique based not on flame control but breath rhythm and spiritual attunement.
[Descendant Breakthrough Detected.]
[Name: Li Yueran. Status: Late Qi Refinement → Foundation Realm.]
[Bloodline Level: High-Affinity – Violet Tier.]
[Talent: Pill Sense – Rare Passive.]
[Milestone Reached: 1 Descendant at Foundation Realm.]
[Reward: Spirit Vessel Awakening + Passive Ability: "Echo of the Lineage."]
Bai Zhen swayed as the power surged through him. His dantian, once a fragile well of misty Qi, now roared to life with spinning torrents of condensed spirit force.
But more than that something new had awakened within him. He could feel her. Not just her Qi… but her state of mind.
[Echo of the Lineage Activated: You can now sense the emotional state and spiritual progress of all Foundation Realm descendants.]
Her joy, her confusion, her hunger for knowledge it all pulsed like quiet echoes inside him. He staggered into an alley, gripping the wall.
Three Days Later
Bai Zhen sat by a small fire, boiling herbs under a crescent moon. A small jade tablet floated above his hand, symbols glowing faintly. He was recording his lineage.
A habit he had picked up. Even if none of them knew of him, he would know them. He had three direct children, all living normal lives, and four grandchildren now.
Only two had shown signs of cultivation. But that would change. Sooner or later, one of them would stand above the others. The seed of a bloodline genius.
And when that happened… the Godseed would evolve.
[New Task Available: 1 Descendant Breaks Through to Core Formation.]
[Optional Trigger: 5 Foundation Realm Descendants for System Evolution.]
[Next System Stage: Bloodline Resonance Mode.]
[Bonus Perks: Skill Inheritance, Shared Combat Insights, and Memory Imprinting.]
He exhaled. „I need to move faster…"
The world wasn't static. Sects were stirring. Ancient families were awakening bloodlines long thought extinct. The Calamity Rift that had introduced Spirit Energy into the world a thousand years ago was now expanding again.
Rumors of beasts evolving new cores… and of Heaven's Will descending upon cultivators… were growing stronger.
He had maybe five years ten at most before the celestial ranking of planets began. And his world… Kyro… had yet to choose its representative.
In the lowest depths of the Stormwind Sect, five cloaked elders knelt around a black pool. A vision flickered across its surface: Bai Zhen's silhouette.
„His Qi does not match any recorded physique." „No sect, no clan, no teacher. He appeared out of nowhere and yet he ascends quietly. His aura is… ancient."
The tallest elder raised his head. „Track him. But do not interfere. If he is what I fear he is… we may not survive his rise."