The Heaven's Edge Ravine.A bottomless cliff where even the light of the sun dared not linger long. Winds howled through jagged stone like the cries of a thousand dying souls.
Crouched in the shadows, a boy with ragged robes and hollow eyes chewed slowly on a moldy crust of bread—his dinner for the third day in a row.
They called him Dog.
"Hey, mutt! That's young master Lin's leftover peel. Didn't you hear me say it's not for you?" A fat youth snarled, flanked by two servants in clean robes.
The boy didn't answer.
Instead, he looked up slowly. His eyes were sharp—too sharp for a beggar.
Then—crack!A broken chopstick flew from his hand, stabbing through the fat youth's slipper and pinning his foot to the wooden board beneath.
"A peel from a spiritual fruit?" the boy said quietly, "...even garbage like that can cost you your life."
The fat youth howled in pain as the boy melted into the shadows, vanishing among the rocks like smoke.
That night, hungry and cold, the boy climbed down the ravine to search for herbs or dead beast bones—anything he could use to survive.
He never expected to find it.
In a crevice deeper than light, something pulsed. A faint glow. Faint, but alive.
He reached in with trembling fingers—and touched bone.
It wasn't human. Black as obsidian, smooth like jade, cold as death. As he pulled it free, a pain like wildfire shot up his arm and slammed into his mind.
[Soul Resonance Detected.][Ancient Memory Fragment Uploading…][Host Compatibility: 99.8%. Binding in progress…]
The boy screamed.
Visions tore through his mind—wars in the skies, dragons bleeding rivers of fire, gods kneeling before a shadow.
When the pain finally faded, he lay gasping.
But something had changed.
His meridians were open. His body… warm. For the first time in his life, he could feel spiritual energy.
"So this… is what it feels like to be a cultivator."
He sat up, eyes gleaming in the darkness.
"I was a dog at Heaven's Edge. But now…"
"I'll tear open Heaven itself if I must. No one will ever look down on me again."