The Southern Yan Continent was a realm of impossible grandeur, a sprawling tapestry woven with soaring mountain ranges and deep, shimmering rivers. It was a land where the whispers of mortals meant little against the thunderous might of the Martial Dao. Here, the vital energy Qi saturated every breath, drawing the talented onto the path of cultivation—a grueling, selfish road paved with spiritual herbs, ancient techniques, and the singular, obsessive pursuit of longevity, perhaps even immortality.
Cultivation in Southern Yan was not a gentle path; it was a brutal hierarchy.
It began with the Acupuncture Opening realm, followed by the Body Tempering realm, and went on, with no man alive knowing the limits of Cultivation. Each realm is divided into 9 stages.
And in a remote corner of the Southern Yan, there was a Kingdom famous for its natural beauty: The Azure Plains Kingdom. Not the strongest, but it has a long history. With Green Plains that at a glance looked like Azure Jade at its heart, the Kingdom is a sprawling expanse of nature, rigid mountain terrains, fresh water rivers, snow-frozen Mountain ranges, and a year-long, fiercely burning Desert.
But of all, Mistfall Province of the Kingdom is still an enigma. Mistfall Province was a spectacular expanse of verdant mountains and crystalline rivers, its entire landscape often cloaked in shimmering fog, giving it the reputation of an unearthly paradise.
And from that province once hailed a legendary master who was expected to reach the peak of Nascent Soul Realm 9th Stage—The highest known realm to the people of Southern Yan— who disappeared after venturing into the fearsome domain of Umbral Gorge. A place known to be infested with Demonic beasts, so strong that even the strongest cultivator has to be vigilant at all times, that's the reputation of the Umbral Gorge.
And carrying forward his legacy, the wealth of knowledge he left behind, was the Cloud Stream Sect, a sect he himself established back when he was still in the Kingdom. But anyone with a discerning eye could say, it's nothing but a shadow of its past Glory. Though with its deep roots, it still remained the undisputed King of guiding cultivators on the Path of Dao, in hundreds of miles around. And with Sect Master Fu Heng, a cultivator of Foundation Establishment Stage 5, piloting the boat, the sect was looking for just one opportunity, one chance to turn the tables around and climb back to its past glory.
And that opportunity was supposed to be Liang Jie.
Liang Jie, born into a declining Martial Clan that's now pushed into a remote town in Mistfall province, was recognized as a genius in his early years after birth. Mastering complex histories of the Kingdom and philosophies that many barely understood, and preparing scholars to struggle to grasp at. His intellect was unparalleled among his peers. But his intellectual power was secondary. As the son and hope of Martial Clan, his path was predestined to be one of Martial arts, which is radically different from Scholarship, a profession usually looked down upon by cultivators.
But deep in his heart, Liang Jie held a secret that not even his parents knew about. He still vividly remembers his memories of his past life— a life on Earth, where things like Cultivation are material for Fantasy Novels, which he heard about from his close friend every day. So for a while, Liang Jie waited for the so-called "Golden Finger", the cheat that came with transmigration that his friend always talked about. But fate had been cruel. He received no system, no cheat, and no guiding elder.
And his past life knowledge proved to be nothing but trash in this mystical and almost mythological place. All he was given was his mature consciousness, a terrifying awareness trapped within the slow-growing body of an infant. And that at times felt like hell, since for a long while he had a hard time having proper control over his own body. But somehow he managed it for 10 years.
And at 10, He joined the Cloud Stream Sect, as per the wishes of his father. And that's where he discovered, he was also a monstrous genius in Cultivation. While others were struggling to understand the almost abstract teachers of the masters, he broke through stages like paper and broke through into the Body Tempering realm in 6 months. This shocked everyone in the sect. And Fu Heng had taken him up as his personal disciple. But his ascent didn't stop there. By the time he turned 12, he'd reached Body Tempering 9th Stage, when the youngest known genius in the kingdom's history to reach that stage was 18.
With this feat, he instantly became a hot topic all over the Kingdom. Rumors about him reaching every corner. Though Cloud Stream Sect was able to keep him to themselves using the help of royalty, there is already immense anticipation surrounding him. Many predicted he would reach Nascent Soul Stage 9, some even dared to claim he could even reach the illusive and mythological higher realms thereafter.
But then, his ascent stopped. So abruptly. So suddenly. It left a deafening silence behind.
For the following year, he saw no progress in cultivation despite his hard work. This left him confused, and Master Fu Heng anxious. Regardless of checking it countless times, they saw no problem with Liang Jie himself, or his cultivation. Leaving this problem like a puzzle.
But then one day, Liang Jie had an enlightenment. He felt something. A thought so radical that none could agree with him. There was a mysterious stage, a stage 10 beyond the Body Tempering stage 9; he could feel it intuitively. This, however, left Master Fu Heng only more bewildered and frustrated. The mysterious realm the Kid was talking about was never mentioned.
Not in all of the recorded history of Southern Yan. Not in the records on Cultivation left behind by their famed sect founder. Not a single existing source of knowledge suggested this. And he had to dismiss the Kid's thoughts and ask him to concentrate on his cultivation. But this only led to an argument between the master and disciple.
And the result of the argument was— Liang Jie locking himself up in his room.
The cultivation world saw his words as not some profound truth, but excuses for failure from an arrogant genius.
Soon, rumors surrounding him started to change, his reputation starting to crumble like a sand castle.
The former prodigy became a puzzle. The puzzle curdled into pity. Pity, over five long, bitter years, finally hardened into open scorn.
Now, at eighteen, Liang Jie sat hunched over a collection of tattered, obscure scrolls in the suffocating quiet of his remote shack, the scent of mildew and desperation thick in the air. His youth, which should have been spent traversing the world and gathering resources, was instead wasted here, amidst the dust and scorn. He had been searching for clues—any clues for the way forward in his method, with no results.
But not all was wasted. Over the five years of study and diligent cultivation, Liang Jie could feel instinctively that he was nearing his goal, just one last piece missing in the puzzle.
Today, once again, as he went through the records regarding Ancient times, he saw those same mentions of weird skeletons—skeletons that looked as if they were made of Silver or Gold. He never understood it. How could there exist skeletons of such intricate detail made of Gold or Silver? Were Ancient Craftsmen that skillful?
As this thought crossed his mind, he had a sudden moment of Eureka. He remembered all the times when his master talked of bones as hard as Iron, like a metric of Body Tempering. He remembered all the records that described how cultivators' bones looked like made of iron, unlike general bones, and how Scholars talked about Iron looking like bones of Cultivators.
All this while he thought those descriptions as mere metaphors. Fancy exaggerations of literary writers. But now a new thought ran across his mind. But what if they weren't mere metaphors and were literally describing what they saw? What if, after Body Tempering, the bones of cultivators really became something looking and hard, akin to Iron? He thought to himself.
This viewpoint changed how he viewed things. Remember this world is nothing like Earth. Thinking with Earthly common sense is nothing but foolishness here, He reminded himself, thinking back to all the experiences he had since coming to this world.
Then could it be that these weird skeletons are skeletons of Ancient Cultivators of Ancient unrecorded eras? Could this be the way forward for me? Things started to become clearer to him. In the excitement of finally identifying the final puzzle piece, he couldn't control adrenaline running through his veins.
Taking up a parchment, he quickly jotted down this possibility, picked up some important scrolls, and took a run towards the Library Hall of the sect, a place filled with various martial arts documents and records, ready to confirm his findings after verifying a few more ancient scrolls and checking out a few other methods of Body Tempering Cultivation.
Was this really the true path ahead, is yet to be seen. But after years of nothing, having found something, the excitement in his eyes was palpable.