Lin Yuan woke up before sunrise.
The house was silent—too silent. Not the peaceful kind, but the hollow kind that came from years of being unoccupied. No servants moving through the halls, no voices arguing over ledgers, no sound of boiling water from the kitchen. Just stillness.
Today, he turned eighteen.
In Ridgefall City, that age meant independence. Protection from family names ended here. From today onward, success or death depended on what you could hold with your own hands.
Lin Yuan sat up slowly. His body was young, healthy, and strong, but his habits weren't. Waking early wasn't something he learned here—it was leftover from a different life, one that had ended far too abruptly.
An alley. A flash of cold steel. A sharp pain that never had time to fade.
He didn't dwell on it.
That life was over. This one had lasted eighteen years already.
He washed his face and tied his hair back, then stepped into the hallway. Dust floated in the light filtering through the windows. The house was large, well-built, and expensive. Once, it had been full of merchants, guards, and workers. His parents' voices used to echo here, arguing about trade routes and profits.
Then they got sick.
Then they were gone.
And the house slowly emptied.
By the time he reached the courtyard, he was fully awake.
That was when something unfamiliar appeared in front of him.
A translucent panel hovered in the air, perfectly clear, perfectly still.
Lin Yuan stopped walking.
He didn't panic. He didn't shout. He simply stared.
The panel didn't flicker. It didn't react to his movement. It was real.
At the top, clean and emotionless words were displayed.
SECT MASTER SYSTEM
"So," Lin Yuan said quietly, "you finally decided to show up."
There was no dramatic music. No reward notification. No surge of power rushing through his veins.
Just an interface.
He waited a few breaths, testing himself. His heart rate stayed steady. If this thing existed, it followed rules. If it followed rules, it could be understood.
He stepped closer and opened the interface.
The first thing he checked was his own status.
Name. Cultivation. Role.
Sect Master.
No bonuses. No cultivation increase. No hidden strength.
His cultivation was listed as synced—but synced to what?
He scrolled.
The answer was clear.
His cultivation realm would always match the highest realm ever achieved by his disciples. Once reached, it would never drop. But it also could never exceed that limit.
His strength, however, would be multiplied by the number of disciples he had.
Lin Yuan read it twice. Then a third time.
"So I don't get stronger alone," he muttered. "I get stronger with people."
That was… reasonable.
He continued reading.
Buildings could not be created by the system. Only blueprints would be provided. Construction required tools, materials, and labor.
Summoning was locked.
Revival was hidden.
The Establish Sect function was grayed out.
LOCKED — LOCATION UNVERIFIED
Lin Yuan leaned against a stone pillar and thought.
This system wasn't here to make him a god overnight. It wasn't even trying to pretend. Everything about it pushed responsibility back onto him.
No disciples, no power.
No location, no sect.
No shortcuts.
He liked that.
He checked the world information next.
Tianyuan World. Eastern Desolate Continent. Blackstone Domain. Ridgefall City.
Broken Cloud Mountain was listed under Sect Location, but with a note beside it.
Candidate Only
Meaning it wasn't confirmed.
"Figures," Lin Yuan said.
He kept going, opening every available section.
Resources were empty.
Disciples were zero.
Buildings didn't exist.
The cultivation system listed nine realms, clean and straightforward. Mortal sat at the bottom. Great Ascension at the top. No hidden tiers. No fake mystery.
Finally, he read the system rules from top to bottom.
Logout disabled during combat.
Earth disciples only.
Qi-constructed bodies.
Revival with cost and cooldown.
Everything made sense.
He tested the logic in his head.
Could he establish a sect in the city? No—ownership and environment issues.
Could he recruit locals? No.
Could he brute-force enemies using numbers alone? No—realm suppression still applied.
Could he exploit the multiplier? Only within the same realm.
There were no loopholes.
When he closed the interface, the panel didn't disappear. It simply waited.
Lin Yuan exhaled slowly.
"Alright," he said. "Now I know what I'm working with."
Only then did he look at his situation honestly.
He was eighteen. A mortal. Alone. With money, but no backing. In a world where money without power only made you a target.
The system didn't promise safety. It promised scale—if he could build it.
He left the house and walked into Ridgefall City.
The streets were already busy. Vendors shouted. Guards changed shifts. Cultivators passed through the crowd with casual arrogance, their presence alone enough to make ordinary people step aside.
Lin Yuan kept walking.
This city didn't care about fallen merchant families. It didn't care about orphans. It cared about strength.
He stopped in front of a broker's office. The sign was old, but reliable. Deals were made there every day—some profitable, some ruinous.
He didn't go inside.
Not yet.
Instead, he returned home and sat at his desk, opening old account books. He went through them carefully, line by line. Assets. Property. Trade rights. Stored goods.
He wasn't selling today.
He was planning.
Tools came first.
Not pills. Not talismans.
Real tools.
Mining picks. Saws. Hammers. Carts. Storage crates. Rope. Nails.
Things that let people build instead of pretend.
Construction materials would come next. Spirit stones would be kept as reserve, not wasted.
By the time the sun reached its peak, he had a clear plan.
The merchant life was over.
This wealth would become sect capital—or it would be meaningless.
That afternoon, he gave instructions to the last caretaker. Wages were paid. Keys returned. No explanations given.
The man bowed deeply, relief clear on his face. Staying in an abandoned estate was bad luck.
Lin Yuan packed light and left Ridgefall City before sunset.
Broken Cloud Mountain wasn't visible yet, only a dark outline far away. He paused on the road and opened the system again.
Nothing had changed.
That was fine.
"First," he said quietly, "I find the place."
Then he walked on.