Prologue: The Hypothesis of Divisibility
Age 15. The Gu Clan Archives.
The candle flickered, not because of the wind, but because the oxygen in the room was being consumed by Gu Xian's racing mind. He sat surrounded by scrolls that dated back to the Era of the Red Moon—texts that promised immortality, dominance, and godhood.
He hated them.
"Inefficient," Gu Xian whispered, his voice cracking from days of disuse. "They treat the soul like a stone to be polished. They do not understand... the soul is a frequency."
At fifteen, Gu Xian was a mediocrity. His Spirit Root was a fractured, turbid thing. In the Gu Clan, where power was the only currency, he was destined to be a clerk, a footnote in the history of his betters. But Gu Xian possessed something the Elders did not: a terrifying capacity for deductive reasoning.
He had spent three years observing the "Chosen Ones"—the geniuses with perfect roots. He noticed a pattern. Their growth was linear. They absorbed Qi, they refined it, they leveled up.
But what if one could cultivate in parallel?
He looked down at the array he had drawn on the floor. It wasn't a traditional formation. It was a geometric paradox, a shape he had derived from studying the erratic movements of void-insects. It was designed to do one thing: induce a controlled psychotic break.
"If I stay whole, I remain finite," he murmured, picking up the jagged shard of a Spirit Stone. "But if I break... I can process the universe in parallel."
He didn't hesitate. There was no dramatic speech. There was only the cold application of a blade to his own wrist, followed by the activation of the array.
Pain.
It wasn't the pain of injury; it was the pain of deletion. He felt his consciousness being pulled through a sieve.
Shard One: Destination [Earth]. Objective: Assimilate Logic, Physics, and Thermodynamics.
Shard Two: Destination [The Murim of Broken Swords]. Objective: Assimilate Kinetic Intent and Lethality.
Shard Three: Destination [The Plane of Eldritch Whispers]. Objective: Assimilate the Unknowable.
Gu Xian's eyes rolled back. His body slumped onto the cold stone floor, entering a coma that the clan would mistake for a cultivation deviation.
The experiment had begun. The subject was himself. The hypothesis was simple: To become God, one must first become a Legion.
Chapter 1: The thermodynamic Failure of a "Miracle"
Two Years Later. The Sun-Severing Peak.
The sun hung high over the Gu Clan's training grounds, a brutal white eye staring down at the disciples gathered below. The air smelled of ozone and arrogance.
Today was the Quarterly Assessment. A day for the strong to trample the weak.
In the center of the arena stood Lin Feng. He was a branch disciple, a nobody who had suddenly risen to prominence in the last month. He stood with his chest puffed out, a mocking grin plastered on his face.
Opposite him sat Gu Xian.
The Young Patriarch had been awake for only three hours. He sat on a wooden chair that had been brought into the arena, his posture slumped, his eyes seemingly unfocused. The crowd whispered. They called him the "Sleeping Fool." They said his soul had been shattered by his own incompetence.
"Gu Xian!" Lin Feng roared, pointing a sword wreathed in azure flames at the seated figure. "Get up! Do not think your father's status can protect you today. The Heavens witness this duel! If you are too cowardly to fight, crawl between my legs and abdicate your position!"
Gu Xian blinked.
Inside his mind, a terminal screen flickered to life. The Earth Shard had successfully reintegrated. The data download was massive—seventy years of theoretical physics, chemistry, and engineering flooded his neural pathways in a microsecond.
He didn't see Lin Feng. He saw a collection of atoms held together by weak nuclear forces. He didn't see the "Azure Flame." He saw an exothermic reaction of ionized copper particles fueled by an external Qi source.
"Coward?" Gu Xian's voice was soft, barely a whisper, yet it cut through the arena's noise like a scalpel.
He stood up. He didn't explode with power. He didn't release a terrifying aura. He simply adjusted his robes and walked toward Lin Feng. His steps were rhythmic—tap, tap, tap—perfectly timed to the chaotic beating of Lin Feng's heart.
"You speak of the Heavens," Gu Xian said, stopping five meters away. "But you do not understand the laws that govern them."
Lin Feng sneered. "I don't need to understand laws! I have the Solar Scripture!"
He lunged. The azure flame on his sword roared, expanding into a three-meter vortex of fire intended to incinerate Gu Xian instantly.
The crowd screamed.
Gu Xian did not dodge. He raised his right hand, his fingers arranged in a strange, claw-like grip.
[Calculation Complete.]
[Atmospheric Composition: 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Argon.]
[Target: Oxidation Reaction.]
[Solution: Localized Vacuum State.]
Gu Xian channeled his Qi—not as a blunt force, but as a magnetic containment field. He targeted the air directly in front of Lin Feng's sword. With a precise pulse of energy, he pushed the nitrogen and oxygen molecules away, creating a bubble of absolute vacuum the size of a melon.
Whoosh.
There was no bang. There was only the sound of air rushing to fill the void.
The azure flame, deprived of oxygen, didn't just go out. It ceased to exist. The chemical reaction was severed instantly. Lin Feng's sword, now cold and lifeless, struck the invisible barrier of pressurized air Gu Xian had created.
Clang.
The vibration traveled up Lin Feng's arm, shattering his wrist bone.
"Aaaaghh!" Lin Feng dropped the sword, clutching his hand, his eyes wide with horror. "My... my fire! What did you do? You used a demonic art to steal my fire!"
Gu Xian looked down at him, his face a mask of indifference. "Fire is not magic, Lin Feng. It is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion. I simply removed the oxidizer."
He took a step forward.
"You are not a dragon," Gu Xian stated, his black eyes devoid of any humanity. "You are merely a matchstick in a room where I control the air."
Chapter 2: The Architecture of Cruelty
The silence in the arena was absolute. Even the Elders on the viewing platform had risen to their feet, their faces pale. They had seen water extinguish fire. They had seen wind blow away fire. But they had never seen fire simply... turn off.
Gu Xian ignored them. He was running a diagnostic on his own body.
[Host Status: Critical.]
[Muscle Density: Sub-optimal.]
[Bone Structure: Calcium-Phosphate Matrix (Brittle).]
[Neural Latency: 0.15 seconds (Too Slow).]
Inefficient, he thought. This vessel is garbage.
The Earth Shard's logic was ruthless. It viewed his biological body not as "sacred flesh" but as a machine that was poorly engineered. To hold the power of the other shards that would return soon, he needed to upgrade.
He turned to leave, but Lin Feng, driven by the humiliation and the "Narrative Will" of a minor antagonist, scrambled for a hidden dagger in his boot.
"Die, you trash!" Lin Feng screamed, throwing the dagger.
It was coated in Black Mamba Venom, a fast-acting neurotoxin.
Gu Xian didn't turn around. He didn't need to. The hairs on the back of his neck sensed the displacement of air.
[Projectile Vector: 34 degrees.]
[Velocity: 45 m/s.]
[Calculated Intercept Point: C7 Vertebrae.]
Gu Xian tilted his head exactly 4.2 centimeters to the left.
The dagger sailed past his ear, snipping a single strand of his black hair, and embedded itself in the stone wall with a spark.
Gu Xian stopped. He slowly turned back to face Lin Feng.
"I calculated a 98% probability that you would attempt a secondary attack," Gu Xian said. "I am disappointed. I hoped the variable of 'Fear' would override the variable of 'Stupidity'."
He lifted his hand again. This time, he pointed his index finger at Lin Feng's chest.
"Since you wish to understand the flow of energy so badly, let me teach you about Hydrostatic Pressure."
Gu Xian focused his Qi into a needle-thin beam. He didn't aim for the heart or the head. He aimed for the major artery in Lin Feng's thigh.
Thwip.
The beam was invisible, but the effect was immediate. It punctured the artery and simultaneously cauterized the entry point, but left the internal vessel ruptured.
Lin Feng collapsed, screaming as his leg swelled rapidly, the internal bleeding creating immense pressure against his muscle fascia.
"I have ruptured your femoral artery but sealed the skin," Gu Xian explained clinically, as if lecturing a class. "Your own blood pressure is now crushing your nerves. You have approximately four minutes before compartment syndrome causes permanent necrosis. If you crawl to the infirmary now, you might save the leg. If you attack again... you will lose the limb."
Lin Feng looked at Gu Xian—really looked at him—and saw something that froze his blood. There was no anger in Gu Xian's eyes. There was no triumph. It was the look a butcher gives a piece of meat.
Lin Feng crawled. He dragged his swelling, purple leg across the stone, weeping in terror.
Gu Xian watched him go, then turned to the stunned Clan Elders.
"The assessment is over," he announced. "Send the monthly resource allocation reports to my chambers. I noticed a 15% discrepancy in the Spirit Stone ledger."
He walked away, leaving the entire clan terrified of the "Sleeping Fool" who had woken up as a monster.
Chapter 3: The Variable of Luck
The Patriarch's Chambers. That Night.
Gu Xian sat in the lotus position, but he wasn't meditating. He was dissecting a Spirit Stone.
Most cultivators absorbed the stone by holding it. Gu Xian had crushed it into dust and was observing the dust through a lens he had ground from pure quartz using Qi-abrasion.
"Crystalline lattice structure," he muttered. "The energy isn't inside the matter; it is trapped between the bonds. When the bond breaks, the energy is released as Qi."
Knock. Knock.
"Enter," Gu Xian said without looking up.
It was his father, Gu Tian. The Clan Patriarch. A man who could split a mountain with a shout. He looked at his son with a mixture of pride and unease.
"Xian'er," Gu Tian rumbled. "Your performance today... it was unorthodox. The Elders are claiming you used a Forbidden Art."
"The Elders believe thunder is the sound of the gods snoring," Gu Xian replied, finally looking up. "Their opinions are irrelevant data."
Gu Tian frowned. "You humiliated a branch disciple. Lin Feng has a strange destiny. He found a Black Stone in the Hinterlands. The High Priest says his luck is 'Golden'."
"Luck," Gu Xian repeated the word with distaste.
He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the stars. To anyone else, they were constellations. To Gu Xian, they were the Watchers—the bioluminescent sensors of the Great Algorithm.
"Father," Gu Xian said. "What you call 'Luck' is simply a probability bias engineered by the Heavens to protect their assets. Lin Feng is an asset. He is designed to rise, to challenge us, to destroy the Gu Clan so that the 'Old Guard' is recycled into fuel."
Gu Tian's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
"I am saying," Gu Xian turned, his face half in shadow, "that I am going to vivisect his luck."
[Plotting Trajectory...]
[Subject: Lin Feng.]
[Luck Status: High.]
[Counter-Strategy: Bureaucratic Dampening.]
"Do not kill Lin Feng," Gu Xian ordered. "If we kill him, the Heavens will just spawn another hero. Instead... promote him."
Gu Tian blinked. "Promote him?"
"Yes. Give him the position of 'Outer Sect Logistics Manager.' It sounds prestigious, but it involves tracking the grain inventory of ten thousand disciples. It requires twelve hours of paperwork a day."
Gu Xian's lips curled into a rare, terrifying smile.
"Let us see if his 'Golden Luck' can save him from the despair of accounting. I will bury his destiny under a mountain of administrative boredom. I will force his genre to shift from 'Action-Adventure' to 'Slice of Life'."
Gu Tian stared at his son. He felt a chill run down his spine. This wasn't the cruelty of a warrior; it was the cruelty of a bureaucracy.
"As you wish," Gu Tian whispered.
Chapter 4: The Algorithm of Flesh
One Month Later.
The plan worked.
Lin Feng, the "Hero," had not found a single ancient treasure in thirty days. He was too busy arguing with grain suppliers about the price of rice. Every time he tried to sneak away to a dungeon, a "coincidental" urgent audit would appear, forcing him to stay. His cultivation had stalled. His spirit was breaking—not from torture, but from tedium.
Gu Xian, however, was busy with something far darker.
He was deep within the clan's underground prison. In front of him, strapped to a table, was a captured assassin from a rival sect. The man was alive, but his eyes were wide with madness.
Gu Xian held a scalpel made of refined Bone-Steel.
[Project: Body Refinement v1.0.]
[Objective: Nervous System Overclock.]
"The human nervous system transmits signals at approximately 120 meters per second," Gu Xian told the screaming man. "That is too slow. If I am to fight the Gods, I need to move at the speed of thought."
He wasn't torturing the man for information. He was using him as a prototype.
Gu Xian dipped the scalpel into a bowl of silvery liquid—Mercury-infused Qi.
"I am going to replace your myelin sheath—the insulation around your nerves—with this conductive fluid," Gu Xian explained. "It will either increase your reaction speed by 400%, or it will short-circuit your brain and turn you into a vegetable. Let us find out."
The Earth Shard demanded data.
Gu Xian began to cut. He worked with the precision of a machine. He severed the nerve endings, injected the fluid, and stitched them back together using Qi threads.
The assassin convulsed. Electricity crackled from his eyes. Then, he went still.
[Subject Status: Terminated.]
[Cause of Death: Neural Voltage Overload.]
Gu Xian sighed and wiped the blood from his hands. "Failure. The conductivity was too high. I need a stabilizer."
He looked at his own hand. He needed to perform this surgery on himself eventually. But he needed a material that could handle the voltage.
Void Mineral.
He remembered the reports. The Wei Sect, a mid-tier clan three hundred miles to the east, possessed a mine of "Star-Iron." The locals thought it was just hard metal. Gu Xian knew it was Super-Conductive Ore that had fallen from the upper atmosphere.
"The Wei Sect," Gu Xian murmured. "They have 3,000 members. Men, women, children."
He checked his mental ledger.
[Resource Required: 500kg of Star-Iron.]
[Obstacle: Wei Sect Ownership.]
[Negotiation Probability: 12% (Inefficient).]
[Total Liquidation Probability: 100% (Efficient).]
He walked out of the cell, leaving the corpse behind.
"Prepare the Shadow Guard," Gu Xian told the servant waiting outside. "And bring me the map of the Wei Sect's water tables. I need to calculate the dispersion rate of a neurotoxin."
The servant trembled. "Young Master... are we going to war?"
"No," Gu Xian adjusted his cuffs. "War implies a chance of failure. We are going to perform an extraction."