Everything felt like it was breaking apart — and yet, something was coming together.
I sat motionless in the center of the stone chamber. My legs ached, my breath trembled, and my soul… my soul was splitting.
It wasn't pain. It was transcendence.
A moment later—BOOM!
A golden ripple burst out of me, shaking the entire mountaintop. The walls cracked, qi scattered, and my mind was flooded with a thousand images — but none of them were mine.
💀 "These memories… where did they come from?"
Another life flashed through me.
Hospitals. Tubes. A world with no cultivation. A boy, sick and dying, staring at a ceiling he would never see again. Parents holding his hand, weeping in silence, pretending to smile.
"You don't have to be strong anymore… You've done enough."
Then… silence. Regret.A quiet death.
But not an ending.
His soul drifted through something vast and dark… until it crashed into me — or rather, into the soul that had once been Su Chen. One shattering, the other incomplete.
And the two… became one.
I gasped, eyes shooting open.The qi in my meridians howled like a storm — it was too much, too fast.The breakthrough to Nascent Soul Realm… had succeeded.
⚡ I Had Ascended.
The ground beneath me cracked. The ancient qi veins buried under Voidflame Peak began to tremble faintly, responding to something they hadn't felt in centuries.
I stood slowly, mind still reeling from the soul merge.Two lifetimes' worth of instincts, emotions, and pain blended inside me like swirling clouds.
So this is the new me… Su Chen. Or am I something else entirely?
Before I could even begin to process it all, a sharp gust of wind howled down through the open windows of the chamber—followed by a sudden presence.
👤 The Core Elder Appears
He arrived without footsteps. Just a sweep of robes and a scent of sandalwood.
An elder of the sect — mid-aged, eyes like quiet knives, and robes etched with the sect's insignia.
Elder Mo Tianheng.
"You've broken through to Nascent Soul Realm at nineteen…"He spoke calmly, but I could hear the subtle disbelief in his tone. "You've truly shaken the sect."
I didn't bow. I just stared at him. Calm. Unmoved. Too many emotions were already swimming inside me.
"From this day forth," he continued, "by decree of the Sect Master and the Four Pillars, this peak—Voidflame Peak—shall be your personal domain."
My brows twitched.Voidflame Peak? The cursed mountain? The dead zone where no qi flowed and no herbs grew?
He gave a faint smile, as if reading my thoughts.
"This peak has been sealed and avoided for centuries. But when you broke through, it… resonated.""The flame qi deep beneath it stirred, and the void formation pulses revived."
So this mountain chose me?
"Therefore," he said solemnly, "you are now officially recognized as an Inner Peak Elder of Divine Origin Sect. You may name disciples, teach cultivation, and hold authority over your territory."
The words echoed in my ears like thunder.
An Inner Elder… at nineteen.
The previous Su Chen was a monster of cultivation, but even he wouldn't have imagined this.
I gave the elder a short nod. "…Understood."
He studied me for a moment longer.Maybe he saw something he didn't recognize — a new soul, a new intent, hiding behind familiar eyes.
But he said nothing else.
With a flick of his sleeve, he turned and vanished like wind into cloud.
🥃 A Master With No Past
I stood alone again.
The silence returned, but it wasn't the same.
Voidflame Peak… had acknowledged me.The sect had acknowledged me.
And I… wasn't even sure who I really was anymore.
Su Chen. Earth's dying child. A soul broken and reborn.
I looked around the empty peak — barren, quiet, lifeless.My only companion: an old jug of wine resting on a cracked stone table.
I drank.
It burned. I coughed.
And I laughed.
"So now I have a mountain. A title. Power I don't fully understand… and permission to recruit disciples."
I stepped outside, staring up at the setting sun.
The wind at this height was cold — not harsh, but crisp. Free.
"This time… I'm going to live for myself."
Behind me, the cracked formation at the center of the chamber pulsed once.
A faint, golden ripple echoed inside my soul — silent and unnoticed.
Something ancient had been watching.
It had waited for this very moment.
[To be continued in Chapter 2: The System That Pays Back Fate Itself]