Midnight on Hidden Mist Island
The stars shimmered like scattered diamonds across the night sky, painting a tapestry of stillness over Hidden Mist Island. Mist clung to the ancient peaks, the only movement in an otherwise breathless world.
At the summit of one such peak, Bai Tian Long sat cross-legged. His breath was steady, but his eyes were locked on the ethereal system screen floating before him.
────────────────────────────────────
[ SYSTEM INTERFACE ]
────────────────────────────────────
Name: Bai Tian Long
Age: 16
───────────[ TALENTS ]────────────
1. Split Soul Avatar (F-Rank, Evolvable)
2. Space Strengthening (S-Rank)
3. Eye of Knowledge (S-Rank)
──────────[ STATUS ]─────────────
Cultivation: NULL
Cultivation Techniques: NULL
Beast Contracts: NULL
Imperial Beast-Taming Rank: NULL
Imperial Beast Skills: NULL
──────[ SKILLS & TECHNIQUES ]──────
Spells: NULL
Martial Arts: NULL
Body Techniques: NULL
────────────────────────────────────
The moment the system had awakened at the stroke of midnight—the exact second he turned sixteen—his world had changed. Three lights had surged into him. And now, the golden script glowed calmly, as if waiting for his next command.
But Bai Tian Long had yet to notice the world around him had also changed.
From his body, a golden light radiated outward—slowly at first, then all at once. It was warm like dawn, yet profound like ancient memory. It surged into the sky like a second sun being born.
The mist peeled back. The trees stilled. The wind knelt.
Below, across the Bai clan's temporary settlement, heads turned.
Children stopped mid-laugh. Elders straightened as if summoned. Warriors froze with blades in hand. Every soul lifted their gaze toward the peak.
And all fell silent.
This light—it was not just spiritual energy. It carried weight, history, and destiny. It was the echo of a primordial mark—the ancient signature left behind when the first beast and the first human formed the original pact in the Era of Chaos.
In this era, it had evolved. And now, it had awakened in him.
---
Cliffside Pavilion — Divine Observation Mirror
Far away, within a secluded cliffside observatory, Jiang Chen stared at the Divine Observation Mirror in disbelief. The image of Bai Tian Long blazed so brightly that the mirror's edge rippled.
"So the ripple earlier wasn't a fluke," he muttered. "The mirror felt it. That moment of awakening—this system—it's beyond coincidence."
Just then, a portal shimmered beside him.
Wu Lin stepped out, tail flicking casually. "Hah. Looks like I didn't miss the fireworks."
Jiang Chen didn't look away from the mirror. "You're just in time. Look."
Bai Tian Feng leaned in, her expression uncharacteristically serious. She squinted.
"...Is that my brother?"
Jiang Chen nodded once. "And apparently… a Saint in the making."
---
The Peak — Bai Wu Arrives
Back on Hidden Mist Island, a rushing figure broke through the treetops—Bai Wu, hair wind-tossed, eyes wide. He halted at the base of the radiant peak, heart pounding.
Behind him came two of the Bai Clan's Golden Core elders. Their aged eyes shone with disbelief.
"That light… Is it the Saint's light?" one breathed.
"No," whispered the other. "This is something deeper. This is the bloodline mark. This is the world itself responding."
"He can be trained. Used. Molded."
But Bai Wu shook his head. "No. Not used. He will choose. We will follow."
All around, the Bai clansmen stood in reverent awe.
For the first time in decades, the clan felt something stir beneath their chests.
Hope.
----
Far from the light-drenched summit, in the mist-veiled outer regions of the continent, a figure cloaked in rags stepped into a bustling outer-city marketplace.
Bai Zhen, once Bai Zenyu, now walked under a new name, carrying old memories and broken bones.
Since awakening in the body of a fallen disciple, his path had been quiet, cautious. The closest market to his former sect—where his name once echoed—he dared not approach. His enemies might still watch.
So he had traveled for an entire month, wounded and hidden, circling mountains and forests, until he reached a remote trade hub built along a spiritual vein: the Stone Vein Market.
His injuries had worsened during the journey. The remnants of shattered spiritual veins ached with every breath. His limbs bore infection, his soul frayed at the edges. But at last, here, he could begin to heal.
He'd traded some salvaged items for common cultivator robes, discarded his ruined identity tokens, and adopted the name Bai Zhen.
Now, among street-side apothecaries and dusty scroll stalls, he moved silently, studying herbs, pills, and people alike.
He was no longer the beast-taming master of the Bai Clan.
But in the shadows of the mortal realm, something colder — and more calculating — had begun to stir.
His steps were heavy, but his thoughts sharper than ever. Bai Zhen knew well the price of walking the path alone. As a loose cultivator, one without sect backing or spiritual inheritance, advancing beyond Qi Condensation was like walking a threadbare bridge over an abyss.
"Foundation Establishment… it won't come through willpower alone," he muttered to himself, fingers curled tightly around a worn coin pouch.
Pills were expensive. High-grade spirit roots even more so. Without a reliable spiritual vein or trusted backers, he would be stuck at the edge of power, forgotten in back-alley markets and monster-haunted forests.
But he had a card to play. A secret buried in old memories.
In the mountains south of the Stone Vein Market, concealed beneath talisman wards and miasmic mist, there existed a forgotten hidden treasury—once part of a hidden Bai Clan inheritance, long erased from public records. It was dangerous. Trapped. Possibly even cursed.
But if the core had survived…
"If I can retrieve even half of what lies within,"
Bai Zhen thought, eyes narrowing,
"Foundation Establishment would be guaranteed. Core Formation and nascent soul… just a matter of time."
A decade. Two, at most.
He turned away from the herb stall and disappeared into the crowd.
He was no longer the beast-taming master of the Bai Clan.
But in the shadows of the mortal realm, something colder — and more calculating — had begun to stir.
The will of Bai Zhen burned low and steady.
He would rise again.
---