The Chaos Realm.
The final and highest of the Four Great Realms.
Above the Mortal Realm, beyond the Immortal Realm, even greater than the God Realm—this land was home to ancient tyrants, heaven-defying beasts, and sects so old they had forgotten the names of the stars.
Among these unfathomable powers stood the legendary Hei Yunzong — the Black Cloud Sect. Its halls were carved into obsidian mountains that pierced the void. Its elders could turn oceans to mist with a sigh. Its disciples, proud and cruel, looked down upon gods like ants.
And buried deep within its borders, far from the sacred training grounds, jade pavilions, and dragon-carved towers, there was a cave.
And in that cave lived a boy.
His name was Wei Lian.
Fifteen years old.
No spirit root.
No meridian awakening.
No Qi.
A mortal in the heart of a realm where mortals had long since gone extinct.
To the outer disciples, he was vermin. To the inner sect, he was invisible. And to the great elders? He did not exist.
He hauled waste, scrubbed floors, fed beasts, and endured beatings in silence. No one questioned why he was there. No one remembered who brought him. He was just… part of the dirt.
But there was one person who knew.
Only one.
That night, as twin moons hung above the peaks of Hei Yunzong, casting pale light over the blackened clouds, she came.
Yu Meixiu.
A woman cloaked in plain grey robes, her hair tied in a low braid, her steps quiet — yet impossible to ignore. She stood outside the cave, staring at its entrance as if it were a tomb.
She was no ordinary woman. Long ago, she had shaken the Chaos Realm with a single roar. A peasant in name only. In truth, she was something far older… and far more dangerous.
"Lian," she called softly.
From the shadows, Wei Lian stepped out. Barefoot, blood on his knuckles, dirt caked across his clothes.
"Mother," he said without emotion.
Yu Meixiu nodded. She stepped aside and unwrapped a bundle — flatbread, dried fruit, and a small jug of spring water.
"Eat this. We leave before dawn."
Lian didn't move.
"Why now?" he asked.
"Because your bloodline won't protect you much longer," she replied.
"It never did," he said bitterly.
She looked at him for a long moment, her expression unreadable.
"The Patriarch will soon enter seclusion," she said. "And with him gone, the last thread of unspoken protection will vanish. The elders have long wanted you erased."
"Then let them try."
"No." Her voice sharpened. "You will not die here."
A swirl of light flickered in her palm. Runes coiled — ancient, forgotten. Space bent before her. A portal tore open — unstable, raw, but strong enough to breach the lower realms.
"This leads to the Mortal Realm. You'll be safe there."
Lian's eyes flicked toward it, then back to her.
"Safe," he echoed. "You want me to go and be what? A farmer? A coward pretending he was never born in the Chaos Realm?"
"A man who lives," she said.
He laughed — dry, bitter.
"No. I won't run. Not because I want to stay. But because I want to return."
He stepped closer, his voice low, steady, dangerous.
"I want to start from nothing. I want them to see what they left behind."
"You have no spirit root."
"I'll tear one into my bones."
"You have no Qi."
"Then I'll bleed power from the world itself."
She said nothing.
"Let me fall," Lian whispered. "Let me crawl through the dirt. Let me suffer. But one day…"
His eyes turned upward, toward the towering palaces of Hei Yunzong.
"…I'll climb higher than all of them."
"And when I do…"
"They'll remember the bastard they spat on."
A long silence followed.
Then, for the first time in years, Yu Meixiu placed her hand gently on his cheek.
"Then go. Go where none can hear your name. Go, and become something worth returning."
Wei Lian nodded.
And without another word, he stepped through the gate.
The light twisted.
The world screamed.
His body broke and reformed.
He fell like a dead star through countless layers of space…
And landed.
A field.
A sky of blue.
Mountains in the distance.
The Mortal Realm.
He had nothing.
No status.
No talent.
No future.
But he still had his name.
Wei Lian.
And one day… all the realms would remember it.