The wind howled over icy cliffs. Snow battered the black walls of Iron Seal Prison, carved into a glacier.
Wan Shui soldiers huddled at the gate, cloaks pulled tight, torches flickering blue in the cold.
Their captain squinted through the swirling sleet.
> "Identify yourself!"
From the blizzard stepped a lone man. His robes were layered white and yellow, embroidered with a black scorpion sigil across the back.
Silver eyes gleamed under his dark hair as he smiled politely.
> "Good evening, gentlemen."
The captain drew his sword.
> "Stand down and state your business!"
The stranger sighed.
> "I don't have time for explanations."
He raised one sleeve. A golden light shimmered around his fingers, flowing like liquid.
The soldiers braced—too slow.
WHUMP!
A blast of golden Qi rippled outward in a perfect circle. It hit them like a crashing wave.
Armor clattered. Men cried out as they were thrown back into the snow, weapons skidding away. One by one they slumped, unconscious but breathing, their chests rising and falling slowly in the cold air.
The stranger lowered his hand calmly.
> "Much better. No unnecessary noise."
He approached the huge black-ice gates.
Pressing his palm against them, he closed his eyes. The ancient ice shuddered, thin cracks webbing out from where he touched it.
He smiled thinly, eyes glinting.
> "So this is where the Chaos Dao sleeps... how nostalgic."
The wind in the Bai Manor gardens was gentle, warm with early spring.
But the old peach trees were overgrown. Blossoms fell without care, carpeting the ground in wilting pink.
Li Bai sat alone beneath one crooked branch.
His knees were drawn to his chest. His small hands clenched at the worn fabric of his robes.
He stared at the earth.
"The pact is broken."
Xuan Li's words felt like iron in his skull.
> "Your father is dust. The agreement ends today."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Father…
He remembered hearing stories: Huan Bai, the Crimson General, unbending before emperors, unyielding on battlefields.
Now their name was mocked in hushed gossip.
> "The demon's child."
"The Bai clan is finished."
Li Bai shook, jaw tight.
> Is that it? Is this how we end? Forgotten?
A breeze rustled the grass. Peach petals landed in his hair, ignored.
In that silence, he heard only the hammering of his own furious heart.
Uncle Zhao walked slowly down the garden path, staff tapping gently against the stones.
He stopped beside Li Bai and sat with a soft grunt, knees cracking.
They didn't speak at first.
Finally Zhao sighed.
> "Young Master, let me tell you a story."
Li Bai didn't look up, but he listened.
---
> "Long ago, there was a pegasus born without wings. The others mocked him, said he would never soar in the skies like them."
> "But the pegasus refused to accept it. He trained every day. He ran faster than the wind, jumped higher than the trees."
> "When storms came, he leapt into them. When mountains blocked him, he climbed them until his hooves bled."
> "And in time, he learned to leap so high he touched the stars. They say he even left the earth behind and galloped across the universe itself."
---
Zhao's eyes were gentle as they met Li Bai's.
> "The world will say you can't fly, Young Master. That you have no wings, no hope."
He squeezed the boy's shoulder.
> "Then you make them watch how high you jump."
---
Li Bai swallowed hard. His eyes were wet, but he nodded.
---
After the silence that followed the story, Li Bai sniffed and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
Zhao fell quiet for a moment...
Wind whispered through the old garden.
Li Bai frowned.
> "Uncle Zhao… why do they hate us so much? The Mo family?"
Zhao's eyes clouded. He seemed to age ten years in an instant.
> "You deserve to know."
He adjusted his robe, settling onto the stone bench more firmly.
---
> "Many years ago, before you were born, your grandfather Bai Shen and Mo Fan's father Mo Zhen were sworn brothers."
> "They fought side by side in the War of Nine Hells, a campaign to cleanse the borderlands of demons and raiders. Together they took fortresses and saved villages."
Li Bai's eyes widened a little.
> "So they were friends?"
Zhao nodded grimly.
> "Yes. At first. But when the war ended, everything changed."
---
He lowered his voice.
> "Beneath those conquered lands lay veins of spirit ores—minerals filled with Qi. They were meant to be claimed for the Empire."
> "But Mo Zhen… he kept them for himself."
Li Bai blinked.
> "He stole them?"
> "Worse. He buried entire villages alive to hide the evidence. Men, women, children—all silenced to protect his secret."
Li Bai's hands trembled in his lap.
> "That's… horrible."
---
Zhao's voice cracked.
> "Your grandfather couldn't ignore it. He reported Mo Zhen to the Imperial Court. The Emperor fined the Mo clan, stripped them of the imperial general rank. But he didn't destroy them completely."
Li Bai scowled.
> "So they blamed us."
> "They never forgave us. Over the decades they bribed officials, spread lies, poisoned alliances. The Bai family was too strong to destroy openly… as long as your father lived."
---
Zhao exhaled.
> "General Huan Bai was the wall that held them back. They feared him. But now he's gone, and they think they can do anything."
Li Bai's face hardened.
> "They want us gone forever."
Zhao nodded, eyes glinting with stubborn fire.
> "That's why you have to live, Young Master. Why you must grow. So one day, you can stand before them and make them remember why the Bai name was feared."
Li Bai straightened, eyes clear.
> "I will. I swear it."
Zhao closed his eyes, a single tear slipping free.
> "Then there's hope yet."
After chatting for a while Li bai asks zhao...
>''What should we do now uncle Zhao?''
> "Because you're a threat, even now the Mo family wants to destroy you . Your father's name alone make them afraid."
Li Bai frowned.
> "But I'm weak."
Zhao shook his head.
> "You're untrained. Not weak. And you… you have awakened your Dao."
Li Bai blinked.
> "Dao?"
Zhao smiled faintly.
> "Dao, Young Master, is not just power. It is the truth of your own heart."
Li Bai blinked.
Zhao gestured to the trees, the wind, the falling petals.
> "The world is made of Qi—the breath of life. Every stone, flame, wind, and river has it."
> "But Dao is how a person shapes that Qi to match their own spirit. It listens to your deepest desire."
Li Bai frowned, curious.
> "Desire?"
Zhao nodded gravely.
> "Yes. When someone awakens their Dao, it forms a divine scene or illusion inside them. A vision that reflects their path."
> "It is different for every person. For one who seeks conquest, the Dao might appear as endless armies and banners. For one who desires peace, it may appear as a silent garden under moonlight."
He looked intently at Li Bai.
> "Your Dao will show you what you truly want—even things you cannot admit to yourself."
Li Bai shivered a little at that.
---
Zhao softened his voice.
> "Cultivation is the art of turning the body into a vessel worthy of holding that Dao. Without training, the vision means nothing."
He raised a finger for each realm as he explained slowly.
---
ו The Cultivation Realms •×
1. Qi Realm – You learn to sense and gather Qi. Your first understanding of your Dao.
2. Core Realm – You refine your Qi into a core, stabilizing your vision of your Dao.
3. Origin Realm – Your Dao fuses with your body, letting you manifest its illusions into reality.
4. Soul Realm – You master your spirit and can project your Dao to affect the minds and souls of others.
5. Divination Realm – You see the strands of fate itself, and your Dao guides you to change them.
6. Six Tribulation Realms – You face six cosmic calamities to prove your Dao is unbreakable. Only then do you transcend mortality.
---
Zhao rested a hand on Li Bai's shoulder.
> "Your Dao awakened on your birthday. That means your heart was crying so loudly the universe had to listen."
Li Bai's throat felt tight.
> "It showed me… a man fighting alone, dying on a mountain of corpses, but smiling at me."
Zhao's eyes darkened, but he nodded.
> "Then that is your path, Young Master. To fight. To protect. To never kneel—even if it means dying on your feet."
Li Bai clenched his fists.
> "Then teach me. So they can never take our name away."
Zhao smiled—old and tired, but proud.
> "That's the Bai blood I remember."
The sun was sinking beyond the western hills, casting the Bai Manor in long golden shadows.
The wind was calm. Peach blossoms drifted gently over cracked stone paths.
But far beyond the gates, on a lonely rise overlooking the manor, a lone figure stood watching.
He wore immaculate white robes, trimmed with deep charcoal lines that twisted into tiger-stripe patterns.
The cloth rippled around him though no wind blew.
His hair was bound in a simple knot, and his eyes were narrow, bright, and deeply amused.
He rested one gloved hand on the hilt of a slender curved blade at his side.
He watched the old manor in silence for a long moment.
Then he chuckled softly.
> "So… this is old Huan's house."
He turned slightly, eyes narrowing with interest.
> "How interesting."
The last light of the sun gleamed on his robe's tiger markings as he smiled thinly.
> "I wonder if the boy is anything like his father."
He turned away, the silk of his robes whispering like grass in the wind.
And just like that, he was gone—leaving only silence in the dying light.