Three days had passed since Jian Wu left the Yunlan Cave, the place where that black-blue stone had pierced his chest and rewritten his very existence.
From that moment on, the boy who had once been called empty began walking a path no one else could see.
Mist clung to the forest floor like a living thing. The air was heavy, cold, and thick with the scent of rain and wet leaves. Birds stayed silent. The only sound was the faint rustle of Jian Wu's steps as he moved through the fog, directionless but determined.
He had not eaten since yesterday. His body trembled with fatigue, yet his mind refused to rest.
I shouldn't be alive, he thought. And yet… I am.
Above, the gray sky stretched endlessly. Not a single ray of sunlight touched the ground. It was as if the heavens themselves were holding their breath.
"The heavens are laughing at me," he muttered, voice barely audible. "They gave everyone a path but me."
He came upon a stream, its surface dark and still. When he knelt to drink, the water reflected a faint shimmer in his eyes, blue and black intertwined like a swirling storm.
Jian Wu froze. "What… is happening to me?"
Before he could think, the ground shook beneath him. A low growl echoed from the thicket. Leaves scattered as a Black Spirit Wolf stepped out, its body rippling with spiritual energy. The beast was twice his size, its fangs glinting wet under the pale light.
Jian Wu clenched his jaw. His only weapon was a broken branch, still slick with rain. "If the world wants to erase me," he said, steadying his breath, "then it will have to fight me first."
The wolf lunged.
Jian Wu moved purely on instinct. He dodged left, feeling claws tear into his arm. Blood spattered the ground. The pain was sharp, real, but what followed was not.
Time stopped.
Sound vanished. The air froze mid-breath. Even his heartbeat slowed until it was the only thing left in existence.
Then, a voice spoke, not from the air, not from afar, but from within his chest.
"You're still alive… even though the world refuses you."
Jian Wu's eyes widened. "Who.. who's there?"
"You are not empty, Jian Wu. You're a vessel that cannot be filled."
His wound began to glow, faint threads of blue spreading beneath the skin. The ground trembled. Energy burst outward in a silent wave, erasing the wolf in an instant. It did not fall, it simply ceased to exist.
Jian Wu stood frozen, staring at his trembling hand. "What… was that…?"
"You heard the void," the voice whispered. "And the void remembers you."
He turned slowly, scanning the trees. "Who are you?"
"No one. A memory that the world tried to forget."
Then, silence again.
The forest seemed to hold its breath, as if listening too.
Far above the mist, within the Azure Sky Sect, chaos brewed.
Inside the Hall of Elders, disciples knelt before their masters. Torches flickered along the stone walls, casting restless shadows.
"I saw it with my own eyes!" one disciple cried. "The boy, Jian Wu! The one without a core! He destroyed a third-rank spirit beast with a single blow!"
The elders exchanged uneasy glances. Whispers spread through the chamber.
"That's impossible…"
"No mortal without a core could wield energy like that."
At the center of the hall, Elder Yan Mu, a stern man with white hair tied in a knot, tapped his cane once. The echo silenced everyone.
"If that story is true," he said slowly, "then every law of cultivation we've built for a century is a lie."
He turned to the disciples. His eyes gleamed like cold steel.
"Find him. Bring him back alive if you can. If not, erase his existence."
The disciples bowed deeply. "Yes, Elder!"
Among them, a young woman remained silent, Lin Qian, calm yet thoughtful. She lowered her head, but her mind lingered elsewhere.
A boy without a core… yet he survived. What kind of power did he awaken?
That night, Jian Wu sat beside a small fire inside a narrow cave. The flame flickered against the wet walls, its warmth barely touching his numb fingers.
He stared at his palm again. The faint blue light pulsed beneath his skin like a heartbeat not his own.
"If this is power," he whispered, "why does it feel like loneliness?"
"You are not alone."
The voice again, soft, cold, familiar.
Jian Wu looked up, heart pounding. "You again. What are you?"
"The sect is looking for you."
He froze. "How do you know that?"
"Because I've seen this before."
A pause. Then—
"Because I am what you will become."
Jian Wu clenched his fists. "You're lying."
"Am I? I once defied the heavens… and failed. The world buried me. Now it remembers, through you."
The flames flickered violently. Jian Wu looked into the fire and saw fleeting images: towers collapsing, skies breaking, shadows swallowing the sun.
His breath quickened. "What… are these memories?"
"They are yours now."
Then the voice faded again, leaving behind only the soft crackle of fire and the ache of fear mixed with wonder.
Three days later, a search party from the Azure Sky Sect found the cave.
Inside, they found only ashes and one sentence carved into the stone wall:
If the world rejects my existence, then I will become the void itself.
The disciples exchanged uneasy looks. Their leader, Lin Qian, traced the words with her fingertips.
"The world just gave birth to something it can no longer control," she murmured.
Her eyes lingered on the mark glowing faintly beneath the ashes, a spiral of light and darkness. She didn't tell the others what it meant.
Far to the north, beneath the rolling mist, Jian Wu climbed a rocky ridge. The sky above was thick with storm clouds, thunder rumbling in the distance.
His wound had healed, but the mark on his chest pulsed stronger each day, whispering in a language he didn't understand.
He reached the summit and looked up at the endless gray.
"The heavens closed my path," he said quietly, "but I'll make one of my own."
Lightning flashed across the sky as if the world itself answered.
"Then walk, Jian Wu. Let the heavens watch as you rise."
He smiled faintly. "Then watch me."
And with that, the boy once mocked as empty took his first true step into the unknown, toward the void that called his name.