The forest slowly exhaled with the rising sun.
Axel sat near the stream long after his fight ended, letting the passing currents wash away the grime and dried blood from his arms. His breaths were slow, steady, controlled—yet every inhale drew more of the world into him. It wasn't just air. It was Qi.
Strands of luminous energy drifted on the breeze like faint wisps of silk. He could see them now—not clearly, not yet, but enough to know that they were everywhere. Enough to understand that everything in this world breathed this same essence. Humans, beasts, the earth, the sky.
His body reacted with an instinctive hunger.
He felt the warmth in his chest again, brighter this time, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. It was calling him, urging him to move deeper, to pay attention, to listen. Something ancient—his bloodline—was stirring, urging him forward.
Axel closed his eyes and let the sensations take him.
And the world shifted.
Colors faded. The sound of the stream dulled into a distant hum. The warm glow in his dantian expanded, pushing against the confines of his physical form. His consciousness sank into his body and for the first time, he saw it from the inside.
His meridians.
Twelve main channels. Eight extraordinary ones. Numerous smaller branches like intricate riverways. Most were dim, clogged, weak—years of living as a beaten, malnourished orphan had left this body underdeveloped. But faint light pulsed at key points, subtle but unmistakable.
This is my foundation, Axel realized. Fragile… but fixable.
He inhaled.
Qi moved.
At first, it trickled like a reluctant stream, sluggish and uneven. But the warmth from his bloodline nudged it forward, guiding it through the blocked channels. He felt the pathways tremble, stretch, and then open—one by one—like windows thrown wide after being sealed shut for years.
Pain followed.
Searing, biting pain that felt like molten fire surging through veins too narrow to contain it. His fingers dug into the dirt, breath hissing sharply between clenched teeth. But Axel endured. Compared to dying under truck headlights or waking in another man's broken body, this was nothing.
He pushed the Qi harder.
His meridians shook violently. The pain sharpened, nearly blinding, but with each pulse of agony came a strange relief. The blockages began to dissolve. Impurities—dark, sludge-like remnants of bodily weakness—burned away in the torrent of energy. Sweat poured down his face, thick and acrid, carrying the waste out through his pores.
Minutes passed. Or hours. Time dissolved in agony.
Then—
CRACK!
A sharp internal sound echoed through him, not from bone or muscle, but from deep within his meridian network.
The first channel had opened.
A rush of energy flooded in, light and refreshing like cool water in summer. Axel gasped, arching backward, eyes snapping open. The forest glowed with a clarity he'd never perceived before. Colors were sharper. Sound carried farther. The world itself felt... alive.
One meridian… open…
He wasn't done.
He closed his eyes again and pushed.
The second meridian opened with less resistance, the third with even less. With each success, the pain dulled and the flow of Qi became smoother. His body trembled under the strain, but his resolve only sharpened.
This was power—real, tangible power.
Not the fantasies he'd read on Earth. Not the empty daydreams whispered under exhausted breaths. This was him, Axel King, forging his path in a world where strength defined destiny.
He pushed harder.
Fourth meridian…
Fifth…
Sixth…
Lightning cracked inside him. The force nearly made him shout aloud, but he stifled the urge. Qi erupted through him like a storm, filling his limbs with vitality. His senses expanded outward—he could hear the scuttling of insects under stones, feel the faint warmth of sunlight through the treetops, even sense vibrations in the earth.
Seven…
Eight…
The ninth meridian bucked violently as he forced energy through it. Sweat rolled down his temples. Veins bulged. His teeth ground together until his jaw ached. The energy slammed again and again against the blockage—
BOOM!
The ninth meridian opened in a burst of golden light visible even outside his body.
Axel's breath left him in a ragged gasp, chest heaving, muscles trembling from head to toe. His vision blurred, then cleared as the world vibrated with newfound clarity. His body had become a vessel of flowing energy, no longer stagnant, no longer weak.
Then, the warmth of his bloodline surged.
A symbol—faint, ancient—glowed briefly on his chest. A sigil resembling a swirling cosmos, flickering like a dying star. It pulsed once, twice… and dissolved, leaving behind a deep, resonant hum in his bones.
Something had awakened.
Axel didn't know what. But he felt stronger. Sharper. Connected to something infinitely larger than himself.
He pushed himself upright, trembling but exhilarated. His senses still danced with the aftershock of breakthrough. He stared at his hands—calloused, small, but now brimming with power.
His fingertips buzzed with Qi.
I… I did it.
I opened the first stage of Mortal Foundation.
He inhaled slowly.
The forest breathed with him.
Axel stood, testing his body with slow movements. His muscles were no longer stiff or malnourished. His posture straightened naturally. Every step felt lighter, smoother, controlled. His vision extended farther, catching movements that had once been invisible to him.
He experimentally curled his fingers.
Golden light flickered between them.
Not strong, not yet—but real. Tangible. His Qi.
He grinned, a sharp, feral grin he didn't recognize.
"I'm… a cultivator," he whispered.
Not quite powerful. Not safe. Not even close.
But no longer weak.
The memory of the Chen Clan flashed behind his eyes—the arrogant Young Master, the bully who had killed the original Axel with casual cruelty. A coldness crept into Axel's chest.
I'm not the same boy he killed.
He would not be prey again.
Suddenly, the earth trembled.
Axel stiffened.
A wave of aura—dense, oppressive, far stronger than the shadow beast or obsidian wolf—rolled through the forest. Trees bowed under its pressure. Birds fled in chaotic clouds. The stream churned, reacting to the disturbance.
Axel's heart slammed into his ribs.
A cultivator… a strong one…
The aura approached rapidly.
Axel crouched instinctively, gathering Qi into his legs. He didn't know who or what was coming, but every instinct screamed danger.
The forest parted—
And a girl stepped out.
No, not a girl. A woman. Young by appearance—perhaps sixteen or seventeen—but her presence was vast, ancient. Her eyes shimmered with galaxies. Her aura was controlled but mighty, like a slumbering dragon wrapped in silk.
Her robes were pristine white, embroidered with constellations. A jade hairpin shaped like an eight-pointed star held her long raven hair in place.
She glanced at Axel.
Her gaze pierced him like a blade.
"You…" Her voice was soft, echoing with power beyond comprehension. "You awakened… that bloodline."
Axel froze.
The Qi in his body shrank in fear.
"Wh—who are you?"
The woman stepped closer. The forest seemed to hold its breath.
"I am Ning Xueya." She paused, expression unreadable. "From the Hongmeng Ancestral World."
Axel's breath hitched. He felt the weight of her words instantly.
The highest world. The birthplace of gods.
Ning Xueya lifted a hand. A gentle pulse of silver energy swept over him, reading him, analyzing him. Axel felt exposed, small, yet seen in a way no one ever had.
"A mortal with the Hongmeng King Bloodline…" She whispered as if reciting an ancient prophecy. "Unthinkable. Impossible… Yet here you stand."
Her eyes softened—barely.
"Axel King," she said, "kneel."
His instinct flared—why should I?—but her aura crushed the thought instantly. Not through violence, but through the unspoken certainty that this moment was monumental.
He knelt.
The forest glowed.
Ning Xueya extended two fingers and touched his brow.
"From this moment," she said, "you are my ninth disciple."
Light erupted. Cosmic, vast, overwhelming. Axel felt his soul expand and contract all at once. Knowledge—fractured, ancient—brushed the edges of his mind. Not entering, not yet, but promising.
And her voice echoed inside him:
"Welcome… heir of the fallen Hongmeng King."