Xu Ming had never planned to tell anyone.
Not about the village.
Not about the blood.
And certainly not about the night that changed everything.
Three months ago, Qingstone Village still existed.
It had been small, unremarkable, and poor—exactly the kind of place cultivators ignored unless they needed something. Xu Ming remembered the smell of cooked grain at dusk, his father's rough laughter, his mother's hands mending clothes by lamplight.
Then the raiders came.
They wore sect robes Xu Ming didn't recognize, but their cultivation was real. Spirit techniques tore through wooden homes like paper. People who ran were cut down. People who begged were ignored.
Xu Ming hid beneath a collapsed wall, hands over his mouth, as his parents were killed in front of him.
He did not cry.
Not until it was over.
That night, kneeling in ashes, Xu Ming swore a vow so quiet it barely counted as sound.
I will become strong.
I will kill them.
When the Azure Leaf Sect announced a recruitment and awakening ceremony, Xu Ming walked fifteen li without rest.
Hope was all he had left.
The awakening stone glowed when his hand touched it.
Then it flickered.
Gold.
Green.
Blue.
Red.
Brown.
Five colors.
The crowd went silent.
An elder frowned. "Five elements?"
Whispers erupted immediately.
"Trash roots."
"Scattered affinity."
"Impossible to cultivate."
In the lower realm, everyone knew the rule:
The fewer spirit root elements, the purer the path.
Single-element geniuses were rare treasures.
Dual and triple roots were acceptable.
Five elements?
A dead end.
Xu Ming was pushed aside without ceremony.
"No future," someone laughed.
"Better return to farming," another sneered.
Xu Ming bowed and said nothing.
He clenched his fists until blood ran from his palms.
What no one there understood—what the lower realm had long forgotten—was that five complete elements were not trash.
They were Chaos.
A body that contained metal, wood, water, fire, and earth in perfect balance was no different from a supreme physique—only slightly inferior to legends like Li Chen's Supreme Sword Physique.
But chaos demanded a key.
Without it, the elements conflicted, stagnated, and shattered cultivation paths.
With it—
Chaos ruled all.
Li Chen learned this by accident.
That night, as Xu Ming sat outside the sect dormitories staring at the stars, Li Chen quietly joined him.
"You're hiding something," Li Chen said.
Xu Ming smiled bitterly. "So are you."
Li Chen considered him for a long moment.
Five elements. Balanced. Calm.
Not trash, Li Chen realized. Just… locked.
From his spatial ring, Li Chen retrieved an old, seemingly useless jade slip. It was something the Heavenly Sword Patriarch had tossed in as "miscellaneous lower-realm knowledge."
The title was plain.
Chaos Breathing Technique.
A foundational method meant to harmonize all five elements through cyclical respiration. In the upper realms, it was considered common sense.
In the lower realm?
Lost.
Li Chen handed it over.
"Don't show this to anyone," he said seriously. "Not even elders."
Xu Ming stared at the jade slip, confused.
"This technique," Li Chen continued, "will decide whether you live as trash… or rise beyond everyone who mocked you."
Xu Ming's hands trembled.
"Why help me?" he asked quietly.
Li Chen looked away.
"Strong allies increase survival probability," he said honestly. "And revenge-driven people are… motivated."
Xu Ming laughed softly.
He bowed deeply.
"I won't forget this," he said. "If I rise… I'll stand behind you."
That night, as Xu Ming began cultivating the Chaos Breathing Technique, the five elements within his body aligned for the first time.
His cultivation surged.
Not gradually.
Explosively.
And somewhere in the darkness, the karma of two future legends quietly intertwined—
one who feared death,
and one who chased vengeance—
both walking paths the lower realm was never meant to contain.