The first light of dawn was still faint outside the window.
A pale gray layer covered the courtyard of the Eldest Young Master, cold and silent. The night wind had long since died down, leaving behind only the crisp stillness before sunrise. The entire Mu Clan seemed not to have fully awakened yet.
But inside the room, Mu Xuan had already opened his eyes.
He sat cross-legged at the edge of the bed, his back straight, his aura steady. A sleepless night had not left his face haggard like it would an ordinary person's. On the contrary, after gradually growing accustomed to the first current of power within his body, his eyes now seemed even clearer and more alert than before.
Even so, that calmness was only on the surface.
Deep within him, countless thoughts were still turning.
The cold current within his body was real.
The Name's End Sword within his consciousness sea was also real.
The Heavenly Dao had truly looked down upon him.
Any one of those things alone would have been enough to overturn another person's life.
But for Mu Xuan, the most important thing right now was not fear.
It was to determine one thing clearly.
Could he still cultivate like an ordinary person—or not?
Mu Xuan lowered his eyes and slowly sent his divine sense inward.
That strand of cold power, as thin as a hair, was still moving silently through his meridians. It was neither fast nor strong, but each time it passed through a pathway, it left behind a sensation that was cold yet clarifying, as if it were gradually slicing open the dried-up parts of his body that had remained barren for sixteen years.
Last night, he had observed it for a long time.
He had seen it clearly.
This force did not absorb heaven and earth's name power like others did.
It did not merge into the world.
It did not follow the rules.
It only quietly "listened" to the shattered fragments of name-intent drifting through space, then drew those things into his body.
A method of circulation like that had never appeared in any scripture of the Mu Clan.
But merely observing was not enough.
Mu Xuan needed deeper confirmation.
If he wanted to keep moving forward, he had to know exactly how far his path diverged from orthodox Name Dao.
At that thought, Mu Xuan extended his right hand to the side and pulled over the wooden box resting on the low table.
Inside were several foundational manuals that every disciple of the Mu Clan had been required to memorize from childhood.
He had read them countless times.
It was only a pity that for sixteen years, to him, they had been no different from meaningless words.
Because for a person with no name power, understanding a cultivation method was useless.
Mu Xuan opened the box and took out the thinnest booklet.
Its cover was dark gray, with no grand or elaborate title written on it—only three simple words:
Name-Guiding Art.
This was the most basic introductory method of the Mu Clan.
Every disciple who stepped into Ming Name had to use it to guide heaven and earth's name power into the body, open the first circulation cycle, and stabilize their foundation.
Mu Xuan looked at the booklet in his hand for a moment, then placed it before him.
His gaze remained calm.
"It seems I have to try it today."
He drew in a deep breath, adjusted his mind, and began circulating according to the pathways recorded in the Name-Guiding Art.
Each line of口诀 that he had long memorized slowly surfaced in his mind.
His divine sense was guided.
His breathing sank.
His meridians gradually opened along the standard trajectories of the introductory method.
For an ordinary person, the next step would be to sense heaven and earth's name power, then use the cultivation method to draw it into the first circulation cycle.
Mu Xuan did the same.
He steadied his divine sense and tried to let his mind merge with the surrounding air.
A moment later, he sensed it.
The name power of heaven and earth.
Thin.
Light.
Scattered through space like invisible morning mist.
This was the first time in his life that he had truly felt the existence of the power all cultivators spoke of.
But sensing it did not mean he could merge with it.
Mu Xuan slightly stirred his thoughts and began advancing the Name-Guiding Art to the next step.
The very instant he did—
The cold strand within his body suddenly trembled.
It was no longer a slight fluctuation like when he had called out the name Name's End before.
This time, it was a clear and obvious vibration.
Mu Xuan immediately frowned.
Yet he did not stop.
His mind continued following the cultivation pathway, attempting to guide a thin strand of heaven and earth's name power into his meridians.
But the moment that strand of name power touched the entrance to the first circulation—
Pfft!
A small explosive sound rang out within his body.
Mu Xuan's entire body trembled faintly.
The cold strand that had been resting silently within his meridians suddenly reacted like a blade that had been struck. It snapped upward at once and directly sliced across the circulation route of the Name-Guiding Art.
The strand of heaven and earth's name power that he had just drawn in did not even have time to stabilize before it dispersed on the spot.
Not only that—
A sharp pain suddenly shot through his right arm and spread into his chest.
Mu Xuan's eyes flew open.
The corners of his lips tightened, but he did not allow himself to make a sound.
Within his meridians, the route of circulation he had just established had fallen completely into disorder.
The cold strand did not merge with heaven and earth's name power at all.
It reacted as though something alien had invaded it.
No—not merely alien.
But rejected.
Mu Xuan quickly adjusted his breathing and forced his mind back into stability. It took nearly ten breaths before the stinging pain within his meridians finally subsided.
The room fell silent once more.
Only his breathing was slightly heavier than before.
Mu Xuan lowered his head and looked at his hand.
After a long moment, he closed his eyes again.
"Again."
This time, he was more careful.
He did not try to draw in much of heaven and earth's name power, only a thread even thinner than before—so weak that it was almost about to dissipate.
At the same time, he guided the cold strand within his body to retreat from the main circulation route, trying to avoid a direct collision.
At first, everything seemed more stable.
Heaven and earth's name power slowly slipped into his meridians, moving along the path of the Name-Guiding Art.
Mu Xuan kept his mind extremely steady.
But when that strand of name power had only advanced half an inch—
Hum!
The cold strand trembled again.
This time, it did not sever it directly as before.
Instead, it was like a beast awakened from slumber, silently turning its head before charging straight forward.
The moment the two forces touched—
Crack!
Mu Xuan felt as though something inside his mind had shattered.
That strand of heaven and earth's name power was torn apart in an instant.
The fragments of name-intent that had still been intact immediately broke into countless tiny particles.
But what made Mu Xuan's pupils contract was not that.
It was what happened afterward.
After tearing apart that strand of name power, the cold force in his body did not disperse.
It... devoured the fragments.
Not an ordinary fusion.
Not absorption in the sense of guiding power into the body.
But after destroying the structure of heaven and earth's name power, it directly pulled the shattered remnants into itself.
As if something fundamentally incompatible could only be broken apart first—before the remains could be taken.
Mu Xuan opened his eyes again.
This time, his expression had completely changed.
There was no longer any doubt.
Only certainty.
The force within his body absolutely could not walk the same path as orthodox Name Dao.
It not only refused to follow the Mu Clan's cultivation method—
It even bit back against the old circulation route.
If he forcibly continued, there would only be two possible outcomes.
Either heaven and earth's name power would be repeatedly shredded apart.
Or his own meridians would suffer constant internal conflict until he was seriously injured.
Mu Xuan slowly relaxed his hands, letting the Name-Guiding Art slip from his lap onto the side of the bed.
The room was deathly quiet.
After a long while, he finally let out a very soft laugh.
It was not bitter.
It was not helpless.
It was a kind of calmness so cold that it bordered on absolute clarity.
"As expected..."
"I cannot walk the same road as others."
He had already prepared himself for that possibility.
From the moment he had seen with his own eyes that cold current listening to the shattered fragments of name-intent drifting through space, Mu Xuan had understood that he could no longer be the same as ordinary cultivators.
But only now, after personally trying the Name-Guiding Art, had he truly severed the final trace of lingering expectation in his heart.
Mu Xuan silently leaned back against the bedframe, his gaze resting on the introductory cultivation manual.
This had once been the first door through which countless disciples of the Mu Clan stepped into Name Dao.
But for him, it had become completely useless.
No.
Not just useless.
It was something he could not touch a second time.
If he kept trying, the force within him would not become any more merciful.
Thinking of this, Mu Xuan sent his divine sense inward once more.
Sure enough, after the two clashes just now, the cold strand had grown slightly thicker.
Only by a tiny amount.
But it was real.
It did not merge with orthodox name power.
It shattered it, then drew in the remnants.
Mu Xuan looked at that scene, and his gaze deepened.
Then a corner of his path had already begun to reveal itself.
Others cultivated by resonating with heaven and earth, by being acknowledged by heaven and earth, by receiving permission from heaven and earth to absorb name power.
But he—
He had never been acknowledged.
So he could not "receive" anything from heaven and earth in the normal way.
The thing within him could only walk another path.
A lonelier path.
A colder path.
And one far more dangerous.
Mu Xuan took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
His mind was not in disorder.
On the contrary, now that he had confirmed the truth, his thoughts were clearer than before.
At the very least, from this point on, he would no longer waste time on methods that did not belong to him.
He lifted a hand and lightly brushed across the Name-Guiding Art.
The pages rustled softly beneath his fingertips.
In Mu Xuan's mind, everything he had learned over the past sixteen years slowly surfaced, then slowly fell away.
The theories of resonating with name power.
The pathways of opening the first circulation.
The methods of merging with heaven and earth.
None of them belonged to him anymore.
The old road was dead.
Or more accurately—
It had never once opened for him.
Mu Xuan closed the booklet.
His gaze turned calm.
"Then there is only one way left."
"To find my own road."
The three words were spoken very lightly.
But the moment he said them, even Mu Xuan himself felt something inside him gradually settle.
For sixteen years, he had always stood outside the gate.
Watching others step into Name Dao.
Watching others be acknowledged by heaven and earth.
Watching others move forward along paths that had already been laid down.
But he never had.
So now, even if his road was different, even if it was rejected by heaven and earth, there was nothing to regret.
At worst, he would simply walk a path no one had ever walked before.
And for someone who had never once been allowed to enter from the beginning...
That was not necessarily a bad thing.
Mu Xuan slowly rose to his feet.
After sitting for so long, his body had grown a little stiff, but his gaze remained extremely steady.
He walked to the table, placed the Name-Guiding Art back into the wooden box, and closed the lid.
The movement was neither quick nor slow, as if he were burying a piece of the past that was no longer needed.
At that very moment—
Clang.
A faint vibration rang out from the depths of his consciousness sea.
Mu Xuan paused.
Immediately afterward, the cold strand in his meridians stirred softly in response.
Mu Xuan closed his eyes at once, and his divine sense sank inward.
Endless darkness appeared.
The Name's End Sword still stood in the void, cracked and ancient as ever.
But this time, perhaps because he had finally severed all intention of returning to orthodox Name Dao, several dim particles seemed to have appeared around the sword.
They were not true points of light.
They looked more like fragments of shattered name-intent slowly circling around the blade.
Mu Xuan stood at a distance and watched it.
After a moment, he finally asked in a low voice:
"So this is truly my path?"
The sword did not answer.
But from the hilt, a faint ripple spread outward.
It was not strong.
Only enough to cause the consciousness sea around it to ripple like water.
At the same time, within his body, the cold strand suddenly circulated one beat faster than usual.
It quietly moved through his meridians and began pulling in the shattered fragments of name-intent around him faster than before.
Not by much.
But clearly.
Mu Xuan opened his eyes.
His expression remained calm, but deep within his gaze there was now an additional trace of understanding.
The Name's End Sword had not spoken.
But its reaction had already given him the answer.
Yes.
This was his path.
A path that did not belong to the old rules.
A path that could not be cultivated through the Mu Clan's techniques.
A path that could not merge with orthodox Name Dao.
If he wanted to advance, he could only rely on himself, on this cold current, and on the ancient sword slumbering within his consciousness sea.
Outside the window, the sky was gradually growing brighter.
The first rays of sunlight finally fell silently into the courtyard.
Mu Xuan turned his head and looked outside.
The Mu Clan was about to begin a new day.
The disciples would train.
The elders would handle clan affairs.
The discussions about him would continue.
In the eyes of everyone, Eldest Young Master Mu Xuan was still the one whose name had not been recorded by heaven and earth—a failure of the Name Inscription Ceremony.
No one knew that in a single morning, he had personally confirmed a truth great enough to change the course of his entire fate.
He could not cultivate like others.
So he would not walk the road of others.
Mu Xuan stood by the window for a long moment.
The morning wind brushed past, lightly stirring the dark sleeve of his robe.
Then he slowly raised his right hand.
The cold strand within his body gradually flowed toward his fingertip.
This time, the movement was slower than yesterday—but more stable.
A strand of aura as thin as dark mist slowly gathered.
It did not shine brightly.
It did not carry overwhelming might.
But it caused the air around his fingertip to grow faintly colder.
Mu Xuan looked at that strand of power, his gaze unmoving.
"A name beyond the rules..."
He quietly repeated those words, as if engraving them into his heart.
From this day onward, that would be his starting point.
No longer the Eldest Young Master who had disappointed the entire clan.
No longer the person who had stood before the gate of Name Dao his entire life without ever being able to step inside.
But the first one who would have to carve open an entirely new path for himself.
The strand of force at his fingertip trembled faintly.
Within his consciousness sea, the Name's End Sword also gave off a nearly inaudible hum.
Mu Xuan slowly curled his fingers shut, letting the current disperse back into his body.
There was no hesitation left in his eyes.
Only the cold calmness of someone who had finally seen the road ahead clearly.
Even if that road was lonely.
Even if it was dangerous.
Even if heaven and earth themselves refused to acknowledge its existence.
He would still walk it.
Because it was the only road that truly belonged to him.