The sky was gray the morning he was named.
The old priest traced ash across his infant forehead, muttering words the villagers did not understand. With cracked hands and shaking breath, he raised the child toward the mountains.
> "Feng Azazel," he declared.
"A name drawn from shadow. One who walks below the sun."
There was unease in the air. They did not understand the name—nor the silence in the child's eyes.
But they nodded. As peasants always did.
To them, the strange was simply something to be endured.
---
Years passed like quiet snowfall.
Azazel Feng grew. Slowly. Calmly.
He did not cry as a toddler.
He did not babble meaningless words.
He simply watched.
At one, he walked. At two, he spoke—once.
And then, no more.
The villagers whispered. They said he was "quiet, not broken", "clever, not cursed".
Some believed he had been born with a strong soul. Others thought he simply thought too much.
His parents smiled nervously and said it was just his nature.
And when his sister was born, he did not smile. He did not reach for her.
He only stared at her the way one stares at a flower beneath glass.
Beautiful. Fragile. Meaningless.
---
Her name was Lian.
She laughed easily. Grasped his finger with tiny hands.
But even as her warmth grew, Azazel's heart did not stir.
Attachment was a chain.
Emotion, a poison.
He had no intention of drinking it.
He was not unkind. He simply… did not belong.
---
By the time he was eight, his intelligence was undeniable.
He fixed broken tools without being asked. He learned to read from discarded scrolls by watching the priest once.
He understood hunting traps better than the hunters.
But still, he said little. Only what was necessary.
And always, he looked to the distant mountain.
---
That mountain—known as Silent Fang Peak—was sacred to the village.
To the villagers, it was home to immortals.
They did not know the truth.
Not about cultivation.
Not about Qi.
Not about the bleeding teeth that hid behind the smile of power.
On the first day of the Frost Moon, all children aged eight were taken there—to the foot of the mountain where the Hollow Bone Sect resided.
It was not a mighty sect.
Its disciples barely reached the early stages of Bone Refining Realm, rarely beyond the fourth layer.
The outer elders ranged between the 7th and 9th layers.
A few inner elders had touched the Qi Refining Realm, revered like living myths.
At the summit sat Lu Shen, the Sect Master, a man at the 4th stage of Qi Refining Realm—a behemoth in the eyes of these villagers.
But that day, Lu Shen did not appear.
Why would a lion bother to observe ants?
---
Instead, an Outer Elder, cloaked in dull green robes, arrived.
His name was Elder Wei—a cultivator at the 7th stage of Bone Refining.
He carried himself with cold boredom, his hands behind his back, his gaze flicking lazily across the group of trembling children.
In his hand, a jade orb no larger than a peach.
The Spirit Root Revealing Stone.
An artifact meant to test the presence and quality of a child's potential.
He sighed.
> "Step forward. One by one. Don't waste my time."
One by one, the children approached.
The orb glowed faintly in some hands—showing dull yellow or flickering green.
Those children were smiled at, patted on the head. Accepted.
Most, however, showed nothing.
Azazel stood quietly, hands behind his back, eyes lowered but not afraid.
When his turn came, he stepped forward and touched the orb.
The jade pulsed. A faint ripple, like the tremor of distant thunder.
Then stillness.
Elder Wei's eyes narrowed.
> "Hmm..."
The orb was quiet now, but he had seen it. Not a brilliant light.
Not a vibrant color.
But a distortion. Something not listed in any of the scrolls.
He almost discarded it. But paused.
> "You… barely pass. No elemental affinity, but a root exists. That's enough."
Azazel said nothing. He turned and stepped aside.
The other children looked at him, whispering.
But he heard nothing.
He was watching the mountain again.
---
The Hollow Bone Sect would accept him.
They would assign him to the lowest rung.
They would think they were doing him a favor.