The mountains were silent, yet a suffocating tension filled the night air.
The Celestial Abyss Sect, one of the great pillars of cultivation, was facing annihilation. Beyond its mountain gates, a vast army of enemy cultivators gathered like a black tide, their killing intent blotting out the heavens.
Inside the sect, a young boy no older than twelve sat alone, his fists clenched tightly. His name was Xuan Tian.
Born in a sect where geniuses soared like dragons and phoenixes, he had always been ordinary. His spiritual roots were weak, his talent poor, and his presence overlooked. Even his parents, elders of the sect, had quietly stopped expecting anything from him.
Yet that night, everything changed.
---
The Fall
Without warning, the sky erupted with light as enemy cultivators shattered the sect's protective formations. The sound was like the heavens collapsing.
The mountain gates fell in flames. Elder after elder rushed forward to resist, their roars echoing like thunder, but the enemy forces poured in endlessly.
In the chaos, Xuan Tian saw his father standing firm with a longsword in hand, his figure like a pillar holding up the heavens.
> "Tian'er, hide! Do not come out, no matter what happens!"
His father's voice was fierce, but it trembled with urgency.
Moments later, his mother appeared, pale with fear, pulling him by the hand.
> "Live, Tian'er… no matter what happens, live!"
But before they could escape, enemy cultivators broke through. His mother shielded him from a killing strike—her warm embrace was the last thing he felt before she collapsed.
> "Mother…!"
Her blood soaked his hands.
His father's roar shook the battlefield as he fought like a madman to buy them time, but even he was eventually surrounded. His last desperate shout was drowned by the sounds of battle.
> "Am I… the only one left…?"
---
The Cave
A dying senior brother shoved Xuan Tian into a hidden underground tunnel.
> "Live! One day… avenge us!"
The tunnel collapsed behind him.
Hours later, Xuan Tian crawled out into a desolate mountain wilderness. He wandered aimlessly for days, starving, exhausted, and alone.
At the edge of collapse, he found a small forgotten cave hidden within the cliffs.
Inside, there was no treasure, no ancient inheritance. Only cold stone and silence.
Kneeling in the darkness, the boy stared at his blood-stained hands.
> "Everyone… gone."
"Why… was I spared?"
---
The Heaven-Defying Vow
Despair twisted into something else.
Rage.
> "I may be talentless… but I will forge my own path!"
No sect. No teacher. No manuals. He would start from nothing and create his own Dao—a path that belonged only to him.
> "I will return. And I will make the world tremble."
In that silent cave, Xuan Tian began experimenting with his Qi, breaking his fragile meridians in search of a technique that had never existed before.
Every attempt brought pain, failure, and blood. But he refused to stop.
And thus began the legend of the one who would one day be known as—
> The Dao Creator.