The mountains slept beneath a silver moon.
Wind swept across the broken ridges, carrying faint echoes of beasts and the scent of blood.
By the river where the Steelhide Bear had fallen, only one figure remained — a boy sitting cross-legged beside a dying fire.
Xuan Tian's body was motionless, but the Qi around him was alive.
It flowed in strange, spiraling patterns, sometimes pulling toward him, sometimes repelled — as if the heavens themselves were uncertain what to make of him.
His breathing was calm. His mind, sharper than ever.
> "Qi is like thought… creation is will."
Every inhale drew the mountain's essence into him. Every exhale tempered his body like a blade.
His cultivation had entered a new stage — not of strength, but of awakening.
He could feel it now — a faint hum at the edge of his consciousness. Something ancient. Watching.
---
The Hidden Presence
As the night deepened, that hum grew louder, forming a whisper that brushed against his mind.
> "Child of defiance… the one who forges against Heaven."
Xuan Tian's eyes snapped open. His hand reached for the broken sword fragment by instinct, but the cave was empty.
The whisper wasn't from outside — it came from within.
> "Who's there?"
There was no reply, only the faint shimmer of light from his dantian. The Qi Blade — his creation — was pulsing softly, as if alive.
Then he saw it: within his consciousness, a vision of a great forge suspended in endless void.
Flames burned without heat, and above them hung a single enormous sigil — the symbol of Creation itself.
> "Every creator must bear the burden of destruction."
The voice was deep, resonant, neither male nor female. It vibrated through his soul.
> "Who are you?"
"I am what remains of the First Forge — the Will of the Old World. Long before Heaven was born, there were those who built it."
"You, child, are the first in ages to awaken that spark again."
---
The Burden
Pain tore through his body as visions flooded his mind — collapsing worlds, gods screaming as they were consumed by their own creations, blades that cut through time itself.
He gasped, falling forward. Blood dripped onto the cold earth.
> "Why… show me this?"
> "Because you walk their path. The path of Creation is not only to build — but to destroy what must fall."
"Your blade will reshape the heavens, but to wield it… you must first forge your soul."
The vision faded. The light vanished. Only silence remained.
But something had changed.
A faint mark now glowed at the back of Xuan Tian's right hand — a tiny, incomplete rune that seemed to breathe faintly with every heartbeat.
> "The mark of Creation…"
He didn't yet understand its purpose, but he could feel it — a connection to something vast and ancient, stretching beyond his world.
---
The Hunt of Shadows
The next morning, distant explosions echoed through the mountains.
Xuan Tian climbed to the ridge and saw a trail of black smoke — a group of cultivators was moving through the forest, burning everything in their path.
Their robes bore the insignia of the Black Serpent Hall, one of the sects that had helped destroy the Celestial Abyss Sect.
His fists clenched.
> "So fate brings me my first test."
He concealed his Qi, stalking them through the trees like a phantom. The closer he got, the more his blood boiled — rage and calm fusing into a cold, deliberate focus.
One of the cultivators stopped, sensing something.
> "Who's there?"
Before he could react, a flash of blue light split the air.
The Qi Blade manifested in silence, pure and sharp — a fragment of will made real.
It sliced through the man's throat before he could scream.
The others turned in horror, shouting, unleashing talismans and fire techniques — but the boy was already among them.
Each movement was precise, each strike an act of creation and destruction in one breath.
When the last enemy fell, the forest went silent once more.
Xuan Tian stood amidst the corpses, his aura dim but steady. His hand trembled.
> "The Blade of Creation… it evolves with me."
He looked toward the horizon, where the ashes of his old home still lingered in his heart.
> "If Heaven's laws reject me… then I will create new ones."
---
The Dawn of the Dao
That night, he carved a mark into the cave wall — a single glowing symbol of his new path.
The rune pulsed softly, harmonizing with the mark on his hand.
From this moment forward, the heavens would no longer dictate his fate.
He would dictate theirs.
> "Let the world remember…"
"The one who forged his own Heaven — Xuan Tian, the Dao Creator."
The mountains trembled faintly, as if echoing his vow.
And far beyond the mortal realm, in the silent expanse between worlds —
something ancient stirred for the first time in a thousand eras.