Kaelan flies above the endless ocean, scanning the horizon for an island, when violent fluctuations of spiritual energy catch his attention below.
He is about to ignore it and continue forward until he notices two parents desperately shielding a tiny infant while being besieged by members of the Giant Shark Clan.
The reason becomes clear immediately, as one parent carries the bloodline of the Giant Shark Clan while the other belongs to the Sound Dolphin Clan, and the child bears both marks.
Among Noble Demon clans, bloodline purity is an absolute law, and worse still, the Giant Shark Clan and Sound Dolphin Clan have been mortal enemies for over a thousand years.
The Giant Shark cultivators attack mercilessly, shouting for the female to surrender and kill the abomination herself so she may receive a lighter punishment.
A piercing screech suddenly tears through the ocean, and Sound Dolphin Clan members leap from the water, waves exploding beneath them.
Though their purposes differ, both clans share the same goal: to erase the hybrid child.
Kaelan studies the infant carefully and confirms the truth as both bloodline marks shimmer faintly on its body.
Unwilling to slaughter indiscriminately, he releases dark element power, and a dense fog rolls out, swallowing sea and sky.
Both clans attack frantically, techniques ripping through the fog as the ocean churns violently.
When the fog disperses, the parents and child have vanished.
Blame erupts instantly, and the two clans turn on each other, battle exploding with renewed fury.
High above the clouds, the flying boat continues onward.
On the deck before Kaelan, the rescued parents bow deeply, their bodies trembling.
The father, a member of the Sound Dolphin Clan, lowers his head and says, "Senior… thank you for saving my family…"
Kaelan answers calmly, "I saved you… because of your child…"
Alarm flashes through both parents as the mother tightens her hold on the infant and forms a water bubble around it so the newborn can breathe.
The father coils tensely and says, "Senior… my child was born only a few days ago… she cannot be of any use to you…"
He swallows and adds, "Tell us what you want… we will work for you…"
The mother follows, her voice shaking as she grovels, "Senior… we will do anything… please…"
Kaelan replies evenly, "I will not do anything to him now… before he grows up… I will not touch him…"
His words fail to reassure them, but they have no power to resist.
Kaelan arranges a secluded room for them within the flying boat and resumes his search for an island.
Later, the father approaches respectfully and says, "Senior… thank you again… I am Dai Shilin…"
Kaelan nods once and replies, "I am called… Kong Wuya…"
Dai Shilin hesitates before asking, "Senior… where are you going…?"
Kaelan looks ahead and answers, "I am searching for… an island…"
Dai Shilin responds eagerly, "Senior… tell me about the island… maybe I know its location…"
Kaelan replies, "I am not searching for a specific island…"
He calmly describes his requirements: a large landmass, easy to defend, and containing a spiritual node.
Dai Shilin thinks for a moment before saying, "I know a large island… it is easy to defend… but I do not know whether it has a spiritual node or not…"
Kaelan says simply, "Show me the direction…"
Dai Shilin points toward the distance, and Kaelan guides the flying ship through the clouds in that direction.
A few hours later, Dai Shilin stands at the edge of the deck and points downward, announcing that the island lies below.
Kaelan steps forward and looks down at an irregular ring of rocky mountains forming a natural barrier around a hidden inner basin.
Within the ring lies a pocket of freshwater cut off from the ocean, and at its centre rests a small tree-covered island.
Kaelan opens his spirit eyes and immediately locates a node within the small island.
The flying ship descends and settles gently onto the freshwater basin.
Kaelan disembarks and moves swiftly to the node, beginning its transformation without hesitation.
The process completes, and a surge of magic energy erupts outward, rapidly replacing the spiritual energy throughout the small island and the surrounding freshwater.
Dai Shilin and his wife rush over as the familiar spiritual energy fades away.
Dai Shilin asks anxiously, "Senior… what is happening…?"
Kaelan pauses, realising belatedly that he is not alone, and says, "Sorry… I forgot to remind you…"
He explains that he is the founder of a new cultivation path, the Wizard Way, and that he has transformed the spiritual node into a magic energy node.
Kaelan spreads his spirit sense and searches the enclosed space for any region not yet affected by magic energy.
Finding one, he says, "Under the water… the magic energy has not entered yet… your family can stay there for now… until I find a proper place for you…"
At that moment, the wife hesitates before asking, "Senior… can we cultivate the Wizard Way…?"
Kaelan freezes in place.
He knows the Wizard Way is meant for humans, whose spirituality is complete, while demons below the Divine Mind Realm lack that completeness.
Even his crows cultivate only because they are his dependents, their incomplete spirituality perfected by his blood.
Kaelan explains the obstacles calmly, telling them that demons lack complete spirituality below the Divine Mind Realm and cannot yet cultivate the Wizard Way.
He adds that he intends to create a wizard cultivation technique for demons one day, but that task must wait.
For now, the most important thing is his own cultivation of the Divine Mind Realm.
Once he reaches the Divine Mind Realm, the danger surrounding him drops sharply, and aside from the Four Gods, no one in this world can truly threaten him.
The urgency presses heavily on him because he senses killing intent coming from the representatives of every Qi Refining sect across the world.
Through constant exchange of information with the first two clones and the main body, Kaelan already knows the situation is deteriorating.
The war on the eastern front of the Chen Kingdom intensifies, and the Ren Kingdom now treats it as a full national war.
The three fronts Kaelan establishes stand on the verge of collapse, as his bold new creations—guns, cannons, and explosive bombs—fail to turn the tide.
The Chen Kingdom manages to hold only because it converts every node under its control into magic nodes.
Though the war appears mortal, its backbone consists entirely of mortal-stage cultivators on both sides.
On the Chen Kingdom side, all cultivators shift to the Wizard Way, while the Ren Kingdom refuses to change paths due to its rigid stance.
With Ren Kingdom fully involved, the conflict ceases to be a war of interest and becomes a decisive confrontation between the Wizard Way and the Qi Refining Way.
This war will determine which path stands superior.
To seize victory, Kaelan releases the complete drawings of the Wizard Tower and orders them constructed on the frontlines.
With a tier-three Wizard Tower, the controller temporarily gains power equivalent to the Divine Mind Realm.
He makes it clear that they are not to attack because he has no intention of breaking the rules first.
Instead, the towers serve as absolute defensive fortresses, impossible for mortals or mortal-stage cultivators to breach.
He intends to force the enemy to break the rules themselves and attack him directly.
Within a magic energy environment, Kaelan fears no numerical siege.
Enemy strength is naturally suppressed under magic energy, weakening Qi Refining cultivators with every passing moment.
If they refuse to break the rules, then it does not matter.
Time becomes Kaelan's greatest weapon.
The more time he gains, the more the Wizard Way improves.
And by the time they realise it, the balance of the world has already tilted beyond recovery.
Months pass in silence and bloodshed.
The sect masters of Tianren Sect and eight other great sects gather in a sealed hall heavy with tension.
The sect master of Mirror Lake Gate speaks first, her voice calm yet urgent, "We must end the war as soon as possible… something is wrong with the ruin…"
Mirror Lake Gate lies at the junction of the Ren Kingdom and Shi Kingdom, placing them closest to the ruin.
The sect master of Blood Sabre Gate speaks with alarm, "What happened…?"
His only son has entered the ruin to seek fortune.
The sect master of Mirror Lake Gate says, "An array has risen… the ruin is completely sealed… no one can enter or leave…"
Shock ripples through the hall.
The sect master of Blood Sabre Gate clenches his fists and shouts, "The ruin dates back to the Night Dynasty… how can an array function perfectly until now…?"
The sect master of Tianren Sect speaks slowly, "It can… if the ruin does not belong to the Night Dynasty…"
The sect master of Spring Cloud Sect turns toward the throne and asks, "Lord Ren… who could perfectly fabricate a ruin from the Night Dynasty era…?"
Lord Ren answers coldly, "Who else could it be… other than them…"
The sect master of Earth Will Sect stiffens, "The demons…? How dare they… do they intend to start a racial war…?"
Lord Ren replies, "They dare… because the human race has never been this divided…"
The sect master of Shadow Wind Sect sneers, "Kong Wuya… this is all because of him… that absurd Wizard Way… he must have been sent by the demons to split the human race…"
Lord Ren nods slightly, "I investigated Kong Wuya… before he revealed the Wizard Way… there was no information about him at all… as if he hatched from an egg…"
The sect master of Mirror Lake Gate says cautiously, "He could have been a reclusive cultivator…"
Lord Ren shakes his head, "I thought the same… but the investigation revealed something disturbing…"
The hall quiets instantly.
Lord Ren continues, "A human family serves him… we killed one of them… demon blood was found within…"
Murmurs spread like wildfire.
Lord Ren says, "That human family are his dependents… he can also control crows…"
He pauses before adding, "And a few years ago… a Core Formation Realm crow demon appeared on the southern border of the Tang Kingdom…"
The sect master of Spring Cloud Sect frowns, "We clashed with that demon… and it vanished shortly after…"
Lord Ren says quietly, "A few years later… Kong Wuya appears…"
Silence presses down on the hall.
The sect master of Blood Sabre Gate slowly raises his head and asks, his voice hoarse, "Are you saying… Kong Wuya… is that crow demon…?"