The Tianyu Mainland,at the southernmost border—Broken Stone Ridge.
The night was as heavy and cold as ink spilled across the sky.
The wind of Broken Stone Ridge usually carried sand and gravel,but tonight,it was thick with the metallic stench of blood,smeared sticky across the air.
It blew back and forth between the mountains,as if death itself floated within every gust.
The residence of the Yun Clan lay quietly within this barren range.
Tonight,it had become nothing but scorched earth beneath a volcano.
Collapsed beams,shattered walls,and flames rising into the darkness—
they flickered like countless crimson eyes opening in the night.
The screams had already faded.
Only the crackling of dying embers remained.
Blood soaked the ancestral soil;bones and corpses lay scattered—an unmistakable scene of annihilation.
After tonight,this clan would vanish from the Tianyu Mainland entirely.
…
From a heap of rubble,a staggering figure emerged.
A youth in gray robes,drenched in blood,half his face blackened by smoke.
In his arms lay an unconscious little girl,and though his steps faltered,he held her as if she were the last fragment of his world.
Moonlight fell upon him,outlining a thin yet stubborn silhouette.
His name—Yun Zhan.
Only sixteen years old,yet he had lived through a night carved by a thousand blades.
Uninvited guests had come,and everything the Yun Clan possessed was destroyed.
"Brother…"
The small girl in his arms stirred weakly,her voice almost carried away by the wind.
"It…hurts…"
Yun Zhan's throat tightened as though cut by a knife.
He was already exhausted,his strength nearly gone,but reflexively he held her closer.
"Don't be scared."
His voice was hoarse,the words squeezed from somewhere deep inside him.
"I'll take you away."
But in the depths of his eyes,despair churned like a storm.
He had no talent.
Born with Stone Veins,he could not absorb Spiritual Qi.
In an era where the Nine Great Daos resonated and countless prodigies rose,he was a child abandoned by the heavens—a discarded son of destiny.
If not for his abnormally strong physique,he wouldn't have qualified even for the most basic Body Tempering.
He had been mocked for sixteen years.
Yet tonight,he didn't even have the chance to be mocked again.
Footsteps closed in from all directions.
Not ordinary footsteps—
but cold,precise,and heavy with killing intent,stepping over broken stones without a single misstep.
Yun Zhan's body stiffened.
He lifted his gaze.
Several dark figures emerged from beyond the firelight,clad in black armor,their chests marked with a twisted wooden puppet sigil.
The Puppet Dao Sect.
A sinister force feared across the entire Southern Region—
known for refining living humans into puppets,extracting souls,severing tendons.
Their leader stepped onto a boulder before Yun Zhan.
Moonlight spilled over his mask,illuminating a pair of frigid,lifeless eyes beneath.
He looked down at Yun Zhan,his voice scraping like iron drawn across stone:
"Boy,hand over the Bone Mark,and I can let you die quickly."
Yun Zhan's whole body trembled.
He didn't even know what the Bone Mark was.
But he knew the massacre of his clan was tied to it.
"I…really don't know—"
"Then you can all die."
Before Yun Zhan could finish,the killer's figure flashed like a specter.
A cold arc split the night.
Yun Zhan only had time to shove his sister aside instinctively—
but dodging was impossible.
Puchi—!
A blade dripping with blood-light sliced down.
A cold,tearing agony ripped through his left shoulder.
Blood fountained across the stone,spraying into a mist-like bloom.
His entire left arm was severed—
falling to the ground,rolling twice in the firelight before stopping among the ashes.
Yun Zhan's world went blank.
Ringing filled his ears.
The sky spun.
His breath was torn away.
Pain surged like a flood,drowning every thread of consciousness.
His sister's scream echoed somewhere far away,but he could no longer hear it clearly.
He collapsed to his knees,clutching the stump with his remaining hand,but he could not stop the blood.
Drip…drip…drip…
The sound of life leaking away.
The killer raised his blade again,voice cold and flat:
"You shouldn't have lived this long.Trash should die like trash."
The puppet beside him emitted a harsh metallic roar,its heavy steps thundering closer.
Yun Zhan lifted his head.
Those crimson,lantern-like eyes were approaching—
He tried to stand.
Even lifting a finger was impossible.
His consciousness dimmed.
And in the suffocating pain,a thought surfaced—
Am I…not even worthy of dying?
…
At the instant his blood hit the ground—
Deep beneath the earth,a mark that had slept for countless ages stirred.
A faint,nearly invisible sigil lit up—
like an ancient stone stele cracking open a single eye.
Yun Zhan suddenly heard a voice.
Not from his ears.
Not from the heavens.
But directly within the depths of his soul:
"…So that is how it is."
The voice was ancient,fractured,carrying a desolation that felt older than time—
as though it had witnessed the rise and fall of primordial kings.
Yun Zhan jolted.
"Who?!"
His consciousness swayed,yet the voice became clearer,
like an icy fingertip tapping the deepest part of his being:
"Mortals fear pain.
They fear death.
They fear loss."
"But you…you willingly cast aside yourself to protect another."
Yun Zhan's skin prickled.
Cold surged through his bones.
Cast aside…himself?
He only lost an arm—
yet the voice treated it as a conscious sacrifice.
He forced his eyes open,seeing only swirling chaos.
"What…are you…"he rasped.
The voice chuckled,colder than the night:
"I am an ancient Dao Will,awakened by your blood…and your despair."
Yun Zhan trembled.
A Dao Will?
Beyond the Nine Great Daos…
Was there truly a hidden,forbidden path?
The voice spoke again:
"Child,will you walk my Dao?"
"Walk…your Dao?"Yun Zhan murmured.
"You will lose much."
"But you will gain what you desire—
strength,survival…
and the right to avenge."
The voice slithered into his mind like a whisper of fate:
"All it takes…is to sever a part of yourself."
Yun Zhan lifted his gaze.
To his collapsing sister.
To his burning clan.
To the corpses strewn across the blood-soaked ground.
He clenched his fist.
If self was the price—
What did it matter?
His voice was hoarse,but unwavering:
"I accept."
The world seemed to hold its breath.
The next moment—
The Dao Will murmured,pleased:
"Good."
"Since you step into my Dao—"
"The first step is to sever the flesh."
BOOM!!!
A burst of blood-light erupted from Yun Zhan's severed shoulder.
Not crimson—
but a deep,near-black Blood Flame.
It surged like a blade forged from agony and despair,breaking through the shackles within his body.
Pain vanished instantly.
Or perhaps—
his sense of pain had been utterly devoured.
In its place came a scorching power,
roaring from the wound like a collapsing dam.
His body transformed within the Blood Flame.
Muscles trembled.
Bones resounded with thunder.
Though he had lost an arm,he felt an ancient,brutal strength flooding into him.
The killer's eyes widened.
"What…what kind of sorcery is this?!"
Yun Zhan raised his head.
A faint,piercing glint of blood flickered within his eyes.
Then—
his figure disappeared.
No Spiritual Qi.
No techniques.
Just pure,overwhelming force.
BOOM!!!
He crashed into the puppet like a crazed,primordial beast.
The puppet's chest caved in;iron plating tore open.
It flew ten meters back,smashing through two massive trees before collapsing,twitching violently.
That strength—
was nothing a human should possess.
The killer's pupils shrank.
"Impossible…!You can't even circulate Spiritual Qi!How did you—"
Yun Zhan did not answer.
This power…
he had bought with a piece of his own body.
He walked toward the killer,step by step.
Each footprint shattered stone,cracks webbing across the ground as though the earth itself awakened beneath him.
"Die!!"the killer roared.
The blade cleaved downward,icy light splitting the air.
Yun Zhan lifted his remaining fist.
CRACK!!!
The steel blade bent like soft clay.
The killer's wrist snapped open;bones shattered.
He was flung backward,smashing into the cliff behind him.
Yun Zhan's breath grew ragged.
Blood dripped from his severed shoulder.
The power was fading—quickly.
He knew this was only a temporary eruption.
But he continued moving forward.
The killer's voice shook:
"You…what monster are you?!"
Yun Zhan's voice was low,dark,trembling with exhaustion and will:
"I am…the last…of the Yun Clan."
His foot descended.
Crunch.
The killer's chest collapsed entirely.
Yun Zhan stood amidst the ashes,swaying,every breath like a blade tearing through his lungs.
The Dao Will spoke again within his heart:
"Severing the flesh is only the beginning."
"If you wish to live…to grow strong…you must continue severing."
"Your past,your present…your future."
Yun Zhan slowly lifted his gaze.
Firelight flickered in his eyes,outlining a youth both shattered and unyielding.
He did not know where this Dao would lead.
Nor how much it would devour.
But he knew one thing—
From tonight onward,he had only one path:
Forward.
For his sister.
For his clan.
For the name buried deep in his heart—
the one he refused to forget.
He walked into the night,stumbling through blood and flame.
The wind swept across the ruins,carrying away the stench of blood—
but not the fierce resolve burning in the boy's eyes.
That night—
A youth deemed worthless by the world
stepped into a forbidden Dao none dared to tread.
—The Self-Severance Dao.