:A Whisper from the Void
Cold night fog clung to the ground as Liu Feng limped into Silent River Village. Each step sent a sharp stab through his ankle, yet he barely felt it. His hand, hidden in his pocket, clenched a black stone so tightly his fingers cramped. The Shard of Eternal Silence was strangely warm, pulsing faintly as though matching the jagged rhythm of the boy's heart.
The lights in the windows had already gone out. Only one hut on the village's edge still held a dim, trembling oil lamp.
His father's home.
Liu Feng paused on the threshold, forcing his breathing to steady. He wiped the last traces of dried blood from his brow with his sleeve. He didn't want his father to see him like this. Liu Dahe had already suffered enough, watching his son wither beneath the weight of his own "worthlessness."
"Feng-er? Is that you?" The door creaked open, and a broad-shouldered man with a tired face stepped out. His hands were covered in calluses and old scars from working wood. When he saw his son's torn clothes, he gasped and rushed forward. "By the gods—what happened? Did a beast attack you?"
"No, Father…" Liu Feng forced a smile, though his lips trembled. "I just slipped by the ravine. It was dark. I didn't see a root."
Liu Dahe stared into his son's eyes. He could feel it—something had changed. Liu Feng's gaze, usually dull since failing the sect's test, burned now with a feverish, almost frightening light.
"Come inside," the older man said, shaking his head. "I'll heat water and bring ointment. You need rest. The village head is coming tomorrow—we still have to finish the order for the city merchants. We need the money, Feng-er. Winter will be harsh."
Winter… Liu Feng thought as he stepped into the hut. For mortals, winter meant cold and hunger. For cultivators, it was merely scenery changing. He looked at his father's back and felt a stab of guilt. He knew that if he walked the path Elder Mo had offered, the quiet life of a carpenter would end forever.
Late that night, when his father's snores filled the cramped hut, Liu Feng sat on his straw mat. He took out the Shard. In the faint moonlight slipping through cracks in the shutters, the stone looked like a hole cut into reality.
"Boy, are you still going to sit there and stare at it?" Elder Mo's mocking voice echoed inside his head. "Time is the one thing you don't have. Your bones will stiffen in a couple years, and then even this artifact won't save your worthless body."
Liu Feng flinched. The voice was so clear it sounded as if the old man stood right behind him.
"What am I supposed to do? You said I'm 'empty stock.' How can I cultivate if my body can't hold spiritual energy?"
"Heh-heh…" Elder Mo made a sound like dry leaves rustling. "Normal methods won't help you. The Azure Peak Sect uses 'Clear Current' techniques. They seek purity. But you… you're an empty vessel. And you can't fill emptiness with clean water—everything will always look tainted. You don't need to fill yourself with energy. You need to devour it."
Images surfaced in Liu Feng's mind—strange symbols like coiling snakes, and a breathing method that carried the chill of a grave.
"This is the Abyss Breathing Technique," the old man murmured. "It was created by those rejected by Heaven. It doesn't ask the world for energy. It tears it away. But I warn you—pain will flood you as if molten lead is being poured into your veins. If you scream and wake your father, it's over. Your mind must become harder than diamond."
Liu Feng closed his eyes. He sat in the lotus position, the way he'd seen sect disciples sit when they occasionally descended to the village.
"Begin," Mo commanded.
Liu Feng drew his first breath according to the pattern the old man had given him. Instead of ordinary air, an icy vortex surged into his lungs. Qi that once flowed past his body without a ripple abruptly stalled—then began to tighten around him, as though pulled into a whirlpool.
The pain came instantly.
It wasn't normal pain. It felt as if thousands of tiny needles stabbed into every pore of his skin. The energy was wild, untamed. "Empty stock" had no proper channels to carry Qi, so the power simply forced a path through flesh and muscle.
Liu Feng bit down on his own shoulder to keep from screaming. Sweat poured down his face, mixing with tears. His body trembled in small convulsions.
"Endure!" Elder Mo barked. "If you give up now, the Shard will drink your life force to compensate for the energy spent! You must form the first stream! Guide it into the Shard in your hand!"
Liu Feng focused on the black stone. The Shard responded at once, greedily swallowing the savage energy ripping him apart. Passing through the stone, the Qi was refined—then returned to Liu Feng's body in a different form: heavy, dark, and frighteningly cold.
This was the beginning of Spirit Condensation, First Level.
Hours passed. Liu Feng lost track of time. In the Shard's inner space—where his consciousness occasionally slipped—weeks seemed to go by, even though only a few hours passed in reality. He watched a tiny droplet of clear liquid form within the stone.
"Dew of Oblivion…" Mo muttered with unmistakable hunger. "It's starting to accumulate. Boy, you're lucky. Without that dew, your channels would have burned to ash by morning."
When the first rays of sunlight touched the hut's roof, Liu Feng opened his eyes. He was exhausted. His clothes were soaked through with sticky, black, foul-smelling sweat—impurities driven from his body with his first breakthrough. But inside him… deep in his abdomen, where a practitioner's dantian lay, a tiny gray vortex now spun.
He did it.
He broke into the first level.
Morning brought new worries. Liu Feng washed quickly in the stream behind the house, hoping his father wouldn't notice the strange stench. His body felt different—lightness mixed with a frightening strength in his muscles.
"Feng-er, hurry and eat," Liu Dahe said, placing a bowl of thin porridge on the table. "The village head came. And… and a disciple from the Azure Peak Sect. They say they're gathering extra servants for the outer school."
Liu Feng's heart jolted.
The outer school was the lowest tier of the sect—practically slaves who dug fields, cooked meals, and cleaned stables for the "real" disciples. But for him, it was a chance. A chance to get close to libraries and spirit stones.
The village square was noisy. In the center stood a young man in blue robes embroidered with silver threads. It was Li Wei, one of those who'd passed the test three years ago. He had once been just another village boy. Now his face held pure arrogance.
"The sect needs working hands," Li Wei drawled, lazily turning a jade pendant at his waist. "But we don't take just anyone. Only those who can endure the pressure of spiritual aura. If you drop to your knees within ten breaths, you're not even worthy of cleaning our toilets."
He snapped his hand outward. An invisible wave of pressure spread from him—power at Spirit Condensation, Third Level. To ordinary mortals it felt like sacks of stone dumped onto their shoulders.
Village youths began to buckle. Some gasped for breath. Some dropped to all fours.
Liu Feng stood in the back rows. When the pressure touched him, the vortex within his body suddenly spun faster. Abyss Breathing sensed prey. Instead of resisting the weight, Liu Feng's body began to… consume it.
He stood straight, not moving an inch. His gaze locked onto Li Wei.
Li Wei frowned. He increased the pressure, aiming directly at Liu Feng. He remembered this boy—"empty stock," the one everyone laughed at three days ago. Why was he standing so calmly?
"You!" Li Wei pointed at him. "What's your name?"
"Liu Feng," the boy answered evenly.
"You look sturdy for trash." Li Wei's lips curled. "But the Azure Peak Sect doesn't like upstarts. You want to be a servant? Fine. But you won't go with the group. You'll go to the Forgotten Forest. You'll gather spirit herbs in the territory of low-grade beasts."
The crowd gasped. The Forgotten Forest was a death sentence for a normal person.
"I accept," Liu Feng said without hesitation.
His father, standing among the villagers, went pale.
"Feng-er, no! That's madness! Stay!"
Liu Feng turned and looked at him. The resolve in his eyes was so hard that Liu Dahe fell silent.
"Father, I'll come back," Liu Feng said. "I promise."
An hour later, the selected servants were already climbing the winding path toward the sect's gates. Li Wei walked at the front, occasionally looking back at Liu Feng with a cruel smirk.
"Boy," Elder Mo's voice sounded in Liu Feng's mind, "that blue-robed brat has something we need. I can sense a Qi Condensation Pill in his bag. With your talent, you'd train for a hundred years just to reach the second level. But if we take that pill…"
"He's third level, and I'm first," Liu Feng answered silently. "And we're on sect territory."
"Exactly why we won't fight openly," the old man chuckled. "But at night… at night the Shard will show you its first true ability. We won't just steal the pill. We'll steal his cultivation."
Liu Feng clenched his fists. He understood he was taking his first step into an abyss with no way back.
When the group reached the gates of the Azure Peak Sect, Liu Feng suddenly felt the Shard in his pocket turn icy cold. At that same instant, the enormous bell atop the sect's main tower rang out in alarm.
"Someone…" Elder Mo rasped, and for the first time there was real fear in his voice. "Someone in this sect sensed the Shard's presence. Boy, if they search you now, we're both finished. Hide it! Hide it now!"
Liu Feng looked at the approaching guard cultivators, their eyes glowing with cold light, and realized his path might end before it ever truly began.