The vast expanse of the Sky Continent was a realm where strength dictated destiny and the heavens themselves bowed to those with the power to command them. Within this sprawling world lay the Great Xia Dynasty, a land of ancient legacies and rising powers.
Deep nestled within the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty was Feather City, a place of bustling trade and quiet cultivation. At the heart of this town stood the Mu Clan Manor, a residence that held the hopes and dreams of a branch of the once-great Mu family.
Inside the quiet, secluded northward courtyard of the manor, the air was still, save for the soft sounds of two children at play. A six-year-old boy, his features already carrying a hint of calm maturity beyond his years, sat on the stone ground.
This boy's name was Mu Chen. Beside him, a four-year-old girl with bright, inquisitive eyes moved with a restless energy. This was Xiaoyu. To any passerby, they looked like any other siblings or playmates within a noble clan, but Mu Chen was anything but ordinary.
To understand the nature of the boy playing in the dirt, one had to look back to the day he was only two months old. In the Sky Continent, the path of cultivation was a long and arduous ladder, beginning with Qi Gathering, where one first sensed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
From there, a cultivator built their Foundation, forming the bedrock of their power. Only then could they condense a Golden Core, the shining jewel of their dantian that marked them as a true immortal practitioner.
Beyond the Core lay the Nascent Soul, where one's spirit gained independence from flesh. Then came Soul Transformation, merging body and soul into something greater. The final recorded peak was Ascendant, a level of existence that few dared even to dream of—beings who transcended mortality itself and touched the realm of gods.
When Mu Chen was a mere infant of two months, his father, Mu Xiao, had presented him with his own spiritual sword. In this world, such weapons were prized treasures, utilized by practitioners to fly through the skies and channel their spiritual energy—capabilities usually reserved for those who had yet to reach the heights of the Golden Core Realm.
However, the moment the infant Mu Chen's fingers closed around the hilt of the spiritual sword, the laws of reality seemed to shudder. Without a sound, the high-grade weapon did not just break; it disintegrated.
Under the horrified gaze of his parents, the metal and spirit-runes turned into fine, gray dust that sifted through the baby's tiny grip. Mu Xiao and his wife, Liu Yan, were paralyzed. They forgot to draw breath, their hearts skipping beats as they stared at the empty space where a spiritual treasure had once been.
In that terrifying, silent moment, they realized a truth that would change their lives forever: they had not given birth to a mere genius. They had given birth to a "bug"—an anomaly in the very fabric of the world's power system.
The anomalies only grew more absurd as the boy aged. By the time Mu Chen reached six months of age, he was already displaying strength that defied every law of the Great Xia Dynasty. One afternoon, while resting near the Mu family training hall, the infant let out a simple, involuntary sneeze.
The resulting shockwave was not that of a human child, but more akin to a localized natural disaster. The sneeze tore through the air with the force of a battering ram, striking the massive walls of the training hall.
These were not ordinary walls; they were ancient structures strengthened by intricate defensive runes, specifically designed to withstand the training sessions of powerful cultivators. Even a golden core realm expert would find it difficult to leave so much as a scratch on those stones.
Yet, under the force of a six-month-old's sneeze, the wall groaned and cracked, a massive fissure spiderwebbing across the rune-etched surface.
Mu Xiao had been forced to scramble for an explanation. To answer Mu Chen's grandfather, Mu Zhentian, he had to invent a truly pathetic, lame excuse for how the impenetrable wall had been damaged.
That excuse remained a mystery to the rest of the clan to this day, a secret buried under the weight of Mu Xiao's bewilderment.
Strangely, despite the boy possessing a power that could essentially rewrite the rules of existence, his presence triggered none of the traditional signs of a supreme being.
Usually, the birth or existence of such a monster would bring about heaven-shattering phenomena, earth-shattering tremors, or massive lightning tribulations that would alert every hidden sect and ancient expert across the continent.
Instead, for Mu Chen, everything was quiet. The heavens remained still, the earth remained firm, and the world appeared perfectly normal.
...
In the northward courtyard, Mu Chen's play suddenly slowed. His eyes, which usually held the innocence of youth, suddenly sharpened. His gaze pierced through the physical barriers of the manor, through the hills of Feather City, and across the tens of miles of distance that separated him from the main Mu family residence.
His vision focused on an arena where a fierce competition was taking place. There, he saw his father, Mu Xiao, locked in a desperate struggle against a renowned genius of the main clan named Mu Lang.
The atmosphere in that distant arena was thick with the pressure of Spiritual Qi. Mu Lang was in the middle of executing a devastating move—the Mu family's ancestral technique, the Heavenly Palm.
The golden glow of the palm print descended with the intent to crush, aimed directly at Mu Xiao. It was a strike intended not just to defeat, but to cripple his father's cultivation and ruin his life.
Back in the quiet courtyard, Mu Chen's lips moved. His voice was small, but it carried a weight that could suppress the stars.
"Roll," he said softly.
Tens of miles away at the Mu family main estate, the world inverted for Mu Lang. Just as his Heavenly Palm was about to make contact with the defenseless Mu Xiao, an invisible force, as heavy and immovable as a monolith, slammed into his chest.
There was a horrific sound of grinding stone and snapping wood as Mu Lang was catapulted backward. His bones creaked and shattered under a pressure he could not comprehend.
In mid-air, he sprayed a mouthful of blood that was thick with fragments of his own internal organs. He flew across the arena with the speed of a falling star, hitting the reinforced arena wall with a sickening thud.
The impact was so great that he was flattened against the stone, momentarily looking like a human-shaped poster pasted to the wall. He then began to slide down the surface slowly, his limp body trailing blood like an egg sliding down the surface of a hot pan.
He landed in a heap at the base of the wall. He struggled to open his mouth, perhaps to cry out or ask what had happened, but only another torrent of blood escaped his throat. His eyes rolled back into his head, his vision went blank, and he fell into a deep, forced unconsciousness.
A deathly silence gripped the entire arena. Thousands of spectators and the clan elders sat in frozen shock.
"What happened?" someone finally managed to whisper.
"How did Lang reach there? He was winning!" another shouted in confusion.
"Did Mu Xiao do it? How could he have such power?"
The elders and spectators began to discuss the event with frantic energy. A low murmur started and quickly grew into a roar of debate as people came up with increasingly absurd logic to explain the sudden, violent reversal of the fight.
None of their theories, however, came close to the truth.
Mu Xiao stood in the center of the arena, his chest heaving as he stared at the crumpled form of his opponent. He slowly turned his head, looking toward the distant direction where his branch of the family resided.
A knowing smile touched his lips. He was one of the few people in the world who knew exactly who was capable of such a feat.
In the northward courtyard, Mu Chen turned his gaze away from the distance. He looked down at the little girl beside him who was still waiting for an answer to her earlier question.
"Nothing," Mu Chen said, his expression returning to that of a normal, playful child. "Let us play."
...
After half a day had passed, the carriage from the main clan arrived back at the Mu Clan Manor in Feather City. Mu Chen's parents stepped out, followed by his grandfather, Mu Zhentian. The old man was in an exceptionally happy mood, his laughter echoing through the halls of the manor.
The branch family had won the competition, a feat that would bring them immense prestige and resources.
Mu Zhentian immediately began barked orders to the household staff with a wide, triumphant grin.
"Hold a banquet! Bring out the fine wine, the best we have!" he shouted, his voice filled with the joy of victory.
"Yes, Family Head!" the servants replied in unison, bowing quickly before rushing off to fulfil the commands. The entire manor suddenly became a hive of activity as tables were set and kitchens were fired up.
Mu Chen's mother, Liu Yan, quickly separated herself from the excitement to find her children. She walked into the courtyard and spotted Mu Chen and Xiaoyu sitting together.
Her heart melted at the sight of them, and she walked over with a motherly warmth radiating from her.
"Are you two hungry?" she asked, her voice soft as she looked between them.
Mu Chen looked up at his mother and gave a heavy, deliberate nod. "Mn," he grunted, as if confirming a matter of cosmic importance.
Xiaoyu, not wanting to be left out, did exactly the same, nodding her head with equal intensity.
Mu Xiao walked up behind his wife, his eyes lingering on his son with a mixture of pride and awe. He reached out and ruffled Mu Chen's hair, his hand large and warm.
"You saved me again today," Mu Xiao said, his voice low enough that only the family could hear, filled with genuine gratitude.
Mu Chen, true to his six-year-old persona, used his small hands to swat at his father's hand in a show of irritation. He pouted and tried to smooth his messy hair, an act that only served to make him look incredibly cute and harmless.
Seeing the "all-powerful" anomaly acting like a typical moody child, his parents couldn't contain themselves and broke out into hearty laughter.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the Mu family held a grand banquet. The manor was filled with the clinking of cups and the smell of roasted meats, all in celebration of the tournament victory.