The measurement stone of the Xuan Clan was a monolith of translucent jade that had recorded the fates of thousands. When a child touched it the stone would sing with light the stronger the light and color the stronger your spiritual roots is.
Xuan Ye stood before it. The silence was deafening.
"Nothing" the Elder announced. His voice held no pity, only a cold finality. "Xuan Ye. No spiritual roots No talent a Mortal"
The crowd of relatives didn't jeer. They simply looked away. In a world where the strong governed the stars, a mortal was not an enemy he was a ghost.
Two years had passed since that day
Xuan Ye sat in the corner of the manor's martial library. He was twelve now, but his eyes held the stillness of an old man. He wasn't looking for cultivation techniques. He was looking for a reason.
Why is there nothing?
He had spent two years testing every "trash" cultivation method in the Jade Capital. His body refused to store Qi. It wasn't that his meridians were blocked; it was as if the Qi simply didn't recognize he existed. When he breathed in the essence of the world, it passed through him like wind through a screen.
"Hey trash"
Xuan Ye didn't look up He knew the voice. Xuan Feng the Golden Child of the family, walked in. Feng was fourteen and already radiated a faint golden light from his skin.
"The Elders decided your fate today," Feng said, tossing a scroll onto the table. "You're being sent to the borderlands to manage the grain storehouses. A mortal job for a mortals life"
Feng leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper "I don't know why you still bother coming here The heavens have abandoned you from the beginning Ye You're a footnote A mistake."
Feng's hand gripped Xuan Ye's shoulder. Suddenly a strange chime echoed—not in the room but deep inside Xuan Ye skull
[Target detected Analyzing host...]
[Sign-in System error. Unidentified variable found]
Xuan Ye froze The sound wasn't human. It was mechanical rigid and cold For a split second, he saw something flickering above Feng head a translucent screen of light filled with symbols he shouldn't be able to read
Is this his talent? Xuan Ye felt a surge of heat in his chest It wasn't Qi It was a weight A physical heavy mass manifested behind his ribs The air around him suddenly felt heavy like the atmosphere before a thunderstorm.
Xuan Feng pulled his hand back, his face turning pale "What...what are you?"
Xuan Ye didn't answer He couldn't His vision was being flooded by ink Not liquid ink but a conceptual darkness that blotted out the light of the library.
Inside his mind a heavy thud sounded A book bound in shadow slammed shut
He understood it then. He didn't have spiritual roots because spiritual roots were the ink the Heavens used to write a person life He had no roots because he was the paper.
He was the empty space where the story had not been written yet
"I'm nothing" Xuan Ye said His voice was different now "Just a footnote right?"
Xuan Feng backed away, looking confused. He couldn't see the dark book floating in Xuan Ye's soul. He couldn't see the way the light in the room was being sucked into Xuan Ye's shadow.
"Right" Feng muttered shaking off the chill. "Don't forget to pack your bags You leave in three days"
Feng hurried out He was afraid though he didn't know why
Xuan Ye sat in the silence. He raised his hand Drop of black ink seeped from his pores weaving together to form a physical book It felt heavier than a mountain.
He opened the first page It was blank.
No destiny. No roots. No rules.
He looked at the door where Xuan Feng had disappeared. He had seen the system inside his cousin He had felt the logic of the world trying to categorize him and failing.
"The world says I am a mortal" Xuan Ye whispered. "But the world is just a book. And I have the only pen"
He didn't feel sad about being exiled. He felt a cold, sharp hunger. The grain storehouses at the border were near the Great Forest, a place where the Royal Hunt would soon take place.
If the Heavens didn't give him a path, he would simply steal one from those who had too much.
Benefit, he thought. If I devour Feng's system, I can hide my lack of roots. If I devour the Prince's bloodline, I can enter the Holy Lake. The family thinks they are throwing me away. They are just letting the wolf out of the cage.
He stood up and left the library. He didn't take any books with him. He didn't need them anymore. He was the only truth in a world made of lies.