Standing before the Founder's Manor was an elderly man clad in a green robe. The sleeve of his garnt bore the image of a dragon's head, an emblem that marked him as a mber of the Longshou Faction.
His long white hair fell loosely over his shoulders, and his frail figure was clearly outlined beneath the flowing fabric of his robe.
Yuan stood quietly in front of him, flanked by the ever-smiling Wenli and, just behind her, her silent and cold eyed twin brother, Baoyan.
"Greetings, Elder Longshou," Wenli said with her usual sweet tone. "When will the Founder's Manor be opened?"
At her question, the elder gave a tired sigh, shaking his head with clear irritation.
"Children these days… always so impatient," he muttered, voice rough with age. Then he glanced sharply at her. "It'll open soon. We're just waiting for the other elder from your Longwei Faction to arrive. That old man's always late, so things never change."
With a wave of his sleeve, he motioned for the juniors to step back. They obeyed without protest.
Wenli turned to Yuan, clearly wanting to continue their conversation, but before she could speak, a low rumble echoed across the mountaintop. All heads turned toward the source.
The doors of the Founder's Manor creaked open with a heavy, echoing thud. Standing behind them was another elder, white haired and bright eyed, wearing a warm smile as he looked over the group of juniors.
The Longshou elder clicked his tongue in annoyance at the dramatic entrance, but said nothing. He clearly wanted to get things over with.
"Greetings, juniors!" the newly arrived elder called out, his voice full of enthusiasm. "The Founder's Manor opens once again! For so, this is a rare opportunity. For others, just another season. Regardless, make good use of this chance. Cultivate well and bring glory to the Loose Long Family!"
After the proclamation, he paused to cough into his hand, then quickly cleared his throat.
"Alright, everyone, enter and find your place."With that, he stepped aside.
So of the juniors rushed in eagerly to claim a good spot. Others moved with calm restraint.
Yuan, Wenli, and Baoyan entered together, among the last.
Once they had fully entered the Founder's Manor, Wenli turned to Yuan and gave him a sweet smile.
"This is your first ti inside our Founder's Manor, isn't it?"
"Yes," Yuan replied simply, not giving the question much thought.
Wenli then extended a slender finger, pointing toward a specific area in the distance.
"See that corner?" she said, pointing.
Yuan gave a quiet nod.
"It's dense with essence, but I hate how heavy the air feels there. I figured soone like you could handle it better."
She giggled softly, then added, "Alright, I'll see you later!" Without waiting for a reply, she turned and walked away, her brother Baoyan silently following close behind.
Yuan watched them for a mont, then shifted his gaze toward the spot Wenli had indicated.
It was a quiet corner of the open library chamber, dimly lit with only a single window letting in a narrow beam of sunlight. The place felt almost lifeless, more like a secluded cultivation cell than part of a grand manor.
A few others were already there. Several children and even a middle aged man had claid spots, each settling down in silence. No one acknowledged Yuan's arrival, not even with a glance.
He didn't care.
Yuan casually scanned the room. The library wasn't particularly large or rich in content, just ten bookshelves sparsely filled, maybe thirty books in total. They looked randomly arranged, and one of the children had already begun reading one in silence.
Noticing the reader, Yuan glanced at his sleeve and saw the dragon head emblem, marking him as part of the Longshou Faction.
Yuan quickly lost interest and turned away. He found a quiet spot for himself, a little corner touched by that single beam of sunlight. The rest was cloaked in shadow, but to Yuan, it was peaceful.
Darkness and silence were nothing new to him. In fact, they were familiar companions. Compared to the void like conditions he had endured during past cultivation sessions, this dim light felt almost luxurious.
Satisfied, he sat down and crossed his legs.
He closed his eyes.
And then he began to cultivate.
There was nothing more to say and nothing to hear, save for the faint sound of the wind whispering through the cracks of the old manor walls.
As Yuan cultivated, he imdiately noticed the difference in the spiritual essence within the manor. It gave him a slight boost, a noticeable improvent in absorption and clarity. If he could remain here for two full years in silent seclusion, he felt certain he could awaken his fifth sense.
But that wasn't possible.
He couldn't even stay for a year, he wouldn't even be allowed a full month. Just a single week. At most, the manor's effect might help if he were already on the verge of a breakthrough, but for now? It was a nice bonus, nothing more.
After several hours of simply probing the Dragon Turning Room's spiritual essence, Yuan decided it was ti to use the green pill Old Man Longwei Feng had entrusted to him.
He reached down to the small pouch bound at his belt and retrieved the pill, small, round, and deep green in color.
The Sense Skipping Pill.
Yuan recalled the gleam in Old Man Feng's eyes, full of excitent as he handed over the pill. That mory filled Yuan with hope and curiosity. Without hesitation, he swallowed the pill.
The effect was imdiate.
Like a quiet river turning into a rushing stream, the spiritual essence within Yuan's body began to flow wildly, surging through his ridians and flooding every corner of his fra.
Pain followed, sharp, real, and grating. It bit into his bones and twisted through his flesh.
Yuan clenched his jaw and endured it in silence. Not a single sound escaped him. He cursed the creator of the pill in his mind, but even while cursing, his focus didn't falter.
He worked hard to control the overwhelming spiritual essence now coursing through him, guiding it with his own spiritual essence, anchoring it as best he could.
And then, his second sense, hearing, snapped open like a bell being struck.
Just like that, in barely an hour, he had stepped into the second stage of the Mortal Awakening Realm.
But it didn't stop there.
The pill's effects continued. The wave of spiritual essence surged again, this ti pushing toward his third sense. With a flicker of hope, Yuan focused every bit of his willpower on awakening it.
Four more hours passed in fierce, silent effort.
He didn't fully open the third sense, his sense of sll, but he had reached more than halfway. With just a few more months of normal cultivation, he was confident he could awaken it fully.
"What a good pill," he muttered in his thoughs, a trace of awe in his expression. "Unfortunately… I only had one."
The spiritual energy finally subsided.
It felt like a beggar who had, for a fleeting mont, lived a life of luxury, only to be thrown back into poverty. That sudden loss of abundance left behind a strangely hollow, bitter ache.
After calming his mind, the excitent brought on by the Sense Skipping Pill faded, and Yuan returned to cultivating in silence.
Four days passed.
By now, several children and even a few middle aged n had already been escorted back by the two elder representatives. The once crowded library room had grown quiet.
Most who had shared it with Yuan were gone, leaving behind only one other figure, a young boy with a dragon head emblem on his sleeve.
They had never spoken. Not a single word exchanged, not even a glance. They simply ignored each other's existence.
But for Yuan, sothing changed.
Just as his mind began to steady, a sharp pain blood behind his eyes. The world twisted and vanished
The next mont, he found himself flying.
There were wings on his back, carring him through the sky. He felt weightless, like a bird born to the air, drifting effortlessly through the clouds. The wind wrapped around him like an old friend, and for a brief mont, he felt truly free.
Then he saw them.
Suspended high in the sky were eleven chained shadows, each one glowing in a distinct color. They floated in silence, restrained by radiant chains that pulsed with power. And in the middle of them stood a young man.
He had azure hair, wore dark green robes, and looked distant, as if his gaze reached far beyond the present world.
Yuan hovered below, watching.
The young man shifted slightly. His lips moved, speaking words so quiet they should have been lost in the wind. But Yuan, thanks to his newly awakened sense of hearing, heard them clearly.
"What I believe is truth, becos truth. What I believe is false, becos false."
The words sent a chill down his spine.
Sothing about them disturbed him deeply, as if they scratched at a part of his mind he had long since locked away. He didn't know why, but it felt familiar.
And then, another voice echoed out. One that didn't co from above, but from within him.
"You finally woke up… Yuan."
His heart froze. Panic surged in his chest. He looked around, but saw no one, only the eleven chained shadows and the dark green robed figure. The voice returned.
"Yuan? Who is that?"
This ti, it was his own voice. Confused and Lost.
He rembered sothing. Then everything.
And just as dread began to form in his chest, the voice spoke again, calm and rciless.
"Who is Yuan, you ask? Hah... he's just a re puppet. And now that he's lost his value, it's ti to dispose of you."
Yuan's eyes widened. Then a scream tore through the air.
"HELP! PLEASE HELP !"
It was his own voice. His own scream. But it didn't stop. It repeated, over and over, millions of tis, all at once, echoing through his skull like a broken record of pain.
Then… silence. Cold. Empty.
And a whisper followed,
"Even though he forgot who he is, that will to survive still burns bright. It was always there. Yet he's always been dancing in the palm of my hand. In the end, all he can do is struggle, nothing more. His fate was sealed the mont I saw him, the mont he was born."
Rage slowly built up inside him. Yuan rarely felt true anger, but now it consud him, along with humiliation, fear, and a strange sense of powerlessness.
Yet even under this storm of emotions, he endured. He always endured.
But sothing changed.
There was a glint in his eyes. Not madness from confusion, but from fury. A silent, violent anger that wanted to tear everything apart. The kind that didn't cry out, it acted.
And as his emotions surged, so did his mory.
The once blurry images in his mind beca clear. He saw it all now. The eleven Daos, bound but still struggling, fighting against Truth's Dao, its powers of reality and illusion clashing in bursts of light that split the heavens.
Yuan rembered what has happend.
Instinctively, his wings moved, soaring alongside other ancient beings who were trying to escape as the world collapsed around them.
Mountains crumbled. Cities were erased. Mortals died by the millions and cultivators the sa.
And one by one, the beings beside him fell.
He tried to escape. Sohow, he moved. His long serpentine body twisted through the sky, but he was already wounded. Deep gashes opened along his scales. His wings were torn. Blood stread from his form.
Then he looked down.
The land below was filled with corpses. Mangled. Burned. Torn apart. The ground was soaked in death.
As he stared, his form began to change.
The serpent's body shrank. Its wings folded. Its scales lted away. And once more, he was human.
Then he looked up and saw the great white serpent, its body huge, its two pairs of blue white wings tattered and full of holes. Even its horns had been shattered, broken down to nothing.
The serpent's body began to fade. It shimred, slowly becoming transparent.
Just before it vanished, its mouth opened. A deep voice echoed out,
"Scary, isn't it... seeing the past?"
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