The evening bled slowly into the world like a dying ember.
A dim orange glow seeped through the glass panes, stretching long shadows across the quiet room. Dust drifted lazily in the fading light, like tiny, lost worlds suspended in stillness. Through the half-open window, a cool breeze slipped in, carrying the distant hum of the city—faint traffic, a barking dog, life continuing somewhere far away. Inside, everything felt slower, heavier, as if time itself had thickened.
Lin Feng sat on the edge of his bed, shoulders slumped, fingers pressing into his temples. His breath dragged unevenly, each inhale catching as though something unseen pressed against his chest. "…for one and a half day…" his voice came out dry, rough, "…you keep making me refine those damn pills again and again and again." His jaw tightened midway, fingers digging harder into his skin as frustration surfaced. "You don't even let me consume them."
The air twisted subtly, like heat bending space, before a thin strand of smoke appeared from nothingness. It curled upward as if pulled by unseen hands, spiraling tighter and tighter until it compressed into a dense sphere. The sphere pulsed once, then slowly unfolded, stretching outward into a vague humanoid shape that refused to stabilize.
The demon emerged, its form drifting and unstable, yet eerily composed. The air around it dimmed slightly, as if light itself avoided lingering too close. It hovered before Lin Feng, calm in a way that felt deeply unnatural, almost deliberate in its stillness. "You are lucky to be alive," it said.
Lin Feng's fingers twitched faintly, but he didn't look up immediately. "…alive?" he muttered, a faint, bitter scoff slipping out as though the word itself didn't belong to him.
The demon circled once, slow and deliberate, before stopping at eye level. "Your body is not normal. There is no divine physique, no blessed constitution, nothing that marks you as extraordinary." It paused briefly, its gaze settling with quiet weight. "But what you possess is far more dangerous—you carry a trace of primordial essence."
The room seemed to grow colder as the words settled, pressing into the silence.
"It was sealed," the demon continued, voice steady, "not to protect you, but to protect it from you. The seal restricts your meridians completely—it suppresses circulation, blocks expansion, and limits growth at its root." Its form flickered faintly, as if reacting to its own words. "And your body… is too weak to handle it."
A subtle tension crept into Lin Feng's posture, his back straightening slightly without him realizing it. "Internal erosion has already begun," the demon added, its tone unchanged. "Your organs are degrading slowly, piece by piece. If nothing had been done, you would have died long ago."
Lin Feng's throat shifted before he spoke, his voice slower now, more controlled. "…then why didn't it just kill me?"
A low chuckle escaped the demon, soft but unsettling. "Because whoever sealed you chose a different method." It drifted closer, its presence pressing inward, thickening the air. "Universal Blood Curse."
Silence followed, not empty but heavy.
"It infiltrates your spiritual root and reshapes it into a sealing core. Your meridians collapse over time, your dantian is erased piece by piece, and your foundation is stripped away without resistance." A brief pause lingered before it continued. "In exchange, your blood mutates, granting you abnormal physical strength while severing your path to cultivation entirely."
Lin Feng's fingers twitched faintly against his knee, the only sign the words had landed. "You said my body is too weak… my organs are corroding," he said slowly, brows tightening. "What does that have to do with this?"
"As I said, you carry primordial essence," the demon replied, its tone unchanging.
"…so what?"
"As your body grows, you gain mass—fat, weight, density. That mass acts as a buffer, suppressing the pressure from the seal and stabilizing your condition." The explanation came smoothly, without hesitation. "It is a temporary equilibrium."
Lin Feng blinked once, slower this time, piecing the logic together. "…so I just keep gaining weight forever?"
"No," the demon said immediately. "There is a limit. After you turn eighteen, everything reverses—your body begins to lose that mass, and in exchange, your physical strength will rise explosively. But your spiritual root will permanently seal itself, and you will never cultivate."
The words didn't strike immediately, instead settling gradually, like something sinking into place.
For a brief moment, Lin Feng remained still, unmoving, as if nothing had changed. Then a faint tremor passed through his fingers, subtle but undeniable, his breath stalling for a fraction of a second before he forced it steady again, chest tightening in a way he couldn't fully suppress.
So I become strong, but lose everything else…
"…so I become strong, but lose everything else?" he asked quietly, the weight of it finally surfacing.
"A cripple in cultivation," the demon replied without hesitation.
Silence pressed in, heavy and suffocating.
Lin Feng's jaw tightened faintly, something flickering in his eyes before it disappeared beneath control. "…who the hell would do something like this…"
The demon's expression sharpened, its voice turning cold. "Pathetic. You don't even know there is a cultivator in your own family."
Lin Feng's head lifted sharply, eyes narrowing. "That's not possible. We don't have cultivators in our family." The response came quickly, instinctively, though a faint hesitation lingered beneath it.
A low, dismissive laugh echoed softly. "Your world is smaller than you think. You assume what you see is all there is."
Lin Feng exhaled slowly, forcing his breathing back into rhythm, though his hand had already moved unconsciously to his abdomen. "…then what's happening now?"
"The seal is weakening and nearing collapse," the demon replied. "Your organs are deteriorating faster because of it. And you cultivated the wrong path—ice and water, while your true root is primordial fire. If not for me, you would have died the moment you reached Foundation Establishment."
A small hitch broke through Lin Feng's breathing before he steadied it again.
"But now I exist," the demon continued, arrogance surfacing once more. "I am the variable. The pills you refine will temper your body, cleanse your marrow, and force your meridians to adapt instead of collapsing. You will take one each day and cultivate using my method. For the next ten years, you will temper your body repeatedly."
Lin Feng lowered his gaze, silent for a moment as memory surfaced—his past strength, unnatural, excessive, something that had never quite made sense.
It had never been talent.
"…what now?" he asked finally.
"You need money," the demon said, pausing just enough for the weight to settle. "You need influence."
---
The shift came naturally, like stepping from shadow into light without resistance.
A brightly lit office stretched wide, its glass walls reflecting the city like a web of stars. The polished floor gleamed under white light, and the air carried a faint scent of leather and wood—clean, controlled, deliberate.
Gao Yunsheng stood near the desk and turned as Lin Feng entered, a slow smirk forming. "Well, well… look who decided to show up. Long time no see." Lin Feng's expression remained calm as he stepped forward. "…miss me, Uncle?"
Gao Yunsheng chuckled, though his eyes were already observing, calculating. "Still sharp." Without wasting time, Lin Feng placed a thick bundle of papers onto the desk, the dull weight of it breaking the room's rhythm. "This is a framework," he said evenly. "Not just code—a system design."
Gao Yunsheng picked it up, flipping through a few pages, his gaze sharpening as he scanned. Lin Feng continued without pause. "I want to build a private research lab—high-density GPU clusters, two to three petabytes of storage, distributed systems, real-time data pipelines." A slight pause followed before he added, "AI researchers, engineers, financial analysts. The names are listed. I want them recruited."
Each sentence landed cleanly, without hesitation.
Gao Yunsheng didn't respond immediately, his attention deepening as he reread sections, noticing structure and intent beneath the surface. The amusement faded, replaced by something more analytical. "For what purpose?" he asked at last.
"I want to create an artificial intelligence," Lin Feng replied.
A brief silence followed before Gao Yunsheng frowned slightly. "Explain yourself."
"A system that predicts markets, understands language, and simulates risk," Lin Feng said, his tone unchanged. "A system that replaces decision-making itself."
Gao Yunsheng stared at him longer this time, as if trying to peel something apart. "You're not a researcher, not even close to that level," he said slowly. "And yet you're describing something that doesn't exist like this, not at this scale." He placed the papers down more firmly. "You're already one of the youngest billionaires. In ten years, you could dominate Daxia's financial sector."
"Too late," Lin Feng said calmly. "This is the future. I am opening the door early. If I don't, someone else will."
Gao Yunsheng's eyes narrowed, irritation mixing with curiosity as he glanced back at the document. "Do you understand the scale of what you're asking? Infrastructure, compliance, global data networks—this isn't something you brute-force with money alone." His gaze sharpened slightly. "And these names… you didn't guess this. You planned it."
Lin Feng didn't respond.
"What's your probability of success?" Gao Yunsheng asked.
"99.99%."
The answer came instantly.
Gao Yunsheng held his gaze, studying him more carefully now. "Is this confidence, or do you believe you've already seen the outcome?"
Lin Feng stepped closer, his voice steady. "Help me. You won't lose."
Silence stretched before Gao Yunsheng exhaled, tension settling into his shoulders. "This isn't simple. Labs, teams, approvals—everything takes time." He paused briefly. "…three months."
Lin Feng shook his head. "One month. I don't care about money."
For a moment, Gao Yunsheng simply stared at him—then laughter broke out, sharp and sudden. "Ha… ha… ha…" He flipped through the papers again, more roughly this time, amused by the sheer audacity. "…there goes a hundred million in vain."
The laughter faded into a grin as he exhaled. "Reckless… completely reckless." A brief pause followed before his expression settled. "…fine. I'll do it."
Lin Feng turned slightly, his gaze drifting toward the city lights beyond the glass. The reflections stretched endlessly, like something waiting to be reshaped, rewritten, controlled.
Lin Feng thought to himself, this isn't a gamble, Uncle. I've already seen the end of this path—AI isn't just a tool, it's the future made real.
Fate… that meaningless word people cling to when they're powerless. It has never decided anything. And it never will.
Fate cannot decide what will happen to me… I will decide my own fate.