The morning sun at the Northern Border was cold and pale. Inside the granary office, Xuan Ye sat at a desk covered in dusty ledgers. To any passing soldier, he was exactly what the Xuan family intended him to be: a discarded noble child counting bags of rice.
He looked down at his palms. The skin was slightly paler than yesterday, but the density beneath was undeniable.
Why am I doing this?
The question surfaced briefly. He didn't crave the throne or the hollow titles of the Jade Capital. He didn't care for the Righteous path or the Demonic path Those were just labels used by people who were afraid of their own shadows.
He remembered the day his spiritual roots were measured. He remembered the look on his father's face. It wasn't hatred. It was worse. It was the look of a man seeing a broken tool.
In this world, if you weren't a tool for the Heavens, you were nothing. You were a leaf in a storm, destined to be crushed by the whims of Geniuses and Sovereigns who decided your fate before you were even born.
"I want to be the one who decides" he thought. I want to be the only thing in this universe that cannot be erased.
He closed his eyes. The black book manifested in his mind, its pages turning with a sound like dry leaves.
[Mortal Vessel: Level 1 — 12% Progress]
The two percent jump had come from the experience he had absorbed from Captain Hu. He didn't just have Hu Stone Body he had Hu's instincts He knew how to hold a blade He knew how to kill without wasting a single movement.
"Young Master Ye!"
The door slammed open. A young soldier ran in, his face white with terror.
"Captain Hu... he's in the infirmary! He was attacked last night. He says a Demon from the Abyss took his cultivation!"
Xuan Ye stood up slowly, his face shifting into a perfect expression of shock and worry. He even let his hands tremble slightly. "A Demon? Here? At the border?"
"The Captain is broken" the soldier gasped. "He's a mortal now. The local healers can't do anything The Royal Hunt is supposed to start this afternoon. If there's a Demon in the woods, the Princess... the Princes... they'll all be in danger!"
"We must send word to the Royal Camp immediately," Xuan Ye said his voice urgent. "If the nobility is at risk, we cannot stay silent."
"I'll go!" the soldier said rushing back out to find a horse.
Xuan Ye sat back down. The trembling stopped instantly.
The fear would draw the powerful deeper into the forest. They would increase their guards, which meant more Geniuses with more hunt to do he would gather them in one place.
To the world it was a crisis. To Xuan Ye, it was a buffet.
He opened a drawer and pulled out a small jagged obsidian dagger he had hidden. It was a common tool, but in the hands of someone who knew the human anatomy as well as he now did it was enough.
Xuan Feng has the Sign-In System he mused The Princess of the Jade Empire is said to have one of the Heavenly Eyes. If I can get close enough to her while everyone is hunting the Demon I created...
He felt a strange cold excitement He was doing this because he was hungry He was a blank page and he was tired of being empty.
He stood up and walked toward the window In the distance the first carriages of the Royal convoy were appearing on the horizon draped in gold and crimson silk. They looked like jewels moving across a wasteland.
"The script is starting" Xuan Ye whispered to the empty room.
He didn't need spiritual roots to climb the heavens He just needed to wait for the heavens to come down to him.
He walked out of the office, his cheerful mask firmly in place. He was just a mortal boy worried about his captain waiting to be overlooked by the gods.