Lu Fan stood before the mist-shrouded Wuheng Mountains, a vast and ancient range whispered about in obscure cultivation texts. It wasn't on any modern map — a place erased from public knowledge, known only to the few who walked the shadowed path.
He carried only a worn backpack, a forged student travel permit, and his pendant — now dim, as if resting.
Behind him lay the city.
Ahead, the unknown.
He stepped forward.
---
The deeper he went, the more the modern world fell away. Trees older than dynasties loomed overhead. The air grew thick with ambient Qi, raw and primal. His Universal Library stirred with activity, responding to the untamed energies.
For days, he trained alone.
He practiced Celestial Palm in the silence of night. He refined Body Flowing Steps, moving silently through treetops. He even used the library's blueprints to carve low-grade spirit gathering formations, boosting his recovery.
But he needed more.
And one night, the mountain answered.
---
He found it in a forgotten shrine — an altar buried beneath moss and stone, pulsing faintly with long-abandoned energy.
As he approached, a strange voice echoed in his mind:
> "Only the worthy may bear the flame that does not burn."
The ground trembled.
A guardian spirit, cloaked in jade fire, rose from the altar. A test. Ancient and merciless.
Lu Fan faced it with steady breath.
He dodged the spirit's strikes with flawless precision, blending Body Flowing Steps with a new technique he'd developed — Mirror Flow, using the environment to create afterimage illusions.
With a single rising palm, infused with both Celestial energy and his own blood essence, he shattered the guardian.
And in return… the shrine granted him a gift.
A rare technique:
> "Crimson Lotus Art – Heaven-Forging Flame."
A dual-natured cultivation method — part medical, part offensive — which allowed him to purify toxins, seal wounds, and burn corruption with flame that healed or harmed, depending on his will.
He spent the next week mastering the basics of the Crimson Lotus Art, using the universal library to simulate forms, refine Qi patterns, and learn medicinal principles.
---
When he finally descended the mountain, his aura had changed. His cultivation had broken through to the next realm — the Spirit Spring Realm, his body strengthened, his soul steadier.
He could now hide his cultivation from even Heaven Tier experts, thanks to the refined Void-Woven Concealment Technique the Library had offered as a reward.
And he had earned his first spirit coin payment — from healing a dying fox spirit that guarded an ancient glade.
He sent the money quietly to his father, unsigned, with only one message:
> "I'm doing fine. Study hard. Eat well. I'll come back better."
---
But as he walked through the village on his way out of the mountains, something… shifted.
He felt watched.
From a rooftop far above, a man in dark robes whispered to another figure.
> "He's awakened it... the Universal Library. Notify the Temple. The Sovereign Child has emerged."