The morning mist still clung to the mountains as Qin Ye stood at the edge of a cliff near the inner sect's forbidden zone. A wisp of wind brushed against his robe, yet not a single strand moved.
He was still. Watching.
Below, hidden among ancient stone formations and weathered talismans, Qin Feng carefully stepped into a ruined chamber—his expression tense, but excited.
"This must be the place mentioned in the jade map…"
Qin feng obtained a piece broken jade in the market today, it looked nothing special but feng lao noticed its specialty.
Qin Ye's gaze remained fixed.
"The brat thinks he stumbled onto something… but this is clearly a scripted encounter. An inheritance concealed just long enough for fate to guide him to it."
A golden thread of Qi trembled faintly in the air, invisible to all eyes—but not to Qin Ye.
He saw it.
Qin Feng stepped onto a broken platform, where shattered spirit stones formed a crude array. As he held up a cracked jade token, the formation reacted.
"There it is. Triggered perfectly."
A hidden compartment slid open, revealing a glowing jade slip and a small, shimmering orb of Qi.
"Feng lao was right!" Qin Feng whispered. "This is a sealed legacy of a void refining strongman!"
A deep voice echoed faintly in his ears.
"Good… this is your fate. But do not absorb the jade immediately—refine your meridians first. It will come to you in time."
The voice was calm, ancient. Not a system, but something more… personal. A soul. A spirit. A guide.
Qin Ye narrowed his eyes.
"So this one has a 'grandpa' soul, huh? One of those spiritual remnant cheats…"
He had suspected as much.
"Fate always makes sure the Son of Destiny isn't truly alone."
From a hidden vantage point cloaked in ten layers of illusion, Qin Ye watched it all without a ripple in Qi.
He had no interest in stealing the jade.
He wanted to see how fate worked.
And now he understood.
"Every step is guided. From the broken formation to the jade's reaction. He didn't find this. It found him."
A Higher Presence
As Qin Ye turned to leave, he felt it.
A pulse. A warning.
Qin Ye's lips curled into a smile.
"So the world itself protects him... Interesting."
"As long as he doesn't bother me its fine...if not" Qin Yi's eye's turned terrifyingly cold.
Later, in his jade-etched chamber guarded by sealed formations, Qin Ye sat cross-legged, reviewing everything.
"A lucky encounter . A grandpa cheat. A perfectly-timed trigger. All wrapped in the illusion of coincidence."
He opened the system panel. No prompt appeared.
It was waiting.
Afraid, perhaps.
He was still thinking of all its plans. Why Qin feng? He is no genius, much less a leader who can lead the world. why him?
Far above the clan grounds, the clouds twisted unnaturally. For a split second, a golden eye opened in the void—massive, cold, divine.
Then it blinked… and vanished.
"A variable has emerged…""But it is not yet time to act."
As Qin Ye sat silently in the lotus position, the flickering golden interface before him dimmed to a mere whisper of light. His thoughts, however, burned with terrifying clarity.
Today's observation had confirmed what ancient texts had only dared to hint at.
"So that's how it is…" he murmured.
The so-called Son of Destiny—Qin Feng—wasn't chosen because of innate brilliance. He was chosen because he was predictable. Moldable. The perfect puppet. The Heavenly Will of the Tianxuan world did not seek true genius. It sought obedience. Stability. Control. And Qin Feng, with his blind courage and naive resolve, was the perfect vessel.
But that wasn't all.
The system bound to Qin Ye… was no better.
It, too, sought a pawn. A slave host who would blindly cultivate, fight, and grow—so that it could harvest the Heavenly Will's power through disruption and chaos. It pretended to be his tool, but its goal was clear: plunder the fate of this world.
Heaven and system. Order and rebellion. Two opposing parasites. Both craving dominance over the world's growth. Both needing a foolish puppet to carry out their will.
Qin Ye's gaze turned cold.
"Neither of them anticipated me."
He wasn't naive like Qin Feng. Nor was he blindly loyal to his system. He had seen through their games—through the subtle manipulation, the predetermined scripts, the invisible threads that tried to tug his soul toward someone else's design.
The Heavenly Will had already noticed his deviation. He could feel its gaze, hidden in the clouds, watching, judging, calculating.
It would not ignore him for much longer.
"Let it come."
If the heavens saw him as a threat… then he would become a threat worthy of fear. Not just a variable—but a storm that shattered both puppet and master alike.