A child, battered and bruised, crawls through piles of trash under a grey sky.
He digs with trembling fingers, whispering through cracked lips, "God, bless me… food for sister."
Hours pass, and he gathers scraps of spoiled bread and wilted vegetables, placing them gently aside like treasure.
He stares at the small pile, relief and sadness twisting together.
"It should be enough for sister," he murmurs, voice thin with hope and hunger.
His stomach snarls, but he smiles weakly, already surrendering to another hungry day.
As he gathers the scraps into his arms, something gleams beneath torn cloth and broken metal.
"What is that?" he breathes, leaning closer.
He uncovers a tiny sword, no larger than a locket, shimmering faintly as if alive.
He lifts it to his palm, eyes wide with wonder and desperation.
"It looks valuable… I can sell it," he whispers, lips curling into the first true smile in days.
The sword pulses.
Pain explodes.
He screams as the blade slices into his palm like living steel, and the locket vanishes in a flash of light.
Blood stains the trash, and his body trembles as dizziness floods him.
His vision blurs, and he touches his burning forehead, whispering, "What… is happening…" before collapsing into filth and darkness.
Across the world, eight more swords choose their bearers—men, women, children, and demons—each found by those suffering yet unbroken, each cloaked in faint heavenly power.
In a quiet cultivation chamber far away, Kaelan opens his eyes, breath steady, expression calm and fulfilled.
He exhales, voice low and steady, "Finally… I completed deducing the basic Wind Visualisation map."
A week has passed since his return to Tang Capital.
In that short time, the city has changed as violently as the sky before a storm.
Li Xueyao now sits at its centre—her father dead, the throne cold, and authority clinging to her shoulders like frost.
Yet she does not crown herself.
Not because she lacks desire, but because this land bows only to men and to one higher power: the Demon Hunter Association.
Without their mandate, her claim is as thin as silk in a furnace.
Their silence has become chaos.
Provinces rise in rebellion.
Uncles, distant princes, forgotten branches of the royal bloodline—all scramble like wolves scenting an unattended carcass.
And he stands trapped in the whirlwind simply because he took Li Xueyao's hand in marriage.
But chaos is only a danger to those without purpose.
For him, it is an opportunity—an open sky.
If he helps her ascend as Queen, the Tang Kingdom will not simply stabilise.
It will transform.
He will mould it into a cradle for Wizardry.
The world will watch a kingdom become a tower of magic.
He already holds the foundation—three paths beneath his feet:
Elemental Way
Body Refining Way
Runic Way
The five-element basic visualisation map he created before… he had seen its flaw.
It belonged to the *material aspect*—the mana it produced was heavy, buoyed with vitality, solid and nourishing… but sluggish.
Good for tempering flesh.
Not sharp enough for spellcraft.
So, after returning to the capital, he reshaped everything.
Fire, Water, Earth—peeled from material nature and reborn as *true elemental visualisations*.
Then, with quiet patience and the whisper of wind against his soul, he brushed against the mysteries of air and forged the *basic Wind elemental map*.
Originally, he planned to spread only the Body Refining Way.
Let the world grow strong in flesh, even if the mind remained dim.
But the main body's warning came—an invasion brewing at the edge of existence.
And suddenly, strength alone was not enough.
He needs a position.
Authority.
A voice the world must follow.
When the sky tears open and another world descends, he cannot be a nameless shadow.
He must stand as one of the pillars—one who guides fate instead of being swept away by it.
And that means a civilisation must rise under him.
A *wizard civilisation*, forged before the storm arrives.
A framework not just strong, but unshakable.
Li Xueyao ascending as Queen isn't just politics—
It is the lever by which he will lift the world toward magic.
With that thought anchoring his mind, he stands, quiet resolve settling like steel in water.
He opens the door and steps out.
Royal corridors stretch before him, polished stone and silent guards framing his path.
Since returning, his residence has shifted to the palace—Li Xueyao holds the capital together from here, and so must he.
As he walks, his thoughts sharpen.
He already stands in the Official Wizard realm of the Runic Path, polishing his runic visualisation map, refining mana thread by thread.
Now he deduces what comes next for the other two branches—Elemental and Body Refining Wizards.
Their road must mirror his:
Visualisation refined and evolved, spirit world expanded, mana deepened.
Every wizard must strengthen their map to step beyond apprenticeship.
Apprentice level begins with the *Basic Visualisation Map*.
From there, one may break directly into the Official Wizard Stage—
But only if their comprehension touches the realm of one in ten thousand.
A rare threshold.
A genius's gate.
For everyone else, the map must evolve, grow, ascend in steps.
The framework must be clear—
and he shapes it with every step that rings through the palace halls.
He reaches an open corridor and stops.
The moon hangs bright like polished jade, winter wind brushing his face with quiet cold.
A week of seclusion leaves him craving open air, so he descends the stone steps and walks into the snow-lit courtyard.
His feet glide above the frost, never sinking, body so refined that even winter bows and parts beneath him.
Next comes the *Bronze-Stage Visualisation Map*—
The foundation to step into the Official Wizard realm and become a Bronze Wizard.
A Bronze Wizard holds mana of their own making, born from their understanding of the world and their visualisation.
Two Wizards may cultivate the same map and still form different mana—
similar at a glance, yet profoundly distinct when examined closely, shaped by the depth and purity of their comprehension.
And from the first breath of Bronze to its peak?
He stands beneath the moon, its pale light dusting snow and stone, and wonders whether this stage should remain unchanged.
When he cultivated the Runic Way, his Bronze phase was simple—refine mana, like a martial cultivator tempers qi.
But now, as he gazes up at the night sky, he questions:
Should the Wizard Path follow the old pattern?
Or evolve into something sharper, something built for the future he wants to forge?
The Bronze Wizard stage only matches the initial realm of the First Transcendence Stage.
At this step, all paths—martial, qi, or wizard—refine their energy to prepare for the Second Stage, where power must transform to touch Law.
Energy first; Law later. That is the eternal order.
He sits in the snow, silent for minutes, letting moonlight and thought settle.
Then clarity arrives.
He will reshape this stage—
not only polishing mana, but giving wizards a foothold toward the next great threshold and greater combat power in the present.
It will make cultivation harder.
But those who succeed will wield strength above their peers—
a path defined not by ease, but supremacy.
So what must be added to Bronze cultivation?
How to refine mana and also forge battle worthiness?
How to accelerate spiritual energy refinement beyond mere will and spirit power?
He dives through memory—inheritance from the void, his own battles, even scraps of logic taken from anime and novels of his past life—searching for a spark.
A way to deepen the Bronze stage without breaking its foundation.
A way to refine spiritual energy into mana faster, sharper, and cleaner than brute spirit force alone could ever allow.
Thought churns.
The night thins.
Moonlight drains into pale dawn.
He leans back against the cold stone bench, eyes closed to the sky, mind turning like a silent storm.
Li Xueyao's voice cuts through the haze.
He opens his eyes, tilts his head, and finds her standing there—regal posture, authority carried like a blade.
"Why are you dressed at dawn?" he asks.
"Morning, court," she replies.
He would rather sink back into deduction.
"Then go."
But she steps closer.
"I want to pass new laws. I want your support."
He lifts a brow.
"Why? With your father dead, all the important ministers are gone. There's no need."
Her gaze sharpens.
"Those men were only representatives of noble families in the capital. After they died, others took their place."
He exhales, stands.
"Let's go."
He still hungers to perfect the Bronze Wizard stage—there is a structure waiting to be born in his mind—but gaining the throne for Li Xueyao is part of the foundation for his future world.
He lacks overwhelming power for now, so he must keep her in play.
She must survive the struggle until he is ready to seize fate outright.