The Imperial Heavenly Library.
Even thinking the name feels like releasing a breath I've been holding for years—one that lodged itself deep in my chest and never quite left. A place whispered about by scholars who spent lifetimes chasing fragments of truth. Revered by sects who built doctrines upon incomplete knowledge. Envied by nobles who believed ownership of books equaled ownership of the world.
The largest collection of books, scrolls, ancient records, cultivation manuals, forbidden texts, and lost knowledge in the Empire.
Perhaps in the entire continent.
For most people, it is a symbol.
A mark of authority.A privilege granted only to the worthy.A treasure vault guarded by power and tradition.
But for me…
For a wanderer with no lineage and no past, no clan name to inherit and no ancestral hall to kneel before—it is something far more dangerous.
It is hope.
Hope that somewhere among ink-dark pages and brittle scrolls, there exists an explanation for the things I do not understand about myself.
Answers about cultivation.About the strange, quiet flow of power in my veins—unusual, undefined, yet unmistakably alive.About why my Pulse never behaved like others'.About why it answered so easily… and yet belonged nowhere.
About who I am.
And where I truly came from.
My hand tightens unconsciously around my fishing rod.
The wood is smooth, worn into the exact shape of my grip over the years. Polished not by care, but by survival—by storms, salt, sweat, blood, and countless nights where it served as my only comfort and my only weapon. I don't remember who gave it to me. That memory dissolved somewhere between hunger and flight.
Only that it has been with me longer than any person.
Longer than safety.Longer than certainty.
My only constant.My only inheritance.
I lift my eyes.
The golden gates rise before me, vast enough to swallow sound. Dragons coil across their surface, carved mid-flight through clouds, scales catching sunlight like living flame. When the gates begin to open, the sound is deep and drawn-out—a low groan that vibrates through stone and bone alike.
It reminds me, absurdly, of the old bed I once slept on.The one that creaked whenever I shifted.The one that warned me to stay still.
Palace guards stand in perfect formation on either side. Their armor gleams like still water under the sun, polished so thoroughly it reflects the sky. Their faces are stern, carved into disciplined neutrality. Yet their eyes flick toward me—briefly.
Puzzled.Dismissive.Already uninterested.
To them, I am no one.
Just a wanderer.With unkempt hair.Calloused hands.And an unremarkable fishing rod strapped across his back.
No ornate blade.No family crest.No robes dyed in the colors of nobility or sect prestige.
Nothing that marks me as someone worthy of entering the Imperial Palace.
But today… ignorance favors me.
Because these gates do not open for nobodies.
They open for survivors.
Only those who endured the tournament may enter.Only those who proved their strength before crowds of nobles, ministers, and cultivators.Only those who earned the right to step onto sacred stone and approach the knowledge sealed within this place.
And somehow—
Against every expectation.Against my weak heart.Against years spent hiding instead of fighting.
I'm here.
I step forward.
The stone beneath my feet is polished to a mirror sheen, cool even beneath the midday sun. It feels like stepping onto still water. Above me, palace walls rise like mountains, layered with talismanic arrays that hum softly with spiritual power. The air itself feels different here—heavier, older, saturated with centuries of ambition, learning, betrayal, and truth.
History presses down on my shoulders.
Not crushing.
But undeniable.
I inhale slowly.Steadily.
Grandpa always said quiet things suit me.
He never could have imagined that the quiet boy he once carried to the river's edge—hands too small to hold a fishing rod properly, eyes always watching instead of speaking—would one day walk into the heart of the Empire.
The center of its power.Its ambition.Its secrets.
My voice leaves my lips softly, almost too soft for the wind to catch.
"Grandpa… I made it."
The wind does not answer.
But silence isn't empty.
Sometimes silence feels like understanding.Like a presence standing beside you without needing to speak.
I walk deeper into the palace grounds.
Other tournament victors move ahead of me, their voices echoing boldly across courtyards paved in jade tiles. Some laugh too loudly. Some recount their victories with exaggerated gestures. Some walk with their chests puffed out, every step declaring their importance.
I do not join them.
Noise has never suited me.Noise never saved me from anything.
Silence did.
Silence carried me through nights where even breathing felt dangerous.Silence taught me to listen—to footsteps, to lies, to the pull of danger in the air.Silence taught me when to move… and when to disappear.
And now, silence walks with me through these ancient halls.
Past lotus ponds calm enough to reflect the sky.Past pillars carved with phoenixes frozen mid-rebirth.Past corridors that stretch endlessly, each turn revealing another fragment of the Empire's staggering wealth.
But my eyes are drawn to only one place.
The Imperial Heavenly Library.
The destination I've dreamed of through hunger.Through storms.Through cold nights spent wondering why I lived when so many others didn't.
Not for glory.Not for fame.Not for admiration.
I came for the truth.
The truth buried in forgotten scrolls.The truth someone once tried to erase when they threw me into a sea of suffering.The truth behind the strange Pulse inside me—mysterious, undefined, impossible to categorize.
Something the world does not recognize.
Something even I do not understand.
As the palace gates close behind me with a heavy thud, sealing the outside world away, a strange stillness settles in my chest.
Jin Yue—
The boy who once hid inside a tiny chest,clutching his fishing rod to stay quiet,to stay alive—
finally walks into the place that might rewrite everything he thought he knew.
Not seeking glory.Not seeking status.
Only the truth.
The palace remains vast and silent around me, but for the first time in years, the silence feels like a beginning… not an ending.
And as I take my next step toward the Heavenly Library, it feels as though something ancient whispers back:
Come.Let us see what you truly are.