The morning mist had not yet lifted from the outer peaks when Lin Yuan opened his eyes.
A thin stream of spiritual qi still clung to his meridians, warm and obedient, cycling through his dantian in a steady rhythm. Lin Yuan exhaled slowly, fingers loosening from the cultivation seal. The faint tremor in his breath settled.
Qi Condensation, Fifth Tier.
There was no thunderous breakthrough, no surge of heaven-splitting insight—only quiet progress earned through years of patient repetition. Lin Yuan rose from the stone platform inside his modest cave dwelling, his robe brushing against the cold floor. For an outer sect disciple nearing thirty, this level was neither laughable nor admirable. It was simply… adequate.
The Azure Pillar Sect stretched across seven peaks, its foundations anchored deep into a second-grade spiritual vein. At its summit stood the Golden Core Hall, where Sect Master Zhao Wenhai, an early-stage Golden Core cultivator, governed with calm authority. Beneath him were five elders—none beyond early Golden Core—forming the fragile yet functional backbone of the sect.
To disciples like Lin Yuan, such figures might as well have belonged to legends.
The inner sect brimmed with geniuses, their resources abundant and futures carefully cultivated. The outer sect, by contrast, was a place of slow filtering—where talent was tested by time rather than brilliance. Lin Yuan had entered the Azure Pillar Sect at nineteen, old by most standards, and with no exceptional spiritual root to recommend him. His promotion to the inner sect never came.
Nor did special attention.
Yet he endured.
Beyond the sect's mountains lay Lin Clan, a minor cultivation family clinging to survival through cautious alliances and careful humility. The strongest among them was the clan head, Lin Zhen, a Foundation Establishment cultivator whose breakthrough decades ago had secured the family's modest standing.
That was the limit.
No Golden Core ancestors. No hidden legacies. No sealed inheritances waiting to awaken.
When Lin Yuan left for the sect, the clan celebrated—for a time. But years passed, letters grew infrequent, and expectations faded. In the eyes of most relatives, he had become distant, half-belonging to a world they could neither touch nor benefit from.
His parents, Lin Qingshan and Mei Lian, no longer spoke of him often. Their attention had shifted to their younger son, Lin Feng, whose aptitude showed more promise and whose presence was tangible, dependable.
Lin Yuan understood this.
Understanding did not lessen the distance.
His wife, Shen Yao, waited in the clan village.
She was a third-tier Qi Condensation cultivator, her talent unremarkable but her will firm. They had married before Lin Yuan entered the Azure Pillar Sect, bound more by shared circumstance than romance. Their son, Lin Chen, was five years old, still untested for spiritual roots.
Shen Yao had never been cold.
But she had always been sharp-eyed.
Lin Yuan left his cave dwelling before dusk.
The Marriage Council Hall sat near the outer sect's administrative ridge—a place most disciples avoided unless necessity pressed them forward. Inside, incense burned faintly as an elderly cultivator looked up from his register. Counsellor Qiu, a sixth-tier Qi Condensation cultivator.
He tapped the register lightly. "Given your standing, I can recommend, not promise. There's a minor family—the Mo Family. Their daughter is in Qi Condensation, the family has some spirit fields and a few stable pill connections. No sect ties. Clean and practical."
Lin Yuan picked up the slip. "I understand."
Lin Yuan left the Marriage Council Hall before night fully fell.
The path leading down the mountain was quiet, but his destination lay beyond the sect's borders. The Mo Family resided near the southern trade road, a minor cultivation household that survived not through strength, but through careful management of its spirit fields and pill exchanges.
They were not powerful.
By the time Lin Yuan reached the outskirts of their territory, lanterns were already being lit. Low stone walls marked the boundary of the Mo estate, modest yet orderly. Several spirit fields lay beyond, faint qi drifting above the soil—proof that the family possessed resources real enough to sustain cultivation, if not ambition.
A young attendant noticed him and hurried forward. "Senior, may I ask your business with the Mo Family?"
Lin Yuan rested his hand over the jade slip. "Lin Yuan of the Azure Pillar Sect. I am here to discuss a marriage proposal."
The attendant's expression shifted—alert, cautious, but not surprised. After a brief nod, he gestured inward. "Please wait. I will inform the elders."
As Lin Yuan stood beneath the hanging lanterns, listening to the distant sounds of the household, his thoughts were calm.
This visit would decide more than a marriage.
It would decide whether his path forward truly existed.