Origin beyond heaven

The Origin awakening

The room went deadly silent as Lin Yuan stood motionless before the Origin Scripture, his gaze fixed on the line of golden characters etched across the page.

"Heaven stole my name."

The words were simple, yet each character carried an indescribable majesty, as though they had existed since the dawn of creation, silently witnessing the birth and destruction of countless worlds.

Lin Yuan slowly reached out, his fingertips stopping just short of the page. For some reason he felt an instinctive reverence, not toward the Scripture itself, but toward the being who had written those words.

"Heaven..." he murmured. "...stole your name?"

His brows knitted together. Who could possibly say such a thing? Throughout his previous life, he had stood at the pinnacle of the cultivation world, yet he had never dared claim that Heaven had stolen anything.

Suddenly, rustle. The pages turned on their own, and Lin Yuan's pupils contracted as he realized there was no wind opening it; it was simply opening by itself. The pages continued turning, one after another, as though guided by an invisible hand.

Finally it stopped, and the blank page before him slowly rippled like the surface of a calm lake. Golden light gathered together, and stroke by stroke, new words appeared.

"If you can read these words..."

Lin Yuan unconsciously held his breath as he saw the line that followed.

"...then Heaven has already forgotten me."

The room fell into silence once more. Lin Yuan stared at the page for a long time, his heart anything but calm. Forgotten? A being capable of speaking about Heaven as an equal had been forgotten by Heaven itself? No, that wasn't right — it felt as though someone had erased every trace of this existence from history.

He lowered his head and looked at the Origin Scripture. Even in his previous life, after cultivating it for thousands of years, he had never seen these words.

"So..." he whispered softly. "You've changed because I returned." Or perhaps this was how the Origin Scripture had always been, and he simply hadn't been qualified to witness it before.

Just then, the golden words slowly dissolved into countless specks of light. Lin Yuan instinctively reached forward, and before his fingers touched the page, another sentence began to form, the handwriting noticeably different this time, containing an authority that made his soul tremble.

"Blood awakened the seal."

The words lingered for a brief moment, then another line appeared beneath them.

"One drop opened the gate."

Lin Yuan frowned. "What gate?"

As though responding to his question, the Scripture trembled gently. A faint gray radiance spread across its weathered cover, and the ancient emblem embossed upon the front slowly lit up for the very first time. It was neither dazzling nor brilliant; instead, it emitted a soft glow that seemed older than time itself.

Then the final sentence appeared.

"Offer another drop."

The words remained motionless, as if the Scripture itself had come alive and was awaiting his decision.

Lin Yuan looked at his still-bleeding fingertip, his gaze gradually sharpening. He had once risked his life countless times to seek the truth behind the Origin Scripture. Now the truth stood before him, and all it demanded was another drop of blood.

Lin Yuan did not hesitate. He raised his hand and squeezed his injured fingertip, and a fresh drop of blood gathered at the tip of his finger before falling toward the Origin Scripture.

Plop.

The moment the blood touched the Scripture, the golden characters dissolved into countless streams of light as the room trembled.

Buzz.

The gray cover slowly opened on its own. Unlike before, the pages were no longer blank; ancient characters filled them from top to bottom, unlike any language Lin Yuan had ever encountered, yet the moment his eyes fell upon them, he understood every word.

The first sentence entered his mind. "All living beings borrow from Heaven."

Lin Yuan's pupils contracted.

The second sentence followed. "Borrowed power can never surpass its owner."

His breathing became uneven as the single sentence overturned everything the cultivation world believed. Every cultivator absorbed Heavenly Qi. Every cultivation technique refined Heavenly Qi. Even the strongest Heavenly Emperor relied upon Heaven's power, including his former self.

Another line slowly appeared. "Therefore, no cultivator beneath Heaven can ever stand above Heaven."

Silence filled the room. Lin Yuan recalled the countless Heavenly Emperors throughout history — none had ever succeeded in transcending the Nine Heavens. Everyone believed it was because Heaven had rejected them. But now the Origin Scripture offered a different answer. It wasn't rejection. It was impossible. One could never surpass the source of one's own power.

His heart pounded. "So that's why..." His previous life's defeat had not been due to insufficient talent, nor because his cultivation was lacking. From the very beginning, he had walked the wrong path.

The Scripture turned another page, and the ancient words continued to reveal themselves.

"The Origin exists before Heaven."

"The Origin exists after Heaven."

"The Origin is the beginning of all Dao."

A faint gray mist slowly emerged from the pages, drifting through the room like wisps of smoke before gathering around Lin Yuan. Instinctively, he extended his spiritual sense toward it, and the moment they came into contact, his entire body trembled. It was spiritual energy, yet it wasn't. Compared to ordinary Heavenly Qi, this mysterious energy felt incomparably ancient and pure. If Heavenly Qi resembled a mighty river, then this gray mist was the spring from which the river was born.

The Scripture gave it a name. Origin Qi.

Another sentence appeared.

"Origin Qi permeates all existence."

"Mountains contain it."

"Rivers contain it."

"Life contains it."

"Death contains it."

"Even the empty void contains traces of the Origin."

Lin Yuan slowly looked around his room. Nothing had changed — the wooden floor, the stone walls, the table, the chair, everything appeared exactly the same. Yet now he could see countless faint strands of gray energy flowing quietly through every object, as though they had always been there. The world simply lacked the eyes to perceive them.

A smile slowly formed on Lin Yuan's face.

Lin Yuan slowly closed his eyes. The words of the Origin Scripture echoed continuously within his mind.

"Do not borrow from Heaven."

"Return to the Origin."

Taking a slow breath, he followed the cultivation method recorded in the Scripture. Unlike ordinary techniques, it did not instruct him to draw Heavenly Qi into his meridians. Instead, it asked him to ignore it completely.

The moment Lin Yuan extended his spiritual sense, countless strands of Heavenly Qi surged toward him, eager to enter his body. He could feel their familiar aura — in his previous life he had cultivated this energy for thousands of years. Now he let it pass by.

The Heavenly Qi circled him several times before gradually dispersing into the air. Lin Yuan remained unmoved as his spiritual sense reached deeper, past the flowing Heavenly Qi, until finally he found it.

A single thread of pale gray light drifted quietly beneath everything else. It was incredibly faint, so faint that if he hadn't cultivated the Origin Scripture, he would never have noticed its existence.

"Origin Qi..."

He gently guided the thread toward his body, and the moment it entered his dantian, an indescribable warmth spread through his meridians. There was no violent surge of power; the gray thread slowly settled within his dantian. Then it compressed. The tiny strand became even smaller, yet the aura it released grew denser, purified, and more refined.

Lin Yuan's eyes snapped open. "So that's the difference..."

Ordinary cultivators gathered more and more Heavenly Qi, expanding their spiritual sea with each breakthrough. The Origin Scripture did the exact opposite — it endlessly compressed its power. One strand, ten times purer. One drop, a hundred times denser. Quality instead of quantity.

Hours passed unnoticed, and by the time the moonlight poured through the window, Lin Yuan had successfully stepped into the First Layer of Qi Gathering.

He examined his dantian. Only a tiny wisp of Origin Qi floated there. Compared to an ordinary First Layer Qi Gathering cultivator, his energy seemed pitifully small. If another cultivator looked inside his dantian, they would probably laugh.

Yet Lin Yuan could clearly feel the terrifying strength contained within that single strand. To test it, he picked up a small pebble from the windowsill, and with a gentle flick of his finger, a trace of Origin Qi flowed into it.

Crack.

The pebble silently crumbled into fine powder, scattering through the air. Lin Yuan stared at the dust in his palm — his Origin Qi had erased the pebble from within.

A smile slowly appeared on his face. "This... is only the First Layer."

If a single strand of Origin Qi possessed such purity, what would happen after ten strands? A hundred? A thousand?

Before he could continue his thoughts, far beyond the Lin Clan, deep within the forbidden mountains where no disciple dared enter, an ancient cave remained shrouded in eternal darkness. An old man sat motionless inside, his hair as white as snow, his body covered with countless layers of dust, as though he had not moved for centuries.