After leaving the rather peaceful port city of Éclair, Wuzhi started heading in the south-east direction. None of the factions, at least according to Silica's words, has bases or outposts in this direction. Apart from ruined lands, shattered mountains, and evaporated lakes, nothing lay in the southeast direction.
And yet, Wuzhi unhesitatingly walked in this direction. Why?
Because the Will of the Heavens told him to.
Wuzhi's head leaned back to stare at the clear, sunlit sky. His argent eyes flashed with deep profoundness as mysterious characters flitted about within his vision. A mystical haze, unseen to the naked eye, surrounded his body and created an invisible resonance between Wuzhi, the earth, and the Heavens!
What Wuzhi was using right now was unmistakeably a [Path Technique]. However, it wasn't exactly a [Path Technique] in the traditional sense.
To use a [Path Technique], a cultivator had to possess three things; knowledge about the [Path Technique], a sufficient understanding of the Path in which the [Path Technique] is rooted, and finally, Energy.
Knowledge of the technique acted as the vessel. With a sufficient understanding of the related Path, the cultivator creates an 'engine' that will spur the technique into action. Finally, Energy will act as the fuel, and upon paying the required amount, a cultivator will be able to manifest a [Path Technique].
Currently, Wuzhi possessed a [Path Technique]. He was even sufficiently proficient in it. His understanding towards the Paths also need not be spoken about. However! Wuzhi lacked the one thing that separated a regular mortal from a cultivator.
Wuzhi lacked Energy. Or rather, he lacked a Core which would allow him to harness, refine, and store Energy within his body.
It was an absolute, well-known fact amongst every denizen of this world that without a Core, it was impossible for a human to cultivate. Cases such as Wuzhi's, where a person's Core is either crippled or destroyed, are rare but certainly not unheard of. In such cases, it was a foregone conclusion that the afflicted person was resigned to a life of mortality and mediocrity.
Wuzhi was no different. And he had even been forced to confront this unfortunate reality at a very young age.
Faced with such a heartless reality, a normal person might have resolved themselves to live a life of ordinariness. A mortal life, while not as exciting and adventurous as a cultivator's journey, was still peaceful. Especially in the current era while high-born mortals held equal status to powerful cultivators.
Wuzhi, however, was different. He was a strange child, born in a strange time, with a strange heart. [AN: 'heart' here, refers not to the organ but to his thoughts, feelings, and attitude. Sorta like 'a heart of conviction.']
When he came into this world as a newborn, Wuzhi did not cry.
When he laid his eyes on his birth mother for the first time, he did not feel the familiar warmth of relation but rather a surgical curiosity.
When he spoke his first words, it wasn't a loving call for his mother but rather a query borne from a new discovery.
When he took his first step, it wasn't towards the warm embrace of his parent but rather towards the world that shined outside of his home's doors.
Wuzhi was a strange child; as his teacher so often pointed out. His birth was strange, his actions were strange, and even his thoughts were strange. The only thing that wasn't strange about him, was perhaps the life that he had lived so far.
Still, even during this so-called 'normal life,' Wuzhi had his moments of strangeness. The first was when he learnt about his mother, the second was when he met with his teacher, and the third was when Wuzhi found out about his inability to cultivate.
Faced with an absent Core, Wuzhi did not despair. Rather, his 'strangeness' manifested in full as a thought appeared within his mind; how can I cultivate without a Core?
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
When he spoke such a thought out loud, his respected teacher laughed at him and told him it was impossible. He spoke about how in the entire history of this world, none had found such an alternate avenue and had deemed it as a waste of thought. His teacher told him to give up on such ludicrous thoughts and return to his books.
Yet, Wuzhi stubbornly persisted. To his ignorant seven-year-old mind, matters such as 'history and 'the world' were too humungous and grand to comprehend.
As such, his curiosity existed; how can I cultivate without a Core?
And at the tender age of fourteen, Wuzhi found a path!
It was a bold, innovative, and ingenious idea that wasn't yet established enough to be granted a Named Path status. It was but the obsessive study of a strange youth. However, it unmistakably revealed a way and a future for Coreless cultivators to cultivate!
It was also on this day that Wuzhi's identity as a 'Star,' blessed by the very Heavens to lead this world into a new Era of exploration and development, was fully realised.
This truth was known only to two people in the entire world; one was Wuzhi, and the other was his teacher, who found the truth to be hilariously amusing. He even went as far as calling it the 'Biggest Joke of the Century.'
Returning to the topic, how does one cultivate without a Core?
Wuzhi's answer: Become the Core.
Every square cubic inch of the world was filled with boundless, infinite Energy. The method proposed by Wuzhi was for a person to act as the Core and use this boundless, infinite Energy to fuel whatever [Path Technique] that they wanted to use.
'With the world as my body and my body as the Core, I shall seek out a Path where none existed before!'
Wuzhi's arrogant, borderline heretic declaration marked the founding of his new path. It was still unnamed and incomplete, and there were still a lot of unknowns that he needed to properly figure out. Nonetheless, it represented a brand-new foray into a land unexplored by his human predecessors.
Wuzhi was precisely a 'Star' that shined light onto unexplored lands!
He did not cultivate in the traditional sense but that did not stop him from wantonly making use of [Path Techniques]. His currently employed technique, named [Heaven's Calculations], was a supreme technique that could traditionally only be employed by practitioners at Rank 6!
However, Wuzhi, who spat on tradition, used it casually as if it was some cheap vegetable sold along the roadside.
Stopping his walk, Wuzhi paused to stare deeply at the distant heavens. He then suddenly closed his eyes and casually sat down on the scorched lands beneath his feet.
Moving with familiar ease, he grabbed a handful of ash from beside him and used it to draw on the ground before him. With his eyes kept closed, both of his hands moved at fast speeds to draw out mysterious characters and numbers. An immortal-esque feeling settled over Wuzhi as he sat calculating.
Almost ten minutes and hundreds of lines of incomprehensible calculations later, Wuzhi suddenly snapped his eyes open. His argent eyes, resembling two unfathomably deep and still wells, shone with realisation and acceptance.
"It is not time yet."
"Three days later, I will walk thirty-seven kilometres south-west of here. There, I will find the subject of my strategies and the core of my schemes."
In a deep, self-assured tone, Wuzhi recited. "Such is the will of the Heavens!"
---
Three days and thirty-seven kilometres later.
After precisely following his instructions, Wuzhi arrived at the edge of a rocky outcrop, overlooking barren plains and half-collapsed mountains, with his suitcase in hand. He then confirmed the location with his mind and confirmed the time with the heavens.
And precisely a minute after he had arrived, Wuzhi caught sight of rising dust clouds in the distance. The wind carried to him the distant sounds of metal clanging and horses whinnying. A moment later, the furious shouts of men also arrived near Wuzhi's ears.
The picture soon became clear; a group of people, containing a closely guarded carriage, seemed to be fleeing in escape while another group of people attacked and kept at them with the intent to kill. Both the escaping and chasing parties were heading in Wuzhi's direction.
The instant he saw this, Wuzhi immediately recognized and understood the situation. A peculiar emotion filled his heart as a resplendent smile hung on his shadowy visage.
It was here; the muse sent to him by the Heavens. It sat firmly within the carriage that was being attacked.
"I need to meet with my muse. Only with it will my 'Grand Strategy' see its fruition," Wuzhi quietly muttered to himself. He then tightened his grip over his suitcase and continued, "But first, I need to get rid of these assailants threatening my muse."
Pressing down on his bamboo hat, Wuzhi jumped down from the rocky outcrop. It wasn't particularly tall, allowing Wuzhi to land on the ground beneath without any injuries.
His movements were just in time, as not even a second later, the fleeing carriage came to a stop in front of him. Half a dozen guards on horseback, nervously surrounded the carriage in protection, while two dozen assailants cornered their fleeing prey against the dead end.
A particularly fierce-looking man trotted to the front on his warhorse and cast a glance at the embellished carriage. Raising his halberd, he fiercely yelled.
"Step out of the carriage and accept your death, royal pig! And I will spare your men! Fail to heed me and I will flay the skins of your every guard before mounting your head on my pike!"
His bloody words filled with murderous intent echoed on the battlefield.