The Age of Martial Enlightenment.

Chapter 0 — The Tale of the Strength Ant

The rain had stopped, and the fire crackled gently in the center of the village square. Around it, wide-eyed children sat with calloused knees and shaved heads—initiates barely a week into their training.

A tall monk in weatherworn robes, his beard streaked with silver, sipped quietly from a gourd of warm barley tea. His name was Brother Kenji, and though he wore no sword, the villagers whispered that he once split a boulder with two fingers.

He set down the gourd and began, voice soft as dew:

"Children," he said, "do you know the story of the ant who became strong?"

The little ones blinked and shook their heads. A few giggled.

"An ant, Master?"

He smiled.

"Even a lowly ant can become Enlightened," he said. "Let me tell you how…"

"Long ago, before your great-grandfathers were born, there lived a little ant under a stone near a martial sect's training field. She had no name, no sword, no technique scrolls. She was not a warrior—not even close.

"But every day, as she foraged, she would see the disciples above her lift great stones, punch trees until bark exploded, scream their stances into the wind.

"And this ant… she watched.

"She asked herself: 'Why do they suffer? Why do they train?'

"And then one day, she asked something even stranger:

'Can I train?'"

"She found a pebble ten times her weight and tried to lift it. Her legs bent. Her mandibles cracked. She failed. Again and again.

"But she did not stop.

"Days passed. Then weeks. She trained in secret, while the other ants worked. The colony laughed. 'You were made to serve, not to strain!' they said.

"But the ant didn't answer.

"She trained until her legs grew stronger. Until her back no longer buckled. Until one morning, when the sun kissed the field just right, she lifted the pebble above her head.

"She had taken her first step on the Martial Path:

Strength Refinement."

Brother Kenji looked at the children, who had stopped fidgeting.

"Now, listen well, little ones.

"That ant—she had no teacher.

"No bloodline. No talent. No special inheritance.

"She had only two things:

A question.

And a choice.

"The question was: Why not me?

"The choice was: To try."

He sipped again.

"She didn't become Sect Leader. Didn't fly through the heavens on a dragon's back.

"But in the end, her story was carved in the stone she trained upon. And even a great Martial Grandmaster could not move the pebble she once lifted with her tiny legs.

Because it was never just a pebble.

It was her Will."

"Each of you," Brother Kenji said, eyes shining, "feels small right now. Too weak. Too slow. Too ordinary.

But the Path does not ask for greatness.

Only that you take the first step.

If an ant can climb the First Pillar with no name, no power, and no clan—then what excuse do you have?

Will you lift your pebble?

Will you train?"

He rose slowly. His tea was gone. The fire had died down.

But the children were no longer cold.

They sat up straighter.

And one—smallest among them—whispered:

"…Why not me?"

So the story of the Strength Ant is passed on.

Not written in scrolls, but spoken around fires, whispered before dawn, carved into the hearts of those just beginning.

The first Pillar is always the hardest.

But every climb begins with a question…

And the will to answer it.