The Path No One Saw

Chapter18: The Boy Who Sparked the Mountain

The Mu and Tu Clans said nothing.

No provocations. No statements. Not even a scoff from the elders.

But their silence was not born of indifference—it was the stillness of sharpened knives watching from the shadows.

Spies were dispatched. Paid eyes on rooftops. Silent feet in alleys. Disguised servants within tea houses. And they all watched one boy.

"Wu Yuan."

The name was a whisper on every breeze in Wu City.

"The Wu brat?"

"He's winning every match."

"And he's only eight?"

Rumors flared like dry leaves in a forge. The name, once buried under years of ridicule, clawed its way into every corner of the city.

"Wasn't he sleeping for five years?"

"Has the Wu Clan finally sent their juniors again?"

"They've avoided the public platforms since the last inner-clan collapse."

And yet, there he was.

A boy no older than a spring peach blossom, standing on the ancient dueling platform of City Manor—calm, clean-robed, and utterly unbothered by the dozens watching him.

The Wu Clan, for the first time in years, had lifted its head.

And Wu Yuan was the reason.

It started as a curiosity.

By the third day, it was wildfire.

By the fifth, it was obsession.

In every market square, among elders sipping bitter tea, beside outer clan disciples polishing their spears—Wu Yuan's name was spoken. Some called him a prodigy. Some called him a freak. But none denied one thing:

He was winning. And the Wu Clan, long ridiculed and neglected, had begun to lift their heads again.

No longer hunched in shame. No longer whispering of past glory.

Now, they walked with their backs straight, speaking of the present.

Because the present was Wu Yuan.

Each morning began the same.

Wu Yuan sat beneath the old spirit tree in the Wu Clan's rear courtyard, breath steady, body soaked in lightning essence. His limbs, once aching from imbalance, now pulsed with strength—each vein carrying refinement, each breath echoing purpose.

"Spirit. Flesh. Will. All must temper together," he reminded himself.

His courtyard had become sacred ground to those few who understood his journey. Wu Lu was among them. Once a rival in resentment, now a companion in fists.

"I'll catch up soon," Wu Lu said one morning, cracking his knuckles as the spirit mist clung to his robes. "Don't think of slacking. The moment you do, I'll show you what real defeat tastes like."

Wu Yuan didn't argue. He only smiled.

Then their fists met—thunder for thunder, no more animosity, only pressure. Iron sharpening iron.

He still won.

On the second day after returning from Wu City, the system chimed.

System Notification

Mission: Provide Outline of Verdant Kingdom.

Status: Completed.

Reward: 10 SP

Total SP: 14 SP remaining.

Wu Yuan blinked, leaning back against the barrel of now-diluted lightning-infused water. His muscles still twitched from the morning's training. The system's cold font scrolled across his vision without sound, yet somehow felt… smug.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Still short. I had 19 SP. Spent 15 on three bottles earlier—left with four. Now, plus 10 from the kingdom outline reward… 14 total."

He frowned.

Three bottles in the morning, and he barely scratched the barrier for Level 10. The bottleneck felt like a steel wall. He hadn't sensed the telltale "cracking" feeling that came before a breakthrough. Instead, it felt… stagnant. Heavy. Like his body had grown used to the pain.

He exhaled slowly.

"Not enough."

That afternoon, he walked toward the dueling platforms.

Not by impulse.

But by intent.

Now that he'd spoken to Wu Cheng and understood more about the Verdant Kingdom, his next steps were clear. If strength carved status, then he'd carve himself into a blade sharp enough to sever doubt.

The moment he stepped onto the stage, a crowd began to gather.

Three Level 3 cultivators stepped up, grinning like jackals. Older, broader, with the confidence of experience.

Three moves later, they were unconscious.

The crowd was silent.

System Notification

Mission: Defeat Cultivators (Opponent difficulty and number will determine SP reward).

Target: 3 cultivators at Level 3

Your detected realm: Level 2 Body Tempering

Mission Complete.

Reward: 30 SP.

Wu Yuan's brow lifted slightly.

"This easy?"

He walked off the platform.

Some disciples stepped aside instinctively.

Others didn't.

But all watched.

On the fourth day, he returned.

Wu Yuan bought eight lightning essence bottles, six of which he consumed during the morning training session

This time, five Level 3 opponents stepped forward in a group challenge.

"Don't hold back," one of them sneered. "We'll make sure you get your rest early today, brat."

Wu Yuan didn't respond. He just nodded.

The fight lasted longer than before—seven moves.

Only because he was measuring his strength.

Only because he wanted to test something.

System Notification

Mission: Defeat Cultivators - 5 opponents at Level 3 while maintaining Level 2 strength output.

Reward: 50 SP.

total SP: 54

50 SP.

He stared at the screen and narrowed his eyes.

"This shouldn't be possible," he muttered.

By the logic of every system cultivation novel he'd read in his previous life, defeating opponents below your actual level should offer no rewards. The system didn't hand out freebies.

But here he was.

Collecting SP like a vendor collecting coins.

It puzzled him—until the pieces began to click.

"Of course. I hadn't used my real strength. The system knew that… and rewarded the restraint."

His body was too raw. His strength too wild.

Only now, after days of intense training and combat, did he wield his strength like a sword instead of a blunt club.

So to the system, he was still proving himself at Level 2 strength.

And that? That was rewardable.

On the fifth day, Wu Yuan changed everything.

He didn't go to the city manor.

He didn't duel.

He didn't even leave the Wu Clan estate.

Instead, he sat in his courtyard and prepared.

From the system store, he purchased ten lightning essence bottles with the accumulated SP. Added to the two leftover ones, he had twelve in total.

Usually, he diluted a single bottle into a barrel of water and immersed himself.

But this time?

All twelve.

Straight into the water. No dilution. No buffer.

As the mixture swirled into a volatile electric blue, he stripped down and entered.

The pain was instant.

Not the burn of lightning—but the detonation of it.

His muscles locked. His bones trembled. Lightning surged through every vein like liquid fire.

Lightning danced across his spine like threads of molten silk. His veins screamed, his bones popped.

It didn't itch.

It didn't sting.

It ripped.

As if every layer of his body from Level 1 to Level 9 had been thrown into a furnace and set ablaze again.

He bit down on a leather strap to keep from screaming.

The lightning essence was vanishing too quickly.

Wu Yuan could feel it—the crackling energy flooding his limbs was being consumed at a terrifying rate. If this pace continued, he wouldn't make it. The breakthrough would fizzle, incomplete, and his body might rupture instead of ascend.

Not enough… Not yet.

His hand trembled as he reached for the small satchel tucked beside the barrel—sealed with wax, wrapped in storm-treated hide. Inside were the last of the tempering materials his father had passed him without a word.

First, he downed a vial of Lightning-bark essence—its taste metallic and sharp, like biting a thundercloud. It sent a fresh surge of voltage through his spine, but steadier, more focused.

Then came the Thunderroot ash, ground fine and bitter. He mixed it into the lightning essence barrel, letting it diffuse across his skin like embered mist. His nerves calmed. The surges began to carve rather than tear.

Finally, he crushed and consumed the jade powder refined from thunder-marrow roots—a stabilizer. It didn't add more energy. It refined what was already within him, like a blacksmith quenching metal in pure spring water.

Each chant of the Heaven-Eating Pulse Conduction technique struck like a different hammer—rhythmic, focused, relentless. Strengthening bones. Reinforcing tendons. Forcing nerves to stabilize.

He didn't have spirit sense, not yet. He couldn't manipulate qi directly or draw essence from the world like those in higher realms. But this technique didn't rely on that.

It demanded breath control—precise, disciplined, brutal.

Inhale through clenched jaw. Hold for nine counts. Exhale as if releasing thunder from his spine. Each cycle flushed the lightning deeper into muscle and marrow.

It wasn't cultivation in the refined, graceful way of Spirit Initiation. This was bodily war. A siege from within.

And he endured it—chanting, breathing, breaking, reforging.

Time ceased to exist.

Only pain.

Only sparks.

Only the storm.

And then—silence.

System Notification

Mission: Break Through to Level 10 Body Tempering - COMPLETE

Reward: 50 SP + 1 Bottle of Spark Essence Pill (12 pills).

Note: Spark Essence Pill now available in System Store. Cost: 20 SP.

Total SP: 54

He collapsed beside the barrel, breathing shallowly.

His limbs were trembling, but not from pain—from power.

He had crossed a boundary few might even know existed. 

And something was now changing inside him.

He opened his system interface.

 Status

Name: Wu Yuan

Age: 8

Clan: Wu Clan

Realm: Level 10 Body Tempering

Attributes:

Strength: 30

Endurance: 30

Agility: 30

Defense: 30

(Note: A typical Spirit Initiation Realm Level 3 cultivator has stats averaging at 30.)

Lightning Root: In Progress

Lightning Body: In Progress

Lightning Soul: In Progress

Lightning Spirit: In Progress

Lightning Chakra Progress: 75%

SP: 4

Techniques:

Aura Veil

Heaven-Eating Pulse Conduction

Thunderflash Step

Wu Yuan wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and gave a weak laugh.

His cultivation might still read "Body Tempering," but these stats alone placed him on par with those stepping into the Spirit Initiation Realm.

And no one had any idea.

Wu Yuan kept his routine.

Train. Duel. Cultivate.

But now, his opponents came prepared.

Juniors from various sects, mercenaries, rogue disciples—they all came. Rumors spread that the Wu Clan's brat was holding back. Some came to test him. Some came to humiliate him.

All left in silence.

"I must confirm how rewards shift," he thought.

He matched his opponents' levels. Against Level 3 cultivators, there was no reward. 

"So now the system thinks I have full control over level 3 body tempering realm cultivation," he guessed.

He began consuming Spark Essence Pills, one per day. Each one was worth more than 15 lightning essence bottles. His body's capacity continued expanding—along with his insight.

And in the city, whispers deepened into something sharper.

They didn't know that inside his still heart, lightning never stopped moving.

Wu Yuan wasn't just preparing to strike.

He was evolving.