The World Hidden Within the Flesh of a God

He didn't cry when he was born.

A heavy silence fell over the room.

The midwife stepped back, her hands shaking.

— T-this... isn't normal…

The child opened his eyes. Two dark pearls, calm and unfathomable.

No spiritual energy surrounded him.

No karmic thread descended from the sky to record his name.

Nothing.

As if it was never meant to exist.

The old woman murmured a prayer and fled.

Only Shen Da remained, an old blacksmith, hardened by time but still lucid.

He stared for a long moment at the naked child, still covered in blood.

—You are... silent. Like a forgotten forest.

He held out his hand.

—Then you will be Shen Mu, the one no one sees growing up.

Years passed.

The village, poor and isolated, forgot his very existence.

He grew up in the shadows. No name appears in the archives. No trace in the stars.

They tried to kill him. Three times.

The third was a monk.

He claimed that the child was not a mistake, but a hole in destiny, a void that would devour everything if he grew up.

—The heavens didn't mark you... so I will, in their place.

But when the blade came down,

it stopped.

The monk staggered back, his eyes wide with madness.

— …It's impossible. It's not… human…

Shen Mu said nothing.

He was five years old…

One winter night, while he was sleeping under a dead tree,

a warmth ran through his chest.

He opened his eyes with a start.

A purple glow shimmered before him.

A symbol—changing. Living. A mark.

And in his mind, a cold, ancient voice whispered:

 "Host recognized...

Inner world system awaiting activation..."

Then the voice disappeared.

The cold had returned. The wind rustled through the dead branches.

Shen Mu stood still, his eyes fixed on the gray sky.

He understood nothing. But something inside him had changed.

He didn't know it yet, but... his body had absorbed a trace of the Void.

Six years later.

Shen Mu was eleven years old.

Still invisible to the eyes of the Qi masters.

Still ignored by the karmic scrolls.

But every night he meditated.

Not to cultivate—he didn't know how.

But because something breathed in the silence.

That evening, as he sat by a dried-up lake,

the purple mark on his chest burned.

A light burst from his skin.

His mind was sucked into a swirling void.

A translucent interface appeared before him.

 [Inner World System – Partial Awakening]

Status: Emergency Activation

Host Integration Level: 3%

Karmic Stability: Unknown

[Function Unlocked: Karmic Perception]

[Special Condition Detected: Abnormal Existence Without Celestial Recording]

Kernel initialization…

Law fragment detected: Empty (1%)

Loading… Done.

The lake trembled.

Shen Mu opened his eyes.

Everything had become silent. Too silent.

Even the wind had stopped.

White silhouettes emerged from the trees—

eyeless ghosts, invisible to ordinary mortals.

Karmic forms.

They hovered around him, curious.

But when they saw the purple mark in his spiritual heart…

they fled screaming, screams only he could hear.

 "No… he came back…"

A flash of instinct flashed through Shen Mu's mind.

He raised his hand.

The purple light wrapped around his fingers.

 [Activated: Karmic Vision – Limited Range]

You can now see the threads of karma around you.

What he saw… froze his soul.

Every living being was connected by luminous threads—

drawn from the sky, linked to ancestors, choices, and futures.

But him?

He had no wire.

No past.

No future.

A moment of silence in the heart of an infinite symphony.

"I am alone."

But he didn't flinch.

He closed his eyes… and smiled.

A cold, calm smile.

As if he had accepted a truth no mortal could bear.