Long before Ai Hui arrived at the Avalon of Five Elements, the old cultivation world had already become a thing of the past. Different universes crashed together, the age that countless legends spoke of disappeared, and what remained was a harsher world where humanity survived by gathering behind fortified cities while the vast Wilderness stretched beyond their borders. Few people willingly entered that place, fewer still came back.
Ai Hui was one of the exceptions. He spent three years in the Wilderness as nothing more than a laborer, a job with almost no chance of survival. Thousands were sent there, yet only two people lived long enough to leave. By the time he returned, he had stopped expecting kindness from the world. Every habit he carried came from experience, checking every corner before resting, wasting nothing, eating whenever food was available, and never assuming tomorrow was guaranteed.
That record earns him a place at the Avalon of Five Elements, an academy most people would consider the beginning of a better life. For Ai Hui, it feels like entering another world entirely. Students argue over rankings, families compete for reputation, and talented cultivators worry about things that seem almost meaningless to someone who spent years wondering whether he would survive until sunrise. He is awkward around people, suspicious of easy friendships, and more interested in finding cheap meals than making a name for himself.
His classmates eventually notice that the quiet newcomer reacts differently whenever danger appears. While others hesitate, Ai Hui moves almost without thinking, relying on instincts shaped long before he ever learned proper cultivation. He does not possess an extraordinary background or unmatched talent, and he never expects opportunities to fall into his lap. If something can be earned through patience and hard work, he will keep trying until he gets it.
Pieces of his old life continue following him as well. The small sword school that once gave him a place to stay, the teacher whose dream everyone else laughed at, and the people he left behind remain part of the reason he refuses to give up, even after reaching the academy. Those memories quietly shape many of the choices he makes.
Ai Hui enters the Avalon hoping for nothing more complicated than a chance to live without returning to the Wilderness. Instead, the skills that once helped him survive begin pulling him toward events far beyond an ordinary student’s life, proving that surviving the past was only the first step.
