Li Yunmu is not the kind of person anyone pays attention to.
In a world where strength comes from flux energy, talented students are noticed early, powerful families protect their own, and gifted cultivators rarely struggle to find opportunities. Li Yunmu belongs to none of those groups. His aptitude is average at best, his background is unremarkable, and his future appears largely predictable.
For someone like him, the gap between ordinary people and the figures standing at the top of society might as well stretch across another world.
Then he comes across something he was never supposed to find.
At first, Li Yunmu assumes it is little more than a strange relic. It doesn’t make him stronger overnight, doesn’t transform him into a genius, and certainly doesn’t solve all of his problems. If anything, it leaves him with more questions than answers.
The odd part is what comes afterward.
While other people train personally for every bit of progress they make, Li Yunmu discovers that a shadow connected to him can move, fight, and grow on its own. The more he experiments with it, the more unusual the situation becomes. Things that should require months of effort start producing results far sooner than expected, and opportunities that would normally be out of reach suddenly no longer feel impossible.
Of course, advantages attract attention.
The world outside the cities is filled with dangerous creatures, unexplored regions, and people willing to take risks for the chance to improve their position. Meanwhile, competition inside human society is hardly any gentler. Schools, factions, and ambitious cultivators are all chasing the same goal, and nobody is eager to fall behind.
Li Yunmu starts out wanting nothing more than a better future than the one waiting for him.
Whether that remains possible is another question entirely.
Because the farther he progresses, the harder it becomes to believe that the strange shadow accompanying him is merely a lucky accident.
