The rain fell like a curtain of silver knives over the imperial palace courtyard, hammering jade tiles until they gleamed like mirrors under the stormy sky. Every puddle, every uneven stone became a trap. Lightning forked across the heavens, reflecting off the red lacquered pillars and dragon-carved walls, illuminating the courtyard in brief, blinding flashes. The wind screamed, whipping through the trees, carrying the sound of swords clashing and nobles laughing—a cruel symphony of superiority.
At the center of it all knelt Li Wei, illegitimate son of a minor branch of the royal family. His silk robes were shredded and plastered to his body with rain and mud. Bruises blackened his skin, blood mixed with rain dripping down his face. Every breath tore at his lungs. Every movement sent shocks of agony through his body.
Born without mana, without cultivation, without strength, Li Wei had nothing. In a palace built on power, he was nothing—a cursed child, condemned to be trampled under the feet of the strong.
"Look at him," sneered a young prince, his sword flicking against the wet jade tiles with a sharp clang. "Zero mana. Absolutely nothing. And yet he dares to stand here?"
The crown prince stepped forward, towering and ruthless. Boots splashed through puddles. Lightning glinted off his sword, crackling faintly with mana. "Li Wei," he said, his voice cold and lethal, "today you will learn why cursed children exist only to be crushed."
Laughter echoed through the courtyard. The nobles had been trained since birth; their cultivation was advanced, their bloodlines pure. Power coursed in their veins. They were taught to dominate the weak, to humiliate anyone who dared to defy them. Li Wei—born with nothing—was the perfect target.
He tried to rise, but pain flared through his bruised body. Every joint screamed. Muscles ached. The shoves, kicks, and strikes had left him at death's door. His vision swam with rain and blood. His limbs trembled uncontrollably. Why am I even alive? he thought bitterly. No one sees me as human… no one believes I deserve to survive…
A guard shoved him roughly. Li Wei fell face-first into a puddle. Cold water mixed with blood in his mouth. Every breath was agony. Every heartbeat a struggle. And yet, he refused to surrender.
The crown prince raised his sword, ready for the final strike. "This ends now!"
Li Wei's eyes darted to the surroundings. He had no mana, no cultivation, no magical protection—but he observed every detail: loose tiles, puddles, broken beams, scattered debris. Every small object could be an advantage. Every lapse in the enemy's concentration could be the difference between life and death.
He grabbed a jagged shard of broken jade. Not enough to harm, but enough to distract and gain a heartbeat.
The crown prince swung down. Li Wei rolled, slipping on the slick tiles. Pain exploded across his ribs and shoulders. Blood soaked the mud. Every nerve screamed. He was on the brink of death, yet survived.
"Pathetic," a noble spat. "Even writhing in the mud, you think you can last?"
Li Wei coughed, choking on water and blood. His chest burned. The crown prince lunged again. Li Wei ducked, rolled, and used a broken staff to deflect the strike. Each move cost him dearly. Every muscle, every joint, burned with agony.
He fell again, collapsing against a pillar. His body trembled violently. Rain mixed with blood and mud. He was utterly helpless, yet alive.
Princess Yulan, the crown princess, watched silently. Her pale face betrayed shock. Even she had never seen someone so powerless survive so long against such odds.
Li Wei's mind calculated rapidly. He could not overpower them. He could not fight directly. Survival depended entirely on timing, observation, and exploiting small mistakes.
Another swing from the crown prince. Li Wei rolled through the rain, scraping hands and knees against the tiles. Pain lanced through every limb. His side throbbed. His vision blurred. Yet he moved. Every breath could be his last. Every heartbeat could be final.
He noticed a puddle ahead and a loose tile near it. Flicking it toward the prince's boots, he caused a brief stumble—enough to survive another moment.
Li Wei collapsed against a pillar again, chest heaving. Blood, mud, and rain soaked him. Every nerve screamed. Every movement was agony. He was at death's door, utterly helpless, yet alive.
The nobles whispered among themselves, astonished. How is he still alive? How can someone survive without mana, without cultivation?Princess Yulan's lips parted slightly. Even without power… he survives…
Li Wei's body ached. Lungs burned. Vision blurred. Every muscle screamed. He was broken, battered, powerless. And yet, he had survived the impossible, clinging to life with sheer will and intelligence.
The crown prince raised his sword for another strike. Li Wei rolled again, scraping hands and knees, narrowly avoiding the lethal edge. Pain flared violently. Blood mixed with mud and rain. Every limb screamed. Yet he continued to survive.
The courtyard seemed endless. Every noble's glare, every insult, every step reminded him of his weakness. And yet, he endured.
A guard approached with a heavy staff. Li Wei barely lifted the jade shard and deflected it, stumbling backward. His ribs screamed. Every movement sent shockwaves of pain through his body. His hands were cut and bleeding. His knees battered and raw.
"Die, cursed child!" shouted a noble.
Li Wei crawled, sliding over slick tiles. Pain seared through his entire body. Blood ran into his eyes. Rain stung cuts and bruises. Each heartbeat was a trial. Each breath, a burning agony.
Princess Yulan's eyes widened. How is he still breathing? she thought. How can someone survive so completely helpless?
Li Wei rolled again. One foot slipped. Another bruise bloomed across his ribs. He could barely keep his hands above the mud. And yet, he persisted. He clutched a broken staff with trembling hands, using it to propel himself behind a pillar.
The crown prince, furious, advanced again. Sword flashing. Lightning crackling faintly along its edge. Li Wei's body was screaming in protest, but he moved. Pain consumed him. Blood coated his robes. Every nerve begged for rest, for surrender, for mercy. None came.
He shivered violently, chest heaving, vision narrowing. I cannot die here… I must survive…
Every puddle, every loose tile, every tiny gap between pillars became a lifeline. Li Wei twisted, rolled, and crawled with painstaking slowness. Every movement caused pain, but kept him alive. He could hear the nobles muttering. Impossible… how is he still alive?
Princess Yulan's gaze lingered. Her lips parted slightly. Even without power… he survives…
Li Wei's body trembled. Pain lanced through his limbs. He tasted blood and mud. Exhaustion threatened to crush him. Yet, despite everything, he remained alive.
The crown prince roared in frustration. Every swing of his sword a deadly threat. Li Wei dodged, rolled, and staggered behind pillars, scraping his body against sharp tiles. He was on the brink of death, but somehow, impossibly, he endured.
Rain fell harder. Mud caked to his bruised body. Blood dripped from every wound. The courtyard was silent for a moment, the nobles staring in disbelief.
Li Wei collapsed, trembling violently. Breath shallow. Eyes nearly closed. His body was a broken mess, yet he was alive.
The crown prince lowered his sword slightly, lips curling in rage. The nobles whispered among themselves. How… how can he still stand? How can someone survive like this?
Princess Yulan's eyes filled with awe. Even without power… he survives…
The storm outside raged, mirroring the storm inside the palace—the cruelty, the scorn, the overwhelming odds. Li Wei's journey had only begun. He was a cursed child at death's door… and yet, miraculously, he survived.In another dimension entirely—far from rain, mud, and ancient cruelty—sterile white light flickered across an underground laboratory. Rows of transparent data pillars pulsed with streams of blue code like living arteries. Electric hums vibrated through the steel flooring. Machines rotated in perfect rhythm, cold and unfeeling.
And at the center of this metallic world stood a man who shared that same nature.
Dr. Jian Shen. Age thirty-five. Unmarried.
A prodigy of science.
A psychopath of logic.
A man whose heart beat only for one thing—curiosity.
No family ties. No emotional bonds. No moral weight.
Just an endless hunger to understand everything.
As a child, he dissected machines while other children played.
As a teenager, he dissected animals to understand living systems.
As an adult, he dissected the only remaining barrier left—human consciousness.
He called it "the last frontier."
The government called it "a dangerous mind."
His colleagues called him "brilliant."
His victims—if any had survived—would have called him "a monster."
But Jian Shen didn't care for opinions.
He cared only for answers.
His lab was filled with broken prototypes, abandoned experiments, and shattered theories that had failed to satisfy his hunger. But at the far end of the chamber stood his greatest and most terrifying project:
Quantum Mind Singularity — QMS Core
A machine capable of tearing open the boundary between dimensions by analyzing the energy signatures of dying consciousness.
"If a soul flickers at the moment of death," Jian Shen once muttered,
"Can it be stretched, pulled, or preserved? Can it cross… somewhere else?"
He never sought immortality.
He sought knowledge of what lies beyond.
He stood before the pulsating core now, fingers trembling not with emotion, but excitement. Data scrolled across his visor display—rapid patterns, unstable variables, warning flags blinking in red.
The computer announced:
"Warning: Singularity Field unstable. Collapse imminent."
Jian Shen smiled.
Most people feared warnings.
He loved them.
Warnings meant the unknown was about to reveal itself.
He made a final note into his recorder:
> "Test No. 187. Full singularity breach attempt.
Predicting gravitational tear within three minutes.
Emotional state: Enthusiastic."
The system crackled again.
"Fatal risk detected—"
He muted it.
Sparks erupted from the primary conduit. The entire room trembled. The QMS core rotated faster, rings spinning until they blurred into a sphere of light.
Energy surged.
Reality flickered.
Air vibrated like a living creature.
A dimensional tear began forming—thin as thread, bright as molten glass.
Jian Shen's breath caught.
Not in fear.
In wonder.
"So this… is the boundary between existence and the unknown," he whispered.
The tear expanded, ripping through the air with a sound like twisting metal and roaring wind. Gravity warped. The room distorted. Particles from nowhere drifted in spirals.
Jian Shen stepped closer.
His students had called him insane.
His colleagues had called him unstable.
His government had called him unethical.
But all his life, curiosity ruled him more than sanity ever could.
If the boundary between dimensions finally appeared before him…
How could he not reach for it?
A violent explosion erupted.
A shockwave hurled him across the lab. Metal crushed his ribs. Blood filled his throat. Machines fell, scattering debris everywhere. The lights burst one by one, plunging the lab into flickering shadows.
He lay on the floor, coughing violently, body broken.
The QMS core—now uncontrollable—collapsed inward, collapsing gravity in the center of the room.
His vision blurred.
His pulse weakened.
His body was dying.
Yet Jian Shen's lips curved into a faint smile.
"How… beautiful…"
The tear widened into a spiraling vortex.
His brainwaves detached from failing neurons as the QMS core activated its emergency protocol—
Quantum Consciousness Extraction.
His physical form deteriorated—but his awareness remained.
His consciousness drifted upward like shining dust.
Weightless.
Unbound.
Free of flesh and pain.
Floating toward the dimensional rupture.
Toward the unknown he had chased all his life.
Toward another reality.
His last thought, before his world dissolved:
"If death is a question…
…I will be the first to answer it."
Light swallowed him.
The tear pulled him through.
The dimension accepted him.
His mind became a wandering ember of pure awareness—
A curious ghost drifting through a universe he was never meant to see.
And somewhere far beyond the boundaries of his world…
A dying heartbeat echoed.
A boy on the brink of death.
A cursed child lying in the mud.
A life fading.
Two destinies aligned.
Two souls drew toward each other.
Curiosity met survival.
Science met suffering.
Cold logic met burning will.
And the dimensional void whispered—
Fusion.
The world around Li Wei dimmed.
The courtyard, the rain, the jeering nobles, the crown prince's raised sword—everything sank into a distant blur as the last of his strength vanished. His fingers twitched weakly in the mud. Breath turned shallow. Vision trembled.
So… this is death…?
His thoughts thinned, drifting like faint smoke. The world slipped away.
Darkness embraced him.
But death did not come alone.
In the pitch-black void behind his fading consciousness, another presence stirred.
A mind—vast, cold, calculating—shook awake like a machine rebooting after eternity. It was a consciousness sharpened by logic, warped by obsession, shaped by a lifetime of isolation and intellectual cruelty.
A man.
Age thirty-five.
A scientist feared even by his own peers.
A psychopath of science—born in a world where curiosity was his only morality.
He had died moments before, surrounded by shattered glass, broken machinery, and his own lifeless family… victims of his monstrous pursuit of knowledge. His final breath was filled with fascination, not regret.
So this is the end? No… no, this feels different.
His soul drifted through darkness, yet instead of oblivion, he sensed something pulling at him—an anchor, a spark, a half-dead flicker of life refusing to fade.
A dying boy.
A cursed child.
A vessel.
The scientist's lips—if he still had them—curved in amusement.
Interesting.
Two souls drifted toward each other like meteors on a collision path.
One broken, trembling, barely holding on.
One sharp, relentless, overflowing with cold brilliance.
The void trembled.
A faint mechanical voice echoed…
[Error: Host consciousness unstable… searching replacement…]
[Soul signature detected.]
[Compatibility: 23%…28%…42%… syncing…]
Li Wei's fading consciousness stirred at the strange voice.
Whose voice…? What is this…?
He felt someone—something—approaching from the darkness. A presence colder than winter, yet burning with terrifying intensity.
A man appeared before him, or at least the silhouette of one: tall, composed, wearing a lab coat soaked with dried blood. His eyes were voids—no mercy, no empathy, only curiosity.
"Interesting," the man murmured, his voice calm yet unnervingly clinical. "So you are the one I'm merging with? A child on death's door. Weak. Broken. But… persistent."
Li Wei could barely lift his head.
"Who… are you…?"
The man smiled faintly.
"Someone who died because the world could not keep up with my mind."
His voice held no pride, no shame… only fact.
Li Wei trembled.
He felt the other soul's presence—ruthless, brilliant, suffocating.
"You're… terrifying…" Li Wei whispered.
"Thank you," the man replied politely.
The darkness around them pulsed.
[System initializing… merging consciousness…]
A faint light began forming between them—first a spark, then a growing core of mechanical brilliance. It looked like a glowing circuit, expanding with every beat.
Li Wei blinked weakly. "W-What is that?"
The scientist watched with fascination. "A self-adjusting cognitive AI. A prototype I designed. I never finished it before my death."
The glowing core expanded.
[AI Core: ACTIVATED]
[Purpose: Stabilize consciousness and prevent host death]
[Beginning Soul Synchronization…]
The scientist stepped closer to Li Wei.
"You're dying. Your body is shattering. Your will alone won't keep you alive." His eyes narrowed with cold intrigue. "But your mind… your sheer persistence… is impressive."
Li Wei's fingers twitched. "I… I don't want to die…"
The scientist's expression changed. Not sympathy. Not kindness. Only fascination.
"Then accept me. Accept the AI. Accept the merge."
Li Wei hesitated.
"What… happens if we merge?"
The scientist chuckled quietly.
"You might become more than human… or lose yourself entirely. Either way, the result will be extraordinary."
Li Wei swallowed hard. Fear clawed at him, but so did the instinct to survive.
"Will… you control me?" he asked.
"No," the scientist said truthfully. "We will become one. A singular consciousness built from your desperation and my intelligence. But I warn you—my existence is not gentle. You may not like what you become."
Li Wei's heart trembled.
He thought of his mother's tears.
Of the nobles mocking him.
Of the crown prince's sword descending toward his skull.
He whispered, "I cannot die like this… not without proving them wrong…"
The scientist extended a hand.
"And I cannot pass up the chance to continue existing. Especially when curiosity still burns."
Their hands touched.
The void exploded with light.
[Soul Merge Phase One: Initiated]
[Scanning ancient soul…]
[Scanning modern soul…]
[Conflict Level: Extremely High]
[Attempting to stabilize…]
The merge was not gentle.
Li Wei screamed as memories not his own poured into his mind—sterile labs, neon screens, chemical formulas, surgical tools, blood, corpses, experiments, endless curiosity, endless hunger for knowledge.
Simultaneously, the scientist felt Li Wei's past: humiliation, beatings, loneliness, fear, fragile hope, desperate survival.
The two minds collided violently.
Pain.
Confusion.
Identity fracturing.
Li Wei gasped, "Stop—stop—too much—!"
The scientist gritted his teeth, voice harsh. "Don't break now! You wanted to live!"
The AI Core pulsed urgently.
[Warning: Host consciousness fracturing]
[Deploying mental stabilizers…]
[Reconstructing neural essence…]
Two streams of light wrapped around the collapsing souls.
One blue—cold, logical, sharp.
One white—fragile, emotional, warm.
They spiraled around each other.
Merging.
Fighting.
Merging again.
Li Wei felt his fear dissolving.
The scientist felt his emptiness filling.
The AI felt its purpose finally aligning.
A new consciousness began forming.
Not Li Wei.
Not the scientist.
Something else.
Something more.
The void shook.
[Soul Merge Phase Two: Successful]
[New Consciousness: 73% Stable]
[AI Integration: Activated]
Li Wei gasped awake—inside the void—eyes now reflecting faint circuitry patterns. The scientist's presence echoed in his mind, not separate, but part of him.
You survived, the scientist's voice whispered within.
We survived, Li Wei answered back.
They were one.
A hybrid mind—emotion and logic, pain and brilliance.
And then—
[Installing System Interface…]
Screens of light unfolded around him:
[Skill Adaptation Module]
[Battle Assist AI]
[Cognitive Enhancement]
[Auto-Analysis Mode]
[Memory Synchronization]
The scientist inside him whispered with awe.
It worked… it actually worked…
Li Wei's consciousness trembled but steadied with new clarity.
"I… I can feel everything…" he whispered.
His fear was still there
—but sharpened into awareness.
His pain was still there
—but analyzed, categorized, survivable.
His desperation was still there
—but now backed with intelligence colder than steel.
The AI finished its calibration.
[Host Body: Critical condition]
[Immediate survival protocols initializing]
Li Wei felt a surge of sharp focus.
He wasn't just surviving.
A new chapter of existence was beginning.
A cursed child no longer.
A soul merged with genius and madness.
A consciousness enhanced by an AI.
And then—
The darkness shattered.
Reality pulled him back.