The Invincible Sect Leader

For years, Chan Li had been nothing more than a shadow within the imperial palace. While his brothers honed their martial arts and cultivated their Qi, he remained within the grand imperial library, a place few cared for.

They all thought he was wasting his time.

"A prince who cannot cultivate is nothing more than a scholar."

But none of them understood.

Chan Li was no ordinary scholar.

He had spent over a decade reading everything the cultivation manuals of the imperial ancestors, the secrets of ancient alchemy, the lost art of formations, and even the myths of divine and demonic powers. His mind held an entire world of knowledge, the wisdom of countless generations of cultivators, all recorded in the forgotten texts of the empire.

Yet the more he read, the more he realized the truth the world of cultivation was flawed.

Sect elders hoarded techniques. Alchemists limited their pill recipes to a select few. Formation masters kept their knowledge within their bloodlines. The so-called immortal emperors at the peak of cultivation had long stopped innovating, content with the power they already wielded.

"They are all shackled by tradition," Chan Li mused, closing an ancient scroll. "But what if cultivation could go beyond these limits?"

As he studied, he made an astonishing discovery—the existence of divine and demonic energy.

Most cultivators aligned themselves with one path. The righteous sects followed divine energy, while demonic cultivators embraced the dark arts. Each side viewed the other as mortal enemies, eternally at war.

But what if they were meant to be one?

What if balance, not opposition, was the true key to cultivation?

This thought became an obsession. Using his vast knowledge, Chan Li theorized a new path Tai Chi, the perfect fusion of divine and demonic energy.

"If I can master this… I will create something the world has never seen before."

But before he could put his theories into practice, fate took another turn.

One evening, a secret letter arrived at the palace. It was a decree the emperor was dying.

And with his father's passing, the throne would no longer be safe.

Chan Li knew what would happen next. His uncle, the ambitious prince, would soon seize power. And once he became emperor, there would be no room for a forgotten prince, even one without cultivation.

"The moment he takes the throne, he will kill me."

That night, Chan Li made a fateful decision.

He would leave the empire.

With the knowledge he had gathered, the wealth he had saved, and the ambition burning in his heart, he would step into the cultivation world not as a prince, but as a cultivator.

A new legend was about to begin.