Deciding The First Path

(Author Note:- Schedule Change. Monday Wednesday Friday, same time as always, word count will increase to min of 2000. Exams. )

The gentle creak of an opening door echoed through the otherwise silent inn, revealing the interior of a modest room illuminated by the golden hue of late afternoon sunlight. Alex stepped inside, his mind still spinning with the whirlwind of revelations from earlier. He recalled waving Liam off with a half-smile, telling him to explore his Path while he delved into his own. And so, they'd gone their separate ways.

Now, alone, Alex exhaled deeply and collapsed onto the edge of the bed. He muttered a single word.

"Panel."

A soft glow emerged in front of him, illuminating the new format that greeted his eyes.

[Soul Decree] Name: Alex Edwards Class: None Path: Unrecognized Stats: Unregistered Strength: Body Barrier Peak (Initial)

"Soul Decree?" Alex frowned. "What does this have to do with my soul? This sounds like a bad translation of a Chinese cultivation novel. What next, Immortal Emperor Young Master Alex?"

He chuckled dryly, though it held no joy.

The humor faded as he noticed the changes. No class. An unrecognized path. His stats weren't even recorded. It was like the world had wiped its hands clean of him. The System had thrown him out, and now he stood at the edge of the cultivation road, with no map, no tools, and certainly no cheat sheet.

Well, except one.

He reached into his robes and pulled out a simple scroll the attendant had handed him earlier. A "Beginner's Guide to Cultivation," she'd called it. More like a pamphlet for lost souls.

Unfurling it, Alex's eyes traced the major stages of cultivation:

1. Body Barrier Realm

2. Path Initiation Realm

3. Minor Dao Realm

4. Path Refinement Realm

5. True Ascendance Realm

6. Imperial Ascension Realm

He raised a brow. "Alright, that's definitely better than 'Path Realm 1' or some RPG tier garbage."

The Body Barrier was simple enough. It prepared the cultivator's body to withstand the energy of the Paths. Alex had completed that stage already. The next step? The Path Initiation Realm—where one stepped onto their chosen Path and began gathering its essence.

Of course, he wasn't a native who trained with mystical body refinement techniques passed down through bloodlines and legends. Nor was he a player, gifted with strange talents and the ability to grow stronger by slaying beasts and looting gear.

No, he was neither. Kicked out of the system, his only option now was the old-fashioned way: cultivation through comprehension.

And so, his gaze moved to the next crucial part of the scroll: Comprehension.

To progress, a cultivator needed to step onto a Path. Comprehension of the Path would birth its essence within the soul—often referred to as Qi. Life Path birthed Life Qi, Death Path led to Death Qi, and so on.

The catch? He couldn't just meditate and poof out some godly energy. He had to understand the concept at a fundamental level, live it, experience it.

"So basically," he muttered, "I have to philosophize my way into power."

It was almost laughable.

His brother Liam had it easy. The boy needed to analyze a thousand new items. With his EX-rank Talent, it was practically child's play. All Liam had to do was pick a thousand things he hadn't seen before, understand them, and he'd breakthrough.

There was also the terrifying concept of a talented earthling stepping into the Path of Mathematics. Alex shivered at the thought. "'Cultivator of the Dao of Derivatives.' Watch out world, the algebra assassin has arrived."

But Alex wasn't as lucky or masochistic.

His options? Nine Supreme Paths:

Life

Death

Time

Space

Karma

Fate

Destruction

Creation

The Unknown

He wasn't even going to touch the last one.

Alex recalled the burst of information he earned from choosing the Invincible Path earlier. Filtering through all the Supreme Paths and their requirements to decide which one suited him best.

Life and Death? Simple in concept. One needed to witness the birth or death of life roughly fifty times. Possible, but morbid. Death was easy enough to find—but witnessing it over and over?

"I'll pass. Not trying to traumatize myself into enlightenment."

Time? That was a joke. Progressing on the Time Path required witnessing aging or feeling time pass over long stretches.

"Yeah, let me just sit here and wait twenty years. Peak cultivation plan."

Space was more manageable. It required understanding the environment—observing distance, depth, compression, expansion. It wasn't bad, but also slow. He needed to travel, see the world. Not ideal in his current state.

Fate? Watching lives unfold, understanding their direction, their story. A hundred different people, a hundred different stories. Rural villages were probably best for this.

Destruction and Creation… the twin pillars. Destruction required witnessing events that qualified as Tier 1 Chaos— destruction on a human scale. Creation needed real acts of crafting, not transformation. No folding paper cranes.

He scratched his head.

"Not like I've got a blacksmith's forge or a lab to fuse elements together."

Which brought him to Karma.

Karma was straightforward. Sow good or bad karma with a hundred individuals. Help them, hinder them—it didn't matter. What mattered was the connection.

This one, at least, was doable.

He remembered the few silver coins clinking in his pocket. If he converted them to copper, he could get at least a hundred coins. A hundred people. One coin each. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"Charity cultivator. Now there's a title."

He stood up, rolling his shoulders as if shedding the weight of indecision.

"Alright then. Karma it is."

He wasn't a genius. He didn't have a golden finger. But he had his brain, a bit of cash, and a will to claw his way up.

He looked down at the Soul Decree again, eyes narrowed.

"You may have kicked me out of the system," he muttered. "But I'll find my way back in."

With a flick of his hand, the panel disappeared.

Time to sow some seeds of Karma.

Even if it meant doing it one copper coin at a time.