Ascension of the Forsaken Genius

For weeks, Sylas tried.

He had no teachers, no guidance—only knowledge from his past life and his own observations.

Cultivation, as he understood it, was the foundation of power in this world. It shaped nations, determined one’s place in society, and separated the strong from the weak.

And yet, despite all his efforts, he felt nothing.

Every night, when the estate grew quiet, Sylas would sit alone in his chambers.

Closing his eyes, he would slow his breathing, trying to sense the energy in the air—the same energy that his brothers used so effortlessly.

He pictured it like particles of light, like electricity in a circuit, or like waves in a vacuum.

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And yet, there was nothing.

Days passed. Then weeks.

Failure after failure.

It was maddening.

One evening, after yet another failure, he opened his eyes and exhaled sharply.

Something wasn’t right.

He had seen Rael, his prodigious older brother, cultivating before. The air around him shimmered slightly, bending like heat rising from a fire.

Energy reacted to him naturally. It responded to his presence.

But when Sylas sat in the same position and tried to do the same… nothing happened.

It was as if the world itself was ignoring him.

That’s when the terrifying realization hit him—

What if he simply wasn’t meant to cultivate?

In his past life, Sylas had relied on intelligence and knowledge to overcome obstacles.

He couldn’t let despair take hold. There had to be a reason.

And so, instead of trying the same thing over and over, he changed his approach.

He studied his brothers.

He observed the servants who spoke about cultivation.

He pieced together information from conversations between nobles.

And after weeks of patient observation, he finally understood.

He had no affinity.

No attraction to fire, ice, space, time, or even darkness.

Energy did not flow to him—it avoided him.

He was nothing.

But then, he noticed something strange.

There was a type of energy that didn’t reject him outright.

It wasn’t powerful like Rael’s fire affinity.

It wasn’t unique like Cassius’s shadow affinity.

It was something no one even cared about—pure energy.

Unshaped. Unrefined. Useless.

Or at least, that’s what everyone believed.

And for Sylas, it was the key to everything.

Sylas wasn’t discouraged—he was excited.

Pure energy was overlooked, discarded as a failure.

Which meant no one had ever tried to master it.

That made it his greatest advantage.

He would experiment. He would push his mind and body until he forced this world to acknowledge him.

Because if there was one thing Sylas knew—limitations only existed until someone broke them.

And he would be the first.