I Am the Strongest Immortal Emperor Amid the Cataclysm

[Traditional fantasy + third-person narration + one heroine + gets better the more you read + coming of age + fast-paced]

After a long silence, he raised his eyes and asked softly, “Grandpa Luo, how many people throughout history have possessed an innate divine godhead?”

“Two.” The old man's voice was calm, but carried the weight of the ages. “There are countless inherited godheads, but in all of history, there have been only two innate Origin Godheads.”

“And the first one... how did he end up?”

At the question, the old man's genial smile finally faded completely, his expression growing solemn.

“He was like you. Unwilling to inherit the old Dao, he insisted on creating his own divine path.”

“He defied Heaven in his cultivation and reached the realm of the Immortal King, carrying the fiercest passion of all time. He sought to shatter the shackles of Heaven and Earth and forge an entirely new divine path.”

“But in the end... he failed.”

“He did not die, but his Dao foundation shattered and his Dao heart withered. From then on, he wandered in a daze, like a living corpse, trapped in the passage of time and stripped of all his former glory.”

The old man thought that this lesson from the distant past would be enough to make the boy hesitate and accept the fate Heaven had ordained for him.

But the next moment, Chen Ye raised his eyes. There was not a trace of fear in them, only a young man's burning sincerity.

“Grandpa Luo, that senior may have failed, but he dared to step onto an untrodden path, defy fate, and break rules that had stood for eons. He tried, and that alone made his life worthwhile.

“I am the second person in all of history to possess an innate divine godhead. If even I fear a dead end and refuse to take another step, then no one in all the generations to come will dare to tread a new path. The world will forever believe that creating a new divine path means certain death.

“If I abandon my heart's conviction, lose my courage, and go with the flow just because everyone says the road ahead is a dead end...”

“Then all my years of cultivation and all my youthful fire will truly have been wasted.”