The Chisel Daoist
Synopsis
In this world, cultivation means “imprinting.”
The Dao marks within each person are paths walked by those who came before. The more closely you follow in their footsteps, the more Heaven's Dao acknowledges you.
Every path has already been walked.
Qin Yuan was born with a blank Dao mark, and everyone branded him a good-for-nothing.
Until an old man who had lived for who knew how many years passed through the town, glanced at him, and spoke ten words:
“Where Heaven's Dao leaves a blank, the greatest man of all ages is born.”
Only then did he understand: he had not been left without a path. He was the only person yet to be defined.
Others copied their paths. His could only be carved out, one hammer blow and chisel strike at a time.
A blacksmith's son, with a hammer for a weapon.
He chisels through the void and carves out his own mark.
Some devour the Dao marks of others. Some fabricate deceptions about Heaven's Dao. Some split themselves across cracks in time. Others seek to graft the bodies of geniuses onto themselves. They are all “outcasts” rejected by Heaven's Dao, alike to one another and prey to one another.
When Heaven's Dao declares, “There is no path forward,” Qin Yuan raises his hammer:
“Then I'll chisel one out. Let it be wrong, let it be wicked
at least it will have existed.”
I borrow no path from those who came before.
I chisel open the heavens myself.
