The morning sun cast long shadows across the Whispering Valley, where two rival sects had been locked in combat for the better part of an hour. Bodies littered the blood-soaked earth between them, but neither side showed any signs of retreating. How could they? Each faction was absolutely certain that victory was their divine birthright.

"Today, the heavens will witness my ascension!" roared Patriarch Chen, his robes billowing with the force of his Xuán Yì as he carved through three enemy disciples with a single sword strike. "I am the Chosen of the Eastern Winds! My destiny cannot be denied!"

Not thirty paces away, Elder Mo was painting similar devastation across the battlefield, his staff crackling with belief-made-tangible energy. "Fool! The stars themselves sang of my coming! I am the true heir to the Celestial Mandate!"

The absurdity of their simultaneous claims meant nothing to either man.

In the Realm of the Chosen, everyone was the protagonist of their own story, and everyone else was simply a supporting character whose role was to recognize that truth.

A young woman from Chen's sect, barely eighteen and only at the Bloom of Manifest Will cultivation stage, found herself cornered by three older disciples. Any rational person would have surrendered or called for help. Instead, she smiled with the serene confidence of someone who had never doubted her own specialness.

"You poor, deluded souls," she said, her voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "Don't you understand? I am the Phoenix Reborn, destined to soar above all others. Your attacks cannot touch one blessed by the heavens themselves!"

Her Xuán Yì flared around her like golden fire, and for a moment, reality bent to accommodate her belief. The attacks that should have ended her life struck some invisible barrier, their force dissipating like smoke.

But belief, no matter how strong, had its limits against superior cultivation.

The eldest of her opponents, a man at the Crowned Heart Realm, simply smiled and poured more of his own conviction into his technique.

"Child," he said with patronizing kindness, "you mistake your importance in this world. I am Du Feng, the Sword of Destiny, and today you learn that there can be only one chosen."

His blade, wreathed in the essence of pure self-belief, pierced through her defenses as if they were paper. The young woman's eyes widened in shock, not from pain, but from the impossible realization that her story could end like this.

"But... but I'm supposed to be..." she whispered, her Xuán Yì flickering like a candle in the wind.

"You were a madwoman pretending to be the hero," Du Feng replied, withdrawing his sword. "But it is okay, the heavens have corrected their mistake."

As her body crumpled to the ground, a nearby boulder that had been observing the battle with growing irritation finally decided it had seen enough.

How dare these insects fight so close to its magnificence without paying proper respect?

The stone had been sitting in this exact spot for three hundred years, growing stronger with each passing day, and it would not tolerate such disrespect.

The boulder's indignation sent ripples through the local Xuán Yì, and as if responding to its righteous anger, the heavens themselves seemed to take notice. Dark clouds gathered overhead, and lightning began to crackle between them.

"Finally," the boulder would have said if it could speak. "The heavens recognize my superiority."

The lightning bolt that struck the rock was unlike anything the valley had ever seen. Not the wild, chaotic energy of a natural storm, but focused, purposeful, carrying within it the concentrated essence of divine acknowledgment.

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The stone's surface began to glow, and hairline cracks appeared across its surface as something fundamental began to change.

When the light faded, the boulder was no longer just a boulder.

Consciousness bloomed within the stone like a flower opening to the sun. Awareness flooded through structures that had never known thought, and with that awareness came the absolute, unshakeable certainty that it was the most important thing in all creation.

"AT LAST!" the boulder declared, its voice a rumble that shook the very foundations of the valley. "THE HEAVENS HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED MY SUPREMACY!"

The fighters below froze in astonishment as the massive stone began to reshape itself, Xuán Yì flowing through its form. What had been a simple boulder moments before was now something far more magnificent, a being of living rock that stood thirty feet tall, its surface gleaming with the inner radiance of pure self-belief.

"For three centuries, I have waited in this spot, growing in power and wisdom while you insignificant insects scurried about like ants!" the boulder continued, its voice gaining confidence with each word. "I am the Stone of Destiny, the Chosen of the Earth itself! I have been forged by time, blessed by lightning, and now I shall claim my rightful place as the supreme being of this realm!"

The cultivators below stared in shock, their own battles forgotten in the face of this impossible development. A few of the weaker disciples actually took steps backward, their conviction wavering in the presence of such overwhelming self-assurance.

But the newly awakened boulder wasn't finished.

Its glowing eyes fixed on another stone, an ordinary piece of granite that had the misfortune of sitting nearby. Unlike its newly enlightened neighbor, this rock possessed no consciousness, no awareness, no ability to defend itself against the accusation that was about to be leveled against it.

"And YOU!" the boulder roared, somehow managing to sound both furious and vindicated. "You pathetic excuse for a stone! For three hundred years, you have sat there in my presence, radiating your insults and jealousy! Did you think I wouldn't notice? Did you believe you could mock the future Stone Emperor without consequence?"

The granite, being an ordinary rock, offered no response.

This silence was immediately interpreted as the worst possible insult.

"How DARE you ignore me!" the boulder thundered, its Xuán Yì flaring so brightly that nearby grass began to glow. "I have suffered your contempt for the last time!"

What followed was perhaps the most one-sided confrontation in the history of the Realm of the Chosen.

The awakened boulder raised one massive stone fist and brought it down on the helpless granite with the force of a meteor strike. The smaller rock exploded into a thousand fragments, each piece flying in a different direction.

"Let that be a lesson to anyone else who thinks they can challenge the Stone of Destiny!" the boulder declared, striking a pose that would have been heroic if it wasn't so utterly ridiculous. "I am the saviour of this realm! And now, I shall stride forth to claim my rightful throne!"

With that declaration, the boulder began to move, each step causing small earthquakes as it strutted away from the battlefield with the confidence of someone who had never doubted their own importance.

The cultivators it left behind watched in stunned silence, their own certainties shaken by the sheer audacity of what they had just witnessed.

In the Realm of the Chosen, madness was just another word for conviction.

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