At night…
There was a young man named Morgoth.
He was tall, with thick stubble on his face that made him look older than his age.
Morgoth wore entirely black clothing with wide sleeves.
He had long black hair, wide black eyes, pale white skin, and a round face. He looked like some kind of imperial prince.
At this moment, it was night, and he was standing on the rooftop of his house.
Morgoth looked up at the moon, his black eyes fixed upon it as if some strange spell were forcing him to keep staring.
"The moon is unusually beautiful tonight," Morgoth muttered, suddenly feeling as though he were truly enchanted.
He screamed in shock and, with great difficulty, forced his gaze away from the moon. The sudden sense of danger that had appeared in his heart vanished the moment he looked away, causing Morgoth to sweat profusely.
"What the hell was that?!" Morgoth was genuinely shocked.
With some fear, he raised his eyes toward the sky again and looked at the moon. Suddenly, the moon was no longer beautiful as before, and Morgoth felt an unconscious sense of relief.
"You've been staring at me for quite some time. Did you like what you were seeing?"
Morgoth suddenly heard a voice. His mind nearly exploded the instant he heard it.
"Who?!" Morgoth cried out in fear, turning frantically left and right.
"It's me, the moon, you idiot. Look at me again and you'll understand," the voice said once more, terrifying Morgoth to the point that he nearly wet himself.
Yet, strangely, Morgoth listened to the voice and obeyed its command. He realized he was being manipulated, but it seemed there was nothing he could do about it.
He looked at the moon.
What he saw made him feel as if his mind had suddenly been emptied of reason and clarity.
Absurdly—like something out of a stupid cartoon—the moon now had eyes, a mouth, and a strange nose.
"For heaven's sake, am I hallucinating or dreaming?!" Morgoth could not believe what he was actually seeing. The whole thing was simply ridiculous.
"What kind of nonsense is this?" he muttered quietly.
"I am real," the moon said, opening its mouth in a bizarre way. At this point, everything about it was strange anyway.
The moon continued, "Your name is Morgoth. I know you. After all, I am the moon. I look upon all corners of the world and know almost everything that happens within it."
"I noticed you some time ago. You were just an ordinary boy, so I didn't give you much attention. But something about you changed. You became… somewhat strange," the moon said oddly.
Morgoth was startled and said in disbelief, "Me? What's strange about me?" He was utterly confused by the moon's unsettling words.
The moon replied, "I can see destinies. At first, your destiny was completely ordinary. But now it has suddenly become like this—an utterly extraordinary destiny."
It continued, "With such a destiny, your personal luck has also increased unbelievably. You have somehow become favored by the heavens. What happened to you? Tell me," the moon said in a threatening tone.
At this point, Morgoth was speechless, trying to comprehend what this strange, idiotic moon was saying.
"What destiny and what luck is this suspicious moon talking about? Could it mean that awakened ability I have?" Morgoth suddenly thought of something, his brows knitting together.
He looked at the moon and finally spoke clearly for the first time.
"I don't know what you're talking about. And do you really expect me to believe what you're saying in the first place? Are you an idiot?"
Morgoth's previously confused expression suddenly vanished, replaced by complete coldness. He looked at the moon as if it were something utterly worthless.
This change in Morgoth did not escape the great moon.
"Don't worry. I'm not your enemy, Morgoth. No one can truly be my enemy anyway," the moon said.
It continued, "I'm just a very curious fellow. My curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to ask. I apologize if I disturbed you." The moon's voice now sounded sincerely apologetic.
Morgoth was truly shocked this time and exclaimed, "You… you're a man?!" He was utterly stunned, as he had always believed that if the moon had a gender, it would surely be a magnificent woman—a belief widely shared among people.
The moon snorted. "I'm a man, you idiot. And there's no need to guess—the sun is a man too. There are no magnificent women here. Damn you humans and your wild imaginations," the moon cursed in the end.
Morgoth almost laughed. The moon had read his thoughts exactly; he had indeed been about to ask whether the sun was female, since the moon claimed to be male. The moon was extremely sensitive about the subject and surprisingly proactive.
Morgoth apologized and said, "It's my turn to apologize for disturbing you." He bowed deeply, his expression sincere, fists clenched in respect.
The moon snorted again and said nothing. Then it suddenly spoke, "I'm leaving now. Remember—if you want to talk to me again, just call me by my true name: Selene." After that, its voice disappeared.
Morgoth was confused once more and muttered to himself, "Selene? Isn't that an extremely feminine name? Is he actually deceiving me just to appear strong?"
After his strange experience with this peculiar moon, Morgoth genuinely began to suspect that it might be lying about its true gender.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that I must be extremely cautious. Damn it—even the moon noticed something suspicious about me because of my destiny, as it claimed. It seems my ability is truly extraordinary," Morgoth muttered with both annoyance and amusement.
"My conversation with the moon was extremely strange. It came demanding answers, then suddenly shifted to something completely different, throwing the entire conversation off course," Morgoth said.
He continued, "But it seems that the moon Selene isn't willing to leave things at that. It told me to call it if I wanted to talk again, which clearly shows its desire to continue our conversations."
Morgoth muttered, secretly annoyed by this unbelievable situation. Even now, he didn't want to believe it was real, but it seemed pointless to deny it.
He returned to his room.
Morgoth sat cross-legged and gradually released his aura, revealing that he was a Spirit World cultivator—the first realm among the cultivation worlds.
Just as the moon had said earlier, Morgoth's destiny had suddenly changed, because at that time he had truly become a cultivator.
After becoming a cultivator, Morgoth discovered an astonishing ability a few days later.
This very ability was what had drawn the moon's attention.
This ability was one Morgoth named Wisdom.
With the Wisdom ability, Morgoth could understand things with extreme clarity and precision, as well as comprehend them at great speed.
It was true that this ability could not be considered an overpowered talent that made someone invincible overnight—but it was no less terrifying.
Given enough time, the owner of this ability could grow without limit in wisdom.
At present, Morgoth used Wisdom to begin his cultivation. In his current world, advancement required complete understanding.
The more one understood their world, the higher their level would rise.
The Spirit World—the initial realm of cultivation—was divided into four stages:
Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Peak.
To pass the Beginner stage, one's Spirit World had to be sufficiently stable, after which advancement to the next stage would occur automatically.
Morgoth was exactly like this. In just a few days, his Spirit World stabilized, and he easily advanced to the Intermediate stage. Thus, he was now a Spirit World cultivator at the Intermediate level.
To advance further, Morgoth had to deepen his understanding of his current world—this was the requirement for any cultivator to pass through this realm.
For someone with an ability like Wisdom, these conditions were extremely simple and required little time. As a result, Morgoth progressed rapidly.
What would take others months or even years took Morgoth only a few easy days.