Chapter 1 — Beyond the Milky Way: The Miner Who Became a God of War

The siren signaling the third shift rang through Black Stone Mine, its wail like a wounded animal reverberating through hundreds of meters of black rock. Chiết Lam Vũ opened his eyes in the darkness of the dormitory. The breath of dozens of men mingled with the ore dust that had seeped into their thin blankets. He did not need to look at the clock to know it was time to descend to the deepest tunnel—Tunnel Nine, where workers without Spirit Bones were sent first whenever a collapse threatened.

At twenty-three, Lam Vũ had grown accustomed to the scornful eyes around him. From the moment he was born, the Bone Illumination ritual had condemned him to the bottom of society: “Empty. No Spirit Bone.” According to the monks of the Holy See of Quang Nguyên, that verdict meant he had been born without the right to receive the Power of the War God—the superior fighting ability granted only to the chosen. No Spirit Bone meant no good education, no weapons, and no escape from the hard labor of mining colonies like Black Stone Mine.

He quickly put on his worn-out boots, put on his patched protective suit, and then walked out into the stone hallway where the fluorescent lights flickered weakly. The other miners passed him by, no one bothering to say hello. A guy with a low level Spirit Bone, wearing a trainee supervisor badge, stood in the middle of the aisle, looking at Lam Vũ from head to toe with eyes mixed between contempt and curiosity.

"Trống Cốt went down to Tunnel Nine again," he said, his voice making no attempt to hide his amusement. "I heard that the tunnel collapsed at a corner last week, killing three people. Aren't you afraid?"

Lam Vũ did not respond. He had learned long ago that silence was the only way to avoid punishment for being “disrespectful to people with Spirit Bones.” He bowed his head, walked past the supervisor, and headed straight for the cellar door.

At the corner of the hallway, a skinny old man with scars on his arms was waiting for him. That was Bốc Vấn Sơn, the only person in the Black Stone Mine that Lam Vũ could call a relative, besides his mother. The old man put a piece of dry cake as hard as a rock in his hand.

"Eat, child," he said softly, his voice deep and firm like the sound of a hammer hitting stone. "Tunnel Nine today is unstable. Be careful of the eastern support beam, I heard the sound of rocks cracking yesterday."

"I know, Uncle Vấn Sơn." Lam Vũ stuffed the piece of cake into his pocket, his eyes still looking towards the end of the hallway, where there was a steel door that was always closed - the isolation area for patients with Marrow Poisoning, where his mother had been detained for five years.

Bốc Vấn Sơn recognized that look and sighed. "Today I would like to be allowed to visit my grandmother for a while before work. She... is not feeling as well as she did last week."

Lam Vũ's heart tightened. "I want to go with you."

"You know the rules. Trống Cốt is not allowed to enter the quarantine area without permission from the chief supervisor. Let me take care of it, just go to the basement on time, don't give Cung Thiết Ưng an excuse to punish the whole team because of you."

The name Cung Thiết Ưng made Lam Vũ clench his jaw. The chief supervisor of the entire Black Stone Mine, who directly represents the power of the Holy See of Quang Nguyên here, is famous for collective punishment - if just one "boneless" person commits a small mistake, the entire mining team will have their rations cut off for the whole week.

Lam Vũ nodded, swallowed his worries, then entered the elevator leading down to the deep tunnel.

Tunnel number nine was dark, with only the helmet's light illuminating the way. The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and crushed rock dust. Lam Vũ and his mining team of eight people began their familiar work: using a hand drill to chisel into the Black Stone ore seam, a shiny black mineral that can make energy weapons for the Holy See's army.

The person working next to him is Nhiếp Tiệp Phong, his only close friend of the same age in the team. Tiệp Phong has a lovely smile and always finds a way to make jokes to dispel the heavy atmosphere in the dark tunnel.

"Hey, Lam Vũ," Tiệp Phong said, his voice whispering over the noise of the drill, "I heard that the Holy See is about to announce something big. This morning I saw several military transport ships landing in the central square."

"The matter of the person with the Spirit Bone has nothing to do with us," Lam Vũ replied, his hand still chiseling into the cliff.

"Who knows," Tiệp Phong shrugged. "Who knows, maybe there will be a chance to change your life."

Lam Vũ only smirked. Changing one's life was a luxury for people without Spirit Bones like him. His life had one goal: earn enough work credits to exchange for Aurora Crystal, the rare mineral that could slow—though not cure—the Marrow Poisoning eating away at his mother's body each day.

Three hours later, a strange noise rang out from the east side of the tunnel. Lam Vũ raised his head and felt the vibrations transmitted through the ground. Just as Bốc Vấn Sơn warned, the east support beam is cracking.

"Withdrew!" Lam Vũ shouted, pushing the nearest miner out of the way of a falling rock. Dust poured down loudly, screams echoed throughout the dark tunnel.

In that chaotic moment, something strange happened that Lam Vũ did not have time to notice: when the largest rock was about to crush a falling young miner, he rushed forward and used both hands to catch it. The weight should have crushed his bones, but there was a strange warmth running down his spine, making his arms suddenly much stronger than usual. He pushed the rock aside, saving the miner, then fell to his knees, panting.

"Lam Vũ! What did you just do?" Tiệp Phong ran over, his eyes wide open in surprise. "That rock must weigh a hundred kilograms. Can you hold it with your hands?"

"I... don't know," Lam Vũ stammered, looking down at his shaking hands. The strange warm feeling had disappeared, leaving only normal pain. Maybe it was just a flash of survival instinct, he told himself. Nothing special. You are an empty person, so you don't have any unusual powers.

But deep inside, a vague question began to sprout.

The shift ended with the sound of the siren. Lam Vũ trudged back to the cabin, his whole body exhausted. Bốc Vấn Sơn was waiting at the door, his face heavy with worry.

"Can I come visit mom?" Lam Vũ asked immediately, no need to say hello.

The old man shook his head slowly. "I tried my best, but the supervisor changed shifts today and refused to let me in. I only vaguely heard from the doctor there that my wife's condition is getting worse faster than expected. If there is no Aurora Crystal within the next few months..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but Lam Vũ understood. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

"How many work credits have you accumulated?" Bốc Vấn Sơn asked.

"Enough to exchange for one-tenth of the required dose," Lam Vũ replied, his voice bitter. "At this rate, it will take another three years for me to have enough credit to save Mom. And Mom's illness... can't wait three years."

That night, Lam Vũ lay on a thin blanket, looked up at the dark stone tunnel ceiling, and listened to the sound of the wind whistling through the vents. He thought about his hands holding the rock, about the strange warm feeling running down his spine. He thought about his mother, about the years imprisoned behind that cold steel door, about a system that sealed his fate from the moment he was born just because of an absurd Essence Ritual.

He did not know that, not far away, in the command compartment of a military transport ship that had just landed in the central square of Black Stone Mine, there was a young woman standing and looking down at the panorama of this dark mining colony, her eyes sharp and calculating. She was preparing to step into a new role, a fake identity, to find out the truth that had been buried for many years — and fate had arranged that her path will soon intersect with that of a seemingly unknown young man.

He also did not know that, further away, at the center of power of the Holy See of Quang Nguyên, Grand Patriarch Kha Bạch Vân was standing in front of a large mirror, looking at a youthful face that did not match his real age, his hand clutching a small box sealed with a strange crimson light - the Blood Seal of the God of War, the biggest secret that he killed to possess, and also the burden he had to carry for the rest of his life.

Three people, three destinies, are gradually being pulled together by a thread of fate that none of them could have expected.

The next morning, when Lam Vũ woke up, he heard a rumor spreading throughout the Blackstone Mine: The Holy See of Quang Nguyên was about to make a big announcement, and all residents of every mining colony had to gather in the central square to listen to orders communicated directly from representatives of the Council of Quang Nguyên Elders.

Little did he know that announcement would completely change his life.