Some among mankind held greater gifts than others. Whether they were passed down from ancient times through bloodline, resurfaced through sheer fortuitous chance, or perhaps arose anew as a beneficial mutation, some were simply born chosen. Zanma was not among those few.

The only inborn gifts permitted to him were endurance and nimble fingers. He practiced no lost, one-of-a-kind technique and possessed no artifact that would permit him to advance ten times faster than his peers. He was merely above average, but it was him who his master chose as one of two inheritors.

Indeed he was merely above-average, and yet, out of his generation, it was he who would carve his name into history and come to be known as a monstrous genius, a destroyer of evil and upholder of righteousness; not by the virtue of a heavenly gift, but his own two hands.

What To Expect:

- Psychic powers. This is nearly half of the cultivation system.

- Puppets, as in proper puppets, not just robots or mind controlled people, and Zanma will use them as his main thing rather than a support tool that gets tossed aside (can you tell this bothers me in xianxia?)

- Extremely far-future setting. Technology so advanced it becomes simple again. The story takes place in a manmade megastructure.

- "No Golden Finger" - this is somewhat only partially true, but the point is that Zanma doesn't have heavenly talent or a heaven-defying time dilation bead that lets him cultivate 10x as fast. I want to write a character who is "normal" but still ends up being interesting and gains the reputation of a "monstrous genius" due to his own merits. I generally don't like the common trend of xianxia focusing on how you can only get ahead by finding ways to cheat.

- No harem.

Submitted for Writathon Nov.2025