The heavens wept.
Blood-red lightning danced across the night sky as a lonely mountain stood cloaked in stormclouds. Amid the howling wind, the remnants of a once-mighty sect—the Skyfire Clan—lay in ruins. Statues shattered, scrolls burned, ancestral stones cracked. Not even the bones of the dead remained untouched.
In the heart of the rubble, a boy knelt alone.
Barely sixteen, Jin Long pressed his trembling hands against the scorched ground. His robes were torn, soaked in blood—not all of it his. His golden eyes, once filled with pride, now reflected only pain and rage.
His clan had been exterminated.
His father, the clan master, had been publicly executed by a coalition of rival sects under the excuse of "possessing forbidden knowledge."
His mother had died shielding him.
And now, all that remained was a shattered world and a boy too weak to save anyone.
"I was supposed to inherit the Skyfire Arts," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "I was supposed to protect them…"
Suddenly, the ground beneath him trembled. A strange hum echoed from deep below the earth, vibrating in tune with his heartbeat.
DUNNN… DUNNN…
A fissure cracked open beneath the altar stone. Light poured out—neither Qi nor fire, but something alien, otherworldly. Lines of silver etched into the air like circuitry.
From the fissure, a glowing core floated up—smooth, metallic, but alive. As it hovered before Jin Long, a voice echoed directly into his mind.
> "Bio-signature confirmed: Jin Long, last heir of Skyfire."
"Eternal Genesis Core activating... Initiating synchronization."
Pain exploded through him.
His body convulsed as the core embedded itself into his chest. Not forcibly—but like it had always belonged there.
Countless visions flooded his mind—sacred martial arts sealed by ancient ancestors, data streams in alien languages, and celestial maps of galaxies unseen by mortals. His meridians twisted, expanded. His dantian reformed.
> "System Link Established. Welcome, Host."
> "You now possess Dual Cultivation Access: Martial Dao and Techno-Ascension Path."
And then, silence.
The wind stopped. The rain ceased. Jin Long stood, body glowing faintly. His torn robe fluttered in the lingering energy storm.
From the distant horizon, a flying ship loomed—black, angular, bearing the crest of the Obsidian Void Sect, the ones responsible for the massacre.
His fingers clenched.
The time for mourning was over.
> "If the heavens abandoned me… I'll forge my own."
His first step cracked the altar beneath him. With the Eternal Genesis Core pulsating in his chest, Jin Long vanished into the storm.