Fall of the Golden Disciple
Po stood at the edge of the dueling platform, the wind teasing the loose strands of his long black hair. His robes, embroidered with golden clouds—markings of a rising inner disciple—fluttered slightly with each breath. Cheers echoed across the mountain peaks surrounding the Azure Sky Sect, but none of them were for him.
Across from him stood Jian Fei, the Crimson Saber of the Blood Moon Division, eyes narrowed like a predator circling its prey. The match should have been ceremonial, just a formality between two disciples in the sect's seasonal tournament.
But it wasn't.
Po's mistake had been nothing but a glance—and hers, a smile. Liu Meilin, the famed beauty of the Jade Blossom Pavilion, had smiled at him. A brief, innocent curl of her lips as he bowed respectfully before his match. Yet that single gesture ignited the flames of envy in Jian Fei's heart.
"I'll crush that face of yours," Jian Fei had said under his breath as the bell rang.
Po barely had time to react. Jian Fei came at him like a storm, each strike heavier, faster, more violent than the last. He wasn't fighting to win—he was fighting to humiliate. The crowd gasped as Po was driven back, blow after blow, his defensive techniques unraveling like torn silk.
Blood sprayed the marble tiles. A rib cracked. Then another. A sharp kick to the stomach sent Po flying off his feet. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch.
He tried to rise. His vision blurred.
Liu Meilin's voice rose from the crowd: "Stop it! He's already—"
But Jian Fei didn't stop.
The last thing Po saw was a foot descending toward his face and the sky darkening above him.
Then—nothing.
Silence. Cold. Emptiness.
No pain. No noise. No breath.
It was as though time itself had stopped.
And then... came the voice.
"Unworthy in this life. Perhaps worthy in another."
Po felt weightless, drifting. A whisper of wind curled around him, filled with stars and strange symbols glowing in the void. He tried to speak, to move, but his body was gone—his soul stripped bare, falling through layers of existence like leaves through water.
Suddenly, light.
And a thundering crash.
The moment his body hit something solid, the world screamed into color.