1 – Ash and Silence
In the dying village of Grayflame Hollow, even the wind was tired. The trees bent as if in mourning, their leaves long since stripped by drought and ash. The air stank of scorched roots and spirit-rot. No traveler came willingly — only the desperate, the forgotten, or the cursed.
Riven was born during the eclipse of the twin suns, when the sky turned black and red and the beasts howled like mourning gods. The midwife, pale and shaking, swore she saw the boy glow — if only for a moment — with the light of a falling star.
> "This child will bring misfortune," whispered the villagers.
"Or power."
"Or both."
His mother, Xue Lan, didn't listen. She wrapped him in torn silk and sang lullabies from her sect days, soft verses about rivers that flowed through the stars and blossoms that healed worlds.
She was the only light in his world.
---
By the time Riven was ten, he had learned three things:
1. Hunger has no mercy.
2. The weak are trampled without hesitation.
3. Cultivation was not for those born with "dirty blood."
The other children mocked him. The elders avoided his gaze. The Ashwind Sect, which ruled the region with polished boots and smiles like knives, had banished his mother for reasons never spoken aloud.
Still, she taught him. Not spirit techniques — she had none left — but discipline, focus, the art of listening to wind patterns and sensing the rhythm of growing things. She taught him how to breathe through pain and silence his anger.
> "The world will try to break you, my son," she often said.
"Do not give it the pleasure of watching."
---
One evening, during a herb-gathering trek in the Hollowmarsh Ruins, Riven followed a strange tug beneath his ribs — a pulse in the air, like something ancient breathing below the earth.
He stepped between two collapsed pillars, brushing away moss and ash, and fell into darkness.
---
🌑 The Temple Below
He awoke bruised, lying on cracked marble engraved with stars.
A forgotten temple stretched before him, half-swallowed by roots and time. Statues of faceless beings lined the walls. At its heart stood a pedestal — atop it, a shard of glass that pulsed like a heartbeat.
The moment his fingers brushed it, his mind shattered.
> A throne of galaxies… A sword forged from time… A voice: "You are my last breath. My last law."
Visions consumed him — not memories, but truths etched into the bones of existence. He screamed as energy surged through his spirit veins. His Qi Condensation ignited — raw, wild, unearned, but real.
When he awoke hours later, the shard had fused to his soul. The pedestal was crumbling. His fingers bled, but his eyes shone with something deeper than spirit light.
Law.
---
🔥 The Return – And the Price
Riven ran home, lungs burning with questions and awe. But joy faded the moment he saw smoke.
Ashwind Sect disciples stood outside his home, their robes too clean for such a filthy place. One of them — Elder Su Fang — held a scroll and a sneer.
> "Your mother is a thief," he said.
"She dared hide forbidden legacy from the sect. She will suffer."
Xue Lan stood between them and the house, thin arms wide, her voice firm.
> "He is my son. He touched something, yes — but not by design. He is not yours."
Su Fang raised one finger.
Snap.
The sound was quiet. Her body crumpled. Her dantian shattered.
Riven screamed and rushed forward — but a disciple kicked him into the mud.
> "Let this be mercy," Su Fang said. "We could have killed her."
They left her broken and bleeding. Riven crawled to her, hands shaking, lips trembling.
> "I'm so sorry…"
"Don't apologize," she whispered. "Rise. That's all I ask. Rise… and never look back."
She died that night. No one helped bury her.
---
Riven stood at her grave until dawn.
He didn't cry.
The Law Fragment in his soul pulsed like a heartbeat.
> "I will never beg," he whispered.
"I will never forget."
"And I will make the universe kneel — not in vengeance… but in correction."
With nothing but her blade, her scrolls, and a fire that would never die, Riven turned toward the horizon.
Toward Black Hollow City.
Toward blood.
Toward power.