Chapter 3 — Blood on the Dragon Throne
The palace bells tolled at midnight. They were not a signal of ceremony, but of doom.
Ye Tianlan jolted awake, sensing something was wrong. His cultivation stirred, lightning flickering around his fingertips. The air reeked of blood.
He rushed through the jade corridors of the Crown Prince's residence, only to find them littered with corpses—imperial guards cut down without mercy. Their eyes were wide with disbelief, their blood pooling beneath the moonlight.
A cold voice echoed through the night.
"The child of Heaven must not be allowed to grow."
From above, seven silhouettes descended, their bodies shrouded in otherworldly light. Each one carried the aura of a different Realm—Fiendish crimson flames, Celestial halos, Abyssal shadows, and more. They were no mortals, but envoys of the Seven Realms, beings sent to extinguish his fate before it bloomed.
Ye Tianlan's heart pounded. His father—the Emperor! His mother—the Empress! His siblings! He dashed toward the Hall of Eternal Radiance, lightning splitting the air as he ran.
The sight that greeted him shattered his world.
The Imperial Palace was engulfed in chaos. Flames licked the sky, the ancestral dragon statues toppled and broken. His younger brother lay motionless on the ground, a crimson blade through his chest. His mother, the Empress, was pinned against the jade pillars, her blood staining the silken floor.
On the Dragon Throne sat his father, Emperor Xuanyuan—yet his mighty aura was fading, his chest pierced by a spear of abyssal blackness. His eyes, dim yet unwavering, fixed upon his son.
"Tianlan…" the Emperor's voice was a whisper of thunder. "Do not bow. Do not bend. You… must ascend beyond the heavens themselves…"
And with that, the Emperor of Great Xu fell silent, the light leaving his eyes.
"FATHER!!!" Ye Tianlan's roar split the night, lightning erupting from his body in a storm that shook the palace walls. His golden dragon mark burned upon his brow, its cry echoing his grief.
But the envoys only laughed.
"A mere mortal prince dares defy the decree of the Seven Realms? You will join them soon enough."
They struck together, seven forces descending upon him like mountains crashing from the sky. But the golden dragon within his veins surged, wrapping around him in defiance. The clash tore the palace asunder, stone and jade shattering like paper.
Ye Tianlan was hurled through the ruins, blood spraying from his lips, his robes in tatters. Yet his eyes burned brighter than ever—eyes no longer of a sheltered prince, but of a man who had lost everything.
On his knees, staring at the corpses of his family, he swore in a voice that froze even the envoys for an instant:
"You wanted to break me? You've forged me. You killed my family, my blood, my empire. For this, I will not rest until your realms are ashes beneath my feet."
The sky trembled. For the first time, the golden dragon within him released a roar so mighty that cracks spread across the heavens themselves. Even the Seven Envoys faltered.
Yet they retreated, laughing coldly.
"Struggle, little prince. The more you rise, the harder your fall shall be."
As dawn broke over a palace drowned in blood, Ye Tianlan stood alone among the ruins, his robes drenched in crimson. He no longer wore the aura of a Crown Prince. He was reborn in tragedy—ruthless, relentless, unbound.
He clenched his fists, lightning blazing across the sky.
"From this day forth, I am no one's pawn. I am no one's son. I am the storm that will drown the Seven Realms."
The world would remember this night as the day the child of Heaven became a Heaven-Defying Overlord.
And thus, Ye Tianlan's true journey began.