Present day, Tian family.
The Tian Clan resided in the far east of the Huan Empire, a vast dominion of mountains and mystic rivers. Though respected, the Tian were not a powerful house. Their cultivation heritage was modest, their influence minor compared to the grand sects that ruled the empire.
Yet tonight, their destiny was stirring.
In the main courtyard, lanterns flickered under the restless wind. A strange heaviness lingered in the air—as if heaven itself was holding its breath.
Inside the patriarch's residence, Tian Yu, the current head of the family, paced anxiously before the delivery room. His steps were hurried, his face pale with both worry and excitement. His wife, Mei Lin, was in labor.
He stopped for a moment, looking up at the night sky through the open doors. Thunder rumbled in the distance though no storm had been forecast.
"Please… let mother and child be safe," he murmured.
A loud cry from within made him freeze. Then, the voice of the midwife followed.
"Patriarch! It's a boy!"
Tian Yu's tense shoulders finally relaxed, a smile tugging at his lips. "A boy… a son!"
But before he could enter, a deep boom echoed through the heavens. The courtyard trembled. The lanterns flickered wildly as a streak of lightning tore through the night sky and struck the family's ancestral altar.
"What—what's happening!?" the servants shouted.
The light was blinding. Symbols older than memory shimmered in the air above the roof—gold and black, intertwining like threads of fate. And then… silence.
When Tian Yu rushed inside, he froze.
His wife was safe, the midwife unharmed—but the newborn lay in her arms, eyes wide open. The child's gaze gleamed faintly with twin streaks of gold and black. For a moment, Tian Yu swore he saw the reflection of countless stars swirling in those infant eyes.
The midwife stumbled back. "Patriarch… this child—his aura… it's unlike anything I've ever felt. It's… heavy."
Tian Yu approached slowly. The infant's small hand reached toward him, and the world seemed to still. The flickering candlelight froze mid-dance, and for a fleeting instant, time itself halted.
Then, as suddenly as it began, everything resumed. The baby laughed softly, unaware of what had just occurred.
Mei Lin smiled faintly despite her exhaustion. "He's beautiful, isn't he?"
Tian Yu nodded absently, his mind racing. The ancestral altar had been struck by heavenly lightning—an omen.
That night, as he stood over the newborn's cradle, Tian Yu couldn't shake the feeling that the heavens themselves had marked this child.
"What name will you give him, Patriarch?" the elder servant asked quietly.
Tian Yu looked at his son, whose golden-black eyes seemed to peer beyond the mortal realm.
"Tian Shen," he said finally. "May the heavens remember the name they themselves have blessed."
---
High above, unseen by mortal eyes, the Wheel of Fate continued to turn.
The Primordial of Time opened his eyes briefly, gazing through endless worlds.
"So… the child has been born."
In the void, far beyond the reach of light, the Sealed One smiled once more.
"The bloodline of mortals," he whispered, his voice echoing like distant thunder, "yet carrying my echo… Good. Let's see if fate can contain what it has revived."
The stars dimmed for a moment, as though bowing before something vast and unseen.
And thus began the tale of Tian Shen, the boy whose birth stirred the heavens, and whose existence would one day shake all three realms.