The sun had long fallen, leaving only the bruised violet of twilight clinging to the sky. Down the slope behind the Lin compound, Lin Dong ran until the shouts from the clan faded into the hum of the forest. Branches whipped his arms; stones bit at his soles. Every breath burned like fire, yet he didn't stop.
He reached a lonely ridge where the wind howled through crooked pines. From here, the town below was a scatter of fireflies. He dropped to his knees beside a half-frozen stream, scooping a handful of water over his face. His reflection rippled — the same boy, same eyes, only now filled with fury and shame.
"Unranked," he hissed, the word slicing through him again.
"Father lost the duel, and now his son can't even make the pillar glow."
A rock went flying from his hand into the dark, clattering somewhere deep. The sound echoed back — but softer, hollow, wrong. Curious despite himself, Lin Dong rose and followed the echo to a cleft in the cliffside, half hidden by roots.
Inside, the air was cold and dry, heavy with the smell of dust older than memory. Moonlight spilled through a crack, touching something wedged in the earth — a flat stone tablet etched with faint, twisting runes. It pulsed once, like a heartbeat.
Lin Dong stepped closer, heart thundering.
He reached out. The instant his fingers brushed the surface, the runes blazed alive, searing white-gold light that filled the cavern.
The ground shook. Pebbles rose and hung in mid-air.
He tried to pull away — too late. The stone shattered into light, coiling up his arm like liquid fire, burrowing beneath his skin.
Pain exploded through him — every vein a river of lightning.
He screamed, the sound swallowed by the storm forming around him. Visions flashed behind his eyes: mountains floating in an endless sky, beasts of shadow and flame bowing before a single radiant talisman.
Then silence. The light collapsed inward, leaving only the soft whisper of falling dust.
Lin Dong lay on his back, chest heaving. The stone tablet was gone, but on his palm a mark shimmered — the same runes, faintly alive, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. The pain ebbed, replaced by a warmth that spread through his limbs like flowing water. The night air no longer bit at him; it seemed to listen.
He lifted his hand. Tiny motes of light drifted toward him — Yuan energy, the very essence he'd never been able to touch. They swirled between his fingers, playful, obedient.
"It's… real," he breathed. "I can feel it."
Far below, in the depths of the Lin estate, a candle trembled. Lin Langtian, deep in meditation, opened his eyes. The still air quivered with a vibration he couldn't name.
"That surge…" he murmured. "Someone has awakened something ancient."
He rose, frowning toward the mountains. The candle went out.
Back on the ridge, Lin Dong stood beneath a sky now clear and vast, the rune on his palm glimmering like a new-born star. For the first time, he felt the world breathe with him — and in that breath was promise, and peril.