They shook their heads, unsettled.
That night, Astra lay on his narrow bed, hands folded under his head as he stared at the cracked ceiling.
Cultivation cycles done.
Chores complete.
Bruises fading.
He closed his eyes.
At first there was nothing—just the darkness of a tired mind.
Then—
A heartbeat that wasn't quite his.
Thump. Thump.
Soft.
Gentle.
Like a small creature curled up somewhere deep inside him.
He sank his awareness down into his dantian, into the deeper sea beyond the whirlpool of his spirit power.
The world blurred.
He stood—not physically, but in his inner world—before a hazy, star-filled expanse.
Floating there, glowing faintly, was an egg.
Its surface shimmered with shifting colors—blues, purples, soft gold. Symbols he couldn't yet read drifted like mist along its shell.
As he focused, the heartbeat synced with his own chest.
Then he heard it.
A voice.
Very faint.
Very soft.
Like the gentlest whisper.
"…found… you…"
Astra's eyes widened slightly.
"Who are you?" he asked in his mind.
There was no answer in words.
Instead, a feeling:
Warmth.
Trust.
Expectation.
It was like something ancient and pure had been wandering in darkness for a long time and had finally found a place where it felt… safe.
It chose me.
The egg pulsed once, then dimmed, sinking back into deeper mist.
[Ding! Spirit Egg Stability increased.]
– Bond with Host: +1
– Future World Spirit Affinity strengthened.
Astra opened his eyes slowly.
The room looked the same.
But he didn't feel alone.
"Sleep well," he murmured to the ceiling, as if speaking to the presence inside him. "When you hatch, I'll be strong enough to stand beside you."
He closed his eyes again, and this time, sleep came easier.
Somewhere in the depths of his sealed bloodline, other presences faintly stirred—shadows of more spirits yet to hatch, yet to appear.
Watching. Waiting.
In another region of the Nine Provinces Continent, under a sky heavy with clouds, a different boy knelt in a small training ground.
His body was covered in scars.
His fists were red and raw.
Chu Feng breathed heavily, sweat dripping down his cheek.
He drew spirit power into his body—
forced it through pathways again and again.
A faint crackle of lightning danced along his arm, then fizzled.
He gritted his teeth.
Still not enough.
Voices from the school drifted over faintly:
"Chu Feng? That good-for-nothing?"
"Still hasn't awakened anything impressive."
"He should just accept his fate."
He heard it.
He didn't stop.
He punched the training post again.
"Again," he muttered to himself. "Again."
Lightning flickered once more, brighter.
He was tired.
He was mocked.
But he kept going.
In a corner of the courtyard, an elder watched through half-lidded eyes, saying nothing.
He doesn't bend, the elder thought.
Even when everyone steps on him.
Higher up, far away in a distance quieter place, Chu Feng's father sat with a man whose aura was deeper than a mountain's roots.
An elder from the Azure Dragon School.
"You're still worried," the elder said casually, sipping tea.
Chu Feng's father's gaze was distant.
"…When his mother left, she said this world would not be simple," he replied. "She said… another thread would appear. Someone whose path would be tangled with his."
He frowned.
"Recently… I've felt something. A subtle shift... As if another candle was lit far away… one that shines in the same sky as my son."
The elder blinked.
"You mean another… peculiar one?"
Chu Feng's father gave a short, humorless chuckle.
"Call it what you want. But I can feel it. Something… or someone… has begun moving out there."
He looked up at the clouds.
"And when they meet… …. ….."
there is a long silence….