While Mo Tian plotted in the comfort of his power, Ye Chen was crawling through the mud.
He was miles away from the Azure Cloud Sect, deep in the Thunder-Crash Wasteland.
His robes were rags. His heavy sword was rusted. He was starving.
"I... I am not... trash..." Ye Chen gasped, dragging his crippled body forward.
Every step was agony. His shattered meridians burned like fire. Without Qi to protect him, the ambient lightning of the wasteland stung his skin.
He had heard a rumor. An old legend told by a drunkard in a tavern.
"In the center of the wasteland lies the Thunder God's Grave. It is said that lightning can reforge bone."
It was a suicide mission. But Ye Chen had nothing left to lose.
He reached the edge of a massive crater. Lightning struck the center continuously, a pillar of blue destruction.
"If I die," Ye Chen looked at the pillar, "then let me die standing."
He stood up, screaming against the pain, and jumped into the crater.
He didn't float. He fell like a stone.
CRACK-BOOM!
Lightning struck him mid-air. It stopped his heart.
Ye Chen hit the bottom of the crater. He was dead. His body was charred, his heart silent.
...
...
Thump.
In the silence of the grave, a sound echoed.
Not from Ye Chen's chest. But from the Black Ring he wore—a simple iron band his father had given him before he died. A ring Ye Chen had worn for years, thinking it was a keepsake.
Thump.
A voice, ancient and arrogant, echoed in the dead boy's mind.
"Wake up, brat. I didn't sleep for ten thousand years just to die in a hole because my host is incompetent."
Black smoke poured from the ring. It entered Ye Chen's nose and mouth.
The charcoal skin on Ye Chen's chest cracked. Beneath it, a new, red skin formed. His heart kick-started with a violent jolt.
Ye Chen gasped, sitting up. His eyes were wide.
"I... I'm alive?"
"Barely," the voice sneered.
A figure materialized in front of him. It was a translucent old man floating in the air. He wore black armor and had eyes like burning coals.
"Who... who are you?" Ye Chen stammered.
"I am the Solar Tyrant," the ghost declared. "The one who burned the heavens before your pathetic 'Righteous Path' sealed me in this ring."
The ghost floated closer.
"I watched you, boy. You played the hero. You saved the weak. And look where it got you. Crippled. Betrayed. Forgotten."
Ye Chen clenched his fists. Tears mixed with the ash on his face. "They... they betrayed me..."
"Good," the Tyrant grinned. "Righteousness is a shackle. Hate... hate is fuel."
The ghost pointed at the pillar of lightning.
"Your Solar Physique was weak because it was pure. True fire destroys. True fire consumes. Do you want revenge, Ye Chen? Do you want to kill the masked man? Do you want to burn the Azure Cloud Sect to ash?"
"Yes," Ye Chen hissed. The image of Yan Luo walking away with Han Fei burned in his mind. "I want to kill them all."
"Then accept my legacy," the ghost commanded. "I will teach you the [Solar Eclipse Devil Art]. You will not be a Sovereign. You will be a Tyrant."
Ye Chen looked at the lightning. He looked at the ghost.
He stripped off his tattered righteous robes.
"Teach me," Ye Chen said.
The lightning in the crater turned black.
The Protagonist had died. An Avenger was born.