The storm was gone.
But the valley still smelled like lightning.
Bodies of fallen disciples were being carried away.
Broken walls. Burned trees.
The Azure Heaven Sect had never seen a day like this.
And right in the middle of it all,
Jian Wu sat on the cold stone ground, breathing hard, blood still dripping from his arm.
Yue Shan rushed toward him. "Don't move! You're bleeding again!"
"I've bled worse," he said, trying to stand. His legs shook, but he didn't stop.
He looked up. The clouds above were finally clearing, revealing a pale morning sky.
The Grand Elder appeared behind Yue Shan, silent as ever. "So… it's true. The Heaven-Breaker mark has awakened."
Jian Wu frowned. "Heaven-Breaker? What is that supposed to mean?"
The Elder lowered his staff. "A curse. A power that rejects Heaven itself. No one has ever carried it and survived more than a month."
Jian Wu smirked. "Guess I'll be the first."
Yue Shan glared at him. "You think this is funny? You killed Heaven's envoys! Do you realize what that means?"
"Yeah," Jian Wu muttered. "That I finally hit something worth punching."
She almost shouted again, but stopped when she saw his eyes.
There was no arrogance there. Just exhaustion.
And something else, resolve.
Jian Wu pulled down the collar of his torn robe.
The blue mark on his chest was still glowing faintly, shaped like a spiral of lightning.
Every few seconds, it pulsed, like it was breathing.
"What happens if I ignore it?" he asked.
The Elder hesitated. "It will consume you. That mark is not human energy. It's a law written by the sky itself. Once it wakes, you can't turn back."
"Then I'll control it before it controls me."
He sat cross-legged again, closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly.
Inside him, everything was chaos.
Energy surged through his veins like fire and ice at once.
He saw flashes, lightning, red clouds, a figure standing above the heavens with chains wrapped around its neck.
Break them, a voice whispered.
You were born without a core because you were never meant to kneel.
The mark burned hotter.
Blue arcs danced across his skin.
The air rippled.
Yue Shan stepped back. "He's absorbing… Heaven's energy?"
The Elder's face hardened. "No. He's devouring it."
The ground cracked beneath Jian Wu.
Rocks floated into the air.
Every strand of lightning from the sky bent toward him like threads being pulled.
Inside his mind, a gate appeared,
massive, glowing, half-open.
Behind it was a space filled with blue mist and endless thunder.
Step through, the voice said. If you dare.
He moved forward.
One step. Two.
And then his body snapped upright in the real world.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward, throwing dust and wind across the ruins.
When the light faded, Jian Wu stood again.
The wound on his arm was gone.
The mark on his chest had turned darker,
from blue to deep violet.
He opened his eyes. They glowed faintly the same color.
Yue Shan whispered, "He… advanced."
The Elder nodded. "Beyond mortal limits."
Far away, in another sect's mountain hall, a mirror cracked on its own.
Dozens of elders gasped as a red streak appeared across the reflection of the sky.
"The Heaven-Breaker has awakened," said one of them.
"Notify the Council. If he lives, the balance will collapse."
Meanwhile, rumors spread faster than wind.
From city to city, tavern to tavern.
A name whispered with both fear and awe.
Jian Wu, the boy who made Heaven bleed.
Some called him a demon.
Others, a savior.
Most didn't know which was worse.
That evening, Yue Shan found him sitting outside the tower again, staring at the stars.
She tossed a small pouch at him.
"Medicine. You look like hell."
He caught it without looking. "Thanks."
"You shouldn't stay here," she said. "Heaven's not done with you."
"I know."
"Then why aren't you running?"
He turned his head slightly, eyes still on the sky.
"Because running won't change what I am."
Yue Shan frowned. "And what are you exactly?"
Jian Wu grinned faintly. "A mistake they can't erase."
Before she could reply, the temperature dropped.
Wind howled through the valley.
A shadow flickered near the broken wall, three figures in black cloaks.
Assassins.
Their masks bore the insignia of the Eastern Radiance Sect.
"Tch," Jian Wu muttered. "They didn't waste time."
One of the cloaked men stepped forward.
"By order of the Eastern Master, the anomaly known as Jian Wu must be erased."
"Erased?" He cracked his neck. "Try it."
The first assassin moved, fast as a shadow.
Jian Wu ducked, kicked low, and slammed his elbow into the man's ribs.
A dull crack followed.
The second swung a curved blade glowing with spirit fire.
Wu caught it barehanded, sparks flew, and he head-butted the attacker hard enough to send him crashing into the wall.
The last one hesitated, seeing the faint violet glow spreading from Jian Wu's chest.
"What are you?" he whispered.
Wu grinned. "Still figuring that out."
He charged, grabbed the man by the throat, and slammed him into the ground.
The glow from his mark spread to his palm.
Lightning burst out, turning the ground to glass.
When the light faded, all three were down, alive, barely.
Yue Shan stared at him, speechless.
"That power… it's not cultivation. It's something else."
Jian Wu flexed his hand, the glow fading.
"Call it whatever you want. It works."
They buried the bodies outside the valley.
Yue Shan said nothing the whole time.
When it was over, Jian Wu leaned against a rock, exhausted.
"I didn't want this fight."
"I know," she said quietly. "But Heaven won't stop until you're gone."
"Then I'll make sure it has a reason to fear me."
She looked at him long.
"Do you even know what the Heaven-Breaker Path really is?"
"No."
"The first person who tried to walk it burned his own soul just to touch the sky.
The second vanished into lightning.
And the third… destroyed half a continent."
Jian Wu smiled faintly. "Guess I'll be number four."
She slapped his shoulder. "You're impossible."
"Maybe," he said, eyes drifting to the horizon,
"but impossible's the only thing that's ever felt real."
Later that night, while the sect slept, Jian Wu stood at the edge of the valley.
The mark on his chest glowed faintly again, pointing toward the north, toward the distant Azure Tower, where the oldest secrets of Heaven were sealed.
He didn't know why, but his heart beat faster every time he looked that way.
Maybe the answers were there.
Maybe death was.
Either way, he had to go.
Yue Shan appeared behind him, arms crossed.
"You're leaving, aren't you?"
He nodded. "If I stay, more people die."
"And if you go?"
"Then maybe they'll finally send something worth fighting."
She sighed. "Then promise me one thing."
"What?"
"Come back alive."
Jian Wu smiled, stepping into the fog.
"No promises."
The wind carried his laughter across the mountains.
Cold. Rough. Human.
And above it all..
the sky trembled again, faintly bleeding red.
Because somewhere deep inside the clouds,
Heaven finally realized it was afraid.