The morning sun spilled over the peaks of Azure Lotus Sect, bathing the misty valley in gold. Birds sang, but the valley was not at peace. Lin Yao, a scrawny boy with messy hair and bright, piercing eyes, sat cross-legged on the courtyard floor. Sweat dripped down his brow as he struggled to control his first Meditation of the Spirit Flame.
"Ugh! Why won't it respond?" Lin Yao muttered, frustration biting at his chest. His cultivator peers had already begun awakening their martial souls, yet he still felt… nothing.
But deep inside, a faint vibration tickled at the core of his soul. Something ancient. Something… forbidden.
Suddenly, the air around him shimmered. A fragment of golden light burst from his chest and formed a tiny, chaotic flame hovering above his heart.
"Impossible…" whispered Elder Bai, who had been observing him silently. His eyes widened. "A fragment of the Primordial Chaos… in a newborn disciple…"
Lin Yao's body trembled as the fragment embedded itself in his soul, refusing to be ignored. A surge of energy coursed through him, unlike any spirit energy he had felt in the sect.
From that moment, Lin Yao's path would be unlike any other cultivator.