[Scene: Kaliyun Village – Max's Hut | Morning Light Breaking]
The scent of wet soil clung to the air as dawn broke through the misty hills. Inside a modest mud-and-wood hut on the village's outskirts, Max sat cross-legged, back straight, heart unsteady.
His breathing was shallow.
His fingers trembled slightly.
Not from fear—but from awareness.
Every inhale felt deeper. Every exhale—sharper. He could feel the wind around him, not on his skin, but within his core. Like the wind was not separate from him… but something he could grasp, pull, mold.
The spiral mark on his chest throbbed gently.
He closed his eyes.
Inside the silence, he listened. Not with ears, but with something deeper.
And there it was.
Like a flicker behind thick curtains — the first spark of Qi.
Qi Initiation… this is real…
⸻
[Scene Shift: Village Elder's Hall | Midday]
Elder Jian, one of the oldest Qi practitioners in Kaliyun, stroked his long beard in stunned silence. Before him stood Max, with a calm he did not recognize from the boy he'd known.
Beside Elder Jian, the village alchemist, Old Wu, cleared his throat.
"The heavens struck him last night, and yet he lives. That mark… It resonates with spatial fluctuations. Not natural."
Elder Jian: "The Lotus Spiral. I've only seen it once. In an ancient scroll sealed in the eastern sects. It is not merely a mark — it is a seal. A flame of something far older than cultivation."
He turned to Max.
"Boy. Do you know what you've stepped into?"
Max met the elder's gaze. He wanted to say no. He wanted to say I was just struck by lightning. But the moment he opened his mouth—
"…I saw a lotus. And stars. And a voice told me I was chosen by consequence."
Gasps echoed in the room.
Elder Jian stepped back, eyes wide.
"Then it has begun…"
⸻
[Scene: Forest Clearing | Evening]
Old Wu led Max into the Great Azure Forest. A place said to be cursed. But Max felt drawn here — like something inside him pulsed in rhythm with the trees and wind.
"You need to test it," said Old Wu. "Qi Sense is one thing. But to channel it… to guide it into your meridians… that is where a cultivator begins."
Max closed his eyes and focused.
Beneath his skin, his body was no longer still — it was a furnace.
Chaotic, untamed. Qi roared through blocked paths, fighting for shape.
He breathed. Slowly. Letting the spiral mark guide him.
Suddenly, the lotus reappeared in his mind's eye. Only now, a petal glowed.
Max directed the swirling Qi toward it.
His body convulsed as pain seared his veins. He fell to his knees.
But he didn't stop.
Pain is the gate.
He pushed through the wall, forcing the first thread of Qi through his meridian—
And the forest lit up.
Leaves swirled. The wind pulsed with violet light.
Old Wu took a step back.
"He's not forming a core… he's forming a seed. A Lotus Flame Seed… impossible…"
⸻
[Scene: Distant Cultivation Sect – Unknown Figures Watching]
Far beyond Kaliyun, on a floating jade platform surrounded by endless clouds, an old man in silver robes stood before a pool of scrying water.
"He's awakened early. The Lotus Mark has returned… after 10,000 years."
A shadowy figure appeared behind him.
"Should we intervene?"
"No. Not yet. Let him grow. If the prophecy is true… he will either ascend all realms—"
He narrowed his eyes.
"—or destroy them."
⸻
[Scene: Kaliyun Village – Night]
Max stood on the same hill where lightning had struck. The mark on his chest faded slightly, but the lotus in his mind continued to burn. One petal complete.
His first step on the cultivation path had been taken.
"This world is wider than I thought," he whispered.
The wind shifted.
And somewhere far beyond the stars… something stirred.
⸻
[End of Chapter 2]