The flames of twilight had not yet faded when the sky split open like a cracked mirror.
From the rift descended five figures dressed in crimson robes embroidered with black ravens. They rode on swords of bone and ash, their presence suffocating, their killing intent thick as molten steel.
The villagers of Stone Lantern had never seen cultivators in their lives—only heard tales from wandering storytellers and madmen. But today, those stories came screaming from the heavens.
At the foot of the broken shrine, Wang Lin stood alone.
His clothes were torn, his chest bare, golden sigils slowly fading from his skin. His breathing was ragged, but his eyes gleamed with silver fire. The blood on his lips wasn't his alone.
Behind him, the shrine collapsed completely, stone and wood devoured by his earlier surge of power. The old man who had tended it — Elder Shu — stood frozen at the edge, pale and trembling.
> "That power…" he whispered, "boy… do you understand what you've awakened?"
Wang Lin couldn't answer. His body still trembled from the aftershock. He felt everything — memories that weren't his, techniques he had never learned, and emotions that didn't belong to him. All flowing through his mind like a torrent of stolen light.
One of the crimson-robed cultivators spoke, voice echoing unnaturally.
> "Wang Lin. Age seventeen. Orphan. Born under the silent comet. Possesses the pendant of the First Gate."
He paused, then added with disgust, "You are a mistake that should have died in the womb."
The leader of the group stepped forward. He wore a bone-white mask etched with ancient runes. A long saber rested against his shoulder, and his spiritual aura suffocated the entire village.
> "You've inherited the Abduction Path," the masked man said. "That makes you a threat to all realms. You have two choices, boy. Die now… or come with us and be sealed forever."
Wang Lin clenched his fists.
> "Why does everyone speak of this path as if it chose me? I never asked for it!"
The masked man tilted his head.
> "Ask the heavens if they care what you wanted."
With a wave of his hand, the four cultivators behind him surged forward.
Their techniques were refined, murderous, filled with centuries of legacy: Flame Chains, Bone Piercing Thrust, Shadow Feathers, and Soundless Step. Each was designed to kill fast and clean.
But as they approached, something changed.
Wang Lin's eyes flickered — and the world slowed.
In that moment, time seemed to bend around him. His body moved not with skill, but with instinct. His hand lifted — and the moment the first Flame Chain struck, it unraveled.
Wang Lin absorbed it.
Not just the flame.
The technique. The Qi signature. The very logic of the move.
One of the Blood Raven cultivators faltered mid-strike.
> "T-That's not possible—!"
Wang Lin blinked — and vanished.
He reappeared behind the man and struck with a burning chain of fire of his own, but stronger, refined, no longer the same.
The man screamed as his core was burned from the inside out.
The next attacker, panicked, launched a desperate flurry of shadow feathers. Wang Lin raised one hand — and caught them all. His spiritual energy trembled, his meridians groaning under the strain, but he endured.
Then he struck again.
Two dead. The other two hesitated. One fled.
> "Cowards!" the masked man hissed.
But Wang Lin was already falling to one knee.
The rush of Qi was too much. His soul was stretched, veins burning, his heart pounding with an unfamiliar rhythm.
> "I… I can't hold it…"
Elder Shu rushed forward, trying to shield Wang Lin.
> "Stop! He's just a boy! He doesn't even understand what he's become!"
The masked man drew his saber.
> "That's exactly why he must die."
He moved with terrifying speed. Elder Shu shouted — but the blade never struck.
A pulse of silver Qi exploded from Wang Lin's body.
Time stilled for a breath.
Then Wang Lin rose again, body trembling, eyes wild.
> "No more running," he whispered. "No more fear."
He rushed forward to meet the saber head-on.
Their blades clashed, the air screaming around them, the village shaking.
The masked man's eyes widened.
> "You shouldn't be able to match me…"
> "I'm not," Wang Lin replied, gritting his teeth. "But someone you killed is."
And in that instant, Wang Lin summoned a sword technique he had never known — a relic from the memory of the man he absorbed earlier.
The Heavenpiercing Spiral Slash.
It struck the masked man's saber and shattered it.
For the first time, the enemy bled.
And smiled.
> "Interesting… Very interesting."
He leapt back, fading into the crimson sky.
"Wang Lin… your path will end where it began. When the Eternal Reclaimer comes, not even the heavens will protect you."
And then he was gone.
Wang Lin collapsed to the ground.
Elder Shu caught him, whispering, "You fool… you've changed fate."