> "Something is about to stir in the Lower Realm... something that will reveal the true meaning of power. The origin of things... what is it really?"
The narrator's voice fades as our vision narrows to a tiny, nearly forgotten sect — the Duskwind Sect.
A weak sect. So small that even the breeze of destiny rarely passes through its gates. No genius is born here. No disciple breaks through realms to reach the heavens. Dreams of ascension? Crushed long ago.
The sect is led by a simple man — Lin Huo. Not very powerful. Not very ambitious. But his heart is clean.
Tonight, his wife Lin Yue is about to give birth to their first child.
---
It is night.
No stars shine above.
No wind stirs the trees.
The world feels... paused — suspended in some strange, eerie quiet.
Inside a small room made of aging wood, a single lamp flickers. Its flame droops as if it too has grown tired. Lin Yue lies on the bed, sweat glistening on her face, every breath filled with silent pain.
Lin Huo holds her hand tightly. His eyes are filled with love, anxiety, and helplessness.
"Yue... just a little more... hold on..."
Outside, the darkness deepens. Even the forest beasts fall silent. A stillness settles — dense and unnatural.
And then...
At that exact moment…
As the baby is about to enter the world…
Something enters.
Something unseen.
Unknown.
Uninvited.
---
Everything stops.
Literally — everything.
The wind halts.
The flame freezes in place.
No sound, no motion.
Even time — for a single second — ceases to move.
Lin Huo does not blink. Yue does not scream. The flame does not flicker.
And then — just as suddenly — the world resumes.
The flame leans once again. Yue cries out. Huo's fingers tremble.
And in that moment, a newborn's first cry fills the room.
---
Zeravon.
That is the name they gave him.
But wait... who named him?
Lin Yue whispered the name without thought:
"Zeravon... his name will be Zeravon..."
Lin Huo looked at her in surprise.
"When did you think of that name?"
Yue, exhausted, replied:
"I don't know... it just came to me."
They both shrugged it off as a strange, spontaneous choice.
But the truth was —
That name was not just a name.
The child lying peacefully in Lin Yue's arms was quiet. His face soft. His eyes wide — but when Yue looked into those eyes…
Something inside her shook.
Those weren't normal eyes.
Just for a single moment… she saw it:
No light.
No warmth.
Not even emptiness.
It was beyond emptiness — as if those eyes were windows into another dimension.
But it passed. The next blink, and they were normal again. Just the eyes of a baby.
Yue looked away and whispered,
"Maybe it was just my imagination…"
But deep inside, she knew — something had shifted.
---
Meanwhile, far away — in a hidden corner of the realm — the Heavenly Seers stirred from their meditation.
One of them spoke:
> "What was that... that heavy breath? As if an ancient thing just moved…"
Another said:
> "For a moment… I felt like… someone returned."
They scanned the world with their divine vision.
All they saw was a humble hut.
A woman. A man. A newborn child.
Harmless. Powerless. Ordinary.
"Then it was nothing."
And they returned to their meditation.
---
But in another realm...
Deep within a shattered seal...
A faint vibration awakened.
> [SEAL STATUS: ACTIVE]
[INTEGRITY BREACH: 0.000000001%]
[CORE MEMORY: STILL LOCKED]
The child — Zeravon — smiled softly and went quiet.
In the sect, the atmosphere filled with joy. Everyone celebrated the birth.
But no one noticed —
An entity had come. It had seen Zeravon… and silently left.
---
Days passed.
Zeravon became the talk of the small sect.
"What a quiet child..."
"His eyes... there's something so deep in them…"
But no one understood.
Not Yue.
Not Lin Huo.
Not even the elders.
Zeravon remained silent.
Peaceful.
Smiling.
---
Three months later, a strange truth was revealed.
Zeravon was born with something extremely rare —
An Astral Core.
A divine inner seed that, once awakened, could multiply cultivation speed beyond imagination.
In millions of years, perhaps one child is born with it.
But this time…
Two were born.
Zeravon…
And Lian Tianyu, the son of the Dome of Heaven Sect's leader — one of the Top 15 sects in the Lower Realm, ranking 8th.
The news spread like wildfire.
Everyone in the Lower Realm heard:
> "Two children… born with Astral Cores?!"
---
A few nights later…
Lin Yue rocked Zeravon to sleep and closed her eyes.
She dreamt of an Entity.
Not a man.
Not a god.
Something that held the entire Lower Realm in its palm…
like a grain of sand.
She awoke, heart pounding, breath short.
"A dream… just a dream," she whispered to herself.
Zeravon lay quietly beside her — just a baby.
""Am I going crazy…," she told herself.
But that Entity... never came in her dreams again.
---
To Be Continued...