Chapter 2: Sacrifice of the Root — Fire Beneath the Grave
🌑 Night fell heavy over the city. The cheering and mockery from the awakening ceremony still echoed in Liu Zhen's ears, but he had walked away in silence—his fists clenched, heart pounding, eyes hollow.
📍 Graveyard on the eastern outskirts. Overgrown. Forgotten. Only the dead remembered this place.
👤 Liu Zhen (kneeling before a simple stone):
– "Father... they called me rootless today. A joke. A disgrace to our family name."
💭 "If only you were still here... maybe things would've been different."
🎭 Flashback:
His father's coughing fits. The forbidden herbs. The whispered warning: "Don't trust them. Not even the ones you call family."
Then… death.
🔥 Liu Zhen pulled a dagger from his robe—old, dull, but real. He placed his left hand over the cracked soil beside the grave.
🩸 Slice. Blood soaked the earth. Not out of rage… but offering.
💭 "I give up this useless root. Take it. Burn it. If fate has cursed me… let me curse it back."
🌪️ A wind stirred—unnatural. Cold. The trees stopped moving. Even the night went silent.
🌌 Suddenly, the air above the grave twisted like smoke caught in reverse. His blood shimmered black. The soil glowed.
🌀 A whisper. Ancient. Not human. Not kind.
– "Who dares offer blood where spirits sleep?"
👁️ A faint eye opened in the darkness—then vanished.
🔥 BOOM! The ground cracked. A spiral of black-and-silver flame burst around Liu Zhen, swallowing him whole. He didn't scream.
💭 "So this is pain... no. This is rebirth."
🌑 When the light faded, he stood there. Breathing heavy. His eyes no longer hollow—but burning.