From Zhuge Yu Jin's Perspective
The wood of the door creaked under his hand—not in protest, but as an old, resigned greeting. As he pushed it open, the familiar scent enveloped him: dry pine incense, aged and half-burned. And something deeper, almost imperceptible—the faint aroma of suppressed heat.
Yu Jin's room held no luxury.The floor was plain, covered by a tatami of coarse fibers worn at the edges. His bed, narrow, with a stone base and a single brown blanket, rested against the wall. A cracked clay jar held fresh water. And in the farthest corner, wrapped in dark cloth, lay an old training weapon.
Yu Jin stepped inside and shut the door firmly.
Without ceremony, he sat in the center of the room, legs crossed, back straight.His hands rested naturally upon his knees.
He closed his eyes.
His breathing slowed.
And then… he plunged.
—
At first, there was only darkness.Not the kind that frightens, but the kind that welcomes.The kind that lives behind closed eyelids.
Gradually, he began to feel.
His meridians.
Ancient, forgotten pathways.Spiritual energy tried to flow—but it didn't run.It crawled.Like a starving traveler pushing against locked doors, his Qi crept only through narrow cracks.
There was a strange force there.Obscure, dense, unmoving.It didn't attack him. It simply blocked his Qi—as if deeming him unworthy to pass.But now… there was a fissure.
Small.But real.
Through it, energy flowed.Not much.But it flowed.
And at the center of it all—in his dantian—something watched in silence.
A black pearl.Dull. Plain.Floating as though it were the true core of his body.
It did not pulse.It did not vibrate.It did not seem alive.
But neither did it seem dead.
Yu Jin fixed his consciousness upon it.
And then, the world vanished.
—
When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in his room.
He stood in an immense space, so vast that even the Zhuge clan's ancestral hall seemed small by comparison.
The floor was made of dark stone, smooth as a mirror, etched with grooves that looked like veins.
The hall was utterly empty.
Except… at its center.
There, a pedestal rose.Black and gold.Magnificent.
Formed of interwoven scales spiraling upward, wrapped with dragon sigils whose bodies seemed to writhe if gazed at too long.
And upon it… lay a single book.
Closed.Thick.Surrounded by a presence that made it far more than an object.
Its cover was black as a moonless night, utterly opaque.But at its center, engraved in golden letters carved with a presence Yu Jin could not describe, was its title:
Transcendental Art of the Imperial Dragon.
Yu Jin stopped before it.
It wasn't the first time he had seen it.
But it would be the first time he would read it.
He stepped forward.
Eyes fixed on the title.
A title that did not request respect—it demanded it.
And by instinct, he was already obeying.
Yu Jin reached out his hand.
His fingers hovered above the black cover.
Just touching the book made the air vibrate—as if he were holding a slumbering creature breathing beneath the leather.
With a light push of will, the cover creaked open.
"Your trial, at this level of the Subtle Pearl, is simple," the elder's voice echoed, from nowhere. No figure, only sound—as if the cavern itself had learned to speak. "Cultivate the technique and survive."
Yu Jin did not hesitate. He merely inclined his head lightly to the void, accepting the condition. Then he returned his eyes to the pages and began to read.
The pages weren't of common paper, but of something between silk and flame—pliant, yet with their own heat.Arcane symbols danced across each line, and the words… they weren't written. They were carved into the soul.
Yu Jin felt every phrase enter through his eyes… and burn in his chest.
"The dragon is not born a king.He is born as fire trapped in weak flesh.The flesh must yield.The blood must cry.Only then will the spirit be worthy to open its eyes."
Another page.
"First Level: Ascension of Burning FleshBurn your body to be reborn.Turn your bones into pillars of flame.Let your meridians become rivers of lava,and your soul, the crown of the creature that devours the heavens."
Yu Jin read.Read again.Then closed his eyes.
He sat cross-legged in the center of the Pearl's inner space.
And began to repeat, in a low voice, the words of the text.
"Burn your body to be reborn…Bones into pillars of flame…Meridians into rivers of lava…Soul… crown…"
Each phrase burned hotter than the last.
The technique was not gentle.It did not guide.It commanded.
And when Yu Jin focused his will into his breath… something ignited.
His dantian flared, like an ember fanned for the first time.
The Qi within him awoke violently, and heat spread.
It wasn't a smooth, flowing energy like the techniques he had seen others cultivate.
No.
This was combustion.
It was as if every cell screamed—as if his blood boiled within his veins—as if his very flesh were being melted and reforged at once.
He clenched his teeth.
Endured.
His only thought was that this truly was worthy of being called a trial.
And just when he thought the heat would drive him into unconsciousness…
She appeared.
Behind him.
Like a shadow released from the prison of time.
Martial Soul: Solar Dragon of Three Crowns
The presence came like a silent roar.
First, the ground shook.
Then, the air darkened around Yu Jin—as if the world itself held its breath.
And then… a form took shape in the flames.
Immense.
A dragon of crimson scales, each like molten gold fused with crystallized blood.
Its eyes were twin suns—without pupils, without hesitation.On its back, three blazing crests rose like living crowns, vibrating with a majesty that needed no titles.
Its wings did not beat. They simply existed—spread wide, etched with ancient patterns glowing in eternal embers.
From its body radiated a heat that did not burn the air—it burned the soul.
Yu Jin felt his legs tremble beneath him.But he did not bow.Because he knew:
That Martial Soul belonged to him.Not the other way around.
Yu Jin drew a deep breath, his chest aflame.
It was as if the soul had been sealed with him all along—and now, at last, it could stretch its wings.
The heat of the technique coursed through his meridians, and he saw them.
The locks.The seals.Golden chains, fine and tight, bound to every spiritual node.
But now… they glowed red.
Burning.
Slowly.
So very slowly.
Like ice melting under a distant sun.
But it was enough.
It was progress.
Yu Jin smiled.Not in joy.But in war.
Yu Jin continued cultivating.
For every seal burned away was a torn note of a buried past.And every spark released…was a warning to the world:
The dragon is awakening.