[PRESENT DAY EARTH, SHENXIANG CITY HOSPITAL ]
"Nurse Zhang, prepare the cardiac patient for routine blood work," Dr. Liu ordered.
"Immediately, Doctor," she replied.
Wang Tianlong shifted on the examination table, the comforting golden heat in his chest thudding more rapidly as his fear grew.
Nineteen years of hospital visits, and he still detested needles.
"Just routine monitoring," Dr. Liu comforted him, scanning the thick medical file. "Your parents are worried about the attacks occurring more frequently."
"They're not episodes," Wang Tianlong grumbled. "It's just… warmth. As if I had a little sun in my chest."
Nurse Zhang arrived with the blood-draw kit. "Another poetic metaphor, Mr. Wang. You should be a novelist, not an engineering student."
"Writers don't receive full scholarships to Beijing Tech," he said, rolling up his sleeve to reveal pale skin with thin, threadlike scars from years of IV insertions.
Dr. Liu glanced up from his papers. "Did you notice anything unusual since your previous visit last month?"
"The heat responds to my mood now. It intensifies when I'm angry or scared. Sometimes I see golden bursts of vision from the corner of my eye."
"Hallucinations could be a symptom of oxygen deficiency in the brain," Dr. Liu scribbled. "We'll administer a hemoglobin test."
Nurse Zhang pushed the needle in with skilled precision. "There we are, just—"
She froze, her eyes fixed on the collection tube.
Normal red blood would've filled the vial. But this was a midnight-black fluid, spreading into the glass. It wasn't ordinary darkness—the fluid throbbed with its own phosphorescent light, like starlight contained within.
"Dr. Liu," she whispered. "You have to see this."
Dr. Liu hurried over, his face whitening as he looked at the sample. "That's medically impossible."
Wang Tianlong shot up with a jerk. "What is it?"
"Your blood," Dr. Liu said, lifting the tube and observing the dark liquid swirl with glowing patterns. "It's as black as coal. And it's emitting..."
"That's impossible," Wang Tianlong glared at the sample. "Human blood is red due to hemoglobin. Elementary biology."
"And that leaves us to suspect either our equipment is faulty or you're not fully human."
The words dangled there like a dagger.
Wang Tianlong felt the golden heat in his chest rise in surprise, hammering harder and brighter.
"Do it again," he ordered. "Same vial, same needle, same arm—no, use the other arm this time."
Nurse Zhang pulled a second sample from his left arm.
The result was the same—midnight-black fluid that glowed with inner light.
"Impossible," Dr. Liu panted. "Thirty years of experience, and I've never..."
The sample tube on the counter began to hum.
All of them stood transfixed, watching as the radiating blood began to generate a gentle harmonic vibration. They didn't hear the sound with their ears—it vibrated directly through their bones, as if within a colossal tuning fork.
"Mr. Wang," Dr. Liu spoke in tightly compressed tones. "I want you to think very hard. Have you been exposed to any unexplained chemicals? Radiation? Experimental treatment?"
"Nothing. Just the usual cardiac meds you prescribed." Wang Tianlong gripped his chest when the golden heat suddenly burst into searing agony. "But something is happening. The fragment—"
"What fragment?"
Wang Tianlong's eyes went wide as he heard what he'd said. "I... I don't know why I said that."
The harmonic frequency in the blood samples rose in pitch and volume. Across the laboratory, electronic gear began to flicker and blaze as strange energy clashed with earthly technology.
"Dr. Liu!" Nurse Zhang gestured to the monitoring devices. "Look at the cardiac tracings!"
Wang Tianlong's heart rhythm on the ECG monitor defied all logic. Instead of a single pulse source, the machine registered secondary and tertiary rhythms separate from his native heartbeat.
"It's like three hearts beating in alternating rhythms," Dr. Liu growled, rebooting the machine. "But that's anatomically impossible."
Wang Tianlong doubled over as pain tore through his chest. The golden flame that had been his faithful friend for nineteen years burst into a raging fury, bathing his circulatory system in stardust energy.
"Something's awakening," he gasped. "Something that's been sleeping in my chest since I was born."
"Mr. Wang, you must stay calm. We're going to—"
The blood samples burst into light.
Untainted starlight flashed out of both vials, drenching the laboratory in golden power that caused all the electronic equipment to smoke and spark.
The harmonic frequency was now a cacophony that seemed to make the building's foundations shudder.
Wang Tianlong screamed as corresponding energy flared from his chest. His shirt burned away as stellar fire etched intricate patterns onto his flesh—geometric designs resembling circuit tracks or star maps.
"Emergency team to Lab 7!" Dr. Liu yelled into his communication device. "We have an unidentified energy release!"
Through the pain and searing light, Wang Tianlong felt his consciousness detach from his physical form.
For an impossible moment, he could sense energy signatures across vast distances—four other locations buzzing with the same energy.
But there was something else.
Something enormous and ancient passing through the emptiness between stars, attracted by the energy signature like a predator pursuing prey.
"It knows," Wang Tianlong gasped intuitively as the immediate danger started to recede. "Whatever gave me this... piece... it knows I'm awake now."
Dr. Liu gazed at the immaculate stellar designs seared onto Wang Tianlong's chest—designs no human technology could make. "Mr. Wang, do you believe something bestowed this shard upon you?"
Wang Tianlong looked upward, his own eyes now streaked with gold that beat in sympathy with his new heart.
"I don't know," he said. "But I believe it's waited nineteen years for me to be powerful enough to survive what's next."
The blackened blood samples on the counter continued to smolder, their molecular structure completely rewritten by forces that didn't even belong on this planet.
Somewhere deep in the cosmos, the strange entity's original hunger awoke at the taste of stimulated stellar power.
The quest had begun.