The air smelled of iron and mud.
The dawn was just beginning to dye the clouds gray when Yun Che came out of the crack.
His body was covered in mud, his clothes torn, and his muscles tense with pain.
But his steps were firm. He didn't run or run anymore.
I was walking.
The storm had left a heavy, almost sacred silence.
The shattered trees rose like shadows, and the water descended through the roots forming silver threads.
The wind brought with it the distant echoes of a thunder that seemed to be extinguished with difficulty.
I'm alive.
I put my hand to my chest. I felt the heart... but not only mine.
Every heartbeat in the world resounded inside me. The flow of qi, the pulses of the leaves, the movement of insects.
Everything was visible, audible, alive.
I shivered. It wasn't a gift... it was a burden.
But even so, something inside me burned calmly.
A sleeping voice, the same one that spoke to me in the cave, murmured from the depths of my soul.
"To see is to understand. To understand is to dominate."
The mark on my forehead lit up for an instant.
A thread of golden light ran through my eyes.
Then, the world changed again.
I could see the flows of spiritual energy moving like invisible rivers between the mountains.
The air itself had currents.
And beyond, in the distance, the town of the Yun Clan, hidden behind the fog, shone with hundreds of luminous points: the souls of its inhabitants.
Is this... the power of the Eye of God?
It was hard for me to maintain my eyesight. Every image vibrated strongly, as if the world was naked before me.
I had to close my eyes for a moment and control my breathing.
"Too much... it's too much," I muttered. "I can't... see so much."
The eye answered. The lights slowly went out, reducing themselves to leaving only a normal vision.
The power was hidden, obeying my will.
A chill ran through me.
Then... I can control it.
I took a deep breath and took the way back.
The clouds opened, letting the rising sun bathe the valley with a reddish light.
Every step I took seemed different to me. The soil was no longer just earth: he could feel the vital energy flowing under it, the traces of the qi of the storms.
As if the whole world was one body, and I could feel its pulse.
⸻
The village of the Yun Clan stood at the foot of the mountain, protected by a stone wall and a portal with protective runes.
When I crossed the doors, the guards looked at me with surprise.
"Yun Che...?" one of them frowned. For heaven's sake, boy! We thought you were dead!
"Almost," I replied in a calm voice.
I didn't want to say more. I walked to my house without looking back, with the mud still dripping from my clothes.
I could feel their looks. Not out of compassion... but out of confusion.
Something in me was different, and they perceived it.
Upon arrival, my adoptive parents, Yun Shan and Mei Lin, ran out.
His adoptive mother covered her mouth when she saw him.
"Che'er!" You're hurt! - she shouted, running to hug him.
The man, with a tanned face and tired eyes, watched him in silence.
"What happened?"
"It was... an accident," I said simply.
Yun Shan pursed his lips. I knew it wasn't like that.
The silence extended a few seconds before he spoke.
"Does your cousin Yun Hao have anything to do with it?"
I didn't answer. I just looked down.
But inside my mind, the images were repeated: his fire, his spiritual armor, the crack in his chest.
I could see everything as if he were in front of me.
"It doesn't matter," I finally said. I just need to rest.
I locked myself in my room.
The wood crunched under the weight of silence. Outside, the birds began to sing.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
My eyes were still dark... but deep down, a golden glow moved like a contained flame.
⸻
That night, while the clan was sleeping, I couldn't do it.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw things:
Shadows, unknown faces, symbols I didn't understand.
And in the middle of everything, that golden eye, suspended in an infinite void, watching me.
"Heir to the Lost Blood... the vision is just the beginning."
I got up suddenly, soaked in sweat.
The mark on my forehead was burning again.
The Eye of God opened.
In front of me, the room disappeared.
Everything turned black... except for a path of light that descended to a plain.
In the distance, a stone altar.
Above him, a motionless silhouette.
An old voice spoke from the darkness.
"If you want to understand your power, come. The path of the eye only opens once."
And then everything vanished.
I woke up again, with my heart pounding in my chest.
The sun was barely coming out.
I knew it hadn't been a dream.
I looked towards the northern mountains, where the clouds still hid the summits.
A sensation ran down my back.
There... something was calling me.
The voice had said: the path of the eye.
And although part of me feared what I might find, another part - the one I had woken up in that cave - burned with curiosity.
"So... that will be my next destination," I whispered.
Outside, the roosters began to crow.
The people woke up without knowing that something inside young Yun Che had changed forever.
The eye inside him opened for a moment, reflecting the golden dawn.
And for a second, time seemed to stop