Li Chen awoke to pain.
Not the sharp, fleeting kind, but a deep, grinding agony that filled every corner of his body. It pulsed in time with his heartbeat, spreading outward like slow poison. For a moment, he could not remember where he was or who he was.
Then the sky came into focus.
Gray clouds churned overhead, heavy and low. Rain fell in cold sheets, soaking him to the bone. Li Chen lay half-submerged in a narrow mountain stream, his body wedged between slick stones that had broken his fall.
He tried to move.
Agony flared, white-hot.
His right arm did not respond.
Li Chen exhaled slowly and forced himself to remain still. Panic was useless. He turned his attention inward.
The ember was there but diminished.
No.
Fractured.
The flow of Qi was erratic, broken into uneven currents that collided painfully within his dantian. Worse still was the presence coiled around it cold, oppressive, absolute.
A brand.
Li Chen understood instinctively.
Heaven's Mark.
It was not physical, yet it weighed more than any wound. It pressed upon his soul, anchoring him, watching him. Every breath he took felt measured, recorded.
So this was Heaven's response.
Li Chen's lips curled faintly.
"Too slow," he whispered.
Hours passed before he could move again.
With painstaking effort, Li Chen dragged himself from the stream and crawled beneath an overhang where jagged stone shielded him from the rain. He set his broken arm, biting down on his sleeve to keep from screaming. The sound of bone grinding echoed inside his skull.
He did not faint.
When the arm was bound, Li Chen sat back against the rock and closed his eyes.
Cultivation was impossible in this state.
So he adapted.
He turned his focus not to Qi but to severance.
The obelisk's fractured knowledge stirred faintly in his mind. Incomplete. Dangerous. But real. He did not attempt to use it again. Instead, he observed the mark its shape, its pressure, the way it clung to his soul.
He did not fight it.
He studied it.
Three days later, Iron River Sect made its decision.
Within the sect's main hall, elders stood before a floating mirror of water and light. The image showed the ruins collapsed, silent, defiled.
"A forbidden inheritance was disturbed," an elder said grimly. "The boy lives."
Another elder's eyes narrowed. "Then he cannot be allowed to grow."
The sect master spoke at last, his voice calm and final."Declare him a rogue calamity."
A jade slip shattered in his hand.
"He is no longer a disciple, nor a criminal," the sect master continued. "He is an enemy of Heaven's order. Any who kill him may claim merit."
The decree spread swiftly.
Bounty notices appeared across outer regions. Rogue cultivators sharpened their blades. Sect disciples whispered a single name spoken with disbelief.
A Qi Condensation ant.
Marked by Heaven.
Unaware of this, Li Chen finally stood.
His body was ruined cracked bones, damaged meridians, unstable Qi. Yet something within him had hardened further. The Heaven's Mark pulsed once, as if aware of his resolve.
Li Chen shouldered his pack and began to walk.
Every step hurt.
Every breath burned.
But his eyes were calm.
"Heaven has marked me," he murmured to the storm. "Good."
Rain washed blood from his clothes as he descended the mountain, moving toward lands where cultivators gathered and where enemies would come without end.
If Heaven wanted a calamity
Then he would become one.