He twisted on instinct, slashing furiously. His qi flared—wind snarled with raw heat—grazing the beast’s flank, charring scales with a hiss.


    “Azure Dawn deserter,” the leader sneered, eyeing Lian’s tattered blue rags, the symbolic golden sun crest faded.Wow, the irony of it; he unlocks a powerful reaping skill, and he wouldn''t live to use it.


    Then the air thickened—green mist unfurled from the shadows, coiling like roots torn from blighted earth.


    The cloaked figure stepped from the gloom, green qi simmering low, hood a void of shadow. He seized Lian’s arm—firm, unyielding—and the world warped, gully dissolving in a swirl of green and black.At least he was still breathing. He looked around. A fractured dome arched overhead, sky split into shards of grey and violet. At the centre, a pool of liquid silver rippled, flanked by black stone roots veined with faint green—relics with art styles of the Empire in its golden age.


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    The figure released him, voice coarse as rusted iron. “Your essence runs wild—crude, loud. Wield it, or it’ll tear you apart.”


    Lian lurched back, steel shaky. “Why did you help me out there? Who are you? Where... am I?”


    “Names can wait. For now, you only need to know this place as The Shadow Realm.” The figure paced, qi flaring—green thorns spiked briefly, then dissolved.


    Lian’s ribs ached, qi churning—hot, chaotic, a storm clawing his insides. “Tame it? I need to run—” No way out. Having no choice, he sat cross legged by the pool, the silver a cool relief to the fiery qi churning within him, and tried to channel the qi like his senior had taught him back in the Azure Dawn training camps.


    The figure’s hood tilted. “The qi is significantly weaker, but it yours.” He knelt, pressing a palm to Lian’s chest—green qi seeped in, cool and sharp, knitting torn flesh.


    Lian gripped the shard, words catching—“Who''s them? The factions?—”—but green mist spiralled, the hollow folding away. He landed hard on mossy earth, tumbling into a forest—pines towered, bark gouged by old qi storms, air thick with sap and whispers of a world unmoored.