The forest breeze brushed Jin's face as he sat cross-legged beneath a towering ironwood tree, his shirt tattered, his hair grown wild, and his eyes burning with purpose. The morning sun pierced through the canopy, casting golden shards of light upon his battered figure. Birds chirped in the distance, but to Jin, they were echoes—reminders that time had not stopped, even if his world had.
He had been reborn.
Now, he needed to understand what he had become.
Jin closed his eyes and dove inward once more. His spiritual world was no longer the barren, dim cavern it once was. Now it glowed with power. His dantian was a spinning vortex of elemental energy, with four bright cores orbiting within: fire, wind, water, and earth. Each pulsed in harmony, like planets drawn into the gravity of a single sun.
High-grade talent in all four elements…
He still struggled to believe it. Once, he had been just another examinee—nothing remarkable. He remembered the stares of disappointment after his fire affinity was revealed, even though it was rare for someone his age to awaken any elemental affinity at all.
But now?
Now he could summon the four primal forces as easily as breathing.
He exhaled and shifted his focus to his physical body. What he found there astonished him further.
His muscles were denser, layered with strength far beyond what he'd ever cultivated. His bones, once brittle and cracked, now hummed with vitality. The pathways of his body cultivation sparkled like veins of liquid steel. He recognized the patterns—the Initiate Realm—an early stage, but far stronger than the average cultivator his age.
Then, his soul.
This was the strangest of all.
A sphere of light floated deep within his consciousness, layered in translucent energy. Jin approached it slowly, cautiously. The dark orb's presence lingered near it, no longer active but undeniably fused to his spirit.
Was it a parasite?
A guardian?
He couldn't tell. It didn't seem malevolent, but its origin was far beyond his comprehension. Still, it had saved him. He owed his life to it, even if it came at a price yet unknown.
Jin opened his eyes, the physical world returning in a rush.
He stood, slowly flexing his arms, testing his balance, then with a swift motion, summoned a fireball to his palm. It burned hot, much stronger than anything he had conjured before. With a flick of his wrist, he doused it in a swirl of water and shaped it into a cutting blade of wind, before crashing it into the earth beside him.
A clean fissure split the stone.
Jin stared at it, breath shallow.
He was no longer a failure.
No longer disposable.
No longer helpless.
But he couldn't return yet. Not until he understood the full extent of his new powers… and not until he was ready to face Elder Varek.
That man tried to erase me like a speck of dust, Jin thought bitterly. But now I'm the storm he didn't see coming.
He didn't know how the world would react to his return. He didn't care. He had no allies, no sect elders to vouch for him, no powerful backing. He was alone.
But that suited him just fine.
He walked to a stream nearby, his reflection rippling across the water. The boy who had once bowed his head in shame during the affinity test was gone. What remained was someone different—someone forged in pain, tempered in betrayal, and reborn in mystery.
He would walk his path alone.
For now.
Jin dipped his hand into the water, the chill grounding him.
"Varek," he said softly, tasting the name like venom. "No matter how long it takes, no matter what I become, I will destroy you."
The vow echoed across the forest, carried by the wind.
As Jin turned from the stream, the forest seemed to hush around him, as though even nature itself recognized the awakening of something far more dangerous than before.
And so, he stepped forward—into the unknown, into power, into destiny.
The flame of vengeance blazed in his heart.
The genius who had been buried was now reborn.