Last Days on the Mountain
Lucen stood at the edge of the training yard, the orange of his kāṣāya robe catching the morning sun. His body had grown—broad shoulders, defined arms, sharp eyes that seemed to always be calculating something unseen.
But despite the strength, he was quiet. Focused.
The monks noticed. He no longer spoke much during meals. He trained alone. Meditated longer. The fire inside him hadn't left—it had simply learned to wait.
> "Lucen," Eshun said one morning, "the body matures before the spirit. But never forget—fire that hides is still fire."
Lucen nodded. Half-understood. Half-didn't want to.
---
The Farewell
His last day at the hill school came quietly.
No graduation. No celebration. Just a packed cloth bag, a prayer, and one final lesson written in Eshun's hand:
> "Whatever you do… stay in your self-control. The moment you let the world define your flame, you lose it. Be its master, or it masters you."
Lucen didn't say goodbye. He never liked endings.
---
City of Temptations
The city was alive.
Too alive.
Billboards screaming light. Music bleeding from every corner. People brushing past him without looking. Streets buzzing with pleasure, pain, deals, lies, noise.
He found a small apartment above a grimy convenience store. No heating. One bed. One sink.
It felt like a cage. He liked it.
He got two part-time jobs. One delivering food. One cleaning in a game center.
He wore grey hoodies now. Jeans. No one knew he could split stone with his hands.
---
The Taste of Chaos
One night, his coworker said, "Come out, bro. Chill for once. Party at Neon Alley. Real fun. Girls. Music. Life."
Lucen almost said no. Almost.
But when he stepped into the club—he saw it:
lust, pride, greed, wrath—all dancing in color.
Teenagers drinking poison like water. Some fighting. Others grinding on strangers.
Lucen stood there, stone-faced… until he saw a rich kid pushing pills to a homeless girl.
That fire—it flickered again.
His hand tightened.
> "Stay in your self-control…"
He left before he burned the whole place down.
---
Atop the Rooftop
That night, Lucen sat on the rooftop of his building. The city blinked below like a broken machine.
> "Is this the world I was born to save… or to end?"
He didn't have an answer.
But in the cold wind, he remembered Raa.
He remembered not killing.
He remembered choice.
He breathed. Deep. Still.
> "Not yet. Not tonight."
---
END OF CHAPTER 3
Next Chapter:- CHAPTER 4: THE BREAKING POINT