The sky over Easthaven burned red at dawn.
Thunder cracked across the city like the roar of a beast, even though there were no clouds — just a heatwave twisting the air into mirages. Atop a distant rooftop, Jayden stood motionless, his eyes locked on a towering obsidian complex that rose like a scar from the earth.
The Merciless Pavilion.
It was more than a sect. More than a fortress. It was a cult built on pain.
And somewhere inside, the man who'd murdered Lian's brother and vanished with one of the Forbidden Core Fragments was hiding.
Jayden's fists clenched at his sides.
He had already awakened one Dragon Meridian. The power within him now stirred like a restless storm.
But the Pavilion… it wasn't just going to be a fight.
It would be a massacre.
Earlier That Morning
Isla's sanctuary buzzed with nervous energy. Lian was upright again, still healing but masked with resolve. She laid out a hand-drawn floor plan of the Pavilion's known structure.
"Seven levels," she said. "Top tier is the core hall. That's where the fragment is kept—inside the Pavilion Master's throne."
"His name?" Jayden asked, his voice low.
"Dorian Grimm," Isla said. "Former cultivator of the Azure Wolf Clan. Banished for forbidden techniques. Took root in the Pavilion and built an empire of pain."
Jayden nodded. "And what about the guards?"
"They're not guards," Lian said coldly. "They're disciples of agony. The higher they rank, the more pain they've endured… and survived."
Jayden's eyes narrowed. "So if I cause them more pain, I break their minds."
"Or they enjoy it," Isla said. "Either way, go for the pressure points."
Jayden cracked his neck.
Time to test his acupuncture mastery.
Level One – The Blood Gate
The Pavilion's entrance was a maw of black stone teeth. Two disciples in crimson robes blocked the path, wielding glaives pulsing with chi.
Jayden didn't slow down.
He stepped into their range—and in one breath, he vanished.
Blink Step.
His form reappeared behind them, two needles flicked from his fingers. The silver threads pierced both men's necks at precise angles.
They dropped instantly.
Not dead. But locked in a state between pain and sleep.
Jayden stepped over them, murmuring, "Meridian Sleep Seal. First try."
He kept walking.
Level Two – The Agony Stair
Here, the stairway itself tested intruders. Each step was a chi-forged plate inscribed with emotional wounds.
As Jayden ascended, memories clawed at him.
His mother crying alone in the rain.
His father's empty chair at the dinner table.
The day he found his name scratched off the academy list.
Each memory tried to break his stride.
Jayden stopped halfway.
Took a deep breath.
And then summoned the chi flame in his body.
His Dragon Meridian ignited. Light flared from his core, wrapping him in a golden aura. The illusions burned away like smoke.
He kept walking, each footstep forging a new imprint of his will.
At the top of the stairs, he found a disciple waiting—arms covered in ritual scars, eyes white from self-blinding.
"Turn back," the disciple croaked. "Pain is purity."
Jayden didn't reply.
He pressed two fingers to his own wrist—and fired a needle through the air.
It hit the disciple's heart meridian. The man dropped, convulsing in silence.
"Pain is practice," Jayden whispered, stepping over him.
Level Three – The Iron Choir
Chains hung from the ceiling. Hundreds of them.
Each one held a disciple upside down, their mouths sewn shut, their eyes wide open. Silent witnesses to cruelty.
Jayden moved through them, ignoring the whispers in his mind.
One of the chains snapped.
A figure fell from above—a Pavilion monk wrapped in barbed silk, blades fused to his forearms.
He launched at Jayden mid-air.
Jayden spun, sidestepped, and struck the monk's elbow with a chi-empowered palm.
CRACK.
Dislocation.
The monk hissed and twisted for another strike.
Jayden stepped in close and jabbed an acupuncture needle into the man's temple.
Neural Sever Point.
The monk dropped like a sack of bone and fury.
Jayden kept walking, breathing steadily. "Second attempt. Clean."
Level Four – The Chamber of Echoes
Here, Jayden was ambushed by four disciples — twins wielding iron fans, a brute with meteor hammers, and a bald woman who floated without touching the ground.
They attacked as one.
Jayden dodged the first fan strike, caught the second, and redirected it into the brute's chest. The hammers came down—he leapt, using one disciple's face as a springboard, flipping over the group.
Midair, he released three needles—one to the brute's spine, one to the floating woman's shoulder, and one into the eye of a fan-wielder.
Three strikes. Three screams.
Jayden landed, turned, and deflected the last fan with his bare arm.
The needle embedded in his own forearm glowed—Pain Suppression Seal.
He didn't flinch.
By the time Jayden reached Level Six, his shirt was torn, his arms streaked with blood, and his eyes burned with golden fire.
He was no longer sneaking.
He was tearing through the ranks.
He was the storm.
Level Seven – The Core Hall
At the top, he found Dorian Grimm sitting upon a jagged throne, surrounded by smoke and statues of writhing bodies.
He looked like a king of nightmares.
"Ah," Dorian said. "So the child of Nathaniel comes home."
Jayden's breath caught. "You knew my father?"
"Knew him? Boy, I trained beside him. Watched him ascend. Watched him abandon us all."
Jayden's fists clenched. "He didn't abandon anyone."
Dorian stood. "Then where is he now? Dead? Lost? Or did he finally learn what true power costs?"
A fire stirred in Jayden's chest.
Dorian raised a single black-gloved hand—and the Forbidden Core Fragment rose from behind the throne, encased in a swirling prism of energy.
"You want this?" he asked.
Jayden didn't answer.
He charged.
The battle was not like the others.
Dorian moved like a phantom—his strikes unnatural, his chi blackened with corruption.
Jayden's needles bounced off his skin.
He had to switch tactics.
He used the First Dragon Stance—looping his chi into a spiral, blasting forward with a punch that cracked the marble.
Dorian countered with a palm strike that sent Jayden flying into a pillar.
Pain shot through his ribs.
Jayden coughed blood—but smiled.
"Thanks," he muttered. "Now I can use this."
He ripped open the scroll on his back—revealing the Second Dragon Stance: Flame Spiral Rebirth.
The glyphs ignited in the air.
Jayden's aura erupted.
His body glowed.
He launched forward again, faster this time. He ducked under Dorian's blade, surged in, and drove a needle straight into the man's heart gate.
For a second, Dorian laughed.
Then his body locked.
Jayden's chi burned through the needle—and with a burst of golden light, Dorian's corrupted chi snapped.
The Forbidden Core Fragment dropped.
Jayden caught it.
As he stood above the broken throne, breathing heavily, he heard a voice echo in his mind.
Not Dorian's.
Not Isla's.
Not even his own.
"Two fragments remain… and the dragon remembers."
Jayden turned to the skyline of Easthaven.
One fragment down.
Two to go.
And still—his father's fate hung just out of reach.
But the Dragon was waking.
And nothing would stop it now.