Years passed, and the once fragile newborn of the Tian family grew into a bright and lively child.
Tian Shen was unlike any other. From the moment he could walk, the world seemed to move differently around him. When he laughed, the wind carried his voice farther than any child's should; when he cried, even the birds fell silent.
Though Tian Yu and Mei Lin treated him with love and care, there was always a quiet unease in their eyes—a fear of the unknown. The night of his birth still haunted them.
---
By the time Tian Shen turned five, his mind was sharper than his peers, and his body unusually strong. The clan elders often whispered among themselves:
> "The patriarch's son… his Qi feels ancient, like it doesn't belong to this world."
One evening, while playing in the courtyard, Tian Shen stared at the family's ancestral altar—the same place where lightning had struck years ago. His small hand reached out to touch the old, charred stones.
The moment his fingers brushed the surface, symbols shimmered to life—runes glowing faintly gold and black.
Tian Shen froze, eyes widening. "Pretty lights…" he whispered.
Suddenly, the markings crawled up his arm like streams of liquid energy, vanishing beneath his skin. His pupils shifted briefly—half gold, half black—before returning to normal.
From afar, a servant saw the faint glow but assumed it was a trick of the dusk.
That night, Tian Shen dreamed.
He stood in an endless void. Stars flickered around him, forming rivers of light. Ahead of him, a vast shadow loomed—a figure seated upon a throne of swirling chaos.
Its voice was deep, ancient, and gentle all at once.
> "You've finally awakened… a fragment of me."
Tian Shen's young mind couldn't comprehend the words, yet something inside him trembled. The shadow raised a hand, and a mark—an intricate spiral of gold and black—appeared on Tian Shen's chest.
> "When the time comes, you will remember."
The void shattered.
Tian Shen woke with a gasp, clutching his chest. The mark glowed faintly before fading. He sat there, trembling, unable to explain the dream to anyone.
---
As months passed, strange things began to happen around him.
Plants would bloom overnight wherever he walked.
Wild animals grew docile in his presence.
And sometimes, when angered, a faint pulse of power rippled from his body, bending the air around him.
Tian Yu soon realized his son was not merely gifted—he was blessed… or perhaps cursed.
The family elders began urging him to send Tian Shen to a sect for cultivation training.
But the patriarch hesitated. He knew the world was not kind to those marked by the heavens. "No," he told them firmly. "Until I understand what power lies within my son, he will stay here—under my protection."
Still, even Tian Yu could not guard him forever.
---
That same night, as Tian Shen gazed at the stars from his window, the Wheel of Fate once again trembled in the celestial realm.
The Primordial of Time frowned, feeling the shift. "The thread grows stronger… his fate is beginning to intertwine with the sealed one's essence."
From the depths of the void, the shadow stirred—its faint laughter echoing through countless realms.
> "Grow, my little vessel. The heavens will not ignore you for long."
And far below, the child of the Tian family continued to gaze at the stars—unaware that his destiny had already begun to unfold.