Lin Tianhan awoke moments before sunrise.The world outside was drenched in cold mist, the village silent as though holding its breath after the previous night's terror. Yet Tianhan felt no peace—only the pulse of something foreign, alive, and awake inside his right palm.
He lifted his hand toward the dim predawn light.
The thin black mark upon his palm was clearer now—not a line,but a narrow fissure,as though something beneath the skin wished to push its way out.
He flexed his fingers slowly—and his hand spasmed violently, muscles twitching with a will not entirely his own.
A tremor passed down his spine.
If I don't tame this… it will consume me.
He remembered a lesson his father once taught him as a child:
"A man who cannot command his own body… will eventually be ruled by a power that isn't his."
Those words felt heavier now than ever.
Tianhan stepped outside.The sun had not yet risen, but a pale twilight clung to the sky, and the fog covered the fields like drifting spirits.
He stood before a thick tree trunk.Then he raised his right hand and focused every thread of awareness on the dark mark.
"I need to know…Is this power mine?Or is something else trying to control me?"
He spoke into the silence—but it was more a dialogue with the thing in his blood than with himself.
His fingers trembled.The fissure pulsed.And once more… the black claws slid from his fingertips.
But this time, the frenzy was absent.The movement was smoother, calmer—obedient.
A whisper echoed within him:
"Test it… release it…"
Tianhan clenched his jaw, stepped forward—and thrust his hand into the tree.
The result was devastating.
The thick trunk split cleanly in two.
Not cracked.Not dented.Split—as if carved by a dozen blades in a single instant.
Slabs of wood fell to the earth with crisp thuds, the sound far too sharp for dawn's quiet air.
Tianhan stepped back, staring.
His hand shook.His heart pounded.But for the first time since this nightmare began…he felt no fear.
If I can control this power… it will become my path.
As he studied his palm, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.
Tianhan spun around.
A thin, silver-haired old man stood at the edge of the mist.One of the wandering cultivators who only visited the village a few times a year.His gray eyes held decades of experience—and a quiet weight of someone who had seen more than he wished.
The old man said softly:
"I have seen claws like those… decades ago."
Tianhan's body froze.
"What do you know about them?"
The old man let out a bitter, knowing smile.
"There exists a rare type of cultivator…They call them bearers of the inner demon.Their power appears before they even begin the path of cultivation.A strength rooted in instinct, not technique.A force that grows with blood…and becomes feral in danger."
He stepped closer, staring at the mark on Tianhan's palm.
His voice dropped to a warning whisper:
"But they are rare for a reason.Most of them… die before they ever mature."
Tianhan's expression hardened.
"Why?"
"Because the power inside you," the old man said gravely,"will one day turn on you if you fail to subdue it."
It was a harsh truth—yet Tianhan did not react with surprise.
It was as if he had already expected it.
"How do I control it?"
The old man laughed—a dry, broken sound.
"There is no clear method.But there are three rules:
First: Do not use it in every fight. Let it ripen slowly.Second: Do not suppress it with brute force. Try to understand it.Third: Do not let it speak more than it already does."
Tianhan stiffened.
"You… know it talks?"
The old man's eyes gleamed sharply.
"So it has begun already.That is… not good."
He stepped back as if afraid to stand too close.
"Listen carefully, boy.This is a great power.A power that can alter the fate of an entire clan.But if you lose control… nothing will remain of you except a beast that hunts only blood."
He hesitated, then added:
"Soon… the second mark will appear.And if it comes before you are ready…your collapse will begin."
He leaned in and whispered coldly into Tianhan's ear:
"When the second claw appears…do not allow yourself to be alone."
Then he vanished into the fog—as silently as he had arrived.
Tianhan remained still, staring at his trembling hand and the pulsing mark upon it.
A cold breeze carried the faint whisper inside him once more:
"The first claw… is only the beginning."
At the northern edge of the forest, the strange man who had watched Tianhan days earlier now observed from afar.
His inhuman, glowing eyes tracked the village with predatory calm.
"Good… very good…The first claw has awakened."
A slow, cruel smile formed on his lips.
"Soon… the world beneath it will shatter."
And he vanished.
Back in the village, Tianhan stared at his right hand once more—but this time, in his eyes burned a determination that had never existed before.
"If this is my power…then I will make it my weapon.Not my prison."
He lifted his head—and watched the first rays of the sun rise over the misty fields, gilding the world in a new, fierce light.
It felt as though heaven and earth themselves were blessing the beginning of a new path.
The path of Blood Cultivation.The dawn of the Crimson Clan.The birth of the Demon of Claws.