If anyone had told me hours earlier that the sky would rip open and my clan would fall before midnight, I would've laughed.
Now, standing in the shattered courtyard, blood burning behind my eyes, I realized how stupid that laughter would've been.
The world had changed. I had changed.
The man I'd struck was still choking on the collapse of his own Qi as I staggered backward, vision flickering between normal sight and the strange web of glowing threads overlaying everything. Every heartbeat sent another spike of pain through my skull, as if my eyes were being forged in a furnace.
But even through the agony, the world was sharper than it had any right to be.
The masked leader stepped forward, the porcelain eye on his forehead seeming to blink with the shifting light.
"A premature awakening," he murmured. "Crude… unstable… but genuine."
His voice washed over the courtyard like cold water. I forced myself upright, wiping more blood from my face. My hands shook violently, but I clenched them into fists until the trembling stopped.
My father saw me. Even locked in combat with two Pavilion assassins, he still saw me.
"Jian! Run!"
"I'm trying!" I shouted back, voice cracking.
It wasn't bravery keeping me rooted. It was confusion. And pain. And the overwhelming, impossible sight that had changed how I perceived everything.
But most of all, it was the masked leader's gaze.
"Do not let the vessel escape," he commanded.
Three cloaked figures turned toward me at once.
Threads of crimson light wound around their bodies, pulsing in steady rhythm. Weaknesses glowed faintly, tiny cracks in their Qi flow, small imperfections near the shoulders, ribs, wrists.
I saw them all. Too many at once.
My vision blurred under the overload.
I stumbled backward as one assassin blurred toward me. He moved fast far faster than I could normally react to. But that strange perception flared again, outlining the path he intended to take.
A heartbeat too soon.
A heartbeat I needed.
I threw myself sideways.
A blade of condensed Qi carved through the air where my throat had been.
I hit the ground hard and rolled, barely dodging the second strike. The courtyard spun around me. In the distance, my father unleashed a burst of silver Qi that shattered the stone under his feet.
The Pavilion assassins surrounding him staggered.
"Longwei Jian! Move!" he roared.
My body obeyed before my mind did. I scrambled toward a side walkway that led to the ancestral hall. If I could reach it, maybe I could lose them among the pillars.
A violent pressure slammed into the ground in front of me.
A surge of red Qi tore through the stone tiles, sending shards exploding outward. The shockwave threw me off my feet. I skidded across the courtyard, skin scraping raw, the air knocked from my lungs.
When I looked up, the masked leader was standing only twenty paces away.
The space between us twisted threads of crimson and black spiraling around him like an aura.
"You cannot escape child," he said.
"I'm not… trying to be caught."
Blood trickled into my mouth as I pushed myself up again. My legs shook, but they held.
My heart hammered so loudly it was hard to think. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but every time I looked away, the masked leader's presence dragged my gaze back to him like gravity.
He raised a hand.
Threads of Qi condensed into a spear of red light.
Even before he moved, I saw it the faint shift of intent, the thread tightening that marked where the strike would land.
He thrust the spear forward.
I leapt aside with desperation more than skill. The spear carved a deep trench in the courtyard, heat washing over me like the breath of a furnace.
I landed badly, knees buckling, but I stayed on my feet.
The masked leader actually paused.
"…Interesting," he said. "You adapt quickly."
"Please," I panted. "I've been running from lectures my whole life. You aren't the worst thing chasing me."
His head tilted slightly.
"Defiance," he murmured. "The first sign of instability. Demon Eyes always resist divine authority."
"And you talk too much," I muttered.
Pain pulsed behind my eyes again… sharp, insistent. The threads in the world flickered. For a moment, I saw everything with painful clarity, the assassins circling me, the fractures in their Qi flow, the points where their meridians twisted, and the faint hesitation in their footing.
But even as I saw it, darkness crept into the edges of my vision.
My awakening wasn't stable.
My sight was opening too fast.
I didn't have time to learn it, I was drowning in it.
One assassin lunged from the right. His blade swept for my ribs. Another came from the left, a palm strike glowing with killing intent.
I saw their weaknesses.
But my body, my body couldn't keep up.
I twisted away from the blade, but not fast enough. It sliced across my side, hot pain tearing through flesh. My breath hitched. The second assassin's palm slammed into my shoulder, sending me tumbling across the ground.
I rolled onto my back, clutching my side. Warm blood seeped through my fingers.
The assassins closed in around me.
And something inside me snapped.
Not like this.
I forced myself upright, vision swimming.
"Get away from my son!"
My father's voice thundered across the courtyard.
He broke through the circle of assassins restraining him, silver Qi exploding outward in a violent wave. Two Pavilion members were sent flying into nearby pillars. My father staggered but stayed standing, sword raised.
His eyes burned with fury and fear.
"Jian! Run to the ancestral hall! Go!"
"I'm trying!" I shouted again.
The masked leader lifted a hand.
A ripple of red light spread through the courtyard. My father froze mid-step fighting it, struggling against chains only he could feel.
The masked leader turned his palm toward me.
"Enough."
Invisible force slammed into my chest.
I flew backward, crashing into the side of a shattered pillar. Pain splintered through my back and ribs. I slid to the ground, coughing blood.
My father roared, but the assassins surged on him again.
I couldn't watch him fall.
I couldn't.
I forced my eyes open.
The world was a blur of blood and light, but the threads were still there. The assassin closest to me stepped forward.
His Qi threads vibrated flickering, unstable.
I reached out with what little Qi I could gather.
My hand touched his wrist.
A pulse of red light erupted from my eyes.
The assassin convulsed.
For a moment, I felt his Qi flow wild, tangled, fragile. A network of weaknesses stretched across his arm like cracks in glass. Instinct guided me. I twisted his wrist sharply.
A thread snapped.
The assassin's meridian ruptured. He collapsed, screaming, clutching his arm as his Qi imploded inward.
I didn't wait. I stumbled to my feet and forced my legs to obey. I ran, not gracefully, not quickly, but desperately toward the ancestral hall's side entrance.
Another assassin lunged to intercept me.
I slid beneath his strike, barely avoiding the arc of his blade. My wounded side screamed in protest. I pushed past the pain. The ancestral hall was only a dozen paces away now.
Almost…
A wall of pressure slammed down in front of me.
The masked leader appeared between me and the hall, his stride unhurried.
He raised his hand to strike.
But before he could, a flare of silver Qi streaked between us.
My father.
He swung his blade in a desperate arc aimed at the leader's neck.
The masked leader caught the blade with two fingers.
Two.
My father's eyes widened.
"Your devotion is admirable," the leader said softly. "But futile."
A pulse of energy blasted outward. My father was thrown back, crashing hard into the courtyard stones.
"Father!"
I started forward without thinking.
Pain exploded behind my eyes again, forcing my steps to falter. The masked leader turned toward me.
"Your awakening is incomplete," he said. "Your body is failing already. You will come with us, willingly or not."
I shook my head, forcing my breathing steady.
"No."
A pause.
"No?" the leader echoed, almost amused.
"I'm not going anywhere with you." My voice shook but held. "I see you now. All of you."
My vision flickered—threads brightening, dimming, stabilizing again.
"And I'll never forget what I've seen tonight."
Warm blood dripped from my eyes.
The masked leader tilted his head.
"You are not strong enough to defy heaven."
I met his gaze.
"Not yet."
For the first time, something in his calm expression shifted.
Annoyance? Amusement? I couldn't tell.
He raised his hand to strike again but a violent tremor tore through the courtyard.
A massive burst of silver Qi erupted from the far side, cracking the earth and knocking several assassins off balance.
My father was rising again.
Barely. Shaking. Bleeding heavily.
But rising.
"Jian… go!" he roared.
His voice carried a command that hit deeper than sound.
My legs moved.
The masked leader stepped forward, but another explosion of silver Qi forced him to halt. My father's blade shone like a dying star, its light flickering against the crimson darkness.
I used that opening.
I ran.
I didn't look back. I couldn't not without breaking.
The ancestral hall door loomed ahead. I crashed through it, slamming it behind me, chest heaving. My blood marked my path with every step.
Behind the door, the courtyard shook again.
Someone screamed.
Someone else laughed.
Something shattered.
I leaned back against the cool wood, gasping for breath, my vision swimming.
Everything hurt.
Everything burned.
Everything changed.
But one truth had been etched into me as clearly as the threads of fate I'd glimpsed, I will remember this night. I will remember the faces. I will remember the flaws.
Heaven could mark me as a vessel.
The Pavilion could hunt me.
The masked man could call himself divine.
But they would learn something in time.
Nothing is flawless. Not heaven. Not fate. Not them.
And one day, I would break the sky open myself.