The hyperjet streaked northward at Mach 10, its cloaking shields flickering as rogue qi currents lashed the atmosphere. Lin Tian ignored the holographic damage reports, his focus split between the jade pendant's whispers and the encrypted data stream from Dr. Xia Qingyue.
*"—confirmed the Dragon's Vein isn't a metaphor. It's a literal network of qi converging beneath our Arctic vault. Your family has been siphoning it for centuries to dominate the mundane world. Now it's… retaliating."*
Luo Mei stiffened beside him as the doctor's voice purred through the cockpit, smoky and amused despite the apocalypse unfolding. *"Oh, and Tian'er? Don't bother with conventional weapons. The rules have changed. Even your little bodyguard is now a walking nuclear reactor."*
Lin Tian silenced the feed. "Status on Beijing?"
Luo Mei's fingers danced over the holoscreen, her silver qi threads—visible only to him—coiling anxiously. "Satellite imagery shows the compound surrounded by a… *forest* of crystalline structures. Energy signatures match your grandfather's last transmission."
"The cousin?"
"Already there. She's holding the southern gate." A flicker of disdain. "She claims it's 'good sword practice.'"
Lin Tian snorted. *Of course.* Cousin Ling had been insufferable ever since she'd traded her MIT robotics PhD for a "spiritual journey" with eccentric swordmasters. Now, it seemed her delusions were useful.
A proximity alarm blared. Luo Mei cursed. "Something's on the tail—no, *inside* the engines!"
The hyperjet shuddered. Lin Tian's golden meridians flared as he *felt* it—a corrosive presence gnawing at the machinery, its qi stinking of rust and rot.
"Stay." He unbuckled his harness.
"Sir, the radiation levels—"
"You're glowing, Mei. Radiation's the least of our problems."
The cargo hold reeked of burnt wiring. There, crouched atop the starboard engine, was a creature out of cybernetic nightmares—half-human, half-machine, its flesh fused with molten circuitry. The family insignia on its tattered uniform marked it as one of their own engineers.
"Zhao Kang," Lin Tian murmured. Three days ago, this man had calibrated his hyperjet's thrusters. Now, his eyes were lidless pools of liquid mercury, qi spiking in erratic bursts.
*"Young… Master…"* The thing that was Zhao Kang lunged, claws crackling with unstable energy.
Lin Tian sidestepped, the pendant's heat guiding his movements. His palm struck the creature's chest, golden light erupting in a torrent. Zhao Kang screamed—not in pain, but *relief*—as the corruption purged from his veins. The man collapsed, human again, qi threads now a placid blue.
*I can cleanse the mutations,* Lin Tian realized, staring at his hands. *But only if I reach them in time.*
Luo Mei's voice boomed through the intercom. "Incoming call from New York. It's… complicated."
Back in the cockpit, the holoscreen fizzed with static. A girl who looked no older than sixteen lounged in a neon-lit server farm, her pastel-pink hair glowing with bioluminescent qi. Dozens of drones hovered around her like mechanical fireflies.
"Sup, cuz!" Lin Xue winked, crunching a handful of quantum chips like popcorn. "Heard you're playing superhero while the world ends. Cute."
Lin Tian massaged his temple. "The firewalls?"
"Already down. The good news? I've hacked the mutated qi signatures. Bad news?" Her smile vanished. "Someone's weaponizing the energy. There's a 68.9% chance it's the Americans, 31% the Russians, and 0.1%… something older."
The screen split, showing a subterranean lab beneath Mount Kunlun—a facility even Lin Tian didn't recognize. Hooded figures chanted around a pulsing vein of golden qi, their robes embroidered with a familiar dragon motif.
*The Lin Family's symbol.*
"Those aren't our people," Lin Tian growled.
"Nope!" Xue chirped. "But they're using our infrastructure. Also, they kinda… *expect you?*"
The feed cut as the hyperjet plunged into Beijing's airspace.
Chaos unfolded below. The city's fusion reactors lay in ruins, replaced by colossal qi crystals jutting from the earth like fangs. The Lin Family compound—a fortress blending ancient pagodas with plasma turrets—was besieged by winged creatures with human faces and scorpion tails.
Yet amid the carnage, a lone figure danced.
Cousin Ling.
Her sword—a relic from the Tang Dynasty, once dismissed as a decorative trophy—now hummed with aquamarine qi. She moved like poetry, each strike precise, each pirouette clearing swathes of monsters. When she spotted the descending hyperjet, she grinned and carved a flaming character into the air: *慢* ("Slow").
"Still dramatic as ever," Lin Tian muttered.
Luo Mei readied her pistol, her silver qi condensing around the barrel. "The Patriarch's chamber is underground. We'll need to—"
*Bang.*
The hyperjet's window cracked as a bullet *froze* mid-air, encased in glittering ice. Outside, standing atop a floating shard of qi crystal, was a woman in a tattered lab coat. Dr. Xia Qingyue. Her hair swirled like liquid nitrogen, eyes twin black voids.
"Hello, heir." Her voice echoed with glacial harmonics. "Took you long enough."
Lin Tian's pendant burned. *This woman is dangerous,* it whispered. *But she holds the key to the Dragon's Vein.*
He met her gaze. "You work for my family."
"Worked." She floated closer, the air freezing around her. "Now? I'd rather play with the end of the world. Unless…" Her frostbitten lips curved. "…you can stop me?"
Luo Mei fired.
The bullet disintegrated. Xia Qingyue laughed, a sound like breaking glaciers, and unleashed a blizzard of corrupted qi.
Lin Tian reacted instinctively. Golden light erupted from his meridians, forming a shield that hissed against the darkness. For a heartbeat, their energies clashed—ancient lineage versus chaotic ambition—until the hyperjet's alarms screamed.
"Hull breach!" Luo Mei yanked him back as the cockpit cracked open, Beijing's howling winds swallowing Xia Qingyue's parting words:
*"Find me when you're ready to see the truth… husband."*
The hyperjet crash-landed in the compound's courtyard. Lin Tian rolled to his feet, qi roaring through him, only to freeze at the sight of his grandfather.
The Patriarch stood atop the ancestral shrine, unharmed but *changed*. Crimson scales glinted beneath his skin, his aura radiating primordial authority. Behind him, the earth split open, revealing a glowing river of golden qi—the Dragon's Vein.
"Tian'er." The Patriarch's voice shook the battlefield. "Kneel."
The command carried the weight of centuries. Lin Tian's knees buckled, his golden qi dimming under the Patriarch's oppressive aura.
*No.*
He forced his head up, veins ablaze. "What… have you done?"
"What our lineage was born to do." The Patriarch raised a clawed hand. "But you're not ready. Not yet."
A whip of dragon-shaped qi struck Lin Tian's chest.
He woke hours later in the family vault, his body aching but cleansed of Xia Qingyue's corruption. Luo Mei bandaged his wounds, her silver qi intertwining with his gold. Cousin Ling polished her sword nearby, while Lin Xue's hologram flickered above a terminal, crunching data.
"Welcome back," Ling smirked. "Grandpa's gone full villain, the hacker's addicted to qi-infused code, and your doctor girlfriend turned the Arctic into a winter wonderland."
Xue blew a bubble of qi-infused gum. "Also, you're trending. #WorldSaviorLinTian. Hashtag desperate."
Lin Tian stood, testing his restored power. The vault's mirrors reflected his eyes—now slitted like a dragon's.
"The Patriarch's controlling the Dragon's Vein," he said. "We take it back."
Luo Mei frowned. "He's too strong."
"Which is why," Lin Tian grabbed the jade pendant, now fused to his chest, "we don't fight him alone. Xue—find Xia Qingyue. Ling—rally the family's survivors. Mei…" He paused, noticing her qi threads clinging to his arm. "…stay close."
As they dispersed, Lin Tian approached the vault's deepest chamber. Behind a door sealed with blood runes pulsed the source of their power—and their curse.
Time to rewrite the rules, he thought, and stepped into the light.