The rain fell in sheets, each drop like a needle against Luo Tian's broken body. He dragged himself through the mud, blood mixing with rainwater, his breath ragged. Behind him, the laughter of his half-brother, Luo Feng, echoed like a taunting spirit.
"Pathetic. Did you really think Father would ever acknowledge a failure like you?"
A boot slammed into Luo Tian's ribs, and he felt something crack. Another kick, another snap of bone. His vision blurred, but he refused to scream. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
"Throw him into the Abyss Gorge," Feng ordered, his voice dripping with disdain. "Let the beasts finish what we started."
Luo Tian felt hands grab him, then the sickening sensation of falling. The world spun, darkness swallowing him whole.
He woke to pain.
Not the dull, throbbing pain of broken bones, but something sharper—something alive.
A blue glow pulsed in the darkness, emanating from a strange metallic sphere half-buried in the dirt. It hummed, vibrating as if sensing his presence. Before he could react, it shot toward him, embedding itself in his chest.
Agony.
Fire raced through his veins, his body convulsing as something foreign—something mechanical—invaded him. His shattered bones knit themselves back together. His ruined meridians, once useless, flared to life with an eerie blue light.
[SYSTEM REBOOTING.]
[HOST IDENTIFIED: LUO TIAN.]
[NANOTECH INTEGRATION COMPLETE.]
A voice—cold, calculating—spoke inside his mind.
"What… what are you?" Luo Tian gasped, clutching his chest.
[I AM ECHO. A WEAPON OF THE LOST SKY EMPIRE. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.]
Images flooded his mind—a war across the stars, a civilization erased, a weapon meant to survive. And now, that weapon was his.
Luo Tian flexed his fingers. Power surged through him, raw and untamed. He stood, feeling no pain, only hunger—hunger for revenge.
"Luo Feng…" His voice was a whisper, but it carried the weight of a vow. "You will regret the day you let me live."
Three days later, Luo Tian emerged from the gorge.
He was different. Stronger. Faster. More.
The first to cross his path were bandits—three men who thought him easy prey.
"Look at this one," the leader sneered, twirling a dagger. "Dressed like a beggar, walking like a corpse."
Luo Tian didn't speak. He moved.
His fist caved in the first bandit's chest before the man could blink. The second swung a sword—only for Luo Tian to catch the blade mid-air.
[ANALYZING: 'SHADOWSTRIKE TECHNIQUE'.]
[REPLICATED.]
With a twist of his wrist, he disarmed the bandit, then drove the blade through his throat. The third turned to run, but Luo Tian was already behind him, his hand closing around the man's skull.
[ENERGY ABSORPTION: ACTIVATED.]
The bandit's body convulsed as his qi was ripped away, leaving nothing but a withered husk.
Luo Tian exhaled, feeling the stolen energy settle inside him.
"Good," he murmured. "Now, where to next?"
A crumpled map in the bandit leader's pocket caught his eye—an auction notice. The Red Python Auction House was selling something rare tonight: a Heavenly Spirit Herb, said to awaken dormant bloodlines.
And Luo Tian knew exactly who would be there to bid on it.
"Luo Feng…" His lips curled into a smile. "Let's see how you like being the prey."
The auction house was packed, nobles and cultivators mingling beneath flickering lanterns. Luo Tian entered unnoticed, his face hidden beneath a hood. He didn't need to search for his target—Luo Feng's arrogant voice rang out the moment the herb was presented.
"Fifty thousand spirit stones!" Feng declared, smirking at the silenced crowd. "This herb belongs to the Luo Clan!"
"Sixty thousand," Luo Tian countered, his voice distorted by the nanomachines.
The room erupted in murmurs. Feng's face darkened.
"Who dares—?"
Luo Tian lowered his hood.
Recognition flashed in Feng's eyes—then terror.
"Y-you—! Impossible!"
Luo Tian moved.
The auction house became a slaughterhouse.
Feng's guards fell like wheat before a scythe, their techniques useless against a man who could copy, adapt, and overpower them in seconds. Feng himself barely managed to raise his sword before Luo Tian's hand clamped around his throat.
"You should have made sure I was dead, brother," Luo Tian whispered.
Then he ripped the qi from Feng's body, leaving him gasping, broken—but alive.
"Run back to Father," Luo Tian said, tossing Feng aside like garbage. "Tell him I'm coming."
As the auction house burned behind him, Luo Tian clutched the herb, his mind already racing toward the next step of his vengeance.
The Heavenly Sword Sect would burn.
And he would be the one to light the flame.