Kai sat alone within the Emberheart Inner Sanctum, deep beneath the sect's training halls. Here, the fire pulsed from the walls, the floor, the very air—this was where disciples tempered their cores during breakthroughs. But no one else dared come here tonight.
Because something inside him was stirring.
He had felt it since the duel with Linya. A pressure behind his flame core—like a lock waiting to snap. It wasn't pain. It was power waiting to be claimed.
And tonight, he would answer it.
Crossing his legs, Kai entered deep meditation. The outside world fell away, replaced by a vision of his spiritual sea—a vast plane of molten sky, cracked earth, and a flame that floated like a sun above him.
His Flame Core. Red-gold, radiant... but fractured.
From that fracture, light bled—not red, but golden. Ancient. Living.
A voice echoed through the void.
"Break the seal. Embrace your inheritance."
It wasn't the first time he'd heard it, but this time, he didn't hesitate.
He reached inward—and pushed.
The fracture widened.
His spiritual sea quaked. Flames burst upward like volcanic geysers. Pain surged through every part of his body—meridians burned, bones ached, vision blurred.
But he didn't stop.
Kai roared as the fracture finally shattered—and from it, a massive golden dragon emerged in his mind's eye. Majestic, coiled in the sky, with burning eyes and obsidian scales that shimmered like starlight.
Its voice was deep, but not hostile.
"The First Seal is broken."
"Your journey begins now."
Kai's eyes snapped open.
The chamber was glowing, every rune on the walls flaring in response. Around him, the air hummed. Fire obeyed him—not like before, when he commanded it—but now like a loyal beast drawn to its master.
His aura had changed.
The reckless heat was gone. Now it was quiet. Heavy. Royal. Dangerous.
Outside, Elder Xuan felt the spiritual tremor and opened his eyes.
"…A dragon seal," he whispered. "After all these years… it's real."
He turned toward the restricted archives. "If the boy truly carries dragon blood, the world will not ignore him. Nor will our enemies."
Kai stood in the chamber, rolling his shoulder as flames circled his arm in perfect silence.
He moved through a sabre form slowly—each swing cleaner, sharper. The sabre sliced a stone pillar cleanly in half without heat distortion. He didn't need brute force anymore.
His flame was refined. Pure. Alive.
He wasn't the same boy who entered Emberheart a few weeks ago.
He was becoming something else entirely.
Far away, deep within the Blood Sect, a cloaked figure kneeled in a circle of fire.
"The dragon's heir has awakened," a voice said from the shadows.
"The First Seal... broken."
"Twelve years early," another whispered.
The kneeling man rose, his eyes glowing crimson.
"Then I shall go myself."