Blood dripped from between his fingers, blooming into startling crimson blossoms on the blue stone floor.

Yun Che slowly straightened his body. His meridians were shattered, his dantian empty as a void. In the Azure Wind Continent, this was the definition of worthless—a waste among wastes.

But he did not fall.

Because the pearl that had fallen from beyond the heavens was emitting its first ray of light within his body.

"What is this..."

A power unlike anything he had ever felt surged through his broken meridians like a flood. The shattered pathways began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

No—not merely healing.

Every meridian was expanding, becoming ten times wider than before.

Yun Che raised his head. He knew that from this moment on, his story had truly begun.

--- *Chapter 13: Fate had finally turned its gaze upon him. The crippled youth who had been trampled into the dust would soon make the heavens themselves tremble.*