The silence that followed the chaos was thick and humming with hidden truths.
Ethan stared at the fallen intruder. His breathing was shallow, heart racing but not from fear his instincts had sharpened, his skin tingled, and that ache in his chest now pulsed in rhythm with the flickering lantern.
"What was that?" he whispered.
Elena Wren knelt beside the body, removing the needle with practiced grace. Her fingers moved like a dancer's she pressed two fingers to the man's neck, closed her eyes briefly, then stood up.
He's not dead, she said. But he won't wake for days.
Vane gestured to the scroll still in Ethan's hand. "That man is from the Crimson Altar. A sect that twists cultivation into dark arts. They sensed the scroll had chosen you."
"Chosen me?" Ethan laughed, half-mad. "You're telling me this paper this ancient fairy tale picked me like some Chosen One cliché?
Vane walked to his desk and lifted a small wooden box, opening it with a soft click. Inside were acupuncture needles longer than modern ones, forged from shimmering silver.
Your mother was from the Eastern Waking Sect.
A gifted cultivator, healer, and martial artist. She fled the Crimson Altar to save you."
Ethan sat down heavily and said my mother died in a car crash when I was ten.
No, Elena said softly, her eyes unreadable,
She was killed by them.
The room fell into silence again, heavier than before.
Vane continued. "Your veins carry more than blood. They carry channels meridians mapped by ancient masters. Medicine and martial power are one and the same, Ethan now your time has come."
Why now?
The scroll has awakened. You're entering your Pulse Year when a cultivator's body either opens or collapses.
Ethan looked down at the scroll. Its golden lines shimmered with strange life, forming what looked like a diagram of the human body, but with paths of light instead of veins.
Elena stepped forward and placed a needle into Ethan's hand and said
Let me show you.
With a breath, she struck three points on her own arm, and her body trembled. For a moment, he could see it light moving beneath her skin, flowing like a hidden river. Her eyes glowed faintly, her presence overwhelming.
Ethan felt a pull in his own body like an answer being whispered from his bones.
Something ancient was awakening.
And it would not go quitely.