The murmurs outside the Awakening Hall grew louder as Ye Tianxuan stepped through the doors. His first Heavenly Ring floated around him like a mismatched halo half ocean blue, half silver white, glowing softly with a stubborn, impossible light.
The villagers fell silent.
Even Lei Hu, usually quick to joke, stared with his mouth half open. "Tianxuan… you… your ring looks like it's arguing with itself."
Tianxuan tried to smile. It came out crooked.
Before he could explain, the hall's doors creaked again. The Awakening Master stepped out, his expression unreadable.
"Quiet, all of you," he said, raising a hand. "Today's awakening is complete. Ye Tianxuan… remain behind. I need to confirm a few things."
A few parents shifted uneasily. The whispers resumed softer, sharper.
"Is he dangerous?"
"Dual rings? That's unnatural."
"It must be the omen from that night…"
Tianxuan lowered his eyes. The ring humming around him felt suddenly heavy, as if it absorbed every hostile thought and fed them back into his chest.
The Awakening Master seemed to sense it. "Don't listen," he murmured as Tianxuan followed him inside. "Fear makes people pretend they understand things they don't."
Inside, the hall's dim crystals flickered. The shattered dummy still lay scattered across the floor.
The Awakening Master circled Tianxuan slowly. "A mirror spirit… but not a simple one. And a Heavenly Ring saturated with mixed laws."
"Mixed… laws?" Tianxuan frowned.
"In Lingxuan Star," the master said, "rings respond to elemental laws and physical attributes. Water. Lightning. Strength. Agility. Space. Time. These things don't mix. If they do, the ring collapses." He motioned to Tianxuan's glowing circle. "Yours didn't collapse. It fused."
Tianxuan swallowed. "Is that… good?"
"I didn't say that."
The master rubbed his temples.
"Listen carefully. There are only two possibilities for a dual-law ring."
He lifted a single finger.
"One: a mutation blessed by fate. Incredibly rare, incredibly dangerous, but potentially powerful."
He lifted a second finger.
"Two: a flaw so severe it eventually tears its user apart."
Tianxuan's throat tightened. "Which one… am I?"
"I don't know yet."
Honest. Brutally so.
Before Tianxuan could respond, a sharp energy fluctuation rippled through the hall enough to make the crystals flicker.
The Awakening Master snapped his head up. "What ?"
Another pulse rolled through the air, this one colder, more precise. The runes etched into the floor began to shimmer.
A voice echoed not in sound, but in Tianxuan's mind.
Candidate detected.
Error in ring formation.
Initiating correction protocol.
Tianxuan flinched. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" The Awakening Master's gaze sharpened. "What did you sense?"
Another pulse hit stronger so strong the liquid mirror behind Tianxuan trembled.
Unregistered law fragment detected.
Scans incomplete.
God Realm authorization pending.
Tianxuan staggered backward. "There's something… talking. It's not human."
The Awakening Master stiffened.
"This is impossible," he breathed. "Lingxuan Star is sealed. The God Realm should not be able to"
A spear of silver light burst from the center of the awakening platform.
The light curled upward, thin as a blade, then folded into a perfect eye-shaped sigil hovering midair.
The Awakening Master's knees hit the floor immediately.
"Divine… inspection."
Tianxuan stumbled back, heart hammering. The sigil rotated once, scanning him from head to toe. His ring flared violently, blue crashing into silver like waves slamming against a cliff.
Fragment bearer confirmed.
Probability of destabilization: 62%.
Probability of ascension: 0.4%.
Correction required.
"Stop!" the Awakening Master shouted, leaping forward. "He is a mortal child! You cannot"
The sigil ignored him.
It focused on Tianxuan.
Initiating Trial of Coherence. Survive or be purged.
A beam of light shot toward Tianxuan.
His world vanished Tianxuan fell.
Not physically his body stood frozen but his mind plummeted into a world made of water and stars.
He hit a surface that looked like an ocean but felt like glass. Ripples of pure light spread outward.
A voice rose from beneath the surface. Deep. Ancient. Whisper soft yet thunderous.
"You… carry a shard that belongs to the sea."
Tianxuan jerked his head around. "Who's there?!"
The ocean shifted.
A colossal pair of eyes opened beneath the water—golden, calm, impossibly vast. A dragon's silhouette stretched across the deep, coiling and uncoiling with the tide.
"But you also carry something that does not belong to this world. A fragment of Fate, broken and wandering."
Tianxuan's heart pounded. "What do you want from me?"
"Not want," the voice corrected. "Judge."
The ocean darkened. The surface trembled.
"Two laws battle in your first ring—a flaw that should have killed you during awakening. Only the mirror you host kept your soul intact."
"My… mirror?"
"The Eternal Tide Dragon Mirror is not whole," the voice murmured. "But it remembers what it once was."
The water surged upward, rising into a towering wave.
"Now, show me if you deserve to survive."
The wave crashed.
Tianxuan braced himself out of instinct but the mirror behind him suddenly ripped free, floating to his right. Its surface rippled, catching the wave's reflection.
The entire attack bent, twisted, and crashed away from him.
The dragon voice paused.
"Reflection… even of divine pressure. Interesting."
The ocean calmed.
"You may survive after all."
Light broke through the darkness.
Then everything shattered.
Tianxuan gasped awake on the hall floor, sweat soaking through his clothes. The sigil was gone. The room was silent except for his own ragged breathing.
The Awakening Master crouched beside him, fear and awe fighting in his eyes.
"Do you understand what happened?" he whispered.
Tianxuan slowly shook his head.
The master leaned closer.
"You were judged… by a divine authority."
Tianxuan's heartbeat pounded in his skull.
"But you didn't die," the master said, his voice trembling slightly. "That means two things."
He raised one finger.
"First: whatever you carry is connected to the sea's divine power."
A second finger.
"Second: someone something from the God Realm noticed you."
Tianxuan pushed himself upright, legs shaking.
"What… what do I do now?"
The Awakening Master exhaled.
"You go to the Academy," he said firmly. "Qinghe Village is too small for what you've awakened. The Lingxuan Heavenly Academy will know more."
He paused.
"And Tianxuan. From this day on… do not show your abilities lightly. A power the gods notice is a power mortals fear."
Outside, the villagers still whispered.
Inside, Tianxuan's dual colored ring pulsed once deep blue washing into silver, silver returning into blue, perfectly in conflict yet perfectly alive.