Chapter 3 — "Breaking Point"
The courtyard's mockery still echoed in Long Hao's ears as he walked the stone-paved path away from the Awakening arena. Students pointed. Elders whispered. Murong Yuer's jade ring flashed in the midday sun like a knife. He kept walking as if the whole affair was only a mild breeze.
But the world did not like being humiliated. Pride festered like rot. In Ravenwood High, grudges grew into plots.
By afternoon, the school corridors smelled of lacquer and gossip. Long Hao's name acted like a magnet for hostile stares. A cluster of third-year elites closed ranks near the library entrance—the kind of people who measured worth by rank, family, and the latest battle trophies. Their leader, a bulky boy with a golden scar across his cheek—Zheng Kai—smirked when he saw Long Hao pass.
"Look who's still breathing," Zheng said, loud enough for his clique to hear. "Did the Awakening Stone finally give up on removing the trash from our school?"
A ripple of laughter followed. One of them tossed a bottle; it shattered against the wall beside Long Hao. He didn't flinch. He kept walking, hands in pockets—an image that made the group clench with fury.
"You have a lot of nerve," Zheng hissed, stepping into his path. "You mock the Murong family, mock Long Clan elders, and spit on our ceremony. Are you asking for a lesson?"
Long Hao's eyes locked on him—calm, cold, predatory. "I didn't ask anything."
Zheng's hand moved, and the first hit landed—slapping Long Hao's cheek hard. The sound cracked like a whip. Students gasped. Murong Yuer, watching from a balcony, clenched her fingers until her knuckles whitened.
Long Hao's head snapped, but he did not retaliate immediately. Instead, he set his jaw, the faint crimson flicker in his irises brightening for a heartbeat. He said, low: "Is that the best the Murong pet could do?"
That line set them off. Dozens surged—bookbags became shields, fists became weapons. The hall became a wash of bodies and anger. Long Hao's training took over. He moved with economy and precision: a palm to a jaw, a foot to a knee, a hand that redirected momentum so the attacker collapsed into the lockers. He was not sloppy—he was surgical.
But there were too many. Punches rained from every direction. A hard elbow drove into his sternum; breath whooshed out of him. Someone spun him around and a boot planted into his back, grinding him into a steel locker. Pain flared from his ribs—old reflexes screamed. He tasted copper.
"This is so amusing," one of the attackers howled. "The dragon throwback thinks he's untouchable. Beat him—show him what a Murong disciple can do."
They hauled him toward the center of the hall. A ring formed. Students filmed on their personal devices. Murong Yuer watched—no pity, only the cold polish of satisfaction. Long Clan elders heard rumors and waited in their courtyards; dishonor spread faster than wildfire.
Long Hao's vision blurred. He'd fought worse and survived; he'd killed more than these kids' fathers had ever seen. But the beating had a quality that cut deeper: it was public. It was humiliating. It was meant to break the will, not merely the body.
At some point, his knees buckled. One last shove sent him tumbling, and he struck a stair rail. Pain flamed white across his side. He tried to push up. The world tilted. Faces swam.
Someone from the ring—Zheng—leaned close, whispering with venom: "Remember this, trash. No one will ever respect you. Not Murong. Not Long. And certainly not the world."
Long Hao's mouth tasted like iron. He laughed. It was not a sane laugh—too low, too drained. "You're making a mistake," he muttered. "But it's… all right. I enjoy watching you try."
Zheng's grin was ugly. He pulled out a short blade—school bylaws forbade real blades, but pocket blades were common among the desperate. The metal caught the light. Long Hao's head lolled to the side; the world narrowed into tunnel vision.
The first cut was shallow, intended for fear more than blood. It nicked Long Hao's side and drew a bright bead. But then the attackers renewed their blows, and the world went dim.
Instinct snarled awake—something ancient and cold rolled behind Long Hao's ribs, sensing the finality of the moment. The faint sigil over his heart flared like a winged eye. The system—initialized the night before—spiked in reaction to mortal peril.
[Warning—Host in mortal danger.][Forbidden Talent: Eclipse — Emergency Unsealing Triggered.][Host Potential: Catastrophic Level]
The words echoed inside his mind, not as sound but as pressure. A black-and-white radiance crept along his veins, coiling like a suppressed dragon.
He did not roar. He did not suddenly rise like a phoenix. The unsealing was not complete—but it changed everything at the edges. Pain dulled. His breathing steadied. A cold clarity swept in; reflexes sharpened like snapped steel.
Zheng moved to deliver the final humiliation, to press the blade forward and carve the memory into Long Hao's status. He lunged.
Long Hao's hand—right hand that had once been an assassin's instrument—shot out with a speed that made hearts freeze. He pivoted, not with rage but with an economy of motion that crushed bone and breath. The attackers who had expected a crumple instead found themselves hurled back like rag dolls. The blade flew from Zheng's hand and stuck into a locker behind him.
Silence exploded.
The hall smelled of sweat and blood and fear. Cameras had captured every frame; the footage would spread across the school and likely to the guild forums by nightfall. But at that instant, all anyone saw was a boy with blood running down his temple and eyes black as wells, a faint crimson sheen at the cores—an intensity that made even the boldest shiver.
"You idiots forget who you punch," Long Hao said softly, each syllable precise. "I told you—this world underestimates the wrong things."
Zheng scrambled away, pale. Murong Yuer's expression cracked into something unreadable. Long Hao did not pursue. He did not bask. He merely steadied himself, fingers pressed to an invisible place over his chest where the sigil still hummed.
That night, in the quiet of a narrow room, his mind replayed the moment the system announced the words. A little more had unsealed—enough to answer a mortal threat—but not enough to be seen by the world as a full talent.
Something raw and terrible had awakened in him. It answered to him and to no one else.
Long Hao closed his eyes and allowed the hush to settle. The next steps would require patience. Patience and the right time to strike back.
Outside, the city lights never slept. Inside, an old promise throbbed behind his ribs: the dragon remembers.
[CHAPTER ENDS]