"Lin Xue!"
A girl with icy blue eyes stepped up. She was known as the "Ice Beauty" of the junior class. She placed her pale hand on the stone. WHOOSH. The stone didn't just glow; it roared. A phantom image of an Ice Phoenix flickered above the monolith.
"Grade 9! Heavens! A Grade 9!"
The hall erupted. Even Lin Yang sat up straighter. A Grade 9 was a terrifying talent. Lin Xue stepped back, her face flushed with pride. As she walked past Lin Kai, she shot him a glance—shy, flirtatious, and filled with expectation.
'Look at me, Genius Kai. Am I worthy of you now?' her eyes seemed to say.
Lin Kai offered her a polite, calm smile. He didn't mock her, but he didn't melt either. 'Congratulations, Xue. But my heart is already taken by a missing girl.'
His loyalty was stubborn. Perhaps foolishly so.
"Next candidate..." The Elder took a deep breath, his voice echoing with anticipation. "Lin Kai!"
The chatter stopped instantly. Every eye in the hall—hundreds of them—snapped to the boy with the black-and-red hair.
"It's him."
"The Third Elder's son."
"He reached the 9th Stage of Mortal Foundation at eight years old. He has to be a Grade 10. Maybe even an 11."
"He has the Dragon's Aura. I can feel it."
Lin Kai took a deep breath. He felt the weight of their expectations. He felt the burning gaze of his father, Lin Feng, who looked ready to burst with pride. He felt the cold, calculating stare of his uncle, Lin Yang.
And he felt the soft, sorrowful gaze of his mother.
He walked up the steps to the Monolith. The stone was cold, towering over him like a judge.
'This is it,' Lin Kai thought. 'No more baby steps. No more waiting. Today, I prove that I am the protagonist of this life.'
He lifted his hand.
He placed his palm flat against the rough surface.
"Hah!" Lin Kai grunted, channeling all his Qi. He poured his 9th Stage Mortal Foundation energy into the stone. He imagined a dragon. He imagined a star. He imagined the face of Lin Yan'er seeing his name in the sky.
The stone vibrated.
The crowd leaned forward. Lin Feng stood up from his seat.
A flicker of light appeared deep within the stone.
And then... nothing.
The vibration stopped. The faint flicker died. The stone remained pitch black. Cold. Silent. Inert.
Lin Kai frowned. 'Did I not push hard enough?'
He grit his teeth. "Open!" he shouted in his mind, shoving every ounce of energy he had into the rock.
Nothing.
No light. No phantom beast. No aura.
The Monolith of Truth reacted as if he were a piece of wood.
The silence in the hall was deafening. It was heavy, suffocating, like the air had been sucked out of the room.
"Elder?" Lin Kai whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "Is... is it broken?"
The presiding Elder walked over, confused. He checked the runes. He checked the connection. He placed his own hand on it, and the stone instantly glowed.
It wasn't broken.
The Elder looked at Lin Kai, then at the stone, then up at the Clan Leader with a look of horror.
"Grade... Zero," the Elder stammered.
"What?" Lin Feng roared, his voice cracking. "Impossible! Check it again!"
"I checked, Third Elder!" the man cried out, pointing at the runes. "There is no reaction. The bloodline is... inert. It's empty. It's... Null."
Grade Zero.
The words hung in the air like a curse.
Grade 1 was a servant. Grade Zero was... trash. It meant he couldn't advance to the Blood Awakening Realm. It meant his cultivation journey ended right here, at age eight.
The whispers started. First low, then rising like a tide.
"Zero?"
"But he was a genius!"
"A waste? All that Mortal Foundation talent was fake?"
"Hahaha! Look at him! The Dragon turned out to be a mud-snake!"
Lin Kai stood frozen, his hand still on the cold stone. The world was spinning.
'No...' his mind screamed. 'This is wrong. I'm a reincarnator. I'm special. I have the red hair. I have the backstory. Why? Why is there nothing?'
He turned around. The admiring gazes of his "friends" had turned to shock, then pity, then mockery. Lin Xue, the Ice Beauty, looked away, embarrassed that she had flirted with a cripple.
He looked at his father.
Lin Feng's face was a mask of disbelief that was slowly crumbling into pure, unadulterated rage and shame. He looked at his son not with love, but as if Lin Kai had personally stabbed him in the back.
He looked at his uncle, Lin Yang. The Clan Leader's expression hadn't changed. It was indifferent. As if he had expected this. Or perhaps, he simply didn't care about trash.
Finally, Lin Kai looked at his mother.
Yu Yue sat very still. She didn't look shocked. She didn't look angry. She looked... resigned. She closed her violet eyes, a single tear tracing down her cheek, and sighed so softly that only the wind heard it.
'My child,' she thought, her heart breaking. 'Forgive me. You must walk onto this path. You will understand it in the future.'
Lin Kai didn't hear her thoughts. He only saw the disappointment.
He pulled his hand back as if the stone had burned him. He stood alone in the center of the massive hall, a small boy in big robes, while the laughter of the crowd began to rise, burying him in the debris of his shattered future.
The Rise of the Dark Sovereign had begun not with a bang, but with a fall into the abyss.