The wind outside howled like a beast mourning its lost kin.
Within the ancient ruin, Jin Ryu gasped and jolted upright. His chest heaved as dark steam rose from his body. His skin glowed faintly, threads of black light weaving under the surface like fire running through veins. Every breath burned—but not with pain. It was power.
He looked down at his hands. His fingers trembled, nails darkened and sharper than before. His body felt foreign, stronger, faster—**more**. The hunger that had gnawed at him his entire life was gone. In its place was a deep, pulsing heat.
"You live," came the voice again. It echoed inside his skull, not in the air.
**"You bleed. You burn. You become."**
"Who are you?" Jin rasped, his voice hoarse and unfamiliar.
"I am the last of the Black Flame," the voice said. "Tenebris. You are my vessel now, mortal. And I… am your flame."
Jin tried to stand. His legs shook beneath him but held. He stumbled toward a broken mirror embedded in the ruin's wall. The reflection made him pause.
His eyes had changed.
No longer the dull brown of a slum-born outcast. They were now violet, glowing faintly with vertical pupils—**draconic**.
He looked… inhuman. Cursed, perhaps. Or chosen.
The voice inside him stirred. "The world cast you aside. Now rise, Jin Ryu. Rise with fire in your veins."
---
Outside the ruin, night had fallen. The moon hung low behind thick clouds, casting the world in shadows. Jin emerged from the crack in the ravine, breathing deeply.
The wind carried scents he had never noticed before—iron, sweat, ash. His ears twitched at distant footsteps, even the flutter of an insect's wings. His senses were sharpened beyond belief.
And more than that—he could feel it.
The energy of the world.
**Qi.**
Before, it had always felt unreachable, like smoke slipping through his fingers. Now, it flowed to him instinctively. The Black Dragon's presence pulsed within him, a storm waiting to be unleashed.
He flexed his fingers. A flicker of black flame danced across his palm—small, unstable, but real.
"I…" Jin whispered. "I can control it."
The voice of Tenebris growled softly. "You have touched the ember. In time, you will breathe inferno."
Jin clenched his fist. The flame vanished.
He was no longer just a beggar.
---
In the weeks that followed, Jin hid in the wilderness beyond East Jin City, returning only to scavenge scrolls and food from abandoned martial outposts. He trained in silence. Each night, he meditated. Each dawn, he practiced stolen martial forms. And within every breath, the dragon whispered truths into his mind—about Qi, about power, about death.
His growth was unnatural.
Where it once took years to open even a single Qi point, Jin now opened three in a month.
His bones grew denser. His muscles coiled like iron. And in dreams, he flew on wings of flame, hunting gods and demons alike.
The dragon was no longer just a voice.
It was becoming a part of him.
---
A month passed.
Whispers of a public trial spread through the slums—**Ironroot Sect** was recruiting again. Open tests were offered to all—beggar, merchant, orphan, or noble.
Jin Ryu returned to the city.
He wore no robe, no blade. Just black wrappings and cold eyes.
The crowd outside the Ironroot gates was thick with hopefuls. Martial disciples sneered as they separated the worthy from the weak.
"Another rat crawled in," someone muttered.
Jin ignored them.
From among the Ironroot crowd stepped a familiar face—**Wu Liang**, the senior disciple who had once beaten Jin bloody and tossed him like trash.
Wu's lips curled into a smirk. "Didn't I kill you already?"
Jin stared at him calmly. "You tried."
"Still got that mouth, huh?" Wu sneered. "You want to take the trial? Fine. Let me give you a warm welcome."
He raised a hand.
Jin's shadow shifted.
And then, the air **shuddered**.
Black flame rippled from Jin's feet, forming a faint, smoking aura. The Qi around him bent, wild and sharp. For a moment, even the ground seemed to crack beneath his presence.
The crowd fell silent.
Wu Liang blinked, his smirk faltering.
"What… are you?"
Jin stepped forward.
"I am no longer what I was," he said quietly.
"I am the flame you left in the dirt. And I've returned to burn."
---
**End of Chapter 2**