The woman, whose white robes fluttered like clouds against the blue of the ocean, watched the baby in her arms with a mixture of reverence and caution. She was Lin Shara, the Grand Elder of the Eternal Lotus Sect, and in hundreds of years of cultivation, she had never felt an energy fluctuation as dense as this coming from such a weak being.
As she flew, she noticed that the dome of air protecting the boy was not an external spell, but a passive manifestation of his own essence. Upon touching the child's skin, Shara felt a shock run through her meridians; it was as if she were touching the very fabric of the universe.
"What kind of creature are you?" she whispered as she crossed the veil of mist that concealed the Island of the Seven Stars.
As soon as they landed on the highest peak of the sect, the sky, which had been clear before, darkened instantly. Deep purple clouds began to swirl around the main pavilion, and silent thunders—vibrations that shook the soul instead of the ears—echoed throughout the mountain.
Inside the boy's body, the change in his heart was complete. The thread of purple dust was now an artery of pulsing energy. The heart, once mortal and fragile, now beat with a heavy, metallic rhythm, like a war drum. Each beat sent a wave of heat through his crystal bones, strengthening his flesh and cleansing any remaining impurities.
Shara placed the baby on an altar of spiritual jade, used to test the talent of new disciples. The moment the child's back touched the jade, the altar—an ancient treasure capable of withstanding the energy of a high-level master—began to crack.
The purple glow emanating from his bones became visible through his thin skin. The jade, instead of glowing with the common elemental colors, was drained of all its color, becoming gray and lifeless. The baby was devouring the energy of the environment to stabilize his new form.
The child opened his eyes again. There was no crying, only a gaze of abyssal depth. At that moment, the purple energy thread in his heart accelerated, and a tiny mark, in the shape of a spiral galaxy, appeared in the center of his forehead before disappearing under the skin.
"Crystal bones... a primordial heart," Shara took a step back, her eyes wide. "The legends did not lie. Chaos has returned to reclaim life."
Far away, in different realms and dimensions, ancient beings who had been in meditation for millennia opened their eyes simultaneously. They felt the tremor in the structure of the universe. The balance had been broken. The era of peace was coming to an end, for the sovereign of the new world had just been found.
Shara picked up the boy again, covering him with a spiritual silk cloak to hide the glow that still escaped from his pores. She knew that if the world discovered what he was, entire armies would come to kill or enslave him.
"From this day forward, your name shall be Yun Caos," she declared, as the purple clouds in the sky began to dissipate, being absorbed by the child's breath. "And I shall be the one to hide your light until you have the strength to blind the world."