The rain fell hard, as if trying to wash away the shame.
Li Fan lay in the dirt, bloodied and half-conscious. His arm was broken. His ribs shattered. His pride? That had been crushed long before the first blow landed.
"Trash like you should never have stepped onto the arena," sneered Li Shen, heir to the Inner Court and golden genius of the Li Clan. "No spirit root, no talent, no worth."
Around them, disciples laughed. No one stopped the beating. Why would they? Li Fan was a mortal in a world of cultivators.
He could neither cultivate Qi nor summon flames. While others soared with flying swords, he still struggled to walk after each humiliation.
"You were born wrong, cousin," Li Shen spat, kicking him one last time. "Do us all a favor and disappear."
The crowd dispersed. Rain continued to fall. Darkness approached.
Li Fan didn't cry. He didn't scream. He just laid there, his fingers digging weakly into the mud.
"I wasn't born wrong," he whispered. "I just haven't found… my path."
Then he felt it.
A pulse.
Not from the sky.
Not from a dantian.
From within his bones.
A deep, ancient heat awakened — like molten iron being poured into his marrow. His vision blurred. His heart beat once, then stopped.
And in that stillness… he saw it.
A cauldron. Massive. Silent. Floating in a void of black flame.
One of Nine.
A voice rumbled in his soul.
> "You are unworthy. But you are willing. That is enough.
> "Begin the First Tempering: Earth Cauldron – Bone Refinement."
Pain erupted through his limbs, worse than any he'd known. His bones cracked not from weakness, but from reshaping. His screams were swallowed by thunder.
The Hegemon's path had opened.