The training grounds of the Azure Tide Sect shook as thunder cracked across the heavens. Dark clouds swirled above the island, drawn unnaturally to a single point—where a battered youth lay trembling on the ground.
"Lin Feng?" a disciple muttered, disbelief twisting his face. "Don't tell me… he's the one causing this?"
"Impossible!" another scoffed. "That trash can't even form proper qi. How could the heavens respond to him?"
Yet their words faltered when the next lightning bolt lanced downward. It didn't strike the earth—it sank into Lin Feng's body.
"Ahhhh—!"
Lin Feng screamed as the lightning coursed through him. His flesh tore, bones cracked, but his veins drank greedily. Each channel within him widened, his meridians reforged under the storm's fury. Instead of being destroyed, his body absorbed the heavenly punishment.
The disciples staggered back in horror. "He… he's devouring the lightning?!"
On the cliff above, an elder in azure robes rushed forward. Elder Zhao, the overseer of outer disciples, his expression twisted with shock. "This is… this is a bloodline awakening!"
Lin Feng's consciousness floated amidst darkness and roaring waves. Within the abyss of his body, he saw them—nine veins, glowing with stormlight, spiraling like coiled dragons. Wind howled through them, thunder rumbled, and waves crashed endlessly.
So this… this was always inside me?
A deep, primal voice seemed to echo from the storm within:
—You are the vessel. You are the storm. Rise.
His eyes snapped open, glowing faintly with crackling arcs of lightning. The dirt around him split as waves of spiritual qi poured into his body.
The disciples fell silent, unable to mock, unable to breathe.
Elder Zhao's eyes widened further. He muttered, almost reverent:
"Storm Vein Constitution… a heavenly body thought lost to the Endless Seas…"
Lin Feng staggered to his feet, his once-weak aura now roaring like a tempest. He clenched his fists, electricity sparking between his fingers. For the first time in years, his heart surged with power—not borrowed, not imagined, but truly his own.
But as the clouds above churned, a distant roar echoed across the ocean. Deep below the waves, something ancient stirred, as if the awakening of his veins had been noticed.
Lin Feng did not know it yet…
But from this moment, the Endless Seas would never be the same.