The Sun Reborn: Chapter 3 - The Rank One Catastrophe
Part I: The Heaviness of Gold
The morning of the Soul Weapon Awakening Ceremony felt less like a celebration and more like a final trial. It was Karun's third birthday, but the day carried the immense weight of the Sun Family's destiny. The memory of his past life, of the solemn promise he had made to himself—that he would never again be subject to a curse or a flawed destiny—burned like a cold, bright star in his small heart.
The ritual was housed in the Hall of Primordial Bronze, a structure that embodied the Sun Family's ancient pride. Its dome roof, forged from pure, ancient bronze, was vast and imposing, laced with intricate Awakening Runes that shimmered faintly, ready to receive a soul's essence. The air inside was thick and metallic, humming with suppressed spiritual energy, creating a cruel, heavy pressure that made lesser cultivators feel faint.
The Hall was filled with the Sun Clan hierarchy, a thousand expectant eyes fixed on the Altar of the Soul Hearth—a massive pillar of black magnetic stone at the center. Karun, dressed in ceremonial pale gold silk, walked with a preternatural stillness. He was a three-year-old child, yet he possessed the controlled, weary gait of a king who had already fought his last war.
His internal world was a storm of focused reflection.
They expect the Sword, he thought, recalling the cultivation lore he had devoured. Rank 1, versatility, power, status. My logical, tactical mind knows this is the optimal path for conquest and defense in this world.
Yet, the core of his being, the spiritual essence that housed the divine Kavacha, yearned for something else. Deep within his Dantian, the spiritual echo of the mighty Vijaya Bow—the celestial weapon of his past life, capable of splitting mountains—pulsed with a powerful, sorrowful resonance. It was his truest love, the extension of his very soul, yet the lore of this new world had stamped it with the humiliating Rank 9—Long-range utility, high energy cost, poor dueling weapon.
I am Karun, he vowed silently. I am defined by my merit and my resolve, not a number or a rank. If the Heavens grant me the Sword, I will become a Sword Saint. But if they grant me the Bow, I will shatter every preconception this world holds. I will make Rank 9 the most feared title in the Nine Heavens.
He glanced at his parents, Sun Wei and Lady Ming. Sun Wei's face was drawn tight with pride and unbearable stress; his fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white. Lady Ming was on the verge of tears, her love for her son clashing with the desperate hope for the clan's salvation. The sheer weight of their expectations, the entire clan's future riding on his small shoulders, was heavier than the Kavacha itself.
Part II: The Clash of Wills
The collective tension in the hall snapped when the Rival Clans made their entrance.
First, the Xia Family arrived. They were second in the continent, renowned for their impregnable defense and strategic wisdom. Their Patriarch, Xia Han, was a man of quiet authority, leading his family with composed dignity, though a subtle, competitive glint resided in his eyes.
Following them was the Xue Family. Their arrival was a deliberate intrusion, a loud, vulgar challenge. They were the third-ranked clan, aggressively ambitious and fueled by resentment for the Sun Family's inherited prestige. Their leader, Patriarch Xue Lin, was a man of sharp angles and malicious intent. He was flanked by his daughter, Ming Xue, a girl of five whose gaze already held a distinct, icy arrogance.
Xue Lin's eyes, filled with the calculating hatred of a powerful man who senses an obstacle, locked onto the small, golden-sheen child.
The Xue Patriarch decided to exert dominance. He subtly unleashed a powerful wave of his cultivated will—a psychic attack laced with potent Killing Intent. It was designed to pierce the mind of a child, making him scream or collapse, thereby humiliating the Sun Family before the ceremony even began. It was a refined, quiet form of spiritual assassination.
The pressure surged toward Karun. To an ordinary person, it would have felt like a massive, invisible hand crushing their chest and squeezing their mind into oblivion.
Karun felt it. The spiritual attack was cold, sharp, and laced with the bitter stench of mortal ambition.
He stood still. He did not move a muscle. In his spiritual sea, the vast, swirling ocean of his past life's trauma and power stirred. The killing intent of a mere Patriarch—a man who had killed thousands—was pitiful compared to the spiritual shadow of the Lord of War he carried within.
Karun gave the Xue Patriarch a tiny, subtle gift: a fragment of his own, true spiritual aura.
He allowed the doors to his soul to open just a sliver, releasing the crushing, unrefined spiritual residue of a soul that had witnessed and perpetuated the fall of a civilization. This was the Karmic Killing Intent—the terrifying, absolute weight of being a general who had stood alone on the bloodiest field in history, the sole agent of a million deaths.
Patriarch Xue Lin's psychic attack did not just fail; it was annihilated by the counter-force. The Patriarch's entire body went rigid, then began to visibly shudder, not from cold, but from profound, bone-deep spiritual terror. His legs started to give way, the force of Karun's aura—the weight of his destiny—pressing him down as if he were standing beneath a collapsing star.
This… this is the pressure of a true Immortal! Xue Lin's mind screamed, terrified. This is not a child! This is an ancient God of War wearing the skin of a boy!
He frantically suppressed his own Qi to avoid drawing further attention, backing away three stumbling steps. The shock was so profound that Xue Lin's Dantian felt momentarily unstable, the terrifying experience draining his stamina and poisoning his confidence. His deep, internal desire to kill Karun became an absolute, life-or-death imperative. If this child lives to the Golden Sun Core realm, the Xue Family will be utterly destroyed.
Karun gave him another, final look—a glance devoid of anger, merely a statement of fact. You are irrelevant. The King of Anga had been insulted, and the matter was dismissed.
Part III: The Ascendancy of Rivals
The ceremony began, offering a fragile distraction from the spiritual confrontation.
The children, turning three or four, shuffled onto the altar one by one, placing their hands on the Soul-Scrying Crystal. The crystal was designed to reflect the child's innate affinity and determine the spiritual potency of the weapon, ranking it from Rank 1 (Lowest) to Rank 10 (Legendary). Only two individuals in the history of the continent had ever reached Rank 9 or 10, their names now lost to time, remembered only as forces of nature.
The initial results were mundane: a Rank 3 Axe, a Rank 2 Net, a Rank 4 Taming Whistle.
Then, the high-ranking children stepped up.
Su Xia, the heir of the Xia Family, approached with a confident, slightly humorous smirk. He placed his hand on the crystal, and the Hall was instantly bathed in a pure emerald-green light that pulsed with vitality and endurance. The light coalesced into a magnificent, intricately detailed Shield Spirit, a large, rectangular spiritual artifact glowing with protective runes.
The Xia Patriarch and his family cheered with dignity. The Shield was a weapon of stability and defense, a strategic masterpiece. Su Xia moved to the adjacent Rank-Testing Altar. The Altar glowed and flashed, calculating the spiritual density.
The result stabilized: Rank 6.
A wave of respectful applause swept the Hall. Rank 6 was exceptional, guaranteeing Su Xia a smooth path to the Nascent Soul Form realm. The Xia Patriarch smiled, his pride palpable, and sent a subtle, triumphant glance toward Sun Wei.
Next was Ming Xue, Patriarch Xue Lin's arrogant daughter. She sashayed to the crystal, shooting a venomous, self-satisfied look at Karun, as if to say, Watch and despair. She placed her hand on the jade.
The crystal erupted in a flash of vibrant crimson energy, a sign of aggressive, innate elemental affinity. The energy formed into a light, elegant Fan Spirit, a weapon prized for its cunning use of elemental illusion and high-speed agility. Ming Xue moved to the Altar.
The result: Rank 5.
A Rank 5 Fan was still a great result, cementing Ming Xue as a top-tier genius of her generation. Patriarch Xue Lin, despite his internal trembling, let out a loud, grating, victorious laugh. "Five! A powerful spirit! My daughter is destined to soar! Let us see if the Sun Boy can even match the lowest of my clan!"
The energy in the hall had reached a fever pitch. But the most unexpected moment was yet to come.
Part IV: The Strange Affinity
A small girl, dressed in simple, yet exquisitely clean blue robes, stepped forward. Her name was Riang Zue, and she was from the almost forgotten Zue Family, a minor house clinging to the edge of the Sun Family's territory.
As Karun watched her, the entire focus of his warrior soul shifted. His powerful, tragic past life had taught him to observe the world through the lens of conflict and strategy. But when his golden eyes met the shy, gentle gaze of Riang Zue, his mind went blank.
He felt an inexplicable, profound warmth wash over him—a sensation that was not the heat of the sun, but the deep, comforting glow of a lost memory. It was an affinity so strong it felt like a physical recognition, as if they had shared lifetimes together.
Riang Zue, blushing profusely, passed him a nervous, sweet smile—a gesture so pure it briefly melted the armor around Karun's spiritual heart. He felt his own cheeks flush, a phenomenon that had never happened in his two lives.
What is this? Karun thought, confused and utterly intrigued. This feeling… it is not lust or desire. It is a primal, spiritual recognition, like finding a lost half of my own soul. I know her. My consciousness knows her, but my memories are silent.
Riang Zue finally approached the crystal. She placed her tiny hand upon the jade.
The crystal did not flash or burst. It pulsed with a deep, resonant imperial yellow energy—a color of intellect, stability, and supreme refinement, utterly unlike the aggressive colors of the other rivals. The energy coalesced into a magnificent, elegant Ink Pen Spirit—a rare weapon not of war, but of cultivation speed and formation mastery.
The Rank-Testing Altar began to shake violently. The energy emanating from the Pen Spirit was so dense and pure that the Altar struggled to contain it. The numbers flashed wildly before settling, with a final, trembling stability, on: Rank 7.
The hall erupted in genuine, respectful awe. Rank 7! Higher than the combined might of the Xia and Xue heirs! The girl's father, a common-looking man, dissolved into loud, unrestrained sobs of joy. "My daughter! The Heavens have blessed the Zue Family! We have a Rank 7 Scholar's Spirit!"
Sun Wei, despite the monumental pressure on him, stood and offered a heartfelt, genuine nod of congratulation to the Zue Patriarch.
The atmosphere was electric. Karun watched Riang Zue, her face alight with timid triumph, and felt a quiet joy for her success, a feeling far deeper than simple rivalry.
Part V: The Cosmic Detonation
The time was here. Karun's turn.
The silence that descended was absolute, a thousand times heavier than before. All eyes, now filled with a desperate, critical curiosity, landed on the three-year-old child.
Karun ascended the seven cracked steps to the Altar of the Soul Hearth. He stood before the Soul-Scrying Crystal, the final destination. The immense pressure of the crowd—the collective hope of the Sun Clan, the raw malice of Xue Lin, the curious gaze of Riang Zue—was all focused on him.
He felt a fleeting memory of the Draupadi Swayamvara—the great marriage ceremony in his past life where he was barred from competition because of his caste. This time, there is no caste, he thought, his golden eyes hardening. Only the power I draw. This world is ruled by power, not social rank.
He placed his small, sun-sheen hand on the jade.
One minute of dead silence passed. The crystal remained dull.
The tension was a taut wire, ready to snap. Patriarch Xue Lin could not restrain himself. He threw his head back, his voice rising in a vicious, tearing laugh of triumphant malice.
"Hahaha! The golden child is a dud! He cannot even produce a single spark! The crystal rejects the pretender! The Sun Family is finished!"
Sun Wei collapsed back into his chair, his spirit utterly crushed, the laughter of Xue Lin echoing in his soul like the sound of defeat.
But Karun was not failing. He was overloading the system.
His spiritual sea, fused with the divine, immortal essence of the Kavacha and the ultimate weapon spirit of the Vijaya, simply could not be measured by a mortal crystal. The raw power of a true God-Chosen essence was too pure, too immense.
Karun, sensing the imminent failure and the resulting humiliation, stopped holding back. He released the spiritual brake.
The result was not a flash of light, but an unmaking.
A primal, terrifying vortex of purple-black energy, laced with arcs of furious, concentrated Solar Gold, erupted from the crystal, shattering the jade into a thousand pieces that instantly dissolved into dust.
The detonation was an absolute disaster.
The granite floor beneath the Altar ripped open, deep fissures spreading outwards, the ground groaning as if a vast, sleeping beast had been awakened. Ancient, deeply set Foundation Stones ripped free and began to float, suspended in the anti-gravity field generated by the chaotic spiritual energy.
The pressure inside the Hall increased exponentially. The air became thick, oppressive, turning an acrid shade of purple. The Hall of Primordial Bronze, built to withstand the power of a Nascent Soul elder, began to fail. The massive, bronze dome roof warped, then exploded outward, sending shards of priceless, ancient metal spiraling hundreds of feet into the sky.
The phenomenon did not stop at the manor. Above the entire Solar Apex Manor, the heavens themselves tore open. A terrifying, rolling ocean of purple-black storm clouds materialized in seconds, a spontaneous, continent-visible Heavenly Abnormality. Thunder roared, not from a simple weather pattern, but from the raw, cosmic energy of the Hao Tian World struggling to contain the spiritual anomaly. Every cultivator in the surrounding territories stopped dead, gazing up at the terrifying vista—a false Ascension Tribulation storm centered over the Sun Family estate.
From the terrifying purple vortex, the spiritual weapon was forced into existence.
It was a Bow, but not the simple Bow of the Rank 9 classification. Its physical form was pure, swirling, condensed purple-black void energy, yet its string—the focus of its power—was a single, incandescent thread of Solar Gold. It pulsed with an aura of such absolute destruction that every sentient being in the Hall felt an inescapable, primal fear. This was the true, unleashed spiritual form of the Vijaya—a weapon that did not merely fire arrows; it fired the essence of cosmic annihilation.
The energy subsided as the terrifying Bow sank gracefully, melding instantly and permanently with Karun's spiritual core.
Sun Wei stared, his face streaming with uncontrollable, joyous tears and sweat. The shame was gone! The sheer, devastating power of the manifestation was a declaration of divine genius!
Part VI: The Rank One Verdict
But the moment of triumph was violently short-lived.
The energy was gone, and only the catastrophic ruin remained. Patriarch Xue Lin, his terror giving way to a desperate, last-ditch venom, forced himself to speak.
"Don't celebrate yet, Sun Wei! Power means nothing without a rank! The boy's weapon must be registered!" Xue Lin shrieked, his voice raw with hatred.
Karun, his golden eyes cold and assessing, walked toward the Rank-Testing Altar. The Altar was cracked and smoking, but its core function was still running. It was the ultimate, unfeeling arbiter.
The Altar began its final, agonizing calculation. The stone could not comprehend the fused divinity of the Vijaya Bow. It flickered wildly, cycling through Rank 9, Rank 10, then unranked, then zero, and back to ten, struggling to stabilize the reading. The cosmic power was simply too vast for its mortal matrix.
Finally, with a soft, defeated hiss as its remaining runes burnt out, the Altar settled on the only stable, lowest possible number it could register:
RANK 1
The declaration was a spiritual death blow. The hall, which moments before had witnessed the shattering of the heavens, exploded in a torrent of triumphant, utterly merciless laughter.
Patriarch Xue Lin threw his head back, his voice thick with the sweetest victory. "Hahaha! A Rank 1 Bow! The lowest of the lowest! All that spectacle for a weak, ineffective tool! The Heavens have played the Sun Family for fools! Your Divine Chosen is a Rank 1 failure! He is nothing more than a cultivator with the spirit of a Farming Hoe!"
The laughter was sharp, vicious, and overwhelming.
Sun Wei looked at the Rank 1 result, then at the smoking ruin of the hall, and finally at his son. The glorious, terrifying display had been utterly negated by a single, humiliating digit. He slumped back into his chair, his face empty, the ultimate defeat written into his soul.
Karun stood at the center of the ruins, his small body unmoving, absorbing the waves of ridicule and crushing despair. He felt the immeasurable power of the Vijaya resting in his core, the silent defense of the Kavacha on his chest, and the invisible, pure power of the Kundala spiritual rings on his wrists. He knew the truth.
The mortal crystal cannot measure the celestial. The stone sees a one, but my soul knows the infinite.
The shame was not his; it belonged to the blind, rigid world that could not comprehend true power.
Karun turned, his golden eyes sweeping over the hall:
Patriarch Xue Lin: The man who laughed at my shame. You will be the first to fall beneath this 'Rank 1' arrow.
Su Xia (Rank 6 Shield): The stable defender. Your defense will be irrelevant when my power strikes from a distance you cannot imagine.
Ming Xue (Rank 5 Fan): The arrogant rival. Your clever illusions will shatter like glass against the purity of Solar Qi.
Riang Zue (Rank 7 Pen): The gentle affinity. I will seek you out. My path needs your light.
Karun did not utter a word. He simply walked away from the shattered Altar, his small back ramrod straight. The noise of the jeering crowd faded into a dull, white noise. The humiliating Rank 1 verdict was no longer a failure; it was a Vow. It was the world's profound mistake, and he would spend an eternity making them pay the price for their ridicule.
As Karun stepped out of the ruined hall and into the sunlit morning, the figure of Elder Sun Luming intercepted him. The ancient Ancestor placed a hand on Karun's shoulder, his grip surprisingly firm.
"The Rank 1 is meaningless, Karun," the Ancestor whispered, his ancient eyes piercing. "The true mark is the purple sky and the shattered bronze. You are the chaos that will remake our Clan."
He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a low, powerful rasp. "Go, my son. Begin your Qi Awakening. The world believes you are the weakest. This is your greatest, most terrifying advantage."
Karun nodded once, a cold, focused understanding passing between the genius child and the ancient elder. He was free now, unburdened by expectation, armed with scorn, and fueled by a single, powerful drive: Prove them wrong. Master the Bow. Achieve the eternal freedom that was once stolen from the King of Anga. His true cultivation journey, under the crushing weight of the Rank 1 judgment, had finally begun.