On the night Ye Tianxuan was born, the sky above Lingxuan Star split open.
Not a normal storm, not lightning, not the soft glow of the three moons.
For one breath, every person in the tiny border town of Qinghe raised their heads and saw something they had no words for:
A golden ocean hanging upside down in the heavens.
Tides rose and fell without water. Waves of light crashed silently. In those waves, vague shadows of palaces and colossal figures flickered, crowned in divinity. Some knelt, some fought, some simply watched.
Then a single droplet of that golden ocean fell.
It didn't fall like rain. It tore straight downward, a spear of brilliance that ripped clouds, burned air, and punched a hole through the night.
It landed in the town.
More exactly: it landed in the baby.
The midwife screamed, the candles blew out, and every Martial Spirit in the house awakened instinctively, trembling as if kneeling.
By the time the light faded and everyone dared to breathe again, the newborn lay quietly in his mother's arms, his skin warm, his breathing steady. A faint pattern, like a ring of tiny symbols, glowed then sank into the center of his chest.
"An omen," someone whispered.
"A curse," someone else muttered.
Outside, the sky closed as if nothing had happened.
Thirteen years later, no one talked about that night anymore.
They remembered the golden tear in the sky as a distorted story, something to scare children with. The town went back to worrying about rain for crops and the price of salt. Only one person still woke up sometimes with the taste of that light in his throat.
Ye Tianxuan wiped sweat from his forehead and stared at the stone wall in front of him.
The wall stared back.
No, not a normal wall. Painted on it in sloppy ink were three big characters:
AWAKENING HALL
The characters were crooked, like whoever wrote them had been interrupted halfway by a sneeze. A line of nervous children stood under the sign, fidgeting. Behind them, parents whispered and argued in low voices.
"Tianxuan, why are your hands shaking?"
The boy behind him grinned, showing a missing tooth.
Ye Tianxuan looked down at his fingers. They were actually steady. It was the rest of him that wasn't.
"I'm not shaking," he said. "You're just blind, Lei Hu."
Lei Hu puffed out his chest. "Just you wait. My Martial Spirit is definitely going to be a Thunder Tiger. I'll get a Strength Heavenly Ring, enter the militia, and leave this rotten town before I turn sixteen."
"Yeah?" Tianxuan glanced at him. "What if it's a Thunder Chicken?"
"If it's a Thunder Chicken," Lei Hu said solemnly, "I'll… still peck you to death."
Tianxuan snorted, some of the tightness in his chest loosening.
In front of the hall doors, the village head and the Awakening Master discussed something. The Awakening Master was a thin, middle-aged man in gray robes, a faint white ring pattern faintly circling his wrist.
Not a high-level Heavenly Spirit Bearer. But for a remote place like Qinghe, even a One-Ring Awakening Master was an untouchable expert.
"Alright, next!" the master called. "Ye Tianxuan!"
Whispers rose immediately.
"Isn't that the cursed one?"
"The one from the night the sky cracked?"
"They should've sent him to the temple years ago…"
Tianxuan pretended not to hear, but every word slid under his skin.
He stepped through the creaking doors into the hall.
Inside, it was dim but not dark. A circular stone platform sat in the center, etched with complex lines. Crystals embedded at eight points glowed faintly, like captured stars.
"Stand in the middle," the Awakening Master said, his tone neither warm nor cold. "Put your hand on the crystal. Don't resist whatever you feel. Let your Martial Spirit respond."
Tianxuan obeyed. The stone was cool through his worn shoes. He pressed his palm against the crystal.
For a moment, nothing happened.
He could feel his own heartbeat, loud and stupid in his chest. He thought of his mother's tired smile that morning. No matter what your Martial Spirit is, you're my son. He thought of how the neighbors had looked at him, then looked away.
Please, he thought, to no one and nothing in particular. Just give me something not useless. I don't need to be a genius.
The crystal flared.
A soft hum filled the hall, rising from the floor, the walls, the etched lines under his feet. The hum became a vibration, then a steady thrum, like waves hitting shore.
Tianxuan's vision blurred. In his mind, he saw Water.
Not the muddy irrigation canals of Qinghe. An endless sea, stretching beyond sight, deep and cold and full of pressure. Above that sea, a dragon of pure light coiled, its scales made of rolling tides. As it moved, its body splintered into reflections, and each reflection was a mirror showing a different world.
Soul beasts roaring in ancient forests.
Armored men with bows of condensed jewels.
A golden trident throne hanging in the sky.
A god with his eyes closed, bleeding from the brow.
The dragon lowered its head, and Tianxuan saw his own face in its eyes.
The hall snapped back into focus.
A faint, translucent image floated behind him, rising slowly like it had just been dragged out of deep water.
It was… a mirror.
Oval, borderless, its surface made of gently rippling liquid. Around the edge of the mirror, dragon scale patterns flickered faintly, then vanished like they were ashamed to be seen too soon.
Silence filled the hall.
The Awakening Master's brows knitted together. "A… Tool Spirit? A mirror?"
One of the assistant elders made a face. "Probably some useless reflection-type Martial Spirit. At best, it might help with illusion resistance. Trash."
Trash.
Tianxuan clenched his fists, nails biting into his palms.
Before he could speak, something else happened.
A circle of light rose slowly from his feet, climbing his body.
Not the usual single color ring of a normal Heavenly Spirit Bearer.
Half of the ring was deep ocean blue, runes flowing like waves. The other half was pale silver white, runes shaped like tiny, turning gears.
"Two colors?" the Awakening Master blurted. For the first time, his composure cracked. "That's… No, that's impossible. A first Heavenly Ring can't have dual attributes."
The ring finally closed around Tianxuan's body, hovering just above the ground. Blue on one side, silver on the other. Where they met, the edge blurred like they were still fighting over territory.
The elders stared, then looked at each other.
"A mutation?"
"A flaw."
"Look at the runes. The pattern is… broken."
The Awakening Master cleared his throat, forcing his tone back to flat. "Ye Tianxuan, describe what you feel from your Heavenly Ring and your Martial Spirit. Any sensation. Any ability."
Tianxuan swallowed.
He focused inward. He could feel the mirror behind him, weightless yet heavy, like it was anchored not in the air but in the core of his soul. The ring around him pulsed gently, each pulse sending information into his mind.
Water. Flow. Reflection.
And something else—like invisible threads stretching from his eyes to everything he saw.
"I…" he said slowly. "I think… if I look at someone using their technique, I can… copy it. For a short time."
The words dropped into the silence like stones into a well.
The assistant elder snorted. "Absurd. A child with a broken ring claiming he can copy techniques? Don't spout nonsense."
The Awakening Master didn't speak immediately. His eyes were fixed on the half-blue, half silver ring, then on the mirror floating behind Tianxuan.
"Copy… techniques," he repeated softly. There was something complicated in his gaze now. "Your Jewel attribute is at least Water. The other… feels like Space, or something close. And your Martial Spirit is not simple reflection… it has dragon intent."
He exhaled slowly, as if making a decision.
"Very well. We test it. Elder Meng, use your first ring skill on the dummy."
A battered wooden training dummy was dragged into the middle of the hall.
The assistant elder Elder Meng stepped forward with a scowl. A plain brown Martial Spirit appeared behind him: Stone Fist. A single earthy yellow ring rose from his feet.
"Watch closely, boy," he said. "My first skill: Rock Smash."
His ring flashed. His fist turned dark gray, veins bulging. He slammed his hand into the dummy's chest. Wood cracked, splinters flying.
"Now, you," the Awakening Master said, looking at Tianxuan. "Focus that feeling of 'copying' on Elder Meng's strike. See if your ring responds."
Every eye in the hall locked onto him.
Trash, cursed, broken.
The words swirled through Tianxuan's mind like sludge.
He lifted his hand anyway.
He stared at Elder Meng's fist, replaying the moment of impact in his mind. As he watched, the mirror behind him rippled. The silver side of his ring flared, then passed the light to the blue side.
For an instant, the world… slowed.
He saw the path of Elder Meng's fist, the way his muscles tensed, the shallow flow of his Heavenly Energy, the crude way the power leaked out in all directions instead of focusing perfectly.
Tianxuan's own fist clenched.
His ring flashed.
His right hand turned dark gray.
The same veins, the same weight, but cleaner, sharper, as if someone had taken Elder Meng's skill, washed it, and hammered out the dents.
He exhaled and punched.
The dummy didn't crack.
It exploded.
Wood shards scattered across the hall, spinning through the air. The bottom half of the dummy wobbled once, then fell over with a heavy thud.
No one spoke.
Tianxuan stared at his fist, at the faint gray fading from his skin. The power vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving him a little dizzy, but not drained.
"I… copied it," he whispered, half to himself.
The Awakening Master looked at the shattered remains of the dummy, then at the boy standing amid the dust and splinters.
The elder who had called him trash shut his mouth with an audible click.
Outside the hall, the villagers were still gossiping, trading rumors about whose child had awakened what. No one yet knew that inside, in the dim light of the crystals, a boy with a broken ring and a water dragon mirror had just done something that should not exist.
Far above Lingxuan Star, in the distant, luminous ocean of the God Realm, a certain golden wave stirred.
A god who had been sleeping for a very long time opened one eye.
"…Interesting," a voice murmured, echoing through layers of law and space. "A planet that should not have rings like that… and a child carrying my sea's echo and another's fate."
In the Awakening Hall, Ye Tianxuan felt a chill crawl up his spine for no reason at all.
The Awakening Master finally spoke.
"Ye Tianxuan," he said slowly, every word clear. "Your Martial Spirit: Eternal Tide Dragon Mirror. Your first Heavenly Ring: dual-attributed, Water and… something I cannot yet define."
He paused, then added, voice dropping just a fraction.
"You are not trash. You are a problem."