The iron gates of Irongate Maximum Security Prison groaned open like the mouth of a beast finally releasing its prey. Ethan Cross stepped through, his worn prison shoes crunching against the gravel.
He paused just beyond the threshold, breathing in the air of freedom . The city's spiritual energy washed over him in waves, and what he sensed made his jaw tighten. Corruption. Decay. The qi flow that should have nourished this place was poisoned. Thousands of tainted signatures pulsed through the atmosphere like infected blood through dying veins.
Fifteen years. They had taken fifteen years from him.
A black Mercedes idled across the street, its tinted windows reflecting Ethan's solitary figure. Inside, Raymond Vane lowered his camera, his finger hovering over the shutter button as he zoomed in on the released prisoner.
Marcus dialed a number without taking his eyes off Ethan. "Boss, he's out. But there's something wrong with the readings. The sensors are showing celestial-grade fluctuations."
On the other end, Damien Silvercrest's laugh was smooth as poisoned honey. "Celestial grade? Raymond, the fool who took the fall for Tyler Blackwood couldn't cultivate his way out of a paper formation. You're seeing ghosts."
"Sir, I'm telling you—"
"Just follow him. I want to know where the pathetic insect crawls to lick his wounds."
The line went dead. Raymond kept his camera set on Ethan, who had started walking toward downtown.
Ethan moved through the city like a ghost revisiting his own grave. Every street corner held memories that cut deeper than any blade Master Tian had taught him to wield. The coffee shop where he had proposed to Claire on a rain-soaked evening. The park where they had carved their initials into an old oak tree.
But it was the skyline that drew his gaze and held it with iron fingers around his heart.
CrossGen Pharma's former headquarters rose against the morning sky. Ethan stopped walking. His hands, calloused from fifteen years of cultivation training, clenched at his sides. The pedestrians flowing around him gave him a wide berth without knowing why, sensing something primal as he stood there.
He forced his feet to move again, following the spiritual corruption like a bloodhound on a scent. It led him through streets that had grown unfamiliar, past buildings that had replaced the ones he remembered, until he stood before a small storefront.
Moonstone Apothecary. Claire's dream.
The windows were shattered, jagged teeth of glass still clinging to the frames. Spray paint screamed "CLOSE OR DIE" across the door in letters that dripped like blood. Herbs that should have been hanging in careful bundles lay scattered and crushed across the threshold. The sight drove spikes of rage through Ethan.
He walked into the shadows of the alley beside the shop. And from this darkness, he watched as the back door opened and Claire stepped out.
Ethan's heart, which had learned to beat in rhythm with celestial qi patterns, forgot its training.
She was thinner than he remembered. Exhaustion bruised the skin beneath her eyes, and her hair was pulled back in a hasty knot. But she was still Claire. Still the girl who had promised to wait for him. Still the woman he had sacrificed everything to protect.
A luxury car purred to a stop in front of the apothecary. The door opened, and Tyler Blackwood emerged with a bouquet of roses.
Ethan recognized him immediately. Tyler had grown into his father's arrogance, wearing wealth and privilege like armor.
"Claire." Tyler's voice came out loud. "I've been calling."
Claire's spine straightened, her chin lifting in defiance. "I've been busy cleaning up the vandalism. Funny how it happened right after I refused your dinner invitation."
Tyler's smile didn't waver but he looked a bit disappointed. He closed the distance between them, backing Claire against the wall with flowers held between them.
"The Autumn Gala is in three days," Tyler said. "Marry me at the gala, Claire. Announce our engagement and let me protect you from all these unfortunate incidents."
"Unfortunate incidents you're causing." Claire responded immediately, her voice shaking slightly."I know it's you, Tyler. The vandalism. The suppliers who suddenly refuse to sell to me. My mother's hospital is threatening to discharge her for nonpayment even though I've been current on every bill."
"Marry me," Tyler repeated, as if she had not given her a response, "or your family's apothecary licenses will be revoked tomorrow. I have friends on the Council who owe me favors."
The roses trembled in his hand. Claire snatched the bouquet and threw it at his feet. "I'd rather lose everything than marry you, Tyler. I'd rather burn the apothecary myself than let you own me."
Tyler's mask cracked. His hand shot out, fingers clamping around Claire's wrist with enough force to make her gasp.
"You think you have a choice?" His breath was hot against her face, his grip tightening until Claire's knees buckled. "Your mother is in Saint Mercy Hospital, room 304, protected only by nurses who work for minimum wage. I wonder how difficult it would be for an unauthorized visitor to access her room tonight. How long she would last if her medication was accidentally replaced with something else."
Claire went pale, all the fight draining out of her as the threat hit its mark.
In the shadows, Ethan's eyes flashed golden. Celestial qi surged through channels in his body. The temperature around him dropped as his control wavered for the first time since leaving Irongate.
Enough.
He stepped out of the darkness suddenly, and Tyler's bodyguards reached for weapons.
"Release her."
Tyler's head snapped around, his grip on Claire loosening in surprise.
"Who the hell are you?" Tyler's bravado returned quickly, fed by the three bodyguards flanking him. "This is a private conversation, street rat. Walk away before you regret it."
Ethan's gaze moved past Tyler to Claire. She was staring at him with confusion written across her face. Her lips parted as if on the verge of recognition but unable to cross the bridge from memory to reality.
Fifteen years of cultivation had changed him. Master Tian's training had refined his body and spirit.
"Last warning," Tyler said, his confidence bolstered by the three mages stepping forward. "Break his legs and throw him in the gutter where he belongs."
The bodyguards moved all at once, their copper-rank qi flaring as they channeled power into limbs and weapons. To ordinary eyes, they would have been blurs of motion, dangerous and lethal.
To Ethan, they moved through honey.
He did not even shift his stance or raise his hands. He simply breathed out, and with that exhalation, a pulse of celestial qi was released, making the air rippled.
All three bodyguards flew backward as if struck by a giant's fist. They crashed through the brick wall of the building across the street, their bodies punching holes through mortar and stone before they crumpled in a heap of broken cultivation channels.
Tyler stumbled backward, his face cycling in disbelief and shock. His hand fumbled in his pocket, activating the emergency beacon that would summon his father's personal guard.
"Who are you?" The words came out as a whisper. "What are you?"
Ethan took one step forward. Just one and Tyler flinched as if struck by lightning.
"He won't bother you tonight," Ethan said to Claire. "Or any night after."
Then he vanished.
Behind him, Claire stood frozen, her hand raised toward empty air. "That voice," she whispered to no one. "I know that voice."
Tyler was already running to his car, his survival instincts finally overriding his pride.
In the black Mercedes, Raymond Vane reviewed the footage he had captured. He uploaded the video to an encrypted server and dialed Damien Silvercrest again.
"Boss, you need to see this right now."
At Blackwood Estate, Tyler burst into his father's study where Victor Blackwood was reviewing Council documents with his daughter Scarlett. The words tumbled out of Tyler in a panicked rush, describing the mysterious cultivator and the impossible display of power.
"Describe him again."
"I don't know. Some nobody, but he moved like..." Tyler's hands shook as he tried to explain what he had witnessed. "Like the laws of cultivation don't apply to him. Father, his eyes were gold. True gold. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life"
Scarlett leaned forward, her sharp mind already working through different possibilities. "A mysterious protector for Claire Moonstone. Interesting timing, brother".
Tyler's face went blank. Then realization crept in like dawn over a battlefield. "Ethan Cross was released today."
"That pathetic fool?" Victor's laugh was dismissive. "He went into Irongate as a nobody and should have come out even less. Guards, activate the Council intelligence network. Find out who this cultivator is and what family backs him. I want answers by morning."
Ethan sat cross-legged on the bare floor. In his palm rested a single pill, innocuous white powder compressed into an innocent-looking tablet marked with Silvercrest Industries' logo.
"Vitality+," the label claimed. "Renewed energy. Enhanced focus. Live your best life."
Ethan's celestial senses pierced the pill's surface, diving deep into its spiritual structure. What he found there made his expression darken with fury.
Demonic cultivation marks. Parasitic qi formations designed to leech life force from the user while creating pathways for possession. Each pill was a doorway waiting to be opened, and Damien Silvercrest had distributed them throughout the city.
Ethan crushed the pill between his fingers. The powder exploded into dust, and within that dust, writhing dark qi parasites squirmed and died as his purifying energy burned them to nothing.
"They're not just stealing life force," Ethan said to the empty room."They're creating vessels for demonic possession. And I will make them regret it".