The hall was still a war zone. Shouts, gunfire, broken marble, shattered wealth, it was all still going down. But amidst it, a storm moved with purpose. Caleb Flynn stood frozen for a beat, Kai’s words echoing in his head. It was my mother’s. Every strange pull he'd felt toward the man suddenly made sense or at least began to. The aura, the instinct to protect him in silence, the subconscious drive to show up every time Kai stepped into danger, this wasn’t random. This wasn’t normal. Something was off. And it ran deeper than they both realized. But before Caleb could even wrap his head around it, Kai appeared beside him again, moving like he’d just teleported through a hurricane. With a low grunt, Kai grabbed a thug by the vest, flipped him mid-air, and slammed him straight into the remains of a mahogany table without missing a beat. “You planning to keep staring or fight?” Kai snapped, flicking blood off his fingers as another two men rushed from the right. Caleb bli

Still in the dim corner of the quiet bar, Kai wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and leaned back lazily. Caleb stood calmly by the window, his arms crossed, looking like a man who had all the answers in the world but was allergic to sharing them.Then, just as Kai was about to mock him for being mysterious again, Caleb flicked his fingers casually in the air.A soft pulse of energy spread across the room but nothing moved. No glass shattered. No dramatic sparks. But Kai felt it. Something invisible shifted. His right eye reacted on instinct, flaring faintly as it detected the wave.Suddenly, Caleb's form split into three shadows for a second, twisted, then came back together like the air itself had hiccuped. It was silent. Clean. Controlled.And it hit Kai hard.“What the hell was that?” Kai narrowed his eyes.Caleb shrugged like he’d just tied his shoelaces. “A warm-up. You saw it. Others can’t.”“You mean I just got hit with a sneak peek of your power pack and you're acting l

Kai remained seated at the center of the formation, surrounded by ancient carvings, the air thick with silent pressure. This place Caleb had chosen wasn’t just quiet, it was sacred. Everything from the shape of the stones to the natural slope of the land was designed to help energy circulate more purely. The surrounding woods were unusually still, as if the natural world itself had paused to witness something.He could feel the qi in the air. It wasn’t just floating, it was watching, waiting, coiling around him like it had a will of its own. He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and reached inward. Ever since yesterday, when Caleb taught him how to guide the flow, something had shifted. His body wasn’t resisting the energy anymore. It was recognizing it.Caleb stood several meters away, silent, arms crossed, saying nothing. He didn’t need to. The moment was Kai’s to own.Without warning, the array beneath Kai's body activated. Ancient lines carved into the stone began to glow with

It had been two full weeks since Kai started training under Caleb, and to say he’d changed would be putting it lightly.His once casual movements were now sharper, precise, his reflexes honed through endless drills, spiritual resistance sessions, and energy balancing exercises that made him ache in places he didn’t know existed. Gone was the reckless man who once relied solely on instinct. In his place stood someone who understood power, respected it, and wielded it with control.Each morning began before sunrise with qi circulation routines and stance correction. By midday, he was buried in scrolls filled with techniques, from fire burst displacement to mid-air combat shifts. At night, he sat in medicinal baths, boiling with spiritual herbs that melted the tension from his bones while cleansing his meridians. Caleb had told him this was the way of true cultivators. Kai had called it torture disguised as tradition.But the results spoke for themselves.He was no longer in the eighth l

Kai stood in the middle of the blood-soaked place, surrounded by broken concrete, and corpses that hadn't even finished cooling. His jaw ticked as he exhaled sharply through his nose, eyes scanning the carnage one last time.“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, shoving his hand through his hair.He glanced around again, shaking his head slightly.“They really thought this would work?”He sighed, kicked one of the motionless bodies out of his way, and muttered, “I hope whoever sent you is watching this. Take notes. Next time, send someone with a brain.”He stepped out into the open air, the evening breeze brushing against his sweat-dampened shirt as he headed toward his car. He could still feel the lingering warmth of the fire energy in his limbs, the shadow essence pulsing quietly through his core. The fight had ended, but his spirit was still coiled, ready for more.Kai opened the car door, slid into the driver’s seat, and grabbed his phone. He had one call to make.Ella.He hit