Kirin didn’t even get a second to prepare.The instant he stepped into the lightning stream, the lightning hit him in the chest with a force he had never imagined. It wasn’t like the wild bursts he created from his own core. It wasn’t like the chaotic, unstable lightning he summoned when he lost control. This was different. This was divine lightning, and it did not welcome him. It rejected him so violently.The first strike hit him like a spear. The second felt like a thousand needles stabbing into his nerves. The third tore the breath out of his lungs so completely he forgot what breathing felt like.Then the pain truly started.Kirin staggered, unable to keep his balance. His knees slammed into the rocky ground. His fingers twitched uncontrollably as the lightning carved into him, refusing to stop for even a heartbeat. His skin began to glow, then crackle, then melt. The burning spread faster than his mind could process it.One second he had skin.The next, it was gone.The lightnin

Kirin woke up with no warning, he didn't dream and he more or less had no memory.Just a sharp inhale, like someone had dragged him up from the bottom of the ocean.His eyes snapped open, and the first thing he saw was the sky... dark, smoky, and full of rumbling clouds that flickered with distant lightning. The second thing he saw was a small fire crackling beside him, warming the cold mountain air. The third was Rem, sitting cross legged by the flames, calmly roasting strips of meat over a stick like nothing in the world was bothering him.Kirin blinked a few times. His vision was blurry, his mind still floating somewhere between consciousness and whatever state he had been in last. Every breath felt unfamiliar. His own heartbeat didn’t even feel like it belonged to him.“…Rem?” Kirin muttered, voice rough like he had swallowed stones. “What… what happened?”Rem didn’t answer immediately. He flipped the meat, watching the juices drip into the fire. Only when the crackling sound fade

The new lightning stream roared above the jagged peaks of Mount Sumi, cascading down in endless streaks of blinding white blue. Kirin’s eyes squinted, but even behind the natural barrier of his eyelids, the brilliance of divine energy pierced him like shards of frozen fire. He stood at the edge of the stone precipice, Rem behind him, calm as ever.“It’s… bigger,” Kirin said, voice barely audible over the roar of the storm. “Why is this one different?”Rem tilted his head, gazing at the torrent of lightning. “It’s cleaner,” he said finally, his tone casual but precise. “Better for controlling the polarity when moving from one point to another. Timing, flow, harmonics… things you can’t really see, but you just feel.” He shrugged. “You’ll figure it out.”Kirin’s brows furrowed. “Figures. You always leave the hard parts for me to figure out.”Rem smirked. “That’s what teachers do, genius. And besides, it’s dangerous. You’d blow yourself to pieces if I held your hand through it.”The words

Kirin’s eyes shot open to the chill of Mount Sumi’s early morning mist. The air smelled of wet stone and pine, but beneath it was something else—an electric tang that set his teeth on edge. His body ached in ways it hadn’t before, deep in the bones, where it felt like something ancient had stirred. He sat up slowly, every movement deliberate, wary. There was a pulse within him that wasn’t there yesterday—or last week. Or ever. It thrummed beneath his skin, warm and alien, as though something had been waiting for this very moment his entire life.He flexed his fingers, expecting nothing, but instead felt it. Not Chaos Lightning or Divine Lightning. Something else entirely. A slow, deliberate current of energy—vast, raw, primordial. It coiled inside him, indifferent to his attempts to grasp it, and yet it was undeniably there. Every heartbeat echoed with its presence. He swallowed hard, a cold bead of sweat rolling down his temple, as the laughter began—soft at first, almost a whisper,

Morning hit the Central City like a hammer. The moment the first sunray touched the arena grounds, the place exploded with noise. Kirin had never seen so many people packed into one location. Not even the academy festivals came close to this madness. Thousands of voices blended into a chaotic roar, making the air vibrate.But the arena itself was deadly calm.A massive circular coliseum, white stone, layers of seating rising like stacked mountains. Five enormous banners hung from the highest archways, each carrying the emblem of a faction. Lightning, Fire, Water, Darkness, Wind. They swayed slowly in the early breeze, almost as if acknowledging the crowd below.In the center stood two hundred and fifty cultivators, each wearing colors of their faction. Some stood tall with confidence; others scratched their necks nervously. A few had already started sizing each other up like they were mentally choosing who to crush first.Kirin stood among the Rank 2 group, quiet and unreadable, his n