"Father lost the transit monopoly this afternoon." Dai Bo gripped his cracked smartphone and wept. "The banks froze our family accounts before sunset."The disgraced heir sat on the edge of a thin mattress inside a cramped disciplinary dormitory. The academy faculty stripped him of his luxury suite after he squandered his faction treasury on the courtyard wager. His custom silk robes were gone. He wore a coarse grey uniform issued to laborers working in the refinement yards."You called me away from my meditation to cry about nonsense economics." A cold voice echoed through the weak phone speaker.Dai Shan stood on a wind swept cliff in the northern mountain ranges. The older brother of the ruined bully wore the pristine white robes of the Iron Fist sect. He was a recognized martial arts prodigy who recently ascended to the third tier of external conditioning. He viewed the financial struggles of his family as tedious distractions from his pursuit of dominance."It is not just economi

The wooden walls of the disciplinary dormitory groaned under the weight of the humid night. Dai Bo stared at the bare concrete ceiling of his cramped cell. A single dim bulb flickered overhead casting long erratic shadows across the room. He clutched a crumpled eviction notice in his fist until the edges turned into soft pulp.His life lay in ruins. The academy bursar canceled his meal plan. The student union revoked his access to the private refining furnaces. His family bank accounts remained frozen and his father screamed at him through the phone about the disgrace he brought to the Dai name. He possessed nothing but the clothes on his back and a burning desire to see Ye Tian erased from existence.A shadow darkened the doorway.Dai Bo sat up and glared at the visitor. Professor Kang stood in the hallway holding a thick iron key to the dormitory block. He was a man with a reputation for selling exam answers to the highest bidder."You missed the payment deadline for the third time,

"The pot is turning red!" A nearby student abandoned his own workstation and backed away in terror."The pressure is building too fast!" Another initiate screamed while dropping his stirring rod on the granite slab. "The bronze is going to rupture."Panic spread through the rear rows of the courtyard. Students dropped their tools and scrambled toward the safety of the perimeter walls leaving their simmering medicines to burn. Dai Bo leaned over the spectator railing wearing a twisted cruel smile."She lost control of the heat!" Dai Bo shouted loud enough for the judges to hear. "She is a danger to the entire academy. Expel her before she kills us all."Doctor Yao stood up from her chair in the pavilion. She recognized the catastrophic glow of a failing crucible."Evacuate the rear quadrant." Doctor Yao ordered the academy guards. "The structural integrity of that cauldron is gone. The internal pressure is compressing the ambient oxygen.""Step away from the burner, initiate." The Head

"Secure the lead latches." Ye Tian commanded the vault guardian standing behind the obsidian counter.The armored guardian closed the metal box and slid it across the polished stone. Ye Tian rested his palm against the cold lead surface. He felt the warm golden pulse of the Sun Core Seed vibrating deep within the container. The rare spiritual catalyst possessed the solar resonance required to stabilize his mortal heart. It provided the temperature anchor he needed to survive the violent transition into the Core Formation stage.The Headmaster stood near the vault entrance wearing his formal golden threaded robes. He watched the young initiate claim the most valuable treasure in the provincial archives."The Sun Core Seed rested in that vault for six decades Mr. Ye." The Headmaster spoke with a tone of reluctant respect. "Generations of grandmasters requested access to that specific catalyst. We denied them all because they lacked the elemental comprehension to utilize its true power.

"Look at your champion now, Dai Bo." Ye Tian projected his voice across the rainy street toward the groveling bully near the academy gates.The ruined heir huddled in the mud clutching his wooden crutch. Dai Bo watched his older brother weep on the cracked asphalt. The towering martial arts prodigy possessed two mangled arms and zero remaining dignity. The absolute eradication of the Dai family threat was complete. They held no wealth and no champions left to challenge the sovereign."You promised me he was a peasant." Dai Shan choked on a sob and glared at his younger brother through the rain. "You sent me to die.""I did not know." Dai Bo stammered and backed away from the iron gates. Pure terror hijacked his nervous system. "He was sweeping floors yesterday.""Crawl back to your mountain sect." Ye Tian looked down at the weeping prodigy. "Tell your masters I broke their finest weapon with my bare hands. Tell them to stay out of Jiangbei."The wail of police sirens pierced the humid