Return of The Forsaken Heir

Leo walked down the road of Dragonfall City with a warm smile on his lips. For ten years, he had stayed inside a freezing mountain pool with nine heavy iron chains cutting into his flesh. Every single day, he bled and suffered in silence until he finally woke his dragon mark and broke free.

He hurried through the rain toward the small straw hut that sat near the broken city walls. The grand palace of his ancestors was gone leaving only this leaky shelter in the mud. Still, his chest filled with deep joy because his loved ones were waiting just past the creaking wooden door.

Inside the damp room, his father Thomas sat in dirty rags with white cloths tied over his blind eyes. Beside the old man lay Lily, her legs bent and broken from cruel beatings she had suffered in the past. Leo rushed across the room and dropped to his knees, pulling them both into his arms.

"Father... Lily... I am finally back," Leo choked out, his voice cracking as tears spilled down his cheeks. Thomas’s trembling fingers reached blindly into the air, weeping hysterically as he traced Leo's face in absolute disbelief. Lily buried her face into his neck, sobbing violently as ten excruciating years of nightmares and hopeless longing shattered into overwhelming relief.

"My son, the heavens have brought you back to us alive," Thomas cried out as tears ran down his cheeks."Big brother, we waited for you every day." Lily sobbed while holding his shirt.They truly believed their long nightmare of hunger and cruelty had finally come to an end.

Suddenly, Four masked killers dressed in black clothes stepped inside with long steel daggers drawn in their hands. Behind them walked a young woman wearing the clean, shining white silk robes of the Sky-Sword Sect. Her eyes burned with a dark red anger, and her unsheathed blade hummed with killing intent.

It was Victoria, the girl Leo had loved with all his heart since they were small children. Leo stood up with a bright and relieved smile, taking a quick step forward to greet her. "victoria, you came," Leo said warmly. "Why do you look so angry? Aren't you happy to see me alive?"

"Do not move another inch, you dirty beggar," Victoria shouted, her voice colder than the falling ice. She lunged forward in a blur, pressing the sharp tip of her sword directly against Leo’s neck. A small line of blood ran down his skin, but Leo did not panic or step back.

"I did not come to celebrate your return, Leo," Victoria said, her eyes flashing with deadly hatred. "I came to end your miserable life right here in this mud where you belong." She held the blade firm against his throat, ready to cut his life short without any hesitation or pity.

Leo looked directly into her cold eyes, his face calm and unyielding despite the sharp steel against his skin. "You want to kill me?" Leo asked softly, his voice carrying no fear or tears at all. "After ten years apart, what did I ever do to you to deserve death from your hand?"

Victoria curled her lips in bitter disgust, laughing with a cold mockery that echoed through the quiet hut. "What did you do?" she sneered, leaning her pale face close enough for him to feel her icy breath. "You cursed me with your filthy, disgusting blood, and you ruined my proud name forever!"

Thomas gasped from the corner of the room, his blind face turning as pale as fresh snow in fear. "victoria, please do not say such cruel words! My son sliced his own chest open ten years ago just to save your life from the poison!"

"Shut your mouth, you blind old fool!" Victoria snapped, not even bothering to look at the trembling father. She glared back at Leo, her voice shaking with intense resentment that had poisoned her mind for years. "You thought you were a noble hero, but all you did was attach a shameful chain to my neck!"

"You were dying in my arms from the frost poison, Victoria," Leo said in a quiet and heartbreaking tone. "Your breath had stopped, your lips were blue, and no doctor could melt the ice in your veins. I gave you my Dragon Heart-Blood because I loved you, and I wanted you to live."

"And that blood is the greatest humiliation of my life!" Victoria screamed, her face twisting with bitter pride. "Look at me now! I am the top genius of the Sky-Sword Sect, praised everywhere for my pure-ice body!" She gripped her sword tightly, her knuckles turning white as she remembered the secret she hid from the world.

"My pure-ice talent only awakened because of your dragon blood," she hissed with venom. "Every single time the elders praise my power, I feel sick remembering that a beggar’s blood runs inside my veins. If the noble sects ever discover the truth, they will call me a parasite who stole from trash!"

"A parasite?" Leo asked, his eyes looking through her angry mask with deep and quiet sorrow. "Is that what you think you are? We never asked you for a single coin, and we never asked for praise." He had given her his future, but she only saw his sacrifice as an ugly stain on her clothes.

"I refuse to owe my life to a ruined family living in the dirt!" Victoria yelled loudly. "I will never bow my head to a beggar, and I will never let anyone say I owe my glory to you! The only way to clean my reputation and erase this shameful debt is to wash my blade in your blood!"

"For ten years, I was chained in a freezing pool," Leo said quietly, standing tall. "Every single day, my bones were crushed because I gave you my blood. I suffered in complete silence just so you could live a wonderful life."

Victoria laughed coldly, her eyes filled with hate. "Nobody asked you to be a fool! You were just a stray dog trying to buy my love." She pushed her sharp sword harder against his neck, and blood began to drip down his shirt.

Leo looked straight into her eyes without any fear. "If killing me makes you happy, go ahead, Victoria. Take the life of the boy who saved you. But remember—every breath you take belongs to me."

Her face twisted in sudden anger. His calm, fearless words hurt her deeper than any blade, driving her into a wild rage. 

"Stop looking at me with those eyes!" Victoria shrieked, swinging her sword with all her might. The sharp blade cut across Leo's chest, tearing through his clothes and leaving a bloody wound. Thomas screamed in terror from the corner, while Lily sobbed loudly and tried to crawl forward.

"Beat this useless beggar to death!" Victoria commanded her four masked guards with cold disgust. "Do not let his filthy hands touch my clean robes, just break every bone in his body!" The killers shouted, lunging forward with their sharp iron daggers aimed straight at Leo's head.

Leo did not summon his golden dragon power or reveal any magical light. Using only the raw physical strength he forged under ten years of heavy iron chains, he stepped forward like a mountain. His bare fists smashed through the air, shattering their weapons and knocking all four guards into the mud.

"Useless trash!" Victoria hissed, She was shocked as her guards groaned helplessly on the floor. Realizing ordinary men could not harm him, she stepped over their bleeding bodies with a cold sneer. Her pure-ice energy erupted around her body, freezing the falling rain into deadly spikes of white frost.

"Big brother, please run away!" Lily cried out in terror. Leo did not take a single step back, planting his feet firmly in the mud to act as an unyielding wall. He knew that if he moved aside, her steel would instantly strike his sister.

Leo could have crushed victoria in a heartbeat, but his master's strict warning rang like thunder in his mind. If you reveal your dragon power now, the Seven Sects will unite and use your blind father and crippled sister as human shields. To protect his family and keep his true identity hidden from the world, Leo chose to endure her wrath with only his bare flesh.

Victoria attacked like a wild storm, slashing his chest and kicking his bruised ribs without an ounce of mercy. Leo stood tall in the freezing muck, absorbing every cruel cut without letting out a single cry of pain. Blood poured down his torn clothes and pooled around his boots, but his feet remained locked to the ground.

"Kneel down!" Victoria screamed in fury, kicking his knee with all the strength in her iron boot. "Kneel down in the dirt and beg me for mercy now!" Leo’s leg shook violently, but he locked his joints and forced his body to remain standing.

"I am the true heir of this city, victoria," Leo rasped through bloody teeth, his eyes burning with an unbroken fire. "A dragon stands tall through the storm, and I will never bend my knee to a traitor like you." His unyielding pride made her feel small and weak, pushing her over the edge of madness.

"Then go to hell and take your dirty blood with you!" Victoria screamed at the top of her lungs. She gathered all her ice power into her blade until the metal burned with a blinding light. With a loud shriek of pure hatred, she thrust the sword straight toward Leo's heart to end his life.

As the sharp point reached his chest, Leo slightly flicked his right fingers behind his coat. An invisible pulse of his awakened dragon bloodline power shot out into the air between them without any light. The hidden force exploded like an ancient thunderclap, striking the incoming sword right at its sharp tip.

"What... what is this?!" Victoria gasped as the invisible force slammed into her blade.

Before she could brace herself, an agonizing shockwave shot through the metal, bending it into a violent curve. Blood burst from her palms as her hands went completely numb, sending her stumbling backward in sheer disbelief. At the exact same moment, the four masked assassins were lifted off the ground by an unseen tempest and hurled straight out the doorway.

"How are you doing this?!" Victoria shrieked, dropping to one knee as she fought for breath, staring at him with wide, trembling eyes.

Leo simply stood his ground, his voice calm and unyielding. "You wanted to wash your blade in my blood, Victoria. But you cannot destroy what you never truly understood."

Convinced an ancient defensive ward left by his ancestors had just triggered, Victoria panted heavily, her gaze fixed on the quiet hut in absolute terror. 

She forced her legs to stand, gripping her ruined and bent sword with bleeding fingers as terror gripped her chest. "You got very lucky today, beggar," Victoria gasped out, her voice trembling with hatred. "Your dead ancestors cannot protect this broken straw hut forever, and your borrowed time is running out."

She pointed the blade at his face, giving him one last warning before she turned to leave. "The Seven Sects will hold the Dragon Throne Council in three days at the main city square," Victoria declared coldly. "Bring the Dragon Sovereign Edict to the square and surrender it to me, or I will return and butcher your family!"