Kingdom Building

Nikole gestured for Michelle and Kelvin to sit up and pay close attention. "Listen carefully," she said, her tone serious. "What I'm about to tell you would change your reality right now, and you might never hear anything like it again." Taking a deep breath, Nikole began her tale: "Two hundred years ago, there were two brothers who ruled different lands. They found a special cup called the Nightshade Chalice, rumored to give whoever owned it incredible power and eternal life, jealousy tore the brothers apart, leading to a fierce battle over the chalice”. "The Nightshade Chalice was made from ancient gods' bones and filled with blood from many sacrifices," Nikole continued, making sure they understood . "Their father gave the chalice to Alaric, which made his brother Leopold very jealous. Leopold wanted the chalice for himself, so he attacked Alaric's kingdom during a lunar eclipse." As Nikole kept talking, Kelvin and Michelle started to feel a bit bored. They yawned a few times, and their eyes looked droopy, like they were struggling to stay awake. But Nikole noticed and stopped for a moment. She knew she had to make the story more interesting to keep their attention. "Wait," she said, sounding urgent, "this part is really important. You need to hear it." "The chalice can only be used by someone special, called the son of light, who guards a hidden realm with a secret seer. For two hundred years, the chalice has been dormant, its dark power sealed away by the seer's magic."

“I buried you,” the traitor whispered. “Then dig deeper,” Kaelen replied, voice like sand on steel, “because I’m not done rising.” Zaria stood behind him, the wind pulling strands of her hair like fire-dancers in the dusk. “Let them come,” she said. “We burn hotter together.” The masked woman landed beside them, blades humming with heat. “You still don’t get it,” Kaelen muttered, watching the desert pulse like a living thing. “Get what?” “This isn’t a fight for gold.” “Then what is it?” Kaelen smirked, cracked lips bloodied. “It’s the reckoning.” Kaelen was left for dead in the scorching sands of Sutekh; stripped of his name, his wife, and the child he never met. But the desert doesn’t forget. It carves vengeance into bone. Now, Kaelen rises from the ruins of betrayal as something more than a man: marked by ancient fire, hunted by his half-brother, and haunted by what he can’t remember. As he claws his way back through a kingdom built on secrets, one thing drives him: Zaria. His wife. Missing, maybe dead; or worse, weaponized by those who want to claim a legacy soaked in blood. But Zaria is no victim. Imprisoned and pregnant, she holds the key to an empire long thought dead. And when her twin sister emerges from the shadows to seize that power for herself, love becomes war — and the price of legacy is life itself. In a world where loyalty is a lie and prophecy demands sacrifice, Kaelen must decide: will he reclaim what was stolen; or burn it all to the ground? OF FLAME, SAND, AND GOLD is an epic fantasy of fire-forged vengeance, unbroken love, and the rebirth of a forgotten kingdom.

"DESTROY HIS DANTIAN!" Ma Durung shouted with a booming voice. Immediately, several disciples tightened their grip on Zhao Yun. The command from Ma Durung, the crown prince of the Ma Kingdom and a prodigious disciple of the Black Dragon Sect, was carried out without hesitation by his subordinates. Zhao Yun, forced to kneel with both his hands firmly restrained by two of Ma Durung's followers, was in a dire situation. His mouth was gagged with cloth, silencing any attempt to cry for help. Worse, his qi flow had been sealed by Ma Durung's personal guards, rendering him powerless to resist. With desperation in his eyes, Zhao Yun glanced toward his three closest friends. His gaze pleaded for their help, a silent cry for salvation. But to his dismay, his friends turned their faces away, avoiding his gaze entirely. Witnessing their betrayal, Zhao Yun could only grimace inwardly. Those he had considered friends, those he had always helped, had stabbed him in the back. A young, innocent man, left crippled with his dantian destroyed, the victim of envy from a royal prince and the betrayal of his three closest friends—this betrayal filled Zhao Yun with a profound sense of disbelief and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance. As he fought to survive the despair threatening to consume him, Zhao Yun was unexpectedly saved by a figure he deeply admired, someone he had always looked up to. Unbeknownst to him, this savior would present Zhao Yun with a choice that would shape his future. Will Zhao Yun redefine his purpose in life? What fate awaits him as he steps into an uncertain future?