Sovereign Ascendent: Bloodline Unleashed

Midnight Whispers,

The world outside was asleep when Su Mengtian cracked open the sealed note.

He had just finished another session of brutal solo training in the academy's underground weight sector. His knuckles were bruised, his shirt damp with sweat. The old punching bag swayed slowly from his final blow.

The envelope wasn't there when he began training.

He noticed it as he left the gym — a dark slip of wax-sealed paper stuck to the door of his locker, marked with a blood-red claw sigil. No one else had access to this sector at this hour.

Su Mengtian tore it open in a single motion.

It said "If you're tired of crawling...

If you're tired of being patient...

Come to Reactor Bridge 7. Tunnel 11C.

Midnight sharp. Come alone.

—K."

No signature beyond a single letter. But something about the paper—the scent of monster blood, the arcane ink, the way it shimmered faintly under artificial light—it reeked of forbidden practice. And danger.

Exactly what Su Mengtian needed.

That night, as he lay on his narrow dorm bed, staring at the cracked ceiling, the noise inside him grew louder.

It wasn't the ceiling fan.

It was the phantom roar.

A sound that began faint months ago after his near-death encounter with Zhao Wei. Since then, it had intensified each time his emotions spiked. The doctors blamed it on "awakening stress."

But Su Mengtian knew better.

It wasn't stress.

It was something inside him — something ancient, locked away, writhing like a beast in chains.

A power buried so deep, not even the Awakening Council's scanners could detect it.

He'd tried everything—focus exercises, ancient beast-mind breathing techniques, shadow-core meditation. Nothing soothed the beast inside him.

But the note promised answers.

And Mengtian didn't fear danger.

He had died once already.

What more could this world take from him?

Crimson Sky City looked different at night.

The luminous skyline was silent now. The thunder of shuttlecraft and beast-transport carriers died down with curfew. Patrol drones buzzed through the air, scanning for rogue monsters, vagrants, and... children breaking dorm orders.

Su Mengtian slipped through the outer perimeter using one of the tunnels he'd mapped weeks ago.

A rusted ventilation shaft behind the old sports wing.

The bridge was twenty kilometers out — a relic of the old city's infrastructure, built to supply energy to defense grids before the Second Rift Collapse. Now, it lay in decay.

Cracked pylons. Burnt power conduits. Debris half-consumed by vine and rust.

Tunnel 11C was beneath the main bridge base. It required crawling through a beast nest tunnel—recently abandoned, judging by the dried ichor and shredded fur on the edges.

Su Mengtian dropped silently into the tunnel.

And the scent of old blood hit him.

He wasn't alone.

Three figures emerged from the tunnel gloom.

They stood in a triangular formation, faces cloaked in shadow. Only the one in the center stepped forward—a tall teen, probably 16, with a faded mask made of beast chitin and a black coat laced with crimson cords.

"You came," the masked one said.

His voice was gravel and silk.

"You're either brave… or desperate."

"Both," Su Mengtian replied. "Name?"

"Kaisen."

"And the others?"

"My brothers. Initiates of the Forgotten Hall. You're not here to meet them. You're here for the Trial."

Su Mengtian didn't blink. "Then let's begin."

Kaien tilted his head slightly, intrigued.

"No fear. I like that."

He turned, motioning Mengtian to follow.

"Walk with me. The shadow awaits. "

The deeper they walked, the more ancient the structure became.

Walls no longer bore signs of modern architecture.

Instead, they were carved with beast glyphs—runes that pulsed faintly with living light. Some were warning sigils. Others were summoning seals. Still others… were prison wards.

Kaien ran a hand over one as they passed

"Crimson Sky's original Awakening Temple used to be down here," he explained. "Before the high priests and scientists built the controlled awakening centers above. These walls were etched by the first bloodline warriors. Raw. Unfiltered."

Su Mengtian traced a glyph as he walked. It bit into his skin and shimmered faintly.

"Still active."

"Only for those with beast resonance. Which you clearly have."

"More than they think," Su Mengtian murmured.

Kaien paused.

"You've heard the roar, haven't you?"

Mengtian stopped cold.

"…How do you know?"

Kaien turned, eyes glowing beneath his mask.

"Because I hear it too.".....

Su Mengtian stared at Kaien. The dark-haired youth's eyes burned with something more than curiosity.

"You hear the roar too?"

Kaien's shoulders tensed, and for a moment, the bravado cracked.

"I was born in the Scarred District. My mother worked for a beast dissection unit. My father… I never met him. On my seventh birthday, I wandered into a ruptured gatezone looking for salvage cores."

He raised his palm.

The veins glowed faint green — distorted, cracked.

"I touched something I shouldn't have.

Something old. It left a mark… and a sound."

"The roar," Su Mengtian whispered.

Kaien nodded.

"It follows me in dreams. In fights. In the silence before a kill."

His expression hardened.

"They tried to purge me. Said my bloodline mutation was unstable. They branded me rogue-class. Denied me schooling. Threw me out."

"That's when you formed the Forgotten Hall?"

Kaien smiled bitterly.

"No. That came later. I wandered for months first. Survived by trading beast pelts and avoiding city scanners. Then I found others like me — misfits, rejects, early bloomers no one wanted to test."

He gestured around.

"This place became our temple. Our forge."

"And now?" Mengtian asked.

Kaien's mask tilted.

"Now I test others. I offer them what was denied me: power without permission."

They entered a massive chamber.

Ancient pillars lined the walls — cracked, etched with primal glyphs glowing violet and silver. In the center lay a large circular ritual pit filled with beast bone dust and fragments of black crystals. Around it, nine symbols were carved into the floor.

Kaien stepped forward.

"This is the Shadow Circle. It predates Crimson Sky itself."

He handed Su Mengtian a black orb. It pulsed faintly.

"Place this at the center. Then sit within the ring. Your soul will do the rest."

Mengtian stepped forward without hesitation.

The air within the circle felt different. Denser. As if gravity itself bent to ancient laws here.

He placed the orb.

Sat cross-legged.

Closed his eyes.

And the world disappeared.

Su Mengtian opened his eyes…

And found himself standing on an obsidian platform floating in the middle of a void sea.

Above him, stars bled light.

Around him, winds howled with the voices of forgotten beasts.

Before him floated a shattered throne, bound together by chains of gold.

And then—three beings emerged from the void.

A wolf-headed titan, its body cloaked in silver mist and shadow.

A serpent coiled around a dying sun, its tongue split into endless tongues of flame.

A winged being of shadow, with no face—only a bleeding crown.

They circled him like judges.

Then a voice, deep and many-layered, spoke from all directions.

It murmured "Su Mengtian. Echo of war. Soul reborn.

You have come bearing the mark of flame and vengeance.

Speak your truth."

He did not flinch.

"I seek strength. Not for conquest, not for pride. But to protect what I lost."

The serpent hissed.

It said "Protection requires dominance.

Will you crush what stands in your path?"

Mengtian's hands clenched.

He saw Yueying's face again — that last battlefield moment, her body slipping from his arms.

He remembered his men screaming as they burned.

His command shattered.

"Yes."

The winged faceless being glowed brighter.

It asked "Will you bear the weight of legacy?

Will you reshape fate itself?"

Su Mengtian looked up into the void.

His voice was calm.

"Yes. No matter what it costs me."

The void shook.

Lightning poured from the sky, striking his chest.

His body exploded in pain.

He screamed—silently—as energy surged through him.

Three symbols appeared,

The Fang of the Wolf burned into his back.

The Serpent's Flame Crown coiled around his heart.

The Faceless Crown's Wings wrapped around his soul.

The three forces clashed within him, spiraling, tearing, fusing—

Until—

A new symbol emerged from the chaos.

Nine golden fangs.

A winged crown bleeding light.

And a serpent eye at the center, watching all.

The platform cracked.

The world collapsed.

Su Mengtian's body arched in real space.

Kaien and his initiates stepped back as a golden aura burst from the circle.

The blood and dust evaporated.

Su Mengtian floated—his feet inches off the ground, body wrapped in golden-black energy.

Then his eyes opened.

Not just glowing.

Burning.

Kaien whispered in awe.

"…Triple-signature resonance. That's god-tier."

"No," another initiate breathed. "That's something older."

Su Mengtian stepped forward, steam rising from his skin.

"I saw them. The ancients."

Kaien's voice was hoarse. "What are you now?"

Mengtian looked at his hands, flexing fingers as veins glowed gold beneath his skin.

"A beginning. A warning. And a promise."

The moment he stepped out of the circle, the chamber began to shake.

Pillars cracked.

Beast glyphs flared red.

Kaien shouted. "You overloaded the anchor seals! Everyone out!"

Rubble fell.

Mengtian's heartbeat tripled. His newly awakened power surged out of control. His chest burned.

He stumbled—

Kaien caught him.

"Breathe. Pull it in. It's not done fusing."

They sprinted through collapsing tunnels, beast dust choking the air.

The roar in Su Mengtian's head became deafening.

He dropped to one knee as they reached the surface.

Kaien knelt beside him. "Fight it. Control it. Or it'll burn you."

Mengtian slammed his fists to the ground, panting.

"I've fought worse."

And slowly… the roar subsided.

The power coiled inside him.

Not docile—but waiting.

Back at the surface, beneath the cracked sky of Crimson Sky's outer sectors, Kaien handed him a forged ring—black iron, etched with the Forgotten Hall's fanged emblem.

"You're one of us now."

Su Mengtian nodded.

"But I won't stop here."

Kaien smirked. "Didn't think you would."

Mengtian's gaze hardened.

"This is just the beginning. I'll build something greater. Stronger. A home for people like us."

Kaien raised an eyebrow. "A new Hall?"

"No," Mengtian said, standing.

"A Kingdom."