1: Chapter 1 Dead Ash Mine

"Next, Lu Jingyao!"

On the Awakening Plaza, the silver-white divine pattern array suddenly lit up.

Sixteen pillars of light shot up from the ground, like an inverted temple, lifting the youth standing in the center.

Clad in a black and gold school uniform, the youth had an arrogant demeanor. As he raised his hand and pressed it against the Awakening Stele, a layer of crimson first appeared on the surface, followed immediately by an explosion of fire waves!

Roar!

An illusory image of a lizard dragon covered in Flame Scales charged out from the firelight with its head held high. Its wings were half-spread, and its scales, like red-hot iron sheets, scorched the surrounding air until it distorted.

The entire venue went silent for a moment, then erupted into an uproar.

"Flame Scale Lizard Dragon!"

"Fire Marsh divine domain! A hot, top-tier path!"

"Compatibility eighty-six! Senior Lu Jingyao is set. He will definitely be one of the city's seeds this year!"

The big screen on the high platform refreshed simultaneously.

[Awakened: Lu Jingyao]

[Divine Domain Embryo: Crimson Molten Marsh]

[Initial Kin: Flame Scale Lizard Dragon]

[Comprehensive Rating: A]

The evaluator's eyes lit up, and his voice carried through the amplification magic array to the entire venue: "With the Fire Marsh as the base and the Lizard Dragon as the vanguard, he possesses both offense and defense, and his talent is outstanding. Currently ranked first in this year's Qinglan City Awakening Ceremony!"

On the viewing stands, the Lu family erupted in laughter.

"Good!"

"I knew Lu Jingyao was the face of our Lu family's generation!"

"With Lu Jingyao here, half of our Lu family's spots for the top divine academies this year are secured."

Applause, praise, and compliments rushed toward the center like a tide.

Only the corner near the waiting area was eerily quiet.

Lu Jin stood there, his school uniform washed until it turned pale, the cuffs frayed.

He was half a head taller than Lu Jingyao on the stage, but his expression was colder than anyone else's, as if this grand ceremony for sixteen-year-olds had nothing to do with him.

Someone glanced at him, their voice not exactly hushed.

"Doesn't the Lu family still have a Lu Jin?"

"That one? Three years ago, his father died in battle in the outer domains, half the resource lines were cut, and the family couldn't be bothered to invest in him anymore."

"I heard his theoretical grades were okay, but when it comes to awakening, it ultimately depends on one's foundation."

"Foundation? What does he have to compare with Lu Jingyao?"

Another burst of low laughter.

Lu Jin did not look back.

At the very edge of the viewing stands, the nameplates belonging to the Lu family were arranged neatly, but his name was the only one missing.

Above the plaza, Lu Jingyao had already walked down from the awakening platform, surrounded by teachers, clan members, and camera projections resembling reporters.

Some handed him the family badge, some congratulated him, and others were already discussing the Unified Exam, leagues, and special admissions to divine academies.

As he stepped off the stage, he just glanced toward the waiting area with a smirk.

That gaze was like fire—hot, but not from temperature; it was contempt.

"Next, Lu Jin."

When the Awakening Officer read the name, the scene clearly paused for a moment.

Many people turned their heads.

Some recognized him, their eyes showing interest in watching the spectacle.

Lu Jin stepped forward, walked through the blindingly bright divine pattern array, and onto the central awakening platform.

The divine patterns beneath his feet vibrated gently.

Ice cold.

It felt like stepping onto a piece of iron buried in a cold night.

"Reach out and press the stele."

The evaluator was professional, his tone much flatter than before.

Lu Jin pressed his hand onto it.

The Awakening Stele did not react at first.

Above the plaza, the sound of the wind stalled slightly.

Three breaths.

Five breaths.

Someone below couldn't help but laugh: "He wouldn't even be able to open a divine domain, right?"

"If that really happens, it will be quite the spectacle."

At the seventh breath, a sharp pain shot through Lu Jin's brow.

It was like a very thin needle piercing directly into the deepest part of his consciousness through his flesh.

The world went black in an instant.

The noise, the gazes, the sunlight, the plaza—everything vanished.

He felt as if he had fallen into a bottomless well.

There was no water at the bottom of the well, only ash.

Boundless ash.

It was a world of deathly silence.

The sky hung low, like burnt iron sheets, and grayish-black dust fell silently from the sky.

The ground was riddled with holes, filled everywhere with collapsed mine shafts, broken wooden tracks, and pillars burnt down to half their length.

In the distance, several crooked ventilation towers stood, their bodies long rotted away, leaving only black silhouettes embedded in the fog.

There were no rivers, no forests, no wind.

Only a smell of scorching that had lingered for years.

Lu Jin looked down and saw something moving by his feet.

A small, grayish-black creature crawled out from the soil, its tail slender, incisors protruding, and crimson eyes filled with instinctive vigilance. It stared at him for a moment before immediately retreating into a crack.

A second one.

A third one.

Dense swarms of Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats emerged from the crevices of the surrounding abandoned mines like a layer of dirty tide; their numbers were large, yet they were pitifully weak.

They gnawed on slag and rummaged for broken bones, their very movements filled with the impatience and panic of long-term starvation.

Lu Jin's gaze did not linger on the rat swarm.

He looked deeper.

At the bottom of the largest collapsed mine shaft, where the gray fog was thickest, a pitch-black silhouette stood vaguely.

Like a furnace.

Or like a gate.

Like a colossal furnace buried deep within the earth, with only a cracked edge exposed.

The next instant, a faint, dark red light lit up from that crack.

Like a sleeping eye, it opened for a moment.

Lu Jin's heart jolted violently.

The black fragment he wore close to his chest grew slightly warm at this moment.

But before he could see clearly, the entire silent Dead Ash Mine shook violently, and his consciousness was forcibly dragged back by a tremendous force!

Boom!

On the awakening platform, the divine patterns erupted with a halo of grayish-white light.

Neither dazzling nor intense.

It was even somewhat unsightly.

Like a handful of furnace ash blown away by the wind.

The big screen above the plaza lagged for a beat before finally displaying the awakening results.

[Awakened: Lu Jin]

[Divine Domain Embryo: Dead Ash Mine]

[Initial Kin: Gray-tailed Burrowing Rat]

[Comprehensive Rating: F]

First, silence.

Then, a commotion even louder than before erupted and spread.

"Dead Ash Mine?"

"The most useless mine system?"

"Gray-tailed Burrowing Rat? Besides digging holes and breeding, what else can this thing do?"

"It can run, hahaha!"

"I thought he could at least open a normal wasteland, but he ended up with a useless domain paired with trash kin—double uselessness, fully stacked."

A teacher on the high platform frowned, clearly disappointed: "The pollution rate is so high, the resource carrying capacity is low, and even basic faith production is barely enough."

Another examiner responsible for recording glanced at the data and shook his head directly: "The individual combat power of the Gray-tailed Burrowing Rat is extremely low; they cannot fight unless they form a system. The Dead Ash Mine doesn't produce any proper resources either. This kind of path... basically has no cultivation value."

The six words "no cultivation value" were transmitted with extreme clarity through the amplification array.

On the viewing stands, some didn't even bother to hide their reactions.

"The two people from the Lu family are truly like heaven and earth."

"One A-rank, one F-rank—hilarious."

"How glorious was Observer Lu Chenyuan back then? Who would have thought his son would awaken like this."

Mentioning this name, Lu Jin's eyes finally flickered slightly.

Observer Lu Chenyuan.

That was his father.

A frontier Divine Domain user officially conferred by the Military Court, who died on the outer domain battlefield three years ago, leaving behind only a cold death notice and a damaged black divinity fragment.

The Lu family used the word "condolences" to reclaim most of the resource lines, and the school tacitly removed him from the key cultivation list as well.

Today's awakening was just the last fig leaf.

Now, even that had been torn away.

"Lu Jin."

The evaluator looked at him with a flat tone, "The divine domain has high pollution and the kin have low potential. I suggest you abandon the main combat path and switch to studying logistics, faith studies, or basic divine domain maintenance. If there is no significant improvement in subsequent retests, the school will revoke your key cultivation status."

This was already considered euphemistic.

To be more blunt, it was just one sentence.

You are finished.

Someone below laughed out loud in a low voice.

Some were already feeling sorry for him, while others looked delighted, as if they had finally waited for this day.

Lu Jin, however, just withdrew his hand from the Awakening Stele.

He looked down at his palms.

The palm lines were steady; he was not shaking.

Then, he raised his head and looked at the evaluator, his voice not loud but very clear: "Understood."

No defense.

No unwilling roar.

Not a trace of the loss of composure typical of a youth after being insulted.

The evaluator was taken aback, seemingly not expecting him to be so calm.

The commotion below actually paused for a moment due to this calmness.

Lu Jingyao stood not far away, the lingering phantom of the Fire Marsh still hanging behind him.

He looked Lu Jin up and down and curled his lips slightly.

"Dead Ash Mine, Gray-tailed Burrowing Rat."

"They suit you well."

His voice was not loud, but it was enough for those around to hear.

Someone nearby immediately followed up with a laugh: "Brother Jingyao, don't say that, he is at least from the Lu family..."

"What of the Lu family?" another person said sarcastically, "A foil?"

Another burst of laughter.

Lu Jin looked at Lu Jingyao.

Their gazes collided in mid-air.

One like fire, one like iron.

The fire was showing off; the iron wasn't red-hot yet, but it was hard.

Lu Jingyao's smile deepened, he moved a step closer, and lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear.

"The resource line that Third Uncle left behind will be redistributed by the family very soon."

"Giving it to you is a waste."

Lu Jin looked at him, his tone so flat it was as if he hadn't heard the provocation.

"Whether it's distributed or not is not for you to decide."

Lu Jingyao laughed.

The laughter was full of contempt.

"What do you have to compete with?"

On the plaza, the amplification array was already calling the name of the next awakened person; new pillars of light rose, new exclamations appeared, as if everyone's attention had been quickly drawn away.

Lu Jin turned and walked down from the awakening platform.

The steps were not long.

But every step was taken steadily.

The ridicule remained, the discussion remained, but he didn't reply with a single word, his face devoid of even the slightest emotion, as if he treated all those voices as nothing but wind.

Only he himself knew.

The black fragment on his chest was getting hotter and hotter.

At first, it was just slightly warm.

By the time he reached the fifth step, the heat was already like a red-hot iron sheet pressed against his skin.

At the seventh step, the fragment suddenly jumped heavily.

Thump.

Like a heartbeat.

Lu Jin's footsteps paused slightly.

The noise in his ears faded away in an instant.

The sunlight before his eyes seemed to be covered by a layer of gray fog.

He seemed to see that Dead Ash Mine again.

He saw the ash flying.

He saw countless Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats curled up in the cracks.

He saw, at the deepest part of the mine, that pitch-black crack buried in the darkness, as if it had been heavily struck from within by something.

The next second.

The fragment began to vibrate crazily against his chest.