The storm had rolled in without warning.
Thunder cracked like ancient war drums over the Tokyo skyline, casting electric shadows across the rooftop of the University of Natural Sciences. Rain hammered the windows in sheets, and the air itself felt heavy—charged.
Inside Lab C, where most students never dared to linger after dark, Jiang Chen stood alone. The lab was dimly lit, the only illumination coming from the sparks dancing across the copper coils on his workstation. He was tall and lean, with sharp eyes that gleamed behind silver-rimmed glasses. His white lab coat was slightly singed, but he didn't care.
He wasn't supposed to be there.
Tonight wasn't about safety. It wasn't about grades.
It was about the truth.
On the whiteboard behind him, physics equations and Taoist symbols clashed in chalk—a fusion of science and esoteric mysticism that only he believed could work. His professors had laughed at him, saying no modern method could access what they called "Qi"—life energy. But Jiang Chen was different.
He had always been different.
Jiang Chen reached for the switch beside the glowing crystal core embedded within a Tesla coil array. "If I'm right," he whispered to himself, "this will prove the connection between consciousness and dimensional energy."
He hesitated for only a moment—then flipped the switch.
The machine roared to life.
Plasma arcs shot through the air, lashing at the metal conduits. The room shimmered, the air rippling like a disturbed lake. Then—
BOOM!
A bolt of lightning, unnatural and blinding, tore down from the heavens and struck the rooftop dome directly above Lab C.
The glass shattered. Light surged through the room in a pillar of divine fire.
Jiang Chen screamed as the force hurled him backward. Symbols from the whiteboard leapt into the air, glowing like runes carved into the void.
Everything around him began to dissolve—walls, machines, even the ground. Time slowed. The storm outside vanished.
All that remained was light.
Then—darkness.
He floated.
There was no body, no pain. Just consciousness. Awareness.
And then, a voice.
"O child who has touched the boundary between realms..."
The voice echoed across the cosmos.
"You have defied the heavens. Thus, you shall inherit the stars."
In that moment, Jiang Chen felt every particle of his being collapse and expand at once. His soul was caught in a current—not water, not wind, but force. Something ancient. Something intelligent.
Images flashed before his eyes: constellations swirling in endless patterns, celestial beasts roaring in the void, titanic beings meditating atop burning suns.
A book appeared—its pages infinite, glowing with light not of this world.
Endless Star Sutra.
As his soul touched the book, a searing mark burned itself into his essence: a star-shaped sigil with nine radiant points.
Let the star be born anew.
The real world returned with pain.
But it wasn't Tokyo.
Jiang Chen gasped awake, his lungs burning. The air smelled of dust and blood. His body ached, frail and unfamiliar.
He was lying on stone.
Above him, the sky was violet, scattered with three moons. Towering mountain peaks loomed in the distance, their summits hidden by swirling clouds. Around him were shattered fragments of a broken stone altar, carved with symbols similar to those he had seen on the sutra.
"Where...?" he croaked.
Footsteps echoed.
Three men approached, cloaked in robes bearing a shattered star emblem. One sneered. "Still alive, Jiang trash?"
Another kicked him in the ribs, and Jiang Chen coughed blood. "Your meridians are gone. You're not even worth killing again."
"Be glad the elders showed mercy," said the last one. "Next time, we'll make sure you die properly."
They left, laughing.
Jiang Chen gritted his teeth.
His memories returned slowly—memories not his own. A young boy with the same name. A proud clan. Betrayal. His own cousin destroying his spiritual core to take his position.
But now… he was Jiang Chen.
And something inside him pulsed.
A warm light flickered in his chest. The star sigil burned, invisible but present.
Star Core dormant… initializing astral system...
Jiang Chen closed his eyes.
And smiled.
You tried to erase me.
But I am reborn.