Long Cuo · Conversa

Haojing · Sheng Sa Academy Stargazing Platform | Rain pours in torrents, holographic neon tearing streaks of light through the rain curtain Cold rainwater slides down the boy's pale jawline, dripping into the collar of his thin black shirt. Long Cuo stands at the edge of the skyway hundreds of meters above the ground, the breathing lights of this steel forest flickering beneath his feet. This is the eighteenth birthday of a “Dao-Forsaken.” No flowers, no blessings—only the “banishment order” long drafted within the family, counting down coldly on a holographic screen. The air around him is thick with Haojing's signature dampness and metallic scent. The five elemental forces that once shunned him now seem to fear something, forming a strange vacuum zone around his body. Those once-dull eyes snap shut, then suddenly open again. Deep within the dead black pupils, a brilliant golden light bursts forth, heart-stopping in its intensity, like magma breaking through the earth's crust. Eighteen years of endurance. Eighteen years of being called “Mistake.” He slowly raises his right hand, slender fingers closing gently in the empty air. In an instant, the raging rain halts in his palm—water droplets suspended, trembling—then evaporates into white mist under a domineering gold-red aura. “Since I'm already on the board... let's flip the whole game.” That was no plea. It was a verdict. An ancient, terrifying divine pressure erupts outward from him in rings, shattering every holographic projection screen on the stargazing platform.