Swallowed Star: Heavenbreaker

The alien scout's body twitched, blue light fading from its ruined optics. Lin Xuan crouched beside it, fingers resting lightly on the shattered breastplate. He could feel the faint hum of residual energy, a pulse of foreign technology unlike anything this world had birthed.

Flesh and machine fused seamlessly… he mused, eyes narrowing. A scout-class construct, designed for infiltration and reconnaissance. Its creators are near.

He closed his eyes, pressing his palm against the scout's exposed cranial interface. Threads of Primordial Qi seeped into the construct, invasive and relentless, prying open the encrypted neural lattice. Information spilled forth in chaotic fragments — alien glyphs, impressions of starfields, and flashes of something vast and predatory watching from afar.

And beneath it all, a single name burned itself into his mind: Eternal Shadows.

Lin Xuan's eyes snapped open, silver light flickering in their depths. The Eternal Shadows were not merely a faction; the name carried the weight of an ancient dread. In the chaotic torrent of stolen memories, he caught glimpses of titanic forms coiled in darkness, entities whose presence warped reality itself. Even the scout's creators — a technologically advanced species spanning multiple systems — feared them.

A slow, cold smile curved Lin Xuan's lips. Interesting.

---

A groan broke his concentration. The survivors had gathered at the shattered window above, their faces pale in the dim light. Zhang Wei clutched his rifle, knuckles white.

"Is… is it dead?" he asked, voice taut with unease.

Lin Xuan rose, dusting concrete shards from his hands. "For now. But others will follow. This was merely a scout."

Murmurs rippled through the group, fear thickening the air. Lin Xuan ignored them, his gaze sweeping the corpse one last time. The jagged spiral etched into its armor seemed almost to pulse in the moonlight, a silent brand of ownership.

He turned away. "We move. Now."

---

They relocated before dawn, following Lin Xuan through the crumbling skeleton of the city. The survivors trailed in tense silence, haunted by the knowledge that something worse than the beasts now stalked the ruins.

By midday, they had reached a fortified underground parking structure, half-collapsed but defensible. Lin Xuan called a halt, his expression distant as he traced the currents of Primordial Qi. This place sat atop a convergence of three ley-lines, the energy flowing like an underground river.

"This will do," he said finally. "We'll hold here for a time."

Zhang Wei frowned. "You mean… make this our base?"

Lin Xuan's gaze shifted to him, silver light glinting faintly in his eyes. "For now. You need shelter, and I need… candidates."

"Candidates for what?"

Lin Xuan didn't answer. His attention had already turned inward, shaping the first true iteration of his Heavenbreaker Path.

---

That night, he stood at the heart of the parking structure, Primordial Qi swirling visibly around him in faint tendrils. The survivors watched from a cautious distance as Lin Xuan formed a series of intricate hand seals, each one drawing more of the wild energy into his dantian.

The Codex's patterns blazed in his mind, weaving themselves into something new — a cultivation method stripped of the dogma and limitations of his old world. The Heavenbreaker Path would be simple, brutal, and utterly free, designed not for compliance with cosmic law but for dominance over it.

Lin Xuan exhaled, releasing a pulse of silver light that washed over the survivors. Many staggered, gasping, as threads of Primordial Qi coiled around them, testing, probing. For most, the energy recoiled almost instantly, finding no purchase. But in three of them — Zhang Wei among them — the tendrils lingered, sinking deep.

Lin Xuan's lips curved slightly. So, there are seeds even among mortals.

He stepped forward, his voice carrying the weight of command.

"You three — come forward."

They obeyed, trembling. Lin Xuan extended a hand, a thread of Primordial Qi coalescing at his fingertip. "You have been chosen by the Path. If you walk it, your bodies will be remade, and you will gain the strength to carve your own fate. But know this: the Path spares no weakness. Fail, and it will consume you."

Zhang Wei's jaw tightened, fear warring with resolve. "I accept."

One by one, the others echoed him.

Lin Xuan nodded once. "Then kneel."

---

The initiation was swift and merciless. Primordial Qi poured into their bodies, tearing through meridians clogged with mortal impurity. They writhed and screamed, flesh searing as the wild energy reshaped them. Lin Xuan stood impassive, silver light flickering in his gaze as he guided the process with precise, surgical control.

When it was done, the three collapsed, bodies trembling but alive. Faint traces of silver light now lingered in their eyes, the first mark of the Heavenbreaker Path.

"Rise," Lin Xuan commanded. "From this moment, you are disciples of the Heavenbreaker Sect. Strength will be your only law. Survive, and you will become weapons that no beast or invader can withstand."

---

In the days that followed, Lin Xuan honed both his own cultivation and that of his fledgling disciples. Zhang Wei adapted quickly, his military discipline lending itself to the brutal efficiency of the Heavenbreaker techniques. The other two struggled, but Lin Xuan offered neither comfort nor reprieve.

Between training sessions, he delved deeper into the stolen memories of the alien scout. The fragments painted a grim picture: an invasion force en route, guided by coordinates transmitted before the scout's destruction. The Eternal Shadows — beings of incomprehensible scale and malice — loomed behind it all, their interest in Earth somehow tied to the Primordial Qi that suffused the planet.

They're coming for the same thing I am, Lin Xuan realized. The heartbeat beneath the earth.

---

One evening, as the survivors settled into uneasy sleep, Lin Xuan climbed to the roof of the parking structure. The city stretched out in the moonlight, a desolate expanse of ruins and fire-scarred towers. Somewhere in the distance, a colossal beast roared, the sound rolling across the broken landscape like thunder.

Lin Xuan closed his eyes, sinking once more into cultivation. Threads of Primordial Qi coiled around him, drawn inexorably into his dantian. With each circuit, the energy grew denser, his mortal vessel hardening beneath the strain. He could feel the first barrier of his new Path approaching, a threshold that, once crossed, would propel him beyond the limitations of this world's strongest warriors.

And beneath it all, that slumbering heartbeat pulsed — louder now, its rhythm matching the cadence of his own.

Lin Xuan's eyes snapped open, silver light blazing.

Let them come. Beasts, invaders, even these so-called Eternal Shadows. I will rise through them all.

---

End of Chapter 5.