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### **Chapter 1: The Dragon's Maw**
**Word Count**: ~4,000
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#### **1. The Last Goodbye**
Chen Zhen hated airports.
The sterile fluorescent lights, the robotic announcements, the way his stomach lurched at the sight of departure boards flickering with delays—it all felt like a prelude to doom. But today, he lingered at the terminal's large windows, watching his wife, Li Na, and their two children wave goodbye from the parking lot. Six-year-old Mei tugged at her mother's sleeve, shouting something lost to the glass, while three-year-old Xiao Peng pressed his nose against their car window, leaving a smudge Chen could almost see from here.
*"One more trip,"* he'd promised Li Na last night. *"After this merger, I'll take a month off. We'll go to the mountains—just us."*
She'd smiled, but her eyes held the same unease he felt. Their savings were dwindling, and his job as a corporate negotiator for SinoGlobal Tech demanded sacrifices. Sacrifices like boarding Flight 227 to Delhi, then Kathmandu, to appease investors who'd never once asked about his fear of flying.
A text buzzed in his pocket:
> **Li Na**: *Xiao Peng won't stop crying. He thinks the plane will eat you. Call him?*
Chen dialed quickly. Xiao Peng's hiccuping voice crackled through: *"Baba, don't go! The sky monster's gonna get you!"*
*"Monsters aren't real, Peng,"* Chen said, forcing a laugh. *"I'll be home before you finish your dragon drawing, okay?"*
He hung up, fingers trembling.
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#### **2. The Storm**
The Boeing 787's engines hummed like a funeral dirge. Chen clenched his armrest, counting breaths as the plane ascended. Across the aisle, a businessman typed furiously on his laptop, while a young woman in a floral hijab sketched the Himalayas in a notebook.
*Four hours. Just four hours.*
Then the turbulence began.
Overhead bins rattled. The captain's voice crackled: *"Ladies and gentlemen, we're encountering minor air currents. Please remain seated."*
*Minor.* Chen snorted. The plane bucked like a wild horse, and his cocktail sloshed onto his sleeve. The stewardess—a woman with a pinched smile and a name tag reading *Anya*—handed him a napkin. *"First time?"*
*"Is it that obvious?"*
*"White-knuckle flyers always order gin."* She nodded at his drink. *"But you'll be fine. These mountains brew storms, but we've weathered worse."*
Chen forced a smile. Outside, the sky darkened.
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#### **3. The Lightning Dragon**
The first bolt struck at 36,000 feet.
Lightning spiderwebbed across the right wing, and the cabin lights flickered. Passengers screamed. Anya stumbled, catching herself on Chen's seat. *"Sir, fasten your belt—"*
Another jolt. Chen's skull cracked against the window. Through blurred vision, he saw it—a serpentine arc of electricity coiling through the clouds. Not lightning. *Something alive.*
*No. Impossible.*
It dove again, scales shimmering like fractured glass. Its maw yawned wide, and for a heartbeat, Chen swore it *looked* at him—eyes twin supernovas, ancient and cruel.
Then it bit.
Metal screeched. The wing tore free, spinning into the void. The cabin depressurized, howling wind sucking out seats, luggage, screams. Chen's ears popped. Oxygen masks dropped like hanged men.
*Li Na. Mei. Xiao Peng.*
The dragon circled, its tail lashing the fuselage. The plane split in two.
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#### **4. The Fall**
Chen fell.
Wind ripped tears from his eyes. Below, the Himalayas loomed—jagged teeth eager to devour him. He fumbled for his phone, numb fingers swiping to a photo of Li Na laughing at Mei's birthday party.
*I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.*
A shadow blotted out the sun. The lightning dragon soared past, trailing embers. A filament of its essence—a glowing wisp—brushed Chen's chest. Fire erupted in his veins. His vision blurred.
*Is this death?*
Then the earth opened.
A chasm wider than city blocks gaped below, its edges crackling with violet energy. Chen plunged into darkness.
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#### **5. The Abyss**
Time dissolved.
Chen dreamed of fire and ice. A woman's voice—Li Na's?—whispered: *"Find the balance."*
He woke mid-fall, still strapped to his seat. Hunger clawed his gut, but the air tasted *alive*, thick with ozone and iron. Far below, a golden light pulsed.
As he neared, the light resolved into a battlefield.
Armored riders charged atop six-legged wolves. Siege engines hurled glowing boulders at a fortress carved into a mountainside. But above it all, two titans clashed:
- A **golden dragon**, scales glinting like molten armor, lightning crackling from its claws.
- A **three-legged crow**, wings blazing with solar fire, each flap scattering embers that ignited the earth below.
Their auras collided, crushing Chen's ribs. He gasped, blood trickling from his nose. The dragon's wisp inside him flared, stitching his lungs.
*Closer. Closer.*
The dragon turned. Its molten eyes widened—*it sensed the wisp*. The crow seized its distraction, igniting into a supernova.
The explosion hurled Chen downward. A portal swallowed him.
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#### **6. The Devourer**
Chen crashed into a cavern of living stone, its walls pulsing like a heartbeat. The seatbelt snapped, and he rolled across the floor, coughing blood.
*Alive. How?*
A low growl shook the chamber. The lightning dragon loomed above, now colossal, its scales shimmering with stolen energy. It grinned, rows of fangs glinting.
*"Welcome home, little thief."*
The voice boomed in Chen's skull. The dragon's maw yawned.
Then—darkness.
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#### **7. The Whispering Void**
Chen floated in a starless expanse. A figure emerged—an old man in azure robes, his beard trailing like smoke.
*"You've swallowed a storm, Chen Zhen."* The man chuckled. *"Let's see if you survive it."*
Chen tried to speak, but his throat was ash.
*"My name is Shanggu Julong. And you… you are a door."*
The void rippled. Behind the old man, shadows resolved into a dragon and phoenix, their bodies mangled, souls fraying.
*"Their war nearly shattered this realm,"* Julong said. *"Now their fate is yours. How delicious."*
Chen reached for Li Na's face in his mind.
*"Ah. Love."* Julong's smile turned icy. *"A fragile anchor. But it will do… for now."*
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