(An uninhabited planet, Su Tang’s POV)
Seconds stretched for hours for Su Tang, as his world narrowed into nothing but pain, blood, and the spear in his hands.
Every vein burned like molten fire, every tendon screamed as if pulled to snapping, yet he forced his body to obey.
His circuits, far too narrow for the torrent of divine essence crashing through them, cracked and splintered under the strain, but he did not stop.
He could not stop.
"Endure... ENDURE!" he snarled, his throat raw, blood spraying with every word.
*BOOOOOM!*
The desert exploded around him as another spear thrust tore open the horizon, splitting the skies with golden arcs that rained down like judgment.
Mountains collapsed in the distance, rivers of magma surged outward, and the air itself quaked as if it wished to abandon this ruined planet.
His legs buckled once, then twice, yet each time he steadied himself, slamming his spear into the ground to anchor his collapsing frame.
His teeth cracked as he clenched them, fragments mixing with blood as they spilled from his mouth.
His eyes blurred, vision swimming in crimson, but still he swung.
’I will not break... I AM SU TANG! I AM SU REN’S SON! I WILL NOT BREAK!’
The divine torrent within him raged, clawing to escape, to devour him from the inside out, but slowly— agonizingly slowly—his will forced it into shape.
The wild flood began to bend, each strike carving a new channel, each roar pushing back the collapse by a single heartbeat.
Until the critical moment came.
*CRAAAACK!*
His circuits, fractured and bleeding, suddenly widened, the divine essence searing them open into conduits vast enough to bear the weight, as his soul, trembling, and on the edge of annihilation, finally locked into harmony with the storm.
And just like that—
*BOOOOOOOOM!*
The energy burst outward one last time, then collapsed inward, settling into his core, violent chaos crystallizing into pure, terrifying order.
Silence followed, broken only by the hiss of magma lakes and the groans of a dying planet.
Su Tang fell to his knees, gasping, his spear digging into the ground to stop him from collapsing completely.
His chest heaved, every breath rattling as his head hung low.
Until when he finally raised it, only to see a horrid reflection stare back at him through the pool of molten stone.
His hair was gone, burned away by the heat of divine ascension.
His skin had sloughed off in blackened sheets, leaving raw muscle fibers writhing as they knit themselves back together.
Even his bones showed through in places, glistening white against the crimson mess of exposed flesh, while his face looked hollowed, his sockets sunken, his lips torn.
If any outsider had stumbled upon him now, they would not have seen the Patriarch of the Su Clan, nor a man who had just stepped into the Demi-God realm.
Instead, they would have recoiled in horror, mistaking him for a ghoul dragged out of a necropolis or a corpse animated by hatred alone.
But beneath that grotesque exterior, Su Tang’s body began regenerating at a break neck speed.
Now a Demi-God, he was able to channel and produce Divine Essence within his own body, as for the first time in his life he could perceive the fringes of the fourth dimension.
He couldn’t touch it yet. Couldn’t alter the flow of time, as he was but like a newborn that had legs and arms but had no idea how to walk.
He still had a lot to learn, a lot to progress.
But all that was for later.
For now, the only thing that mattered was that he had endured.
That against the odds he had succeeded.
And that despite the high likelihood of death, he had survived.
"I wish you were alive to see this day father..... I wish you could be proud of me, as I became a Demi-God...." Su Tang mused, as his usual appearance recovered fully, and he felt more powerful than ever before.
He had ascended successfully, and as a result, the Su Clan had gained a new Demi-God.
—---------------
(Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Su Clan)
Unlike what Su Tang had hoped, not everyone within the Su Clan was willing to abandon their hard-fought ancestral planets to rally in defense of Su Prime.
As after he passed the decree for them to abandon their home lands, there were a few who secretly gave up on the Su Clan all together.
Many branch members, bound by private ties to the Five Great Clans, through marriages, blood cousins, or other personal connections, began striking secret bargains.
They offered to surrender the Su name and swear fealty to another clan, so long as they were permitted to retain control over their homeworlds.
It was a betrayal born not of malice, but of calculation. To them, the Su Clan was no longer a proud lineage but a sinking ship, and so, like rats sensing the vessel breaking apart, they leapt into the waters, desperate to cling to anything that might keep them afloat.
Hence while Su Tang risked his life to push himself to become stronger, many of his fellow clan members sought only to secure their own survival, bartering loyalty for convenience, bloodlines for comfort, and the Su name for safety.
The irony was bitter.
At the very moment their Patriarch was carving his way through fire and death to give them a future, some of his kin were already selling that future away, blind to the sacrifice being made on their behalf.
Worse, they tried to rally others alongside them, to brainwash them into betraying the clan as well, as whispers began to spread in the dark, small deals, secret promises, veiled oaths sworn to foreign banners—each one a nail hammered into the Su Clan’s coffin.
And though Su Tang knew nothing of it yet, the seeds of betrayal had already been sown.
Seeds that would sprout soon enough, at the exact moment when the Su Clan could least afford to bleed from within.