[Verse 1]
Bare feet
on cracked stone steps
Incense ash
on my sleeves
Broken sword
wrapped in old blue cloth
Teacher’s gourd
still smells like tea
Clouds below
but I’m still climbing
Every breath
a scattered page
They said “mortal”
like it was a cage
I carry it
like it’s my blade
[Chorus]
Dragon veins in the dust
I was born in the rust
But I’ll carve my name
across the sky
If the heavens don’t yield
then I’ll shatter their shield
One wound at a time
I rise
[Verse 2]
Cold spring
under moss-dark stone
I swallow stars
until it burns
Meridians
like tangled roads
I bleed a path
and force them open
Knee-deep
in last year’s failures
Old scars
argue I should stay
Then that small
stubborn ember
whispers low
“Try anyway”
[Chorus]
Dragon veins in the dust
I was born in the rust
But I’ll carve my name
across the sky
If the heavens don’t yield
then I’ll shatter their shield
One wound at a time
I rise
[Bridge]
Let them sit
in golden halls
Counting realms
like prayer beads
I was built
from rain and ridicule
mud and weeds (yeah)
If fate writes me
as a side note
on some god’s
forgotten scroll
I’ll burn through
every line they wrote
’til my breath
rewrites it whole
[Chorus]
Dragon veins in the dust
I was born in the rust
Watch me carve my name
across the sky
If the heavens don’t yield
then I’ll shatter their shield
One wound at a time
I rise
(I rise, I rise)