The Eternal Night Plain was a wasteland where time itself stood still. Beneath the vast curtain of blackened clouds, Li Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, his silhouette casting a shadow that reached beyond the horizon. The winds of karma howled silently around him, drawn to the vortex of power he had become. With the Lower Realms entirely under his dominion, and the million supporting realms tied to his karmic threads like puppets to a master, Li Xuan now turned his gaze toward the sky.
Above him shimmered the boundary between realms—an invisible veil that even gods dared not pierce lightly. The Upper Realms whispered of immortal legacies, ancient sects, and truths buried by eons of blood. But Li Xuan no longer feared the unknown. He commanded it.
At his side stood his seven generals. Each bowed silently, their heads lowered in absolute deference. Though Li Xuan trusted none of them, each was bound by unbreakable karmic contracts, tied to his soul and will. Even their deepest thoughts could not escape his perception. Forty-nine elites stood farther back, eyes cast downward, reverent and tense.
"The path to the Upper Realms will open soon," Li Xuan said, his voice like the tolling of a funeral bell.
His words were simple. Yet they carried the weight of annihilation.
Behind him, the black altar of Voidheart flickered with lightless flame. It was the foundation of the Voidheart Enlightenment Sutra, the forbidden mind technique he had nearly died cultivating. With each painful session, Li Xuan's perception of karma, fate, and memory deepened. At its latest stage, the technique allowed him to fragment the soul of others and rewrite the karmic debts of entire bloodlines.
It was no longer enough to control cities or sects. Now, Li Xuan could manipulate the destinies of nations.
He stepped forward, and a ripple spread across the fabric of space. A tear formed in the sky, revealing the chaotic space between realms. The God Realm stormed beyond, flashes of divine energy coiling through the abyss, but that was not his destination. Not yet.
Instead, Li Xuan reached downward with one hand, drawing upon the karma of the entire Lower Realm system. All who worshiped him, feared him, cursed him—all those emotions were drawn into him and condensed into a black lotus above his palm.
"Auction preparations?" he asked, not turning.
One of his generals, the golden-robed Jian Wu, stepped forward. "Yes, Monarch. The Shadow Auction begins in three days. The Golden Heaven Sect, Jade Immortal Alliance, and the Bone Crown Society have all submitted high-tier items."
"And the bait?"
"The Void Womb Pearl and a sliver of Broken Heaven Ore. We've leaked both to ensure faction frenzy."
Li Xuan nodded. "Ensure that none of our own bid. Let the flames rise."
His auction house had become the most influential force in the Lower Realms—not by selling, but by manipulating. Every major auction ignited bloodshed, revealing hidden powers, unmasking traitors, exposing ambition. While others fought and died over divine items, Li Xuan stood behind the curtain, reshaping the realms.
He raised a hand again, summoning a glowing scroll. It was not made of paper or jade, but soulbound karma—each word a life destroyed. The scroll contained the names of the next one thousand sects to fall. He did not read it. He already knew each name.
Beside him, General Mei Lan—a master of illusion and assassinations—spoke softly.
"There are whispers in the Upper Realms, Monarch. A sect known as the Nine Heavens Vault has begun searching for the source of karmic deviation."
Li Xuan smiled faintly. "Let them. Soon, deviation will be the new law."
Behind him, the black altar pulsed.
His cultivation base now sat at the Sovereign Fate Realm, the peak of the Lower Realms. Each realm below bowed to his karmic law, their skies subtly tinted with the echo of his presence. No rebellion could rise—not while every word, every emotion, was woven into the auction threads that tied back to him.
Suddenly, the ground shook. A messenger cultivator crashed from the sky, robes torn, breath ragged.
"Monarch! A Forbidden Ruin has emerged in the Nameless Desert! It bears the mark of the ancient Immortal Slaughter Court!"
Silence fell.
Li Xuan's smile vanished.
The Immortal Slaughter Court was a name erased from history, known only through karmic residue he had extracted from dying gods. To think a ruin would appear now, just as he prepared to ascend.
"Prepare the Ghost Lotus Division," he ordered. "Seal the desert. No one enters unless I permit it."
He turned toward the tear in the sky, then closed it with a thought.
"Let the Upper Realms wait. We're not finished here."
—
That night, alone in the Voidheart Chamber, Li Xuan sat cross-legged before a floating array of flickering karmic threads. Each thread led to a life he had ended or spared. Each one was a choice.
"Pain," he muttered, activating the Voidheart Sutra again.
It struck him like the blade of heaven.
His mind tore apart. His bones cracked without moving. Blood wept from his pores. Visions of endless lives surged through his consciousness—lives he had touched, ruined, saved, cursed.
Then something new happened.
A voice whispered in the dark.
"You are near the threshold. Embrace the paradox: to control all karma, you must become karma's severance."
The Voidheart Enlightenment Sutra pulsed. A new path opened—one that led not up, but inward.
Li Xuan laughed.
He would not become a god.
He would become a law.
And the heavens would bend.
—
End of Chapter 45