The storm raged above the Shattered Peaks, lightning splitting the sky like the wrath of heaven unleashed.
Blood painted the mountaintop.
Bodies—hundreds of them—littered the ground. Their robes were torn, their weapons broken. Some still twitched, their golden cores extinguished.
At the center of it all stood one man.
His name had been erased from history.
His crimes were beyond counting.
And now, he stood at the edge of death.
"You cannot win."
The voice came from the Grand Elder of the Divine Sword Sect. His pristine white robes were stained crimson. His sword, Heaven's Judgment, trembled in his grip—not from fear, but from exhaustion.
Around him, the last of the Seven Celestial Sects' masters stood, their auras flickering like dying stars.
They had come to kill a monster.
And they had paid the price.
The man they surrounded merely laughed.
His body was broken. His meridians were shattered. His once-godly aura had dimmed to a flicker.
Yet he was still smiling.
"Win?" he rasped, blood dripping from his lips. "I stopped caring about winning centuries ago."
He took a step forward.
The masters flinched.
Even now, even like this—he was still terrifying.
The Grand Elder raised his sword. "Your forbidden arts are a stain upon the Dao. You have defied heaven, defied balance. Today, you die."
The man chuckled. "Defied heaven? No. I shattered it... and rejected its weak limitations."
He lifted his hand—fingers trembling, skin cracked and bleeding.
A pulse of dark energy flickered.
The masters braced.
Then... silence.
Nothing came.
The man sighed. "Ah. It seems even I have limits."
The Grand Elder's eyes hardened. "Enough. Die with what little dignity you have left."
The final blow came—Heaven's Judgment descended, a blade of pure divine law meant to erase even the soul.
The man didn't dodge.
He didn't resist.
Instead, he grinned.
"You think I didn't expect this?"
The sword pierced his chest.
Golden light erupted, tearing through his body, unraveling his very existence.
Yet his voice still echoed—mocking, triumphant.
"If I can't shatter the peak of godhood in this world…"
His body began to dissolve.
"...I'll do it in another."
Then—
Darkness swallowed him whole.
---
Lan woke up in a bed. It wasn't his.
From the sterile scent clinging to the air, he immediately knew where he was.
The infirmary.
A place he had visited more than most—more than even those who returned from beast ground expeditions, bloodied from battle.
But Lan's wounds had never come from beasts.
They came from other students.
He raised a hand, fingers brushing over his jaw—the same jaw he remembered being shattered just before losing consciousness.
It was healed.
"They really roughed you up this time. Luckily, someone found you fast enough... You could've bled out and died," said a woman's voice.
Her eyes were a sharp, bright green, and her dark hair was lazily tied atop her head.
Lan knew her better than most—Dr. Cecil, the infirmary's lead healing mage. She had pulled him back from the edge more times than he could count.
"I told you to avoid those boys, but you never listen," Cecil said, shaking her head.
"Yeah. They're not exactly easy to avoid," Lan muttered, groaning as he shifted on the bed.
"You're the one who keeps showing off your smarts, trying to make them look dumb every chance you get," she said.
"Well, they are dumb. And smart is all I've got."
She looked at him for a moment, then smiled softly. "Just try to avoid them from now on, okay?"
"I will," Lan smiled back.
It was a lie—so false, it was almost laughable.
Those boys were going to die. Painfully.
Perhaps, any day before this, Lan would have seen murder as a step too far. Something unthinkable. Something he couldn't even attempt.
But he was no longer just a sixteen-year-old boy, bullied and broken.
No.
He was something else now.
Something old.
Something evil.
An evil this academy—and this world—was not prepared for.
He was Xie Wuchen, Heaven's Dark Heretic. A sin without dust.
And all who had crossed him… all who would cross him… would pay for their transgressions in blood.
---
[ Memory Synchronization: 100% Complete ]
[ Interface Initialization in Progress ]
[...]
The screens appeared in front of Lan—floating, unreal.
This system… this was a work he had given his former life to.
In his long years, Xie Wuchen had practiced countless forbidden arts—some so vile they were erased from time itself.
He hadn't just learned them.
He created some of them.
And this was the greatest of them all.
He called it—Absolute Dao.
An entity. A god, perhaps. It had seen, without exaggeration, everything. Every timeline. Every reality. Every world. Every cultivator. Every technique.
And now, it was his.
With this as his companion, Xie could finally ascend beyond the martial peak.
[ Initialization Complete ]
---
—STATUS WINDOW—
Name: Lanard Veyne
Age: 16
Cultivation Path: –
Realm: –
Core: Fragmented Dantian (Sealed)
Body Tempering: –
Meridians Cleansed: – / 12
Spiritual Will: Moderate
Bloodline: ? (Dormant)
---
Comprehension:
• Shadow Law: 0.0006%
• Death Qi Affinity: Minor
• Sword Intent (Embryonic): 0.01%
---
"Ah, shit... to think I could ever be this weak again," Lan muttered.
Just then, another panel appeared.
---
[ QUEST ]
BLOOD FOR BLOOD
Publicly execute Gareth.
Reward: Meridians Unlocking Pill (Rare), Soulroot Elixir (Rare)
---
Lan stared at the screen.
"Oh... crap."