The skies bled.
Ten thousand Immortal Emperors stood in silence as Ren Wei faced the heavens alone, his robes tattered, his breath burning. The vast celestial platform beneath his feet cracked with every heartbeat. Lightning raged, yet dared not strike him.
They had once called him "Air."
They had once beaten him beneath streetlights and called it mercy.
They had once forgotten him.
Now they knelt.
He stood at the summit of the Immortal Emperor Realm, the so-called final stage of cultivation. But the golden essence within his soul trembled with unease. The tribulation fire hadn't stopped — it had changed. Turned colder. Hungrier. Watching.
His bones cracked under the weight of it. Divine blood ran down his lips. He could feel the next step—transcendence—so close he could almost breathe it in. But Fate had different plans for him...
And then... the betrayal.
The sword pierced him from behind. A blade he recognized. He had forged it himself, handed it to his most trusted disciple — the boy he had raised from nothing.
"You taught me to chase the heavens," the disciple whispered. "But you never said the heavens would fear you."
Ren Wei turned his head slightly. "I should've let you die in the gutter."
He could still fight. He had fought with his heart pierced before. He turned—
—but then she appeared.
She was dressed in white. Her eyes were warm with tears, and yet they held the cold edge of resolve.
"Forgive me," his lover said.
Her kiss touched his lips—and he felt it. The venom. It was laced into her spiritual energy, slipping through the cracks in his defenses. His vision dimmed. His essence weakened.
"You really all think… this is enough?" he rasped.
Above, the heavens answered.
Chains descended.
Not physical ones, but strands of pure Dao. They wrapped around his limbs, his core, his soul.
"You were never meant to rise this far."
"You were chosen to obey, not to question."
Ren Wei roared. Divine lightning erupted from his body, scattering half the celestial platform. Dozens of Immortal Emperors were thrown into the void.
"I bent your laws!" he howled. "I stole fire from your stars! And still you think you can bind me?!"
The Dao tightened.
He fell to one knee. The ground beneath him cratered. He could feel the chains trying to rewrite his soul. To erase the parts that didn't conform.
But he laughed.
He laughed until blood turned his teeth red.
"You think this is where it ends?" he said. "This is where I begin."
And then the voice came.
❝System Detected.❞
❝Host has reached a false Dao.❞
❝Regression Protocol Initiated.❞
❝Realm: Immortal Emperor – Collapse.❞
❝Destination: Earth – Qi Refinement Stage 1.❞
❝Welcome back, Ren Wei.❞
As the world burned, as ten thousand traitors watched the man they feared crumble into dust — Ren Wei smiled.
Because this time, he would not become part of the Dao.
He would destroy it.