The collision between the giant scythe blade and the ancient thunder created a blinding explosion of light, as if a new star had just burst within the confines of the canyon walls. Slaughter Gods Crescent let out a high pitched shriek, vibrating violently as it absorbed the heavenly wrath. Reddish purple sparks traveled from the weapon's hilt into Zhi Xuan’s arm.
"To rebel against the Heavens is Immortal!" Zhi Xuan roared, swinging the Slaughter Gods Crescent in a circular motion. "Annihilate the Dao!"
However, at that very mont, a powerful strike of heavenly lightning slamd into Zhi Xuan. His eyes widened as the lightning struck his fra, causing thick black smoke to rise behind his body. The tribulation clouds vanished, but Zhi Xuan fell from the sky and crashed into the ground beneath the canyon, forming a crater that radiated reddish purple sparks.
His Domain Seed cracked, as if this heavenly punishnt had wounded the domain that was only just taking the form of a seed. Blackish smoke billowed high from the crater created at the bottom of the canyon, and the Slaughter Gods Crescent floated back into his body. Zhi Xuan rose, his robes tattered and tattered as he stepped out of the crater.
Blood seeped from the corner of Zhi Xuan’s lips, staining his chin with a deep color that contrasted with his deathly pale face. He walked with a limp, moving away from the crater toward the other side of the canyon. Zhi Xuan stopped, his head tilted up toward the sky, and he laughed. It was a laugh containing bitterness and madness.
Zhi Xuan’s laughter echoed along the cracked canyon walls, a raspy voice that carried a vibration capable of collapsing the courage of anyone who heard it. Above, the sky that was previously filled with tribulation clouds now began to clear, leaving a silence that seed to mock the failure of a mortal.
The rumble of thunder echoed and rain fell as if the heavens were giving embers in the midst of the gaping wound during Zhi Xuan’s laughter. Every drop hissed as it ca into contact with Zhi Xuan’s fra, which still radiated heat from the remnants of heavenly wrath. Zhi Xuan wiped the blood on his lips with a trembling back of his hand.
"Heavenly Law, Heavenly Will," Zhi Xuan laughed raspy, covering his face with his palm. "Heavenly Will... oppressing mortal humans!"
Zhi Xuan released his laughter once more, a laugh that split the silence of the rain. He lowered his hand from his face, revealing a pair of sapphire eyes that were now no longer just as deep as the ocean, but glinted with a darkness thicker than the deepest night.
The falling rain roared louder, washing away the dust and soot clinging to Zhi Xuan’s fra, yet it was unable to extinguish the fire of rebellion burning within his chest. In the middle of this silent canyon, he appeared so small—a feather before a storm, a grain of sand before destiny.
"Mortal..." Zhi Xuan whispered, his voice nearly lost in the sound of raindrops hitting the rocks. "We all crawl beneath the feet of the horizon, looking up with false hope, while Heaven only sees us as dust to be swept away."
Zhi Xuan dropped himself down, sitting cross-legged once more. Ao Sheng erged from behind his shoulder; the small dragon brushed his cold head against Zhi Xuan’s cheek, trying to provide a ager warmth. Xiao Die and Yuyan Die perched on his knees, their wet wings tightly closed, radiating sincere sadness through their soul bond.
His weary eyes stared at the expanse of water beginning to pool at the bottom of the crater, reflecting his broken shadow. He rembered the long road he had traveled—from the Star Wilderness to the arrogance of the Nine Plains. How many tis had he bled just to prove that a mortal was also capable of stepping over Heaven and Earth?
"Hundreds of years of cultivation, countless slaughters," Zhi Xuan thought, his trembling fingers trying to touch the muddy ground. "A mortal is like nothing but grass beneath the blade of heaven. How can a fragile soul try to surpass the Great Heaven?"
"Will I, in the end, only beco like that corpse?" he whispered hoarsely, his eyes shifting toward the figure of the swordsman still frozen in his own domain at the end of the canyon. "Becoming a monunt of failure rotting in silence, while the world keeps turning as if I never existed?"
"Where does this path end? Where does the Rebellion of Heaven lie?" Zhi Xuan said. "Cruel Heaven, Destiny does not side with mortals. Heavenly Path, Great Heaven."
In the midst of that cold despair, he felt how small a human life was—so fragile, so easily extinguished by a single flick of destiny’s finger. The road to immortality he craved was now drifting further away, leaving him slumped in humiliation beneath the feet of a Heaven that remained silent and proud.
"This road... is truly very lonely," he moaned, a single tear falling and rging with the rainwater. "Is there no place for a rebellious soul beneath this expanse of stars?"
However, in the midst of that suffocating resignation, a flicker from the Mountain and River Style disk nearby began to vibrate. It was not the blue light of the roaring river, but a dull brownish yellow light, as heavy as the earth and as solid as a mountain. That light crept slowly, touching Zhi Xuan’s stiff fingertips.
"The mountain... never complains to the sky that oppresses it with storms," Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice sounding like the scraping of ancient stone. "The river... never stops flowing even though its path is blocked by giant reefs."
His weary eyes slowly sharpened again. The cracks on his Domain Seed began to pulse, not with pain, but with an understanding born from destruction. He realized one thing that had always accompanied him: that to truly rebel, one must experience total destruction.
"Heaven wants to kneel, so it sends thunder. Destiny wants to surrender, so it gives wounds," Zhi Xuan rose to his feet slowly, each movent like a dead tree forced to stand upright again. "But if a mortal is grass, then I am grass that will take root deep into the heart of the earth, waiting for the mont when the storm ends to grow higher than the clouds."
Zhi Xuan clenched his teeth until they bled; he forced his chaotic spiritual essence to rotate again. He let the cracked Domain Seed remain cracked, allowing the remaining heavenly tribulation energy within it to beco part of his new law.
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"This crack... is proof that when I tear the face of heaven later," Zhi Xuan shouted toward the dawning horizon. "Heaven will never have a face to hide behind. I will walk with this wound, and I will collect on it one day!"
Zhi Xuan swept the remains of the rainwater from his face with a movent full of resolve. The fear and despair that had once crept into his soul were now burned to ash, serving as fertilizer for the Dao Heart that had just passed through the forge of heavenly fire. He moved his trembling fingers, and instantly his brown robe changed into a clean black and white robe.
He stepped toward the figure of the swordsman's corpse at the end of the canyon. The Life-Death domain that was previously haunting now felt clearer to his senses. Zhi Xuan bowed deeply, a gesture of respect from a practitioner who had passed through the door of death but chose to kick that door into pieces.
"Thank you for this bitter enlightennt, Senior," Zhi Xuan whispered. "You died to beco the law, but I will live to be the master of that law."
With a single stomp of his foot, Zhi Xuan shot out from the bottom of the canyon. He reappeared in the sky, speeding away and appearing again atop a hill surrounded by sects in the Chi Di land. Zhi Xuan hit the ground of that hill; the Heavenly Samsara Wheel pulsed painfully, as the wound on the domain seed at least injured his divine soul.
He sat cross-legged, forming a recovery mudra and letting the Heavenly Samsara Wheel turn. The Devil Tree of Life spread vitality that suppressed the faint aura of death from him. Xiao Die shot out, her moth wings glowing with a light that radiated the vitality of life. Yuyan Die floated closer; the butterfly stopped right in front of Zhi Xuan’s face.
"Master, the Six-Desires Devouring Butterfly is a celestial insect capable of swallowing the six desires," Yuyan Die said, the fluttering of her tiny wings radiating a light that enveloped Zhi Xuan. "Let Master’s desires of sorrow and despair beco mine."
Instantly, a wave of subtle energy radiated from Yuyan Die’s wings, enveloping Zhi Xuan’s fra in a soothing cocoon of light. Zhi Xuan felt the heavy burden in his chest—the sense of humiliation after being crushed by Heaven and the despair that had briefly poisoned his Dao Heart—slowly being absorbed out, pulled by the natural trait of the ancient insect that fed on emotions as nutrition.
The fourth day arrived, with three days left before the journey to the land of Huang Tu. Zhi Xuan opened his eyes; his body had recovered and his divine soul had covered the cracks. His domain seed was etched in his Divine Wheel but radiated an unhealable crack, yet Zhi Xuan ignored it. He gazed toward a mortal city in the distance and rose from his sitting position.
He stepped and reappeared in front of a mortal city that seed to be holding an annual celebration, as if bringing back mories of the Emperor Dragon City in the Hongng Empire long ago. The atmosphere of the mortal city was a sharp contrast for a soul just lashed by heavenly wrath.
The scent of stead rice cakes, the laughter of children running with rabbit shaped paper lanterns, and the bustling voices of street vendors created a simple note of life. Zhi Xuan walked; each step felt light and carried an echo of a distant past, making the mortal sight an anchor to montarily forget his wounds.
Zhi Xuan slipped through the crowd like an invisible shadow, even though his black and white robe looked too majestic for these dusty streets. Yet the aura he radiated still carried sorrow and sothing that made the hearts of every mortal who saw him tremble.
In the midst of the festive bustle, Zhi Xuan stopped in front of a stone bridge arching over a small river. There, an old grandfather was teaching his grandson to light a water lantern. The boy laughed happily as his paper lantern began to drift, carrying small prayers downstream.
"Grandpa, will this lantern reach the end of the world?" the boy asked with a high pitched voice full of hope.
The old grandfather chuckled, his wrinkled fingers stroking his grandson's head. "The end of the world is far, child. This lantern might get stuck in a tree root, or perhaps its candle will go out before dawn. But what matters is not how far it goes, but its courage to light up atop this dark water."
"To light up in the dark water?" the boy repeated, his eyes sparkling. "Like the stars beneath that sky? Mother said the stars are our hopes flying to heaven!"
"Those stars are indeed hopes, child," the grandfather replied, his voice raspy yet calm like lake water. "But do not be mistaken. The sky is vast and very high. Sotis, it looks so cold as if it wants to extinguish every little lamp we light on this earth."
"Why does the Sky want to extinguish our lamps, Grandpa? Is the Sky evil?" the boy frowned, his tiny fingers still holding a spare lantern.
The old man stared at the reflection of the stars on the rippling surface of the river. "Not evil, child. The Sky just doesn't care. To the Sky, we are just like dust. However, look at your lantern. Even though it is small and fragile, it still glows, doesn't it? It challenges the darkness of the water not because it is stronger than the night, but because it has light within it."
"Then, if the candle dies, does the hope die too?" the boy asked again, his voice lowering slightly as he saw one of the lanterns in the distance begin to dim, blown by the night wind.
"No, the hope does not die. It only returns into your heart to be lit again tomorrow," the grandfather smiled. "Only those who stop lighting candles will truly lose their way. As long as you dare to hold that fire, no matter how high the Sky is, it can never truly crush you."
"I understand, Grandpa!" the boy shouted happily, releasing his second lantern into the water. "I will be like this lantern! I will keep lighting up even though the Sky is angry and blowing strong winds!"
Zhi Xuan was stunned at the edge of the bridge, his eyes that were once cold as ice now reflected the glow of the water lanterns drifting slowly. The simple words of an old man who did not even have a cultivation base felt sharper than any strike of sword intent. He rembered his own statent, that in the thickest darkness, there will always be light accompanying it, even if only a speck.
"In every darkness, there will be light accompanying it," Zhi Xuan thought, closing his eyes. "I carry the night, so every karma that binds this is a ray of light that continues to circle my night."
Zhi Xuan moved his fingers; he ford a dark purple fire that seed enveloped in energy threads, before forming a lantern. Zhi Xuan bowed slightly, releasing the purple lantern onto the surface of the river beside the paper lanterns belonging to the townspeople. The purple lantern drifted slowly, parting the calm ripples of water with an unusual glow.
"Master..." Yuyan Die’s voice was heard faintly, full of wonder. "Actually, I don't want to disturb Master, but look at those three people who keep staring at you from afar."
Zhi Xuan did not turn around. He let his gaze remain fixed on his purple lantern, which was now starting to drift away, rging with hundreds of other mortal lights drifting toward the darkness downstream.
"Hmph, are they following or what are they doing?" Xiao Die buzzed, her voice high pitched. "Don't they know that Senior is washing his Dao Heart!"
From a distance, in the dim corner of a tea shop directly facing the bridge, three figures stood frozen. Ji Haoxuan, Wei Tianfeng, and Ji Yuanyi had followed Zhi Xuan’s trail ever since they found the remains of the heavenly calamity that hit the canyon.
"Is that truly him?" Ji Yuanyi whispered, her large eyes wide in disbelief. "The remains of that heavenly calamity... that truly was Senior Gu. What... did he do to be able to bring about the wrath of heaven?"
"Bringing about the wrath of heaven is one thing," Wei Tianfeng’s voice sounded raspy, as if his throat were clogged with too much wine. "But surviving that wrath, then standing here releasing a mortal lantern as if he just picked a flower in the garden... that is madness! What exactly is Senior Gu trying to do?"
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