The full moon shone pale silver over the Qingxuan Sect, casting long shadows over its ancient pavilions and cold stone courtyards. It had been three days since Li Yi emerged from the Realm of Forgotten Voices. In that time, not a single person in the sect dared to approach him directly.
He had remained silent.
Meditating beneath the Starfall Tree, where even the birds had ceased to chirp.
But the world did not wait.
Far to the east, in the Imperial Capital of the Yan Kingdom, the skies darkened without warning. Thunderclouds swirled across the heavens. Lightning raged silently within them, refusing to strike.
Then, at the heart of the capital, the towering Heaven's Fate Pagoda cracked at its peak—an event unseen in ten thousand years.
The Emperor's top astrologers gathered in horror as the Fate Mirror shattered into dust.
They knelt in trembling unison and whispered only one word.
> "Chaos…"
---
Qingxuan Sect – Hall of Elders
Wen Yaozi stood before the gathered elders. Even those who had long retreated into seclusion had been summoned. Elder Mo sat quietly at one end, stroking his white beard in thought. The atmosphere was heavy, and the elders' divine senses were all strained toward the distant peak where Li Yi meditated.
"I ask you again," said Wen Yaozi, his voice calm but laced with steel. "Do we cast him out—or do we protect him?"
Several elders looked away.
"He is no longer one of us," said Elder Huo grimly. "You said it yourself. Even your soul sense cannot pierce his qi. That boy is walking the path of calamity."
"He awakened something," murmured Elder Shen. "It is not normal."
"But he is ours," snapped Elder Mo. "The child was born in the Xuan Realm. His blood may be of the higher realms, but his first breath was under our stars. Shall we turn him away now, when the sky trembles because of him?"
The room fell silent.
Wen Yaozi closed his eyes.
> "Then we shelter him. For as long as we can."
---
Beneath the Sect Grounds – Night
Li Yi's eyes opened under the Starfall Tree. They had become deep pools of celestial fire, gold and silver whirling in chaotic harmony.
His cultivation had undergone a fundamental shift.
His core was no longer a conventional dantian.
It was a Constellation Core.
Each meridian had become a starlight channel. His spiritual sea had expanded into a Cosmic Domain—a precursor to the Ascension Heaven Stage that only upper realm geniuses achieved.
But more terrifying than his progress… was what he sensed now.
Across space. Through time.
A gaze. Watching him.
An ancient pressure not of this world.
He stood and walked toward the nearby cliff. The wind whispered past his ears, carrying distant voices of the stars.
> "They've found you."
The voice came from within.
His mother's flame—now fused with his soul—warned him.
> "The Abyss will move. Soon."
Li Yi stared into the horizon. The forest below the sect, usually tranquil and serene, suddenly trembled. Trees bent backward. Birds scattered in frantic spirals.
Then the ground cracked.
A beast—no, a fiend—emerged.
It stood twenty meters tall, with obsidian scales and glowing red runes etched along its body. Its eyes were voids that devoured light. It was not from this realm.
> "Voidfiend…" Li Yi muttered.
He stepped off the cliff and walked midair toward the creature.
Qingxuan disciples screamed below, running in panic.
Elder Mo appeared instantly, as did several core elders, preparing defensive formations.
But Li Yi raised a single hand.
"Leave it to me."
---
The Battle Begins
The Voidfiend snarled, and its runes ignited. With a single roar, it unleashed a pillar of void flame toward the peak.
Li Yi's figure blurred.
He reappeared midair above the flame and thrust forward with an open palm.
Chaos Heaven Palm—First Layer: Spiral of Entropy!
The air distorted. Time stuttered.
The void flame collapsed inward, sucked into the center of Li Yi's spiral. The fiend hesitated—its instincts screaming danger—but it was already too late.
Li Yi descended like a meteor, smashing into the beast's chest with a blow that shattered the very air.
Boom!
The creature was sent flying backward, carving a crater into the forest. The shockwave leveled trees in a mile-wide radius.
But it wasn't dead.
It rose, screeching in fury.
Its runes flared as it began transforming—tentacles bursting from its back, its size doubling.
Elder Huo gasped. "That's a mutation—it's absorbing spatial essence from our world!"
Li Yi narrowed his eyes.
> "If this is a messenger… what's coming next?"
He clasped both hands together.
Chaos Heaven Palm—Second Layer: Collapse of All Things!
From the sky, a vortex of swirling silver and black descended like a divine hammer.
The pressure made the elders stagger despite their distance.
The Voidfiend tried to run—but the space around it had become frozen. The vortex slammed into it with a force that echoed like thunder across the entire province.
When the dust cleared, only a pit remained.
The creature was gone.
Li Yi landed gently, his robes fluttering as celestial light faded from his eyes.
Elder Mo landed beside him, expression solemn.
"That wasn't native to this realm," he said.
Li Yi nodded. "It came from the Abyss Gate."
---
Somewhere in the Abyss
A hundred eyes opened in the dark.
A voice like grinding stone murmured: "The Phoenix has stirred the Chaos Flame. Let the hunters through. Begin the corruption of the stars."
---
Back in the Qingxuan Sect
Li Yi stood on the mountain, wind brushing through his hair.
The sky was calm again. The disciples were safe. The elders silent.
But the world had changed.
He had seen the curtain pulled back.
What once seemed distant—the war of gods, the seal between realms, the abyssal corruption—was now clawing at his doorstep.
And he knew…
> The God Realm would open again.
But this time, not by ascension.
It would be by war.
---
End of Chapter 44