Xiao Ren's body plummeted through the endless darkness, the wind howling past his ears as the Celestial Ascendance Cliff disappeared above him. Time lost meaning. Seconds stretched into eternity. There was no bottom, no salvation—only the abyss.
His heartbeat slowed, the poison in his veins constricting his meridians, ensuring his death was absolute. He should have been afraid. He should have raged at the betrayal. But all he felt was an eerie stillness, a detachment that settled into his very soul.
Then, the void trembled.
"You who fall into the abyss… why do you seek power?"
A voice. Deep, ancient, layered with countless whispers. It did not belong to the world he had known.
Xiao Ren's eyes flickered open. He could see nothing but darkness, yet he could feel something watching him from beyond. He forced his lips to move. I never sought power… only freedom.
The void stirred, its presence thickening around him, pressing against his skin. "Freedom… A lie whispered by the weak to comfort their chains."
A pulse of energy exploded from the darkness, piercing through him. It was not pain—it was something deeper, as if the abyss was unraveling him piece by piece, forcing him to confront the truth of his existence. His memories surfaced—the years of struggle, the bitter taste of betrayal, the silent screams locked within his heart.
He had never been free.
The sect, the heavens, the so-called righteous path—each one had bound him in unseen shackles. The moment he had shown promise, the moment he had reached too high, they had struck him down. The world was not built for those like him.
The void whispered again, but this time, it did not ask. It offered.
"Then break your chains."
Something surged from the abyss, cold and absolute, coiling around his collapsing meridians. His body burned with an energy unlike anything he had ever known. It was dark, vast, unfathomable—and it was his. The poison that had once shackled him was devoured by this force, transformed into fuel for something greater.
The darkness began to change. No longer was it simply a void; it became a presence, a will that pulsed with power beyond mortal comprehension. Xiao Ren felt it wrap around him, not as an enemy, but as a part of himself, awakening something deep within his soul.
The abyss had answered.
His descent slowed, the endless void shifting. The ground rose to meet him—a blackened expanse of stone and ruin, whispers of long-dead voices echoing through the air. He landed on one knee, the impact sending a shockwave through his body, yet he felt no pain. Instead, he felt… reborn.
Xiao Ren rose to his feet, his red eyes glowing faintly in the abyssal gloom. He clenched his fist, feeling the energy coursing through him. He had been cast away, thrown into the depths to be forgotten.
But he was still here. And he was not the same.
The abyss did not take—it transformed.
A sound echoed through the dark—a deep, reverberating pulse. He turned, eyes narrowing.
Towering monoliths, carved with cryptic runes, stood in a vast circle around him. Some glowed faintly, their inscriptions shifting like whispers in the dark.
Xiao Ren stepped forward, drawn to the center of the formation. As he did, the symbols flared with light, and an ancient presence stirred.
"The Chosen of Nyx… awakens."
A gust of abyssal wind surged outward. Shadows coalesced, forming an ethereal entity before him. It had no face, only shifting darkness, its form woven from the abyss itself.
Xiao Ren stood his ground. "What am I?"
The entity's voice was neither hostile nor welcoming—it was absolute. "A fragment of what was lost. A spark of what will come."
For the first time, Xiao Ren felt the weight of something far greater than himself. The abyss had given him power, but it had also given him a path.
And in this moment, he made his choice.
He was no longer the Xiao Ren that had been cast aside.
He would walk the abyss. And the heavens… would tremble.
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End of Chapter 2.