Li Tianming walked through the outer ridges of the Jadebone Forest, a place long abandoned by major sects due to its unstable ley lines and warped spiritual energies. Spirit beasts howled in the distance, and the air shimmered faintly — distorted by remnants of forgotten formations and failed rituals.
Each step he took echoed louder in his ears. Not because of the silence around him — but because the world itself seemed to listen now.
The Threadstealer Gu had coiled around his arm like a sleeve, slumbering. His Fate Furnace pulsed slowly, harmonizing with the forest's odd rhythm. But deeper within his chest, the Inverse Path stirred.
He felt the pull of fate.
Something — someone — was waiting nearby.
His steps brought him to a collapsed stone gate choked by roots and moss. Beyond it lay what once must have been a spiritual observatory — a circular plaza of cracked jade tiles and shattered spirit mirrors.
In its center sat a man — ancient, skeletal, and barely breathing. His robes were little more than faded thread, but his aura was unmistakable.
Nascent Soul Realm.
A cultivator who should have commanded empires — now left to die in the dirt.
Yet, the old man's eyes opened slowly as Tianming approached.
And he smiled.
"You carry the mark."
Li Tianming paused. "You recognize it?"
The elder nodded weakly, coughing. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "That glyph… Inversion… It hasn't been seen since the Final Collapse. You bear the brand of the Unwritten Sovereign."
Tianming's gaze sharpened. "The First Defier?"
The old man let out a rasping laugh. "No. He came before even the First Defier. The one who wrote nothing down… but whose footsteps broke a thousand heavens."
He reached into his robe and pulled out a shattered crystal orb. Within it flickered dim remnants of soul memory. He pressed it into Tianming's hand.
"I was once a Witness. We recorded what could not be spoken. Take it. See what we saw."
Tianming let his energy thread into the crystal.
Flashes filled his mind:
—A man standing on a throne of corpses, eyes filled with stars.
—Nine suns chained above him, trembling as he raised a single hand.
—A glyph blazing on his back — not 逆, but one older, more primal.
—His voice, echoing across time:
"Heaven is not my ruler. I am the root of all consequence."
The vision shattered.
Tianming staggered back.
The elder coughed blood again. "He vanished in the Cataclysm War. All records of his existence erased by Heaven's Lawkeepers. But those who walked his path… left echoes."
Tianming whispered, "What was his name?"
The old man's eyes glowed one last time.
"He called himself… Yi Cangxue."
Then he died.
But his body did not decay.
Instead, it began to transform — calcifying into marble, fossilized by inverted fate. His destiny had been to wither away and rot. But Tianming's presence had reversed even that.
The elder had become a monument. A tombstone for a forgotten lineage.
As Tianming stood in silence, a soft ripple passed through the forest.
Then, a new pressure descended.
They had found him.
From the shadows stepped two figures clad in pure white robes, each marked with a blazing sun over their heart — Heaven's Hounds.
Their leader was a young man with silver hair and a face like porcelain, emotionless and cold. His eyes glowed faintly with Heaven's decree — able to see sin, karma, and deviation.
He raised a finger.
"You, cultivator, are charged with deviation from the Mandate of Heaven. Surrender your Fate Furnace."
Li Tianming didn't respond.
Instead, he smiled.
The glyph on his palm ignited.
"Then come take it."