The heavens wept red as Yi Zhen stood atop the bloodstained plains of the Sunfire Reaches, once sacred ground now scorched by the essence of a thousand fallen cultivators. The Solar Sanctum Sect—arrogant and radiant in their belief—hovered like golden sentinels in the storm-wrought skies. Seven Elders shimmered with peak power, their robes etched with constellations, Dao sigils blindingly pulsing like divine judgment.
Their presence made the wind still.
Each of them, a mountain of legacy:
Elder Bai Heng: Dao of Solar Dominion—commanding the very pressure of sunlight.
Elder Wu Xian: Dao of Precision—every move exact, measured to the grain.
Elder Lian Mo: Dao of Silent Flame—fire that consumed without sound, without warmth.
Elder Qiu Fen: Dao of Temporal Grasp—could slow or accelerate a moment in time.
Elder Yun Zhi: Dao of Weighing Judgment—his power shifted based on sin.
Elder Xiang Jun: Dao of Celestial Binding—his golden chains sealed fate itself.
Elder Fan Yin: Dao of Solar Memory—used past moments as weapons.
And still, Yi Zhen—cloaked in corrupted, inverted Qi—rose to meet them, calm as a whisper before a funeral dirge.
"You came down from your heavens," Yi Zhen murmured, the madness behind his eyes eclipsed only by his resolve, "only to find yourselves bound to hell."
Their laughter ended when the earth trembled, and Yi Zhen vanished, appearing in front of Elder Xiang Jun in a blur. A vicious strike sent the elder hurtling backwards, his binding chains unraveling into fragments of broken fate.
They attacked in unison.
Seven legendary Daos collided with an unknown force: Inverse Battle Tendency.
With a single flick of his finger, Yi Zhen whispered, "I do not need a thousand techniques… just one move will be enough."
The technique flared.
A sinister lotus spun in his palm, laced with black tendrils and reversed inscriptions.
Inverse Battle Tendency—a conceptual corruption of the strategic mind. It latched onto the battle instincts of all seven elders, hijacking the part of their consciousness that controlled combat reasoning. They turned… on each other.
Swords flashed, flames devoured, chains snapped.
Elder Bai Heng screamed as Elder Wu Xian's blade ran through his chest. Elder Lian Mo burned herself trying to melt Elder Fan Yin's memory attacks. They tore into one another with flawless, devastating technique—exactly as they had been trained for centuries. Their supreme mastery became their doom.
Yi Zhen watched. Eyes cold.
Blood rained down like prophecy.
"Is this your glory? Is this the balance you stood for?" Yi Zhen laughed, the sound twisted and joyous. "You're all nothing but puppets on my strings. Remember this: To invert the way is to become the way."
He raised a single hand.
A colossal ritual circle unfurled beneath their dying corpses, etched into the soil with their own Qi. It ignited. Screams became wind. Bones became ash. And the heavens split.
Yi Zhen ascended.
A black lotus bloomed behind him.
He entered a new realm, The Realm of Severed Fate—a cursed realm where one walks with no path, no destiny, only their will.
He turned to the empty sky. "Let the world prepare… the inverted sun has risen."
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Author's Note – Terry:
Here is the current scaling and character profile for Yi Zhen:
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Yi Zhen – Character Card (Post-Chapter 12)
Verse: The path rejected me now I forge my own heaven.
Name: Yi Zhen
Titles: Inverse Walker, Ritual Slayer, Demon's Bane, Fate Severer
Cultivation Path: Inverse Dao (Self-Created)
Current Realm: Realm of Severed Fate (Post-Ritual Ascension)
Powers & Abilities:
Inverse Qi: Corrupts and reverses traditional cultivation energy, damaging and bypassing natural resistances.
Inverse Battle Tendency: Forces opponents into overdrive combat mode, turning instincts into madness.
Dao of Inversion: Flips cause and effect, fate and choice, allowing him to manipulate battle outcomes conceptually.
Ritual Casting: Uses complex soul sacrifice rituals to unlock new powers or information at extreme cost.
Peak Body Strength: Enhanced through demonic sect training—currently capable of cratering large structures in single blows.
Mind Resistance: Fully immune to illusion or mental control after inverse refinement.
Scaling :
Attack Potency: At least Mountain Level+ (Split a mountain mid-battle with minimal effort, defeated multiple peak elders).
Speed: Hypersonic+ (Can blitz peak cultivators; consistent dodging and teleport-speed movement).
Durability: At least Mountain Level (Tanked sustained attacks from 7 elders before activating his technique).
Stamina: Extremely high (Survived torture, fights, and battles without spiritual rest over multiple days).
Intelligence: Genius (Tactical combatant, uses manipulation, rituals, and psychological warfare).
Misconceptions Cleared:
Yi Zhen does not get power for free—each gain comes with strategic sacrifice and brutal effort.
His Dao is self-made and not plot-granted; it is grounded in inversion and psychological warfare, not broken hax.
His ascension rituals are costly and irreversible. Every step forward burns a bridge behind.