The world was ending, and Su Xue was the only one who knew.
She stood atop the ruins of the Celestial Dawn Sect, her white robes stained with ash and blood. The sky burned crimson, split by jagged streaks of black lightning. Below her, the earth trembled as Heaven's End Mountain collapsed, swallowed by an abyss of writhing shadows.
And at the center of it all—him.
Lu Xuan.
The Immortal Demon God, clad in armor forged from the bones of fallen immortals, his crimson eyes devoid of anything resembling humanity. He raised a hand, and the heavens themselves screamed as space twisted under his will.
"You cannot kill me," his voice echoed, not just in her ears but in her soul. "I am beyond death."
Su Xue tightened her grip on her sword, Frostbane, its blade glowing with the last remnants of her spiritual energy. She had fought him a thousand times in this ruined future. She had lost every single one.
But this time—this time was different.
She had one last gamble.
The Time Reversal Art.
A forbidden technique, one that would burn her soul as fuel to turn back the clock.
She met Lu Xuan's hollow gaze, her voice steady despite the despair clawing at her chest.
"Then I'll erase you before you ever become this."
She plunged Frostbane into the ground, and the world shattered.
Five Hundred Years Earlier
Su Xue gasped awake, her body drenched in cold sweat.
She was alive.
No—more than that. She was back.
The air was clean, untouched by the miasma of the demonic calamity. The sect walls around her stood pristine, unbroken. Disciples in white and blue robes moved with purpose, their faces unmarked by the horrors she had witnessed.
She had done it. She had returned to the past—before Lu Xuan's fall.
Her fingers trembled as she pressed them to her wrist, checking her pulse. Real. Solid. Not an illusion, not a dying dream.
"You there!"
A sharp voice cut through her thoughts. Su Xue turned to see a senior disciple frowning at her.
"Why are you loitering? The selection trials begin soon. If you're not there, you'll be expelled."
Su Xue's breath hitched.
The selection trials.
The day Lu Xuan—no, not the Demon God yet, just Lu Xuan, the outer disciple—would first step onto the path of cultivation. The day his story truly began.
And the day she would change it.
The Celestial Dawn Sect – Outer Disciple Trials
Su Xue moved through the crowd, her senses sharp. She had spent years memorizing every detail of this moment from the sect's archives.
And then—she saw him.
Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan.
Not the tyrant who had drowned the world in blood, but a young man of eighteen, his dark hair tied back in a simple knot, his robes plain and worn. He stood at the edge of the training grounds, his expression calm, but his knuckles were white where they gripped the hilt of his practice sword.
He looked so… human.
Su Xue's chest ached.
She remembered the future—the way he had laughed as he crushed the skull of the sect master, the way his voice had been devoid of mercy when he slaughtered entire clans without hesitation.
Was this really the same person?
Before she could stop herself, she stepped forward.
"You're holding your sword wrong."
Lu Xuan turned, startled. His eyes—still clear, still bright, not yet stained crimson—flickered with surprise.
Su Xue pointed to his grip. "Your thumb is too high. You'll lose control on the recoil."
A beat of silence. Then, to her shock, he smiled.
"You're right." He adjusted his hold. "I've never had a teacher."
Su Xue swallowed.
This was it. The first step.
If she could guide him, protect him from the betrayals to come…
Maybe, just maybe, she could prevent the Demon God's birth.
But as she met his gaze, a chilling thought struck her.
What if she was already too late?
Because lurking in the shadows of the sect, unseen by all but her, a familiar dark energy pulsed.
The corruption had already begun.
End of Chapter 1