Silence. Not the peaceful kind, but the suffocating emptiness of a soul wrapped in chains, buried in a forgotten plane of existence. Fan Zhi floated in that space—neither dead nor truly alive. His body remained intact, his mind lucid, but his essence… it had been compressed, tethered, locked.
He no longer stood tall as the unmatched prodigy feared across dimensions. He no longer raged with the celestial flames or shattered lands with a mere glance. He was Ordinary now.
At least, that was what the Supreme Beings had ensured—ten thousand of them.
They didn't kill him. They couldn't.
He remembered that moment well—the aftermath of the mission that turned fatal for everyone else. The girl who had followed him like a little sister… the one who believed in him when no one else did… the only one who smiled at him not out of fear, but genuine trust.
He didn't even remember activating the seal-breaking tier of his power. It just… reacted. And in the blink of an eye, she was gone.
The Supreme Beings had cornered him. Not with fury, but with dread.
"You were never meant to exist in this realm," one of them had whispered. "You're a flaw… a being too close to Primordial Destruction."
Fan Zhi had not resisted.
He stood amidst the ruins, his robes drenched in blood—not his, but theirs. His arms were limp, his eyes empty. He wanted to be erased. He didn't beg for mercy. He didn't try to explain. In fact, when the seals wrapped around him like divine chains of fate, he welcomed them.
But it wasn't over.
Two years later, long after the world had moved on, something else came. Something that even the Supreme Beings could not foresee. An ancient ripple tore through the sealed dimension—an unknown force, neither divine nor demonic—and dragged Fan Zhi away.
He was gone.
Not dead. Not in stasis.
Just… missing.
---
🌑 Flashback
Before that mission—before the blood, before the judgment—Fan Zhi had still walked freely among others. But even then, he was an outcast.
Whispers followed him.
"Don't make eye contact. He might destroy you with a look…"
"Wasn't his mother a weapon forged by the Void Sect?"
"They say he was born under a cursed star."
No one tried to know the boy behind the power. No one saw the one who stayed up nights trying to understand why he was different. No one knew he often sat alone, watching the moon, asking it why he couldn't just be... normal.
Except her.
The girl who treated him like a brother. Who dared to laugh beside him. Who never flinched when he frowned. Who told him, "You're strong, but you're still just Fan Zhi to me."
And when she died, so did what was left of his resistance.
---
🌕 Present Day
In another realm, light filtered through a rippling sky. The dimension he'd been pulled into was nothing like the one he left behind. The laws of reality bent here. Time stuttered. Space wept.
But Fan Zhi remained… awake.
Not ordinary. Not sealed.
Just quiet.
Emptiness surrounded him, yet within his eyes, something ancient slumbered. His emotions were sealed, his heart frozen in the moment of her death, but faint echoes stirred whenever he dreamed—dreams of a mall, a trembling girl, a warm embrace.
He couldn't remember her name.
He couldn't remember the smile.
But somewhere, in the fog of his broken memories, a warmth flickered—something he hadn't felt in years.
---
Meanwhile, in the mortal realm…
Ming Yue opened her eyes beneath a cold moon. Her hair, kissed with frost, glimmered like stardust. Her clones—Xueyue, Liuyue, Huoyue—gathered silently behind her. Each represented a piece of her soul, each awakened through blood, pain, and endless search.
"It's been five years…" she whispered, looking at the stars. "Where did you go?"
She still remembered the mall collapse—the way he had held her, calmed her, whispered warmth into her chaos. He hadn't even used his power—he couldn't control it then. He just stayed, silently keeping her safe.
He had no feelings for her.
But she did.
Back then, she didn't understand what it meant.
Now, it was all she lived for.
She would find him.
Even if she had to tear through worlds to do so.