"There are three kinds of cultivators."
"Those who follow Heaven. Those who defy it. And those who seek to erase it."
— Old Cultivator Proverb
The Heavenless Dao Initiation Stone rested in Rui Yan's palm like a dying heartbeat.
It was black, rough to the touch, veined with a deep crimson glow that pulsed slowly—like something alive. Carved into its center was a single inverted sigil: a shattered halo pierced by a spear.
"The Heavenless Path... even I never dared tread it in my past life."
Not because he feared it. But because it had been erased from the cultivation world long before he reached his prime. Cultivators who walked it either vanished… or were hunted to extinction by the Immortal Courts.
But now, reborn, with nothing left to protect and everything to destroy—it called to him.
"I followed karma once, then I defied it. This time… I'll erase it."
He pressed his palm to the stone.
Suddenly, his surroundings disappeared.
He stood in a colorless void.
No sky. No ground. Just drifting fragments of thought, light, and soul memory—his own and others.
In front of him appeared a mirror—shattered, yet suspended in the air, reflecting thousands of fragmented images: Rui's past life, his betrayal, his conquests, his sins.
A voice echoed, not from outside, but within his soul.
"To walk the Heavenless Path… you must first cast off the three bindings: Fate, Form, and Flame."
"Do you abandon your name, your past, your karma?"
Rui stepped forward. "I abandon everything."
The mirror cracked further.
"Then be bound no more."
The shards exploded inward.
Pain—immense, soul-deep—wracked Rui's entire being. His cultivation base shattered again and rebuilt itself, not upward—but inward, spiraling around his core.
The Black Ember twisted, folding into a black spiral embryo. It pulsed silently.
🜂 [Heavenless Soul Embryo Formed]
➤ You have stepped onto the Heavenless Path. You are no longer bound by karmic cause or spiritual law.
➤ Warning: Your existence is now detectable by the Immortal Courts.
Rui awoke on the floor of the Forgotten Soul Chamber, drenched in sweat.
The obsidian cauldron in the center of the room cracked down the middle—destroyed by the shock of his ascension.
He felt different.
Calmer.
Colder.
More real than he had ever been, even at the height of his power in his last life.
He stretched out his hand.
The air didn't respond with spiritual force—it recoiled, as if pushed away by something unnatural.
He smiled.
"Heaven can sense me now."
"Good. Let it feel fear."
That night, as Rui sat outside his cave under the waning moon, Lin Yu returned, holding a new bundle of scrolls.
"I found flame-seed notes from the inner sect archives," she said. "But someone else was there, too. I think they noticed me."
Rui looked up.
Her face was pale. "It was an elder. He wore a silver badge… from the Celestial Harmony Pavilion."
They're already watching.
Rui stood, his gaze burning with quiet intensity.
"Then I need to strike first."
Far above, inside the Celestial Harmony Pavilion, a golden-robed elder studied a list of names.
He stopped at one.
"Rui Yan…"
He set the scroll down.
"Contact the Soul Wardens. We have a situation."