The world had lost its stillness.
The tear above the crater spread like ink in water, rippling with unnatural color. Every heartbeat widened it; every breath deepened the hum that resonated through the air. Lightning no longer struck from clouds but from the wound itself, arcs of violet flame that scorched the earth wherever they landed.
Li Xian stood at the center of the ridge, robes torn, hair whipping in the updraft. Around him, disciples etched formations in frantic unison. He didn't look at them—his gaze never left the sky.
Su Yao's hand brushed his arm. "Its pull is growing. The longer it stays open, the stronger it gets."
"I know." His voice was calm, but the power seething beneath his skin wasn't. The tribulation lightning he'd absorbed days ago was still alive inside him, restless and hungry. He'd bound it with sheer will, but the rift's energy was calling to it now—feeding it, tempting it to break free.
Elder Shen shouted from behind them, "The runes are unstable! The qi lines are overlapping!"
"Force them apart," Su Yao ordered. "We only need them to hold for a few breaths."
Above, something moved.
Not a creature—not yet—but the suggestion of one. A shadow of wings longer than mountains unfurled behind the tear, and the air turned heavy enough to crush lungs. The disciples screamed as several fell to their knees, blood trickling from their eyes and noses.
Li Xian's aura flared, forcing pressure away in a wave that shattered the nearest stones. "Enough!"
The word carried power—raw, commanding. It made the mountain tremble. The shadow paused, as if something inside the rift was listening.
Su Yao took that moment. She bit her fingertip, traced a seal across her palm, and pressed it to Li Xian's chest. The mark flared gold before sinking into his skin.
Their qi threads tangled and fused, pulsing in perfect rhythm. His breath hitched, hers trembled, and the storm around them bent toward their shared energy—two cores resonating as one.
She whispered, "We close it together."
Li Xian nodded once, stepped forward, and raised both hands to the heavens. The tribulation lightning answered. Bolts curved from the clouds, drawn to him as if to their source. The glow around his body turned blinding white, shot through with streaks of black.
He thrust his palms upward.
The lightning met the rift.
The impact split sound itself. A column of brilliance erupted, swallowing the crater whole. Su Yao anchored the barrier behind him, her robes snapping like banners in the storm. The ground beneath her cracked and fell away, but she didn't flinch.
Within the blinding light, Li Xian's silhouette strained forward—against the pull of another world. He could feel the gate trying to drag him across, to claim the power in his veins. Something vast pressed from the other side, whispering in an ancient, forgotten tongue.
"Come through," it said. "You are mine."
Li Xian's answer was a roar that shook the mountain to its roots.
His veins lit with golden fire as he poured every fragment of qi into the strike.
The rift screamed. Reality itself splintered—glasslike shards of color falling from the wound as if the sky were breaking apart. Su Yao added her own energy, her golden light weaving through his storm. Their fusion grew too bright to look at.
For a heartbeat, everything was silent.
Then the world snapped.
The rift imploded, sucking light, sound, and wind into itself before collapsing into a single glowing point—and vanishing.
Silence. Smoke. The smell of ozone and blood.
When the ash settled, Li Xian was on one knee, chest heaving, the air around him still shimmering with residual lightning. Su Yao knelt beside him, pressing her forehead to his.
"It's over," she whispered.
He looked up at the empty sky. "No," he said quietly. "Something crossed before it closed."
Behind them, the mountain's shadow shivered—like something breathing beneath its surface.
Far away, in a black marble hall, Mo Tian opened his eyes. A thin smile curved his lips. "So," he murmured, watching the faint echo of the closed rift ripple across his crystal mirror, "you've learned to defy Heaven itself. Good. It will make your fall that much sweeter."
The mirror cracked. The world turned.