The floating continent of the Heavenly Dao Sect was a marvel of the ancient world. It consisted of thirty-six massive islands suspended by spirit veins, orbiting a central peak.
Now, gravity reclaimed its debt.
The Grandmaster Puppet detonation had shattered the central anchor.
"Hold the array! Burn your blood!" Sect Master Daoist Sky roared, his hands holding up a collapsing barrier of light.
But it was like trying to catch a falling mountain with a spiderweb.
CRASH.
The outer islands fell first. They plummeted twenty thousand feet, smashing into the earth below. The shockwaves triggered earthquakes that were felt a thousand miles away. Palaces turned to dust. Thousand-year-old spirit gardens were flattened.
The Central Peak—the heart of the sect—began to tilt.
"The sky is falling!" Disciples screamed, sliding off the edge of the plazas into the abyss.
From the black clouds above, the Eternal Night Armada descended like vultures.
"Fire at will!" Gu Sha commanded from the lead battleship.
Hundreds of Spirit Cannons—modified with Blood Devil runes—opened fire. Red beams of destruction rained down on the falling islands, blasting apart the few remaining defensive formations.
Mo Tian stood on the bow of his flagship. He watched the destruction with a calm, appreciative gaze.
"Gravity," Mo Tian mused. "The ultimate equalizer."
He looked at the tilting Central Peak. Sect Master Daoist Sky was barely holding it aloft with his Nascent Soul power, trying to save the core disciples.
"Let's go help him," Mo Tian said.
He stepped off the ship.
[Skill: World Walk.]
He didn't fly. Space bent under his feet, shortening the distance. One step, and he was standing on the collapsing plaza of the Central Peak.
The wind howled. Debris flew past him.
Daoist Sky saw him. The Sect Master's eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled.
"Demon!" Daoist Sky screamed. "You have doomed the world! Without the Heavenly Dao Sect, who will hold back the Abyss?!"
"I will," Mo Tian replied.
He walked forward. The tilting ground didn't affect him; gravity bent to his will.
"You speak of order," Mo Tian said, his voice cutting through the roar of the collapse. "But your order is stagnation. You hoard resources. You suppress change. You float above the world, looking down on the mortals."
Mo Tian raised his hand.
"Now, you join them."
"Chaos Law: Heavy."
The Chaos Ring behind Mo Tian spun. A wave of grey light hit Daoist Sky.
The weight of the Central Peak suddenly increased by a factor of ten.
"NO!" Daoist Sky's knees buckled. He coughed a mouthful of golden blood.
The Central Peak groaned. The last support snapped.
It fell.
Mo Tian and Daoist Sky rode the mountain down.
BOOM.
The impact was cataclysmic. A mushroom cloud of dust rose into the stratosphere.
Ground Zero
The dust settled.
The once-proud Heavenly Dao Sect was now a crater. Ruins lay scattered everywhere. But because of their cultivation, thousands of disciples had survived the crash, though many were wounded.
They crawled out of the rubble, coughing.
"We... we're alive?"
Then they saw the red eyes in the dust.
The Eternal Night Army had landed.
"Harvest them."
Xue Yao emerged from the smoke, riding the Golden Lion she had broken. She swung her Zanbato, decapitating a dazed Elder.
"Spare no one above Foundation Establishment!" She roared. "Slaves or corpses! Choose!"
The slaughter began.
In the center of the ruins, Daoist Sky climbed out of a pile of shattered marble. He was badly injured, his left arm crushed.
He looked around. His home was gone. His legacy was ash.
And standing on top of a broken statue of the First Ancestor was Mo Tian.
Mo Tian looked clean. Not a speck of dust on his black robes.
"Is this it?" Mo Tian asked, disappointed. "The Guardian of the Central Continent?"
Daoist Sky's eyes burned with a cold, final resolve.
"You think you have won," Daoist Sky rasped. "But the Heavenly Dao Sect is not just a place. It is a Contract."
He reached into his robe and pulled out a small, golden bell.
The Bell of Awakening. A Spirit Treasure handed down from the Upper Realm.
"If I cannot stop you," Daoist Sky whispered, "I will call someone who can."
He struck the bell with his soul.
DONG.
The sound didn't travel through the air. It traveled through the Law of Heaven.
The ripples stopped the slaughter instantly. Blood Devils froze. Mo Tian frowned.
The sky above the crater opened. A beam of golden light descended, illuminating Daoist Sky.
"Sacrifice!" Daoist Sky screamed. "I offer my Soul! I offer the souls of all my fallen disciples! Summon the Avatar!"
The blood of the dead Heavenly Dao disciples began to glow gold. It rose into the air, swirling into the beam of light.
A pressure descended. It was heavier than the falling islands. It was the pressure of a Divine Transformation existence.
A giant foot stepped out of the light. Then a leg. Then a torso clad in golden armor.
A giant, hundred meters tall, stood in the crater. It had no face, only a single vertical eye.
[System Warning: Boss Detected.] [Target: Avatar of the Lower Heaven.] [Cultivation: Pseudo-Divine Transformation.] [Mission Objective Updated: Kill God.]
Mo Tian looked up at the giant.
"You summoned a babysitter," Mo Tian laughed. "How cute."
The Avatar looked down at Mo Tian.
"ERROR DETECTED," The Avatar spoke. Its voice sounded like mechanical gears grinding. "VIRUS IDENTIFIED. DELETE."
It raised a golden sword the size of a building.
Mo Tian cracked his neck. His Chaos Nascent Soul vibrated with excitement.
"System," Mo Tian grinned. "Play my boss music."
He flew up to meet the giant.