Part 1: Lament of the Fallen
Falling. Endless falling.
The wind had long ceased its howling. Darkness surrounded him like thick, viscous depths of the ocean, slowly consuming Lin Yue's shattered consciousness. He could no longer feel pain. That body, utterly destroyed, seemed to have crumbled into dust. Only a faint wisp of his true spirit remained, drifting alone through the void.
"Am I... dead?"
The moment this thought arose, the absolute darkness before him rippled like water. There was no thunderous tear of space, no blinding light. Lin Yue simply felt his "existence" gently lifted by a force vast and ancient—boundless, yet carrying an infinite sorrow.
When he "opened his eyes" again, he found himself no longer flesh and blood, but a translucent wisp of soul-light. He floated in an expanse of stars beyond description. Below him, brilliant galaxies spun slowly. Above him, cascades of law-light rushed like rivers. At the center of this starry realm stood a crystalline pillar that pierced through heaven and earth.
What a pillar it was. It was so immense that Lin Yue's soul before it was less than a speck of dust. Carved into its surface were totems of countless living beings. Rainbow-hued primordial source energy flowed through it—the lifeblood of Kyushu that had pulsed for millennia.
Yet this pillar—the World Pillar, the very foundation of this realm—was covered in scars. Countless chains of inky black, radiating a venomous, bone-deep cold, coiled tightly around it. These chains were like parasitic leeches, driving their barbed hooks deep into the pillar's core, greedily sucking out the rainbow-hued fortune. Each drop of fortune drained caused a star in the sky to flicker and die, its death cry echoing through the soul.
"You see now? This is our world. It is dying."
A voice—ethereal, sorrowful, yet heavy with exhaustion—echoed through the starry realm.
Lin Yue followed the sound. Beside the broken base of the World Pillar stood a woman in a flowing white dress. Her hair, white as snow, cascaded around her, her figure veiled in faint starlight. Though she seemed close enough to touch, she also felt separated by endless time and space. Her face could not be clearly seen, but her eyes reflected the mountains, rivers, and countless souls of Kyushu.
"You are... that golden light?" Lin Yue's soul flickered faintly.
"I am the will of this world. You may call me Suo."
The woman walked slowly toward him. Each step she took bloomed with starlight beneath her feet. She looked up at the great pillar, scarred and cracked by the black chains, her eyes flowing with endless sorrow.
Part 2: A Ten-Thousand-Year Lament and the Law Untouchable
"The invasion from another world did not begin today. It descended in ages long past."
Suo's voice carried the weight of eons. As she spoke, ancient, tragic visions unfolded in the starry realm.
"How brilliant Kyushu was in those days. The ancient celestial courts ruled the stars. Demon emperors of unmatched power shook the mountains and seas. The immortal ancestors of humanity forged a path for mortal kind. When the cracks tore open the heavens, they did not retreat. They chose to fight."
In the visions, countless ancient powerhouses, radiating world-shattering might, surged toward the incomprehensible black fog beyond the sky like meteors.
"But there were too many enemies. Their methods were too insidious." A golden tear slipped from Suo's eye, falling into the starry realm and dissolving into a silent rain of shooting stars. "Through the long ages, the celestial courts crumbled among the stars. Demon emperors fell bleeding into the abyss. The immortal ancestors of humanity were worn to ashes by the grinding of the Great Dao... All who once held up the heavens of Kyushu perished in battle."
Lin Yue's soul trembled violently. He could feel that bone-deep sorrow, that tragic heroism.
"In the last three thousand years, the invasion has become fiercer than ever." Suo pointed at the black chains. "These demons changed their strategy. They carry artifacts called 'Systems' and swarm like locusts, avoiding direct battle. They attach themselves silently to my very bones. They twist my laws, the fates of mortals, turning this world into a massive 'fortune farm'!"
"You are Heaven's Will! The master of this world!" Lin Yue's voice blazed with grief and fury. "Since you can reshape my true spirit, why not strike them down directly? Smite the demons and their Systems from existence!"
Suo turned to look at him, a bitter smile curving her lips. "Because Heaven's Will has no emotion. The laws are impartial."
She reached out a translucent finger and gently touched one of the black chains. A sizzling sound—her fingertip was instantly burned, a void-like black hole forming where it touched. Yet she did not pull back. "I am the creator of this world, yet I am also the most powerless prisoner of its laws. If I were to act directly, using my source power to destroy them, Kyushu's fundamental laws would collapse in an instant. The demons would die, yes—but so would every living soul in Kyushu, extinguished in a single breath."
"All I can do is strip what little fortune remains into seeds, seeking those with resilient spirits untouched by the Systems. They become my 'agents'—to bleed for this world."
"So you chose me." Lin Yue's voice no longer trembled. It held the quiet calm of one who has seen through life and death.
"Yes. You are kind, gentle. Even when everything was taken from you, you never bowed." Suo walked before him, her star-filled eyes meeting his. "But this path is a road to ruin. Once you take this burden, the whole world will be against you. Those infected by the Systems will stop at nothing to destroy you. Are you... ready?"
Lin Yue's mind flashed with images: Su Yan's eyes, cold as a machine; Chu Yanran's trusting smile; his master's disappointed sigh. Fifteen years as a disciple of Azure Cloud Sect, and in the end, he had lost everything—reputation, cultivation, even life itself.
"I accept." Lin Yue's soul blazed with a light of unwavering resolve. "But I have one condition."
"Speak."
"Do not erase my memories. Not the pain. Not even the hatred." Lin Yue met Heaven's Will's gaze directly. "I want to carry the humiliation in my very bones. I want to see clearly as those demons pay back—every last debt they owe this world—with interest."
Suo gazed at him for a long moment. Something like wonder and relief flickered in her eyes. "So be it."
Part 3: Rebirth Through Fire
Suo slowly raised her arms.
BOOM!
The great World Pillar shuddered with a deep, resonant hum. The purest, most primal rainbow light was drawn from its deepest core, gathering in Suo's palms. This was not merely power—it was the last remaining foundation and fortune of a dying world.
"Your mortal bones are shattered—I will forge you new ones from this world's source. Your Azure Cloud spiritual energy is gone—I will weave you new meridians from Kyushu's fortune!"
Suo pushed that cluster of rainbow light into Lin Yue's translucent soul without reservation.
Ah—!
Lin Yue let out a guttural cry, barely human. This was not the pain of flesh—it was nirvana through law-forged rebirth!
In that blinding radiance, a body of impossible perfection was woven strand by strand. Bones white as jade were engraved with primordial Dao runes. Meridians broad as rivers surged with blood brilliant as stars. His shattered dantian transformed into a vast golden sea of qi!
This was no ordinary cultivator. This was—an Innate Dao Body, personally forged by the will of the world!
As the light faded, a tall, straight youth stood upon the starry realm. He opened his eyes. Within his pupils, stars were born and died in endless cycles. Not only was his cultivation fully restored to peak Foundation Building, but his foundation was now so terrifying that his past self could not even compare.
Suo's figure had grown dim, as if a gust of wind could scatter her. She looked at the reborn youth with eyes full of maternal tenderness.
"Su Yan's System monitors the karmic threads of Azure Cloud Sect. 'Lin Yue' is dead. From today, you must sever your past. Walk through Kyushu with a new identity." Suo raised a translucent finger, tracing a map of Kyushu in the air. Her fingertip settled on the southernmost land, a region blazing with fire.
"Go to Lihuo Prefecture. There, another child of fortune like yourself is facing a desperate end. He will be your finest ally." "Your new name is Lin Zhen." "Zhen—steel forged through a hundred trials. The ultimate refinement, the highest goodness."
Lin Zhen donned the green robes Suo wove for him from starlight. He clenched his fists, feeling the explosive power surging within. He turned to the fading figure before him and knelt heavily, pressing his forehead to the ground in a deep bow.
"Lin Zhen swears—I will cut down every demon and restore a clear sky to Kyushu!"
Suo smiled and raised her hand.
A rift in space opened behind Lin Zhen and swallowed him whole.
Part 4: The Southern Blaze, A Bond Forged
Scorching heat. The acrid bite of sulfur.
When Lin Zhen opened his eyes again, he stood on a dark red wasteland. Ash choked the sky, and in the distance, an active volcano belched thick smoke, staining half the horizon blood-red.
This was Lihuo Prefecture—one of Kyushu's eight extremities.
Lin Zhen took a deep breath. His Innate Dao Body spun into motion. The surrounding wild fire-attuned spiritual energy surged into his dantian like rivers returning to the sea—no resistance, no obstruction.
Suddenly, a violent fluctuation of spiritual energy and a roar of rage echoed from a canyon ten li away.
Lin Zhen's eyes sharpened. His form blurred into a cyan streak, skimming across the scorched earth toward the sound.
The canyon was in chaos.
Three rogue cultivators at Foundation Building Stage, their auras thick with yin-cold energy, were forcing a burly man into a corner. The man was eight feet tall, stripped to the waist, his bronze muscles crisscrossed with scars. In his hands, he wielded a massive black sword as wide as a door panel. Though a sword wound had pierced his left shoulder and blood streamed down his arm, his eyes burned with an almost tangible wildness, a defiant fighting spirit.
"Shi Potian! Hand over the Earthfire Essence Crystal, and we'll give you a quick death!" hissed the lead cultivator.
"Pah!" The man named Shi Potian spat out a mouthful of blood. "I nearly died in the magma digging this out, and you cowards want to take it? Come on then! We'll all go down together!"
The three rogue cultivators exchanged glances and stopped wasting words. Three poisoned flying swords shot toward Shi Potian like black serpents, sealing off any escape!
Shi Potian roared, raising his heavy sword to meet them, ready to burn his own lifeblood—
In that critical moment—
HUM—!
A suffocating pressure, like a meteor falling from the Ninth Heaven, crashed into the center of the canyon!
The three flying swords struck an invisible wall mid-flight. With a pitiful screech, they shattered into pieces!
"Who's there?!" The three cultivators staggered back, their faces draining of color.
Through the settling dust, a tall figure in green robes walked slowly into view.
Lin Zhen did not look at the rogue cultivators. His gaze fixed on Shi Potian.
The moment he entered the canyon, the golden mark deep in his dantian—Suo's blessing—had flared with an overwhelming resonance. A connection—blood-deep, fate-woven—thrummed between them!
Deep within Shi Potian's brow, a faint golden light of the same origin flickered in response!
"You..." Shi Potian stared blankly at the green-robed youth who had appeared so suddenly. Somehow, his raging heart steadied in this man's presence.
"Three mid-Foundation Building cultivators, ganging up on one exhausted man. The customs of Lihuo Prefecture are rather crude." Lin Zhen turned, his eyes—where stars were born and died—coldly sweeping over the three.
"Mind your own business! You're asking for death!" The lead cultivator, unable to sense Lin Zhen's depth, gritted his teeth and activated a secret technique, surging forward as a cloud of black mist.
Lin Zhen did not draw a sword. He did not even use a single technique.
He simply raised his right hand, pressed two fingers together like a blade, and sliced lightly through the air.
Shrrrk!
A primordial sword qi—pure, absolute—shot from his fingertips! No flashy light show. Only speed beyond perception and edge beyond resistance!
The black mist, along with the cultivator's protective qi, was split in two like paper.
Thud.
Two halves of a body hit the ground.
The remaining two cultivators shrieked in terror and scrambled away, fleeing the canyon without looking back.
Lin Zhen did not pursue. He walked to Shi Potian and took a crystalline healing pill from his storage pouch, offering it to him.
"What's your name?" Lin Zhen studied the burly man—wary, yet carrying an inexplicable trust.
Shi Potian took the pill and grinned, flashing white teeth. His rough, unrestrained nature matched the untamed land of fire and ash. "Name's Shi Potian! Just a rough man from Lihuo. Thanks for saving my life, brother! What do I call you?"
Lin Zhen looked at him. In a world being devoured by cold Systems and cunning schemes, this bloodied, scarred man radiated the most blazing vitality.
He reached out and clasped Shi Potian's rough, blood-stained hand.
The moment their fortunes intersected, the gears of fate—buried under the volcanic ash of this southernmost land—began to turn with a thunderous roar.
"My name is Lin Zhen."
"From this day forward—we walk the same road."