In a freezing region of absolute void within the God's Domain, countless titans were enthralled in a fight to the death. Thousands if not millions of titans had already died, their corpses would act as stars in the empty space for years to come.
This fight, believe it or not, was all an effort to kill just one of the countless titans. But, even if he was hopelessly outnumbered and technically outmatched, the instigator of this massive war, Hong Tian, wouldn't go out without a fight. He was known as Eternal Sunset's Immortal Villain, a god above gods; so powerful, even the legendary monarchs and sovereigns of the divine world thought twice about antagonizing him.
Hong Tian was a real demon, a cultivator who's Dao Heart naturally aligned itself with malice, evil, and sinister ambition. As was the case, along his journey to accrue power, he was regarded as immoral, with virtue being the antithesis of his core being. He could even rejoice in the sense that he was literally trash, not in the sense that he was worthless or weak, but by his downright hateful personality.
His personality was both a blessing and a curse for most of his life and the very same reason for why half the divine world wished to see him die. It prompted him to be devilishly ambitious and inspired the courage to reach out for things well above his level of strength. This resulted in him entering certain death situations just about every time he escaped from the previous one and his strength to rise at a sky-piercing pace.
Alas, now that same incorrigible behavior crossed a line that would end his life, as one day, as he paraded through the Divine Sect of Ice and Fire, Hong Tian chanced upon the visage of the sect's Frozen Phoenix Pontifex, Ri Yue. Her beauty almost instantly sparked that all-too-familiar cravings of desire that had gotten him in trouble countless times prior and an omen capable of stifling even the most daring gods manifested as a result.
But, if all it took was an omen to quell his desire, Hong Tian would not be the man that he had built up till that day. So, naturally, Hong Tian noticed the omen, but directly spat in the face of the Laws that tried saving him and acted with no hesitation. One second, the world-ending Immortal Villain was travelling at his leisure within his ultimate chariot of Cold Ore Divine Adamantium, being fed grapes by a line of seductresses he had tamed from adventures of the past. In the next, all hell had broken loose as the Pontifex's guards had all been slayed, the world beneath them in tatters, and the Sect's darling, kidnapped.
Within minutes the Divine Sect had rounded up their top powerhouses and even secured the help of other greater gods, to begin a mission that would end the Immortal Villian's reign once and for all. The response was so quick and fierce that Hong Tian could only click his tongue in annoyance as he hadn't even gained enough time to enjoy the Pontifex once before his next certain-death scenario.
Though the Sect's princess was a Pontifex, that was but a title; a title representing her potential and future. At the time of her capture, she was but a young Golden Immortal; nothing much to the sovereign peers of Hong Tian. He easily sealed her away in a divine crystal and begrudgingly began the fight that would end it all.
Hong Tian began his fight with the sole intention to wipe everyone out. They had dared to mess with his desires and that was the reverse scale to his dragonic will. He paraded across the open space that had become the battlefield and easily killed all that came to bother him. In his arrogance and wanton massacre, his senses were fooled by peerless Array Formation and Talisman Dao Lords working in conjunction.
His path of retreat all but eliminated, while the Sect's forces just kept adding up to further pressure him. It was the end of the road with nothing and no one to help him escape this tribulation; one devil against a horde of gods. And though the end was in sight even for Hong Tian himself, he never even thought of giving up. To his eccentric personality, death was unfortunate, but capitulation was tragic rejection, and he would rather die a thousand deaths than capitulate before his final breath.
This last battle was so impactful to his legacy that it actually stood alongside his immoral past, by virtue of his unshakable resolve and ungodly strength. His Demon Dao, Curse Dao, Blood Dao, Dao of Destruction, and Saber Dao were all put on display in hopes of prevailing through his current plight, as he had done countless times beforehand. Alas, the enemy was too strong and after losing his fighting strength and encountering too many gods to deal with, his divine vitality ran out.
There, on the edge of the dimension known to all as the Gods' Domain, Hong Tian's corpse like body floated; occasionally, it brushed up against the chaotic void, only to safely reverberate back to the stable space just outside. It was a testament to the boundary he achieved in live as even without vitality or Divine Qi, that chaotic void that separate the incomparably large Domains couldn't even scratch his corpse. Such space could even grind immortal and divine treasures into particles finer than dust!
Hong Tian was completely helpless in his current state, his divine powers all but void without any Divine Qi to support them, his body wounded to such a degree that it was arguably not even recognizable as "human," and his soul left in shambles with an inner world that resembled swiss cheese from all the holes it had accumulated from his final battle.
Even as he knew that this time there would be no second chance, no way out, only a sure and horrible death, Hong Tian laughed. He laughed like a menacing psychopath as he had still won in the end. The "idiots" before him hadn't killed him yet and the reason was simple. Even after all that had transpired, the primary reason for their adversity against him was still the Frozen Phoenix Pontifex, and her weak and young life was still precariously dancing within the near dead Hong Tian's fingertips!
Hong Tian's Curse Dao was about as evil as the heavens were vast. His achievements in the Curse Dao were so profound that a small section of the overarching Dao of Heaven and Earth had been changed so as to fit Hong Tian's Curse Dao! Even if Hong Tian was standing at the precipice of death, his life reapable to any of the hundreds of gods still remaining within the battlefield. Hong Tian could at any moment wish for a Curse to consume and ravish Ri Yue till her horrible and miserable death; even if he died, his departure would manifest a Curse's activation.
Watching as Hong Tian laughed in the face of certain death, the man's main foe, Geng Xin of the of the Ancestor Gods of the Seven Sins and Nine Desires Heavenly Palace, moved to end his life once and for all. Atop his Azure Dragon Mythical God Beast, Geng Xin, used his Wrath God's Spear to end Hong Tian and put him in a position where even death would be more desirable.
"NOOO!" One of the Sovereign Elders of the Sect of Ice and Fire shouted as he watched Geng Xin. "You fool! You'll get our Pontifex killed!"
Alas, Geng Xin didn't spare a second to reconsider his actions as his spear light up with sealing runes of divine light. When he weighed the pros and cons of the situation, he would take killing the Frozen Phoenix Pontifex as collateral hundreds of times over giving Hong Tian so much as a billionth of a percent chance to recover from his grave situation; he simply had to get rid of this "scum" of the heavens! He drove his spear right through Hong Tian's Godspark and the whole ordeal was done and over with.
Hong Tian's eyes dimmed down as the source of his life was sealed away by Geng Xin's sealing light, but before completely dying out, he drew his final breath and muttered "A fool indeed..." In that moment before completely losing consciousness, Hong Tian used the curse seed he had planted on Ri Yue. He instructed his curse seed to infiltrate and corrupt the sealing light and opened a wormhole out and into the endless chaotic void for just the slightest moment in time to escape.
His Curse Dao had evolved to such extremes that he could avoid the common law of establishing what kind of curse would be dealt before it was cast. Instead, he could use curse seeds to do with his targets as he willed. He never expected to end up with such great luck as Geng Xin's sealing light made up a great portion of the formations that restricted him from leaving. And while he would still die a sure death, at least he could save himself from the humiliation of having his corpse ransacked.
He would also get the last laugh as no one would be able to follow him into the chaotic void he had summoned with his curse, lest they want to end up like him; grounded up into particles finer than dust. Last but not least, he felt his death had been worth it as he got revenge for himself right before dying. Their precious Pontifex was after all still crystallized away in the world within his Dantian.
She would also die with him the moment his body ceased existing and the contents of his Dantian spilled out to face the chaotic world of the infinite void. Such was the end of the Immortal Villain that plagued the divine world. But, given his freedom before death, Hong Tian's divine will would fly off through the void and search for a chance to reincarnate. He would return after building himself back up and get his precious revenge. At least… that was the plan.
Unbeknownst to him, Hong Tian had been cursed himself. That final curse had truly been both his shining star and dooming destruction. As the curse had tied his soul to not just the Pontifex's through the mystical lines of karma, but also to the ideals of that goody two-shoes, Geng Xin. What did this entail? Hong Tian wouldn't know until he reincarnated. Thereafter he would be in for a rude awakening, as everything about him would have to change just to survive…