The silence of the Abyss of Eternal Night was absolute. No wind, no sound, no trace of life. Just an endless chasm of suffocating darkness. A place where souls vanished, never to be remembered.
And yet… he was still here.
A faint pulse of life flickered in the abyss, like a dying ember refusing to be snuffed out. Slowly, a figure stirred among the jagged rocks, his body broken and his once-magnificent robes in tatters. His face, once admired across the cultivation world, was now pale as a corpse, his black hair matted with dried blood.
Pain surged through his body. Unbearable. Crippling. All-consuming.
Yet, he gritted his teeth. Pain meant he was still alive.
"Why... am I not dead?" His voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.
Memories surged into his mind.
The grand sect tournament. His sworn brother, Ren Tianhao, standing beside him. The cheers of disciples as he dominated every opponent. The proud smile of the Sect Master.
Then—betrayal.
A poisoned strike to the back. His meridians shattered. His dantian ruptured. His cultivation—destroyed.
Laughter echoed in his ears.
"Xiao Lan… forgive me. If you had just died quietly, I wouldn't have needed to do this."
The woman he loved, the one who had once sworn to stand by his side, gazed at him with cold, detached eyes.
"You're no longer the genius of the Celestial Abyss Sect. You're useless now. Weak. Pathetic."
He had begged. Not for his life—but for an answer.
"Why?"
Xiao Lan smiled faintly. "Because you were meant to be a king… but you were too naive to realize that kings don't rule alone. Ren Tianhao is the one destined for greatness, not you."
Their faces blurred into darkness. The last thing he remembered was falling into the abyss as their laughter echoed behind him.
Now, he was here. In the place where even ghosts could not escape.
But he was not dead.
A voice called to him.
A whisper, deep and ancient, rising from the abyss itself.
"You who have been forsaken… do you wish for power?"
His fingers twitched. His breathing steadied. Power. The very thing that had been taken from him. The thing that had defined his existence.
He had lost everything. His sect, his future, his love. But if he had power, he could take it all back.
The abyss trembled. Something was awakening.
A crimson glow erupted beneath him, painting the darkness in a blood-red hue. The air crackled with an ominous energy as an object rose from the depths—a sword, ancient and menacing, its surface engraved with runes that pulsed with a sinister light.
It called to him.
"Take me."
His trembling hand reached out. The moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt—
BOOM!
A surge of power exploded through him. His veins burned like molten lava, his body shattering and rebuilding at the same time. Images flashed through his mind—a forgotten technique, a power sealed for eons, the knowledge of a god long lost to time.
His ruined meridians healed. His broken dantian reformed—stronger than before.
And when he opened his eyes, they glowed with a darkness deeper than the abyss itself.
He was no longer the discarded genius of the Celestial Abyss Sect.
He was something far greater.
A smirk tugged at his lips.
"Ren Tianhao… Xiao Lan…" His voice was calm, yet beneath it, the storm of vengeance brewed.
"Wait for me."
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