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Chapter 28 – Beneath the Veins of the World
The sky over the Low Realms had begun to rot.
No one dared say it aloud, but cultivators across the continents could feel it. A faint pressure pressing against their hearts. The sun still shone, the stars still twinkled, yet something vital—something eternal—was unraveling.
And at the center of that unseen decay stood Li Xuan.
In the deepest sublayer of the world, hidden even from immortal eyes, Li Xuan walked alone through a tunnel made of petrified dragon veins. These were the Veins of the Realm, massive, ancient conduits of spiritual energy that sustained the foundation of the Lower Realms. Few knew they existed. Fewer still dared to tread them.
But Li Xuan?
He intended to consume them.
His Voidheart Enlightenment Sutra, already a nightmare of pain and clarity, was now evolving in a new direction. As he walked the veins, his soul flickered in and out of reality, brushing against karmic truths no mortal should see.
Flashes assaulted his mind.
A child crying in the mud—stabbed by a noble cultivator over a stolen herb.
A father murdering his own son for a legacy token.
A sect sacrificing its disciples to summon a false god.
All of it… karma.
All of it… power.
With each step, Li Xuan's connection to the karmic fabric deepened. His body throbbed. Blood seeped from his pores, but he did not falter. Pain was his guide now, not his enemy.
Behind him, a shadow followed.
Not one of the Seven Generals.
Not even one of the Forty-Nine Elites.
It was Ji Han, the only mortal woman Li Xuan had ever spared twice—and the only person whose karma with him could not be severed.
She did not speak.
He did not look at her.
But she followed anyway, barefoot and pale, eyes burning with a madness that only faith could forge.
At the end of the tunnel, they reached a door.
Carved from the fossilized skull of a Realm Devourer Beast.
This was The Vault of Origin—an ancient chamber buried in the bones of the world, sealed by karma itself. Only one who could rewrite cause and effect could open it.
Li Xuan stepped forward.
The door refused him.
He smiled coldly and extended a single finger.
Then, he rewrote the refusal.
Cause: He was not worthy.
Effect: The door remained shut.
New Cause: He was karma.
New Effect: The door opened.
With a scream like a thousand dying gods, the vault shattered inward.
Inside lay a seed.
Just a single, pale seed pulsing with black light.
The Seed of Cataclysm.
A mythical artifact born from a failed celestial apocalypse. Said to grant dominion over fate when merged with a karmic soul—but only once in a million eras.
Li Xuan did not hesitate.
He consumed it.
The pain was… indescribable.
Even the Voidheart Sutra screamed.
His spirit buckled. His flesh writhed. The karmic threads around him turned to blades and began slicing at his soul.
Behind him, Ji Han collapsed, vomiting blood just from being near him.
He screamed without sound.
And when it was over…
He stood reborn.
Not stronger in the way most cultivators understood it.
No.
He had become a nexus point.
Every act of deception, betrayal, loyalty, hatred, love, and desire in the Lower Realms now generated resonance through him. Every time a sect betrayed another, a general died in battle, or a cultivator gave his life to save a child… Li Xuan gained.
He had become the subconscious mirror of karmic truth.
Even if he were killed, karma would resurrect him.
Because he had become the equilibrium.
He opened his violet eyes and spoke one word:
"Rise."
Far above, in the mortal world, the shadows of seven auction houses shifted.
Statues cracked.
Ancient runes awakened.
Each of the Seven Generals felt it simultaneously—an awakening deeper than any command.
They knelt instinctively.
In that instant, all seven received a karmic brand, one burned directly into their souls.
If they ever defied Li Xuan, their lineage would cease to exist.
It was not a warning.
It was law.
Back beneath the world, Ji Han staggered to her feet, blood streaming from her eyes.
"You've… changed," she rasped.
Li Xuan turned to her.
For the first time, he spoke her name. "Ji Han."
She shivered.
"You followed me knowing you might die. You accepted my silence. You were willing to vanish beneath the world for a man who never promised you anything."
She swallowed thickly. "I would do it again."
Li Xuan's gaze deepened. "Then you shall bear karma with me."
He placed a single mark on her forehead—a fragment of his karmic seed.
Ji Han collapsed into unconsciousness, her soul bound now to a fate she could not comprehend.
Li Xuan turned away.
He had no time for affection.
There was still one final city that resisted him: Ninefold Phoenix City, the last bastion of sovereign independence in the Lower Realms. Its ruler was a woman who wielded karma not as a weapon—but as a song. A rival of true threat.
Li Xuan's next auction would be held there.
And it would not be for treasures.
It would be for destinies.
He would auction the very fates of sects, clans, and nations.
Let them bid with blood.
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