Chapter 22: Petals Upon the Abyss
The winds of the Pavilion howled with whispers no human tongue could decipher. With Yin Xue's soul tethered to their flame, Jin Yue and his companions felt the world shift beneath their feet. The crimson light of the Demon Moon faded at last, but it left behind a scent of ash, blood, and blooming lotus.
Something had awakened.
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Visions of the Abyss
That night, Jin Yue meditated alone at the edge of the Soul Mirror Lake. The water had turned black, reflecting not his form, but a figure wreathed in fractured starlight and pale flame.
"You have tethered four souls to your essence, mortal. A harem of fate and desire," the reflection spoke.
It was not his voice.
The figure's eyes were voids—dark and endless.
"Who are you?" Jin Yue demanded.
"I am what comes when balance is broken. When duality becomes dominion."
As Jin Yue reached out, the lake pulled him under. Beneath the surface, he saw cities crumbling, his companions bleeding, and an empire bowing to his shadow.
He woke gasping.
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Gathering Storms
Yue'er found him moments later, wrapping a fur mantle over his shoulders.
"You saw it too," she whispered.
He nodded. "A kingdom of ash. A throne of bones."
Yin Xue approached, dressed in dark silks, the silver of her eyes still flickering. "You've triggered the Cycle of Immortal Tribulation. A test the heavens give only once in an era. Those who survive… become more than emperors. They become Sovereigns of Fate."
"Or they die," Lianhua added, arriving with scrolls in hand.
"Or worse," Meimei quipped, her smile sharp. "They become the very monsters they swore to fight."
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Descent into the Obsidian Catacombs
To prepare, the group journeyed to the Obsidian Catacombs, a series of labyrinthine ruins beneath the Pavilion said to house fallen cultivators of ancient times—those who failed their trials.
There, they encountered revenants of broken dao paths, malformed by greed and madness. Each one echoed a corrupted version of Jin Yue's own power.
One hissed: "You took what was not yours."
Another screamed: "You loved them, and still, you let them burn."
Jin Yue stood firm.
With Yue'er freezing time around their forms, Lianhua binding their souls, Meimei striking with chaos lightning, and Yin Xue severing their karmic threads, they carved a path through.
At the heart of the catacombs, they found it:
The Lotus of Abyssal Flame.
A flower of jet-black petals pulsing with ethereal fire. It responded only to Jin Yue's touch.
He plucked it, and the flames rushed into him, searing his very spirit.
His scream echoed through realms.
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The Soul Emperor's Crest
When he rose, his aura had changed.
From silver and blue to deep amethyst and gold. Wings of translucent flame arched behind him. His eyes burned with layered pupils—a mark of someone who had seen past the veil of mortality.
Lianhua whispered, "He's taken the first step... toward becoming a Soul Emperor."
But Yue'er's voice trembled.
"Then the heavens will not wait. His trials have only begun."