🌌 Midnight – Jiang Clan's Ancestral Grounds
The moon hung high in the sky, pale and cold. Mist drifted through the towering bamboo groves, and even the wind dared not whistle.
A single figure moved in the darkness, cloaked in spiritual silence.
Jiang Chen.
He wore no sect robes now—only a black mantle with the symbol of the ancient Celestial Flame stitched in silver thread, hidden beneath the folds. His aura was suppressed. Not a flicker of Qi escaped.
He passed silently beneath the stone arch of the Ancestral Library, the oldest structure in the Jiang Clan's domain. The gates were sealed, guarded by a formation that had stood unbroken for centuries.
But tonight… it would kneel.
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🧿 The Seal
A glowing, pulsing glyph hovered in front of the bronze doors—a defensive array, inscribed with a Binding Heaven Script, meant to burn anyone below Core Formation into ashes.
For any other disciple, it would be suicide.
Jiang Chen smirked.
> "Still the same old script I helped design... in my past life."
He reached into his sleeve and retrieved a piece of white jade—marked with the glyph of the Void Path Sect.
With a precise motion, he inserted it into a hidden slot beneath the arch.
> Click.
The glyph flickered. The barrier dissolved into golden motes of light.
The doors creaked open… revealing darkness within.
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📚 The Forbidden Hall
The library was massive—layers of dust blanketed hundreds of scrolls and jade slips. Most disciples never entered beyond the outer floors.
But Jiang Chen did not pause.
He moved past the categorized cultivation scrolls, past martial techniques, into the restricted chamber.
There, behind a wall hidden by illusion, lay a sealed pedestal. Ancient chains made from Dragonbone Steel wrapped around a floating obsidian box. It pulsed with chaotic energy—refined from the void.
He placed his hand on the box.
It reacted instantly.
> "SOUL SIGNATURE CONFIRMED: TIAN CODEX—TYRANT ACCESS GRANTED."
A silent explosion of energy blasted outward, yet never escaped the room.
Inside the box lay a single jade slip.
A title shimmered in runes that shifted form constantly:
> "Ninefold Soul Destruction Art"
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☠️ Forbidden Knowledge
> "You truly intend to walk this path again?"
A voice—his own voice—echoed from the slip as his divine soul connected with it.
This was one of the forbidden arts of the upper realm. A cultivation path that burned the soul as fuel to force ascension through willpower, wrath, and hatred.
So destructive, it had been banned even among immortals.
> "You lost everything once because of this."
> "You bled a hundred lifetimes of karma. Would you walk that road again?"
Jiang Chen's voice was calm.
> "I will walk through a hundred hells, carve a new heaven, and make them bow to me again."
He absorbed the technique.
Black lightning surged around his body, silently tearing apart the very spiritual fabric of the air. His skin split and healed. Bones twisted, reforging his foundation.
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⚠️ Outside – A Shadow Watches
Far above, hidden within the bell tower, an old man in simple robes watched the library glow from a distance.
Elder Mo, his eyes narrowing.
> "That aura… I haven't felt it since the Age of Nine Thrones."
He turned and whispered into a crystal.
> "Inform the Clan Head… The Tyrant walks again."
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🌅 Next Morning – Outer Sect Grounds
The sun rose on a transformed Jiang Chen.
His aura was suppressed again, but those who saw him felt… off. The air around him felt heavy. Sacred. Wrong.
And then came the rumors.
> "He entered the ancestral library. I swear I saw the seal vanish."
"No way! Even inner elders can't break it."
"But… Jiang Yue hasn't left his room since the duel…"
"They say the Clan Head has summoned him."
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🔔 Elder's Hall — That Afternoon
Jiang Chen stood in front of the clan's highest council.
Six elders. One clan head. Dozens of observing disciples.
"Jiang Chen," the Clan Head said slowly. "We hear… interesting things."
"I simply entered a place my soul remembered," Jiang Chen replied evenly.
"You accessed a sealed vault that hasn't opened in 300 years. That's not memory—it's blasphemy," an elder snapped.
Jiang Chen looked directly at him.
> "Then consider me a heretic."
The air turned ice-cold.
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💣 But before the elders could respond—
A violent explosion rocked the outer wall of the sect.
A black pillar of flame rose from the south courtyard.
A disciple burst into the hall, bloodied.
"Clan Head! The Ironbone Sect is attacking! They demand we hand over Jiang Chen… or face annihilation!"
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Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes, a cruel smile forming.
> "So… they couldn't wait."
He turned toward the door.
"I'll greet them properly. Let them see what kind of monster they came to provoke."
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