Chapter 9 - Chapter Nine: The Shadow of Lei Qingsheng

🕯️ Scene I: Whispering Forest – Beyond the Hollow of Ancients

The forest beyond the Hollow of Ancients whispered secrets only those marked by death could hear.

Jiang Chen moved with purpose, the Obsidian Moon Flame glowing faintly at the center of his soul core. Every breath resonated with a rhythm older than the stars, each step drawing him closer to a presence that chilled even his reborn soul—

> Lei Qingsheng.

He could not mistake that aura. It carried the stench of betrayal, of twisted ambition, of soulcraft tainted by madness.

"Do you feel it?" he asked quietly.

Lin Yue nodded, her eyes narrowed as she unsheathed a pair of poison-tipped blades. "There's death ahead... but something worse behind it. Something watching."

Xiao Bai unsheathed his sword. "This place is... alive."

Jiang Chen raised his palm, drawing a symbol in the air. A compass of flame spun briefly, then cracked in half with a hiss of black fire.

> "He's not hiding," Jiang Chen murmured. "He's waiting."

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🌫️ Scene II: The Forked Paths

The trail forked into three cursed paths:

The left, lined with skeletal trees, each gnarled trunk twisted in agony.

The center, shrouded in silver fog, where voices whispered forgotten names.

The right, throbbing with spiritual corruption, a pit of void energy.

"The Tomb Guardians won't let us pass easily," Mei Xin said, her voice muffled behind her silver veil.

Jiang Chen stepped toward the corrupted path.

"This is the path he would choose," he said. "Only a soul drenched in malice would take the road where the light cannot follow."

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🧟 Scene III: Tomb Guardian – The Soul-Eater

They didn't walk far before it appeared.

A being twelve feet tall, draped in rotting celestial robes, with a face made of writhing tongues and hollow eyes glowing red—

> A Soul-Eater, bound to protect the Obsidian Moon Flame.

"Kill it?" Lin Yue whispered.

"No," Jiang Chen said. "Consume it."

He launched forward, palm glowing with the Tyrant Seal. His aura surged—the black and violet flames from the Obsidian Moon spiraled outward, twisting through the air.

The creature screamed.

Jiang Chen struck its core with the Voidbinding Chains, binding its limbs. As it thrashed, Lin Yue hurled a poison mist that turned its tongues to ash.

Then Jiang Chen reached in—past flesh, past bone—and gripped its soul root.

> "You have no name. You are a shadow. I am your end."

He absorbed its soul fragment into his core.

A wave of immortal memories surged into his mind.

Among them—a glimpse of Lei Qingsheng, standing atop a celestial altar, laughing as a child's soul was torn from its body.

Jiang Chen's hands shook.

> "You haven't changed," he whispered. "You've only become worse."

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🔥 Scene IV: Temple of Echoes

The corrupted path ended in a ruined temple carved into the mountain—a sanctum that had not seen footsteps in a thousand years.

The air was heavy with spiritual decay. Symbols of a forgotten god lay broken across the walls.

In the center—

A mirror.

Not of glass—but of living flame.

A whisper escaped it.

> "Speak thy name... face thy sin."

Xiao Bai stepped back. "That's... soul-forged flame. It will burn away the truth you lie to yourself about."

Jiang Chen stepped forward, unafraid.

"I am Jiang Chen," he said, "Tyrant of the Nine Skies. Reborn not for glory, but vengeance. My sin?"

He looked the flame straight on.

> "I trusted those who never earned it."

The flame surged—then parted.

Behind it, a stone vault opened.

Inside—an echo stone, still humming with Lei Qingsheng's aura.

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🎥 Scene V: The Message of the Betrayer

Jiang Chen activated the echo stone.

A projection of Lei Qingsheng appeared—tall, with violet robes and eyes like void stars.

> "To the one who survives my wake... if it is you, Jiang Chen, then know this: I never feared you. Not in life. Not in death. But I envied you."

"You had the flame. The soul. The world. I had nothing."

"I took your soul flame not to destroy you—but to become you."

"I'm waiting in the Ruins of the Immortal Sky. Come, Tyrant. Finish what I started."

The message ended.

Silence followed.

Jiang Chen's fists trembled.

> "He didn't just betray me," he said coldly. "He wanted to become me."

> "Then I'll bury him myself."

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⚔️ Scene VI: Night Ambush – The Radiant Followers

As they exited the temple, the night turned blood-red.

Dozens of figures appeared on the ridges above—Radiant Heaven Sect assassins cloaked in moonsteel armor.

"You've come far, Tyrant," the lead assassin growled, voice muffled beneath a helm of bone. "But this is where your journey ends."

Jiang Chen didn't blink.

> "It ends, yes. But not for me."

He raised both hands. Glyphs blazed to life in the air. The earth cracked beneath him as the third stage of the Ninefold Soul Destruction Art activated.

The assassins charged.

Jiang Chen moved like a storm—black flames trailing every step.

Lin Yue's poisons paralyzed the flanks. Xiao Bai's blade cut through shadows. Mei Xin vanished and reappeared behind enemy lines, striking with dagger and soul threads.

Jiang Chen caught the leader by the throat.

> "Tell Lei Qingsheng," he said, "I'm coming."

And then he burned him from the inside out.

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🌓 Scene VII: Aftermath and Insight

They buried the bodies in silence.

Jiang Chen sat before a fire, the Obsidian Moon Flame dancing gently in his core.

The flame whispered.

> "You are not whole."

He closed his eyes. In the depths of his dantian, he saw it—a third core forming, wrapped in golden script.

A God-Breaking Core.

It would not make him a god.

> It would let him kill one.