The world outside the Azure Sword World was silent when Lin Feng opened his eyes.
The last echo of azure light faded from his pupils, leaving only calm, fathomless stillness — like the depths of an ancient sea.
He stood upon a barren cliff, his robes fluttering softly in the mountain wind. Around him, the forest stretched endlessly — yet the earth beneath his feet trembled faintly, resonating with the suppressed energy coiled within him.
He exhaled slowly. The breath he released shimmered faintly with threads of divine intent. The sky itself rippled as if recognizing its master.
"The Sword World is stable,"
he murmured, his voice low, measured.
"Four seals opened. The Azure Sovereign's path... moves through me now."
A faint hum answered him from the Azure Sword at his back — no longer just a weapon, but a world breathing in harmony with his soul. Every time it pulsed, his blood resonated with the rhythm of creation itself.
He had walked through divine flame, fought a manifestation of Heaven's law, and broken fate's decree — yet in this quiet moment, he appeared almost mortal again. His face was calm, eyes tranquil, carrying the serenity of someone who had stared into divinity and returned alive.
---
When Lin Feng descended from the mountains, the disciples guarding the outer region of the Heavenly Sword Palace almost didn't recognize him.
The young man who had left months ago had been formidable — proud, sharp, with a gaze like lightning.
The one returning now moved like flowing wind — no killing intent, no force, yet every step seemed to bend the world slightly in acknowledgment.
"Th–That's Senior Brother Lin Feng!" a disciple gasped.
Dozens of cultivators stopped their training, watching him descend. Even the air grew heavy — a pressure neither oppressive nor deliberate, but instinctive, born from a power that surpassed ordinary limits.
He paused at the sect gates, gazing at the familiar mountains. The grand pillars of the Heavenly Sword Palace rose into clouds, surrounded by floating palaces and waterfalls suspended in midair.
He had once viewed this place as the peak of the world.
Now, it felt... smaller. Peaceful, yet transient. The Azure Sword hummed quietly, sensing his thoughts.
"No," he whispered. "This is still home."
---
When he stepped inside, waves of spiritual energy rippled across the sect's protective formation. The inner disciples turned their heads, startled — their senses couldn't read him.
Lin Feng's presence was like an ancient void: deep, untraceable, immeasurable.
Within moments, elders from the main palace appeared.
Elder Shen Xian, whose cultivation stood at late Celestial Realm, approached first, eyes narrowing.
"Lin Feng," he said gravely. "You vanished for months without word. Your sword aura vanished from every scrying mirror — even the Sect Master was concerned."
Lin Feng bowed lightly. "I had an encounter, Elder. I didn't intend to alarm the sect."
"An encounter?" Shen Xian's gaze flickered. The elder's divine sense swept over him — and froze.
He felt a faint divine resonance, something that should not exist within a Celestial cultivator.
It wasn't just strength. It was order.
A law of heaven faintly trembling beneath Lin Feng's skin.
"You…" the elder muttered, voice low, "You've touched the threshold of divine essence."
Lin Feng did not confirm nor deny it. His tone remained steady.
"I have stabilized my path. The sword within me has transformed."
Those nearby couldn't comprehend his words — but Shen Xian's pupils constricted. A "transformed sword"? Such a thing meant evolution beyond mortality, a concept closer to Dao Souls or divine artifacts.
Before the elder could ask more, the sky rumbled.
A deep, distant roar split the heavens — not thunder, but the cry of ancient formation awakening. Golden light erupted far beyond the palace horizon, stretching into the clouds like a pillar piercing the stars.
Every cultivator in the Heavenly Sword Palace turned their eyes toward it.
"What in the heavens—?"
"The Eastern Sky… it's opening!"
The Sect Master's voice echoed across the sect, layered with divine power.
"All elders, assemble at the central peak! A spatial anomaly has appeared — the Heavenly Realm's Ruin is awakening!"
---
Lin Feng looked toward the horizon. From the distant sky, waves of divine fluctuation rolled outward — sacred yet ominous. He recognized the pulse instantly. It was similar to what he had felt in the Sword World… ancient, broken, and yet vast beyond comprehension.
Shen Xian glanced at him. "Do you sense it?"
"I do," Lin Feng answered quietly. "That energy doesn't belong to this age. It's older than the Heavenly Sword Palace itself."
All around, disciples murmured in awe. Rumors spread in moments — talk of treasures, of godly inheritance, of a realm lost during the Primordial War. But Lin Feng's expression darkened slightly.
He could hear something faint within that divine pulse — a whisper, like a forgotten memory.
Come… Azure one… come.
It wasn't sound. It was recognition.
The ruin itself seemed to know him.
---
As the golden light in the horizon intensified, the Sect Master's divine projection appeared above the palace.
"Within the next seven days, the Eternal Ruin Domain will fully awaken," he declared. "Every major sect will dispatch envoys and geniuses to claim its inheritance. Prepare yourselves — this will not be a mere expedition. It will be a clash of destinies."
Gasps filled the air. Even the elders' expressions hardened.
The Eternal Ruin Domain — a legend among legends. A world said to have fallen with the gods.
Lin Feng's eyes gleamed faintly, the reflection of the golden horizon dancing in their depths.
"A ruin of the gods…" he whispered, feeling his sword tremble at his side.
"Then the next step of the Sovereign's path begins there."
---
When night fell, Lin Feng stood alone upon a cliff overlooking the palace. The stars above mirrored the azure light glowing faintly from his sword sheath.
He could feel it — something beyond the ruin's call, something stirring across the heavens themselves.
The opening of the Eternal Ruin wasn't coincidence. It was response — a chain reaction to the Azure Sword World's awakening.
The Sovereign's legacy was no longer asleep.
The breeze rustled through his hair as he whispered softly to the night:
"If this world trembles because I walk it, then so be it. The Azure Sword shall carve the truth of heaven once more."
Below him, the Heavenly Sword Palace glowed in starlight, unaware that its greatest secret — the heir to the Azure Sovereign — had already returned among them.
And beyond the horizon, golden light continued to pulse… calling him toward the ruin where gods once fell.