Got it. I'll now write Chapter 24 with over
Night cloaked the land like a mourning veil.
Vạn Thiên Phong stood atop the Black Serpent Cliff, the highest point overlooking the broken remnants of his outposts. Smoke rose like twisted fingers clawing at the stars. Below, corpses littered the valley in silent tribute to a war that hadn't even begun yet. Five bases had fallen in less than a night. Precise. Clean. Merciless.
No one could have done this without inside knowledge.
His sharp eyes scanned the valley, but they weren't focused on the devastation—they were searching for something more elusive: betrayal.
Behind him, his strategist knelt, the one-armed cultivator who had served him loyally for years.
"Report," Vạn Thiên Phong said coldly.
"We confirmed it," the strategist rasped. "The Ghost Blade Hall was responsible. But… they had help. From the inside."
"Names."
The man hesitated.
Vạn Thiên Phong turned his head slightly. "I said, names."
A scroll was handed over, trembling.
Six names.
Six traitors.
Vạn Thiên Phong didn't flinch. "Execute all their families. Burn their sect branches to the ground."
"Even the innocent ones?" the strategist asked quietly.
The villain turned slowly, eyes like frozen knives. "There are no innocents in a world built on lies."
The strategist lowered his head. "Yes… Master."
Just as the command was about to be carried out, a burst of wind exploded behind them—unnatural, sharp.
A figure dropped from the sky, kneeling.
"Master! Urgent message from Thất Sát Lâu!"
The messenger's face was pale, his lips trembling.
"It's Lady Bạch Tiêu Nhiên… she's gone."
---
At first, silence.
Then—crack!
The rock beneath Vạn Thiên Phong's feet fractured.
"She disappeared?" His voice was dangerously soft.
The messenger nodded. "Yes. She left behind a single letter."
The letter was handed over. It was sealed with lotus wax.
Breaking it, he read in silence. The ink was neat, elegant. It smelled like her—white plum and moonlight.
> "Phong. There are things I must face alone. The shadows of my past are returning, and if I stay by your side, you'll only be dragged into them.
I once told you I would burn heaven with you—but I never said I wasn't part of it.
If fate allows it, I'll return. If not, know that you were the only warmth I ever knew.
— Tiêu Nhiên"
The wind howled. A soft flake of ash drifted past.
Vạn Thiên Phong folded the letter calmly. Then turned to the strategist.
"Send a shadow squad. Track her. Do not approach. Just watch."
"And if she turns against us?"
"Then…" he said slowly, "kill her gently."
---
Meanwhile, across the continent, deep within the floating fortress of Thiên Ngục Vực, an ancient prison said to hold beings stronger than gods, a council of cloaked figures gathered in a circle of fire.
One spoke.
"Vạn Thiên Phong has awakened the second layer of the Heaven-Locking Array. He's a threat beyond control now."
Another answered, voice thick with disdain. "You speak as if he wasn't always destined to be. He is the Black Star. The prophecy is not a warning—it is a map."
A third leaned forward. "Then let us follow it. Push him further. Let the world hate him. Let the heavens curse him. For only in ruin… can the path to godhood be cleared."
The flames crackled louder.
---
Back at Thất Sát Lâu, the traitors were gathered in chains. Bloodied, broken, trembling.
Among them was Trần Vũ, a disciple who had once served as Bạch Tiêu Nhiên's personal guard.
"Why?" Vạn Thiên Phong asked, walking slowly before them.
Trần Vũ spat blood and glared. "Because you're a monster. Because she loved you—and it broke her. Because everyone follows you like sheep, but they don't see what I see."
"What do you see?"
"A devil pretending to be a man."
Vạn Thiên Phong stared at him for a moment.
Then smiled.
"I am a devil. I never pretended to be anything else."
With a snap of his fingers, Trần Vũ's heart exploded.
The others screamed. He didn't even glance at them.
But as he walked away, he whispered to himself.
"She left… because of the truth. Not because of betrayal."
He looked at the sky.
"Tiêu Nhiên… are you running from me—or from yourself?"
---
Days passed.
The Ghost Blade Hall continued its assaults, but each time they struck, they found ruins. No one left alive. No information to harvest.
It was as if the villain had vanished from the world.
But he hadn't.
He was simply preparing.
In the deepest vault of Thất Sát Lâu, behind thirteen layers of seals, Vạn Thiên Phong sat cross-legged before a black coffin wrapped in chains.
Inside was a weapon—no, not a weapon. A curse.
The Crimson Lotus Spear.
Forged from the bones of a thousand fallen saints. Dripping with hatred. Alive.
He placed his hand upon it.
It pulsed.
> Feed me.
He smiled.
"I intend to."
One by one, he unsealed the chains.
Each one screamed.
But he didn't stop.
When the final chain fell, the coffin burst open.
A spear longer than a man floated upward, its surface bleeding mist and malice.
The Crimson Lotus had awoken.
---
That night, the moon turned red.
All across the continent, cultivators woke in cold sweats. Children cried without knowing why. Beasts hid in their caves.
A change was coming.
A storm was being born.
---
Meanwhile, in the lost ruins of the Fallen Star Temple, Bạch Tiêu Nhiên stood alone.
Her robes were tattered. Blood ran from a cut on her cheek. But her eyes burned brighter than ever.
Before her stood Thánh Mẫu Cửu Liên, her former master—now turned divine entity, corrupted by the heavens themselves.
"You should've stayed with him," Thánh Mẫu said. "You were strong beside him."
"I need to be stronger than him," Tiêu Nhiên replied.
"Why?"
"Because if he falls… someone must still stand."
She drew her sword, glowing with starlight.
"If I must destroy my past to protect his future—then so be it."
---
Back on Trấn Thiên Peak, Vạn Thiên Phong stood with the Crimson Lotus in hand.
He stared at the sky—black clouds swirling above.
"The heavens tremble. The world prepares."
He closed his eyes.
"But I am not done yet. I will not stop until every god kneels—and every traitor bleeds."
---
[End of Chapter 24]