The moment Wang Lin stepped through the rift, silence devoured the world.
No sound. No wind. Not even the faint hum of qi that always danced through the air. It was as if the realm itself had forgotten how to breathe. His boots touched a surface that wasn't stone or soil, but something translucent, shimmering faintly like frozen mist under moonlight.
> "So this… is the place born from Mo Xie's origin," he murmured.
Above him hung countless broken stars, drifting in an endless void. Each fragment pulsed faintly, as though alive—each carrying echoes of long-dead souls. Wang Lin felt them brushing against his spiritual sense. Some whispered… others screamed.
And then came the weight.
A crushing, invisible pressure pressed down on his body and soul. The Abduction Path within him stirred violently, reacting like a beast sensing its ancient prey.
A voice—faint, distorted—echoed through the silence:
> "The Thief… has returned."
Wang Lin's pupils contracted. His spiritual sea trembled as an image surfaced—a battlefield of forgotten ages. Countless cultivators knelt before a man cloaked in black fire. Behind him, the heavens bent, and the earth wept. His face was obscured… but those eyes—those endless void-like eyes—were the same ones that haunted Wang Lin's nightmares.
> "Mo Xie…"
The realm shifted. The stars began to fall, colliding and shattering into streams of light that circled him. Each fragment merged into symbols—ancient runes that spiraled into his dantian. His Abduction Path expanded uncontrollably. He felt his soul being dragged between past and present, self and shadow.
He gritted his teeth. "If this is your test… then I'll steal it too."
His palms formed the Abduction Seal. The black vortex behind him burst to life, devouring the runes, the falling stars, even the fragments of space itself. Each one carried pain, memories, and fury of forgotten Sovereigns. The power burned through his veins, threatening to tear his body apart.
But he endured.
And then—
From the darkness ahead—a figure emerged.
Tall. Clad in ancient robes of white, but stained with black veins crawling across the fabric. His hair was silver, his eyes pure crimson. He looked exactly like Wang Lin… yet older, colder, hollow.
> "You shouldn't have come here," the figure said.
"The Abduction Path was never meant for mercy."
Wang Lin clenched his fists. "Who are you?"
The figure smiled faintly, his tone both mocking and sorrowful.
> "I am what you'll become… when your heart breaks."
The realm trembled violently. The air split open with waves of black light, and the two Wangs stood face to face—Heaven's Thief and his reflection, Light and Shadow.
Wang Lin raised his hand. The Abduction Mark flared behind him, forming a vortex that devoured everything.
The reflection did the same.
Two identical storms collided.
Reality screamed.