> Recap: As the battle between Fang Han and Shi Hao shook the skies, the remaining powerhouses—Lin Feng, Tang San, Nie Li—began to sense something darker stirring beneath the surface of the war. Meanwhile, Chu Feng, carrying the black lightning within him, stood at the center of a growing conspiracy that threatened to consume all of them.
The clash between Fang Han and Shi Hao had left a crater in the valley that pulsed with residual divine energy. Ash and scorched soil scattered across the sky like burned feathers. But far from the battlefield, other forces were beginning to move.
In the Eastern Void, a black lotus bloomed in the emptiness.
Tang San stood on the edge of the world, his cloak fluttering in the void wind. His eyes, once warm and thoughtful, now burned with cold clarity. "This isn't just a war of dominance," he murmured. "Someone is using us."
Behind him, shadows gathered, but not with hostility. Nie Li emerged from the darkness, arms folded, his spiritual armor pulsing with inscriptions that flickered like stars.
"You noticed too," Nie Li said, his tone unreadable. "The energy surges don't match natural fluctuations. Someone's manipulating the ley lines beneath the realms."
Tang San gave a slow nod. "And it's not a god we know."
Nie Li's eyes narrowed. "Or maybe it's a god we forgot."
---
Meanwhile, in the shattered plains where the remnants of Shi Hao and Fang Han's battle still smoked, Lin Feng stood alone. He had arrived moments after the combat ended, his blade humming at his side. His senses stretched out—not just to the physical world, but through the void and across dimensions.
He found a flicker.
A sealed gate.
A familiar sigil glowing in crimson: the mark of the Eternal Court.
"They're waking up," Lin Feng muttered, eyes darkening. "And they're using us as keys."
---
High above the battlefield, among clouds pierced with lightning, Chu Feng stood on a broken sky island.
Black lightning danced along his shoulders like a living thing.
His expression was hard.
"Lingering pieces of the old era still infect this world," he said, voice low. "If I don't move soon, they'll control everything."
A distorted voice echoed behind him, full of static and venom.
"You're already too late, Chu Feng."
The sky cracked.
From the abyss came a figure cloaked in tattered divine robes. His face was hidden behind a shattered golden mask, and his presence screamed of forgotten laws and broken oaths.
Chu Feng didn't flinch.
"So, the Masked Oracle joins the game."
The Oracle raised a hand, summoning hundreds of chains forged from time itself. "You carry the forbidden lightning. You are a threat to the balance the gods preserved. You should never have returned."
Chu Feng smiled, and the sky wept black rain.
"I am the storm," he said. "You should have bound me long ago."
He raised his hand.
The black lightning responded.
With a scream that tore through dimensions, he collided with the Oracle. Time twisted, space bent, and the echoes of their clash spread across the realms.
---
Back in the mortal realm, Tang San and Nie Li opened a sealed portal hidden beneath the ruins of an ancient temple.
Behind it, slumbered a vast consciousness.
Not divine.
Not mortal.
Something older.
"Are you sure we should do this?" Tang San asked.
Nie Li didn't hesitate. "If we don't uncover what's beneath all this, we're just puppets dancing on a forgotten god's strings."
The seal cracked.
A single eye opened inside the void.
And it whispered: "Heaven shall bleed."
---
To be continued...