The sky over Azure Cloud Peak was painted in crimson, as though the heavens themselves mourned.
Ye Tian knelt on the ceremonial stage, blood staining his white robe. His arms were broken, his spiritual meridians shattered. The young man who had once been hailed as the number one genius of the sect was now reduced to a cripple—betrayed, framed, and cast aside.
A crowd of disciples, elders, and onlookers from the outer clans stood in silence. Some watched with smug smiles, others with indifferent eyes.
And standing above him…
His best friend, Zhao Feng—the one he called brother—smirked as he gripped the jade scroll Ye Tian had once protected with his life.
"Ye Tian, you dare defile the sacred scriptures of the sect. For your crimes, you are stripped of your status and sentenced to death." Zhao Feng's voice rang out with righteousness. "Any last words?"
Ye Tian's lips trembled. He tried to speak but coughed out blood instead.
From the crowd, Lin Ruyan, his childhood sweetheart and once betrothed, turned her gaze away. She didn't even flinch.
Her silence cut deeper than his wounds.
"You… all of you… will regret this," Ye Tian rasped.
Zhao Feng laughed. "Regret? No, Ye Tian. You were just a stepping stone. Be grateful your death makes me the new heir."
"Throw him into the Abyssal Ravine."
Two inner sect elders grabbed Ye Tian and dragged him like trash toward the cliff at the sect's edge—a cursed gorge where monsters and spirits dwelled, where no one ever returned.
His broken body was hurled over the edge.
As Ye Tian plummeted into the darkness, he saw the faces of those he loved… one last time.
[SYSTEM DETECTED: HOST CONDITION – "SOUL COLLAPSE IMMINENT"]
[Triggering Backup Protocol: Heaven-Breaker System – Alpha Mode Initiated]
Darkness.
Cold. Crushing. Eternal.
Ye Tian lay at the bottom of the ravine, his body broken beyond recognition, bones shattered like glass. But he wasn't dead.
He should have been.
And yet… in his mind, a voice echoed. Unfamiliar. Metallic. Mocking.
[Hello, Trash. Congratulations on being betrayed by literally everyone you ever cared about.]
[System installed: Heaven-Breaker Protocol.]
[Main Quest: Burn the sky. Crush the earth. Make them all pay.]
Ye Tian's eyes slowly opened. They glowed faintly with a crimson hue.
He felt… something. A heat blooming inside his chest. Not spiritual qi, but something older. Angrier. Hungrier.
His pain surged—but this time, it didn't crush him.
It fueled him.
[System Ability Unlocked: "Emotion-Fused Cultivation"]- Current Emotion Detected: Wrath- Skill Path Chosen: Hellflame Veins (LV 1)
+10 Strength+5 Recovery+1 Passive: Scorching Blood (You burn brighter the more you suffer.)
Ye Tian screamed—not in pain, but in rage.
The cliff walls around him trembled.
[Tutorial Quest Initiated: Kill your first monster. Survive. Become something they'll wish had stayed dead.]
In the distance, something growled.
The Abyss was not empty.
Neither was he.