The Broken Sky Plateau was no ordinary land.
Once a celestial battlefield, now a graveyard of forgotten titans, it lay dormant beyond the reach of mortal and immortal alike. A place the heavens had tried to erase—yet failed.
And now, Liu Shen was going there.
---
The Departure
The sun had not yet risen, but the Sect of Shadows stirred.
Dark-robed disciples gathered silently at the gates, watching as three figures stood before the massive obsidian transport beast—a six-winged spectral roc bound by soul chains.
Liu Shen stood at the head, his robes shifting between black and crimson, a result of his increasingly unstable demonic core. Beside him stood Yu Meixing, whose gaze never left his side, and Lei Qing, holding a wrapped spear across his back.
> "Once we cross the Ghostwind Border, there'll be no aid from the Sect," Lei Qing murmured.
"Are we sure about this?"
Liu Shen didn't answer. Instead, he lifted a hand.
With a single motion, the roc howled and bent its wings.
They climbed aboard.
> "To the Plateau," Liu Shen ordered.
As the roc took flight, clouds bent around them. Lightning trailed behind their path. The world below blurred as they soared toward a land the heavens had abandoned… and feared.
---
A Place the Sky Couldn't Fix
The Broken Sky Plateau lived up to its name.
A vast, cracked stretch of obsidian earth split by gorges that glowed with eerie red mist. Jagged mountains floated above ground, frozen in the moment the heavens tried to collapse them. Ruins of once-mighty divine palaces jutted from the ground like gravestones.
No birds sang. No wind blew.
Only silence… and pressure.
As the roc landed, the three descended.
Liu Shen immediately felt it—the remnants of divine intent pressing on his soul.
> "This place hates me," Lei Qing muttered, gripping his spear tighter.
"It hates all cultivators," Meixing added. "Especially those born after the war."
Liu Shen knelt and touched the ground.
A whisper entered his mind.
> "He... who defied... still walks…"
He smiled.
> "It remembers me."
---
The Guide Appears
A flash of silver streaked across the sky.
From the shadows of a shattered obelisk stepped an old man, skin ashen, eyes dull yet shimmering with knowledge.
> "The Demon Sovereign returns," the man croaked.
"We wondered when the traitor of stars would walk again."
Liu Shen narrowed his eyes.
> "And you are?"
The old man bowed with shaking limbs.
> "I am called Yi Wusheng, last chronicler of the Broken Sky War. I serve no sect. I bow to no heavens. I only remember."
> "Then remember this," Liu Shen said coldly. "I came to find the Severance Art. You know where it is."
Yi Wusheng's eyes sharpened.
> "That which severs Heaven's gaze cannot be found—it must be earned."
He pointed toward a distant peak, shrouded in black flame and floating above an endless pit.
> "There lies the Thousand-Grief Altar. Pass its three trials, and the Severance Art will be revealed."
> "What kind of trials?" Lei Qing asked.
The old man chuckled darkly.
> "The kind that kill you… even if you win."
---
The First Trial: Mirror of Self
They crossed the plateau quickly, avoiding cursed winds and remnants of divine puppets that still roamed aimlessly.
At the base of the floating altar stood a gate made of silver bone.
As they stepped through, Liu Shen found himself alone.
No wind. No sky. Just darkness and a mirror.
His reflection looked back—older, crueler, eyes burning with infinite rage.
> "You gave everything," the mirror whispered.
"And in return, they gave you ashes."
> "You should burn the world."
The reflection extended a hand.
> "Let me lead. Let me take your pain."
Liu Shen stared at it for a long moment.
Then, he smiled—not kindly.
> "You're not me."
> "You're the part of me that gave up."
He raised his hand and crushed the mirror with a flick of demonic qi.
The world shattered.
He woke to find himself standing at the altar's base again.
Lei Qing and Meixing were just regaining consciousness too.
> "We all passed?" Meixing asked, shaking.
"Barely," Lei Qing muttered.
> "That was only the first," Liu Shen reminded them.
Yi Wusheng appeared beside them again, unbothered.
> "The second trial awaits. The River of Names Forgotten."
> "What must we do there?" Liu Shen asked.
Yi Wusheng grinned.
> "You must walk across it… and remember your own."
---
The Forgotten Flow
The River was not water but light—a stream of memories stripped from the dead.
As Liu Shen stepped forward, voices called out.
> "Liu Shen…"
"Shadow Sovereign…"
"Monster…"
"Betrayer…"
"Beloved…"
Each name pulled at his soul, trying to unravel him.
But one voice was louder.
> "Brother…"
A child's voice. Soft. Familiar.
Liu Shen paused.
> "Yu Lin?" he whispered.
A vision formed.
A little girl with silver eyes and a flower in her hair.
> "Don't forget me again," she said, reaching out.
He stepped forward, forcing himself across the river.
> "I never will."
When they emerged on the far bank, both Meixing and Lei Qing were pale and trembling.
> "This place is hell," Lei Qing spat.
> "No," Liu Shen said calmly.
> "Hell still has rules. This place doesn't."