The world was vast, but even the vastness could not hide destiny's pull. The East Sea raged endlessly, waves towering like mountains and lightning splitting the heavens — yet within its darkest depths, one man sat still.
Taiyi, blindfolded and cold as a god of death, was motionless in the eye of the storm. Around him, corpses of sea beasts floated, their scales still crackling with curse energy. His blade, Silent Radiance, lay across his knees, shimmering faintly in response to his breathing.
Since the battle at the cursed shore, Taiyi had changed. The curse that had once tried to devour him now flowed through his veins, fusing with his qi. It was both poison and power — a constant agony that forced him to refine himself, tempering his will and his cultivation.
Every heartbeat was pain.
Every breath was a battle.
But every scar made him stronger.
He had reached the mid-rank Middle Immortal Realm, yet his comprehension of sword dao had already surpassed many high immortals.
He could no longer see the world — yet through his sword, he perceived it more clearly than ever. The movement of the tides, the shift of the wind, the trembling of energy in the air — all of it sang to him in silence.
And in that silence, something else stirred.
A voice. Faint, distant, carried by the curse.
"Do you regret your choice?"
Taiyi's lips tightened. "If the heavens would curse me for protecting her, then let the heavens be damned."
Even he didn't know why he said those words just that he felt that he should say them.
The voice laughed — a low, ancient sound — and faded.
---
Far across the ocean, deep within the Dragon Palace, the East Sea trembled once more.
Ao Shen had vanished — his betrayal had thrown the sea clans into chaos. The old Dragon King, burdened by age and guilt, remained secluded, his strength waning.
In the shadows, a new figure rose — Ao Yan, Taiyi's elder adoptive brother. Cunning, ruthless, and brilliant. He saw the turbulence not as disaster, but as opportunity.
"Father grows weaker every day," Ao Yan whispered to his followers. "And the sea's power stagnates. The cursed one — Taiyi — is no longer loyal. If we wish to unify the seas, we must act now."
He smiled faintly. "Let the world remember the true bloodline of dragons, not a human wearing our scales."
And so began the War of the Three Currents, a brutal internal conflict within the East Sea that tore through its tribes like wildfire.
When the war began, Taiyi was unaware — until the tides themselves carried the scent of dragon blood.
He stood upon a cliff of coral stone, feeling the vibrations in the current.
"So," he murmured, "Ao Yan finally makes his move."
He had avoided politics, avoided the throne, but this was not a war he could ignore. The East Sea was still his home, even if the people feared him.
He was no protector nor did he claim to be righteous but he knew that such an ambitious person could not be allowed to inherit the throne.
Without another word, he sheathed his sword and dove into the abyss.
Days later, as storms ravaged the sea, he arrived at the battlefield — a place of devastation. Countless sea beasts and dragon warriors lay dead, their blood staining the ocean red.
Ao Yan's army was advancing toward the royal city.
Taiyi descended silently, cutting through dozens of attackers in a single swing. His sword qi split the waters for miles, and the battlefield fell silent.
"Who dares!" shouted a general, his scales glowing with gold.
Taiyi's blindfold turned toward him. "Taiyi, adopted son of the Dragon King, dares."
His voice was calm — too calm. That calmness sent a chill through everyone's hearts.
The general attacked, but before his trident could even move, Taiyi's sword was already at his throat.
"Sword Art — Ocean's Heart Severing Flow."
The strike was silent. The general's body dissolved into motes of light.
Panic spread through the troops. Even the sea seemed to recoil from him.
Then, from the horizon, came Ao Yan himself, riding atop a serpent of storms, his aura vast and domineering.
"Taiyi," Ao Yan called out, voice echoing across the waves, "you should have stayed hidden. This sea has no room for cursed blood."
Taiyi smiled faintly beneath his blindfold. "Nor for treacherous dragons."
The two clashed.Taiyi has never been one to waste words so he used his sword to deal with his treacherous brother.
The ocean erupted.
Ao Yan's spear of lightning crashed down like the wrath of the heavens. Taiyi's sword rose to meet it, forming ripples of silver energy that cut through reality itself.
Each collision created whirlpools that swallowed mountains of coral. Thunder roared, lightning screamed.
Ao Yan's technique — "Heaven-Devouring Tide Spear" — formed a vortex of destruction that tried to crush everything within it.
Taiyi countered with "Sword of Eternal Current." His sword qi merged with the flow of water, becoming one with the ocean. Every droplet was his blade; every wave, his will.
Their battle raged for hours, neither yielding.
But Taiyi's curse began to stir. His body trembled, black veins spreading across his arms. Ao Yan saw it and smirked.
"The curse is eating you alive. You cannot last!"
Taiyi said nothing. He simply raised his sword. The ocean quieted. Then, in one motion, he unleashed everything.
"Sword Dao — Sea-Splitting Calamity!"
The sea parted for hundreds of miles. The sky shattered into fragments of light. Ao Yan was thrown back, coughing blood. His serpent mount disintegrated, and his spear cracked.
Taiyi stood amidst the collapsing sea, his aura flickering.
"Leave, brother," he said coldly. "I will not take the throne, but I will not let traitors destroy our home."
Ao Yan stared at him with hatred — and fear. "You think you've won? The curse will consume you before the next moon rises."
Taiyi turned away. "Then I'll burn the curse before it burns me."
He did not return to the palace. He left the East Sea behind, wandering the coasts for years. His injuries were grave, his body weak, but his spirit only grew colder, sharper, and more untouchable.
He meditated beneath thunderclouds, practiced his sword in hurricane winds, and hunted beasts in the deep trenches.
Every battle honed him. Every scar refined him.
His sword techniques evolved into something terrifying — no longer purely water or flame, but an essence beyond elements. A fusion of destruction and rebirth.
He called it the Dao of Cyclic Annihilation — a sword path that destroyed and recreated in a single motion.
And through it, his cultivation surged again, approaching the peak of the Middle Immortal Realm.
But the curse still lingered. Black markings crept along his arm, pulsing with a strange rhythm. Sometimes he could hear whispers in the wind — voices of the dead from that ancient battlefield.
He had long decided that he would no longer be bound by the curse. He would carve his own path.
---
Meanwhile, far away in the ancestral lands, Feng Jiu sat upon her crimson throne. The phoenixes bowed before her, their new city glowing like molten gold amid the mountains.
Her name had spread across realms. The Queen of Rebirth. The Flame that Defied the Beasts.
But inside, she was restless. The fragments of her past still haunted her dreams. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the silver-haired man again — bleeding, fighting against endless darkness.
And the name Tie Ling echoed louder than ever.
Recently, she had begun to notice cracks in the void near her realm. Faint threads of chaos energy slipped through — whispers from the outside world.
"The Heavens stir again," one of her elders said nervously.
Feng Jiu nodded slowly. "Then our time here is almost over."
That night, she stood beneath the burning sky, her flames dancing around her, whispering to the stars.
"Taiyi… wherever you are, the fire still remembers you."
No one knew about this but Feng Jiu had already started to remember everything that happened in the past. Her memories were slowly being unsealed.
---
Above all realms, in the sealed heavens, a single bell tolled — the first sound in ten thousand years.
The heavens were awakening.
The curse was moving.
And destiny once again began to weave its cruel tapestry.
Beneath the ocean, Taiyi opened his eyes behind the blindfold. A single tear of blood fell into the sea.
Above the mountains, Feng Jiu's flames surged skyward, piercing the heavens.
The world trembled.
Their reunion was drawing near.