The heavens were silent.
Beyond the clouds, the Celestial Court stretched endlessly, its pillars carved from jade older than time itself. Starlight poured down from a thousand suspended lanterns, shimmering upon the gold-lined steps of the Hall of Judgment.
The God of Justice, Ling Tian, knelt before the Heavenly Emperor. His white robes, once spotless, were dusted with the ashes of a mortal city. The scent of smoke clung to him like an unshakable sin.
Above him, the Heavenly Emperor's voice rolled like thunder.
"Ling Tian, God of Justice—you dared to defy the Heavenly Edict. You shielded mortals destined for destruction. Do you plead guilty?"
Ling Tian raised his head. His eyes were sharp, unyielding.
"If righteousness means slaughtering the innocent… then I plead guilty."
Gasps rippled through the gathered gods. Some lowered their gazes; others glared with outrage.
The Emperor's gaze was cold, his golden eyes reflecting a realm without mercy.
"You dare to place mortal lives above Heaven's will? You forget your place, Ling Tian."
He should have bowed. He should have repented. That was the way of the heavens—obedience, even in injustice.
But Ling Tian's voice was steady.
"If Heaven's will is flawed… then perhaps Heaven itself should be questioned."
The hall fell into suffocating silence. Even the starlight seemed to tremble.
A sharp crack split the air—the sound of the Heavenly Seal breaking.
Chains of divine light coiled around Ling Tian, searing through flesh and bone. Pain—pure, merciless—struck him for the first time in millennia.
The Emperor's voice was final:
"For the sin of doubt, for placing mortals before Heaven, you are stripped of your divinity. You shall fall to the mortal realm, and for a thousand days, walk among dust and death. Return with faith unshaken, and you may reclaim your throne. Fail… and you shall vanish into nothing."
The doors of the Hall of Judgment opened with a sound like the sky itself tearing apart.
Ling Tian was dragged into a storm of blinding light. He glimpsed movement beside him—other gods, bound in chains, their faces pale with rage or grief. He recognized some:
Yue Xi, Goddess of the Moon, punished for loving a mortal prince.
Shen Yu, God of War, who defied orders to save his soldiers.
And others, each guilty of their own forbidden choice.
They fell together, like stars torn from the heavens.
Wind screamed in his ears. Clouds ripped apart beneath him, revealing the mortal world—a land of rivers and mountains, unaware that ten fallen gods plummeted toward it.
In that moment, the weight of eternity crashed upon him.
For the first time since he had been crowned a god, Ling Tian felt… fear.
But before the ground rose up to meet him, a strange vision flashed before his eyes:
A woman standing in a field of red blossoms, smiling softly, as if she had been waiting for him all her life.
And then
The world went black.