The night was calm. Too calm.
The MC sat atop a cliff, overlooking the endless forests below. His armor had receded, leaving only faint black veins crawling under his skin. Corpses littered the trees behind him—another clan patrol, broken and drained.
The abyss purred, satisfied. You grow stronger, child. Soon, none shall stand against you.
But even as it spoke, his chest tightened. The air grew heavy, suffocating. The moonlight dimmed as clouds churned unnaturally overhead.
Then he heard it.
A whisper, vast and cold, not in his ears but in his soul.
"Anomaly… must… be purged."
The abyss hissed violently, tendrils erupting from his back in instinctive defense. The sky split open with a crack of thunder. Bolts of lightning, black-gold and searing with divine wrath, cascaded downward.
The first struck the ground meters away, shattering stone like glass. The second slammed into him directly.
Pain unlike anything he had known ripped through his body. Flesh seared, bones cracked, abyssal armor shattered under the force. He screamed as the heavens themselves tried to erase him.
Stand! the abyss roared within. Fight! Or be nothing!
He staggered to his knees, raising his arms. The abyss erupted from his flesh in a storm of shadows, wrapping him in writhing armor. Tendrils lashed upward, forming a jagged shield against the lightning.
Each strike tore away pieces of him—flesh and shadow both—but he refused to fall.
"Is this it?" he spat through blood. His voice was raw, defiant. "Heaven itself wants me gone?!"
The sky answered with another bolt, shattering his shield and hurling him across the cliff. He crashed against stone, body broken, vision dimming.
The abyss whispered desperately, Yield to me fully, and I will carry you. Submit, child. Submit, and we become one.
He coughed blood, laughing bitterly. "No… I already bowed once in my old life. Never again."
The next bolt came, and he met it head-on, screaming. His tendrils surged outward, spearing into the ground, into trees, into corpses—all feeding into him, all devoured in desperation. The abyss thickened, his armor reforged in agony.
The lightning struck, and for a moment, the entire cliff vanished in a blinding flash.
When the light faded, he still stood.
Barely. His body was charred, his armor cracked, the abyss trembling from exhaustion. Smoke rose from the crater around him. His chest heaved with ragged breaths.
But he was alive.
He looked skyward, black eyes burning with defiance.
"Fate, Heaven, gods—whatever you are," he rasped. "I won't kneel. Not to you, not to anyone."
The clouds churned once more, then slowly receded. The weight lifted. The heavens were silent again.
The abyss whispered weakly, but with pride. Good… child. You are ours. Unchained. Eternal.
He staggered forward, leaving scorched footprints behind. Every muscle screamed, every bone ached. But in his heart, a fire burned brighter than ever.
This world was cruel, bound by fate, ruled by Heaven's will. But he would not be chained.
If Fang Yuan fought fate with Gu and cunning, then he would fight it with the abyss itself.
One had declared war on destiny.
The other now stood beside him—parallel paths, different weapons.
Both enemies of Heaven.