The night was like spilled ink, enveloping the entire Cloud Ridge.
Cold winds howled through the ten-thousand-zhang abyss, slamming against the rock walls as if invisible beasts were crawling below.
The Cloud Ridge Heavenly Sacrifice Platform—
The sect's most solemn, most cruel ritual of the year—
Tonight, it was ablaze with torchlight.
And Bai Lin was bound to the sacrificial pillar by five spiritual chains.
The chains were like five ice-cold serpents burrowing deep into his flesh and bones. Every struggle felt as though his bones would shatter. But he no longer had the strength to struggle.
Around him knelt the entire sect—three hundred disciples in perfect rows, motionless.
Some had once trained alongside him. Some had drunk the medicinal soup he brewed. Some had spoken their hearts to him under the cover of night.
Yet now, they kept their heads bowed, like puppets.
Bai Lin's breathing was ragged, his voice hoarse: "…Just because I have wasted veins, I have to die?"
Ahead, the Grand Elder in his dark cyan robes unfurled a scroll of talisman scripture. His voice was cold and hard as stone:
"Bai Lin, you were born without dao veins, without a spirit sea, without a path of cultivation. You can neither render merit to the sect nor walk the road of immortality. To serve as a sacrifice—this is your final, and only, value."
Bai Lin wanted to laugh, but all that came from his throat was the taste of blood.
"So… a person's worth can be defined so easily by others."
He lifted his head to gaze at the night sky.
Suddenly, a corner of the heavens… tore open.
Not clouds parting—but truly torn.
As though an enormous invisible hand had ripped a gash in the curtain of night.
Beyond the black fissure lay a void so deep the bottom could not be seen.
From that void slowly emerged a single golden-crimson eye.
The eye was so colossal it did not seem to belong to any living creature—it was as if the sky itself had opened an eye.
Bai Lin's pupils contracted.
The three hundred disciples around him showed no reaction.
They could not see it.
The Grand Elder could not see it.
Only Bai Lin could see.
That eye… was gazing down at him.
Without emotion.
Without curiosity.
Merely gazing down—
as one might observe an object placed upon the altar.
Bai Lin's heart was seized by ice. He wanted to scream, but the spiritual chains constricted his chest; all he could manage were hoarse gasps.
The rift in the sky widened.
The golden-crimson eye grew clearer.
It did not blink.
It simply stared at Bai Lin.
Stared until he forgot to breathe.
Suddenly—
The Grand Elder plunged a spiritual blade into the center of the altar.
"The sacrifice—begins!"
Runes on the ground ignited instantly, like burning blood vessels.
The stone slabs around the pillar shuddered; ancient talismans awakened segment by segment.
A muffled roar rose from the depths of the abyss.
A column of pitch-black demonic qi erupted from beneath the earth!
Black mist tore through the floor. Gales whipped up in an instant, shredding Bai Lin's robes to rags.
The mist crawled up his legs like ten thousand hands tearing at his flesh.
"Argh—argh!!"
Pain like fire.
Blood vessels burst beneath his skin; black patterns crawled up his spine.
Bai Lin felt as though he were being hung upside-down and dropped into scalding entrails. His consciousness flickered, vision blurred, and all he could hear was his own fracturing heartbeat.
Yet deep within the black mist, he heard a voice.
Low, ancient, crawling up from a bottomless abyss:
[…Finally… I've found you.]
Bai Lin's consciousness jolted awake.
"W-who… who's there!?"
The black mist trembled as though laughing.
You died well… died in exactly the right place.
Bai Lin's spine felt as though crushed by an invisible hand; the pain nearly made him vomit blood.
"I… I don't even… know you…!"
The voice drew closer.
It whispered right against his ear.
Bai Lin, did you think your birth was an accident?
Your wasted veins… were something I left for myself to use.
Bai Lin's very soul was seized.
"Who… who the hell are you!?"
Deep within the black mist, an incomprehensibly massive shadow slowly rose.
It was not human.
Not demon.
Not devil.
It was like the skeletal remains of an ancient god that had been sealed for ten thousand years, opening its eyes in the darkness.
The mist quaked.
The abyss thundered.
With a pressure that could crush mountains, the voice murmured:
You mortals… call me—
the Brilliant Heaven Demon Emperor.
Even terror deserted Bai Lin.
The Brilliant Heaven Demon Emperor—
The world-destroying sovereign recorded in ancient histories!
The being sealed by all thousand sects and ten thousand clans across the Nine Domains, said to have perished a hundred thousand years ago!
Yet here he was, right in front of Bai Lin,
hidden within the black mist,
pressed against his very soul.
Bai Lin's voice trembled: "You… cannot possibly still exist…!"
The demonic shadow in the mist seemed to smile:
Of course I exist. I simply… have not fully awakened.
In an instant, the black mist surged over Bai Lin's entire body!
"Argh—!!!"
His physical body tore apart in a single moment—skin splitting open, flesh scraped away, bones shattering into dust!
The next second, his flesh—
exploded into ashes.
Dead silence fell over the entire Heavenly Sacrifice Platform.
The Grand Elder rolled up the talisman scroll and spoke calmly:
"The sacrifice has been offered. The ritual is complete."
The three hundred disciples departed one by one. Not a single soul knew that Bai Lin had already been drawn into the hands of another existence.
No light.
No sound.
No body.
Only a soul, like a broken stone, cast into bottomless darkness.
Bai Lin thought he was dead.
Completely, utterly dead.
But in the darkness, a colossal invisible hand seized his soul.
A whisper echoed in his mind:
Bai Lin, your death… was perfect.
Bai Lin's soul quivered as if it would shatter:
"What… do you want…?"
In the darkness, that shadow loomed over him.
You are a vessel.
You were born with wasted veins because your meridians… were reserved for my use.
Bai Lin roared: "I refuse—!!"
The darkness suddenly contracted.
Invisible talons clamped around his soul.
You have no choice.
The entire world bore down upon him; the black mist swallowed his consciousness like a tidal wave.
Amid the ashes of the Heavenly Sacrifice Platform, a black-crimson light suddenly surged.
The ashes gathered, reshaped, condensed into a body.
Bai Lin… came back to life.
But it was no longer his original body.
At his chest beat a crimson-black heart—like fire, like calamity.
No meridians. No spirit sea.
Yet within his bones stirred a power that could make heaven and earth tremble.
He opened his eyes.
For an instant, their depths reflected a bloody crimson glow.
The world itself seemed to freeze under that light.
Bai Lin lowered his head and looked at his hands.
The fingers were slender and pale, but flowing through the veins was no longer blood—it was black-crimson mist.
His voice was extremely soft, yet it struck the turbulent world like a question:
"Am I… still me…?"
In his mind, that voice faintly arose:
Of course you are still you.
But every breath you take…
is for my sake.
A chill ran down Bai Lin's spine; every hair on his body stood on end.
Suddenly—
An ancient stele beneath the platform lit up.
A blood-colored sigil rose into the sky.
Hundreds of ancient, profound voices rang out simultaneously from within the stele:
—Host confirmed.
Brilliant Heaven Revival · Phase One initiated.
Bai Lin raised his head.
Within the cracks of the stele's inscriptions, a golden-crimson eye opened.
It was the exact same eye that had appeared when the sky tore open earlier.
Bai Lin's throat tightened.
At last, he understood:
He had not obtained power.
He had been chosen by "the Final Calamity."