CHAPTER 13: THE FALL OF SOVEREIGNS AND THE DESERT'S GHOST
The sky above the Sanctuary of the Architect had become a graveyard of divine ambitions. The three floating palaces, once symbols of the Righteous Alliance's absolute authority, were now tilting precariously, their golden foundations cracked and leaking radiant energy like bleeding wounds. Below them, the army of a hundred thousand cultivators was no longer a unified force; it was a chaotic mass of individuals either weeping in the throes of "Regret Intent" or laughing manically as the "False Saint Systems" bloated their bodies with hollow power.
Li Xiao stood on the balcony of the Grand Hall, his obsidian-winged Nascent Soul towering behind him. He watched with cold, analytical eyes as his "Fate Tax" stripped the world of its luck. To him, the screams of the dying and the prayers of the desperate were merely the background music to a grand mathematical equation.
"The light you worship is but a flickering candle in the face of the Architect's truth," Li Xiao's voice boomed, echoing across the battlefield.
Sovereign Han Long, his golden armor now dull and shattered, looked up from the crater where he had been slammed by Lin Yue's sword. His breathing was heavy, each gasp bringing the metallic taste of blood. He looked at his sister, Han Xue, who stood above him with a gaze as cold as the abyssal depths of the Southern Sea.
"Sister... please..." Han Long wheezed, his hand reaching out. "We were family. The Celestial Palace... they forced my hand. I had to choose the sect over you."
"You didn't choose the sect, Han Long," Han Xue replied, her voice devoid of any warmth. "You chose yourself. You chose the power that our Master, in his fisherman's life, died to protect. You stole his sacrifice to build your throne. And now, he has come to reclaim what was never yours."
Before Han Long could respond, Li Xiao flicked his finger. A bolt of violet lightning, infused with the "Karma of Betrayal," struck Han Long directly in his Dantian. The Sovereign's Golden Core didn't just shatter; it was unmade, its energy siphoned instantly into the Sanctuary's foundation.
[ Ding! Sovereign Han Long has been 'Recycled'. ]
[ Karma Harvest: 5,000,000 units. ]
[ Sanctuary Aura Density: Level 5 (Imperial Grade). ]
As the first Sovereign fell, the other two—Sovereign Yun and Sovereign Mo—realized the battle was lost. They attempted to tear through space and escape, but the violet mist around the mountain had solidified into a "Fate-Lock Domain." Space itself was now the Architect's servant.
"You are not leaving," Li Xiao spoke, his eyes flashing with a sudden, dark resonance. "I have yet to show you the fourth veil. The desert is calling, and its ghosts are hungry."
Suddenly, the temperature around the mountain began to rise. The lush, violet-misted peaks seemed to shimmer and transform. To the eyes of the remaining Alliance forces, the battlefield began to blur into a vast, scorching desert of endless orange dunes. This was the 'Mass Simulation Manifestation'—Li Xiao was dragging the reality of his fourth simulation into the present world.
"Behold the Fourth Simulation: The Brotherhood of the Crimson Sands," Li Xiao commanded.
Lin Yue and Han Xue stood still as the vision enveloped them. They saw a younger Li Xiao, his skin tanned and cracked by the sun, wearing the tattered rags of a desert slave. Beside him was a young boy, barely twelve, who would one day grow up to be the Great General of the Western Deserts—the same man who was currently leading the Iron Blood Empire's reinforcements toward the sect.
In this life, Li Xiao and the boy were "brothers" bound not by blood, but by the chains of a slave caravan. For twenty years, they survived the harshest conditions. The climax of the memory played out before the eyes of the gasping army: In the middle of a three-month drought, Li Xiao found the last flask of water in a hidden oasis. Instead of drinking it to save his own life, he forced the boy to drink every drop, lying to him that he had already found another source.
Lin Yue watched, her heart breaking for the fourth time, as the simulated Li Xiao withered into a sun-bleached corpse while the boy, revitalized by the water, found the strength to break his chains and lead a rebellion.
"In every life, I am the one who withers so you can bloom," Li Xiao's voice cut through the desert vision, cold and haunting. "In this life, that boy is General Wei of the Iron Blood Empire. He is currently ten miles away, coming to 'execute' the demon. Lin Yue, go and meet him. Show him the empty flask. Let him see the ghost of the brother he left behind in the sands."
Lin Yue bowed, her eyes filled with a terrifying mixture of sorrow and loyalty. "By your will, Lord Li Xiao."
She vanished in a streak of golden light, heading toward the western horizon.
Li Xiao turned his gaze back to Sovereign Yun and Sovereign Mo. They were paralyzed, trapped in the desert vision, feeling the thirst and the heat of his past sacrifice. To them, Li Xiao was no longer just a cultivator; he was a primordial force that had lived a thousand lives of pain just to return and collect the debt.
"Your 'Righteousness' is a lie built on the bones of those who loved you," Li Xiao said, walking down the steps of the hall. Each step he took caused a ripple of violet energy to erase another hundred Alliance disciples from existence. "I did not come to destroy the world. I came to balance the ledger. And unfortunately for you, you are all in the red."
He raised both hands, and the Nascent Soul behind him roared, its obsidian wings spreading to cover the entire mountain range. The 'Fate Tax' reached its absolute peak. The remaining two Sovereigns felt their very souls being unspooled like silk.
[ Ding! Breakthrough to Nascent Soul Stage - Level 5. ]
[ New Function Unlocked: Reality Rewriter (Phase 1). ]
As the palaces of the Sovereigns finally plummeted from the sky and crashed into the valley below, Li Xiao stood amidst the falling debris, his violet eyes glowing with a brilliance that surpassed the sun. The 'Righteous Alliance' was no more. Their leaders were recycled, their disciples were infected, and their luck was harvested.
But Li Xiao wasn't satisfied. He looked toward the west, where Lin Yue was about to confront the Great General. "Four lives down... one more to go. The fifth simulation... the one that even I fear to remember."
He looked at his hands, which were now glowing with a faint, obsidian light. He was no longer just the Architect of the Sect; he was becoming the Architect of the World. And the world was finally beginni
ng to regret ever letting him die in the first place.