The descent was not a fall; it was a declaration of war against gravity. Fang Yuan felt the air tearing against his skin, a sensation that would have shredded a normal man's lungs. But his body, reforged through the Devouring Refinement, was no longer a vessel of flesh. It was a weapon of high-density matter.
As he neared the glowing roots of the Sacred Tree, his mind surged with the System's analytical data on the "Hero" waiting below: Kael.
To the world, Kael was a miracle—a boy of low birth who possessed the Starlight Physique. The script described his rise as a journey of "unwavering will." But Fang Yuan saw the truth behind the veil. Kael was a Destiny Parasite. His every breakthrough was paved with the "necessary sacrifices" of others. In the original timeline, Fang Yuan's death was the very spark Kael needed to "awaken" his true power.
"Your justice is built on my bones," Fang Yuan thought, his eyes narrowing. "Let's see how strong your justice is when the bones refuse to break."
He landed.
The impact didn't just crack the floor of the root chamber; it silenced the world. Dust swirled in the golden light, and as it cleared, Fang Yuan stood before the group.
At the center of the chamber was Kael—his hair messy, his eyes wide with a mix of shock and "righteous" confusion. Next to him was Maya, the girl who, in another life, had looked at Fang Yuan's cooling corpse with nothing but disgust.
"Fang Yuan?" Kael gasped, his hand frozen inches away from the Heart of the Obsidian—a crystalline core pulsing with the concentrated Qi of an entire world. "What are you doing here? This place is restricted! Only those chosen by the Elders—"
"Chosen?" Fang Yuan interrupted, his voice a low, vibrating hum that made the obsidian walls tremble. He took a step forward, and the golden aura surrounding Kael seemed to shrink away, recoiling from the sheer darkness radiating from Fang Yuan.
"You speak of choice as if the Heavens invited you to tea, Kael," Fang Yuan continued, his gaze locking onto the pulsing Heart. "You stand there, a Rank 1 Peak, waiting for the world to hand you its soul on a silver platter. You think you are the protagonist because you are 'good'?"
Maya stepped forward, unsheathing a slender silver blade. "You've gone mad, Fang Yuan! This energy would kill a common guard like you. Move aside before Kael has to—"
"Before Kael has to what? Forgive me?"
Fang Yuan's smile didn't reach his eyes. In a blur of motion that defied Rank 1 logic, he was suddenly inches from Maya's face. He didn't use a weapon. He simply exhaled. A burst of pressurized Qi struck her like a physical hammer, sending her skidding across the stone floor until she hit the far wall.
Kael's eyes burned with a sudden, golden fire—the Starlight Physique reacting to his friend's pain. "Enough! I don't know what happened to you, but I won't let you hurt anyone else!"
Fang Yuan didn't flinch. He watched the golden light gather in Kael's fists—the "Hero's Spark." To any other Rank 1, this would be a death sentence. But Fang Yuan just stood there, his black robes fluttering in the invisible gale of his own power.
"The script says you win here, Kael," Fang Yuan whispered, reaching out his hand toward the Heart, ignoring the golden hero entirely. "But I've already burned the pages."