The moment the fourth Imperial Seal opened, Su Chen felt the entire world disappear.
There was no battlefield.
No heavenly army.
No roaring ocean.
No Phoenix flames.
For a brief moment, there was only darkness.
Then a heartbeat sounded.
Boom.
Another heartbeat followed.
Boom.
The sound came from somewhere deep within his soul.
Su Chen slowly opened his eyes.
He was standing before an enormous golden door.
The door was covered with ancient chains, but unlike the Heaven Prison, these chains weren't designed to imprison something.
They were sealing something.
Something inside him.
The white-haired woman stood several meters away, her expression unusually serious.
"You shouldn't have opened it."
Su Chen looked toward the door.
"I didn't."
The woman's eyes narrowed.
"I know."
Another heartbeat shook the darkness.
Boom.
A golden crack appeared across the door.
Su Chen's expression changed.
"What is sealed inside?"
The woman didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she looked at him.
"Your beginning."
The golden door trembled.
A voice suddenly came from behind it.
"Not his beginning."
The woman's expression froze.
"His choice."
Su Chen turned.
The Primordial Emperor stood silently in the darkness.
But this time, something was different.
The Emperor's appearance was becoming transparent.
Su Chen immediately understood.
"You are disappearing."
The Emperor smiled.
"I was never supposed to remain."
"Then why are you here?"
"To say goodbye."
Silence followed.
The Emperor slowly looked toward the golden door.
"The fourth seal isn't another source of power."
Su Chen frowned.
"Then what is it?"
"Authority."
The word echoed through the darkness.
"The first seal gave you the foundation. The second gave you the inheritance. The third gave you the memories."
The Emperor looked directly into Su Chen's eyes.
"The fourth gives you the right to choose your own path."
Su Chen remained silent.
The Emperor continued.
"When I created the Imperial Seals, I knew that one day someone might inherit everything I left behind."
His expression became complicated.
"I didn't want that person to become another me."
Su Chen's eyes flickered.
"So you deliberately separated everything."
"Yes."
The Emperor nodded.
"Power without wisdom creates monsters."
"Memories without identity create puppets."
"And authority without choice creates another tyrant."
The golden door suddenly opened slightly.
An enormous pressure erupted from within.
Yet Su Chen didn't move.
The Emperor smiled.
"Now decide."
"What?"
"Do you want my path?"
The darkness around them began changing.
Su Chen saw the Primordial Emperor standing above countless civilizations.
He saw armies kneeling.
He saw Immortals falling.
He saw worlds being protected.
He also saw blood.
Endless blood.
The Emperor fighting alone.
The Emperor losing friends.
The Emperor watching civilizations disappear.
The Emperor sitting alone on his throne after victory.
No celebration.
No family.
No one beside him.
Su Chen slowly clenched his fists.
"I don't want your path."
The Emperor smiled.
"I know."
The fourth seal suddenly shattered.
BOOM!
Golden light exploded through Su Chen's soul.
The Emperor's figure began disappearing completely.
Before he vanished, he looked toward Su Chen one final time.
"Then make your own."
Su Chen nodded.
"I will."
The Emperor disappeared.
The white-haired woman lowered her head.
For the first time, tears appeared within her star-filled eyes.
"Goodbye."
Then the darkness shattered.
Su Chen's consciousness returned to reality.
BOOM!
The entire battlefield erupted.
A golden shockwave spread from his body.
Every heavenly formation within thousands of kilometers collapsed.
The first Immortal was forced backward.
His silver armor cracked.
The remaining Immortals immediately turned toward Su Chen.
"What happened?"
Nobody answered.
Su Chen stood in the center of the battlefield.
Golden light surrounded his body.
His eyes were no longer completely golden.
One remained golden.
The other was deep black.
Two completely different forces existed within him.
Yet they weren't fighting.
They were perfectly balanced.
The first Immortal stared at him.
"You…"
His voice became uncertain.
Su Chen slowly raised his head.
"What's wrong?"
The Immortal's expression changed.
"You broke the Imperial Authority."
Su Chen smiled.
"No."
He raised the Heaven Slaughter Sword.
"I accepted it."
BOOM!
A gigantic golden symbol appeared behind him.
Not the symbol of the Primordial Emperor.
A new symbol.
The symbol of Su Chen.
The Ancient Court warriors immediately felt it.
Every formation throughout the battlefield responded.
The millions of cultivators connected to the formation suddenly heard Su Chen's voice inside their minds.
"Fight for yourselves."
The message was simple.
"Not for an emperor."
Another golden pulse spread outward.
"Not for an ancient court."
The warriors stared upward.
Su Chen's voice became stronger.
"Fight because this is your world."
For several seconds, silence filled the battlefield.
Then—
A Saint Realm cultivator raised his weapon.
"I'll fight!"
Another followed.
"So will I!"
Then thousands.
Then millions.
The roar became deafening.
"We fight!"
"We protect our world!"
"We won't kneel!"
The Ancient Court formation erupted with unimaginable power.
The first Immortal's face darkened.
"You've turned them against heaven."
Su Chen looked at him.
"They were never yours."
The Immortal attacked.
BOOM!
He appeared directly before Su Chen.
His fist carried enough force to shatter space.
Su Chen raised his sword.
CLANG!
The collision sent both figures flying backward.
The Immortal stabilized himself first.
His expression became colder.
"You're still only a Sovereign."
Su Chen looked at his sword.
"Perhaps."
The fourth Imperial Seal had changed something fundamental.
He could feel it.
The power wasn't simply increasing.
His understanding was.
Laws.
Space.
Time.
Life.
Death.
All of them appeared clearer.
Not because he had mastered them.
Because he could finally see their structure.
The Immortal attacked again.
Su Chen stepped forward.
One step.
Space folded beneath his feet.
He appeared behind the Immortal.
The Heaven Slaughter Sword descended.
The Immortal barely blocked it.
BOOM!
His silver armor shattered across his shoulder.
He was forced downward.
The Sea Sovereign stared in disbelief.
"He's reading space."
The Pavilion Master nodded slowly.
"Not controlling it."
"Understanding it."
Mu Xue smiled.
"That's much more dangerous."
The first Immortal wiped blood from his mouth.
His eyes became completely silver.
"Then I'll erase your understanding."
He raised both hands.
The heavens darkened.
A gigantic heavenly formation appeared above the battlefield.
Countless laws gathered into one point.
The formation was so powerful that even the other Immortals moved away.
The first Immortal shouted.
"Heavenly Annihilation!"
BOOM!
A pillar of silver light descended.
The entire mortal world trembled.
Lin Yanyan's Phoenix flames erupted.
"Su Chen!"
He looked at her.
Their eyes met.
She didn't say anything else.
She didn't need to.
Su Chen understood.
He turned toward the descending attack.
Then slowly raised his sword.
The Ancient Court formation behind him began rotating.
Millions of cultivators poured their strength into it.
The Sea Sovereign laughed.
"Let's give heaven something it won't forget!"
The Pavilion Master raised her hand.
Moonlight poured into the formation.
Mu Xue thrust her spear into the sky.
Crimson energy joined the others.
Lin Yanyan's Phoenix flames followed.
All of their powers merged.
Not into the power of the Emperor.
Into the power of everyone standing there.
Su Chen's eyes became brighter.
He raised the Heaven Slaughter Sword.
"Everyone."
His voice traveled across the battlefield.
"Together."
The millions of cultivators roared.
"TOGETHER!"
BOOM!
A gigantic golden sword appeared above the world.
The heavenly formation descended.
The golden sword rose.
Then—
They collided.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
The world became completely white.
Then—
CRACK!
The heavenly formation shattered.
The first Immortal's expression changed.
"No…"
Another crack appeared across the heavens.
Then thousands.
The entire heavenly formation collapsed.
The Immortal was blasted backward, blood pouring from his mouth.
The Ancient Court army erupted into cheers.
Su Chen lowered his sword.
But before anyone could celebrate—
The sky suddenly became dark.
Not because of the battlefield.
Because something enormous had appeared beyond the stars.
A gigantic eye slowly opened in the darkness.
The first Immortal looked upward.
His expression changed from anger—
To fear.
"No…"
The Sea Sovereign looked up.
"What now?"
The Pavilion Master stood.
"That isn't one of them."
Mu Xue's grip tightened around her spear.
"Then what is it?"
The white-haired woman's voice echoed inside Su Chen's mind.
For the first time since he had known her—
She sounded genuinely afraid.
"The Fourth Seal wasn't only an inheritance."
Su Chen looked toward the gigantic eye.
"What did it awaken?"
The woman answered quietly.
"Something that even the Primordial Emperor feared."
The gigantic eye opened completely.
A voice descended from beyond the stars.
"Finally…"
The entire universe trembled.
"…I have found you."