The moon cast its pale glow over the Black Lotus Mountains, its light rippling across the ancient stone peaks like silver ink. The wind howled softly, whispering secrets of an age long forgotten. Deep within the twisted ridges, a lone figure sat cross-legged beneath a dying pine tree, his black robe fluttering like the wings of a raven.
It was Lin Feng.
His eyes were closed, but his mind roared like a storm. The breakthrough had come without warning. One moment he was meditating on the Azure Void Sutra, the next he was swept into a maelstrom of spiritual energy, his meridians pulsing and bones cracking as his cultivation surged.
"Nascent Soul stage…" he murmured, opening his eyes slowly. They gleamed gold under the moonlight, sharper than any blade.
He clenched his fists.
Power. It poured through him like fire, like ice, like thunder wrapped in silence.
But he knew this was only the beginning.
The Heavens had watched him rise once before, and in that life, they struck him down with ruthless force. Now reborn, he walked the edge of fate once more. And they would watch again, trembling.
A rustle in the trees.
Lin Feng turned his head sharply. A figure emerged — cloaked in shadows, face veiled, but the aura was familiar.
"You followed me," Lin Feng said, voice calm but laced with iron.
The figure lowered the veil. A woman — ethereal, silver-eyed, her expression unreadable.
"Yue Chan," he said flatly.
"You've broken through again," she said, stepping closer. "That makes five major realms in under three years. You defy logic, Lin Feng."
He chuckled coldly. "Logic never mattered. Only survival."
She knelt beside him, her voice dropping. "But they've begun to notice. The Heaven's Gate Sect dispatched an enforcer last night. I killed him."
Lin Feng's gaze darkened. "So it begins."
Yue Chan hesitated, then pulled something from her sleeve — a scroll sealed in obsidian wax.
"This arrived at the Sect Hall before I left. It bears the Imperial Seal."
He took the scroll, and as he read, his brows furrowed.
A single sentence burned into his soul: "Return to the Capital, Prince of Ashes."
Silence fell like a blade.
Lin Feng stood slowly, his black robe brushing the cold stone beneath him. "So they've finally recognized me. After all these years."
Yue Chan's voice trembled. "What will you do?"
He smiled — not with warmth, but with something ancient, patient, and wrathful.
"I will remind them why they buried me in the first place."
Far above, thunder rolled across the clear sky, as if the Heavens themselves had heard his oath.
To be continued…
End of chapter 18