He showed them that the greatest magic wasn't flying or throwing lightning, but the ability to stay humble when you are strong. As the moon rose, Lu Chen walked back to his porch and sat down. He looked up at the stars. They didn't seem so far away anymore. They looked like old friends.He was the Unparalleled Immortal Emperor, the man who had emptied the heavens to fill the earth. He took a bite of a sweet plum and sighed in content.The work was hard, but there was a sense of peace.The celebration in the Black Mist Valley eventually faded away. While the golden mist had healed their bodies, it could not instantly wash away years of fear. Lu Chen sat on his porch, watching the shadows of his students as they passed by. They were not sleeping. They were staring at their glowing hands with expressions of deep confusion and worry. Even with the power of emperors in their veins, they still felt like the "trash" the world had rejected for so long.Xiao walked up to Lu Chen’s hut, his s

The elders of the Afure Cloud sect didn't want a "failure" carrying their secrets, even if he couldn't use them. They murdered his parents to silence him. Lu Chen remembered hiding in a damp, freezing mud, scrubbing the toilet. His spirit root—the organ that allows cultivators to breathe energy—had been physically crushed by a supervisor’s boot."You are a leaking bucket, Lu Chen," the supervisor sneered. "No matter how much power you find, it will just spill out into the dirt." Every time Lu Chen tried to meditate, the pain was so severe for him. His internal veins were frayed wires. When he tried to pull in the energy of the world, it exploded inside him. He spent nights coughing up silver blood. He was a seventeen-year-old boy then.The Scary Truth of the Void, the moment he became the "Unparalleled" wasn't a moment of glory—it was a moment of absolute terror. While hiding in the deepest parts of the Forbidden Forest, Lu Chen ran out of options. He fought with monsters in the for

He raised his hands, summoning the Cloud-Eater Array. The sky turned black as a funnel of spiritual energy descended, aimed directly at Lu Chen’s head.. Lu Chen looked at the swirling vortex of destruction. He thought of Xiao’s scraped knees. He thought of Mei’s tears.He reached out his human hand and made a move.The Void-Severing intent, even without the physical dagger, manifested as a thin, silver line. It erased the concept of the attack. The black clouds vanished instantly, replaced by a terrifyingly clear sky. The Patriarch’s cultivation base—built over four hundred years—shuddered.Lu Chen was suddenly in front of Yun. No one saw him move. He wasn't touching the Patriarch, yet the old man felt as if a blade was resting against his soul."The Blood-Leaf Herb," Lu Chen whispered. "Now."Patriarch Yun, a man who had looked down on kings, fell to his knees. The "strong" were discovering that there was a level of strength that didn't need to shout. It was the strength of the

They are hunting those who cannot cultivate—the 'weak'—and using them as human shields to test new formations. They are erasing people to make their maps look cleaner." Xiao gripped his sword hilt so hard his knuckles turned white. "He treats humans like weeds.""No," Lu Chen corrected him, with a terrifying smile appearing on his face. "He treats them like trash. And trash is meant to be burned not to live." Lu Chen raised his hand toward the sky. The clouds above the valley began to swirl into a massive, dark vortex. The wind picked up, howling through the trees like a dying beast."The King thinks gold buys silence. He thinks land buys loyalty," Lu Chen growled. "Tonight, we stop being gardeners. We will become the storm that uproots the throne." The ground began to vibrate. A low, sound thumping came from deep beneath the earth—the heartbeat of the Second Heaven responding to Lu Chen’s rage. He looked at his disciples. They were no longer the frightened children he had foun

There was a young woman with a hollow face who was looking through the door when they were moving out, and then at the crying politician on his knees trembling. She held her chest tightly and walked out slowly, with her trembling child. As they passed Vane, she didn't look angry but was deeply sad that a human being like him could cause so much pain to his fellow human beings.One by one, Vane unlocked the cages. His hands bled from the rough metal, and his knees scraped against the dirt. With every keylock he opened, the weight of his cries seemed to crush him a little more. He had to face the hollow he had caused the children he had sold, and to hear the soft, heartbreaking sobs of fathers who had lost everything.By the time the last cage was opened, hundreds of freed people stood in the valley. They were weak, hungry, and tired, but for the first time in months, their eyes held a glimmer of hope.Lu Chen stepped out of the darkness. He had followed them from a distance, makin