A figure stepped through the haze. She wore flowing white silk that seemed to glow against the grey stone of the valley. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with a terror that looked entirely genuine."Li Tian!" She shouted as her voice rolled across the valley."Xinyi...?"Li Tian staggered to his feet, his broken leg dragging in the dirt. He couldn't believe it. She was the one thing he had loved with all his heart, the one person he had fought to keep by his side and protected with his life back then in Heaven Sect Accord."Xinyi... get back!" he rasped, his voice breaking. "It's a trap! Get out of here!"She didn't listen. She ran toward him, her white robes fluttering like a dove's wings. She looked so small and fragile against the backdrop of the massive jade barrier and the armored disciples."I won't leave you!" she cried, her voice echoing with desperation. "Please, Li Tian! Just stop! Give them what they want and come with me!"Li Tian felt a strange, terrifying warmth in his c

Li Yuer flinched, pulling Li Tian closer, but the tension in her thin shoulders broke when she saw the man standing in the doorway. It was Li Cheng. Li Tian stared at his father. The man looked like a walking corpse. His body was frail, his skin sallow and draped loosely over jutting bones. This was the shell of a man whose cultivation had been violently shattered by a forbidden technique. His meridians were dead, leaving him hollowed out and constantly drowning in exhaustion. Li Cheng didn't look at his wife. He dropped to his knees right beside the hard cot, his trembling hands grasping the edge of the cheap mattress. "I couldn't protect you," Li Cheng choked out, his voice rough and wet with unshed tears. His knuckles turned white. "If I were still strong... if I hadn't been crippled... Li Wei wouldn't have dared to touch you. Your cultivation wouldn't be stuck like this. It's my fault." Li Tian looked down at the broken man. He didn't feel pity. He didn't feel anger. H

The sun hadn't even fully risen over the Li celestial Clan before Li Tian was already moving.His judgment was absolute: sweep all the training grounds and clean all the learning classes, every single day, without fail. For the frail, broken boy he had been yesterday, it would have been a grueling, humiliating death sentence. But for the Li Tian of today, having violently broken through to the Soul Awakening Realm, Grade 3, it was nothing more than a light morning stretch.The bamboo broom was a blur. He didn't just sweep; he glided across the pale stone with a terrifying, rhythmic efficiency. His newly repaired meridians hummed, channeling microscopic threads of qi into his legs and arms, allowing him to cover massive stretches of the grounds at a blistering pace.High above, concealed within the dense leaves of an ancient oak tree, A-Ning watched quietly.Her brow furrowed, her eyes tracking his every movement. Just yesterday, this boy had fainted into the dirt after walking a few s

The suffocating gloom of the Ashen Veil Forest finally gave way to the chaotic, sprawling streets of the Green Willow Market. Located just on the edge of the Li Celestial Clan's territory, the market was a sensory overload of shouting vendors, the sharp scent of medicinal herbs, and the heavy clash of spiritual pressure from hundreds of passing cultivators. It was a hub where clan members and wandering rogues alike came to trade blood for resources artifacts, techniques, elixirs, and weapons. Li Tian walked through the crowded dirt streets, the crude sack of his harvest slung over his shoulder. "I'm here." His dark eyes swept over the stalls, his expression cold and unreadable. He kept his qi tightly restrained, blending in with the lowly outer disciples milling about. One must be careful in a place like this. Show too much wealth without the strength to back it up, and you don't just get scammed—you end up dead in an alley. He bypassed the open-air stalls and stepped into a gran

The dark aura didn't just gather. It seized him, coiling around Li Tian’s body like a living entity before surging inward in one violent motion. It crashed into his chest and slammed against the chaos heart, forcing him into the air. For a brief, breathless moment, he hung suspended.Then it merged.Silence fell.As the aura died down, Li Tian dropped lightly back to the stone floor. He stood perfectly still, feeling the power settle deep within his meridians. His fingers clenched.So I only unlocked the first Hell of the Phantom Path of the Seven Hells… His gaze lowered, calm but analytical. The chaos heart of the Chaos God is truly something else.He rolled his shoulders, loosening his muscles, and muttered, "Time to test it."The moment his foot touched the ground, his figure snapped forward. No stepping, no dashing. He skipped space itself, erasing the distance. A faint afterimage lingered behind him, vanishing a second later.Li Tian stopped and glanced back, measuring the moveme