Heavenly Dao Nemesis

"More wine! Bring it in!"

Joyous laughter filled the grand palace of the Skybreak Dynasty, accompanied by the lively sound of music and the clear ringing of glasses. Hundreds of high-ranking cultivators raised their cups toward the man seated at the highest position.

Liam sat upon the dragon throne, dressed in dark ceremonial robes embroidered with silver clouds. His expression was calm as he accepted the toast.

At his side sat a beautiful woman clothed in pure white robes. Her long black hair cascaded over one shoulder, and her eyes fluttered shyly. She was Raven, the beloved wife of Liam.

She smiled as she poured wine into his cup with her own hands.

Michael, Liam's closest friend, raised his cup high. "To the glorious health of the dynasty!"

They all drank.

Another toast followed. Michael lifted his cup once more. "And to our able and powerful Sect Master!"

"Congratulations, Sect Master Liam!" The cheers shook the hall.

Liam accepted the cup from Raven and drank it all. The celebration continued in earnest until Michael dismissed the dancers. The entire palace fell quiet.

As if on cue, a mind-piercing pain suddenly tore through Liam from both sides. He coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground.

The pain spread rapidly from his fingertips to his arms before surging straight into his dantian. Liam tried to use his qi to suppress the poison, but the energy refused to move. He immediately realized that the connection between his dantian and meridians had been severed.

He looked down at the empty cup in his hand, then slowly turned his gaze to Raven.

She still looked as beautiful as ever, yet now there was something devilish in her eyes.

"You..." Liam tried to raise a finger at her as more blood continued to flow from his mouth. "You poisoned the wine."

The chattering in the hall died almost instantly as the higher-level cultivators sensed the sudden collapse of Liam's aura.

Michael stepped forward, still smiling. "You should have died quietly. But you always were too stubborn for your own good."

Liam tried to rise, but his body refused to obey. The poison had already spread too far. Every attempt to gather qi only sent fresh waves of agony through his crumbling foundation. He coughed, and a mouthful of dark blood splattered across the ground.

He laughed, though the sound was utterly devoid of humor.

"Three hundred years," Liam said, blood dripping from his chin. "Three hundred years of standing back-to-back against the entire continent... and this is how it ends? With a coward's poison and a dog's bite?"

Michael tightened his grip on his sword and gritted his teeth. "Watch your tongue. Even now, you still think yourself above us."

"Above you?" Liam's bloodied lips curled into a mocking smile. "I raised you from a nameless orphan. I taught you the sword forms that allowed you to stand in this court."

He coughed up more blood. "That blade at your waist was forged with my essence. And you repay me by licking the boots of those cowards."

"Tell me, Michael. When you look in the mirror, do you still see a man, or just a well-dressed mongrel?"

Michael's face darkened. Spiritual pressure flared around him.

Raven spoke for the first time, her voice soft yet already ice-cold, completely unlike the sweet tone she had used earlier. "Enough. There is no point in trading insults with a dead man."

Liam turned his gaze on her, the woman he had once called wife, the same woman whose hand he had held under starlight while planning a future that would never come.

"And you," he said as he struggled to sit up. "Why, Raven? Did you enjoy watching me drink the wine you poisoned? I thought you loved me, Raven!"

Raven's features remained composed, but beneath her robes she clenched her hands tightly before lowering her head.

"You reached too high, Liam. The moment you began questioning the system itself, you were already prey."

She bit her lip and continued. "Not only to us... but to forces far older than your dynasty. I chose survival and my future."

"You chose yourself," Liam spat, another mouthful of blood hitting the floor. "You chose to sell the man who trusted you for a seat at a larger table. Tell me, Raven. When they grow tired of you, will you poison the next husband just as prettily?"

Her composure finally cracked. "You know nothing of the forces involved!"

"I know enough," Liam replied, his voice turning dull. "I know that both of you are insects who only dare raise their heads when the tiger is already dying. Michael, you were always afraid of me. And you, Raven... you were nothing more than a white lily."

"Neither of you ever had the spine to face me at my peak. That is the truth you will carry for the rest of your miserable lives."

Michael stepped forward, jaw clenched. "Your inheritance, your seat, that jade pendant you refuse to speak of, every single one of them will be mine. The world does not need another Liam."

Liam's vision blurred. His body was failing faster now. The poison had reached his soul. Yet even as death closed around him, a cold clarity settled over his mind.

He had been a fool.

Trust was necessary for any man who wished to build rather than merely destroy, but he had allowed himself to believe that the bonds of a lifetime could outweigh ambition.

Raven wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, Liam. I chose a less painful poison so you wouldn't suffer too much."

Michael sneered and pointed at all the cultivators in the room. "Every single one of them is under my orders. Yes, you are my brother, but I want to be the one who rules... not the one who serves."

Liam's gaze drifted downward. He had carried the jade pendant around his neck for nearly two centuries. He had never fully understood its origin. He only knew that it had once flared up when he stood at the edge of death during an expedition.

Now, without any command from him, the pendant lit up.

A thread of pure, alien power erupted from the stone on its own and wrapped around his collapsing soul like a chain of starlight.

Michael ran toward Liam in shock. "No! The pendant has been activated!"

Raven, standing close to him, tried to reach for it, but the pressure radiating from the pendant held her still. "Seize it! Now!"

The once-silent cultivators also launched attacks to stop the process, but it was far too late.

Liam's last coherent thought as his body collapsed and his soul was ripped free was a single promise spoken into the void between life and death.

"If there is a next life... I will not make the same mistake twice." 

Consciousness returned slowly, like a man rising from deep water.

At first there was only darkness. Liam's body felt weightless. Then came a pounding headache. He took a deep breath and realized he could breathe; this was a different kind of breathing.

He was alive.

The realization shook him to the core. He had believed he was dead. He remembered the wretched pain in his dantian and the countless times he had coughed up blood.

Yet here he was.

A childlike happiness spread through him, the pure joy of a soul that had been given another chance when it had already let go of everything. For a few precious moments he simply drifted in that feeling, savoring the miracle of being.

I'm still here...

He tried to speak when the first spasm of pain hit him.

It did not crash into him all at once. It seeped in like ice water rising around a drowning man.

First came an ache in his ribs. Then the throb of bruises covering nearly every inch of his body. Liam tried to take a breath and tasted blood in his mouth.

The happiness of rebirth drained away, replaced by the brutal reality of the body he now inhabited.

Liam's eyes fluttered open. Rainwater dripped onto his face. He smelled the mixed scents of mud, blood, and cheap medicinal herbs.

He was still trying to understand this rebirth when mocking youthful voices reached his ears. "...Still breathing. Pathetic. Even after all that, the trash won't die."

"Elder said not to kill him outright. Just make sure the Broken Spiritual Root trash remembers his place. His sister can still be useful for a few more years."

A heavy boot connected with his ribs. Fresh blood flooded his mouth.

He finally looked around. He was lying in a narrow alley. Before he could fully process the situation, the previous body owner's memories flooded into him.

This person was also named Liam. From the memories, he was an outcast living in the outer dormitory of a sect called the Azure Cloud Sect.

Liam scanned the area. His eyes landed on three towering figures standing over him, the senior outer disciples who had been bullying the previous owner of this body.

The young men wore the gray-blue robes of the sect, their faces twisted with arrogance.

The original owner of this body had been beaten by them for hours.

Liam felt every injury as if it were his own. There were many wounds, ranging from shattered ribs to broken meridians. He tried circulating qi, but the energy reacted far too slowly, as if he were trying to climb a steep mountain.

Something was wrong with this body's spiritual root. It felt as though it was being held down.

Before he could think further, another blow was thrown at his face. Liam coughed up blood again and was knocked several meters away from the young men.

"Bastard..." Liam cursed under his breath as the pain intensified.

He had once been a peak cultivator who stood at the summit of the mortal world... and now he was nothing more than an eighteen-year-old outer disciple who had never even reached the first true realm of cultivation.

The trio walked over, laughing. "Piece of shit. Can't even take a beating. You're nothing more than a burden brat."

Liam spat out the blood and looked at them in defiance. If this were his former life, these fools would have been dead long ago.

Even the maids in his court had been Silver Realm warriors, let alone these worthless insects.

"Raven and Michael..." he gritted his teeth as he muttered the traitors' names.

He was still lost in thought when one of the boys grabbed him by the collar. "Trash. You can't even fight back."