2025-06-05 20:08:21The morning sun spilled pale light across the sprawling Lotus Temple grounds, yet the brightness did little to ease the tension thickening the air. Whispers fluttered like restless leaves through the corridors and training halls, carried on uncertain breath. Among the sea of robes and weapon cases, the disciples spoke in hushed tones, their eyes darting nervously between one another.
Lucien moved deliberately, his gaze sharp beneath the shadow of his hood. He felt the weight of their scrutiny, yet more pressing was the itch of suspicion gnawing at his thoughts. The sect was a nest of secrets and lies, and somewhere inside, the spider spun its web.
Today, the hunt would grow sharper.
As Lucien passed the training grounds, he caught snippets of conversation.
“They say the spy moves like a ghost.”
“Could be one of the senior disciples—someone no one suspects.”
“Who? No one would think it’s Darren Vale.”
The name struck a chord. Darren Vale—a senior disciple renowned for his charm and skill, admired by many and envied by a few. His easy smile and confident stride masked a hard edge few noticed. Lucien’s gaze shifted discreetly to the figure ahead, watching how Darren interacted with others.
The system stirred within Lucien’s mind — a quiet hum of awareness.
Crimson karma threads detected. Faint, but distinct.
Lucien’s Karma Sight pulsed softly, illuminating a thin scarlet thread weaving invisibly around Darren’s aura. It was a pulse of deceit, concealed beneath layers of charms and false merit. The thread throbbed with concealed sins, growing sharper with every glance Darren cast in Lucien’s direction.
Lucien’s heart did not race — instead, cold calculation settled deep within. This was the lead he needed.
Later that day, Lucien found himself in the garden pavilion—a secluded spot where bamboo rustled and koi swam lazily in shaded pools. Darren sat with his usual relaxed grace, but the tension between them was palpable.
Lucien stepped forward, voice low but firm.
“Darren. I know who you are.”
Darren’s eyes flicked up, a smirk playing at his lips. “Lucien Graves. The sect’s self-appointed judge. What news do you bring?”
Lucien’s gaze narrowed. “You are no disciple loyal to Lotus Temple. You are the brother of Cassian Vale, leader of the Crimson Vow Sect. You were sent here to spy, to poison this sect from within.”
Darren’s smirk hardened, pride flashing in his eyes. “So the hidden judge has eyes sharper than I thought. Yes, I am Darren Vale, and yes, I am Cassian’s brother. But do not mistake me for weak. The sect is a game — a chessboard where pawns, knights, and kings move under shadow. I am but a piece, yes, but one that holds power.”
Lucien stepped closer, voice deadly calm. “Your game ends here. The truth will not hide. Your lies will be judged and punished.”
Darren laughed, low and bitter. “You think you can stop what’s coming? You are but one man, playing a role you barely understand.”
Lucien’s eyes glinted. “We shall see.”
The next morning, the entire sect gathered on the outer court platform. The midday sun beat down, casting long shadows from the wooden pillars and the rows of assembled disciples. Murmurs rippled through the crowd as Lucien strode into the center, his presence commanding immediate silence.
Raising his voice, clear and resolute, Lucien announced, “I challenge Darren Vale to a public duel. Let the sect bear witness to the truth.”
A hush fell. The Sect Master sat on his elevated throne, silent and unreadable, watching intently from afar. The gravity in his gaze suggested this was no mere spectacle, but a move laden with political meaning.
Darren stepped forward, a cocky grin plastered on his face. “Very well. I accept. Let everyone see if the ‘hidden judge’ can back his words with power.”
The crowd surged with excitement, eager for the showdown.
The training platform, circled by the throng of disciples, became an arena of judgment. Lucien and Darren faced each other, the tension palpable.
The duel began with swift, precise strikes, both combatants skilled and disciplined. But Lucien’s calm belied the storm beneath — his system skills primed, his senses attuned.
As blades clashed, Lucien activated Karma Sight, the crimson threads of Darren’s sins blossoming brightly for all to see. The crowd gasped as spectral chains of glowing light emerged, wrapping around Darren’s form — the infamous Verdict Chains.
Lucien’s voice rang out, “Your treachery will be exposed.”
Darren struggled, trying to summon a talisman of concealment, but the system nullified it instantly, branding it forbidden.
With a final surge of power, Lucien’s spectral blade pierced through Darren’s defense, subduing him completely. The crowd fell silent, eyes wide as Darren was forced to kneel and confess his role as a spy before all.
The System chimed softly in Lucien’s mind:
[Reward Granted: Verdict Slot Unlocked]
A surge of power filled him as the new slot expanded his ability to judge and execute corrupt souls.
The crowd erupted into cheers, chanting his name — the “Hidden Judge” of the sect, the avenger of truth.
Yet amidst the jubilation, the Sect Master’s cold eyes lingered on Lucien, calculating and unreadable. Rein Aldric, lurking in the shadows, watched with a wary expression, understanding that the balance of power had shifted—and that war was looming.
That evening, alone in his quarters, Lucien sat in silence, the glow of candles flickering across the walls lined with ancient scrolls.
He thought about the day’s victory, the cheers, the exposure of the spy — but also the dangers rising like a storm on the horizon.
Justice was no longer a quiet whisper in the dark. It was a blade flashing in the light, and with it came enemies, politics, and shadows more profound than before.
Lucien’s fingers brushed over the new Verdict Slot’s faint glow in his mind.
The war within the sect was just beginning.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 16: Gathering Storms
The winds over the borderlands had changed. Once gentle and silent, they now whispered of blood and judgment, of legends born beneath burning skies and names carried by karmic thunder. And among them, none stirred more fear or reverence than Lucien Graves.From the distant ruin of the Dawnsworn Sect to the smoldering ashes of the Burning Orchid, word of the Wandering Executioner’s passage had spread like spiritual wildfire. Mid-tier sects—once complicit in hidden karmic theft—scrambled to purge their leadership. Some issued false proclamations of renewal, others burned scrolls and severed pacts in fear of divine reprisal. But it was too late. Justice had already moved, and its echo was reshaping the realm.In the mountains between the Eastern Lotus Alliance and the Jade Sky Confederacy, tension coiled tighter than a drawn bowstring. Flags rose. Camps formed. Armies amassed, cloaked in righteousness and heresy alike.Lucien stood beneath the rustling leaves of a windworn pine, overlook
Chapter 15: Mark of the Tribunal
Dawn had not yet broken, but the forest surrounding the ruined Burning Orchid Sect lay bathed in a haunting haze of residual karma. The air shimmered faintly, twisted by unseen threads of divine backlash that crackled through the soil and leaves. Where once the sect had stood proudly, now only fractured spires and collapsing towers remained, their foundations crumbling beneath the judgment of a righteous storm.Lucien stood alone at the edge of a cliff overlooking the scorched grounds. Below, where karma storms howled like grieving ghosts, the last embers of corruption were still being devoured. It should have brought him peace, but there was none. Victory had come with silence, not celebration.Behind him, deep within the forest, thirteen children slept in a sacred warding circle, tucked away in a mossy grove of spiritroot trees. Each child had once been bound by soul-branding and karmic suppression arrays. Now, they breathed freely. Safe. For now.Lucien turned to leave—when fire er
Chapter 14: Burning Orchid Sect
The forest at the base of the Burning Orchid Sect bloomed with silent lies.Petals shimmered in the breeze, each one etched with spiritual glyphs that pulsed like soft heartbeat sigils. Disciples in white and crimson robes moved through the flower-laced courtyards, their faces placid, their footsteps light. Children laughed beneath the shade of ancient spirit trees, and monks chanted beside clear pools of water.It was paradise. On the surface.Lucien moved through the outer training grounds in a humble traveler's garb, his divine presence veiled, his karmic thread compressed to near invisibility. The System’s interface blinked softly in his peripheral vision.System Observation:Sealed Karma Signatures Detected.Technique: Celestial Suppression Array — Modified Form.Host Condition: Passive Extraction Status.His eyes narrowed. The children he passed had faint smiles, but their karmic threads were unnatural—not broken, but bound, compressed deep within their spiritual cores.Not stol
Chapter 13: Oracle Sight
The cave above the ridge was little more than a hollow in the cliff, carved by wind and time and the bones of long-dead beasts. The scent of ash still lingered from the fight with the Karma Hunter. Outside, the wind clawed at the mouth of the cave, howling as if to remind Lucien that survival, for him, would never again be quiet.He sat cross-legged near a circle of cold embers, his cloak discarded, his shirt bloodied and torn where the guandao had struck. The wound ached with a deeper kind of pain—not just physical, but spiritual. The cursed relic had left a trace.Lucien exhaled slowly."Begin purification," he whispered.System Response:Minor Purification Trial: Completed.Karmic Thread Stabilized.Warmth washed through his veins, divine in origin, but fading quickly. He could not rely on purification forever. The fights ahead would only get worse.The System flickered in his vision, but something was different.Gold light. Not harsh like judgment, but ancient and solemn, like a d
Chapter 12: The Karma Hunters
The wind howled through the narrow gorge like a beast that had forgotten its name. Lucien Graves stood at its edge, the jagged peaks of the borderlands silhouetted against a blood-orange dusk. The remnants of broken shrines littered the path before him, cracked tablets whispering forgotten prayers as his boots crunched over frostbitten stone.He walked alone. He had to.Every step he took away from the ruins of Dawnsworn Sect was a step into hostile silence. He avoided major roads. Stayed off ley lines. Traveled only when the sun bled or the moon watched.And yet, he felt it.Something followed.Not in footfalls or rustling leaves, but in karma. Threads of it—twisted, stuttering, vile—brushed at the edges of his spiritual senses. It was wrong. Where true karma ran like silk, these strands were coarse, polluted, frayed at the edges like rope left to rot in blood.System Notification:Alert: Divine Residue Detected.Origin: Corrupted Relic.Approaching Hostile Source: Unknown.Lucien na
Chapter 11: The Bounty
The world did not tremble when Myra Langley died.But the winds changed.They carried whispers — not of rumor, but of reckoning.From the spirit-swept cliffs of the Northern Sky Temple to the sun-scorched outposts of the Scorched Expanse, the tale bled into the air like a karmic contagion.In the northern borderlands, disciples gathered around dwindling campfires, their voices hushed, afraid that even the flame might eavesdrop.“Did you hear? Dawnsworn’s Sect Master... dead. Executed.”A younger disciple, his robes tattered from training, leaned forward. “By whom?”No one spoke at first. Then, an older cultivator, his eyes heavy with things seen, whispered, “They call him... The Wandering Executioner.”Across the war-torn fields of the East, amidst charred banners and broken spears, a battlefield cleric unrolled a scroll, the ink still drying with blood-scented qi. He read it once and dropped it as though it burned his hands.“Impossible,” he muttered, backing away. “She was... eterna
You may also like
Ultimate Leveling System
Blue lace38.5K viewsBillionaire's Luck System
DarkGreey20.5K viewsUnparalleled Demon System: Tales of the Lost Demon
Dark Crafter20.0K viewsLord Of The Ultra Billionaire System
Author_Danny21.4K viewsMy Godkiller System
JJ SMART1.8K viewsRevenge Above The Sky
Starfall_V3.3K viewsHUDSON EMPIRE BUILDING SYSTEM
Boujeeboss16.6K viewsAwakened The Strongest Talent
Yeshua Yin9.0K views