I DESTROY THE LAW'S OF HEAVEN

COLD CALCULATIONS

Even a dying god could still burn down the forest.

Elder Vane lay spitting blood on the dirt, but his golden eyes burned with pure hatred. He grabbed his sword hilt, pulling the bloody metal free from his own ribs with a wet tear.

"You think you won, rat?" Vane spat, his voice trembling with crazy rage. "If I die here, I am taking this whole canyon down with me!"

Golden light flared around Vane’s body, wild and out of control. The earth beneath them started to shake as the sheer volume of his stored power began to leak out into the air. He was not trying to aim a blade anymore. He was turning his own body into a bomb, preparing to blast every inch of the pass into fine dust.

"Stop him!" Lyra yelled inside Thorn's mind, her voice sharp with real panic. "He is blowing his spiritual core! If that light detonates, it will vaporize everything within three miles!"

Thorn did not back away. He did not run from the rising heat. His face stayed stone cold as he took one long step forward, stepping out from the dark shadow of the twisted canyon wall.

"You speak too much," Thorn said softly.

Before Vane could complete the spell chant, Thorn dropped to one knee and slammed his black right palm flat against the center of Vane's chest.

"Get your filthy hand off me!" Vane screamed, forcing his golden light toward Thorn's face.

Thorn did not strike him. He did not punch or use physical force. Using his technique, he pushed a tiny pulse of black energy straight through Vane's skin, right into the main channels that held the elder's power together.

He unmade the structure of Vane's meridians.

In a single instant, the invisible pipes that carried magic inside Vane's body simply ceased to exist. The massive ocean of golden energy had nowhere left to go, no tracks to follow, and no vessel to hold it.

Vane froze mid-scream. His golden eyes went wide as saucers, filled with sudden, absolute horror.

"What did you do?" Vane gasped, his voice cracking into a high whisper. "Where is my power going? I cannot feel my core!"

"Your core is still there," Thorn grunted, his blackened right arm trembling from the strain. "You just have no roads left to keep it inside."

Without meridians to control the energy, Vane’s own cultivation turned against him. The golden light inside his chest began to swell violently under his skin, turning his veins bright yellow and tearing his muscles apart from the inside out.

"Help me!" Vane shrieked, clutching his own throat as his neck began to glow like hot metal. "Fix it! Put it back!"

"No," Thorn said flatly. He stood up and took two steps back, watching the elder writhe in the dirt.

"You monster!" Vane choked out, his body rising inches off the ground as raw golden light burst out through his eyes, mouth, and skin. "The sect will hunt you to the ends of the earth! You will burn!"

Thorn watched without saying a single word. He did not feel joy at defeating a high master. He did not feel proud of his victory. He felt nothing more than a worker who had just finished clearing a heavy rock out of his path.

Vane let out one last, terrible shriek as his entire body tore apart. The immense power inside him shattered his physical form, turning his flesh and bones into a blinding flash of yellow light.

A loud boom echoed down the narrow canyon, followed by a rush of warm wind that blew gray ash across Thorn's face.

When the light faded, Elder Vane was completely gone. Only a scorched circle of black earth remained on the canyon floor, sprinkled with gray dust.

"It is over," Lyra whispered in his mind, sounding surprised. "You actually unmade a high-master’s foundation. Without rules to hold power, even the strongest cultivator is just a skin bag waiting to pop."

Thorn looked down at the empty, burned dirt. His heart rate did not speed up. His hands did not shake. The absolute void in his chest felt larger than before, consuming another tiny piece of who he used to be.

"He was strong," Thorn muttered, wiping a spot of warm blood from his forehead. "It does not matter now."

"You are getting better at this," Lyra said, her ghostly voice laced with a dark chuckle. "No pity, no waste. You kill like a true primordial."

"I kill to stay alive," Thorn grunted, turning his back on the burned mark. "Nothing more."

He took two slow steps toward the canyon exit, intent on leaving the sector before more search parties arrived.

"Boy! Look up!" Lyra suddenly screamed, her voice cutting through his thoughts like an alarm bell.

Thorn turned around fast, staring up at the scorched spot on the ground.

From the very center of the ash, a bright, golden spark shot up into the air. The spark did not fade. It expanded in seconds, shaping itself into a brilliant bird made of pure, fiery light.

It was a Soul Messenger, a hidden spell sealed inside the hearts of high elders, designed to trigger only upon their death.

"Stop it!" Lyra roared in his head. "Do not let it reach the open sky! If that bird escapes, every sect in the continent will know your face!"

Thorn lunged forward, raising his black hand to shoot a wave of unmaking energy toward the bird.

He was half a second too late.

The golden bird let out a sharp, ringing cry that shook the canyon walls. It flapped its burning wings once, rising straight up into the air at a speed far greater than any mortal could match.

As the bird soared upward, its golden chest expanded like a flat mirror. Reflected clearly inside the fire was Thorn’s pale face, his cold blue eyes, and the pitch-black right arm that proved his power.

"No!" Thorn spat, his hand reaching out into empty air as the dark energy shot wide of the mark.

The golden bird cleared the slate walls of the canyon in a flash, bursting out into the high atmosphere. It did not slow down. It turned directly toward the central capital of the empire, shooting across the sky like a falling star, carrying the clear image of Thorn’s face for every divine master to see.

Thorn stood alone in the quiet canyon, staring up at the empty blue sky where the bird had vanished.

"It is over now," Lyra said softly, her voice unusually quiet in his mind. "The whole world knows who you are."

Thorn lowered his blackened hand, his jaw tightening as he stared into the distance.

"Let them come," Thorn said.